Severe Panic Attacks! Please Help

[iLoveSugar]

I need some serious help. I'm seeing doctors, and they aren't helping at all. I have long documented my issues here, but nothing has taken over my life as much as these daily extreme panic attacks and anxiety. I can no longer leave home. And, in public, I lose it. Example. Today I was in the store, my legs got extremely weak, my feet felt like pins and needles, got extremely clammy, I became very nauseated and tired, and had virtually no mental function. I don't know HOW I did not pass out and fall over. This is happening ALL the time now. Even at home. Eating protein/salt/sugar do not help at all. I've tried periactin, T3, Progest E, etc.

Another example. I was in the doctor's office the other day. When I was in the waiting room, I felt like I was going to pass out. Feet got very sweaty and clammy, I got extremely faint, and felt I was dying. When I got back to the room, my blood pressure was 140/90, which always runs low, pulse was 120, and my temp was 97. I was extremely wobbly.

Even at home, I can't watch sports anymore because the suspense of a good game makes me want to faint. When I talk to people on the phone, I almost pass out due to being scared.

Please help as I have absolutely NO interest in living life like this.

I'm a male, 5'6, 170, and am 30 years old.

 

[mujuro]

If you are struck again with an acute episode, 2g L-glycine under the tongue will abort an anxiety attack. That should offer some short term relief.

 

[messtafarian]

Hey there:

Have you been to a doctor? ( Edit -- I mean have you been to a doctor about your panic attacks...)What you're describing sounds like what I've been reading about for the past couple weeks -- a latent infection. But that's just because I've been reading about it. Still maybe you should get checked out kiddo.

Part of the reason I'm saying this though is because I've had a ton of panic attacks in my life that were immediately solved by sugar. Meaning that it was really hypoglycemia ( makes sense -- adrenalin in response to low sugar) but what I've been reading says that a latent infection will cause hypoglycemia because bacteria use sugar as a fuel source. Actually they use iron also, which is one reason Peat doesn't like iron.

When I was freaking out a couple weeks ago Haidut recommended L-Theanine and it really worked well. If you don't have anything else in the house at the moment you might have benadryl which has a sedative effect and also combat histamine which can be some part of a serotonin excess.

But aside from that, I really wish you would go see a doctor. Even if he checks you out and sees nothing wrong and offers you anxiety meds at least you'll be that much farther down the road to solving this.I really feel for you, sounds like you've been through the wringer.

In the meantime, do you drink a lot? Have you had a head injury? Do you do any hard drugs? Any other health problems? I'm serious about these questions -- the suffering you are describing has to have a cause.

 

[johns74]

Were you ever able to follow Peat's high protein advice? I found that homemade cottage cheese makes it easy to consume a lot of protein. I consume homemade cottage cheese with milk or fruit jam (or fruit in some form) to get a better balance of minerals than cottage cheese alone, because cottage cheese is very low in calcium and potassium, but a good source of protein. It's important to drain the acid very well afte making cottage cheese.

Also, I suggest a good vitamin E supplement for general health, such as 4spectrum.

 

[nikotrope]

Maybe messtafarian is right and it is an infection. glycine could also calm you.

What do you eat each day (what, how much and at what time)? You are 170lbs but do you know your body fat %? How is you digestion (gas, diarrhoea, constipation)? You may have written about these before but you have a lot of posts so it's a bit hard the search these info.

When you say protein/sugar/salt doesn't help, what do you mean exactly? What amount doesn't help?

I am your age, heavier than you and with low CO2. I didn't have anxiety but I can relate on other things (at a smaller scale). Eating sugar or more protein didn't have big effects. If you're not healthy (mainly liver and gut health) you don't burn sugar as energy and protein is made into ammonia.

Caffeine had a really big effect. Recently adding 1g of salt with each cup of liquid (1 tablespoon in a day) has had a tremendous effect (I am not mixing the salt with the liquid because the taste would be terrible). I used to have stuffed nose and it's now clear all day (taping my mouth at night and sleeping in a seated position has clearly helped me, but caffeine and salt also improved it probably raised my CO2). Salt also improved my gut and my bowel movement is getting more regular. I used to eat a lot of salt but I think getting small doses will get better results.

I think what pboy told you in another thread was good advice too. You could try lots of small meals of potatoes/cheese (max 50g of carbs per meal) to cut the liquids and be sure to take 1 tablespoon of salt a day divided in small doses. thiamine could help burn glucose, as other b vitamins too.

 

[Amazoniac]

I would try a Ketogenic diet with very low carb at first then introduce well-cooked white rice in small amounts. It might offer you relief and give some mental clarity to decide what to do next. Read Peata's log on weight and Jennifer's log.

 

[Amazoniac]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NcqQkKjqTI

Take a look at this video about epilepsy seizures. In my opinion, this seizures are closely related to panic attacks. Toxins seem to built up until a moment of discomfort that creates a cascade of events and make the toxin handling unbearable. Attacks are usually followed by a serenity and calm moment, almost like a discharge.
If you relate to this, consider an infection; you seem to have a proper diet, so I don't think that it's the source of toxins. Visit the logs I mentioned.

Out of curiosity, when was the last time you measured vitamin D level?

 

[mujuro]

ILS, have you considered having your blood or urine catecholamines measured?

 

[johns74]

I would try a ketogenic diet if I wanted to destroy my health. Consuming small amounts of MCT oil, such as a teaspoon at a time, would provide ketones without having to do a ketogenic diet.

 

[Blinkyrocket]

I can sympathize as this is something I went through when I tried eliminating carbs and salt back when I was paranoid about health. But, problems been solved by praying since then so idk :/

 

[Blinkyrocket]

By peating* lol, autocorrect

 

[pboy]

the definition of insanity is keeping doing the same thing and expecting different results

 

[haidut]

Hi there,

I have been following your ordeals over the last couple of months and was wondering what happened to you.
Since the panic attacks seem to be the immediate issue and if untreated can literally give you a heart attack, my recommendation would be to go to the doctor and tell him that your panic attacks are severe to the point of making you faint. If he/she is accomodating, I would ask for a 24-hour cortisol test as well as catecholamines test. Your adrenalin and cortisol sound very high to me and if chronically elevated they can ruin your overall health and not just mentally. In your situation they could also be low, indicating the proverbial "adrenal fatigue". The reason I am mentioning "adrenal fatigue" is that even if the condition does not actually exist in the form its name implies, one of the defining symptoms is inability to handle stressful situations - i.e. anxiety and panic even at the thought of something exciting or aggravating.
I would agree with the general opinion on the forum that something is interfering with your metabolism, and it could very well be a latent infection or deficiency of some sorts. The extreme panic attacks is just your brain freaking out that it has no fuel and triggering a stress reaction to get some fuel out of cortisol and adrenalin converting your tissues into fuel. As far as the infection, if you have not suggested it to your doctor I would do that and ask for some tests for that. Beyond the CBC and iron tests, doctors have some additional basic biomarkers that they can run for you and find out if you are fighting a bug. I am blanking on those tests right now but the doctor would know.
Furthermore, have you measured your blood oxygenation levels? Sometimes doctors do it at their office but it is very few of them that actually practice it. If your oxygenation levels are <97% it can trigger a panic attack. Also, if the levels are 97% it would suggest to the doctor where to look for issues even though they typically do not get concerned until the numbers get below 95%.
Finally, some doctors are willing to consider IV magnesium as a quick solution for panic attacks and should be able to do it in their office. If the magnesium works even a little (and you can try it orally as well) then the issue is most likely thyroid as you are not retaining magnesium. If the magnesium does not help at all then infection or other some other process is likely interfering with metabolism. Btw, blood tests for magnesium are worthless - it means nothing for tissue saturation. So, if the doctor has done magnesium blood test I would not pay much attention to it. Oh, I almost forgot - if you get startled by loud noise you may want to check your potassium levels. Peat has said that intolerance of loud noises is a sign of severe potassium deficiency.
I guess this is it for now. If you do end up getting any of these things checked please let us know.
Good luck with everything!

 

[Sirkama]

You are probably sick of hearing about magnesium, but here are my two cents:

Increasing my intake of magnesium and cofactors (B1, B6, taurine, etc.) and decreasing my intake of factors that seem to negatively affect magnesium status (mainly calcium and vitamin D) has made me completely free of anxiety; I feel almost immune to stress (well, relatively speaking). For a long time I was extremely sensitive to calcium with only small amounts triggering a kind of "hypersensitivity" to stimuli (as well as joint pain, constipation, and all sorts of other crap), and consequently lots of stress and anxiety. Since Peat talks about dietary calcium being protective against excitotoxicity, I never understood why it caused so many negative symptoms. I believe it has to do with being severely magnesium deficient (and increasing magnesium intake alone wasn't enough) and that the lack of magnesium leads to an inability to handle calcium and—among other things—an overactivation of NMDA receptors.

I can handle calcium much better now, but I still have to be careful not to overdo it.

Mindfullness, bag breathing, sugar, salt, and fluid restriction are also helpful in my experience, but nothing beats magnesium. It is the mineral of relaxation and the closest thing I have found to a silver bullet.

By the way, I think, based on blood tests, that magnesium corrected my mild hypokalemia (from 3.5 to 4.6), so that may also play a role.

Mechanism of Hypokalemia in Magnesium Deficiency
http://jasn.asnjournals.org/content/18/10/2649.full

 

[TeslaFan]

You are probably sick of hearing about magnesium, but here are my two cents:

Increasing my intake of magnesium and cofactors (B1, B6, taurine, etc.) and decreasing my intake of factors that seem to negatively affect magnesium status (mainly calcium and vitamin D) has made me completely free of anxiety; I feel almost immune to stress (well, relatively speaking). For a long time I was extremely sensitive to calcium with only small amounts triggering a kind of "hypersensitivity" to stimuli (as well as joint pain, constipation, and all sorts of other crap), and consequently lots of stress and anxiety. Since Peat talks about dietary calcium being protective against excitotoxicity, I never understood why it caused so many negative symptoms. I believe it has to do with being severely magnesium deficient (and increasing magnesium intake alone wasn't enough) and that the lack of magnesium leads to an inability to handle calcium and—among other things—an overactivation of NMDA receptors.

I can handle calcium much better now, but I still have to be careful not to overdo it.

Mindfullness, bag breathing, sugar, salt, and fluid restriction are also helpful in my experience, but nothing beats magnesium. It is the mineral of relaxation and the closest thing I have found to a silver bullet.

By the way, I think, based on blood tests, that magnesium corrected my mild hypokalemia (from 3.5 to 4.6), so that may also play a role.

Mechanism of Hypokalemia in Magnesium Deficiency
http://jasn.asnjournals.org/content/18/10/2649.full

In what form do you normally take Magnesium?

 

[CCD]

Try one tspn of bicarbinate of soda in water.
It may be acidosis caused by lactic acid. This has helped me in the past.

 

[answersfound]

You need a combination of pregnenolone and desiccated thyroid!

Take 50 mg of pregnenolone, followed by 1/4 or 1/2 tab of this desiccated thyroid:

http://nutripakonline.com/Glandulars/TH ... count.html

The combination works like a charm.

 

[iLoveSugar]

If you are struck again with an acute episode, 2g L-glycine under the tongue will abort an anxiety attack. That should offer some short term relief.

Thanks for the replies! I have been so fatigued, tired and sick, that I haven't been able to muster the energy to reply. I apologize. Even typing or trying to reply to all this takes what little energy I have away.

I have tried Glycine and didn't notice much. I'll also say though that it's not attacks. It's pretty much all day everyday.

Hey there:

Have you been to a doctor? ( Edit -- I mean have you been to a doctor about your panic attacks...)What you're describing sounds like what I've been reading about for the past couple weeks -- a latent infection. But that's just because I've been reading about it. Still maybe you should get checked out kiddo.

Part of the reason I'm saying this though is because I've had a ton of panic attacks in my life that were immediately solved by sugar. Meaning that it was really hypoglycemia ( makes sense -- adrenalin in response to low sugar) but what I've been reading says that a latent infection will cause hypoglycemia because bacteria use sugar as a fuel source. Actually they use iron also, which is one reason Peat doesn't like iron.

When I was freaking out a couple weeks ago Haidut recommended L-Theanine and it really worked well. If you don't have anything else in the house at the moment you might have benadryl which has a sedative effect and also combat histamine which can be some part of a serotonin excess.

But aside from that, I really wish you would go see a doctor. Even if he checks you out and sees nothing wrong and offers you anxiety meds at least you'll be that much farther down the road to solving this.I really feel for you, sounds like you've been through the wringer.

In the meantime, do you drink a lot? Have you had a head injury? Do you do any hard drugs? Any other health problems? I'm serious about these questions -- the suffering you are describing has to have a cause.

I have and am actively seeing doctors. As stated in my original statement, I had a terrible time at the doctors office the other day. Antihistamines don't do much because I am already so severely fatigued. Whenever I try taking Benadryl or Periactin, even in small doses, I get so delerious that I almost hallucinate. It also makes me a tad depressed also. I have Theanine also but never noticed much.

You need a combination of pregnenolone and desiccated thyroid!

Take 50 mg of pregnenolone, followed by 1/4 or 1/2 tab of this desiccated thyroid:

<a class="vglnk" href="http://nutripakonline.com/Glandulars/THYROID-180-count.html" rel="nofollow"><span>http</span><span>://</span><span>nutripakonline</span><span>.</span><span>com</span><span>/</span><span>Glandulars</span><span>/</span><span>THYROID</span><span>-</span><span>180</span><span>-</span><span>count</span><span>.</span><span>html</span></a>

The combination works like a charm.

I have been trying pregnenolone (haven't noticed much except for my first dose of it a couple years ago) and T3. I am waiting for my T3/T4 combo to arrive. T3 has made me feel nothing, if not worse. In doses everywhere from 1 mcg to 7. It doesn't warm me up, or do much with my pulse.

Try one tspn of bicarbinate of soda in water.
It may be acidosis caused by lactic acid. This has helped me in the past.

I do this quite often. I also taking baking soda baths. Ray recently did recommend though that I get a lactic acid blood test, so it's parallel with what you are saying.

In what form do you normally take Magnesium?

I take Epson salt baths daily, and I was taking Magnesium Glycinate powder.

Hi there,

I have been following your ordeals over the last couple of months and was wondering what happened to you.
Since the panic attacks seem to be the immediate issue and if untreated can literally give you a heart attack, my recommendation would be to go to the doctor and tell him that your panic attacks are severe to the point of making you faint. If he/she is accomodating, I would ask for a 24-hour cortisol test as well as catecholamines test. Your adrenalin and cortisol sound very high to me and if chronically elevated they can ruin your overall health and not just mentally. In your situation they could also be low, indicating the proverbial "adrenal fatigue". The reason I am mentioning "adrenal fatigue" is that even if the condition does not actually exist in the form its name implies, one of the defining symptoms is inability to handle stressful situations - i.e. anxiety and panic even at the thought of something exciting or aggravating.
I would agree with the general opinion on the forum that something is interfering with your metabolism, and it could very well be a latent infection or deficiency of some sorts. The extreme panic attacks is just your brain freaking out that it has no fuel and triggering a stress reaction to get some fuel out of cortisol and adrenalin converting your tissues into fuel. As far as the infection, if you have not suggested it to your doctor I would do that and ask for some tests for that. Beyond the CBC and iron tests, doctors have some additional basic biomarkers that they can run for you and find out if you are fighting a bug. I am blanking on those tests right now but the doctor would know.
Furthermore, have you measured your blood oxygenation levels? Sometimes doctors do it at their office but it is very few of them that actually practice it. If your oxygenation levels are <97% it can trigger a panic attack. Also, if the levels are 97% it would suggest to the doctor where to look for issues even though they typically do not get concerned until the numbers get below 95%.
Finally, some doctors are willing to consider IV magnesium as a quick solution for panic attacks and should be able to do it in their office. If the magnesium works even a little (and you can try it orally as well) then the issue is most likely thyroid as you are not retaining magnesium. If the magnesium does not help at all then infection or other some other process is likely interfering with metabolism. Btw, blood tests for magnesium are worthless - it means nothing for tissue saturation. So, if the doctor has done magnesium blood test I would not pay much attention to it. Oh, I almost forgot - if you get startled by loud noise you may want to check your potassium levels. Peat has said that intolerance of loud noises is a sign of severe potassium deficiency.
I guess this is it for now. If you do end up getting any of these things checked please let us know.
Good luck with everything!

Heart attack? Great, just what I needed to hear. I honestly feel like I will have one. Maybe doctors will then take me more seriously. My doctor will hear NO part of my trying to recommend tests for myself, exp an infection. I am trying to get into a doctor that thinks outside the box, but it's a few months out. I go to a cardiologist on Wednesday, so I will ask them about a possible heart attack coming. I did recently have an EKG and they said that was OK. I do check my Oxygen levels often, and they are typically between 92-97, normally around 94-95. I also did move high in altitude in October since it seems to benefit many. I am living at roughly 7,000 feet.

Who said I was trying the same thing over and over or are you just assuming this? Before Peat, I did GAPS, SCD, Paleo, elimination diet, seen hundreds of docs of every specialty. Please don't assume if you don't know my full situation.

ILS, have you considered having your blood or urine catecholamines measured?

By the way, I think, based on blood tests, that magnesium corrected my mild hypokalemia (from 3.5 to 4.6), so that may also play a role.

Beings I don't know what this, I can't say that I have. I would be open to doing it though if it would show something.

provide ketones without having to do a ketogenic diet.
Re: Severe panic attacks!!! Please help
Post by mujuro » Sun Feb 15, 2015 5:02 am

I do suspect an infection as well, but no idea how to check, or what to check for. I am having my Vit D checked this week.

Maybe messtafarian is right and it is an infection. glycine could also calm you.

What do you eat each day (what, how much and at what time)? You are 170lbs but do you know your body fat %? How is you digestion (gas, diarrhoea, constipation)? You may have written about these before but you have a lot of posts so it's a bit hard the search these info.

When you say protein/sugar/salt doesn't help, what do you mean exactly? What amount doesn't help?

I am your age, heavier than you and with low CO2. I didn't have anxiety but I can relate on other things (at a smaller scale). Eating sugar or more protein didn't have big effects. If you're not healthy (mainly liver and gut health) you don't burn sugar as energy and protein is made into ammonia.

Caffeine had a really big effect. Recently adding 1g of salt with each cup of liquid (1 tablespoon in a day) has had a tremendous effect (I am not mixing the salt with the liquid because the taste would be terrible). I used to have stuffed nose and it's now clear all day (taping my mouth at night and sleeping in a seated position has clearly helped me, but caffeine and salt also improved it probably raised my CO2). Salt also improved my gut and my bowel movement is getting more regular. I used to eat a lot of salt but I think getting small doses will get better results.

I think what pboy told you in another thread was good advice too. You could try lots of small meals of potatoes/cheese (max 50g of carbs per meal) to cut the liquids and be sure to take 1 tablespoon of salt a day divided in small doses. thiamine could help burn glucose, as other b vitamins too.

I think my BMI is like 27%. I am severely constipated, never and D. No food combos help. I've played around a great deal with this and nothing. I do the same as you do with salt, but only about 1/2 tsp a day. I have never liked salt, so I now take it as a supplement. Ironically, I have also been trying the "taping my mouth" at night also. Usually within 3-4 hours, I rip it off in my sleep. My nose is chronically dry and clogged. Potatoes have long been my favorite food, but mess me up quite bad. I have numerous bad reactions to them.

Were you ever able to follow Peat's high protein advice? I found that homemade cottage cheese makes it easy to consume a lot of protein. I consume homemade cottage cheese with milk or fruit jam (or fruit in some form) to get a better balance of minerals than cottage cheese alone, because cottage cheese is very low in calcium and potassium, but a good source of protein. It's important to drain the acid very well afte making cottage cheese.

Also, I suggest a good vitamin E supplement for general health, such as 4spectrum.

For 3-4 weeks, I was getting about 150 g a day, primarily from Protein. I never have used cottage cheese as my main source. Perhaps I could try.

 

[tara]

Hi ILS, I know I've been a proponent of mouth taping to retain CO2, but if your oxygen levels are showing low as yours seem to be, then it may not make sense.
Hope you can get more useful tests/help from your next doctor.
Good luck.

 

[nikotrope]

I don't really like salt either and can't handle putting much salt in my food that's why like you I probably never took more than 1/2 tsp of salt a day. I thought it was because I didn't need the salt but I was so wrong. The more salt I eat the better I feel. I've been peating for a more than a year and all these liquids may have harm my health a bit too much.

Salt is a natural antihistamine so if you can't take other antihistamines, try more salt. Really my nose has never been clearer and it's mostly thanks to the salt. My premature ejaculations have vanished (I started a thread and someone thought it was due to high histamine, he might have been right). My bowel movement is finally regular, no more gas when I eat starch also.

Taking this amount of salt is really hard but the benefits are so huge you have to try.

You should read articles of RP when he mentions salt, it is a great read to be convinced that salt is one of the most important thing RP is suggesting. Of course once your body is repleted, you don't have to stuff yourself with salt.

It's not a silver bullet, but it did so much good to me and other people on this forum whom are not posting anymore that it is worth considering.

Also, doctors suck I have never been able to find a decent doctor. Hope you will find a good one soon.