No appetite, heartburn from hell....

[Lianda]

I'm new here - having left the Paleo lifestyle. Dx'd with Hashimotos, hypothyroid symptoms. Low body temps, slow heart beat- SLOW digestion.
I have chronically under-eaten my entire life. Eating breakfast, even the thought makes me gag.. I'm ok with starting with liquids. I have a very small appetite, and get full very quickly. Then the food sits in my stomach for hours, so I don't feel hungry again! And it burns!

I KNOW I have to eat more - but I also get heartburn from fats and oj.... I am overweight (from chronic food deprivation). Been taking betaine HCL after meals - but it doesn't seem to help. Going to bed is frightening, because when I lie down I get HORRIBLE burning when I'm on my right side. It seems to be from my upper chest in a straight line down to my belly button. VERY painful, but it goes away after about 10 minutes. (seems more like hours!). I have No health insurance- I'm worried if this is an ulcer?

The other thing is, I HAD a fast resting HR of 105 that started about 15 years ago. Back then, they probably only did a TSH test, and said the fast rate was not related to my thyroid (never treated me, although I've always been classic hypothyroid). I don't have high blood pressure. I've been on a beta-blocker same dose for 15 years. I know I'd have to wean myself off atenolol for about 6 weeks. Should I wait to try it until my body temps are higher to see if it changes my heart rate ?

Anyone have an opinion about LDN (Low Dose Naltrexone)? I'm taking that as well. Up to 90 mg on Armour thyroid. It's so hard to take an afternoon dose because my stomach always feels full.
Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[Ray-Z]

I KNOW I have to eat more - but I also get heartburn from fats and oj.... I am overweight (from chronic food deprivation). Been taking betaine HCL after meals - but it doesn't seem to help. Going to bed is frightening, because when I lie down I get HORRIBLE burning when I'm on my right side. It seems to be from my upper chest in a straight line down to my belly button. VERY painful, but it goes away after about 10 minutes. (seems more like hours!). I have No health insurance- I'm worried if this is an ulcer?

Lianda:

Sorry to hear about your situation.

I don't know whether Ray Peat recommends the use of betaine HCl for heartburn. (Someone else on this forum likely will know.) I can say, however, that substituting easily-digested fruit (grapes, melons, cherries, OJ, and so forth), honey, and table sugar for starch cut down my heartburn a lot. I also find that eating smaller meals and not overdoing coffee and chocolate (which are great foods, but problematic for me in large doses) help me with heartburn. :2cents

If you tell us more about your diet and your betaine HCl dosing, we may be able to help more.

 

[Lianda]

Thanks for taking the time to read and answer my post. I mostly have trouble with bacon, red wine, orange juice.

I've just started reading Peat's ideas - and they are SO different from everything else. It's difficult to understand HOW people got overweight, diabetes, heart disease, and all the other chronic diseases that are now plaguing so many people. It sounds like this type of eating plan is what caused all those problems! I'm still trying to wrap my mind around it - while curing my own Hashimoto's Thyroid problems WITHOUT gaining more weight. To tell you the truth, it's pretty scary to eat this way!

 

[Ray-Z]

Thanks for taking the time to read and answer my post. I mostly have trouble with bacon, red wine, orange juice.

I've just started reading Peat's ideas - and they are SO different from everything else. It's difficult to understand HOW people got overweight, diabetes, heart disease, and all the other chronic diseases that are now plaguing so many people. It sounds like this type of eating plan is what caused all those problems! I'm still trying to wrap my mind around it - while curing my own Hashimoto's Thyroid problems WITHOUT gaining more weight. To tell you the truth, it's pretty scary to eat this way!

Lianda: Sorry for not responding sooner to this post. I see you have inquired in another thread about heartburn from OJ.

In the course of reading Ray Peat's work, you may have noticed that he has some reservations about (conventionally farmed) bacon, which has a significant amount of inflammatory PUFA, and about wine, which contains estrogenic compounds and burdens the liver. So if you are willing to experiment, you might try replacing bacon with beef or lamb (preferably gelatinous cuts), and cutting back a bit on wine or substituting a less estrogenic beverage (e.g. OJ with a little vodka).

As you experiment, you may discover that instead of holding on to a particular weight and continuing to suffer from a low metabolism, it makes sense to fix the metabolic problems first. :2cents

In any case, best of luck to you!