Never Broken- sugarbabe's log

[koky]

I've been using health natural, which only has 5 - no b12 or folate
still not sure how much to take daily, as I consume a good amount of animal food
5,000iu winter, 2500 in summer
sleep has improved, but a long way still to go

 

[InChristAlone]

I've been using health natural, which only has 5 - no b12 or folate
still not sure how much to take daily, as I consume a good amount of animal food
5,000iu winter, 2500 in summer
sleep has improved, but a long way still to go

Best way to know if you are taking enough D is to get a blood test. Try to get the lab to do LCMS instead of the immunoassay, it seems more accurate.

 

[koky]

long distance to nearest lab
immunoassay result: 59

 

[InChristAlone]

long distance to nearest lab
immunoassay result: 59

The b vitamins are the other piece to the puzzle. Dr Gominak found vitamin D is not a panacea, everyone she put on it went back to sleeping crappy within 2 yrs including herself. She then figured out the gut microbiome is messed up and not producing enough b vitamins so that when you take D for a long time and are using up your b vitamins to repair at night, you become deficient. So she put everyone on a b50 complex for 3 months to restore the microbiome and produce it's own b vitamins like we have been for millenia. I really want that to be the cure! I want to try it but I can't until I get my blood sugar balanced by eating plenty. Right now it's really wonky. I just had a major 'event' after my breakfast. If I took a b50 complex I'd be having severe blood sugar crashes from it. But I am willing to push through because my sleep sucks right now. Woke up every 2 hours last night. Had a bit of a headache by morning. The typical patient who goes to Dr. Gominak. Sleep disordered, headaches, and IBS. Well, my IBS is controlled by not feeding my bacteria too much. But because I can't feed them I'm not getting the necessary supply of b vitamins to repair each night and produce the neurotransmitters to calm my anxiety. Gut bugs are tightly linked to our nervous system.

 

[InChristAlone]

Welp just had one of the worst days I've ever had when it comes to panic attacks. I had an adrenaline rush right after breakfast so I knew something was up today. I must have had heightened anxiety because all it took was reading about someone here on the forum going thru possible ovarian cancer after just recovering from quadruple heart surgery. She seemed too young! It triggered all of my own fears regarding heart attacks. I think everyone dreads a possible heart problem especially those who have panic disorder. So that resulted in a 3 hour panic attack. Probably one of the longest I've ever had. But I don't think it was just the trigger. I've been going thru a lot of anxiety lately and it was the last straw. I was doing all the things to calm down and it wasn't working like it did in the past.

The other thing is I have been trying to get calories in because when I am going through stress I undereat and that makes it worse. So I did have a fast food milkshake yesterday even knowing that I don't do well on milk. So I could also be reacting to that digesting lower in the gut. I also got the most sun I've had in a while. Swam in my Mom's pool yesterday and the day before that spent two full hours in the sun. I live where we can make vitamin D from 10-2:30 pm still at almost the shortest day of the yr. So I think I woke up my metabolism! My temp today is 98.7. Just hoping the adrenaline calms down. I took 0.5 mg cypro just in case. It was always my go to in the past as a reset.

 

[koky]

please explain B50

 

[InChristAlone]

please explain B50

I tried explaining as best as I can that's about all I understand at this point! Watch Dr. Gominak interviews she knows how best to do it through experience with her patients. She says to flood the gut with b vitamins to get the correct microbiome working again then to quit using the B's after 3 months because suddenly it will be too much as your bacteria will be making them continuously.

 

[InChristAlone]

Was doing pretty good on the cypro just 0.5 mg a day. Was sleeping pretty good didn't even have much drowsiness which is crazy because last I tried taking it back in the spring I couldn't even function a lot of the time because I was so tired. I think it's a sign I have very high stress right now. It shows in my inability to feel relaxed, I can get my mind to not freak out but my body has been feeling so tense. I didn't take it last night and the panicky tension is back today. Not wanting to eat because eating makes it worse possibly messing with my blood sugar. I've dealt with this kind of nervous condition in the past (many times), but I was hoping to never have to go through it again. It appears I'm on the same road again.

My main goal with recovery isn't finding some kind of diet, hormone, vitamin or anything but to force feed even when I'm panicky. That's the best thing that got me recovered in the past. To stop believing my anxious thoughts and tension and just let go and eat. The worst thing you can do when going through a nervous condition is to try to analyze your diet or health.

This guy is helping me a lot, I don't know where I'd be without these insights about the mind:

 

[InChristAlone]

Been taking the cypro every night and doing pretty well. Seems to quell whatever I had going on. I hate using a drug but I am not going to claim I'm too good for drugs. Sometimes they are needed as a crutch. I've been reading all the books that helped me recover back in late 2016 and realized that yes I am going through a nervous illness and my body isn't broken. It's doing exactly what any body would do when the mind is telling it there's something to worry about....lots of adrenaline and becoming hugely sensitive to it. The only way to decrease that sensitivity is not to feed into it with more fear. Adrenaline is a fear based hormone and while making sure the system doesn't need stress hormones to survive it also requires that one remain as calm as possible. For me that means not feeding my health obsession by researching it and coming on this forum! I have pretty much lost my desire for it anyway. I think honestly it kept me sick. Always searching for answers always obsessed with knowing everything I could so I didn't have to go through suffering when all along it was causing more suffering by worrying about all the things that could go wrong.

Plus this forum is so focused on COVID/the great reset right now and I just cannot follow any of that with an anxiety disorder. Not sure how anyone can. It is keeping our nervous system on high alert. Or maybe for many people they need to feel like they know what's going on to feel safe. I am the opposite. Whatever is happening is mostly beyond our control. This is the first time I'm even thinking about it in many weeks.

A book that is absolutely essential for anyone who tends to be anxious is "Hope and Help For Your Nerves" By Dr. Claire Weeks.

Here she is talking about how to ride the wave of panic:


Unfortunately for me it seems the anxiety comes in waves. I'll get a few good days then a day where it wants to rise up again. Like the nervous system is still discharging all the energy. And the fear that omg "it's back again" just makes it so much worse.

But this weekend was great, was calm, took a couple naps, and ate plenty. Just what I needed.

 

[InChristAlone]

Had an amazing sleep last night despite feeling pretty bad before bed. Slept 9 hours and didn't seem to wake up too often and had good dreams. I was very awake this morning and I think it was because of cortisol because I started feeling agitated after drinking some OJ like my blood sugar was dropping. Which tends to happen to me when my cortisol is high. It's a reactive hypoglycemia. It's pretty well documented at this point that high cortisol causes it. I confirmed this suspicion when I read a blog post by someone who said they had it and when they needed to be on steroids it got bad again. Then as the day goes on I feel better and better. Sometimes it returns again in the evening like a blood sugar spike then drop but it doesn't happen everyday.

I decided today that this cortisol response is higher whenever I've had things my gut doesn't like such as milk or resistant starches. I think a lot of my issues stem from something happening in the gut brain connection. I want to test out eating a raw carrot a day as I remember a long time ago when I did the reactive hypoglycemia went away for the day afterwards.

 

[Ben.]

Had an amazing sleep last night despite feeling pretty bad before bed. Slept 9 hours and didn't seem to wake up too often and had good dreams. I was very awake this morning and I think it was because of cortisol because I started feeling agitated after drinking some OJ like my blood sugar was dropping. Which tends to happen to me when my cortisol is high. It's a reactive hypoglycemia. It's pretty well documented at this point that high cortisol causes it. I confirmed this suspicion when I read a blog post by someone who said they had it and when they needed to be on steroids it got bad again. Then as the day goes on I feel better and better. Sometimes it returns again in the evening like a blood sugar spike then drop but it doesn't happen everyday.

I decided today that this cortisol response is higher whenever I've had things my gut doesn't like such as milk or resistant starches. I think a lot of my issues stem from something happening in the gut brain connection. I want to test out eating a raw carrot a day as I remember a long time ago when I did the reactive hypoglycemia went away for the day afterwards.

Hey sugarbabe,

Glad you had a good nights sleep.
I like your approach. Resonates with me. However im still inbetween not realy understanding what is causing what. A internal issue causing the overexcitement and resulting in the emotional/panic issues or is it the other way around? I am currently leaning to some internal issue (posture? some organ? infection?) causing the overreactiveness of the CNS in my case.

I guess its different for you? Was wondering, since you mentioned the brain, if you feel some kind of "pain" or discomfort when jumping or leaning forward? At this point it became a kind of health marker for me. Whenever my inflammation is bad i can gauge the severity by the pain in my head when jumping, doing handstand like positions or leaning forward.

 

[youngsinatra]

I remember the days where I had daily panic attacks and I truely feel with you with what you are going through.

Do you react negatively to high copper foods? It‘s the primary trigger for me personally and keeping copper intake in check (low-ish) makes me feel calm.

 

[InChristAlone]

Hey sugarbabe,

Glad you had a good nights sleep.
I like your approach. Resonates with me. However im still inbetween not realy understanding what is causing what. A internal issue causing the overexcitement and resulting in the emotional/panic issues or is it the other way around? I am currently leaning to some internal issue (posture? some organ? infection?) causing the overreactiveness of the CNS in my case.

I guess its different for you? Was wondering, since you mentioned the brain, if you feel some kind of "pain" or discomfort when jumping or leaning forward? At this point it became a kind of health marker for me. Whenever my inflammation is bad i can gauge the severity by the pain in my head when jumping, doing handstand like positions or leaning forward.

Thanks @Ben. Yes I have wrestled with this question for years. What comes first with anxiety? The mind freaking out or the body freaking out. It's both. There's first fear which is biochemical and happens instantaneously without our control and there's second fear which is the cause of panic disorder. The second fear keeps the adrenaline going. Whereas first fear should be quick. For me I think first fear comes with whatever my gut wants OUT of my system. Then I pile on a bunch of second fear because I hate the feeling of adrenaline and I brace myself and tense my muscles. Even the kind of adrenaline you get from watching a movie, I can't watch many movies anymore because of it. I just don't enjoy adrenaline like I did in my youth. So any suspense in a movie makes me so uncomfortable I'm just bracing for it to end.

No paid in my head today, yesterday I did though. For me it's usually TMJ like tightness and pain in my masseter muscles because of clenching.

I remember the days where I had daily panic attacks and I truely feel with you with what you are going through.

Do you react negatively to high copper foods? It‘s the primary trigger for me personally and keeping copper intake in check (low-ish) makes me feel calm.

Thanks @youngsinatra , yes I think I am the high copper type. The Peat diet sucked in that regard! I was eating a bunch of high copper foods before I developed severe anxiety back in 2015. Liver, chocolate, potatoes, juice. I looooooved chocolate. But I don't eat much of it anymore, just OJ, bananas, and occasional potatoes so my cronometer always says I don't eat enough copper. But I refuse to go back to regular chocolate or liver!

 

[youngsinatra]

Red meat is very grounding in my opinion because it‘s so rich in zinc with a relative lack of copper. I eat 1-2 lbs of lean beef every day personally.

Zinc supplementation can also really help, if someone does not eat red meat daily, which I think everyone should do, but not necessarily in quantities that I eat.
Zinc can really calm the mind due to it‘s pro-GABA, anti-adrenaline actions. It‘s helpful for stopping racing thoughts too.

A sudden dumping of copper into the blood stream can cause symptoms, especially if the liver is not functioning right and copper excretion into the bile is impaired.

 

[InChristAlone]

Red meat is very grounding in my opinion because it‘s so rich in zinc with a relative lack of copper. I eat 1-2 lbs of lean beef every day personally.

Zinc supplementation can also really help, if someone does not eat red meat daily, which I think everyone should do, but not necessarily in quantities that I eat.
Zinc can really calm the mind due to it‘s pro-GABA, anti-adrenaline actions. It‘s helpful for stopping racing thoughts too.

A sudden dumping of copper into the blood stream can cause symptoms, especially if the liver is not functioning right and copper excretion into the bile is impaired.

Yes I do need to be aware of my zinc status. We eat red meat about 2-3 times a week. I probably need it once a day right now.

 

[InChristAlone]

So interesting observations today. I ate my usual breakfast of 3 eggs, OJ, banana toast with jelly and added in decaf coffee with sugar and a Tbs of haagen dazs. I felt a bit on edge for a few hours afterwards but I did okay, at this point I'm used to post breakfast adrenaline. I had about 50 mg niacin with the coffee. Then I felt starving around 1 pm so I ate string cheese, sweetened applesauce and grape juice. Still felt hungry but didn't know what else to eat. Anxiety seemed greatly reduced at this point. A couple hours later I ate another cheese, applesauce and grape juice as I was getting cold hands and feet again. I was finally feeling good at this point. Had energy to do the dishes! Then for dinner had chicken and rice with some grape juice. I felt StARVING. I'm like uh oh I don't know what else to eat and we ate all the rice in the pot. About an hour later I'm feeling hungry but not sure what to eat we only have cheese, juice, bread, tortilla chips and bananas. So instead of eating I just wait and see if my meal was enough. But it was not had a pretty strong adrenaline reaction. Now I'm sure b vitamins cause reactive hypoglycemia for me. At least in the hours afterward. Not immediately. Niacin is well known to cause insulin resistance but in much higher doses. I barely got a big dose. I don't have insulin resistance but reactive hypoglycemia is kind of the pre diabetic condition? I guess I need to do more reading on this. This whole thing started after buying energin and trying that out for a few days. And feeling starving absolutely starving. Then a few days later my reactive hypoglycemia is back in full force after being so much better when I quit coffee back last April.

So I can say without a doubt b vitamins boost appetite, energy and usage of sugar but could lower it too much for those who tend toward blood sugar lows. I was never a big eater so it's hard for me to switch my brain to eating large amounts of things!! But I know I need to at this point or I will continue suffering these adrenaline reactions (and with it bad anxiety). No matter how good my mental health and sleep was.

 

[youngsinatra]

So interesting observations today. I ate my usual breakfast of 3 eggs, OJ, banana toast with jelly and added in decaf coffee with sugar and a Tbs of haagen dazs. I felt a bit on edge for a few hours afterwards but I did okay, at this point I'm used to post breakfast adrenaline. I had about 50 mg niacin with the coffee. Then I felt starving around 1 pm so I ate string cheese, sweetened applesauce and grape juice. Still felt hungry but didn't know what else to eat. Anxiety seemed greatly reduced at this point. A couple hours later I ate another cheese, applesauce and grape juice as I was getting cold hands and feet again. I was finally feeling good at this point. Had energy to do the dishes! Then for dinner had chicken and rice with some grape juice. I felt StARVING. I'm like uh oh I don't know what else to eat and we ate all the rice in the pot. About an hour later I'm feeling hungry but not sure what to eat we only have cheese, juice, bread, tortilla chips and bananas. So instead of eating I just wait and see if my meal was enough. But it was not had a pretty strong adrenaline reaction. Now I'm sure b vitamins cause reactive hypoglycemia for me. At least in the hours afterward. Not immediately. Niacin is well known to cause insulin resistance but in much higher doses. I barely got a big dose. I don't have insulin resistance but reactive hypoglycemia is kind of the pre diabetic condition? I guess I need to do more reading on this. This whole thing started after buying energin and trying that out for a few days. And feeling starving absolutely starving. Then a few days later my reactive hypoglycemia is back in full force after being so much better when I quit coffee back last April.

So I can say without a doubt b vitamins boost appetite, energy and usage of sugar but could lower it too much for those who tend toward blood sugar lows. I was never a big eater so it's hard for me to switch my brain to eating large amounts of things!! But I know I need to at this point or I will continue suffering these adrenaline reactions (and with it bad anxiety). No matter how good my mental health and sleep was.

Your diet seems relatively low in calories? How many calories do you eat on a daily?

Have you tried eating more savory meals with meat and safe starches? It definitely helps with increasing total calories. Like literally eating a pound of lean ground beef daily or more even. I don‘t have any cravings anymore where I walk around kitchen, wondering about what I want to eat, I just feel satisfied.

When I tried low-starch I could not get my calories up to where I feel good. I would have needed to add a ton of sugar to my diet, which is just not something I want to do and not something I crave.

 

[InChristAlone]

Your diet seems relatively low in calories? How many calories do you eat on a daily?

Have you tried eating more savory meals with meat and safe starches? It definitely helps with increasing total calories. Like literally eating a pound of lean ground beef daily or more even. I don‘t have any cravings anymore where I walk around kitchen, wondering about what I want to eat, I just feel satisfied.

When I tried low-starch I could not get my calories up to where I feel good. I would have needed to add a ton of sugar to my diet, which is just not something I want to do and not something I crave.

I don't usually eat such low starch, but I'm in the process of figuring out what causes stomach aches and bloating and I believe I'm lactose intolerant (sad day for me and haagen dazs!) and struggle with insoluble fiber and I want to try out lower fructans which means less wheat. I had been doing quite a bit of wheat. But a huge bowl of pasta seems to stabilize my blood sugar more so than white rice so I may just have to keep it in. Potatoes just don't make me feel that great.

 

[redsun]

So interesting observations today. I ate my usual breakfast of 3 eggs, OJ, banana toast with jelly and added in decaf coffee with sugar and a Tbs of haagen dazs. I felt a bit on edge for a few hours afterwards but I did okay, at this point I'm used to post breakfast adrenaline. I had about 50 mg niacin with the coffee. Then I felt starving around 1 pm so I ate string cheese, sweetened applesauce and grape juice. Still felt hungry but didn't know what else to eat. Anxiety seemed greatly reduced at this point. A couple hours later I ate another cheese, applesauce and grape juice as I was getting cold hands and feet again. I was finally feeling good at this point. Had energy to do the dishes! Then for dinner had chicken and rice with some grape juice. I felt StARVING. I'm like uh oh I don't know what else to eat and we ate all the rice in the pot. About an hour later I'm feeling hungry but not sure what to eat we only have cheese, juice, bread, tortilla chips and bananas. So instead of eating I just wait and see if my meal was enough. But it was not had a pretty strong adrenaline reaction. Now I'm sure b vitamins cause reactive hypoglycemia for me. At least in the hours afterward. Not immediately. Niacin is well known to cause insulin resistance but in much higher doses. I barely got a big dose. I don't have insulin resistance but reactive hypoglycemia is kind of the pre diabetic condition? I guess I need to do more reading on this. This whole thing started after buying energin and trying that out for a few days. And feeling starving absolutely starving. Then a few days later my reactive hypoglycemia is back in full force after being so much better when I quit coffee back last April.

So I can say without a doubt b vitamins boost appetite, energy and usage of sugar but could lower it too much for those who tend toward blood sugar lows. I was never a big eater so it's hard for me to switch my brain to eating large amounts of things!! But I know I need to at this point or I will continue suffering these adrenaline reactions (and with it bad anxiety). No matter how good my mental health and sleep was.

When you get this kind of strong hunger, this is usually a protein hunger and will not go away until you eat enough protein. Bs in higher doses definitely do this because they speed up the use of glucose but also increase digestive secretions. It will then allow you to break down protein much easier and thus this can translate into a sudden strong protein hunger.

 

[InChristAlone]

When you get this kind of strong hunger, this is usually a protein hunger and will not go away until you eat enough protein. Bs in higher doses definitely do this because they speed up the use of glucose but also increase digestive secretions. It will then allow you to break down protein much easier and thus this can translate into a sudden strong protein hunger.

Wow I think you may be right. This is like extreme hunger. I felt like I could eat 50 grams of protein easily. But I don't give in to it or don't cook enough meat. I need to just let go and eat what my body is asking for. Although it definitely wasn't asking for it yesterday I had a lot of bloating and felt sick to my stomach most of the day. It was only after the niacin I felt starving. I think I need to go with it, use vitamins to boost appetite for protein so I can fully recover. I had been undereating most of the yr due to stress.