Peating Causing Anxiety

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LauriePartridge

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My iron levels are low. I’m probably 50lbs or more overweight, so I’m sure aromatase is wreaking havoc. I find estrogen is the strangest beast to defeat, as it’s so relative to everything else, and always so vague to identify.

I’m consuming several grams of collagen every day, and pro-hormones are illegal in my country, and I hestitate to take them even if I could.

If your iron is low, it might be helpful to check copper levels as well. Copper can affect the metabolism of iron and low copper can wreck havoc on your metabolism and moods. If your diet is primarily dairy you might be low in copper as there is hardly any in it. Low copper can also reduce white blood cells and elevate blood pressure and cholesterol. It regulates LDL and HDL. There is also a lot of zinc in dairy so it's possible to have an imbalance with zinc/copper.

I know you said you supplemented with copper but it might be helpful to check your levels or at least make sure you are getting enough in your diet.

Also, I do very well on a Peat diet but I don't use caffeine or drink orange juice. The rest really helps me. I think the idea is to follow general principles and adapt them to your personal needs. You don't have to follow everything religiously so to speak but choose what works best for you in moderation.
 
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LauriePartridge

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So I’ve been Peating for around 4 years now. And even though my health markers have improved and I feel generally healthy, I am struggling with much worse anxiety since Peating and have gained weight (40lbs).

So I have naturally been trying to understand why and how this would be the case. I’ve done most of the things in the Peat-rule book, aswell as tried plenty experimental recommendations in the forum for both health and mental health, but still my anxiety is almost at it’s peak, and my OCD is making life both very difficult and bleak.

I’ve been pondering lately, feeling at a dead end, whether to try something different from Peating, to see if I would be helped back to my low levels of anxiety I was at before I started Peating.

My current thinking is perhaps the lack of lypolisis, very dampened cortisol and adrenaline, high sugar, and so on worsens my OCD. What if my issue is the regulation of cortisol and adrenaline, and the Peat diet is messing with that balance from taking aspirin, niacinamide and high caffeine?

I’ve seen other people not getting relief from anxiety and OCD here on the forum, perhaps this lifestyle gets some things wrong when it gets to mental health?

I’ve been doing buteyko breathing, and it seems to give me relief to some extent.
But I’ve been considering going for a higher fat diet, to see if it gives me relief.

These are just my ideas (of desperation), what do you all think?
If you think it wholly stupid, could you with little bias convince me to stick to the Peat-path?
 

sladerunner69

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So I’ve been Peating for around 4 years now. And even though my health markers have improved and I feel generally healthy, I am struggling with much worse anxiety since Peating and have gained weight (40lbs).

So I have naturally been trying to understand why and how this would be the case. I’ve done most of the things in the Peat-rule book, aswell as tried plenty experimental recommendations in the forum for both health and mental health, but still my anxiety is almost at it’s peak, and my OCD is making life both very difficult and bleak.

I’ve been pondering lately, feeling at a dead end, whether to try something different from Peating, to see if I would be helped back to my low levels of anxiety I was at before I started Peating.

My current thinking is perhaps the lack of lypolisis, very dampened cortisol and adrenaline, high sugar, and so on worsens my OCD. What if my issue is the regulation of cortisol and adrenaline, and the Peat diet is messing with that balance from taking aspirin, niacinamide and high caffeine?

I’ve seen other people not getting relief from anxiety and OCD here on the forum, perhaps this lifestyle gets some things wrong when it gets to mental health?

I’ve been doing buteyko breathing, and it seems to give me relief to some extent.
But I’ve been considering going for a higher fat diet, to see if it gives me relief.

These are just my ideas (of desperation), what do you all think?
If you think it wholly stupid, could you with little bias convince me to stick to the Peat-path?

Have you had bloodwork? If not, I would definitely start there. Eating peaty may not be enough to raise up your thyroid and lower stress hormones - it certainly wasn't for me. I needed to take thyroid and other things before I felt better.
 

boris

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Oct 1, 2019
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How is your salt intake? It should be fairly high with so much liquids. Low salt intake will cause high aldosterone which causes anxiety.
 

boris

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In your listed staples I don't see any fiber. You could also try and experiment with a higher fiber diet if you suspect estrogen to be a problem.

-fruit, a carrot a day, lots of cooked mushrooms, bamboo shoots
 

boris

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@Constatine @Kunstruct according to Peat such side effects from pregnenolone come from impurities. He famously ate a kilogram of pregnenolone in the course of a year and had no side effects.
 

Constatine

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@Constatine @Kunstruct according to Peat such side effects from pregnenolone come from impurities. He famously ate a kilogram of pregnenolone in the course of a year and had no side effects.
Could be. I also had digestive issues at the time so I wonder if it was related to that. It was quite a severe reaction, if it was an impurity I wonder what substance could have caused it. My first guess is that it was an interaction between my dysbiosis and the pregnenolone. I was sensitive to quite a few substances during that time.
 

Bushido1

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Joined
Apr 11, 2019
Messages
90
So I’ve been Peating for around 4 years now. And even though my health markers have improved and I feel generally healthy, I am struggling with much worse anxiety since Peating and have gained weight (40lbs).

So I have naturally been trying to understand why and how this would be the case. I’ve done most of the things in the Peat-rule book, aswell as tried plenty experimental recommendations in the forum for both health and mental health, but still my anxiety is almost at it’s peak, and my OCD is making life both very difficult and bleak.

I’ve been pondering lately, feeling at a dead end, whether to try something different from Peating, to see if I would be helped back to my low levels of anxiety I was at before I started Peating.

My current thinking is perhaps the lack of lypolisis, very dampened cortisol and adrenaline, high sugar, and so on worsens my OCD. What if my issue is the regulation of cortisol and adrenaline, and the Peat diet is messing with that balance from taking aspirin, niacinamide and high caffeine?

I’ve seen other people not getting relief from anxiety and OCD here on the forum, perhaps this lifestyle gets some things wrong when it gets to mental health?

I’ve been doing buteyko breathing, and it seems to give me relief to some extent.
But I’ve been considering going for a higher fat diet, to see if it gives me relief.

These are just my ideas (of desperation), what do you all think?
If you think it wholly stupid, could you with little bias convince me to stick to the Peat-path?

My personal opinion will not be welcome but I feel obliged to express it since I have been experiencing similar mental issues as yourself. In my case I become extremely irritable, depressed, and even had suicidal thoughts for the first time on my life throughout the whole 8 months I was following the Peat diet.

I believe the reason why you are experiencing mental problems and have gained weight is that you are not healthy. The high sugar/dairy diet recommended here is harmful to the body and very inflammatory, in spite of the fact that Ray Peat talks about how anti-inflammatory sugar and dairy are.

Most people in this forum will tell you that you should quit X food or take more of Y supplement or food because you are deficient. But my suggestion would be different, I would encourage you that for at least a few months you experience with a low-carb diet and see how you feel on it. In my personal experience, as soon as I drop sugars and dairy to zero I started feeling great again and my clarity of mind and positivity come back in a matter of weeks.

If you want to find a solution to your mental and weight problems the only real solution is to change your diet dramatically and cut sugar and dairy out from your diet. I think a low-carb diet is the closest to a healthy diet that most people will be willing to follow, in spite of the fact that Peat says that carbs/sugar are the superior way of getting energy, I believe fat to be a far superior way, but the best way to realize this is not by reading more books or research, it is by actually trying it yourself.

If you are interested I could send you a few links related with the diet I believe to be healthiest from my own personal experience, which is also backed up by clinical studies, and not just biological theorizing.

I hope this helps!
 

Hgreen56

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I Low meaning just below 1mg or even slightly less. Its easy if you are eating high copper foods like Peating can easily lead to 2-3mg or more of copper intake daily.
just play with my cronometer and i see that there is no way possible with any diet to get below 1mg copper.
or you must only eat refined food sourches..
 

Hgreen56

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What's your height, weight, and other macros?


When I first started peating, for quite some time I dealt with a decent amount of anxiety too. I ate too much sugar and gelatin, took too much supplements, and drank too much coffee trying to push fat consumption as low as possible; avoiding pufa at all cost cause that was what I thought was ideal. I overthought a lot of it trying to optimize everything and abused a lot of things thinking I was getting better and adapting, but in hindsight, I was literally driving myself different varying kinds of insane and developed strong social anxiety (Although at one point I focused only on drinking tons of coffee and it was the opposite for a short time.) I'm happy to say I've only upset, embarrassed, and disappointed enough people to count on two hands in the process though!

anywho.

When I was down in any type of way, I'd use the corresponding supplements to "cure" each problem and got a rush thinking I was fixing problems when I knew logically from what peat and others on the forum teach, I wasn't. I was just making myself sick sadly.

I don't know what it is that drove me to overdo all these things. I like to think it helped me reinforce, tune in, and understand what each individual piece of this hormonal cascade does.

Consider the hierarchy of needs of your biology. Consider the order and priority of them. You cannot fix a waterfall that won't fall by unclogging from the bottom of it. The Core Philosophy of peating revolves around this cycle and flow. Taking supplements and drugs alters this flow heavily and in complicated ways a lot of the time leading to one excess; leading to a deficiency elsewhere. Focus on the quality and overall nutrition of food, and disregard scrutinizing micro-macro. Learning to listen to oneself instead of plugging into a place where others can guide your life for you is painfully hard at first as someone who has dealt with a type of learned helplessness for at least 15 years from a young age, and had been aware of it but continued to let it run my life for the last 8 years without any fighting against the tide.

Focusing on the absolute bare basics and working to the absolute mechanics has taken me away from this forum into the real world not as just an outside passive observer but finally as an active inside participator.
So what did you do? you stopt peating?
 

snacks

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The calcium thing is something I’ve actually thought about. The by far biggest change I’ve done on RP is increasing calcium a lot, drinking 2-3 gallons of milk a day and decent amount of cheese daily. Why would calcium dysregulation occur, and how could I tell? Blood tests?

you're drinking 2-3 gallons of milk a day and you've ONLY gained 40 lbs? I want your digestion man
 

Energizer

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Mar 3, 2013
Messages
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The biggest mistake I've made with food is not following my appetite (and thus over-eating), seems to be a common phenomenon on this forum. It's only through judiciously paying attention to the signals my body is sending that I have been able to steadily start losing fat that I gained from ignoring them previously (and also gaining muscle mass, probably due to increased protein, which previously I had under consumed prior to discovering Peat's work). For some people they learn this quickly because it's not exactly a complicated and novel idea, but I had to learn it the hard way.
 

Hgreen56

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Apr 8, 2020
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lowering serotonin via sugar, calcium, copper, coffee, avoiding fat, etc. will raise anxiety if estrogen is high. unfortunately it takes some time to detox estrogen, taking progesterone and making sure you're getting lots of protein (including gelatin) and avoiding iron/phosphate might help.
source?
 
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