Interesting postmenopausal phenom

[messtafarian]

I've been really ill for about a year. I'm talking bedridden-ish ill. I had quite a few neurological symptoms starting in November last year, followed by paresthesias, Lhermittes sign, and stomach problems that would not quit. It seemed like every system on my body just went insane. By around march I had gone back to my parents house where all I did for about three months was nurse a sudden bout of IBS, muscle weakness, shaking, endless weird nerve symptoms and I still can't sit up for longer than ten minutes without feeling like my back isn't strong enough to hold me up.

So I've cut out gluten completely, gone back and forth regarding starches, eaten a TON of plain kerrygold butter for reasons I can't explain, it just tasted good, added pregnenolone, a crapton of b vitamins, more calcium, animal protein, sometimes double multiple vitamins, aspirin and sublingual b12. I just keep working on this hoping for some kind of relief. Lately I've thought I had a copper deficiency so I started just yesterday working on that even though there is a substantial amount of copper in my multiple vitamin.

But here is something interesting. I am about to turn 51 years old. A year ago given the hotflashes I was experiencing and the fact that my periods had stopped, I thought I was at menopause and that was potentially why i was starting to feel so odd. But suddenly, after nearly complete rest, surplus calories and vigorous supplementation -- I got my periods back. The first time it happened i thought it was a fluke, but it keeps showing up so i think that must mean my periods stopped because of malnutrition and not "the change." It's a very Peat development.

 

[tara]

post 99614 But suddenly, after nearly complete rest, surplus calories and vigorous supplementation -- I got my periods back. The first time it happened i thought it was a fluke, but it keeps showing up so i think that must mean my periods stopped because of malnutrition and not "the change." It's a very Peat development.

That seems like a really good sign that something is working better. Congratulations.

(And BTW, just cos I can't resist, by a ton of butter, do you mean the 6-odd tbsps a day you mentioned in a previous post? Like maybe a third of your calorie needs? For reasons like, say, hunger? And maybe needing some fat so your nerves could recover? )

 

[messtafarian]

The butter was what started it. I am talking about at least a half a pound a day -- big chunks right on top of white rice with salt. I started because I read it was good IBS medicine -- even the rice protein is supposedly helpful for that. I am pretty sure that helped with dealing with a truly unlivable digestive situation. After about three weeks of that I got the first period I had had in overhalf a year( like I said, I thought I was completely done), right on the full moon. Then the next month and the next. Less butter this month, I don't have the same appetite for it that I did but still a lot.

I also had POTS and some other dysautonomic stuff that is resolving. I am still not well but every little return to normalcy is encouraging.

Surplus calories? ADK vitamins? CLA? Nerve regeneration through saturated fat? I don't really know but some enterprising person could maybe sell this cure for aging women as a fertility treatment? Lol.

 

[tara]

That all sounds great. Wouldn't surprise me if all those things worked together for you.
To think there was such a simple solution. :)

Did you need a new business idea for yourself?

 

[Giraffe]

Interesting pre-menopausal phenomenon?

I listened to a couple of the herb doctor shows in the last days. While talking about endotoxins they stressed that it is important to have saturated fat with starches. The fat is mildly antibiotic.

 

[messtafarian]

Interesting. That's the kind of advice I would ignore with a vengeance in younger days. Now I wouldn't think of swallowing starch without something to pad the intestinal hit. Not even a sweet potato or a beet. Too much on the line around here these days :).

 

[iLoveSugar]

Do you mind sharing which vitamins?

 

[messtafarian]

:). Hi ILS. Of course.

Let's see.

lately I've been taking a bariatric chewable multiple called Celebrate just because it has 200 percent RDA of the basics, all the b's, c and so forth.Also I kept taking all these pills and kept seeing partial tablet caps in the loo when I went to the bathroom so I got the feeling I was probably not absorbing half of what I was taking. So I switched as best I could to sublingual, chewable or powdered forms of whatever I wanted to take.
I eat dairy ( although I cut it out for a while since it's a nono in some parts of the autoimmune world) -- but I supplement calcium -- these vary, usually a chocolate chewable or Viactiv or etc.
Pregnenolone 100 msg daily in caplets.
Progesterone - Progest-e -- buccal administration
KAL coenzyme b complex, chewable
EZ Melts vitamin b1 -- about 600 mgs a day divided
Perdue Activated B-12 Guard ( hydroxycobalamin) 2K, sublingual
Thorne Vitamin D Drops -- I don't know, some, every day
Thorne K -- same
Unique E one cap 400 mg
.5 to 1 gram aspirin powder


Food:

Kerrygold Irish Butter. Lots. All day.
Coffee, leaded and unleaded, with full fat cream
All proteins including beef, lamb, pork ( I sometimes have to choke this stuff down. I'm not a meat person and I actually feel bad about it but malnutrition is malnutrition)
Starchy veggies, sweet potato, beet, cauliflower( for mash, with more butter), squash -- laying off the plain white potatoes because they're nightshades supposedly.
Cheese, mostly fresh mozzarella, chèvre.
Organic milk chocolate sometimes.
Cooked greens: collards and so on. Hate em but I'm eating them.
Plain white rice. Lots of that too. Stopped eating corn because it made me sneeze.
at least 8 ounces of organic bone broth every day. I don't cook it because I have no energy so I order it off the internet.
Rice Krispies. Was addicted. Instead of milk I would cook it in butter and add salt.
I eat fruit but most of the time I just don't get around to it and my stomach could not tolerate juice for a very long time, so out of the habit.
COPPER. This is my new thing. I started with 2mgs, now I'm up to about 8.

About neuro problems:

So my strategy has been about adding things. Add protein.Add saturated fat. Add b12. If adding b12 doesn't help then add folate. If that doesn't then add Vitamin E. If that doesn't help then copper.

If you've done all these things for several months and none of it is working, then...it's an autoimmune neuro problem like MS or CIDP and it's time for serious medical intervention.

Hope that helps ILS.

 

[Peata]

this might be the interview Giraffe referenced.

Transcript of Ray Peat's KMUD Endotoxin interview, November 19 2010

HD: So if you eat starches for dinner tonight, then tonight before bed, some good sugars will help protect against some of the endotoxin that could be produced by the bacteria that are digesting the starches. So those are what we call the bad sugars and they come from the starches that are more resistant to digestion, and include the breads, pastas, cakes, cookies, flours, grains, beans, rice - those types of food products that don't get immediately digested in the stomach and then can be digested further on down by the bacteria.

RP: Another kind of defensive food is the saturated fats. These are, if you think of soap and its antibacterial effect, the saturated fats are mildly antiseptic and so if you eat butter with your potatoes, the starch is less likely to become toxic material for the bacteria, because the butter saturated fats will suppress bacterial growth.

HD: So that means mashed potatoes with lots of milk and butter... can protect against eating these starches that are a little more resistant to digestion. And cooking them well. If you cook your starches really, really well. Weren't you saying, Dr Peat, you boil your potatoes for 45 minutes to an hour? [RP: Yeah.] If they are softer, then they will be digested more easily in your stomach. It's pretty basic, when you think of it. You think of grains. They're quite resistant to digestion. And then you think of a beautifully ripe papaya or mango or right now we have soft persimmons in this part of the country, those are pretty easily digested.

 

[messtafarian]

Thanks for posting this. I've certainly been adding lots of antiseptic to my starches lately.

You know I never thought I'd say this but I am very actively enjoying menstruation right now. I feel like calling someone up on the phone and telling them to ask me what I'm doing.

Lol.

 

[iLoveSugar]

If it is an autoimmune neuro issue, I wonder why the neurologists or any other specialists I have been to didn't find it.

 

[messtafarian]

If they were unable to find it via a spinal tap there are three possibilities. One is that you had Guillain Barre and it is done now, and you're dealing with the residuals; or you do have CIDP ( this is very bad news if you did so I am not wishing that on you or allowing it to be a primary concern) but the disease was not active at the time you were tested. If you were symptomatic when you were testing that is extremely unlikely.

If it's MS you really have to catch it when it's flaring or there can be no positive signs at all.

But -- autoimmine antibodies are like bacteria. for every one we know about there are trillions of others no one can test for because our bodies make them in response to threats and damage that are constantly changing. In my quest for a diagnosis I've run into all kinds of people with incurable and undiagnosable stuff who are probably making antibodies to something. And -- even though we know about a lot of antibodies already most people are only tested for a few.

The only reason it's worth considering is because there are therapies that can help resolve the symptoms fast. People stuck in a diagnostic loop are pretty desperate to get their diagnosis, not because they want the disease but because they want the relief on the other side of that dx.

 

[Nina]

post 99762 You know I never thought I'd say this but I am very actively enjoying menstruation right now. I feel like calling someone up on the phone and telling them to ask me what I'm doing.

Lol

This is hilarious!