THE BEST Of TIMES, THE WORST Of TIMES

[thebigpeatowski]

Just another reminder....From RP's Fats, Functions and Malfunctions: "The most highly unsaturated fats found in fish oil break down into chemicals that block the use of glucose and oxygen.
The ratio of saturated fatty acids to polyunsaturated fatty acids is decreased in cancer. Omega-3 fats promote metastasis."

 

[Sheila]

Big P, you are a constant source of inspiration. So happy for the new fever-throwing you.

in the early 1930s I think, they used to inject pyrogens (things that induce a fever, bacterial toxins IIRC) into cancer patients precisely to cause a fever. Approximately 30% who threw a good fever burned up their cancer forthwith. The extension of this in later years was full body, or sectional hyper-thermia as a cancer therapy. Having seen quite a few patients elect to persue that treatment in Europe, it seems to take a huge toll on the patient unless they have really good fuel stores intact first. If they are already in full blown cancer metabolism, I'm not sure the body can tolerate that temperature, even if the cancer (which has only a rudimentary blood supply and is therefore more susceptible to heat damage) is also impacted. It would make sense then if the body can not throw a fever itself, don't try to induce one until it is really ready and that would indicate that restoration of normal oxidative metabolism is critical. Clearly you have now achieved that, very well done!

Just what occurred to me.

Sheila

 

[thebigpeatowski]

Thank you Sheila, I could not agree more. I never realized until now just how critically important it is to be able to generate this kind of heat. It's crazy, exhausting and exhilarating all at once.

 

[thebigpeatowski]

Found this little gem today, from RP's Suitable Fats and Unsuitable Fats: Issues in Nutrition...

"The proteolytic enzymes are an essential part of innate immunity, and the highly unsaturated fatty acid, EPA, which is the most immunosuppressive of the fats, strongly inhibits proteolysis in some cells. The natural killer (NK) cells and phagocytic cells are two types of cell that are suppressed by PUFA, and they are involved in many kinds of physiological events, not just the killing of tumor cells and virus infected cells.

The immunosuppressive effects of PUFA are very general. Many metabolites that are known to have harmful effects on the immune system are increased by the PUFA (histamine [Masini, et al., 1990], serotonin, lactate, nitric oxide [Omura, et al., 2001]). These substances are also involved in tumor development."

When I was doing the GAPS diet (for close to 2 years) I was consuming a ton of fish oil that was especially high in EPA, as that's the type specifically outlined in the GAPS protocol. Just as a reminder for those who may be unfamiliar, GAPS was designed especially for peeps with autism...

Looking back, is there any wonder at all why my breast lump grew substantially and I had chronic cold sores while on that motherf*&%#!ing diet???

I'm going outside now....I'm going to LITERALLY BURN Dr. Campbell-McBride's GAPS book...also gonna burn my Body Ecology diet books too

 

[thebigpeatowski]

Waking temp is 98.4. Reaches 99.2 after breakfast and continues to inch up through the afternoon, sometimes all the way until bedtime. Hafta drink waaaaaay more fluids cuz I'm generally dying of thirst. This is all new to me.....wonder how long it'll last???

Also, been having to take boatloads of GABA, taurine and B-6 at bedtime in order to shut the brain off...otherwise it's on always on some repetitive loop. Is this fallout from the Antibiotic/Anti-fungal Fiasco?

http://youtu.be/8Rzwe-_Cd9g

 

[Jennifer]

Oh my, BP! I don't know how I missed all this. So your doctor gave you a stool test and it came back negative for a yeast overgrowth, but positive for a bacterial infection so she put you on an antibiotic? And the antibiotic gave you diarrhea and thrush so you figured out you actually have a fungal infection and so now your taking Nystatin? Did I get all that right?

So if your stool test came back negative for a yeast overgrowth, I now wonder if that gastroenterologist my mom saw was right about a bacterial overgrowth found on a stool test actually means a fungal overgrowth. I asked Dr. Oteri about what the GI doc said and how I've scoured the internet looking for anything that mentioned yeast being antibiotic in nature and Dr. O said that some yeast are antibacterial, but not all and they don't know which ones. Then I asked her about the white coating on the tongue and if thrush was when it can't be removed without bleeding and a bacterial overgrowth is when it can be removed without bleeding and she said it's hard to tell the difference because mild thrush can be removed without bleeding too. Grr! So yeah, I left there pretty much just as confused as when I left the GI docs office.

So how long do you have to be on the Nystatin for?

By the way, nice song choice! :)

 

[thebigpeatowski]

Oh my, BP! I don't know how I missed all this. So your doctor gave you a stool test and it came back negative for a yeast overgrowth, but positive for a bacterial infection so she put you on an antibiotic? And the antibiotic gave you diarrhea and thrush so you figured out you actually have a fungal infection and so now your taking Nystatin? Did I get all that right?

I apologize for my lack of clarity, my scatter brain is all over the place. So to be clear, I had a stool test done a long time ago, when I was having gut issues. It wasn't the all-inclusive version that you had and I really have NO idea how accurate it was. At any rate, nothing abnormal was found (just another waste of time and money). I had a Candida antibodies blood test performed too, which my doctor said showed that I HAD had Candida, but that it was currently not a problem....whatever that means??? I asked for clarification and she said I show antibodies for exposure, but not current infection. My pea brain still does not understand the whole immune system/antibodies thing. I tried to study it, but it was so complex my head was swimming and I gave up.

So if your stool test came back negative for a yeast overgrowth, I now wonder if that gastroenterologist my mom saw was right about a bacterial overgrowth found on a stool test actually means a fungal overgrowth. I asked Dr. Oteri about what the GI doc said and how I've scoured the internet looking for anything that mentioned yeast being antibiotic in nature and Dr. O said that some yeast are antibacterial, but not all and they don't know which ones. Then I asked her about the white coating on the tongue and if thrush was when it can't be removed without bleeding and a bacterial overgrowth is when it can be removed without bleeding and she said it's hard to tell the difference because mild thrush can be removed without bleeding too. Grr! So yeah, I left there pretty much just as confused as when I left the GI docs office.

This was my experience too, exactly. No straight answers from ANYBODY, including Peat. I came to the conclusion that nobody has the answer....Either that, or it isn't really an issue of an infection per se, but more a sign of LOW METABOLISM/SUPPRESSED IMMUNITY. Not enough research has been done I guess, I dunno. I can only make hair-brained theories based on my own particular set of symptoms and reactions at this point.

So how long do you have to be on the Nystatin for?

My doc told me to take it for 14 days, I quit after three or four days, mostly because it was making me INSANELY dizzy and I was spending my days standing at the top of a ladder painting...not a great place to be dizzy. After being off of the Nystatin for four days I was having super crazy brain problems (which could have been the result of a different experiment cuz that's the way we roll here ) so I started taking the Nystatin again. I'm not experiencing any dizziness yet, so far so good.

One of my confounding experiments was an effort to "balance" gut flora with probiotic foods, namely kefir and kombucha.....OMG, biggest mistake EVER!!! I had no luck with probiotic pills and so I decided to drink some commercial kefir and kombucha, thinking I will eat my way to a balanced colon. It instantly triggered MASSIVE brain inflammation, truly epic. I've never really experienced a migraine before, but this was beyond belief. I had a raging headache from hell, complete with gut churning nausea, church bells clanging in my ears and wicked insomnia...I spent hours curled up in the fetal position begging with the Universe.

I'm so confused, I used to drink GT Dave's regularly. I made my own home made kefir and kombucha and drank them ALL THE TIME when I was low-carbing, never ever have I had a reaction like that. Not once. I was completely unprepared for it and still have NO clue what the hell happened. Was my blood brain barrier wide open from all the pharmaceuticals??? WHO KNOWS?

The worst part of all of it was that I wasn't having any gut issues to speak of, the Nystatin had already stopped the antibiotic induced diarrhea and my white tongue was clearing rather quickly. This is precisely how I knew for a fact that I had a fungal imbalance. I was drinking the kefir and kombucha only because I somehow thought I "needed to balance" my gut flora after the antibiotics, even though I was having no issues. It was like a precautionary measure gone awry...and quite badly at that.

 

[Jennifer]

Oh, okay! I gotcha now! :)

I'm sorry you went through all of that BP! These drugs are crazy. Even with the Minocycline, it took me at least a week before I could stay awake and not feel dizzy with every move I made. And then when Dr. Oteri doubled the dose, forget about it! What a nightmare! And all the confusion and lack of definitive answers only compounds the stress. But yes, I can completely relate to the headache from hell. It could of just been a residual side effect of taking the antibiotic or your body getting use to the Nystatin, hard to tell. All I know is I have a lot of sympathy for people like my mom and tara who deal with them on a daily basis.

You know, I noticed that foods I thought I could tolerate even a few years back, I can't now and I chock it up to me actually hearing my body for the first time in my life. I look back at symptoms I had after eating and at the time, I just thought they were normal. I didn't have a reference point of not feeling those symptoms. There were times in my youth I would be buckled in half due to terrible cramping after eating things like bagels or salads. And a few years ago when my rash and bloating were insane, I was going through almost two 16 oz jars of sauerkraut daily. Anyhow, I'm really glad you were able to read your body so well and figured out you're dealing with a fungal overgrowth. I hope the Nystatin helps and you feel better as soon as possible.

 

[thebigpeatowski]

Thanks Jennifer, I actually feel great now. I'll post more when I go off of the Nystatin if anything weird happens....
http://youtu.be/x8fj3rQ9vdc

 

[SQu]

I've actually been taking a leaf out of your book (or should I say posts) and upped the vits and minerals in particular so I'm having milk and eggshell powder, fruit and cream of tartar, the mag bicarb, and extra salt and something in that list, and I suspect the eggshell because it's the one thing I never took consistently before, is making me feel good on a low fat diet whereas I didn't before. I'm having seafood probably three times a week too. So a big thank you for that tip!

 

[thebigpeatowski]

sueq...I am coming to the conclusion that a HUGE part of the obesity/health problem, especially here in the United States, is GROSS MALNUTRITION. Despite being the fattest people on earth, we are so undernourished it's pathetic.

The solutions are deceptively simple and yet by no means easy: eat a lot of nutritionally dense food on a daily basis...in the beginning a malnourished person may have to force the protein and extra minerals in, especially if they have slowed digestion and/or a lack of appetite/low stomach acid, bloating etc. which is quite common.

If there has been a long history of restriction in the past, as in my situation, weight gain will be unavoidable. I think it's a necessary part of healing (as much as I HATE to admit that). We are absolutely designed to hold on to reserves in case of famine and I also think fat can act as a buffer of sorts to toxins (both environmental and metabolic). Sending a clear and direct message that the famine is OVER seems to be crucial.

However, staying too heavy for too long can create hormonal imbalances, at least it did for me. Perhaps I am hypersensitive, but too much estrogen creates more problems and the vicious cycle continues despite really healthy eating. Continuing to take in too many calories (more than than ones' particular metabolism can use) or too many empty calories will result in unnecessary fat gain. THE TRICK IS EATING VERY DENSE NUTRITION IN JUST THE RIGHT AMOUNT FOR ONE'S LEVEL OF ACTIVITY AND PARTICULAR METABOLIC RATE....and that happens to be slightly different for everyone. Gut flora appears to be a factor too.

I suppose the body will eventually overcome the depleted state and will simply let go of excess weight and all of the attending estrogen driven inflammation without having to cut caloric intake, but that could take several years. Personally, I was unwilling to feel like sh*t for who knows how long, plus I had a breast lump that was scaring the life out of me. Reducing estrogen PRONTO was of utmost importance. That's why I decided to undertake the very low fat/no starch experiment. I figured since I already had a lot body fat I didn't need any extra fat in my diet.

The NO starch part was because I was having severe gut issues which were adding to my problems. Starch seems to feed a particular microbe in me that causes gut and brain inflammation, which then makes it very difficult to figure stuff out. Plus starch only tastes good to me with LOTS of fat on it, so what's the point?

I still have too much fat on me (a good ten or 15 pounds), but I feel so much better and the lump is gone so I'm waaay less concerned.

My experiment was custom tailored to fit me, based on my particular set of issues. My hope is that if there are other folks with a similar profile/issues that perhaps it might work for them too...or maybe just certain aspects of it. The part that bugs me is that people think I'm making blanket recommendations, especially the younger menfolk here....to whom this clearly does not apply.

 

[narouz]

Continuing to take in too many calories (more than than ones' particular metabolism can use) or too many empty calories will result in unnecessary fat gain. THE TRICK IS EATING VERY DENSE NUTRITION IN JUST THE RIGHT AMOUNT FOR ONE'S LEVEL OF ACTIVITY AND PARTICULAR METABOLIC RATE....and that happens to be slightly different for everyone. Gut flora appears to be a factor too...

This is interesting, bigp,
and goes to one of the difficult Peat areas,
about weight gain.

It would seem, with Peat,
that he would still advocate--
for a too fat or even obese person--
high protein and sugars.
He seems to always favor keeping one's foot on the metabolic gas pedal
when it comes to weight issues.
And this has been a stumbling block for me.
I'm a little overweight, like 15-20 pounds, I guess.
And it is hard, with my metabolism not working so great now,
to eat his target area amounts of protein and sugars.

It would seem that you're seeing some progress now.
How much of that do you ascribe to the Nystatin?
Something seems to have jump-started your metabolic motor, yes?
Are you leaning toward a hypothesis saying you had a gut issue,
perhaps a fungal issue?
Or is that too narrow of an explanation?

 

[thebigpeatowski]

As you know narouz, I came to Peat from a very low-carb background. I had struggled with fungal issues for a very long time, but the less carbohydrate that I ate the WORSE IT GOT. I had a very very low body temperature. So I absolutely must agree with Peat on this, you cannot starve out Candida and you desperately need to raise your body temps in order to keep Candida in check. Do you still have overt symptoms of fungal imbalance narouz? If so, do they go beyond your intestines? Like foot fungus, jock itch etc.? If so, what are your current body temps? I really DO believe that it's ultimately a metabolic issue. You need to do whatever it takes to bring/keep your body temperature up. How is your appetite? Digestion and elimination?

When I added carbs back in to my diet all the gut issues exploded. My guess is that I simply just did not have the kind of microbes for tolerating all the sugar I was eating. I had rapid weight gain, acne form hell, diabetic fasting blood sugars, massive brain energy problems etc. Apparently my body hadn't used insulin in so long due to my former way of eating that I was totally unprepared for what happened, I had no idea how insulin resistant I had become. It took several months of pure fructose, larger doses of thyroid and large doses of B vits. to force the switch to sugar burning. Despite other improvements (like finally being able to sleep, improved libido and NO athlete's foot), the weight gain, acne and diarrhea were awful and I can EASILY see why people give up and quit. I read somewhere where Peat says it takes the body a couple weeks to adjust to new foods, not me...it took me waaaaay longer. Took the better part of a year, I'm old and slow.

It took total starch/fat restriction to force the weight change.....somewhere in all of that process my overall metabolism shifted and my gut issues went away. The shift in metabolism was gradual and I wasn't aware of it until this winter when I began to get signs of HYPERthyroidism. I have never been hyperthyroid in my life, so once again, I was totally unprepared for it and since I'm slow it took me a while to figure it out. I didn't have the usual heart palpitations and sweating like people talk about when they are getting too much thyroid medication.

Instead what I noticed was increased hair shedding, muscle weakness and tremor. For instance, lifting a stack of dinner plates into the cupboard made my arms feel very weak or doing things like a deep knee bend to get into the clothes dryer caused my thigh muscles to quiver/tremble. I also had some problems of insomnia resurfacing. At first I thought I needed MORE thyroid meds because it was the dead of winter. After researching symptoms of TOO MUCH medication I decided to taper down during January and I quit all thyroid meds the first week of February. I felt better immediately: hair stopped falling, muscles feel nice and strong with no trembling and sleep is awesome once again. Mood and energy are superb. Enormous appetite with perfect digestion/elimination etc. All of this (and NO weight gain) in the dead of winter is unheard of for me. So YES, I absolutely MUST agree with Peat on this, METABOLISM IS EVERYTHING...but these things occurred way before the Metronidazole Fiasco.

I took the antibiotic on February 16th and within hours all hell broke loose, prior to that everything was as rosy as could be. Taking that drug TOTALLY confounded my experiment because it effed up my digestion beyond belief. It forces me to second guess a few things, EXCEPT for the fungal overgrowth. The insane Candida growth following the dose of Metronidazole was so blatantly obvious. My body's inability to "right itself" quickly was cause for concern...I wondered why it threw me for such a loop (digestively speaking) and not others...I recalled your mention of Candida issues involving the cecum and that is PRECISELY where I felt the gut irritation. That's when I formed my lack-of-appendix-keeping-candida-in-check theory. My metabolism was already doing really good, so I figured there was MORE to keeping Candida in balance...say, a useless appendix for instance. I think having an appendix helps people restore balance quickly, people without them need desperate measures on occasion....hence the Nystatin.

So, while I don't know if the Nystatin contributed to my boosted metabolism, I DO think knocking back Candida plays a large role in the immune system .....somehow.....not sure how. I'm still unraveling this, like I said earlier there are confounding issues because I am only a month in to My NO Thyroid Medication at all experiment.

I am having HUGE INCREASES in body temperature, what does this mean? Is it due to knocking back the Candida??? Or had I built up a tolerance to thyroid meds and that was somehow suppressing my body??? Did I have high reverse T3 and now that is righting itself??? I noticed these metabolic changes during Christmas and I had no time to go in for labs and I was really busy at the time so I wasn't really tracking anything. I also had some loose stools on occasion, which I passed off as too much Holiday indulgence, but also could very well be too much thyroid medication....see what I mean? I'm slow and stuff gets confounded quickly. Sometimes I think I should just STFU.

Having said all of this, taking myself off of thyroid medication seems to have lifted some sort of rate limiting factor. BUT since the the whole antibiotic/ant-fungal thing has muddied the waters substantially and may have indeed helped my immune system and therefore metabolism, I have come to the conclusion that I really have NO clue...more time is needed to tease this hairball out. I'm somewhat astounded at how superbly unhelpful this is...so sorry narouz

 

[narouz]

bigp-
No, not at all--very helpful!
I think it is very reasonable that you just can't say for sure at this time.
If you're like me--
always changing and adding variables, not just one at a time--
hard to know why something happened.

My problems started about a year ago,
when I couldn't take the high doses of Cytomel and Cynomel I had been taking--successfully, it seemed.
I would get heart palpitations.

Okay...so there was a ceiling on my thyroid supplementing.
My temps and pulses went low.
But I couldn't raise them with more thyroid--palpitations.

So my leading theory is that all the other bad things I've encountered
are all rooted in me being hypothyroid:
bad backache, low libido, needing lots of sleep but still not feeling right,
some kinda "acid reflux-y" feelings, and some diarrhea or ragged poops,
and also I guess "acidy" poops that irritate my butt.

I have seen some improvement with various oral antifungals.

Antibiotics have seemed to help a little with temps/pulses in the short term,
but then followed by worsening conditions.

So...like you, I just don't know.
I tend to want to see it as a gut problem, maybe fungus.
I don't know how that translates into heart palpitations.

And like you I've considered I may need to offload excess T4.
There are groups, guess you know, who believe T3 only helps them.
I've experimented with that in the past with unclear results.
Maybe time for another experiment.

I'm thinking of following Jennifer's lead with an expensive comprehensive gut lab.
That's one reason I'm dragging my feet on the Nystatin:
if I do the expensive test I don't want to distort my biome with Nystatin....

 

[SQu]

I agree about malnutrition. I do have some overlap of issues. History of low carbing. Weight gain on reintroduction of carbs. And a feeling that the excess fat is keeping estrogen so high I can't make progress. Low fat, no starch and less liquid is helping, and worth carrying on with, but no weight loss. I do feel somewhat better and hope that continuing to build on that will finally lead to improvement in weight and that intractable issue, poor sleep. So far I'm loving the way extra calcium makes me feel. And that has to be a good thing!

 

[thebigpeatowski]

I agree about malnutrition. I do have some overlap of issues. History of low carbing. Weight gain on reintroduction of carbs. And a feeling that the excess fat is keeping estrogen so high I can't make progress. Low fat, no starch and less liquid is helping, and worth carrying on with, but no weight loss. I do feel somewhat better and hope that continuing to build on that will finally lead to improvement in weight and that intractable issue, poor sleep. So far I'm loving the way extra calcium makes me feel. And that has to be a good thing!

Have you tried taurine for sleep sueq? Or GABA...or both? With glycine?

 

[SQu]

Yes - still take lots of gelatin and taurine at bedtime. (Gaba gave me palpitations or something very uncomfortable, not sure what exactly - funny taste in mouth, anxiety, heart palps unlike the minor ones I get from too much B3). I go to sleep ok-ish but wake 3 or 4 times during the night and that's the problem. I've tried the timing of an alarm clock to the wakeup times - when my husband was away! - and will try again next time. Most sleep aids I've tried including cypro-heptadine help me GET to sleep - though that's not even the problem - but nothing at all helps me STAY asleep. I also take aspirin and drink sweetened milk and have tried a bunch of other stuff during wakeups. The only time I ever slept properly in the last tenzillion years was staying at a farm and being outdoors all day. All day. Slept through every night. BUT that was before I put on twentyzillion pounds and started my own estrogen factory. Seems almost everyone has some intractable thing and this and fat gain are mine. Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[thebigpeatowski]

Hmmm...sounds like you are sensitive to estrogen like me. There isn't enough Progest-E on the planet when I'm churning out estrogen, trust me, I've tried to drown myself in the stuff.

My only suggestion for reducing estrogen producing fat cells is NOT a popular one: that is to inch down your calories and watch the scale very closely to see where your break even point is. BUT, you absolutely must not sacrifice nutrition at any cost, otherwise your body will just ramp down metabolism which defeats the whole point. I could not have done it without tracking on Cron-O, I needed to be certain that all nutrients were covered consistently on a daily basis. Once you know where your break even point is, you can decide from there whether to take the quick and dirty route or the slow and steady route. Perhaps you already know where your personal break even point is?


.....being at a farm, what about EMF?

 

[sweetpeat]

Hi bigpeat,
I've been following your adventures with interest even though I don't post very much. Being able to get off thyroid supps is truly inspiring!
I was wondering if you've also been able to reduce or drop the Progest-e as well?

 

[thebigpeatowski]

Hi sweatpeat, I have radically reduced my Progest-E. I used to need/use a ton of the stuff, now I only use a few drops and only when I think of it, which is somewhat sporadic. I no longer carry it with me everywhere I go.....seems like I used to nurse on it like a baby bottle before Huge money saver for sure!