Something's Not Right

stressucks

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I've been various iterations of paleo for multiple years. 28 year old male. It was a huge improvement for me from SAD. I felt great. But the past year I've had various health problems pop up that tell me something's not right:

1) Went to the dentist and they told me I had 5 cavities and a broken tooth
2) Broke a bone in a spot where the doctor said "most commonly seen in older women" (it should not have broken, there wasn't enough force to break a bone, especially since I lift)
3) Hair thinning rapidly
4) Poor workout recovery/low energy motivation
5) Heart palpitations
6) Bloodwork doesn't appear to be so good.


I've been progressively going lower carb throughout my paleo history. After the cavity thing about 7 months ago I cut out all sugar (no more fruits) and decided to only eat starch on days where I workout.

That's what has lead me to ray peat. I thought maybe the lower carb consumption was the problem.

Had a full thyroid panel done, it's not terrible, but not great.

I've been experimenting with some OJ/lots of fruit here and there the past few weeks. It seems to make my stomach sick, scalp itchy (hair comes out), and it seems to cause sleep apnea from sinus irritation.

Kind of lost on where to go. No idea what is causing my health issues, there is so much conflicting advice out there.

Edit to add: I also seem to be dependent on exercise for energy/libido.

Edit 2: It would also probably be fair to say I've been under increased and chronic stress for the past year. Although it doesn't seem like it should be that much stress overall, it was an increase and I don't handle it well.
 
J

j.

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Is your OJ natural and strained? Do you consume a raw carrot or raw carrot salad on an empty stomach daily?

If you don't strain the OJ, it can give you digestive trouble.

The raw carrot helps with digestive problems and lowering estrogen.
 
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stressucks

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j. said:
Is your OJ natural and strained? Do you consume a raw carrot or raw carrot salad on an empty stomach daily?

If you don't strain the OJ, it can give you digestive trouble.

The raw carrot helps with digestive problems and lowering estrogen.

I just buy the not from concentrate, pulp free, simply orange.

I've been doing the raw carrot thing about 5 days a week.
 

kiran

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Sounds like it might be connected to calcium/vit D/parathyroid.
How much calcium do you get? Vit D? Vit K/K2 ?

Can you get some blood tests ?
CBC (for serum calcium)/Vitamin D(25 OH)/PTH (parathyroid)

Might want to test prolactin/serotonin as well, while you're at it.
Serotonin can also cause osteoporosis.

http://www.dannyroddy.com/main/2013/5/2 ... -hair-loss

"Avoiding fluoridated water and the polyunsaturated oils, and drinking two quarts of milk daily (which will provide only 66 grams of protein), and using some other nutrient-rich foods such as eggs and fruits, are probably the basic things to protect the bones. For vitamins, especially K, occasional liver can be helpful. Meats, fruits, leaves, and coffee are rich in magnesium." -RP
http://raypeat.com/articles/aging/bonedensity.shtml
 

charlie

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kiran said:
Sounds like it might be connected to calcium/vit D/parathyroid.
How much calcium do you get? Vit D? Vit K/K2 ?

And estrogen, possibly.

Oh, and everything hypothyroid.
 

kiran

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Charlie said:
And estrogen, possibly.

Yes, of course. But it's hard to test for estrogen.
Were you exposed to a CT scan or x-rays or other radiation recently?

Cortisol (stress) can reduce bone formation, but it shouldn't affect a young man that much by itself.
 

Mittir

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Had a full thyroid panel done, it's not terrible, but not great.

Ray Peat commented that he has never seen a healthy person with
TSH more than 2. He thinks TSH range below 0.4 is safe.
TSH it self causes a lot of health problems in addition to
problems generated by hypothyroidism.
TSH is also related to bone turnover.
 
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stressucks

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kiran said:
Sounds like it might be connected to calcium/vit D/parathyroid.
How much calcium do you get? Vit D? Vit K/K2 ?

Can you get some blood tests ?
CBC (for serum calcium)/Vitamin D(25 OH)/PTH (parathyroid)

Might want to test prolactin/serotonin as well, while you're at it.
Serotonin can also cause osteoporosis.

http://www.dannyroddy.com/main/2013/5/2 ... -hair-loss

"Avoiding fluoridated water and the polyunsaturated oils, and drinking two quarts of milk daily (which will provide only 66 grams of protein), and using some other nutrient-rich foods such as eggs and fruits, are probably the basic things to protect the bones. For vitamins, especially K, occasional liver can be helpful. Meats, fruits, leaves, and coffee are rich in magnesium." -RP
http://raypeat.com/articles/aging/bonedensity.shtml

I feel like the paleo diet without milk is deficient in calcium, so I've always made it a point to eat bone broth. Not sure how much calcium I've been getting other than that. I had some bloodwork done recently:
Calcium, Serum 9.3mg/dL
Vitamin D, 25-Hydroxy 58ng/ml - I supplement with 5000Iu of vitamin D if I don't get outside for 2 or 3 days in a row.
Did not have PTH tested unfortunately.
Prolactin: 12ng/ml
Did not have serotonin tested

It's interesting that you mention Flouridation. During the time frame that these changes happened I moved from well water to city water. Could fluoridation have this crazy of an impact? I grew up on well water. How do I avoid flouridated water?

A few months back I started eating liver, half a pound a week. Eat lots of eggs.

Thanks for the response and the articles.
 
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stressucks

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kiran said:
Charlie said:
And estrogen, possibly.

Yes, of course. But it's hard to test for estrogen.
Were you exposed to a CT scan or x-rays or other radiation recently?

Cortisol (stress) can reduce bone formation, but it shouldn't affect a young man that much by itself.


No, but I have been using microwaves a lot more often the past 3-4 months.
 
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stressucks

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Mittir said:
Had a full thyroid panel done, it's not terrible, but not great.

Ray Peat commented that he has never seen a healthy person with
TSH more than 2. He thinks TSH range below 0.4 is safe.
TSH it self causes a lot of health problems in addition to
problems generated by hypothyroidism.
TSH is also related to bone turnover.

That's very interesting. I had my TSH tested twice in the past 2 months.
Once was 3.8, once was 3.4.

I had it tested twice in total in the past (since going paleo, but more than a year ago). Both times it was 2.4. So for some reason it's gone up in the past year, year and a half. And sounds like it wasn't good to begin with.

Should I consider getting some thyroid meds? I don't seem to tolerate carbs/sugar or fructose well.
 
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stressucks

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Been measuring pulse and body temp for a few days. Temp is between 96 and 97.5. Pulse between 45 and 55.
 

kiran

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stressucks said:
I feel like the paleo diet without milk is deficient in calcium, so I've always made it a point to eat bone broth. Not sure how much calcium I've been getting other than that. I had some bloodwork done recently:
Calcium, Serum 9.3mg/dL
Vitamin D, 25-Hydroxy 58ng/ml - I supplement with 5000Iu of vitamin D if I don't get outside for 2 or 3 days in a row.
Did not have PTH tested unfortunately.
Prolactin: 12ng/ml
Did not have serotonin tested

It's interesting that you mention Flouridation. During the time frame that these changes happened I moved from well water to city water. Could fluoridation have this crazy of an impact? I grew up on well water. How do I avoid flouridated water?

A few months back I started eating liver, half a pound a week. Eat lots of eggs.

Thanks for the response and the articles.

Your serum calcium is low, vit D is good. Parathyroid issues are possible but unlikely.
Prolactin seems to be high, that might be your culprit(along with hypothyroid). (It should be less than 7ng/ml for men IIRC)

"Prolactin, which is increased under the influence of estrogen or serotonin, causes the body to lose calcium (drawing it from the bones), and it stimulates the secretion of PTH, which compensates for the calcium loss by increasing its mobilization from bones. Prolactins action on bone is at least partly by increasing IL-6 formation; IL-6 stimulates the release of prolactin. Serotonin and IL-6 stimulate each others secretion, and PTH and serotonin each stimulate the others release." - Ray Peat, PhD
 
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stressucks

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j. said:
Cholesterol number?

I've had it measured anywhere between 160 and 210 the past couple years, but this most recent time it was 250.

HDL is always between 50 and 60.
 
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stressucks

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kiran said:
stressucks said:
I feel like the paleo diet without milk is deficient in calcium, so I've always made it a point to eat bone broth. Not sure how much calcium I've been getting other than that. I had some bloodwork done recently:
Calcium, Serum 9.3mg/dL
Vitamin D, 25-Hydroxy 58ng/ml - I supplement with 5000Iu of vitamin D if I don't get outside for 2 or 3 days in a row.
Did not have PTH tested unfortunately.
Prolactin: 12ng/ml
Did not have serotonin tested

It's interesting that you mention Flouridation. During the time frame that these changes happened I moved from well water to city water. Could fluoridation have this crazy of an impact? I grew up on well water. How do I avoid flouridated water?

A few months back I started eating liver, half a pound a week. Eat lots of eggs.

Thanks for the response and the articles.

Your serum calcium is low, vit D is good. Parathyroid issues are possible but unlikely.
Prolactin seems to be high, that might be your culprit(along with hypothyroid). (It should be less than 7ng/ml for men IIRC)

"Prolactin, which is increased under the influence of estrogen or serotonin, causes the body to lose calcium (drawing it from the bones), and it stimulates the secretion of PTH, which compensates for the calcium loss by increasing its mobilization from bones. Prolactins action on bone is at least partly by increasing IL-6 formation; IL-6 stimulates the release of prolactin. Serotonin and IL-6 stimulate each others secretion, and PTH and serotonin each stimulate the others release." - Ray Peat, PhD

Oh wow. So I need to figure out what causes high prolactin and how to lower it. I've read calcium lowers as well as lowering estrogen.

I read to lower estrogen I need, lots of liver/oysters, carrot salad, aspirin+vitamin K, and I read red light?

I've been doing most of the above for a week+, how long does it take for this stuff to take effect? What else can I do? How will I know if it's working?
 

aquaman

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stressucks said:
Been measuring pulse and body temp for a few days. Temp is between 96 and 97.5. Pulse between 45 and 55.

both are low.

At what times? Do you measure 20-30 mins post-eating?
 
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stressucks

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aquaman said:
stressucks said:
Been measuring pulse and body temp for a few days. Temp is between 96 and 97.5. Pulse between 45 and 55.

both are low.

At what times? Do you measure 20-30 mins post-eating?

Yea, measure it either before getting up out of bed in the morning, 20 minutes after meal, or right before bed.

There definitely is some variance in there. I've also been logging what I ate when measuring post meal.
 

Mittir

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RP recommends measuring temperature and pulse 1- 2 hours after breakfast.
Here are some RP quotes on temperature and pulse.

Ray Peat said:
Temperature and pulse rate are important to watch; when the stress hormones are lower, they will increase after breakfast, and stay up until late afternoon.
The temperature rise during the day is the most important thing, since nocturnal stress hormones can give a misleading impression in the morning.
Checking your temperature when you wake up, then about an hour after breakfast, can give you an idea of your thyroid status, it should get up to about 98.5 by mid-morning. With restful sleep, the waking temperature is somewhat low; poor sleep, with high stress hormones, can cause the waking temperature to be high.http://www.dannyroddy.com/main/2011/12/ ... tandi.html
 
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stressucks

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Thanks, I've tested it in the afternoon/mid morning, but always 20 min after a meal. Still low. I'll start measuring it at more random times to see.
 

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