In need of help...completely lost

[Ipoh]

I'm new to the board but I was introduced to Ray Peat's "diet" though a coach that I paid big $$$ to. I went in for difficulty losing weight after my 3rd pregnancy and I wanted to take my health & fitness to the next level. I felt her coaching was missing from the puzzle. While she may have had good intentions. I feel I allowed her to ignore me concerns and completely ruined my total physical and emotional being. Sadly, after 4 months I was left with empty pockets, completely exhausted to even exercise let alone function, I developed severe allergies & hives, asthma returned after a decade, a 35lb weight gain on top of my already overweight frame, chronic joint pain, extreme fatigue, bloating and a major case of the blues.
I also ended up with estrogen dominance, 8 week heavy periods, cystic breasts, uterine fibroids and uterine hyperplasia. It was recommended that I drop a substantial amount of weight and take BC to regulate hormones. While it has taken me over a year to take the weight off (not in the most healthy way I have to admit), I refused BC but compromised with Prometrium.
I still feel like crap, fatigued, still struggling with weight and I still have low progesterone. I randomly check temps and I'm running 96.5 easy. I recently ran a full hormone panel through ZRT. I would like to return to Peat's work the right way but I'm lost on where to begin. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Blossom]

Ipoh. Sorry to hear about your bad experience. I think you will find a lot of helpful information here and you won't have to empty your pockets in the process.

 

[Ipoh]

@blossom thank you so much :)

 

[natedawggh]

That sounds miserable!

Are you taking progesterone? It is the best thing to do for women who are struggling with their health. Long Natural Health online carries Ray Peat's formulated Progest-E, which is progesterone in vitamin e. It's $35 a bottle, I think, and one can last for a couple months.

Taking progesterone helps aid the body in producing and using Thyroid hormone, which in turn raises tissue concentration of carbon dioxide. If you don't find total relief from progesterone and a healthy diet, you should definitely add thyroid. Get thyroid tests done (T3, T4, TSH) then look in this forum for comparison of test results, as some doctors consider very low levels of it to be acceptable, even though they are not.

The point of Peat's ideas is that increased carbon dioxide production and retention (thyroid produces CO2) spur healing and maintains health by increasing metabolism and cellular respiration. You can adopt many strategies to raise CO2, among them are taking progesterone, taking thyroid, bag breathing, consuming carbonated/healthy beverages in tandem with bag breathing, consuming sugar/fruit/fructose, niacinamide, vitamin E, and avoiding allergens such as polyunsaturated fats, grains, and chemical additives. Large doses of natural vitamin E (from sunflower oil—NOT soy or synthetic) without toxic additives, can also be therapeutic.

 

[Ipoh]

@natedawggh: Thank you so much!! I really appreciate your advice you have no idea. This forum is amazing but it's very overwhelming since I'm coming from a place of terrible sleep, mood swings & foggy thinking.
Yes I'm on Prometrium (a supposed natural form from a pharmaceutical co made from peanuts ) but I want off. I just saw Peat's progesterone & I'm going to order that ASAP. My labs through ZRT say the following:
Estradiol: 1.9 I'm 41 so not so sure on the level
Progesterone: 25 low
Pg/e2: 13 low
Dhea: 1.8 low
Free T4: 0.6
Free T3: 3.2
TSH: 2.2

 

[Such_Saturation]

Do you drink milk? This is just a suggestion, but you could drink it with sugar as the largest part of your diet, until you can do two to four cups of white sugar in one week. Of course this would not be a permanent regimen.

 

[tara]

If you want more ideas, you could let us know a bit more about what you are eating, what else you have tried, and any effects you have noticed.

It wouldn't surprise me if natedawggh's advice about progest-e is helpful. What dose is helpful/needed seems to vary a lot. Some women use 3 drops a day for half the month. Others use up to a bottle a week for a time. It can increase metabolism and therefore require more nutrition.

 

[Ipoh]

Such_Saturation: Thank you for your suggestion:) I do drink milk but I'll start increasing it & I'll begin adding sugar.
I have had a terrible headache for days and I'm realizing that there's a definite connection with low temps. My temp upon waking is 95.5. I feel groggy, ,my head feels like it's going to explode. I grabbed sugar, salt & a thyroid glandular and it made all the difference. Thank you so much again!

 

[Ipoh]

Tara: Thank you so much! I received the progest-e & I'm very excited to start. I'm looking at about another week before I can start it. I'm hoping that it's a game changer. My temps are killing me. I feel lousy because they've been scary low. As I mentioned above, I'm seeing a link between feeling awful and low temps. I took a huge dive this month but I'm hoping it's because I'm letting go of all the PUFA in my body.
As for eating, I'm trying to keep my ratios 60-20-20. I do admit that I forget to calculate a lot though. I'm drinking skim raw milk, coconut oil, gelatin, orange juice, pickling salt, scallops, shrimp, grapes, mineral water and some eggs here & there. I'm feeling a bit swelled since I've started this about 3 was ago. I really can't afford to gain a lot of weight again as I'm 5'3 & high 160's. I started gradually this time since I recently came off of an unhealthy diet. No sugar, high fat & decent protein intake.

 

[natedawggh]

Ipoh...

yeah I just looked up that brand of "progesterone" and it's what is called a progestin, which is a synthetic. What they make it out of may be natural, but that doesn't mean the final product is natural...so I'm glad you're switching to progest-e. I'm male and taking it regularly has raised my temps (along with other benefits and a diet full of good carbohydrates) from mid-95's in the mornings to now high 97's/low98's. I too experienced a correlation between low temps and feeling terrible.

You should also take a vitamin E supplement and Niacinamide. Make sure the E is from non GMO sunflower oil (because there are synthetic Vit E's as well and they will hurt, not help) and contains no soy or tocotrienols (tocotrienols are not well studied and might actually harm health). I've had great results from Solaray Super Bio E and a cheaper brand Swanson Vit. E non-gmo that is just as good. Vitamin E is anti-estrogen, among other benefits.

Lots of people seem to gain weight switching to Peat... that is not because it's bad or ineffective, but people doing this usually already have depressed metabolisms so its difficult not to gain weight. The best way to make sure you don't gain a lot of weight is to cut out most or even all dietary fat, at least for a time. It seems that taking any fat makes it difficult for your body to dispose of the polyunsaturated fats already stored in your body, so cutting all fats drastically and/or all together will give your body some time to dispose of them. Keeping carbohydrate high will allow your body to switch from fat burning to carbohydrate burning, and it will synthesize its own good fats. I've heard it takes 4-5 days to rid the blood and cholesterol of PUFAs on a no-fat diet and 30-35 days to rid the rest of the body of PUFAs on a no fat diet, but you only need to do that if you find you are gaining weight. In doing this its also important that you eat enough calories, especially because substances like progesterone and niacinamide will raise your metabolism and demand more fuel, and if you go hungry it will cause a rise in stress hormones and hurt, rather than help.

 

[aguilaroja]

...just looked up that brand of "progesterone" and it's what is called a progestin, which is a synthetic. ...so I'm glad you're switching to progest-e.

Thank you for the good perspectives, ND. As a clarification, to the best of my knowledge, Prometrium is a "bio-identical" progesterone. That is, it is an oral "micronized" form of bio-identical "natural" progesterone. Virtually all "natural" progesterone is made from a chemical synthetic process from a vegetable source. A progestin would be contrast be a different chemical than bio-identical progesterone, also made "synthetically" in the chemical sense, with different and not necessarily supportive effects.

My experience is also emphatically that Progest-E is a much more effective form of bio-identical progesterone delivery/therapy than Prometrium.

--
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progesterone
"Progesterone has very poor pharmacokinetics (including low bioavailability and a half-life of only 5 minutes) when taken orally unless micronized.[1][81] As such, it is sold in the form of oil-filled capsules containing micronized progesterone for oral use (Utrogestan, Prometrium, Microgest), termed oral micronized progesterone (OMP)."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progestin

 

[Ipoh]

Ipoh...

yeah I just looked up that brand of "progesterone" and it's what is called a progestin, which is a synthetic. What they make it out of may be natural, but that doesn't mean the final product is natural...so I'm glad you're switching to progest-e. I'm male and taking it regularly has raised my temps (along with other benefits and a diet full of good carbohydrates) from mid-95's in the mornings to now high 97's/low98's. I too experienced a correlation between low temps and feeling terrible.

You should also take a vitamin E supplement and Niacinamide. Make sure the E is from non GMO sunflower oil (because there are synthetic Vit E's as well and they will hurt, not help) and contains no soy or tocotrienols (tocotrienols are not well studied and might actually harm health). I've had great results from Solaray Super Bio E and a cheaper brand Swanson Vit. E non-gmo that is just as good. Vitamin E is anti-estrogen, among other.
Lots of people seem to gain weight switching to Peat... that is not because it's bad or ineffective, but people doing this usually already have depressed metabolisms so its difficult not to gain weight. The best way to make sure you don't gain a lot of weight is to cut out most or even all dietary fat, at least for a time. It seems that taking any fat makes it difficult for your body to dispose of the polyunsaturated fats already stored in your body, so cutting all fats drastically and/or all together will give your body some time to dispose of them. Keeping carbohydrate high will allow your body to switch from fat burning to carbohydrate burning, and it will synthesize its own good fats. I've heard it takes 4-5 days to rid the blood and cholesterol of PUFAs on a no-fat diet and 30-35 days to rid the rest of the body of PUFAs on a no fat diet, but you only need to do that if you find you are gaining weight. In doing this its also important that you eat enough calories, especially because substances like progesterone and niacinamide will raise your metabolism and demand more fuel, and if you go hungry it will cause a rise in stress hormones and hurt, rather than help.

Somehow I missed this amazing response! Many thanks. I'm going to go close to nonfat as possible & get my hands on niacinamide. I've been taking progest-e & I love it. Much better response than the other stuff I was taking.
I ordered cynoplus & cynomel to experiment with. Thyroid glandular isn't raising my temps beyond 97.1 after a meal & my feet are always freezing.
With the progest-e, I'm taking it about 3/4 weeks. Should I supplement vit e on top of the progest-e?
Thank you again!

 

[natedawggh]

You know, I just sorta regurgitated that low fat thing from other stuff I've read, and even Peat has talked about low fat being helpful, but for me I found it to be stressful and I'm postulating that it was because I wasn't absorbing any of the fat soluble vitamins. Once on a peat low fat diet I lost weight, but I did feel stressed out and put it back on, and later tried low fat again and didn't loose a single pound. I figure it's better right now while getting better not to worry about weight, Peat has said that weight gain is an adaptive response and is probably directly related as protection against poor health, so don't do low fat if it feels stressful, because at the moment for you it probably is. I know that I don't absorb nutrients well, and probably need the fat to better absorb what nutrients I get in food.

Taking more Vitamin E can only help, so you could try it out. Swanson has a great, cheap NON GMO sunflower oil vitamin E source (never take synthetic vitamin E or brands with tocotreinals in it)

Also, I recently discovered that Boron helped raise my body temperatures a lot! I posted about it here:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5231

 

[Ipoh]

You know, I just sorta regurgitated that low fat thing from other stuff I've read, and even Peat has talked about low fat being helpful, but for me I found it to be stressful and I'm postulating that it was because I wasn't absorbing any of the fat soluble vitamins. Once on a peat low fat diet I lost weight, but I did feel stressed out and put it back on, and later tried low fat again and didn't loose a single pound. I figure it's better right now while getting better not to worry about weight, Peat has said that weight gain is an adaptive response and is probably directly related as protection against poor health, so don't do low fat if it feels stressful, because at the moment for you it probably is. I know that I don't absorb nutrients well, and probably need the fat to better absorb what nutrients I get in food.

Taking more Vitamin E can only help, so you could try it out. Swanson has a great, cheap NON GMO sunflower oil vitamin E source (never take synthetic vitamin E or brands with tocotreinals in it)

Also, I recently discovered that Boron helped raise my body temperatures a lot! I posted about it here:

This is great! Thank you so much! I tired lowering my fat & felt like I wanted to eat potato chips all day. Not a good feeling. I'm looking for a good lowfat milk source that agrees with me. I tolerate raw but unfortunately it's either skim or whole. I'm thinking I need to find a happy medium.
Ordering my vitamin e now! Your post on boron is great! Thanks again :)

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5231

 

[tara]

I'm looking for a good lowfat milk source that agrees with me. I tolerate raw but unfortunately it's either skim or whole. I'm thinking I need to find a happy medium.

I guess you can buy skim and whole milk, and mix to the proportions you want? Or let the whole milk sit in a jar till a lot of the cream floats, and scoop it off the top.

 

[natedawggh]

This is great! Thank you so much! I tired lowering my fat & felt like I wanted to eat potato chips all day. Not a good feeling. I'm looking for a good lowfat milk source that agrees with me. I tolerate raw but unfortunately it's either skim or whole. I'm thinking I need to find a happy medium.
Ordering my vitamin e now! Your post on boron is great! Thanks again :)

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5231

I have been using raw whole milk as my only milk source for ten days now and I actually lost three pounds. I drank two gallons last week alone including a pint of heavy raw cream. It definitely seems to not only be helping me loose weight, but reducing bloating and other symptoms I suffer from.

 

[Zachs]

Can you elaborate on what this coach had you do that caused such ill health?

 

[lindsay]

Can you elaborate on what this coach had you do that caused such ill health?

I second what Zachs asked. I'm sorry to hear that you had such a bad experience..... It seems we all have to go through hurdles to mend ill health.

I think the most important thing is to listen to your own body and tune in to what you think is going on. Blood work is helpful, but you probably know more about your own condition than any of us on here.

However, more information would prove useful. Personally, judging by your blood work, I would estimate low thyroid. I had similar numbers over a year ago. Thyroid and progesterone definitely helped (except my progesterone was non-existent before I started supplementing).

Are you still menstruating??

 

[toddy]

Welcome Ipoh! Glad you found the right place to share your experiences and problems