What should I supplement, if anything?

Kelly

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Hello all.

I am going to try to do a condensed version of what got me to give Peat a try.

I am 34 years old. I have always had regular menstrual cycles, every 28 days since I started at 16. They were very painful the first 2 days, but did not give me problems other than that. They lasted 6-7 days. I also had IBS problems for as long as I can remember.

When my cycle came back after my second child about 3 years ago, it started coming every 21 or so days and was very heavy. I asked my midwife and she said our cycles change as we age and that was that. In January of 2011 I had to take antibiotics for a sinus infection that wouldn't go away. The regular antibiotic didn't help so my doctor put me on z-pack. An hour after the first dose I had horrible gallbladder attack symptoms and was admitted to the hospital twice, ended up being there for nearly a week. After many tests they couldn't find anything wrong. After I came home I started eating a "healthy" diet, lots of whole grains, veggies, forcing my 64 ounces of water down, cutting out all fast food and most sugar. I felt fantastic until July when I started having cramps from ovulation until menses. I took too many Advil and gave myself ulcers. A gastro doctor treated that and I started eating mostly paleo, went too low carb then started having major anxiety, depression, heart palpitations, head zaps, back pain, lots of stuff associated with menopause except no hot flashes. I went to a gyn and she suggested SSRIs or birth control; I said no thanks. She sent me for blood tests which showed normal estradiol, high FSH (23.3) and LH (64.3), and normal TSH (0.97). She said it looked like I was going into early menopause. I asked her if I could try prometrium and she was onboard, she gave me 12 tablets to take from day 14-25. The problem was that my cycle has been lengthening, from 28 days, to 38, to 49. Another problem is I feel ok during the latter half of my period, but awful during the first part, when you're not supposed to take progesterone.

This last cycle I felt so awful I started a progesterone cream, just 10 mg once at night, on day 8. It made me feel a little better. On day 14 I started taking 10 mg progesterone in the morning and my 200 mg prometrium at night. (I know most of the prometrium is destroyed and we only get about 10% after it goes through the liver.) A couple days later I got my order of progest-e and started taking probably 5 drops 4 times a day plus the one tablet of prometrium. I felt better but still not normal.

I started incorporating Peat's philosophies about a month ago. I eat mashed potatoes or white rice with practically every meal, with butter and cheese melted on top. I eat meat 2x per day, usually beef or lamb but sometimes poultry. I eat shrimp or white fish for the other meal. I drink 2 cups of salted OJ mixed with mineral water throughout the day. I eat 2 cups of fruit, usually cherries or blueberries. Sometimes I put cream on them, but the majority of my dairy comes from cheese as I get headaches when I drink milk. I'd say I get about 15-20 grams of protein from cheese every day. I eat several squares of dark chocolate every day. I have tried cutting out the starch but I am already underweight (5'7", 110 pounds my whole life, dipped down to a scary 102 while paleo, never had an eating disorder), and haven't been able to keep my weight up without it at this point. Eggs give me stomach problems so I don't eat many. I am supplementing with 125 mg of magnesium at night, doing Epsom foot soaks a couple times per week, plus the progest-e. Oh, and also vitamin D since I tested very low on that.

I'm confused about what else I should do. I feel like I can function right now, but I'm on day 27 of my cycle and usually feel pretty good at this point. I am dreading the next cycle. Should I keep dosing the progesterone everyday for a couple months? Should I try something else like pregnenolone? Should I mess with my thyroid? From what I've read of Peat he seems to think anything under 1 or 2 for TSH is good. My hands and feet sometimes get cold, my pulse seems to always be 72, I don't think I've ever had a problem with my temperature, but I've never taken it consistently, and don't think I can take it now since I'm taking the progesterone, right? Just not sure what else to try from here. I feel like I could deal with the other things OK, but the depression and anxiety is nearly debilitating.
 

cliff

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sounds like you could use more protein, have you tried gelatin/broth? You want to aim for 80-100gram of protein a day.

Adding some sugar/salt to milk could make it tolerable.

Favoring more fruit over starch is good but potatoes are good, white rice is pretty low in nutrients but is ok. Eating some sugar/fruit with starch meals to balance the glucose is a good idea.

Do you eat the chocolate alone? What about daily raw carrot?
 
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Kelly

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Thanks for the response! I do make and eat bone broth but not consistently. Same with the carrot. I ordered Great Lake gelatin and that will hopefully arrive in a few days. Sometimes I eat the chocolate alone, but usually it's with my snack of fruit, cream or cheese, and chocolate.
 

cliff

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I would try to do the gelatin/carrot consistently and see if that helps, you could also drop the butter and just use cheese for a little more protein. Start tracking temps/pulse before and after each meal, this will help you see if you need stuff like thyroid.
 
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Kelly

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Thanks, this is good advice. Sometimes I feel like I don't even have energy to peel a carrot. Pathetic, I know.

Are the temps a good indicator even though I'm taking progesterone?
 
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Kelly

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Neat. I've been taking it this past week several times per day, it's always between 98.6 and 99.0. I have the temporal artery thermometer.
 

cliff

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You wanna try to get pulse up to around 80-90 too, also cold extremities or gaining on low cals is a sign of suppressed metabolism.
 
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Kelly

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Thanks for all the info. The thyroid stuff is confusing. I sometimes get cold extremeties, mainly if I don't eat regularly but I never, ever gain weight. If I don't stay over 2000 cals I lose pretty fast. Even when I was pregnant I only put on 10 pounds with my first and 5 with my second, and both kids were around 8 pounds. The low weight scares me. If I ever get seriously ill I think I will just waste away.
 
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Kelly

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No, haven't tried any estrogen. I'm pretty against it but not totally convinced that supplementation is always bad. However my mom had severe endometriosis and ovarian cysts so that makes me even more hesitant. Are you a woman? Have you taken it?
 

nwo2012

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Kelly said:
Thanks for all the info. The thyroid stuff is confusing. I sometimes get cold extremeties, mainly if I don't eat regularly but I never, ever gain weight. If I don't stay over 2000 cals I lose pretty fast. Even when I was pregnant I only put on 10 pounds with my first and 5 with my second, and both kids were around 8 pounds. The low weight scares me. If I ever get seriously ill I think I will just waste away.

My wife has always had very low bodyfat and never put on much weight even with excess calories. Yet she suffered from the classic signs of hypothyroidism and estrogen excess: cold extremeties, intolerance to cold, irregular extremely painful and heavy periods, nasal congestion, endometriosis (and eventually ovarian cancer), This way of living and eating plus NDT and prgesterone have pretty much fixed everything.
 
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Kelly

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nwo2012 said:
Kelly said:
Thanks for all the info. The thyroid stuff is confusing. I sometimes get cold extremeties, mainly if I don't eat regularly but I never, ever gain weight. If I don't stay over 2000 cals I lose pretty fast. Even when I was pregnant I only put on 10 pounds with my first and 5 with my second, and both kids were around 8 pounds. The low weight scares me. If I ever get seriously ill I think I will just waste away.

My wife has always had very low bodyfat and never put on much weight even with excess calories. Yet she suffered from the classic signs of hypothyroidism and estrogen excess: cold extremeties, intolerance to cold, irregular extremely painful and heavy periods, nasal congestion, endometriosis (and eventually ovarian cancer), This way of living and eating plus NDT and prgesterone have pretty much fixed everything.

Very interesting. Did she have labs done that show she's hypothyroid? Does she take the progesterone at a regular schedule or based on symptoms?
 

nwo2012

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Kelly said:
nwo2012 said:
Kelly said:
Thanks for all the info. The thyroid stuff is confusing. I sometimes get cold extremeties, mainly if I don't eat regularly but I never, ever gain weight. If I don't stay over 2000 cals I lose pretty fast. Even when I was pregnant I only put on 10 pounds with my first and 5 with my second, and both kids were around 8 pounds. The low weight scares me. If I ever get seriously ill I think I will just waste away.

My wife has always had very low bodyfat and never put on much weight even with excess calories. Yet she suffered from the classic signs of hypothyroidism and estrogen excess: cold extremeties, intolerance to cold, irregular extremely painful and heavy periods, nasal congestion, endometriosis (and eventually ovarian cancer), This way of living and eating plus NDT and prgesterone have pretty much fixed everything.

Very interesting. Did she have labs done that show she's hypothyroid? Does she take the progesterone at a regular schedule or based on symptoms?

TSH was 3.4 pre-Peat. High enough if we want to believe in this unreliable blood test.
Initially it was all the time due to symptoms. Now it's 3 times per day, 3 drops each time scheduled. No breaks for cycles.
 
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Kelly

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Great information nwo, thanks for taking the time to post it. That is very inspirational that she overcame all those things!
 

nwo2012

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Kelly said:
Great information nwo, thanks for taking the time to post it. That is very inspirational that she overcame all those things!

Thanks and not a problem. Yes she is very inspirational. If it hadnt been for her illness I would probably still believe in Western medicine and all the other illusions.
 

kettlebell

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Hi Kelly,

I think too little estrogen is highly unlikely unless you have already been using aromatase inhibitors etc. Couple that with the fact that estrogen raises energy demands while blocking a cells ability to generate energy leading to the metabolic issues that creates, I don't believe estrogen is a good idea. I don't believe it would ever be a good idea. There may be conditions out there that require synthetic estrogen to be used but I haven't heard of any. Someone please correct me if im wrong.

Also the estrogen you would be taking is created by a pharmaceutical and likely carries other unwanted side effects due to it being synthetic and changed chemically for patent purposes.

Just my opinion of course! :):
 

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