I've been lurking at this site for about two and half months now. I came upon Ray Peat when I was researching hot flashes on YouTube and came across a Josh Rubin video. He said some things that sounded very backward and strange to me: sugar is good? How can that be? Turns out the much vaunted Chocolate Ice Cream Cure might be true after all!
I was diagnosed hypothyroid over 15 years ago but had hypothyroid symptoms years before then. When I first started Armour, I felt absolutely great for about a month or so but then switched to just okay and through the years have had symptoms of hypothyroid but as we all know so well, if your labs look good, then there's no need for more treatment (is there a sarcasm symbol?).
About seven years ago my husband became seriously ill with a Lyme induced autoimmune condition which almost killed him. I was consumed with finding a way to heal him and spent every spare minute researching. After several years, we landed on a program that eventually did restore him to health. The stress from my husband's illness, change in career (needed benefits for the family in case he didn't make it), medical expenses, etc. all took a toll on my health. I did see a naturopath about 3 years ago who did some testing that showed my cortisol was almost completely exhausted but the supplements didn't seem to make a difference.
In addition, I was having excessive bleeding with my periods and was anemic. My ObGyn took me off the progesterone cream I had been taking to control the bleeding. The bleeding did stop within a week or so after stopping the progesterone and I also had a calcified fibroid that had been causing the bleeding removed a month or so later. My FSH was very high indicating that I was in menopause but it seems that the progesterone had been causing the fibroid to bleed. About a month after stopping the progesterone, I started having hot flashes. They started to become intense so I tried an over the counter supplement that had all of the typical hot flash herbs plus soy. The supplement did help my hot flashes but after a couple of months I noticed that the soy was affecting my thyroid and I stopped taking it. From that point on, my hot flashes became even worse and I was having hot flashes every hour and at night I would have hot flashes almost non-stop one after the other from 1-4 a.m. I felt like my whole body was on overdrive but at the same time I had no brain left and could barely drag myself to and from work.
In desperation, I went to my functional medicine doctor and he prescribed BiEst cream with progesterone. I was hesitant to take progesterone after my previous bleeding issues but he insisted it was necessary to have the progesterone oppose the estrogen. I slowly ramped up the cream and began to get results. However, my night time hot flashes never completely went away.
I started adding some Peat items into my diet two months ago. The hardest part for me was adding in sugar. I have done a modified low carb diet for years and accepting that sugar was actually good was very, very, very hard. However, it was when I really started to up the sugar that I noticed improvement in my sleep. My sleep has improved tremendously. I sleep deep enough to actually have dreams now and I have had a few nights where I actually didn't wake up once.
I am now on a slow plan to wean off the BiEst cream and probably increase the progesterone. I have also increased the amount of dessicated thyroid. I also want to stop taking the iodine that I am on but I've learned not to do too many things at once or you can run into major problems and I don't need any more problems.
The world has definitely turned upside down when the queen of the clean diet looks to sugar for the cure.
I was diagnosed hypothyroid over 15 years ago but had hypothyroid symptoms years before then. When I first started Armour, I felt absolutely great for about a month or so but then switched to just okay and through the years have had symptoms of hypothyroid but as we all know so well, if your labs look good, then there's no need for more treatment (is there a sarcasm symbol?).
About seven years ago my husband became seriously ill with a Lyme induced autoimmune condition which almost killed him. I was consumed with finding a way to heal him and spent every spare minute researching. After several years, we landed on a program that eventually did restore him to health. The stress from my husband's illness, change in career (needed benefits for the family in case he didn't make it), medical expenses, etc. all took a toll on my health. I did see a naturopath about 3 years ago who did some testing that showed my cortisol was almost completely exhausted but the supplements didn't seem to make a difference.
In addition, I was having excessive bleeding with my periods and was anemic. My ObGyn took me off the progesterone cream I had been taking to control the bleeding. The bleeding did stop within a week or so after stopping the progesterone and I also had a calcified fibroid that had been causing the bleeding removed a month or so later. My FSH was very high indicating that I was in menopause but it seems that the progesterone had been causing the fibroid to bleed. About a month after stopping the progesterone, I started having hot flashes. They started to become intense so I tried an over the counter supplement that had all of the typical hot flash herbs plus soy. The supplement did help my hot flashes but after a couple of months I noticed that the soy was affecting my thyroid and I stopped taking it. From that point on, my hot flashes became even worse and I was having hot flashes every hour and at night I would have hot flashes almost non-stop one after the other from 1-4 a.m. I felt like my whole body was on overdrive but at the same time I had no brain left and could barely drag myself to and from work.
In desperation, I went to my functional medicine doctor and he prescribed BiEst cream with progesterone. I was hesitant to take progesterone after my previous bleeding issues but he insisted it was necessary to have the progesterone oppose the estrogen. I slowly ramped up the cream and began to get results. However, my night time hot flashes never completely went away.
I started adding some Peat items into my diet two months ago. The hardest part for me was adding in sugar. I have done a modified low carb diet for years and accepting that sugar was actually good was very, very, very hard. However, it was when I really started to up the sugar that I noticed improvement in my sleep. My sleep has improved tremendously. I sleep deep enough to actually have dreams now and I have had a few nights where I actually didn't wake up once.
I am now on a slow plan to wean off the BiEst cream and probably increase the progesterone. I have also increased the amount of dessicated thyroid. I also want to stop taking the iodine that I am on but I've learned not to do too many things at once or you can run into major problems and I don't need any more problems.
The world has definitely turned upside down when the queen of the clean diet looks to sugar for the cure.
