March 2016 Bloodwork

[DaveFoster]

If you are getting 5g from food that seems like plenty. Why supplement to get extreme?

Because it raises testosterone, and my libido is like a unicorn; I like to believe it exists, but it doesn't.

 

[tara]

Because it raises testosterone, and my libido is like a unicorn; I like to believe it exists, but it doesn't.

Where do you get the idea that 8g Ca is suitable for this?
Your system is probably still trying to sort itself out from previous extremes - give it a chance.

 

[tara]

Where do you get the idea that 8g Ca is suitable for this?

Please avoid baking soda.

 

[ravster02]

@tara Good idea; it might just be from the aldosterone wasting potassium, but I'm trading sugar for orange juice.

@ravster02 I get about 5 grams/day without supplements, 8 grams with supplements.

That's a good amount but it's only until you test for PTH that you'll know whether it's working or not. If it's not then you can think about taking egg shell calcium. Walkinlab.com currently have it available for $37 which is the lowest I've seen it ever.

It's a good idea to take vitamin D and K2 too (if you're not already) since they all work together.

 

[DaveFoster]

Please avoid baking soda.

Milk alkali syndrome?

That's a good amount but it's only until you test for PTH that you'll know whether it's working or not. If it's not then you can think about taking egg shell calcium. Walkinlab.com currently have it available for $37 which is the lowest I've seen it ever.

It's a good idea to take vitamin D and K2 too (if you're not already) since they all work together.

I was taking K2 and D3, but I stopped all supplements for a while. Thanks for the recommendation.

 

[tara]

Milk alkali syndrome?

That would be my concern. You don't want to be back in hospital with that, right?
Your CO2 (31) looks top of range, so you probably don't need baking soda for that purpose, either.
Monitoring UpH may help watch for excessive alkalinity - Peat said average 24hr UpH in the range 6.3 - 6.7 is good. I'd expect lots of eggshells to push it further to the alkali.

That's a good amount but it's only until you test for PTH that you'll know whether it's working or not. If it's not then you can think about taking egg shell calcium.

Have you got any reason to think it is wise or safe to supplement an additional 3g of Ca when someone is already eating 5g?

Peat tends to recommend more generous calcium than standard, but still more like 2g, not 8g, right? Ca : P ~1:1 - 2:1.

 

[DaveFoster]

That would be my concern. You don't want to be back in hospital with that, right?
Your CO2 (31) looks top of range, so you probably don't need baking soda for that purpose, either.
Monitoring UpH may help watch for excessive alkalinity - Peat said average 24hr UpH in the range 6.3 - 6.7 is good. I'd expect lots of eggshells to push it further to the alkali.


Have you got any reason to think it is wise or safe to supplement an additional 3g of Ca when someone is already eating 5g?

Peat tends to recommend more generous calcium than standard, but still more like 2g, not 8g, right? Ca : P ~1:1 - 2:1.

I'm ordering some UpH strips. Phosphorous is 4 grams, so 8 grams total calcium will make it 2:1.

 

[DaveFoster]

MORE LABS:

ESTRADIOL SERUM 17.9 pg/mL 10.0 - 42.0 pg/mL
Estrone 13.6 pg/mL 9.0 - 36.0 pg/mL
Estrogens, Total 31.5 pg/mL 19.0 - 69.0 pg/mL
LH (reposted) 11.6 mIU/mL 0.5 - 76.3 mIU/mL
FSH (reposted) 3.8 mIU/mL 1.5 - 33.4 mIU/mL
Prolactin (reposted) 5.0 ng/mL 2.1 - 17.7 ng/mL
TESTOSTERONE TOTAL (reposted) 566 ng/dL 302 - 1096 ng/dL
TESTOSTERONE FREE (reposted) 149 pg/mL 47 - 244 pg/mL
Testosterone, Free Pct (reposted) 2.6 % 1.6 - 2.9 %
Sex Hormone Binding Globulin (reposted) 22 nmol/L 13 - 110 nmol/L
Cortisol - AM (reposted) 25 ug/dL 4 - 22 ug/dL

My estrogen is very low despite a period of estrogen rebound and intense psychological and physiological stress.

I'd imagine that it would be even lower a couple weeks ago.

This leads me to the conclusion that neither estrogen, nor prolactin are responsible for my low libido, but rather elevated cortisol. This entire time, higher amounts of caffeine have eradicated my libido and increased my anxiety; I should have noticed, as now that I look back, I can remember a very pronounced drop in libido after consuming more than a couple cops of a coffee per day (200 mg caffeine).

Any thoughts?

 

[DaveFoster]

UPDATE:

After dropping all supplements, I've recovered from my panic attacks. I still have morning hypertension and nausea that lasts until about 1 o'clock in the afternoon.

I take 20 mg cyproheptadine, and it brings me back to baseline. (I'd expect that high cortisol is causing this issue.) I don't like taking cypro without vitamin K2 and pregnenolone, as I don't want to damage my liver, so I hope this is only short-term.

 

[Koveras]

UPDATE:

After dropping all supplements, I've recovered from my panic attacks. I still have morning hypertension and nausea that lasts until about 1 o'clock in the afternoon.

I take 20 mg cyproheptadine, and it brings me back to baseline. (I'd expect that high cortisol is causing this issue.) I don't like taking cypro without vitamin K2 and pregnenolone, as I don't want to damage my liver, so I hope this is only short-term.

Good to hear,

Maybe talk to the doctor about odansetron? Primarily indicated for nausea - and the combination of low dose odansetron / low dose cyproheptadine may be less risky overall than high dose cypro.

 

[Diokine]

Dave,

I'm glad to hear that things seem to be improving. Regarding the nausea and high BP, ginger may help with both. I use ginger regularly (I particularly enjoy the Gin-Gins hard candy, only sugar and ginger!)

Ginger lowers blood pressure through blockade of voltage-dependent calcium channels.

Efficacy of ginger for nausea and vomiting: a systematic review of randomized clinical trials. - PubMed - NCBI.

 

[DaveFoster]

Good to hear,

Maybe talk to the doctor about odansetron? Primarily indicated for nausea - and the combination of low dose odansetron / low dose cyproheptadine may be less risky overall than high dose cypro.

I'll bring it up when I see him tomorrow. I'd rather not add another variable, but it may be necessary in this case.

Dave,

I'm glad to hear that things seem to be improving. Regarding the nausea and high BP, ginger may help with both. I use ginger regularly (I particularly enjoy the Gin-Gins hard candy, only sugar and ginger!)

Ginger lowers blood pressure through blockade of voltage-dependent calcium channels.

Efficacy of ginger for nausea and vomiting: a systematic review of randomized clinical trials. - PubMed - NCBI.

I'll see if I can get some ginger capsules.

 

[Diokine]

But then you won't be able to taste the delicious ginger! :P

 

[Parsifal]

So you had a problem with too low oestrogens?

 

[DaveFoster]

@Parsifal Yes, but then it rebounded, and now it's fine. This was recently caused by caffeine.

I just had a lot of salt, which I needed. I took 21 mg cyproheptadine today, and my blood pressure is still 138/77. I'm anxious, have no appetite, nausea, muscle twitches, hair loss, and constant chest pain; I'm contemplating suicide at this point.

I'm scared to stop the cyproheptadine; I'm not sure I would survive.

 

[CarbAppreciator]

Sounds to me like your serotonin is high... i think sometimes cypro and theanine are not enough. Depleting your tryptophan can pack a powerful punch. To me, it is not enough just to dilute tryptophan with other aminos, you also need to avoid any consumption of it. This means above all no milk, cheese, eggs or meat. Don't eat with symptoms of low appetite or nausea. If you get hungry, eat, but don't eat the aforementioned until your other symptoms are arrested. Maybe try a nice hot gelatinous sugary salty cup of tea. Veggie broth can be useful for minerals too, if high sodium doesn't solve your muscle twitches. You don't have a high metabolism right now, so forget about getting all your rda's and taking supplements. Keep sodium high but balanced with fluids of course.
Also, I consider perspective to be powerful for any organism. We as humans have imaginations and can think about how our ancestors survived war disease and famine. Our own intelligence allows us the luxury of feeling gratitude for our own improbable existence. It's rare and powerful when we appreciate that miracle, but where does that gratitude come from? Does it come from the sum total of our atoms and molecules in our bodies? No, so in the end there is always something more, in life and health and disease, than our bodies and their physical inputs and outputs.

 

[DaveFoster]

Sounds to me like your serotonin is high... i think sometimes cypro and theanine are not enough. Depleting your tryptophan can pack a powerful punch. To me, it is not enough just to dilute tryptophan with other aminos, you also need to avoid any consumption of it. This means above all no milk, cheese, eggs or meat. Don't eat with symptoms of low appetite or nausea. If you get hungry, eat, but don't eat the aforementioned until your other symptoms are arrested. Maybe try a nice hot gelatinous sugary salty cup of tea. Veggie broth can be useful for minerals too, if high sodium doesn't solve your muscle twitches. You don't have a high metabolism right now, so forget about getting all your rda's and taking supplements. Keep sodium high but balanced with fluids of course.
Also, I consider perspective to be powerful for any organism. We as humans have imaginations and can think about how our ancestors survived war disease and famine. Our own intelligence allows us the luxury of feeling gratitude for our own improbable existence. It's rare and powerful when we appreciate that miracle, but where does that gratitude come from? Does it come from the sum total of our atoms and molecules in our bodies? No, so in the end there is always something more, in life and health and disease, than our bodies and their physical inputs and outputs.

Thanks for the input, Rob. I think you're right about serotonin. When I eat, I feel awful, but when I don't eat, things get scary, as in dizziness. I'll just see what happens tomorrow.

 

[toddw]

Your symptoms look to be low cortisol. If high cortisol was the problem you would be craving carbs to lower stress.
No appetite and morning nausea are low cortisol symptoms. Your nausea fades as cortisol requirements drop. At 1:00 pm normal cortisol is
at least 50% lower than what it is in the early morning. You don't want to push yourself with sugar and eat light in the morning. Broth is probably the best food for people with low cortisol.

Vitamin C is also great for the adrenals. Try taking a few thousand mgs of Vitamin C in the a.m. hours.

http://www.highlighthealth.com/resources/vitamin-c/

Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin that is used in many tissues throughout the body. The adrenal gland contains the highest concentration of vitamin C, and the vitamin plays a crucial role in both the adrenal cortex and adrenal medulla

I have had adrenal problems for may years and take adrenal cortex pills every morning. Taking the adrenal cortex allows me to experiment with coffee, sugar, biotin, niacinamide, etc.

 

[DaveFoster]

@toddw

Blood-tests show high cortisol.

Salt completely reversed my situation. My temps rose, brain fog went away, chest pain went away; everything stabilized and right now I feel about 75%.

Maybe what happened is this: I took cyproheptadine, which lowered aldosterone, but that caused my body to excrete more sodium and worsened my situation. After replacing the sodium, I feel much better. Sodium is an incredibly powerful supplement.

 

[tara]

I'm contemplating suicide at this point.

Please get some local IRL support to keep you safe.
Whatever is going on, there is a very good chance it it will better soon. If not with salt, then with something else or just with time.

Out of curiosity, if you want to tell, did you get around to testing UpH a few times? Not Peat exactly, but acc. RBTI that could help determine whether eg ascorbic acid would be more likely to do good or harm.