I hit a wall

[Epeatcurious]

Hi everyone, I'm new here and in desperate need of help. I have been dealing with my health for quite a long time, but recently I've hit a wall. I've lived through some pretty intense stressful times and I think they have all left a mark on me. At the moment I am dealing with night waking with a pounding heart. Hypoglycemia episodes, really low ferritin and what feels like a panic disorder. About 3 years ago my husband and I saw a documentary about the Keto diet and decided to give it a try. Although I lost a bunch of weight I also lost a lot of hair and I felt like perhaps I was running in adrenaline most if the time. I lived it because I had been suffering with hypoglycemia for a while and I didn't have to worry about that on Keto.
After that my husband came across Anthony William (Medical Medium)and we decided to try his eating style for a while to see if it would help with his Menieres disease. It's a low fat high fruit diet with low protein. I felt great at first but after a while I started feeling unwell mentally. I started feeling something like schizophrenia or something. Reality looked strange and I felt disoriented. I was also having really bad restless leg syndrome and my muscles felt really tight overall.

I decided to just start eating "normal." I reintroduced eggs I to my diet and started eating more meat. I slowly started feeling a bit better but still not myself. I hired a naturopathic doctor who specializes in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and he put me on a bunch of supplements which didn't help much. One of them being a multivitamin that had a ***t ton of b6 in it (more on that later). My ND also did a food allergy test and so I stopped eating eggs, wheat and dairy.
I started having a lot of trouble sleeping. I had been waking up with my kids for 8 years or so (since my first was born) and I stopped being able to sleep through the night. I have been taking pregnenolone per his instructions and that is the only supplement I'm still taking at the moment.

My MD did some tests and I was chronically low ferritin and vit. D and I had H. Pylori. I took a triple.therapy antibiotic and on that day my hands started to shake. I now realize that the antibiotics in combination with the iron that I was taking which had 500% by in it created by toxicity which causes nerve damage.

All throughout I still felt a connection between my gut and my mental health. I read about the specific Carbohydrate diet and noticed that when I was on it my mental health issues would feel better.

Anyway at the moment I am following a low b6 diet which helps my neuropathy but it excludes lots of foods and I feel like my gut is being really irritated by all of the stuff I'm eating and contributing to panic attacks.

I came across Ray Peats work and it looks really promising. I bought some "meal plan" based on his work that starts the day with coffee eggs and orange juice and I had massive adrenaline or cortisol.rishing through my body all day
I also started adding more sugar and I don't think its helping me much at all. I've been trying to read through the information on RayPeat.com but I'm kind of lost. I was prescribed progesterone by my Gynecologist and I haven't taken it yet ad I'm still taking the pregnenolone. Not sure where to go from here. I'm waiting on a prescription of Refaximin which I'm hoping will heal my gut. I plan on trying the Nemcheck Protocol too. Any guidance would be appreciated. Thank you form a 40 year old very tired mother of 3.

 

[Peatful]

Welcome.
Your story is all too familiar.
Food restrictions, dieting, supplements, exercise- certainly dont lead to health do they?

Guidance:
1- stay off this forum. Dont listen to our advice. We are the best forum on the internet- but we are all flawed with our own experiences. Gather data from us. But reread your post. You DO know whats going on. Your doctors on the other hand do not.
2- you need time to rebuild. Three kids alone is enough stress- even wonderfully good stress is still stress. But you do not need more testing, more restrictions, more supplements. You need to eat. You need to repair.
3- as u said: You are still in a high cortisol low thyroid state. Calm that adrenaline down by eating 6-8 mini meals a day - but these must be balanced to keep your BS steady. 40/30/30. C/p/f. If your adrenals are working at balancing your BS- you will not only deplete your progesterone- but keep your body in chaos. Stable blood sugar is key.
4- now is your time to eat and not restrict. Use your temperature as a guide. Lmk if you need more data on that.
5- no exercise. Rest.
6- no supplements. This doesn’t mean ever- but this means for now. The body knows what to do. Listen to it. Food as medicine.
7- reach out to me anytime. My advice isn’t usually the most popular- but ive been where you are: and I only wished someone would have told me to eat more and listen to my body. Dont overthink things.
8- will you gain weight? Yes. But then it will drop off naturally once your thyroid is nourished and strong again.
9- go slow. Perceive. Think. Act.
10- lmk if you have any questions.

 

[Epeatcurious]

Welcome.
Your story is all too familiar.
Food restrictions, dieting, supplements, exercise- certainly dont lead to health do they?

Guidance:
1- stay off this forum. Dont listen to our advice. We are the best forum on the internet- but we are all flawed with our own experiences. Gather data from us. But reread your post. You DO know whats going on. Your doctors on the other hand do not.
2- you need time to rebuild. Three kids alone is enough stress- even wonderfully good stress is still stress. But you do not need more testing, more restrictions, more supplements. You need to eat. You need to repair.
3- as u said: You are still in a high cortisol low thyroid state. Calm that adrenaline down by eating 6-8 mini meals a day - but these must be balanced to keep your BS steady. 40/30/30. C/p/f. If your adrenals are working at balancing your BS- you will not only deplete your progesterone- but keep your body in chaos. Stable blood sugar is key.
4- now is your time to eat and not restrict. Use your temperature as a guide. Lmk if you need more data on that.
5- no exercise. Rest.
6- no supplements. This doesn’t mean ever- but this means for now. The body knows what to do. Listen to it. Food as medicine.
7- reach out to me anytime. My advice isn’t usually the most popular- but ive been where you are: and I only wished someone would have told me to eat more and listen to my body. Dont overthink things.
8- will you gain weight? Yes. But then it will drop off naturally once your thyroid is nourished and strong again.
9- go slow. Perceive. Think. Act.
10- lmk if you have any questions.

Thank you so much for your response. I've been gaining weight. And it's been freaking me out. I was reading Ray Peat's position that starches can affect mental health s I'm wondering weather or not to restrict them because I do not want to feel the panic attacks. But if I eliminate starches, I will have a much hardertime eating all the time.
The only low b6 proteins are eggs, shrimp, lamb and white fish. This by thing is really throwing a wrench in everything because there are lots if fruits even that have high b6. Again thank you SO much for yourresponse.

.

 

[S-VV]

Usually Rays articles will have recommendations in the last paragraphs. You can start from there as there is a common theme running across them. Here are some of examples of his recent newsletters:

Avoiding prolonged fasting and stressful exercise that increase free fatty acids, and combin- ing sugars with proteins to keep free fatty acids low, and using aspirin, niacinamide, or cyproheptadine to reduce the formation of free fatty acids by unavoid- able stress, avoiding an excess of phosphate relative to calcium in the diet, having milk and other antis- tress foods at bedtime or during the night, and being in a brightly lighted environment during the day, with regular sunlight exposure, can minimize the harmful effects of excessive serotonin and reduce the inflammation, fibrosis, and atrophy associated with it. 07/2019


Some of the most important anti-nitric oxide defenses are progesterone, vitamin E, vitamin K, vitamin A, niacinamide, coffee, aspirin, and foods containing flavonoids, terpenoids, polyphenols, and sterols. Grass-fed milk contains a variety o f polyphenols. Citrus fruits, many tropical fruits (e.g., guavas, longans, and lychees), and cooked mushrooms are good sources of apigenin, narin- genin and related chemicals. 01/2016

There are many substances besides progester- one and urea that are helpful for treating brain injuries and the overlapping stress and degenera- tive problems. Some o f these are:
Acetazolamide, agmatine, amantadine, aminoguanidine, antibiotics (minocycline, tetra- cycline, etc.), antihistamines, aspirin, bromo- criptine, DCA, emodin, glucagon, glucose, memantine, methylene blue, niacinamide, T3 (triiodothyroinne), vitamin D, vitamin E.
Several of these substances inhibit the libera- tion of free fatty acids and prostaglandin formation, and reduce nitric oxide, lactate production, inflammation, excitation and cholinergic tone, and what they all have in common is supporting a shift away from a highly reduced condition, a shift toward an oxidized-energized balance. These are tools that are available for the practice o f medicine as an art, but they are effectively invisi- ble to big "evidence based" medicine. 03/2016

 

[S-VV]

Also getting some red light, in the form of a chicken/heat lamp is a cheap and effective measure. Ray calls red light a “fundamental anti stress factor” in one of his books.

 

[Epeatcurious]

Thanks for all of the suggestions. Not quite sure how to incorporate them. I wish Ray peat took clients. Does he? I'm clueless about many of the supplements you mentioned with the exception of the vitamins, which I'm taking a break from. I'm in a place of supplement burnout. I could pick up some aspirin and see if that helps. Is red light separate from the sun? Would it be the same if I spent the day at the beach?

 

[S-VV]

Thanks for all of the suggestions. Not quite sure how to incorporate them. I wish Ray peat took clients. Does he? I'm clueless about many of the supplements you mentioned with the exception of the vitamins, which I'm taking a break from. I'm in a place of supplement burnout. I could pick up some aspirin and see if that helps. Is red light separate from the sun? Would it be the same if I spent the day at the beach?

Yes! There is no need to do many or indeed most of the recommendations. They will still be there later. Its more like a list to consider as options. Aspirin and niacinamide (B3) are a great start.

The sun is great and has many benefits red light doesn't have, but red light has some specialised functions that are hard to replicate and are specifically geared to restore metabolism. Not to the detriment of the sun of course.

 

[Epeatcurious]

So just stick my face in front of the red lamp for a while? Does it matter what time of the day and for how long?

 

[S-VV]

Not only face, maybe face and torso, as much body exposure as you can. Many people do it for 10, 15 minutes, but some for many hours. Depends on how practical it is or how its tolerated.

 

[Epeatcurious]

Not only face, maybe face and torso, as much body exposure as you can. Many people do it for 10, 15 minutes, but some for many hours. Depends on how practical it is or how its tolerated.

Great. Thank you!

 

[marcar72]

All throughout I still felt a connection between my gut and my mental health. I read about the specific Carbohydrate diet and noticed that when I was on it my mental health issues would feel better.

Anyway at the moment I am following a low b6 diet which helps my neuropathy but it excludes lots of foods and I feel like my gut is being really irritated by all of the stuff I'm eating and contributing to panic attacks.

Check out this video by Elliot Overton in your free time and other videos on his Youtube channel. They're very informative!!


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pi0O_fzczYA