Hi all,
Warning: very long post.
I've been reading the forum for a few months, find it interesting and friendly. I'd like to get other ideas on what else I can try to improve health.
How did you find Ray Peat's work? Was looking for more ideas/information about migraine. Became aware of habitual hyperventilation and some of its wide ranging consequences. Saw a ref to RP diet ideas in a
normalbreathing.com (Buteyko) site comment. In last year and a half I also read about and tried brief partial experiments with GAPS, RARRF, RBTI. Learned useful things from all of these too. A few years as vegetarian in
I ate very low sugar for many years, after hypoglycemic symptoms in 20s. Never went low carb. Mostly avoided gluten and dairy for years, because of symptoms (gluten: sloppy bowels, milk: fuzzy head). Tried eliminating various other foods briefly, but could never get myself to do the strict avoidance protocols often suggested.
Got hungry often because it's hard to organise, carry and eat enough frequent palatable food while avoiding sugar, wheat and dairy, and I'm a slow eater. Drank soy 'milk' and ate PUFA in order to avoid dairy symptoms. Ate lots of gluten free grains. Ate legumes because they seemed to sustain blood sugar. I assumed I was eating roughly enough/not oo much because my weight stayed fairly stable, but now that I'm getting that the body adapts to maintain weight, I suspect I've been nundernourished for a long time.
How long have you been Peating? Vaguely and gradually trying out some things over the last yearish.
What is your favorite part about Peating? I find the articles on his web site
fascinating, and love getting to learn at more depth about physiology, hormones and how
environmental (food and other factors) could be affecting metabolism and
health from areally holistic point of view. Love having lots "common knowledge" and my own notions about what I
'knew' challenged. Encouragement to attend and respect my bodys intuition.
Possibilities and avenues to explore for improvement in debilitating
health condition. Encouragement to avoid hunger. Much more convenient portable
fuel than I was trying to do before. "A craving for sugar usually indicates a
need for sugar." Weekly liver. I would love weekly oysters if I
could get/afford them.
What is the worst part? I still don't know if I can find a way to use these
ideas to resolve my key health issue. I still often don't get my fluid balance right.
What are your health issues?
Key health issues:
Migraine. Usu 2-3 /month for 1-3 days. Severe debilitating pain and dysfunction. Nausea. Usually come on gradually, preceded by frequent peeing, heightened olfactory sensitivity, and a brief dozy period. Hot head, freezing feet, mild photophobia, moving hurts.
Intermittent fuzzy head, poor concentration, memory, tiredness
Can't go long without food. Eg for safety I've learned never to drive on an empty stomach. Often have to snack during night to be able to go back to sleep.
Lesser but probably related:
Mouth full of metal repairing tooth decay.
Chronically cold feet.
Chronically tight achilles tendons
Mild stomach bloating sometimes.
Morningitis: intermittent hayfever-like itchy eyes, runny nose, sneezing between waking ad breakfast (improved lately).
A couple of slow healing joint injuries.
Fungus foot.
Historical: extremely severe dysmenorrhea from late teens to late 20s.
What does your diet consist of?
Lately:
Breakfast: at least 500ml oj, 1-2 eggs fried in butter or coconut oil
Morning continuous snacks: oj, chocolate
Lunch: lamb chops 2/7, steak 1/7, liver 1/7, cod 1/7, stewed lamb or beef from bones 2/7, coffee (mostly decaf, a little caffeine) with milk and sugar, sometimes with oj + sucrose jellies
Dinner: (soup from beef or lamb stock + boiled and pureed veges) or (homemade
cottage cheese + stewed fruit) or (potato chips baked in coconut oil + a little
meat) or (white rice with butter + little meat, veges) rarely (milky/creamy scallop or oyster soup)
Supper: carrot salad with CO and salt (or sometimes have this at other time instead)
Pre-bed snack: OJ, butter, honey, sometimes milk
Snack when I wake up in the night: dates
Whenever I feel like it in between: OJ, sometimes with milk, sometimes coffee
with milk and sugar. Dob of coconut oil. A little varied fresh fruit. Dried
fruit for emergencies. Occasional chicken neck soup.
Occasionally random other food when socialising or craving.
OJ: Through day I usu drink c. 2l strained commercial oj + c. 1 tsp salt +c. 1tsp baking soda + c. 50g sucrose
Milk is dodgy - sometimes fuzzy headedness seems related.
I've only recently started drinking any coffee at all. It seems to sometimes help interrupt migraine process, but I'm only using a little of the full caffiene coffee because withdrawal can make them worse (eg at night when I'm most at risk of beginning migraine).
Supplements:
Daily: calcium carbonate (oyster shell), calcium gluconate, magnesium glycinate, niacinamide (purebulk)
Sporadic: multivitamin, B-complex, D, B12, aspirin
What I want to try next:
I have just acquired gear for a DIY dry CO2 bath, but not tried it yet.
Considering asking doctor for Cyproheptadine script, because it looks like it has many potential beefits and is sometimes prescribed to treat migraine.
Would be tempted to try very low dose thyroid, but my lab numbers were in 'normal' range so doctor wasn't convinced, it looks as though they only prescribe T4 anyway, and NDT is not readily available.
If anyone has had success improving migraine, I'm very interested in details of how you did it, and any suggestions.
Thanks to anyone who made it this far :)
Tara
Warning: very long post.
I've been reading the forum for a few months, find it interesting and friendly. I'd like to get other ideas on what else I can try to improve health.
How did you find Ray Peat's work? Was looking for more ideas/information about migraine. Became aware of habitual hyperventilation and some of its wide ranging consequences. Saw a ref to RP diet ideas in a
normalbreathing.com (Buteyko) site comment. In last year and a half I also read about and tried brief partial experiments with GAPS, RARRF, RBTI. Learned useful things from all of these too. A few years as vegetarian in
I ate very low sugar for many years, after hypoglycemic symptoms in 20s. Never went low carb. Mostly avoided gluten and dairy for years, because of symptoms (gluten: sloppy bowels, milk: fuzzy head). Tried eliminating various other foods briefly, but could never get myself to do the strict avoidance protocols often suggested.
Got hungry often because it's hard to organise, carry and eat enough frequent palatable food while avoiding sugar, wheat and dairy, and I'm a slow eater. Drank soy 'milk' and ate PUFA in order to avoid dairy symptoms. Ate lots of gluten free grains. Ate legumes because they seemed to sustain blood sugar. I assumed I was eating roughly enough/not oo much because my weight stayed fairly stable, but now that I'm getting that the body adapts to maintain weight, I suspect I've been nundernourished for a long time.
How long have you been Peating? Vaguely and gradually trying out some things over the last yearish.
What is your favorite part about Peating? I find the articles on his web site
fascinating, and love getting to learn at more depth about physiology, hormones and how
environmental (food and other factors) could be affecting metabolism and
health from areally holistic point of view. Love having lots "common knowledge" and my own notions about what I
'knew' challenged. Encouragement to attend and respect my bodys intuition.
Possibilities and avenues to explore for improvement in debilitating
health condition. Encouragement to avoid hunger. Much more convenient portable
fuel than I was trying to do before. "A craving for sugar usually indicates a
need for sugar." Weekly liver. I would love weekly oysters if I
could get/afford them.
What is the worst part? I still don't know if I can find a way to use these
ideas to resolve my key health issue. I still often don't get my fluid balance right.
What are your health issues?
Key health issues:
Migraine. Usu 2-3 /month for 1-3 days. Severe debilitating pain and dysfunction. Nausea. Usually come on gradually, preceded by frequent peeing, heightened olfactory sensitivity, and a brief dozy period. Hot head, freezing feet, mild photophobia, moving hurts.
Intermittent fuzzy head, poor concentration, memory, tiredness
Can't go long without food. Eg for safety I've learned never to drive on an empty stomach. Often have to snack during night to be able to go back to sleep.
Lesser but probably related:
Mouth full of metal repairing tooth decay.
Chronically cold feet.
Chronically tight achilles tendons
Mild stomach bloating sometimes.
Morningitis: intermittent hayfever-like itchy eyes, runny nose, sneezing between waking ad breakfast (improved lately).
A couple of slow healing joint injuries.
Fungus foot.
Historical: extremely severe dysmenorrhea from late teens to late 20s.
What does your diet consist of?
Lately:
Breakfast: at least 500ml oj, 1-2 eggs fried in butter or coconut oil
Morning continuous snacks: oj, chocolate
Lunch: lamb chops 2/7, steak 1/7, liver 1/7, cod 1/7, stewed lamb or beef from bones 2/7, coffee (mostly decaf, a little caffeine) with milk and sugar, sometimes with oj + sucrose jellies
Dinner: (soup from beef or lamb stock + boiled and pureed veges) or (homemade
cottage cheese + stewed fruit) or (potato chips baked in coconut oil + a little
meat) or (white rice with butter + little meat, veges) rarely (milky/creamy scallop or oyster soup)
Supper: carrot salad with CO and salt (or sometimes have this at other time instead)
Pre-bed snack: OJ, butter, honey, sometimes milk
Snack when I wake up in the night: dates
Whenever I feel like it in between: OJ, sometimes with milk, sometimes coffee
with milk and sugar. Dob of coconut oil. A little varied fresh fruit. Dried
fruit for emergencies. Occasional chicken neck soup.
Occasionally random other food when socialising or craving.
OJ: Through day I usu drink c. 2l strained commercial oj + c. 1 tsp salt +c. 1tsp baking soda + c. 50g sucrose
Milk is dodgy - sometimes fuzzy headedness seems related.
I've only recently started drinking any coffee at all. It seems to sometimes help interrupt migraine process, but I'm only using a little of the full caffiene coffee because withdrawal can make them worse (eg at night when I'm most at risk of beginning migraine).
Supplements:
Daily: calcium carbonate (oyster shell), calcium gluconate, magnesium glycinate, niacinamide (purebulk)
Sporadic: multivitamin, B-complex, D, B12, aspirin
What I want to try next:
I have just acquired gear for a DIY dry CO2 bath, but not tried it yet.
Considering asking doctor for Cyproheptadine script, because it looks like it has many potential beefits and is sometimes prescribed to treat migraine.
Would be tempted to try very low dose thyroid, but my lab numbers were in 'normal' range so doctor wasn't convinced, it looks as though they only prescribe T4 anyway, and NDT is not readily available.
If anyone has had success improving migraine, I'm very interested in details of how you did it, and any suggestions.
Thanks to anyone who made it this far :)
Tara
