Hypocholesterolemia, low body temps, and hair loss - 33yo - input and log for 2022

[Zsazsa]

Personally I think that ferritin at 60 ng/ml is pretty low for a man.

 

[Peatful]

Breakfast is typically fruit - cantolope, freshed squeezed OJ, with some berries thrown in - followed by some 2% milk, a few slices of rye sourdough, and several parmesean cheese squares. Relatively high carb, low fat, moderate protein. This type of meal has never bothered my stomach. Full day kcal hovering around 27-2800, feels pretty satiating but im slowly ramping up.

As far as what has me stuck in a stressed state - im having trouble thinking of anything profound. When it comes to emotional stress - there is nothing crazy stressful - currently unemployed but have a job on the horizon. Perhaps i just need more time in a surplus. I do still work out 3x weekly - I dont feel that I overdue it, workouts last just over an hour. I guess i could take a full break from that, but I already do every 6-8 weeks in the form of 2 weeks off. I feel better mentally working out.

Wonderfully insightful response with the solutions already in your text

Don’t underestimate the stress you were under those years prior to Covid-19 as a floor nurse.
Plus any restrictive diet or over exercise during those years.
Then Covid-19 and the vxx hit- and was extremely stressful in its own right.

You just need a surplus and time to recover. And some pleasure walking vs your moderate work outs.

Stay macro not micro focused.

Best to you.

 

[Peatful]

Let me add. A breakfast with that much liquid would also not warm me up.
It’s not supporting you or working for you- as demonstrated by your temps.

I found liquid difficult digestively as well.

Solid foods are the way to go. With a glass of maybe OJ alongside- with some gelatin thrown in- if you tolerate that. Or sugared milk.

 

[Murse121]

Let me add. A breakfast with that much liquid would also not warm me up.
It’s not supporting you or working for you- as demonstrated by your temps.

I found liquid difficult digestively as well.

Solid foods are the way to go. With a glass of maybe OJ alongside- with some gelatin thrown in- if you tolerate that. Or sugared milk.

Thanks for the ideas again. Will see if moving more towards solids is helpful. Morning temps still averaging around 97.4. Thoughts on potatoes or other solids? It seems that some just need a certain level of starches perhaps?

 

[Peatful]

Thanks for the ideas again. Will see if moving more towards solids is helpful. Morning temps still averaging around 97.4. Thoughts on potatoes or other solids? It seems that some just need a certain level of starches perhaps?

Well that was certainly true for me as I healed.

Try them for three days
Assess and readjust as needed

I would start with just one source of them as well- so if you do react poorly to said potato- you know to try a different type of potato (ie: waxy or not) or a different preparation (ie: twice baked vs mashed)

 

[Murtaza]

Danny mentioned that chronic low cholesterol could be due to bacterial infection, maybe try low dose minocycline or some other safe antibiotic if diet doesnt help.

 

[Murse121]

Danny mentioned that chronic low cholesterol could be due to bacterial infection, maybe try low dose minocycline or some other safe antibiotic if diet doesnt help.

Thank you and this has definitely crossed my mind. Several years ago, I was on doxycycline for about a month prior to my wedding to help clear up some acne rosacea, which it did fairly well. The dose was lower (compared to a Lyme dose) I think 25mg twice daily but can’t remember exactly. I felt pretty good during this month, specifically digestion wise. But things gradually returned to a worse baseline. For now I’d like to do exhaust the dietary options. I will eventually experiment with either bamboo shoots or activated charcoal to see if they have any positive effects on either cholesterol or digestion. But thank you and this is definitely something I will consider for the future.

 

[Murtaza]

Hypocholesterolemia - What Could Be The Cause?

i got a blood panel done a month ago, the results are following : total serum cholesterol 94 mg/dl serum triglycerides 59 mg/dl vit D 110 nmol/L fasting blood glucose 4.3 mmol/L Tsh 3.37 free t3 6.33 pmol/L free t4 18.95 pmol/L the main reason for doing this blood test was hair fall. the tsh...

raypeatforum.com

Youre welcome, i had the same issue actually and i made a thread about it as well. My cholesterol was even lower than yours, diet was good i guess (eggs, milk, oj etc). Eventually i did 50 mg mino for two months and that brought up my total pretty well. i still take two doses per week. imo having low cholesterol is way worse than having an abnormally high value.

 

[Murse121]

Hypocholesterolemia - What Could Be The Cause?

i got a blood panel done a month ago, the results are following : total serum cholesterol 94 mg/dl serum triglycerides 59 mg/dl vit D 110 nmol/L fasting blood glucose 4.3 mmol/L Tsh 3.37 free t3 6.33 pmol/L free t4 18.95 pmol/L the main reason for doing this blood test was hair fall. the tsh...

raypeatforum.com

Youre welcome, i had the same issue actually and i made a thread about it as well. My cholesterol was even lower than yours, diet was good i guess (eggs, milk, oj etc). Eventually i did 50 mg mino for two months and that brought up my total pretty well. i still take two doses per week. imo having low cholesterol is way worse than having an abnormally high value.

Thanks again and will definitely take a closer look at mino if I stagnate. What were you able to get your total cholesterol up to if you don’t mind?

 

[OccamzRazer]

Low temps: you might be able to quickly improve them with this protocol!

Temperature Reset à La Steve Richfield

For now just a summary of my reset attempt and tommorow a follow up and more details 08:30 -have a decent breakfast and some sugared coffee to heat myself up prepared all the layers of heavy clothing, prepared 5 mcg of T3 and 12.5 mcg of T4, took thermometer and entered a steaming shower -oral...

raypeatforum.com

Graying hair/beard: maybe try some nettle tea? High in calcium which should presumably help with overall hair health too.

THE ROOT OF GRAY HAIR

I have created this thread because I get asked a lot about nettle, and how it restored my natural hair color. I have told of my good results, here and there on this forum, but now I want to talk about other factors that may have played a part in my results. My first hearing about nettle having...

raypeatforum.com

Red light therapy: I use the one below and love it, tho the pure red version might be even better:

Orange & Red - Handheld Device - 610nm - 630nm - 670nm - LGS1

The LGS1 is designed with peak absorption in the orange and red wavelengths.

lifegivingstore.com

Many blessings and best of luck on your health journey this year!

 

[Murtaza]

Thanks again and will definitely take a closer look at mino if I stagnate. What were you able to get your total cholesterol up to if you don’t mind?

it was 180 last time i checked.

 

[yerrag]

PTH - 19pg/ml (2/20)
prolactin - 8.3ng/ml,(2/20), 8.1(10/20), 7.4(7/21)
TSH - 2.36miU/L(2/20), 1.31(10/20), 0.86(7/21)
total cholesterol 134mg/dl(2/20), 122(10/20), 135(7/21), 111(12/21)
DHEAs - 337mcg/dl(7/21)
SHBG - 49nmol/L(7/21)
total testosterone - 713ng/dl(7/21)
progesterone - tested once only out of curiosity 12/21 - lab listed as <0.5ng/ml (did not give a more specific value)
vitamin d - 39ng/ml(2/20), 47(12/21) - has been low in past years in the 20s

I suspect not many here can interpret these values without a reference value included, as far as the hormones and steroids go.

Are these values normal?

If so, I wonder how you can produce downstream hormones and steroids if your cholesterol is so low.

Is your cholesterol low because the liver is not producing adequate cholesterol, or is it because something is using up your cholesterol too quickly than your liver is able to produce them.

 

[Murse121]

I suspect not many here can interpret these values without a reference value included, as far as the hormones and steroids go.

Are these values normal?

If so, I wonder how you can produce downstream hormones and steroids if your cholesterol is so low.

Is your cholesterol low because the liver is not producing adequate cholesterol, or is it because something is using up your cholesterol too quickly than your liver is able to produce them.

Yerrag, some good points regarding the low cholesterol, ultimately I wondered the same thing in my initial post. If we have adequate steroid levels, does it matter what total cholesterol in the blood is? It seems that most on here think it does. We know cholesterol offers at least some protection against viruses, etc. Some have talked about the u shaped curve for cholesterol for morbidity.

Ultimately, I’m trying to raise levels in tandem with raising temps. Regarding reference ranges, that’s a good point too. My thinking was that some of the experienced posters have their own thoughts on the values, and the reference ranges can vary depending on lab. We also have somewhat of a consensus here that the reference range isn’t necessarily the ‘ideal’ for a healthily person. My test and DHEA are both in the reference range, and so is tsh which has a range of 0.40 to 4.50. But my tsh has been as high as 2.36, and we know ray has said things like it should be 1 or under for a healthy person. I should’ve maybe included the range for context for all. We have other debates on labs regarding tissue vs serum levels, etc which adds further complexity. I’m going to move forward with less emphasis on bloodwork and more on other markers, temps, etc. I’ll still recheck a few things after a couple months of consistent changes.

 

[Murse121]

Low temps: you might be able to quickly improve them with this protocol!

Temperature Reset à La Steve Richfield

For now just a summary of my reset attempt and tommorow a follow up and more details 08:30 -have a decent breakfast and some sugared coffee to heat myself up prepared all the layers of heavy clothing, prepared 5 mcg of T3 and 12.5 mcg of T4, took thermometer and entered a steaming shower -oral...

raypeatforum.com

Graying hair/beard: maybe try some nettle tea? High in calcium which should presumably help with overall hair health too.

THE ROOT OF GRAY HAIR

I have created this thread because I get asked a lot about nettle, and how it restored my natural hair color. I have told of my good results, here and there on this forum, but now I want to talk about other factors that may have played a part in my results. My first hearing about nettle having...

raypeatforum.com

Red light therapy: I use the one below and love it, tho the pure red version might be even better:

Orange & Red - Handheld Device - 610nm - 630nm - 670nm - LGS1

The LGS1 is designed with peak absorption in the orange and red wavelengths.

lifegivingstore.com

Many blessings and best of luck on your health journey this year!

Occamz, thanks for the ideas and red light I feel is especially intriguing. Listening to podcasts from roddy and haidut, I remember them talking about how red light could disassociate cytochrome c oxidase from nitric oxide. I actually took some 'nettle leaf' extract for about a month, probably too short to notice a difference in greying. I started to get itchy, tingling nipples (weird, i know) but this made me concerned there was some sort of estrogenic effect going on, which may or may not have been the case. The temp reset thing is also an interesting approach as well. Thanks again!

 

[Murse121]

Well that was certainly true for me as I healed.

Try them for three days
Assess and readjust as needed

I would start with just one source of them as well- so if you do react poorly to said potato- you know to try a different type of potato (ie: waxy or not) or a different preparation (ie: twice baked vs mashed)

Peatful, thanks again and baked with butter seem to be fine on the stomach.

 

[Murse121]

it was 180 last time i checked.

Wow that is quite the jump. I realize youve been doing other things to improve your health, but you feel the rise in cholesterol coincided with general well being?

 

[yerrag]

Yerrag, some good points regarding the low cholesterol, ultimately I wondered the same thing in my initial post. If we have adequate steroid levels, does it matter what total cholesterol in the blood is? It seems that most on here think it does. We know cholesterol offers at least some protection against viruses, etc. Some have talked about the u shaped curve for cholesterol for morbidity.

Cholesterol is needed in the brain. I'm not sure which is correct- whether 25% of brain is composed of cholesterol, or that 25% of cholesterol in our body is in the brain, but it just points to the importance of cholesterol to brain health and the nervous system. That alone to me is enough reason for us to want to have adequate cholesterol stores.

Something not mentioned in the replies is that most of the cholesterol in our body is produced by the body. Dietary cholesterol constitutes only a small portion of our cholesterol stores. Since both cholesterol and CoQ10 are both produced thru the mevalonate pathway, it makes me wonder if your CoQ10 is low as well. If your internal cholesterol production is low, then it's reasonable to assume that your CoQ10 production is low. If that were the case, you would have symptoms such as being subject easing to bruising and nosebleeds, due to frail blood vessels arising from the deficiency. If that isn't the case, then perhaps you're producing enough cholesterol but that your body has a high usage rate for cholesterol. I don't really know if there is such a thing though, but I leave open that possibility. That your dad also has the same problem with low cholesterol makes me wonder what is common between you two.

This is far off on left field, but cholesterol is also in itself anti-bacterial and maybe also anti-microbial, and this begs the question of whether there is a microbial element to it. Microbes can be passed from one generation to the next. Just some food for thought.

Ultimately, I’m trying to raise levels in tandem with raising temps. Regarding reference ranges, that’s a good point too. My thinking was that some of the experienced posters have their own thoughts on the values, and the reference ranges can vary depending on lab. We also have somewhat of a consensus here that the reference range isn’t necessarily the ‘ideal’ for a healthily person. My test and DHEA are both in the reference range, and so is tsh which has a range of 0.40 to 4.50. But my tsh has been as high as 2.36, and we know ray has said things like it should be 1 or under for a healthy person. I should’ve maybe included the range for context for all. We have other debates on labs regarding tissue vs serum levels, etc which adds further complexity. I’m going to move forward with less emphasis on bloodwork and more on other markers, temps, etc. I’ll still recheck a few things after a couple months of consistent changes.

I can't say that I disagree with less focus on testing on steroids and hormones. Ever since joining the forum, a lot of the steroid testing ends up being inconclusive mainly because reference ranges are mostly provided by the medical system's standard of care values. These values have for the most part been unreliable, and end up giving us false negatives most of the time, and on some cases false positives. TSH and the other markers of the thyroid panel is but just one example of the medical system's habitual misinterpretation of bloodwork markers which leads us on a wild goose chase.

 

[Murse121]

Cholesterol is needed in the brain. I'm not sure which is correct- whether 25% of brain is composed of cholesterol, or that 25% of cholesterol in our body is in the brain, but it just points to the importance of cholesterol to brain health and the nervous system. That alone to me is enough reason for us to want to have adequate cholesterol stores.

Something not mentioned in the replies is that most of the cholesterol in our body is produced by the body. Dietary cholesterol constitutes only a small portion of our cholesterol stores. Since both cholesterol and CoQ10 are both produced thru the mevalonate pathway, it makes me wonder if your CoQ10 is low as well. If your internal cholesterol production is low, then it's reasonable to assume that your CoQ10 production is low. If that were the case, you would have symptoms such as being subject easing to bruising and nosebleeds, due to frail blood vessels arising from the deficiency. If that isn't the case, then perhaps you're producing enough cholesterol but that your body has a high usage rate for cholesterol. I don't really know if there is such a thing though, but I leave open that possibility. That your dad also has the same problem with low cholesterol makes me wonder what is common between you two.

This is far off on left field, but cholesterol is also in itself anti-bacterial and maybe also anti-microbial, and this begs the question of whether there is a microbial element to it. Microbes can be passed from one generation to the next. Just some food for thought.


I can't say that I disagree with less focus on testing on steroids and hormones. Ever since joining the forum, a lot of the steroid testing ends up being inconclusive mainly because reference ranges are mostly provided by the medical system's standard of care values. These values have for the most part been unreliable, and end up giving us false negatives most of the time, and on some cases false positives. TSH and the other markers of the thyroid panel is but just one example of the medical system's habitual misinterpretation of bloodwork markers which leads us on a wild goose chase.

Good point regarding cholesterol in the brain and nervous system, somehow completely slipped my mind, considering brains contain some of highest tissue levels for animals. But you’re right I think regarding the blood testing in that it seems like it leaves more questions than answers at times. My total cholesterol has been consistently low, I think there still might be value in continuing tracking it. Now im curious to see what becomes of some of this testing via nail or hair analysis. Maybe it will show to be more reliable and available with time. I’ve never had any notable issues with bleeding/bruising. But that is some interesting info regarding q10. Thanks for the thoughtful post

 

[yerrag]

Good point regarding cholesterol in the brain and nervous system, somehow completely slipped my mind, considering brains contain some of highest tissue levels for animals. But you’re right I think regarding the blood testing in that it seems like it leaves more questions than answers at times. My total cholesterol has been consistently low, I think there still might be value in continuing tracking it. Now im curious to see what becomes of some of this testing via nail or hair analysis. Maybe it will show to be more reliable and available with time. I’ve never had any notable issues with bleeding/bruising. But that is some interesting info regarding q10. Thanks for the thoughtful post

You're welcome.

One fact that isn't well-publicized is that statins are macrolides, and are antibiotics. I wonder if that is a main feature of statins. Is it there to compensate for cholesterol being lowered resulting in lower antibiotic effects?

 

[Murse121]

Very interesting question regarding statins. It makes you wonder, with how many other drugs are positive effects actually from a secondary or mechanism other than the intended one?

Just some thoughts: I had about 4 oz of beef liver this afternoon and felt pretty good afterwards. My temp was actually 98.5 half hour or so later (could it just be because it was cooked and warm?) Was still excited because this is the highest ive seen my temp read since ive started to pay attention to them. I realize vitamin A is somewhat controversial lately, but i figured with my history skin issues (dandruff, psoriasis,etc) it couldnt hurt to add in liver at least once per week, can always drop it later. Since ive become more consistent with cronometer, ive noticed that im chronically low in selenium, copper, zinc. Of course these minerals are involved in thyroid specifically, or metabolism/steroid synthesis, generally (Go Figure?) Liver helps with these minerals somewhat, but I also need to get my oysters, shrimp etc in as well on a more regular basis.