What To Do For Allergies When Nothing Else Is Working?

ilovethesea

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Hi all,
I'm seeking some more help with my allergies - 12 months since going on a Ray Peat inspired diet, I am still struggling with an almost constantly stuffed up/runny nose. I don't think I have breathed through my nose properly for over a year now, which is very distressing. :?

(This was a previous post I wrote about my issues: viewtopic.php?f=56&t=1887)

Since that post I feel like I have tried virtually everything to figure out the cause...

- I eliminated all starch after figuring out it made symptoms worse... even well cooked potato
- I discovered I can only handle cooked (boiled) gelatin, so I can't just stir it into hot liquids
- I found I have an allergy to mango
- I get a severe allergic reaction from all commercial juices including orange juice
- I discovered I'm allergic to the excipients in Erfa thyroid

I switched to Cynoplus and am on almost double the dose now that I was taking last summer, although my temperatures are still in the low 36 degrees and pulse in the 70s - low 80s. (Note: I only have half my thyroid gland after thyroid cancer 5 yrs ago and all that time undertreated with Synthroid.) I still have other hypo symptoms including occasional cold hands and feet (although not as bad as they were), occasional acne spots, weight gain and very week/peeling nails. These all seemed to get a bit worse during winter.

Currently my diet consists of milk, parmiggiano reggiano cheese, Greek yogurt, Haagen Daz chocolate or vanilla ice cream, grapes (scrubbed with baking soda & salt first), berries, freshly squeezed orange juice, boiled gelatin, coffee, sugar, beef, carrot, coconut oil, chicken liver, oysters, Coca cola.

I have changed brands of milks, had weeks where I only had one type of dairy (eg. only cheese or only milk), and I don't eat the grapes, berries or beef daily. I don't have liver or the oysters every single week.

I take anywhere from 4-8 Aspirin daily as well as 4mg cyproheptadine every night, along with tons of Progest-E (maybe go through a bottle every 1.5 months). The cyproheptadine has helped eliminate the sneezing and constant dripping but not the congestion. I often have "air hunger" where I feel like I can't get enough air.

Does anyone have any thoughts on what to do next? I've emailed Ray Peat last year but he only mentioned to find a food source of the allergy. At this point I'm wondering if this is all due to my hypothyroidism and not a specific food. I don't know if I could restrict my diet any further - I already find it very difficult with my limited list of foods, and yet the allergies still persist day in, day out. Any thoughts on what to do, or do you think I should contact Dr. Peat again to ask for more help?

Thank you in advance! :)
 

Blossom

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I'm sorry to hear your situation ilovethesea. I don't think I have any earth shattering suggestions but I do wonder if you bag breathe? If not I think that would be especially helpful for the air hunger. I slept with those breath right nasal strips for awhile when I had some congestion that would worsen at night. Those at least helped me be able to breathe through my nose while sleeping. I'm sure more people will have further suggestions. :D
 
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ilovethesea

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Blossom said:
I'm sorry to hear your situation ilovethesea. I don't think I have any earth shattering suggestions but I do wonder if you bag breathe? If not I think that would be especially helpful for the air hunger. I slept with those breath right nasal strips for awhile when I had some congestion that would worsen at night. Those at least helped me be able to breathe through my nose while sleeping. I'm sure more people will have further suggestions. :D

Thanks! I hadn't thought of the nasal strips. I'll have to try those!

I do bag breathe but probably not as often as I should. I feel like I'm always busy using my hands and when I do sit quietly I'm more inclined to eat than bag breathe - haha :)

I think my next experiment will be to raise my thyroid dose even higher and see if I get any improvement. I think it's safe to do so, since my temperatures and pulse are still low - the only reason I haven't yet is because my my doctor (and source of medicine) thinks I'm severely hypER. (Due to my non existent TSH.) I gave her Ray Peat's articles but it didn't do any good :(
 

Blossom

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Sorry to hear that about your doctor. I had to start doctoring myself it got so ridiculous dealing with them! I was also curious if you felt your air hunger might be anxiety related? There was a post under the email exchange recently on this topic by j that made me think of you. I can't link from the device I'm on at the moment but when you get a chance I would skim through the recent entries. They are always jam packed with Peat goodness and you may get some additional insights.
 
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ilovethesea

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Blossom said:
Sorry to hear that about your doctor. I had to start doctoring myself it got so ridiculous dealing with them! I was also curious if you felt your air hunger might be anxiety related? There was a post under the email exchange recently on this topic by j that made me think of you. I can't link from the device I'm on at the moment but when you get a chance I would skim through the recent entries. They are always jam packed with Peat goodness and you may get some additional insights.

Yes I'm at the point where I can't stand doctors at all. They don't know how to listen. I read a great quote in an interview with Dr. David Derry (great thyroid doctor now retired as the Canadian medical association drove him out due to his use of "unphysiological doses"). http://www.thyroid-info.com/articles/david-derry.htm

"When I came back into General Practice I had in mind a saying I attribute to Dr. Wilder Penfield which was (paraphrasing) "If you listen to a patient carefully the patient will tell you the diagnosis and if you listen even more carefully they will tell you the most appropriate treatment". Before I went back into practice I had taken courses in interpersonal relationships and how to communicate and listen better. Since I entered General Practice I have taken more courses in personal development. My idea was to learn more and more how to listen carefully and how to get my personality (ego) out of the way of the conversation with the patient. Because I was armed with this approach I developed, I have been able to learn much in the last 28 years in practice."

Imagine that! I think that generation of doctors are all gone now and we have these new authoritarian ones to deal with...

Re: my breathing issues, no I don't think they are anxiety related at all. (I'm not really anxious and especially not after a year of Ray Peat.) It's simply congestion where I can't comfortably breathe through the nostril due to mucous. My nostrils are never really fully clear - even if they are not dripping.

I think I might have to write to Dr. Peat about this as I seem to have everyone stumped on what to do.
 

kiran

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Have you tried drinking more coke? I find it helps with my allergies, my consumption of coke goes way up when my allergies are flaring.
 

jyb

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Commercial OJ is convenient but I find that freshly squeezed daily is better. I find it worth it to spend 30 mins daily to squeeze a few liters for the next day, I wouldn't go back to store orange juice.

You could try upping the cypro. A higher dose at night (8, 12 ,16) and 1 mg every few hours during the day. Note that if you take a high dose, it's a lot of excipients but you can dissolve in water and filter. 4-8 mg daily of cypro corresponds to most of the benefits in studies (growth hormone, prolactin...) but higher doses might address additional problems.

Have you tested every ingredients in your diet for allergy, starting with just 2-3 ingredients (milk, filtered and fresh OJ...) and adding? I used to have chronic nose congestion before Peating, and it can still happen when I eat something relatively safe but not 100% safe, so for me the relationship digestion/congestion is very clear. What I consider 100% safe are meat/dairy/eggs/filtered orange, basically 0 fiber whatsoever except carrot. I do ok with hydrolyzed gelatin too. Things like dates, grapes, chocolate, commercial ice cream...might be safe, but warrants an investigation to see if they cause problems and I don't really need them if I made enough orange juice.

If I were you I'd consider adding some cascara to carrot salad. I think its really useful even when there is no obvious signs of constipation and would apply to you since you have digestion related symptoms. Try it for 1 week, a generous dose with the carrot in the afternoon, enough so that the next day you need to go to restroom in the morning possibly more than once. That's the protocol I followed.
 
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j.

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ilovethesea said:
I think my next experiment will be to raise my thyroid dose even higher and see if I get any improvement.

Would you want to try to increase your cholesterol before or simply increase the thyroid dose as it is?
 
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ilovethesea

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kiran said:
Have you tried drinking more coke? I find it helps with my allergies, my consumption of coke goes way up when my allergies are flaring.

How many Cokes are you talking? I usually try to have 1 per day. I do notice it helps a bit... but wears off by the time I go to bed (my main concern is not nose breathing at night).
 
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ilovethesea

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jyb said:
Commercial OJ is convenient but I find that freshly squeezed daily is better. I find it worth it to spend 30 mins daily to squeeze a few liters for the next day, I wouldn't go back to store orange juice.

Thanks jyb. This is very helpful. How much fresh OJ do you drink per day? I probably only have 1 glass since it's such a pain to use the juicer (for some reason I thought it had to be drunk right away after juicing... maybe I got that idea from the raw food people). And I don't have a car so it's hard to get a supply of all those oranges... I guess I'll have to order online in bulk. I tend to eat grapes, white sugar, berries, Coke for my sugars... not so much OJ. I stopped all commercial OJ as I get immediate severe allergies from 1 glass of it.

jyb said:
You could try upping the cypro. A higher dose at night (8, 12 ,16) and 1 mg every few hours during the day. Note that if you take a high dose, it's a lot of excipients but you can dissolve in water and filter. 4-8 mg daily of cypro corresponds to most of the benefits in studies (growth hormone, prolactin...) but higher doses might address additional problems.

Good idea I will try that. It did cross my mind the cypro excipients might be contributing to the allergies. When you dissolve it in water you just drink the water and not the white stuff? I don't do that with aspirin...are there excipients I should be worried about in aspirin?

The other disturbing thing is I think the cypro is making me gain weight (as it indicates on the label).

jyb said:
Have you tested every ingredients in your diet for allergy, starting with just 2-3 ingredients (milk, filtered and fresh OJ...) and adding? I used to have chronic nose congestion before Peating, and it can still happen when I eat something relatively safe but not 100% safe, so for me the relationship digestion/congestion is very clear. What I consider 100% safe are meat/dairy/eggs/filtered orange, basically 0 fiber whatsoever except carrot. I do ok with hydrolyzed gelatin too. Things like dates, grapes, chocolate, commercial ice cream...might be safe, but warrants an investigation to see if they cause problems and I don't really need them if I made enough orange juice.

I feel like I've tried so many different food combos to no avail... but no I haven't cut way back to just milk and OJ. I have stopped starches. The strange thing to me about all this is that I never reacted to any foods before I started on this diet. Now I react to even things that were never a problem before (eg. orange juice, even wine). Do you think it's because it's been a year now I haven't had PUFAs so my immune system is not as suppressed? My thyroid function is so much better than it was a year ago on a low T4 only dose.

jyb said:
If I were you I'd consider adding some cascara to carrot salad. I think its really useful even when there is no obvious signs of constipation and would apply to you since you have digestion related symptoms. Try it for 1 week, a generous dose with the carrot in the afternoon, enough so that the next day you need to go to restroom in the morning possibly more than once. That's the protocol I followed.

This is a good idea too. Is there a source for cascara that could be shipped to Canada? I haven't tried it as it sounded like people had a lot of trouble getting hold of it. But I would like to.
 
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ilovethesea

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j. said:
ilovethesea said:
I think my next experiment will be to raise my thyroid dose even higher and see if I get any improvement.

Would you want to try to increase your cholesterol before or simply increase the thyroid dose as it is?

I don't know :( My cholesterol level was low the last time it was measured (last summer) but I'm on double the dosage of thyroid now, so maybe it could have changed.
Cholesterol - 3.48
Triglycerides - 0.69
HDL - 1.57
LDL - 1.59
TC/HDL-C ratio - 2.2

I know I probably have sluggish liver as sometimes when I eat a raw carrot (instead of grating and rinsing it) I feel like my skin looks a bit yellow. So I can't process the beta carotene very well.

I tried to look up what Big Papa had to say about allergies and thought this was interesting:

”…Blood sugar is usually the thing to pay most attention to, everything becomes an allergen if the glucose is chronically low. Thyroid is the main thing that stabilizes the blood sugar. Aspirin usually helps with allergies…”

Also this from Broda Barnes:

“In other words, the thyroid has a profound effect on the liver. We have other evidence that a lack of thyroid is accompanied by a sluggish liver. In the first place, it has been apparents for a century that patients with myxedema (very low thyroid activity) have a yellowish tint to their skins. This has been found to be due to the presence of too much carotene in the blood. The liver converts carotene into vitamin A which is colorless. Under the administration of thyroid, the liver becomes more active and the carotene soon disappears. In the second place, the cholesterol level in the blood sis usually elevated in hypothyroidism. Thyroid administration will lower cholesterol, and if too much is given, the cholesterol will fall below normal. The liver converts cholesterol into bile salts which are eliminated in the bile; this process is the usual means of eliminating excess cholesterol. The liver is sluggish in this function among thyroid-deficient individuals…Since a sluggish liver is the most common cause of hypoglycemia, it should follow that the hypothyroid patient is highly susceptible to low blood sugar.” -Broda Barnes, MD, PhD and Charlotte Barnes

I don't think the thyroid caused my low cholesterol though...

“A person may have normal levels of thyroxin but not be converting it adequately to the active form of the thyroid hormone (triiodothyronine or liothyronine). High cholesterol is practically diagnostic of hypothyroidism. Why? Because thyroid hormone controls the conversion of cholesterol to important anti-aging hormones and to bile salts. However, many hypothyroid people have low cholesterol from a suppressed immune system, liver problems, or from eating a low protein (vegan) diet.” -Lita Lee, PhD

What does this mean I should do differently with my diet now? I am a bit slow, I don't understand this cholesterol thing.
 
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My guess is that thyroid needs cholesterol to work. Fruits and sugar increase cholesterol. Progesterone reduces cholesterol production. Pregnenolone could fulfill some of the functions of cholesterol, since it's a derivative.
 
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ilovethesea

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j. said:
My guess is that thyroid needs cholesterol to work. Fruits and sugar increase cholesterol. Progesterone reduces cholesterol production. Pregnenolone could fulfill some of the functions of cholesterol, since it's a derivative.

I really don't want to give up my Progest-E :( Do you think just adding pregnenolone could help? I haven't been taking it as often lately as I don't have the purest form (Life extension brand). I used to take 200-400mg per day but never noticed it did anything.
 
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ilovethesea said:
I really don't want to give up my Progest-E :( Do you think just adding pregnenolone could help? I haven't been taking it as often lately as I don't have the purest form (Life extension brand). I used to take 200-400mg per day but never noticed it did anything.

Life Extension has been a good brand for me. Do you have the 100 mg version? If it doesn't hurt, I would use it, but it's just a guess.
 

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I order in bulk from online, once every week. I make 1-2L per day at the least, the more the better, and this can store for a day in the fridge without problem. I filter the pulp with a cheese cloth before storage.

I let cypro dissolve at room temp to remove the white powder at the bottom of the cup. For aspirin it's even more important because the impurities are worse (if we're using the same brands). For aspirin, better to use boiling water. I'm a bit cautious with aspirin, because it raises vit K requirements unless you're taking a baby dose, and so you need to find a suppl that doesn't cause problem etc. If I were you, I'd start over from scratch and wait before using aspirin.

Cypro has weight gain listed as side effect, but so far the only explanation I've seen is that it only does so by increasing appetite. I haven't gained any weight from it, that said I don't easily gain weight. For me the fact that it can raise appetite is a good thing, but I haven't noticed anything drastic.

Digestion troubles could be due to fruits, not just starches. Or even chocolate. If I didn't have access to as much OJ, I think I'd use dates, white rice, coke, maybe potato, possibly with cream of tartar (see Jenn's posts) supplemented to get as much potassium as I could have had with OJ.
 

kiran

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ilovethesea said:
kiran said:
Have you tried drinking more coke? I find it helps with my allergies, my consumption of coke goes way up when my allergies are flaring.

How many Cokes are you talking? I usually try to have 1 per day. I do notice it helps a bit... but wears off by the time I go to bed (my main concern is not nose breathing at night).

My coke consumption goes from 2x 200ml to 6x 200ml when my allergies flare up. It helps quite a bit!
I've had coke (chased by milk ofc) in the middle of the night a few times. Thankfully caffeine doesn't interfere with my sleep...
 

Filip1993

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kiran said:
ilovethesea said:
kiran said:
Have you tried drinking more coke? I find it helps with my allergies, my consumption of coke goes way up when my allergies are flaring.

How many Cokes are you talking? I usually try to have 1 per day. I do notice it helps a bit... but wears off by the time I go to bed (my main concern is not nose breathing at night).

My coke consumption goes from 2x 200ml to 6x 200ml when my allergies flare up. It helps quite a bit!
I've had coke (chased by milk ofc) in the middle of the night a few times. Thankfully caffeine doesn't interfere with my sleep...

@kiran I've noticed something similar with coke, do you think it's the caffeine content?
 

kiran

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Filip1993 said:
@kiran I've noticed something similar with coke, do you think it's the caffeine content?

I'm reasonably sure it isn't. Pepsi doesn't have the same effect, neither does coffee. So the one unique ingredient in coke is coca extract, which is probably responsible for the effect.

I might try to get some coca tea from amazon at some point to see if it has a similar effect.
 

jyb

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@kiran: that's a lot of coke. Do you drink it straight or do you accompany it with fat or potassium food to stabilize blood sugar? I wonder if cream of tartar would do the trick...
 

Filip1993

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kiran said:
Filip1993 said:
@kiran I've noticed something similar with coke, do you think it's the caffeine content?

I'm reasonably sure it isn't. Pepsi doesn't have the same effect, neither does coffee. So the one unique ingredient in coke is coca extract, which is probably responsible for the effect.

I might try to get some coca tea from amazon at some point to see if it has a similar effect.

Very interesting.
 

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