Perimenopause, Fatty Liver, Sleep Apnea, High Cortisol

[Katelove]

So, I took some time away from this forum and the principles in general. I feel I got worse this past summer after going on T3 and eating cheese and drinking OJ and adding more sugar and coffee.
However, I am appearing to be going through perimenopause. I am 44. This past year my cycle is changing, skipping periods first for a month, then two months and then now over 3 months now...I am tired, bloated, breathless on exertion, and very weepy, cry very easily.
My body is changing and trying to find what I need right now feels difficult. I have had some relief from taking tyrosine and a raw thyroid product from Natural Sources as well as a liquid colloidal mineral supplement. I have been following the Type O diet, which is no wheat, lots of protein, some white rice, sweet potatoes, olive oil, some feta or mozzarella, fruit juice at times, whey protein smoothie with berries/banana sometimes, and occassional junk food (salty chips are my downfall).
I have dark spots under my armpits and some skin tags, also a floater in my eye that does not go away. I think I have a fatty liver. I don't really go to Dr.s and haven't tested for it.
I have fat around my belly and face, lean, muscular legs. I have pretty bad sleep apnea and have been using a cpap for 10 years. I believe my sleep apnea triggers cortisol release. The cpap helps but its not perfect.
I am just hear to ask for any suggestions or insight.
I have some questions about endotoxin. I feel I resist this because I feel that I get so hungry without starch like rice and potatoes.
Thank you

 

[Vinero]

Well cooked white rice or potatoes won't raise endotoxin in my experience.
Are you aware of Rays work on progesterone and it's relation to menopause?

From PMS to menopause
Full text of "FROM PMS To MENOPAUSE"

 

[Katelove]

Well cooked white rice or potatoes won't raise endotoxin in my experience.
Are you aware of Rays work on progesterone and it's relation to menopause?

From PMS to menopause
Full text of "FROM PMS To MENOPAUSE"

Thank you Venero! I will check this out. Your reply gives me relief.

 

[Peatful]

Well cooked white rice or potatoes won't raise endotoxin in my experience.
Are you aware of Rays work on progesterone and it's relation to menopause?

From PMS to menopause
Full text of "FROM PMS To MENOPAUSE"

I agree with this @Katelove

Also having starch was important for me once I started adding low dose proseterone as needed.
There is a Katherine Dalton thread on here which is a great resource.

 

[Katelove]

Does anyone have experience with blood type diet and, specifically, if type O?

 

[Katelove]

I agree with this @Katelove

Also having starch was important for me once I started adding low dose proseterone as needed.
There is a Katherine Dalton thread on here which is a great resource.

Thank you Peatful! Good to know. I have been using low doses of progesterone. I will check out the thread.

 

[Peatful]

*It’s Katharina Dalton*
A thread created by @PakPik

If you scroll down it’s on the bottom of the front homepage....

 

[Nicole W.]

Does anyone have experience with blood type diet and, specifically, if type O?

I’m O negative. I looked into the blood type diet years ago. For O types, supposedly the original blood type, the diet is pretty Paleo like. The basic idea is that our blood type originated prior to the advent of agriculture so supposedly we are not well equipped to to digest anything from those periods. The recommendation is no grains, no dairy, no refined sugars. There’s some other weird food exclusions as well, I think avocado is not recommended. Pretty unsustainable, for me at least. I didn’t even try it. I asked my naturopath what she and her peers thought of the concept of the blood type diet and she said that they were split down the middle in terms of support for this philosophy.

 

[BlueEyeWolf]

Well cooked white rice or potatoes won't raise endotoxin in my experience.
Are you aware of Rays work on progesterone and it's relation to menopause?

From PMS to menopause
Full text of "FROM PMS To MENOPAUSE"

I am reading this now. This is very helpful Thank you for sharing this.

 

[Vinero]

So, I took some time away from this forum and the principles in general. I feel I got worse this past summer after going on T3 and eating cheese and drinking OJ and adding more sugar and coffee.
However, I am appearing to be going through perimenopause. I am 44. This past year my cycle is changing, skipping periods first for a month, then two months and then now over 3 months now...I am tired, bloated, breathless on exertion, and very weepy, cry very easily.
My body is changing and trying to find what I need right now feels difficult. I have had some relief from taking tyrosine and a raw thyroid product from Natural Sources as well as a liquid colloidal mineral supplement. I have been following the Type O diet, which is no wheat, lots of protein, some white rice, sweet potatoes, olive oil, some feta or mozzarella, fruit juice at times, whey protein smoothie with berries/banana sometimes, and occassional junk food (salty chips are my downfall).
I have dark spots under my armpits and some skin tags, also a floater in my eye that does not go away. I think I have a fatty liver. I don't really go to Dr.s and haven't tested for it.
I have fat around my belly and face, lean, muscular legs. I have pretty bad sleep apnea and have been using a cpap for 10 years. I believe my sleep apnea triggers cortisol release. The cpap helps but its not perfect.
I am just hear to ask for any suggestions or insight.
I have some questions about endotoxin. I feel I resist this because I feel that I get so hungry without starch like rice and potatoes.
Thank you

I see you think you suffer from fatty liver.
Caffeine is helpful for getting rid of fatty liver, but I see you already drink coffee.
Dietary choline seems to be very protective against fatty liver, do you sometimes eat eggs?
I would not overeat sugar, fructose seems to be more easily converted to fat in the liver.
I think in the case of fatty liver increasing starches such as white rice and potatoes might be safer.
I would ofcourse always eat a mix of both sugar and starches for carbohydrates.
But in the case of fatty liver I would eat a higher percentage of my carbs as well cooked starches.

 

[Katelove]

I see you think you suffer from fatty liver.
Caffeine is helpful for getting rid of fatty liver, but I see you already drink coffee.
Dietary choline seems to be very protective against fatty liver, do you sometimes eat eggs?
I would not overeat sugar, fructose seems to be more easily converted to fat in the liver.
I think in the case of fatty liver increasing starches such as white rice and potatoes might be safer.
I would ofcourse always eat a mix of both sugar and starches for carbohydrates.
But in the case of fatty liver I would eat a higher percentage of my carbs as well cooked starches.

Thank you Vinero. That really resonates for me. What do you suggest for fat consumption? Low fat? I do eat butter and olive oil and cheese regularly.

 

[danishispsychic]

Hi Katelove- I can chime in on this. I had mild fatty liver , have O pos blood type, used to have high cortisol and I went peri meno early. I was lucky to have a medical doc who was a blood test hound and told me my Prenegnalone was super low. I was already on Progest E for a while before that discovery. He put me on 50 mg pren. and told be to ease up on the Progesterone because the hormone cascade would convert that first. Of course I didn't believe him because I was mad that he could not diagnose a parasite infection that I clearly had... different story. The first time I took Prenegnalone - I noticed that my cortisol started lowering and I could finally sleep . Because of the high cortisol and stress from a whole bunch of loss in my life probs- my adrenals , which were never great in the first place, were wiped out. I did take thyroid from Natural Sources for a couple years off and on before that - but after a while it was amping me up too much. I took only the following - Prenegnalone 50 ( cycled it ) Epsom salt baths, and a Vitamin D spray and a B12 spray. At that time, I did try the blood type diet. It did not work for me. Why ? honestly -my liver did not like all the protein at that time. I have never been able to do Paleo, or Atkins or whey at ALL. I was still convinced that my thyroid was low so I started to really follow Ray Peats work . When I started all that my temps were like 97.6 low low low. I added a bit of Nacent Iodine each am, ( low low dose ) and sea salt- and my temps started to go up , my estrogen seemed to go down and I started to " de puff ". I went to more of a vegetarian diet as well. No more slabs of meat- more dairy , fruit, coffee, more fruit, less veg, more plain 'ol WHITE SUGAR and honey, and more citrus. My temps went up to 98.2 . I do eat some starch as well once in a while. I don't eat rice or potatoes. I eat sourdough bread and pumpernickle from Germany. I do eat cheese , i dont really drink milk but do add a lot to my coffee. I drink a LOT of coffee. I also at the time started focusing on two things for my fatty liver. Lemons and Coffee Enemas. I blend up 2 lemons and day with sugar and water and drink that everyday. It's yummy. I took a product still called Liver Edge ( drops ) which is dandelion and milk thistle- and drank Liver Cleanse tea by Dr. Stuart. I did coffee enemas at least 4 times a week for a year. I got another liver scan after all that and no more fatty liver. These days - I stay with lemons, drink TONS of cofffee, have added in aspirin, I take MSM in my orange juice ( I squeeze my own only ) and also take good grade DE for my gut. In terms of fat, I totally try to avoid as much PUFA as possible but I am not perfect. Compared to the PUFA monster I was before, im sure its lower. I drink Yellow Red Bull, and Liver Cleanse Tea still . I am not loving Progesterone as much as Prenegnalone but I flip back and forth on those. My temps these days are 98.5 ish, and I am trying to push them higher. My sleep is not perfect - ( I have a deviated septum ) but much much better. And one more thing about Progesterone- when I was using it , I used to super high doses that Dr. Peat recommends at first. I really made a big difference doing it that way. As for the blood type diet, I think it is valid but if you liver is compromised= the type O diet , IMO is not going to work. I follow Dr. Peat with a lot of self experimentation.

 

[Katelove]

Hi Katelove- I can chime in on this. I had mild fatty liver , have O pos blood type, used to have high cortisol and I went peri meno early. I was lucky to have a medical doc who was a blood test hound and told me my Prenegnalone was super low. I was already on Progest E for a while before that discovery. He put me on 50 mg pren. and told be to ease up on the Progesterone because the hormone cascade would convert that first. Of course I didn't believe him because I was mad that he could not diagnose a parasite infection that I clearly had... different story. The first time I took Prenegnalone - I noticed that my cortisol started lowering and I could finally sleep . Because of the high cortisol and stress from a whole bunch of loss in my life probs- my adrenals , which were never great in the first place, were wiped out. I did take thyroid from Natural Sources for a couple years off and on before that - but after a while it was amping me up too much. I took only the following - Prenegnalone 50 ( cycled it ) Epsom salt baths, and a Vitamin D spray and a B12 spray. At that time, I did try the blood type diet. It did not work for me. Why ? honestly -my liver did not like all the protein at that time. I have never been able to do Paleo, or Atkins or whey at ALL. I was still convinced that my thyroid was low so I started to really follow Ray Peats work . When I started all that my temps were like 97.6 low low low. I added a bit of Nacent Iodine each am, ( low low dose ) and sea salt- and my temps started to go up , my estrogen seemed to go down and I started to " de puff ". I went to more of a vegetarian diet as well. No more slabs of meat- more dairy , fruit, coffee, more fruit, less veg, more plain 'ol WHITE SUGAR and honey, and more citrus. My temps went up to 98.2 . I do eat some starch as well once in a while. I don't eat rice or potatoes. I eat sourdough bread and pumpernickle from Germany. I do eat cheese , i dont really drink milk but do add a lot to my coffee. I drink a LOT of coffee. I also at the time started focusing on two things for my fatty liver. Lemons and Coffee Enemas. I blend up 2 lemons and day with sugar and water and drink that everyday. It's yummy. I took a product still called Liver Edge ( drops ) which is dandelion and milk thistle- and drank Liver Cleanse tea by Dr. Stuart. I did coffee enemas at least 4 times a week for a year. I got another liver scan after all that and no more fatty liver. These days - I stay with lemons, drink TONS of cofffee, have added in aspirin, I take MSM in my orange juice ( I squeeze my own only ) and also take good grade DE for my gut. In terms of fat, I totally try to avoid as much PUFA as possible but I am not perfect. Compared to the PUFA monster I was before, im sure its lower. I drink Yellow Red Bull, and Liver Cleanse Tea still . I am not loving Progesterone as much as Prenegnalone but I flip back and forth on those. My temps these days are 98.5 ish, and I am trying to push them higher. My sleep is not perfect - ( I have a deviated septum ) but much much better. And one more thing about Progesterone- when I was using it , I used to super high doses that Dr. Peat recommends at first. I really made a big difference doing it that way. As for the blood type diet, I think it is valid but if you liver is compromised= the type O diet , IMO is not going to work. I follow Dr. Peat with a lot of self experimentation.

Omg danishispsychic! This is super, super helpful.
I am going to print this out and play with some of what you have said. My temps go down to 96.1 at times. I stopped taking them because they caused me so much frustration. They were not really changing. I really appreciate the time you took to post this. Thank you.

 

[danishispsychic]

If you want to message me on here ( not sure how to do that ) I will give you my email / phone and totally talk to you about it all if you want sometime xx

 

[danishispsychic]

Omg danishispsychic! This is super, super helpful.
I am going to print this out and play with some of what you have said. My temps go down to 96.1 at times. I stopped taking them because they caused me so much frustration. They were not really changing. I really appreciate the time you took to post this. Thank you.

About temps- I think that sugar / fruit and iodine and the things that really help. xx GO FOR IT on the sugar milk coffee thing and see how you feel.

 

[Katelove]

If you want to message me on here ( not sure how to do that ) I will give you my email / phone and totally talk to you about it all if you want sometime xx

Thank you for your offer. That is very cool.

 

[Birdie]

I find I need to go very easy on the cheese and stick to the milky coffee Ray recommends. It's worked wonders for me. I'd been plagued with bouts of extreme hunger with overeating as my body screamed out for nourishment. Finally, I found that croissants or muffins with breakfast always set off this scary mechanism. It improved a little when I had to go off gluten, but I'd still get these hypoglycemic feeling attacks during the day. When I began a more Peaty way minimizing starches and having my milky coffee at hand, all this improved.

I went through perimenopause just before finding Ray Peat. Often, I thought it would have been delayed had I found Peat's work sooner. But I was fortunate to find him soon enough to avoid the hot flashes and to get off my bioidentical hormones. So, I guess we all start where we are.

I remember feeling awful at first, in 2011, when I got to joining the FB group and tried to drink a lot of oj with breakfast. I don't know why that experience didn't send me away, but I just eventually found that for me, a little oj, along with fruit worked better. So, I modified even though old timers told me to keep trying more oj. What I mean is I can see why you left after that summer try.

 

[Milena]

Hi Katelove- I can chime in on this. I had mild fatty liver , have O pos blood type, used to have high cortisol and I went peri meno early. I was lucky to have a medical doc who was a blood test hound and told me my Prenegnalone was super low. I was already on Progest E for a while before that discovery. He put me on 50 mg pren. and told be to ease up on the Progesterone because the hormone cascade would convert that first. Of course I didn't believe him because I was mad that he could not diagnose a parasite infection that I clearly had... different story. The first time I took Prenegnalone - I noticed that my cortisol started lowering and I could finally sleep . Because of the high cortisol and stress from a whole bunch of loss in my life probs- my adrenals , which were never great in the first place, were wiped out. I did take thyroid from Natural Sources for a couple years off and on before that - but after a while it was amping me up too much. I took only the following - Prenegnalone 50 ( cycled it ) Epsom salt baths, and a Vitamin D spray and a B12 spray. At that time, I did try the blood type diet. It did not work for me. Why ? honestly -my liver did not like all the protein at that time. I have never been able to do Paleo, or Atkins or whey at ALL. I was still convinced that my thyroid was low so I started to really follow Ray Peats work . When I started all that my temps were like 97.6 low low low. I added a bit of Nacent Iodine each am, ( low low dose ) and sea salt- and my temps started to go up , my estrogen seemed to go down and I started to " de puff ". I went to more of a vegetarian diet as well. No more slabs of meat- more dairy , fruit, coffee, more fruit, less veg, more plain 'ol WHITE SUGAR and honey, and more citrus. My temps went up to 98.2 . I do eat some starch as well once in a while. I don't eat rice or potatoes. I eat sourdough bread and pumpernickle from Germany. I do eat cheese , i dont really drink milk but do add a lot to my coffee. I drink a LOT of coffee. I also at the time started focusing on two things for my fatty liver. Lemons and Coffee Enemas. I blend up 2 lemons and day with sugar and water and drink that everyday. It's yummy. I took a product still called Liver Edge ( drops ) which is dandelion and milk thistle- and drank Liver Cleanse tea by Dr. Stuart. I did coffee enemas at least 4 times a week for a year. I got another liver scan after all that and no more fatty liver. These days - I stay with lemons, drink TONS of cofffee, have added in aspirin, I take MSM in my orange juice ( I squeeze my own only ) and also take good grade DE for my gut. In terms of fat, I totally try to avoid as much PUFA as possible but I am not perfect. Compared to the PUFA monster I was before, im sure its lower. I drink Yellow Red Bull, and Liver Cleanse Tea still . I am not loving Progesterone as much as Prenegnalone but I flip back and forth on those. My temps these days are 98.5 ish, and I am trying to push them higher. My sleep is not perfect - ( I have a deviated septum ) but much much better. And one more thing about Progesterone- when I was using it , I used to super high doses that Dr. Peat recommends at first. I really made a big difference doing it that way. As for the blood type diet, I think it is valid but if you liver is compromised= the type O diet , IMO is not going to work. I follow Dr. Peat with a lot of self experimentation.

@danishispsychic do you blend the WHOLE lemon including pith and skin or just the peeled fruit or what?
Being on here has helped my liver results from 6 monthly blood tests. I used to drink a lot of milk, OJ (from concentrate, no decent properly-ripe fruit here except berries in summer -roll on summer) and small wild prawns. Coffee, instant, 2 heaped tsps per cup with sugar and BOB (skimmed with protein) milk has been an addition for the last 6 mths. Still overweight and sluggish with now a problem with prawns which is likely gout but happy with the start of improvements in the liver. Temps are still in the upper 95, low 96 doldrums but Tai Chi since Jan has started moving some heat through my hands. I wish I had started it earlier in life as I am spending a lot of time working on the damage and weaknesses it is exposing.
Glad I found Peat and the forum and also the person here (possibly Lisa F or Tara) who said focus on your liver. Thank you all.
Also hydrolysed collagen, 6tsps daily.

 

[danishispsychic]

@danishispsychic do you blend the WHOLE lemon including pith and skin or just the peeled fruit or what?
Being on here has helped my liver results from 6 monthly blood tests. I used to drink a lot of milk, OJ (from concentrate, no decent properly-ripe fruit here except berries in summer -roll on summer) and small wild prawns. Coffee, instant, 2 heaped tsps per cup with sugar and BOB (skimmed with protein) milk has been an addition for the last 6 mths. Still overweight and sluggish with now a problem with prawns which is likely gout but happy with the start of improvements in the liver. Temps are still in the upper 95, low 96 doldrums but Tai Chi since Jan has started moving some heat through my hands. I wish I had started it earlier in life as I am spending a lot of time working on the damage and weaknesses it is exposing.
Glad I found Peat and the forum and also the person here (possibly Lisa F or Tara) who said focus on your liver. Thank you all.
Also hydrolysed collagen, 6tsps daily.

Hi! I do lemons like this - 2 lemons, one with with , no seeds, and one with half the peel on ( after washing etc ) . I mix those with water and white sugar in my Vitamix. Then I strain it. It makes like a base lemonade that is strong. You can add water or sparking water etc depending on taste. I consume 2 lemons a day. I am not able to eat seafood . I add kelp ( 3 seaweed blend ) to my rice when I eat it. For me- iodine was the thing that made my temps go up - that and a LOT LOT LOT of sugar and honey and fruit. I buy frozen fruit mostly and blend it most days. I dont do a lot of oranges... I do them once in a while and always mix with milk and sugar . I use spray magnesium a lot too. I do 3 days on the Master Cleanse with the salt water flush twice a month too. I also feel that colonics and coffee enemas are key to really try to detox the colon- liver. xx

 

[Katelove]

I find I need to go very easy on the cheese and stick to the milky coffee Ray recommends. It's worked wonders for me. I'd been plagued with bouts of extreme hunger with overeating as my body screamed out for nourishment. Finally, I found that croissants or muffins with breakfast always set off this scary mechanism. It improved a little when I had to go off gluten, but I'd still get these hypoglycemic feeling attacks during the day. When I began a more Peaty way minimizing starches and having my milky coffee at hand, all this improved.

I went through perimenopause just before finding Ray Peat. Often, I thought it would have been delayed had I found Peat's work sooner. But I was fortunate to find him soon enough to avoid the hot flashes and to get off my bioidentical hormones. So, I guess we all start where we are.

I remember feeling awful at first, in 2011, when I got to joining the FB group and tried to drink a lot of oj with breakfast. I don't know why that experience didn't send me away, but I just eventually found that for me, a little oj, along with fruit worked better. So, I modified even though old timers told me to keep trying more oj. What I mean is I can see why you left after that summer try.

Thank you for your comments. Yes, I am trying a little OJ here and there. And the milky coffee is very pleasant and feels good for me so far. I am watching my blood sugar by having more frequent smaller meals/snacks...the starches are working for me at the moment, rice and potatoes are very satisfying to me. Also making sure I get protein during the day as well...I realized that I was feeling breathless because of too much thyroid. I have not taken it for 36 hours and will re-introduce a much smaller dose tomorrow.