Help making sense of a study Peat just emailed me?

mandance

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Ive been talking with Peat about antidepressants recently...as that is the ordeal I am facing, and also trying to help people in some other communitys deal with understanding them more. When I asked Peat whether or not long term anti depressant use causes permanent brain damage, he simply linked this study

Physiol Behav. 2006 Jan 30;87(1):114-9.
Peripheral triiodothyronine (T(3)) levels during escapable and inescapable
footshock.
Helmreich DL, Crouch M, Dorr NP, Parfitt DB.
Department of Biology and Program of Neuroscience, Middlebury College,
Middlebury, VT 05753, USA. [email protected]
Changes in peripheral thyroid hormone levels are associated with changes in human
affective disorders, particularly depression. In the current study we used an
animal stress paradigm, proposed to be an animal model of depression, to examine
peripheral T(3) levels during and after escapable or inescapable stress in adult
male rats. In this model, one animal can control the termination of foot-shock
stress by performing a lever press, and therefore experiences escapable stress.
His lever press also terminates the shock for his yoked partner, who has no
control over the stressor, and therefore experiences inescapable stress. In three
separate experiments, blood samples were collected during and after one or two
sessions of escapable/inescapable stress. We found that exposure to inescapable
stress, but not escapable stress, caused a decrease in T(3) levels 120 min
post-stress initiation. Peripheral T(3) levels were not significantly altered in
animals exposed to escapable stress. In sum, these results add to a large body of
previous data indicating that psychological coping can prevent the effects of
physical stress on many diverse systems.


Id like to get some opinions of the community on this in what exactly it might mean...I have a few ideas but I know that there are members here who probably could provide some valid insights. Thanks I will also post this in the depository for our records.
 

HDD

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Messages
2,075
mandance said:
Ive been talking with Peat about antidepressants recently...as that is the ordeal I am facing, and also trying to help people in some other communitys deal with understanding them more. When I asked Peat whether or not long term anti depressant use causes permanent brain damage, he simply linked this study

Physiol Behav. 2006 Jan 30;87(1):114-9.
Peripheral triiodothyronine (T(3)) levels during escapable and inescapable
footshock.
Helmreich DL, Crouch M, Dorr NP, Parfitt DB.
Department of Biology and Program of Neuroscience, Middlebury College,
Middlebury, VT 05753, USA. [email protected]
Changes in peripheral thyroid hormone levels are associated with changes in human
affective disorders, particularly depression. In the current study we used an
animal stress paradigm, proposed to be an animal model of depression, to examine
peripheral T(3) levels during and after escapable or inescapable stress in adult
male rats. In this model, one animal can control the termination of foot-shock
stress by performing a lever press, and therefore experiences escapable stress.
His lever press also terminates the shock for his yoked partner, who has no
control over the stressor, and therefore experiences inescapable stress. In three
separate experiments, blood samples were collected during and after one or two
sessions of escapable/inescapable stress. We found that exposure to inescapable
stress, but not escapable stress, caused a decrease in T(3) levels 120 min
post-stress initiation. Peripheral T(3) levels were not significantly altered in
animals exposed to escapable stress. In sum, these results add to a large body of
previous data indicating that psychological coping can prevent the effects of
physical stress on many diverse systems.


Id like to get some opinions of the community on this in what exactly it might mean...I have a few ideas but I know that there are members here who probably could provide some valid insights. Thanks I will also post this in the depository for our records.


I woke up this morning thinking about this and how my experience with MS has been. When I was diagnosed, I had read a little about the illness in a Merck manual. I was devastated. I had a 2 year old, we had just opened a retail store, and I was pregnant with my 2nd child. I was 30 years old. I became depressed which is a symptom. The neurologist told me there was nothing they could do for me. No hope of getting better. Inescapable stress.

My father-in-law heard about people with MS being helped by diet. He ordered the "Multiple Sclerosis Diet Book" for me. I started reading it but when I came to negative information, I moved on. I didn't want to read about any symptoms. The part that was negative said people with MS should not have children. Too late, so I chose to ignore that part. I skipped to the graphs of the success he had seen using his protocol. 95%! Now that was what I wanted to hear. My escape from the burden of the diagnosis. I proceeded to try nd follow his diet. Symptoms disappeared during my pregnancy which is also normal.

I had 2 more children and no major symtoms for 10+ years. Then one night I couldn't walk to the bathroom. I knew it was MS. I suspected pregnancy. This would be my 5th. While scooting around on my floor, I remembered a guy from high school that used to walk as if something was wrong with his leg. I decided I could walk like that. Sort of dragging my leg. After visiting the neurologist, who now had medicine, I began Internet research. Many ideas and stories of people benefiting from diets and supplements. Once again, escape. I do not and have not read MS sites that are not focussed on non traditional ways to get well. My husband got me the MS magazine, which I do not read but throw away. It is full of ads for wheelchairs and such.

When my legs went numb after following a paleo diet for about 3 months, I knew it was MS but had gone thru menopause so I wasn't pregnant. I had been eating a lot of pork which I had avoided for years. I found Ray Peats site because of his article that mentions MS higher (IIRC) with people who eat pork and horsemeat. Or maybe it was low incidence in countries that don't consume pork. Either way, I read his article and was blown away! Here was something that explained my MS symptoms during pregnancy and the reason I was having symptoms at that time. And along with that, simple solutions to help! Escape from my stress!

Sorry to go on so long. This is my understanding of why he sent you that study. You have the lever to escape the stress. Focus on the helpful things each day.
 
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mandance

mandance

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Thanks for your insights and for sharing more of your story. It's funny because I'm totally coming to find the same things. Going through withdrawal I was feeling worse seeing the horror stories on the drug addiction boards...staying away from all that stuff, my mind feels more at ease. I still feel pretty crappy, but at least I don't have to fill myself with doubt and worry, making things much worse. You are really strong , I look up to that. It's easy to be filled with worry I guess when going through hard times. The initial feeling is that you will never be the same or that you are damaged beyond repair...even though I feel silly comparing myself to you in any way...I'm here complaining about withdrawal, you have a big family to take care of and a tough illness but it seems like you really are,steering the ship and complete opposite of a victim.
 

HDD

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mandance said:
Thanks for your insights and for sharing more of your story. It's funny because I'm totally coming to find the same things. Going through withdrawal I was feeling worse seeing the horror stories on the drug addiction boards...staying away from all that stuff, my mind feels more at ease. I still feel pretty crappy, but at least I don't have to fill myself with doubt and worry, making things much worse. You are really strong , I look up to that. It's easy to be filled with worry I guess when going through hard times. The initial feeling is that you will never be the same or that you are damaged beyond repair...even though I feel silly comparing myself to you in any way...I'm here complaining about withdrawal, you have a big family to take care of and a tough illness but it seems like you really are,steering the ship and complete opposite of a victim.

Don't feel silly comparing our situations. Yours is just as real as mine and as scary. I am on the other side now. I was very discouraged the first and second time. My mind would take my situation all the way to the nursing home. This was a battle in my mind. It is not easy to overcome the thoughts that haunt us. But, it can be done. You have to choose what you will believe and what you will think about. When I shared my diet with the girl I knew that had same diagnosis, she had a choice. She chose to not believe. The same is true for many of Ray Peat's ideas. Some people listen and believe, but many do not. Your body, including your brain can heal.
 

HDD

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"I think medicine is accustomed to using big words for diagnoses in order to be able to prescribe big pills without being questioned. If we stop thinking about a condition in terms of diagnostic names (like cancer, MS, epilepsy) and look for symptoms instead, for what is wrong -- we get closer to the thought that everything can be healed. You take on the problems one by one. Usually they are connected so that when you fix one, you fix another, too. Telling patients they have a disease which has killed many people and cannot be healed is like chaining them with their backs to the wall. They will feel helpless, at the mercy of their doctors -- and serotonin will rise and make every condition worse. 
If it's possible, forget about "MS". By the way you were diagnosed alone you can see that making that diagnosis is like reading your future in tea leaves - it's about as accurate, too. Look at your problems and see them for what they are - signs of your body to change something. Ray Peat will help you to find out what that "something" is. Your body is not your enemy. But it needs your mind to be its partner, to listen and help. 
Thinking that's not possible will make everything that much harder. 
It not true, either. 
But I guess you know that or you wouldn't be here."


This is the encouragement Rayser gave me that helped me to let go of my fear of MS and to just deal with my symptoms one at a time. It is excellent advice for anyone who has been given a diagnosis.
 
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mandance

mandance

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Good points, mental wars are always a struggle. What did you mean when you said...forget about MS....were you refering to yourself when they gave you that diagnosis?
 

HDD

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"if possible, forget about MS.." is part of a quote from Rayser. I was asking her different questions about my symptoms pertaining to MS. Even though I had read Ray Peat's articles on MS, and I was trying to follow his suggestions from the articles, my mind still thought of the symptoms as coming from a disease called MS. Even though, I thought it was a little odd that the people on this forum had many similar symptoms, I really did not get out of my MS mentality and see myself as being hypothyroid until Rayser said that to me.

Having a label can be a stumbling block to getting well. The label itself causes stress. As the study of the mice shows, when we think we do not have any escape or hope to get well, our body responds to our thoughts and can hinder the healing process.
 
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mandance

mandance

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Ah yes. Totally true. Very good points. That's an awesome way to look at it, labels are rediculous.
Makes you wonder if people are often better off without a diagnosis.
 

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