New to Site, Looking for some help/advice

[andrewdcjr]

Hey everyone-
I'm going to very quickly abbreviate my health struggles over the last 5 years. I was a very high level baseball player playing in college as well as being drafted to play by the Angels. However, I was also severely fatigued. I had bad muscle tension and muscle weakness, never energy for our team workouts and became suffered more and more from injuries including a torn ACL, a shoulder labrum tear, and a stress fracture in my L2 vertebra. I had no libido at all and was downright miserable. I always wanted to be lean so I barely ate and eventually had no real appetite. After experimenting with diet, I went the low-carb paleo route and my muscle tension only got worse. I started to develop many food allergies and got frequent infections. I got rashes and had a terrible itchy scalp. I then attributed all these problems to candida after reading some books and decided to eliminate more foods, more carbs, and more sugar. I started to have anxiety attacks, barely any energy and felt helpless. I also had terrible constipation. My body just felt terrible and I knew something was very off.
Finally, a little over a month ago I found Ray Peat after discovering Josh Rubin at East West Healing. I dived into it last week and for the first time in forever I felt great. I have been mostly following recipes from Josh Rubin's Metabolic Blueprint Cookbook. I have been very strict as I always am and I just want to feel better. I am still struggling a bit with constipation and with
My questions are as follows:
1) I messed myself up for quite some time. Through following this protocol, how long does the healing part usually take, where I can expect to return to normal? (Not that I plan on deviating I'm just curious)
2) Any suggestions for the constipation? I have been doing the raw carrot everyday, does blending effect the raw carrot? Is my body just adjusting to the new diet I'm throwing at it?
3) If I'm correct, the infections that I had should just resolve, as my metabolism increases? I had bad infections in my gums, however my gums are already receding and my glands have not been swollen, so I'm very happy about that. The weird sensations are also gone.
4) Should I be taking any supplements, as I haven't taken anything since starting the protocol?

It feels so good to feel right again and I can't wait to see even more improvements and learn more about this approach to health.

Thank you for reading this if you read it through, any help is greatly appreciated,
Andrew

 

[tara]

Hi andrewdcjr

Seems like you are on your way.

My questions are as follows:
1) I messed myself up for quite some time. Through following this protocol, how long does the healing part usually take, where I can expect to return to normal? (Not that I plan on deviating I'm just curious)
2) Any suggestions for the constipation? I have been doing the raw carrot everyday, does blending effect the raw carrot? Is my body just adjusting to the new diet I'm throwing at it?
3) If I'm correct, the infections that I had should just resolve, as my metabolism increases? I had bad infections in my gums, however my gums are already receding and my glands have not been swollen, so I'm very happy about that. The weird sensations are also gone.
4) Should I be taking any supplements, as I haven't taken anything since starting the protocol?

It feels so good to feel right again and I can't wait to see even more improvements and learn more about this approach to health.

I've been working with these ideas for a a bit over a year, am far from expert, and have had improvements but not yet solved my key health issue. With that said, here are some thoughts. Others may have other suggestions.

1. I don't think you can know this in advance. Some people keep getting improvements over time. There is no single simple "Peat diet" that works for every one. People often need to figure out which tactics work for them individually, though there are some common principles. I'd recommend reading Peat's articles and/or listening to his interviews - you can find them in the relevant subforums. Rather than get completely set on a particular version and 'not deviating', I think it is good to observe what effects the diet has on you, and be open to some experimentation to get it working well for you. If you have been on a very low calorie diet for a while, it can apparently take a while and be a bit rocky at times.

2. If you've only increased you food intake for a couple of weeks, it could just be a matter of letting your guts adjust to the greater quantity. Chronic or severe undereating often results in gastroparesis and weaker digestion. Some but not all people find this improves significantly over a small number of weeks. Peat has sometimes recommended aged cascara sagrada bark to help reduce inflammation in the digestive tract.
Blending carrot will not be as useful, and may give you too much carotene. Grating is better. You want enough of the fibres to stay intact enough to function like a broom sweeping away bile and endotoxins. Between meals is best. If particular foods are irritating you your GI, that can cause inflammation and narrow the tract, contributing to constipation. Which foods are irritating varies from person to person. Mittir has some good posts of common irritants. If you think something is getting you, you can experiment with replacing it for a few days and see if it improves. Eating enough is important though - sounds like you've already learned the dangers of eliminating too many foods.

3. There is a good chance your immune system will function more effectively as energy supply and metabolism improve. No guarantees about any specific infection, but I think you get better odds. The thymus, which is a key organ in governing immunity, usually suffers badly from low carb and low calorie diets. I would expect it to gradually be restrored as you get your whole body into a more restorative mode. Also, if you are nourishing your liver better, it can do its detoxification role better. Sounds like you are getting some improvements already.

4. In general, it is often good to do what you with diet. This may resolve a lot of things. Once you've got the diet up, it may be worth considering whether other supplements might help make further improvements. You could run a typical day's diet through cronometer dot com and see what it says about micronutrients. I'd be sceptical about it's calorie prescription, aim for as low PUFA as possible, and probably be good to be a bit lower on iron intake. Peat recommends calcium higher than phosphorus. If you are not getting enough calcium from milk etc, it may be worth supplementing. Peat has recommended egg shell, which some here use. I supplement oystershell. If your diet has had significant PUFA, it takes a while to lower the level in your tissues. Peat has said vit. E helps protect the body against it while its on its way out.

Good luck

 

[4peatssake]

Andrew

You got some great answers from tara.
The only other suggestion I would add is to start tracking your temperature and pulse.
This is the best method for diagnosing hypothyroidism. RP also recommends the Achilles Heel Reflux Test. You can find videos showing how to do this on YouTube.

While everyone's results will be different and as tara explains you have to determine through trial and error what works best for you given your particular context, RP has said that it takes 4 years to rid the body of PUFAs. The healthier and younger a person is, the quicker the results - usually.

For anyone new to RP's work and interested in making dietary changes, my first advice is to eliminate pufa as much as you can (no more than 4-6 g per day is optimal), track temps and pulse, read and listen to RP, replace starch with sugar (this may take some time), post your diet for feedback here and use chronometer to track your nutrition.

RP recommends 80-150 g of protein per day.
Oh and sugar is your friend.

See you round the forum.

 

[andrewdcjr]

Thanks for the informative responses. They were both very helpful. I did have a high PUFA intake when I was on the low carb program and noticed before finding ray peat that if I ate saturated fats and no PUFA, I didn't get the weird sensations that are so hard to describe.
I just set up my cronometer and I am planning on tracking my food intake and posting it on here to see if anyone has any additional help.
It is amazing the difference I feel already though with a higher sugar intake and no PUFAs. My muscles are so much more relaxed, I feel strong and right again, my anxiety is way down, and my digestive problems are for the most part gone.
Thank you again for the help and I look forward to continuing to learn.

-Andrew

 

[messtafarian]

:). Hi.

As a young athlete it seems like what happened, really, is that you starved yourself of nutrients especially after you got hurt. I don't think you messed yourself up very seriously and the first reason is that you are young and that should mean your hormonal and general endocrine health should be running fairly well. PUFA is terrible, but it takes a long time to develop seriously degenerative issues so I'm sure with a little TLC you'll recover pretty quickly.

What I would do if I were you is forget about getting lean and focus on getting lots of nutrients -- particularly protein and COLLAGEN which will do wonders to heal your injuries. But also sugar and if you can tolerate it all the safe starches. I am not urging you to get fat but if you've been under stress you need good food and a lot of it.

What Peat says about itchy scalp and skin issues and so on is that when the body needs extra nutrients it also needs more Vitamin A, which helps with stuff like that. If you still have that issue, experiment with it *a little*, not a lot, because it can be toxic if you take too much.

Look at your temps and try to run as hot as you can -- that means that your metabolism is speeding up and that will speed wound healing. I wouldn't mess with hormone supps unless you've been told you have a deficiency by an actual doctor. The reason I'm saying that is that a lot of the recommendations from Peat regarding progesterone, DHEA, pregnenolone are for *sick people* or people with intractable health problems and it sounds more to me like you just burnt yourself out.

Try alka-seltzer, once a day. This is salicylic acid and bicarbonate of soda. It will reduce inflammation and help create a cellular healing environment. Calcium for the bone issues but ALL SALTS will work to rebuild bone mass and additionally sodium can bring down your adrenaline, which probably started revving up during the time you were depriving your body of sugar.

Easy on the alcohol. Beer is estrogenic and slows healing. Because it messes with your blood sugar it can also bring on panic attacks when sugar drops and adrenaline tries to take over.

Other than that, just relax. Stress seems like the number one issue for you, so just eat, kid. If you are working out, make sure you get outside and do it *for fun*. To answer your question -- I would guess if you really take it easy you'll start feeling pretty solid in about three months.

 

[aguilaroja]

Andrew

You got some great answers from tara.
... eliminate pufa as much as you can (no more than 4-6 g per day is optimal), track temps and pulse, read and listen to RP, ...

The guess here is that you are young and a male, since I am not aware of female MLB athletes. Low libido, lumbar compression fracture, muscle weakness, fatigue, sizable anxiety, constipation, and frequent infection (types not specified in the report) is unexpected and very concerning in an elite athlete.

These issues sound like they have been going on for months or years. Please think about reviewing lists of hypothyroid, low metabolism, and low testosterone symptoms to see if you have experience other items. Analysis of symptoms together with signs (pulse, temperature, others) is important. For instance, is there cold/heat intolerance, cool feet or hands, difficulty with attention/recall or foggy thinking?

Please also think about some lab testing (thyroid, testosterone, vitamin D, many others [listed in some forum posts]). The ideal would be a thoughtful doctor to help order tests and look at routine physical findings.

Brief takes on the questions:

(1) It would be hoped that significant improvement would happen in several weeks to a couple of months. Pretty full restoration depends on the extent of the difficulty, though things often go faster for younger people, and when life conditions (adequate sleep, gratifying work, creative community) are supportive.

(2) As Tara mentioned, carrot fiber works best in preparations like grated, shredded or matchstick. Something blended or puree will not maximize the function surface area of the fiber to absorb endotoxin. As you can read in posts on the forum, people also use shredded bamboo shoots for fiber, as Dr. Peat has recommended.

Dr. Peat has also written about cascara, in an essay discussing other aspects of elimination and metabolism:

http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/ca ... buse.shtml

There are forum posts about cascara too. Constipation occurs in some situations (hypothyroid is one example) when metabolism is low generally, Specific improvement may occur when the general condition is boosted.

(3) While immune function is expected to improve as metabolism improves, please consider specific remedies for specific infections, particular if acute or severe.

(4) Specific supplementing relates to fuller understanding of the context of difficulty. More data would help. Tara and 4peatsake have mentioned good starting points.

Do you tolerate even a little coffee? Sometimes coffee tonifies the bowels, is a good source of magnesium, and is a general boost. If the muscle tension has been crampy or stiff in character, generous food sources of alkali/alkali earth minerals (magnesium, sodium, calcium, potassium) are helpful.

I study Dr. Peat's work directly and don't know details about Peat-influenced counselors' work.

 

[toddy]

Welcome here. Glad you find this site, there's a lot of help here