Confused On Where To Go After Lab Results

[Ellie18]

Hello, I'm new to this forum and to researching Ray Peat. He really piqued my interested because of his totally unconventional views on health. Anyway, About 2 weeks ago I did some lab tests (The saliva kind) testing my estradiol, progesterone, testosterone, DHEAs and morning cortisol. I came in slightly low in estradiol, and very low in progesterone (and DHEAs) so I believe I have estrogen dominance. Testosterone and morning cortisol came in normal.. The main reason I took these tests was to try to see why I'm still suffering from acne. (since I was 12, and now I'm 20 as of a few weeks ago) Seeing that my hormones are not where they should be, acne (and my other problems) make sense. The reason I'm in this forum though, is to see if anyone has had any results similar, and any insight at all of what to do now. I read about adrenal fatigue and hypothyroidism, and while I match a lot of the symptoms of both, I match almost all of the ones for adrenal fatigue. From what I've read though, Ray peat seems to think its almost always the thyroid, not adrenals. I may have interpreted it wrong though. So i'm confused if I should be supplementing progesterone, or thyroid, or pregnenolone or what, because it seems that every time I find something that may work, someone gives a reason why it won't. I ordered a pregnenolone, and N-Acetyl L-Tyrosine (for depression) supplement, just because I don't know where else to begin. If anyone has been through something similar, or has any suggestions at all I would be more than happy to hear them. I also have a consistently low body temperature (always between 96 to 97.8, rarely above 98 degrees fahrenheit) if that helps at all.

 

[ste199]

I think you should start from diet changes,have you already implemented peat ideas about diet?what do you eat?
Try to limit the toxic PUFA and eat plenty of fruit,cheese,milk,sugar and salt.

 

[ste199]

Also welcome!

 

[CoolTweetPete]

I think you should start from diet changes,have you already implemented peat ideas about diet?what do you eat?
Try to limit the toxic PUFA and eat plenty of fruit,cheese,milk,sugar and salt.

I think this is probably the most effective way to begin correcting androgen issues. I think I would see if my body reacts favorably to changes in diet and strict PUFA avoidance. Then if you feel supplementation is still warranted, I think I would start slow with thyroid supplementation.

Dr. Peat's article, Thyroid, Therapies, Confusion, & Fraud might be useful if you decide to go the route of supplementation.

Thyroid: Therapies, Confusion, and Fraud

I think Pregnenolone is fairly safe to supplement (does not suppress endogenous pregnenolone synthesis, I believe), but the combination supplement you purchased might have harmful additives. I've found many combination supplements do.

Progesterone would be helpful to you as well if you believe you are estrogen dominant. I believe they can be supplemented together. Dr. Peat has written that "using thyroid will usually reduce the amount of progesterone needed" in his article Progesterone Summaries,

Progesterone Summaries - Progesterone Deceptions - Progesterone Supplementation - Dosage of Progesterone

Vitamin A may also be useful (and possibly deficient) in dermatological issues like acne.

Good luck! Welcome!

 

[Ellie18]

Thank you both! :p
@ste199 I eat pretty healthy, mostly organic. Not a ton of meat, but when I do it's usually chicken. I normally eat 1-4 eggs a day, eat vegetables like bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, squash, potatoes, sweet potatoes, not really a fan of greens or salad. Rice milk/Almond milk, Prepackaged bars, like larabars, Applesauce, chips (like tortilla, and quinoa chips), yogurt, risotto/rice, cashews, bananas, tomatoes, sometimes strawberries. Occasionally bread (I try to eat mostly gluten/wheat free), sometimes burritos/tacos, a bit of cheese, not much sugar really.. Its definitely different seeing recommendations for sugar and dairy when you have acne, I've always been told to strictly avoid them. I bought pineapple juice and coconut water to get more fruit sugar, but I haven't eaten much dairy. Most of the premade/prepackaged food I eat does contain some form of PUFA. I will have to make sure not to eat PUFAs. I think I may be slightly hypoglycemic so I will definitely get more sugar in. I have also been putting plenty of himalayan or sea salt on everything.

@CoolTweetPete I will start the PUFA avoidance. Is starting a low dose thyroid supplement okay, even though I've never had tests done confirming me hypothyroid? I do match a lot of the symptoms. The tyrosine and the pregnenolone are separate supplements, sorry about not making that clear. I started taking dessicated beef liver about a month ago, for the vitamins. Do you think thats enough vit A? Also, is there a specific progesterone that RP recommends? I see a lot of the creams, but nothing that I can dissolve in Vit E and take orally. Thank you again so much!

 

[marteagal]

Pineapple juice has been said to be estrogenic. I like it, too, but I do not drink it that often because of this. I rather use OJ and sometimes apple juice.

One of the two things I noticed after switching to an almost PUFA-free eating style was the great reduction in frequency of what I would now call "PUFA bumps". Pre-Peat, I ate tons of oily fish + fish oil every day and the longer I did this, the more frequent I got cystic skin problems. Now, the frequency is like one bump every three months or so (or less; depending on mental stress levels), while pre-Peat I had those problems continuously, every week. I suspect my tissues are still heavily loaded with PUFAs and according to the 4-years rule I would need about 2.5 years until most of the dangers are gone. My current nutrition and supplements seem to prevent the worst.
In order to avoid PUFAs as much as possible, I don't eat processed foods anymore at all. This also simplifies shopping: milk, OJ, sometimes mangos, beef liver, oysters, some cocoa powder, occasional coco flakes. That's mainly my staple.
Maybe you could also try to get rid of processed foods completely for a while and see if it positively affects your health conditions?

Regarding salt, I think the consensus is, the whiter the better, or in other words: Look for a brand with no additives. Most come with added iron compounds, acting as anti-caking agents.
The red color of Himalaya salt points to the presence of heavy metals. @himsahimsa posted a link according to which 5 grams of Himalayan salt contain about 0.2 mg iron. And, in terms of sea salt, @Such_Saturation said: "I bet anything from the sea has more heavy metals than salt from "Himalaya"."
Many members use pickling salt (I think the brand is called "Morton"). Owing to where I live, personally I use a brand called Saldoro. The salt is white and the medium-grained variant has no additives.

Adding to @CoolTweetPete 's recommendation, I would also read the thyroid-related summary on functionalps. I was quite misdirected by "Stop The Thyroid Madness" and the like, and increased the thyroid dosage too fast and too high, clearly going far beyond Peat's way of dosing (e.g., 1-2 mcg T3 every few hours; do not exceed the physiological production of max. 5 mcg T3 per hour). My thyroid supplementation journey greatly failed, and I contribute this partly to my ingorance of not sticking to Peat's recommendations but rather believing in people who thoughtlessly recommend taking cortisol and iron if thyroid supplementation doesn't work
You can do better.

As for progesterone: You might want to use Progest-E (although some members have reported a change in formulation/efficacy two years or so ago). If you do not have a problem with DMSO, you could also try Haidut's progesterone supplement.

 

[Such_Saturation]

Minerals in Himalayan Pink Salt: Spectral Analysis | The Meadow

 

[Ellie18]

@marteagal Aw man! I'll have to pick up some orange juice, or better yet make some. So oily fish is a no too? I try to eat sardines occasionally for the vitamins but I believe that would be an oily fish. Cystic acne is my main problem as well. The salt thing is interesting, I always assumed normal salt was highly processed so it was bad for you. I can easily get some morton salt though.
Do you still supplement with thyroid at all? I will look up Haidut's supplement. Thanks for all the recommendations.

@Such_Saturation Gracias amigo!

 

[Such_Saturation]

But why some people find lots of metals in pink salt and others don't

 

[marteagal]

@marteagal So oily fish is a no too? I try to eat sardines occasionally for the vitamins but I believe that would be an oily fish.

In a book written by EPA/DHA advocates, there is the following table listing EPA/DHA contents in milligrams per 100 g fish/seafood:

mackerel 2,300
chinook salmon 1,900
herring 1,700
anchovy 1,400
sardine 1,400
coho salmon 1,200
trout 600
spiny lobster 500
halibut 400
shrimp 300
catfish 300
sole 200
cod 200

Of course, the total PUFA amount (beyond the omega-3 fatty acid) is way larger. Just wanted to confirm what you said: that eating sardines will give you some PUFAs. In my horrible past, I preferred mackerels to ensure getting the highest amount of omega-3s possible, and because that was still not enough, I even added 1000 mg EPA/DHA using fish oil capsules. For those 10 months of my "fatty fish experiment", I retrospectively calculated a total intake of about 4 to 5 kilograms of EPA/DHA; not to mention the other kinds of PUFAs. A wonder that I am still alive.

@marteagal The salt thing is interesting, I always assumed normal salt was highly processed so it was bad for you.

Well, as reading Peat's texts teaches, the "truth" is about the opposite of the mainstream view, and this seems to affect almost (?) all conceivable areas of life. :)

@marteagal Do you still supplement with thyroid at all?

No, I had to stop supplementing thyroid for the following reasons: 1) basal body temperature did not significantly rise, 2) pulse rate went through the roof, 3) blood pressure increased, 4) frequency of heart palpitations increased (probably because thyroid raises sensitivity towards adrenaline).

Adding to my previous post, you might want to test your cholesterol level first. As Peat has frequently pointed out, if your cholesterol level is not sufficiently high, production of the protective steroid hormones will likely not increase due to the lack of source material (i.e., cholesterol). But keep in mind that a shortage of vitamin A will also prevent thyroid hormones from proper working.

But as said by others above, nutrition should be emphasized first, and thyroid might be tried if improved nutrition does not turn the tide. But, given your tender age, your body will probably quickly recover once on track again (i.e., good nutrition).

@marteagal I will look up Haidut's supplement.

Progestene

 

[CoolTweetPete]

I recently looked at a label on a box of sardines from my low carb days. I think it said 17g of PUFA per can or something astronomical like that. Never eating that again! Oysters are a good alternative with low PUFA, and tons of precious precious zinc.

 

[mt_dreams]

Unless you have a reaction to gluten, looking for bread without pufa (be it oil or from whole grains) might be more important.
if you choose to drink rice/almond milk, make sure there's no carrageenan.
if you plan on eating that many eggs, go for pasture raised as the vegetarian fed (even organic) have high pufa.
smelts are a lower pufa fish that is comparable to sardines. they only have a bit of omega 3 though do to their lower pufa content.
most prepared/packaged food these days is made with canola oil, so they will have pufa unfortunately.
dates contain estrogen, but i doubt you're eating enough larabars for this to be an issue.

i get acne when I get more than an hour of hot sun and I haven't eaten liver (high in A) or taken topical vitamin A.
Washing my face with only honey has also appeared to stabilize the oil on my face.
i'm older than you so not sure if this will be of any use to you. i got acne until 21/22 then it stopped being a problem.

 

[bohogirl]

Is there something wrong with sea salt? I use Celtic Sea Salt.

 

[CoolTweetPete]

Is there something wrong with sea salt? I use Celtic Sea Salt.

If it is fine grain, it probably contains an anti-caking agent. Possibly aluminum or Yellow Prussiate of Soda (sodium ferrocyanide).

 

[bohogirl]

If it is fine grain, it probably contains an anti-caking agent. Possibly aluminum or Yellow Prussiate of Soda (sodium ferrocyanide).

It says no additives: Celtic Sea Salt® Fine Ground - Celtic Sea Salt

 

[CoolTweetPete]

Nice, I'll have to pick some of that up. $22 for a 5 pound bag on Amazon. :)

 

[bohogirl]

Nice, I'll have to pick some of that up. $22 for a 5 pound bag on Amazon. :)

It's expensive at stores but cheaper online. I haven't found a better tasting salt.

 

[Ellie18]

@marteagal Truth is stranger than fiction
Do you have any recommendations for getting more cholesterol? (besides eggs) The last time I had it tested I was pretty low.

@mt_dreams Looks like my rice milk has canola oil in it. Boooo. Good to know about the pasture raised eggs though!!

 

[tara]

Ellie18

although some members have reported a change in formulation/efficacy two years or so ago

Some of us (me included) noticed a change in taste, the manufacturer said there was no change in formulation, AFAIK it still works the same as it did.

 

[Ellie18]

@tara Thank you! I will look into the supplement.