Help With Edema

[Rem]

Hello
I would suggest that you concentrate on your gut with plants.
Besides the raw carrot, you could give Cascara a try ; there are a lot of other medicinal plants that can help : Curcuma, Cinnamon, Boswellia, Aloe Vera, etc...
I don't know if you are eating vegetables, but it could be worth trying.

 

[Peatri Dish]

I don't eat vegetables,except the carrot. Occasionally tomato sauce. It's funny I don't think of myself as having gut issues because I'm pretty careful about what I eat. I never have any constipation or gas or bloating unless I eat really jacked up stuff like on thanksgiving, but I've only done that twice in the last year. I can do no starch, no problem. I usually only have a little bit anyhow - like maybe once a week. OK, so suggestions so far: increase salt, stop pregnenolone for a while, eliminate starch completely, consider magnesium supplement, maybe up the B1, consider my calories and make sure I'm not under eating.
I'm not sure Rem, are you suggesting I add vegetables?
I think that's a good start. I'll keep you all posted. I think it's so important for us to report back when we find what works!
Thanks everyone for the feedback!

 

[Sheila]

I have found B6 useful here. About 12.5 mg (happens to be 1/4 x 50mg tabs I can get) 3x a day with food. Seriously useful in PMS swelling whilst working on the other issues (imbalances) . Best of luck. Sheila

 

[Peatri Dish]

Hi
I thought I'd give an update.
I've looked at my B vitamins and between my complex and the added B1 I am at the levels that people are recommending here. So, between reading the threads on what other people are doing, etc. I have come up with some strategies.
I have decided to approach this as a gut/serotonin/endotoxin issue. It's the only protocol I haven't tried in my various wanderings. Additionally, I have TMJ, which Peat has said is likely to be serotonin related. Considering a lot of people have said that they have trouble with OJ, I decided to see what removing that from the diet would do. (Especially since the Trader Joes Organic No Pulp is so full of crud that I usually let it settle and pour off the top leaving the "soup" for my husband. I'm only getting about a quart for $3.99) I've replaced that with more coffee and a few Mexican cokes over the last few days. I'm adding in other juices to see how that goes. I've also increased my salt to maybe three teaspoons and made sure I'm getting lots of sugar. And I've eliminated all starch. That's not too much of a change really because I wasn't doing much anyhow. I've already eliminated all gums that I am aware of and only consume the PUFA that is in grass fed beef and liver and the occasional egg. Today I was down a bit lower than I have been - the scale being the measure.
I will continue to keep folks updated!

 

[loess]

I have had to resort back to pasteurized orange juice (Trader Joe's and Whole Foods 365 organic OJ) over past month due to the poor quality of oranges in November. I really dislike all of the cloudy bits in the bottled juice. I didn't really think about it before but now that you bring it up, I wonder if on some level the OJ could be correlated with the higher levels of anxiety, brain fog and bouts of lethargy and mild depression that have been hitting me lately. It feels like it's come out of nowhere and it's been about a month of weird emotional struggles...the timing fits exactly with when I switched over to bottled OJ...

 

[Peatri Dish]

Yes. The climate is cold here now and I was getting sneezy and sniffly. I attributed it to more furnace yuck, but I've noticed a drop in the sneezing since removing the OJ. Peat is right again...food supply is really compromised.
...sometimes it feels like I'm heading down a rabbit hole...the more I learn the more I have to change (choose to change, really)

 

[Peatri Dish]

Hi
Just keeping people posted:
I've eliminated Great Lakes gelatin, starch and OJ to avoid any gut irritation. I took the advice to stop the pregnenolone. I also started drinking Juicy Juice (of all things...flouride and all!) Unfortunately, this coincided with my period coming and also running out of vitamin E. So, there were some confounding variables. But, I was stunned to be hit with a few days of constipation! Very unusual for me. There was one day I didn't go at all and I'm a multiple user of the facilities normally. Not sure how much is estrogen related and how much is no starch, etc.
Anyhow, all that is back to normal as my period is coming to an end. And I seem to have lost a couple of pounds. Still quite a bit of water weight there in my estimation but I seem to be moving in the right direction.

 

[Peata]

Hi
Just keeping people posted:
I've eliminated Great Lakes gelatin, starch and OJ to avoid any gut irritation. I took the advice to stop the pregnenolone. I also started drinking Juicy Juice (of all things...flouride and all!) Unfortunately, this coincided with my period coming and also running out of vitamin E. So, there were some confounding variables. But, I was stunned to be hit with a few days of constipation! Very unusual for me. There was one day I didn't go at all and I'm a multiple user of the facilities normally. Not sure how much is estrogen related and how much is no starch, etc.
Anyhow, all that is back to normal as my period is coming to an end. And I seem to have lost a couple of pounds. Still quite a bit of water weight there in my estimation but I seem to be moving in the right direction.

Great to hear the improvements. How are you doing now? Lost anymore weight?

 

[Peatri Dish]

Hi
Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've mostly been hanging around in scientific studies section and I'm outbrained there so I keep my mouth shut!
Anyhow I have made some progress so I realized it would be quite selfish not to give an update.
Currently I am using the following supplements:
Progestt e three weeks out of the month four drops every three hours
B-6 100 mg started with daily dose for two weeks now I take one every ten days or so depending on my energy level - it's not p5p so I have to be cautious
Riboflavin 200 mg a day
Thiamin 200 to 400mg a day depending on whether I remember 2nd dose when coffe is low in my system
Biotin 500mcg twice a day
Cytomel 50 mg a day broken into 10-12 doses
Acetazolamide 250 mg broken into 2-4 doses anywhere from two to four days out of the week
Thorne K2 several drops daily
Nutriasorb A either several drops over my face in darkness at bedtime or one drop orally
About 1000mg of theanime and taurine and about 5000 mg of glycine with a serving of protein
I also use a spray with aspirin, niacinamide and caffeine topically for skin health and sun protection
I no longer take vitamin D as the sun has returned to my area
I take one 50 mg Benadryl at night but plan to try cyproheptadine instead soon.
My diet is pretty simple - no pufa, only starch is occasional white bread, mostly grass fed beef as I buy a cow in the fall, cheese, coconut oil and butter, vegetables a couple times a month and lately the daily carrot again.
I make a smoothie every morning with 2cups OJ a cup of each: Frozen strawberries and frozen cherries, 1/2 cup sugar 3 cups 0% fage and a teaspoon of Ceylon cinnamon. This is my mainstay it's got about 1200 calories. I whip it up in the morning and have a glass of it after my coffee, put the rest in the mason jar bring it to work and move it back and forth from freezer to fridge to keep it sludgy. I know I'm getting a good amount of calcium, potassium and calories.
I switched to Florida natural because trader joes organic OJ was giving me sniffles (who would have guessed)
I have lost eight pounds since the beginning of the year and I have no hunger at all. My only exercise is walking and a little bit of lifting associated with my job. Maybe five miles a week and 30 lbs ten times a week. Since I'll be fifty this year I'm pretty happy with a couple of pounds a month.i still see a bit of watery weight accumulating in my thighs and knees but I feel like I'm chipping away at it and not adding more. It's nice because I'm drinking coffe maybe five cups a day without worry
I'm drinking less milk because I'm allergic to something in all the milk available here -maybe vitamins.
That's all I can think of for now. Hope this helps someone!

 

[tara]

Thanks for the update. Glad you've got it working for you.

 

[Capt Nirvana]

Hi,
I've been at this for a little over a year. I keep my diet pretty simple - milk, OJ, coffee, liver, oysters, strained yogurt, sugar, grass fed beef, and the handy, dandy carrot. Occasionally I have some potato and sometimes I eat a baked good with a bit of flour, but otherwise mostly no starch.
Thanksgiving it was pie and sweet potato and some bread but that's unusual.
I am on 50mcg cynomel broken into about 10 doses and two weeks ago I added cynoplus(1/8) (my temps range from 98.1 to 99)
I take several drops of Thorne vitamin k2, 2500IU vitamin d in the morning and
B1 100mg, coffee or caffeine 200mg, pure encapsulations b complex, 400iu vitamin e, and 325 mg aspirin three times a day
at night I take 1000mg of both taurine and glycine, 5000mcg biotin, 50 mg diphenhydramine and 500mg of niacinamide
I also take aceta Diazol (acetazolamide) 125mg three times a day. At first this seemed like a miracle wonder drug, as I peed out about 10 lbs. but I still have a lot of water weight that won't budge.
I have reduced my fluid to one quart of OJ and one quart of milk and maybe on cup of coffee a day but this still seems to be too much.
Today I through out the milk and cut the OJ in half and doubled my strained yogurt. Not really enjoying this...really thirsty!
Any ideas?

This idea is not Ray Peat-approved, but exaggerated yawning (more than the average of six seconds) works wonders if the "water weight" you're referring to is edema. I've personally observed MANY people dramatically reduce their edema after 10 or 20 minutes of yawning and stretching. Central obesity is "gas weight" (partial pressure of CO2) because gas is usually eight times more soluble than water in fat. (However, both chronic swelling (H2O) and chronic bloating (CO2) necessitate dietary and lifestyle changes.)