OCD, Thyroid, and Peat Diet help!

Bman87

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Hello Everyone I am new here and happy to be here. I have been dealing with Health issues and just want some guidance. First a little background:

I am 25 years old, male, 6'1 180 lbs.

Since I was young I have had OCD, full OCD with obsessions and compulsions alike. At age 16 I went on the SSRI Zoloft until 23 years of age. I developed severe cystic acne at age 16 and took antibiotics from 17-22 total of 5 years, three of them being Bactrim DS. I have always dealt with alternating constipation and diarrhea accompanied by hemorrhoids. In December 2010 I stopped Zoloft due to libido issues, and had terrible withdrawal symptoms: suicidal thoughts depression, absolutely zero libido and energy; I used to work out consistently before stopping SSRI, stopped having nocturnal emissions completely, used to be regular...probably too much information but i feel it is applicable.

I Decided at that time to take my health into my own hands, started researching constantly and trying more supplements than I care to think about, different diets, most recently Paleoish diet with small amounts of brown rice and potatoes, no gluten or casein because I was told those were the casue of ocd. While diet helped a little, I felt better on lower carb, high fat. I feel I have caused some kind of hypoglycemia because when I eat carbs now in larger amounts I get tired and dizzy and lightheaded, never had this problem until I went lower carb paleo for a few months. No family history of diabetes except for my dads great aunt. In all honesty when I read about Ray Peats diet suggestions some of them seemed absolutely ludicrous, but something piqued my interest and I continued to read. Now I am here because I am searching for the best health plan for my self, and am a somewhat open-minded person. I do have a few questions:

1. First I have never tolerated caffeine and haven't drank soda in years, never drink coffee. Always puts me on edge and doesn't feel right. Some of the biological issues with OCD are poorly regulated norepinephrine so I believe caffeine does me no favors. The diet recommends coffee and soda! What to do.

2. I have recently had clear skin from low carb paleo with no dairy or sugar for the months i did it. Dairy and sugar always bring back cystic acne when I indulge in large amounts. Maybe my acne is insulin related and if that is fixed these two will stop giving me acne only other thing to clear it up was antibiotics, should i try suffering through the cystic acne with all the dairy and sugar and eventually it will balance out?

3. I have been tested with high TSH out of range in April 2012 5.39 and barely in range in October 2012 3.03. T3 levels have been low and out of range since stopping Zoloft in 2010. If you need more specifics on labs please ask. I believe zoloft has thrown my thyroid out of whack because it was normal on it in 2009. Although my stress was crazy for about a year taking 22 credits in a biology program at college that I had to drop out of. Would this diet fix my thyroid issues should I supplement with Kelp (iodine) or selenium while on the diet?

4. I also have adrenal issues low cortisol and evening spike lab tested, cortisol dysregulation is also implicated in OCD. I have been told that huge amounts of sugar ore the absolute worst thing for my stressed adrenals right now. Any advice on how this diet would help my fatigued adrenals?

5. Last question I have been putting faith in diet thinking it would magically cure my health ailments, and while my digestion has gotten better and anxiety seemed lower on low carb paleo I fear that all this sugar and milk will cause an greater increase in anxiety; any experience that this has not been the case. Also anyone with personal experience of this diet helping anxiety issues, OCD, thyroid, hormone dysregulation, and adrenal problems?

If people truly believes this diet can help me, and I mean really help me not just, "i think I feel better" and also not further exacerbate my anxiety and OCD than I will dedicate myself fully to the diet and guidelines but for how long 30 days, 60 days? Some advice would be great. Keep in mind I am new to all of this and really hope this could help, I am running out of options and am just trying to try what I can before I give in and go back on antidepressants for OCD, they didn't help much but better than how I have been these past couple years. I am tired of mental and physical fatigue.

Thank you for your help, any and all advice is much appreciated.
 

PepsiGestures

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I found an OCD blog once about a woman who used progesterone for her OCD. She also used psilocybin. I wonder if other anti serotonin drugs would work. I think eating a lot of muscle meat without gelatin and without a lot of calcium can have bad effects on behavior, but I personally haven't been able to fix any problems just by increasing gelatin.
 

cliff

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You don't have to drink soda or coffee. I would focus on high quality protein and fruit, fresh squeezed strained oj and ripe tropical fruits being the best. If you tolerate milk that is best but cheese, gelatin and meat are good. Calcium carbonate(Egg shells) is a good source of calcium if you don't do very much dairy.

You could try increasing liver or getting retinol from a supplement to help with acne. A daily salad of shredded raw carrot or cooked bamboo shoots with coconut/olive oil, salt and vinegar can help too.

Supplementing kelp probably isn't needed, if you do don't go over 150mcg iodine. You should get enough selenium from milk, shellfish, eggs and meat.

I would try diet first then tweak with supplements(like t3/t4, aspirin, b3 etc.) if temps/pulse/symptoms don't improve.
 

Ray-Z

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Sorry to hear about your troubles, Bman87.

If I were in your situation, I would definitely experiment extensively with gelatin and coconut oil. Gelatin has nice calming properties. If your metabolism of carbohydrates has been suppressed somewhat by PUFA, coconut oil can be a great backup source of energy for the brain -- which (paradoxically, if you're not familiar with Peat) can be calming as well. After you have tinkered with your diet and found what works for you, you might also want to read up about pregnenolone, which, IIRC, some people on this board have also described as helpful for anxiety.

I myself find sugar -- whether from fruit, honey, or table sugar -- quite calming.

Good luck, Bman87!
 

gretchen

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I would follow a basic but strict Peat diet and try adding salt several times a day to lower adrenalin. Start with one aspirin and some coconut oil to help block PUFAs. I use progesterone which keeps me calm. Going outside for a few minutes a day is also important to lower melatonin. I have not used a thyroid supp yet, do cant advise on that.
For mental/emotional harmony & balance, you might try Bach flower essences. They have helped me a lot.
 
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Bman87

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Thanks guys for the support and suggestions. I have worked on increasing food intake and carbs. It seems to help with basketball, I have more energy but still tire easily. Strangely enough I have noticed my feet and hands have been like ice the past couple days, they are always very cold but have felt literally icy lately. I also have low blood pressure, probably runs in the family, my grandpa always had low blood pressure.

I bought dairy which I haven't had for a few months and tried a cup of whole grass fed milk, some aged cheese, and yogurt with a fruit smoothie. I got some serious abdominal pain for a couple hours. I also felt like I couldn't sit still like I needed to move my legs and got a headache. Honestly I didn't even feel this bad eating some gluten on thanksgiving and that is supposed to be worse. How can I adopt a diet that has a huge focus on dairy when I clearly have some issues with it. I mean I can bear the cramps and gas but why take something into my body that obviously does not agree with it very well, just does not make much sense. There are studies that say casein in milk affects opioid receptors in the human brain; that and acne was why I was avoiding it.

Its all kind of frustrating I feel like with my OCD I research and research on what to eat and the more I read the more restricted I feel in what I can eat. Apparently all food has negative impacts on our health, why even eat? Now I can see how some people develop anorexia nervosa. Well I really wanted to give this diet a trial but I just do not comprehend the idea that milk is the perfect protein and chicken and muscle meats are so bad I have done well on them for years!

I might try lactose free dairy but maybe others had the same issues I am having and now tolerate dairy pretty well, if this is so let me know what you did or how you adapted to all that dairy. I don't wanna keep harming my body if it doesn't like dairy but if possible to let become more adapted to dairy I would be interested. Thank you again!
 

charlie

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If you drank a full cup of raw dairy and not use to it, then yeh, I would expect some gastric distress. Your body is not use to breaking down the dairy so things aren't going to be smooth at first. You really should start out with a few sips at a time, and also even think about boiling it like I do to lower the bacteria load.

Maybe some others will have some better advice. But I think you really need to start out slow on the dairy if you haven't been using it regularly.
 

chris

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Some good suggestions from others.

If you really wanted to drink coffee, try with lots of sugar, milk, possibly cream. If I don't put sugar in my coffee and have too much I sometimes become a wreck.

Many people have had success with thyroid at least from this diet. For anxiety you could try pregnenolone once you are happy with your diet, to name one, I know Combie has had some form of success with preg and anxiety.
 

cliff

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they're is a big learning curve in the beginning. You shouldn't just rush out and by whatever dairy you can find. Most cheeses contain enzymes/cultures that can cause issues, yogurt is full of lactic acid and milk with added vitamins can be very allergenic.
 
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Bman87

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Yeah, my guess is lactose issues because I also purchased organic lactose free kefir and lactose free yogurt. I ate ice cream last night and got stomach pains again, haven't had ice cream for months. Today I tried just the lactose free kefir and yogurt and suffered no such stomach cramping as I did from whole milk or ice cream. This leads me to believe that months of not eating dairy my body stopped producing lactase. Why the big issue with Kefir and yogurt it seems to agree with me much better and still contains good fats and protein I don't understand the fear of probitoics and good bacteria they have helped me significantly in my battles against constipation and hemorrhoids.

I have another question I was diagnosed with parasites specifically "endolimax nana" a rather benign protozoan parasite and rare forms of candida in stool, I have been eating low carb in an effort to starve the bad bacteria. Since upping sugar intake significantly these past few days I have noticed my anus has been very itchy lately. Could this diet be feeding the bad guys too much? I thought that my oregeno oil and berberine had eliminated my bad bugs but apparently not. I definitely do not want to go backwards and feed parasites and candida. What does Peat have to say about such issues should one maintain high sugar diet. What about antibiotics and anti yeast medications? let me know! Thank you!
 
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Bman87

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Chris and Ray-Z I will try implementing pregnenolone if and when I figure out how to get this style of eating working for me. I actually still have some sub lingual pregnenolone from months ago when I was buying every supplement known to man in an effort to "cure" my OCD and adrenal fatigue, which looking back was probably only adding fuel to the fire. I will give it a proper trial though. Thanks for the suggestion. Any recommended dosing scheme?
 

Swandattur

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This is an older thread, but just adding that the carrot salad is supposed to be very good against gut bacteria problems. Yogurt is supposed to be okay if the lactic acid is strained out with a cheese cloth or coffee filter.
 

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