I Am Looking For Help In Fixing Weak Digestion

[yerrag]

Eating any sort of protein or fat makes it hit me big time and I feel like it is poisoning my body. I get some brain fog and neck pain after meals and don’t feel as powerful.

So if you just ate rice, you won't feel terrible?

What OJ do you drink? Fresh or pasteurized?

Have to check the state of your digestive health - are digestive enzymes being produced at sufficient quantities by the pancreas?

If you ate raw meat, such as a carpaccio, would you feel the same way as you ate protein? Have you tried it?

What about raw cheese or raw milk? What is the effect?

If you just take VCO, what is your reaction?

If you just ate fresh orange or drank fresh orange juice, is the effect the same as how you described it drinking orange juice?

 

[JustAGuy]

I drink vinegar and honey in water with meals now and I find I have far less digestive complaints. It tastes pretty good too. Sometimes i add a touch of baking soda for a little carbonation (although not as much as when i make acetate)

I will try it, thank you!

So if you just ate rice, you won't feel terrible?

What OJ do you drink? Fresh or pasteurized?

Have to check the state of your digestive health - are digestive enzymes being produced at sufficient quantities by the pancreas?

If you ate raw meat, such as a carpaccio, would you feel the same way as you ate protein? Have you tried it?

What about raw cheese or raw milk? What is the effect?

If you just take VCO, what is your reaction?

If you just ate fresh orange or drank fresh orange juice, is the effect the same as how you described it drinking orange juice?

With just rice I feel way better, like 80% less complaints depending on the quantity I take.

I barely drink OJ now since it is super expensive here, like 2$ per 150ml (the fresh, never tried pasteurized oj).

Enzyme production is good according to stool samples (in high normal range), bile production was bad (not sure how accurate the bile test was though).

Carpaccio/raw cheese/raw milk same result.

I will report on the plain VCO, haven’t tried that yet. I feel okay after a glass of OJ, not the bad reaction I get to protein foods. I get neck pain and stuffy nose instantly aswell and just feel horrible. I really think stomach acid is a major culprit probably for me?

 

[yerrag]

I will try it, thank you!


With just rice I feel way better, like 80% less complaints depending on the quantity I take.

I barely drink OJ now since it is super expensive here, like 2$ per 150ml (the fresh, never tried pasteurized oj).

Enzyme production is good according to stool samples (in high normal range), bile production was bad (not sure how accurate the bile test was though).

Carpaccio/raw cheese/raw milk same result.

I will report on the plain VCO, haven’t tried that yet. I feel okay after a glass of OJ, not the bad reaction I get to protein foods. I get neck pain and stuffy nose instantly aswell and just feel horrible. I really think stomach acid is a major culprit probably for me?

Not sure how you'll take to fats and oils, as you mention bile production is bad, as bile emulsifies oils. But if you don't take it well, it would confirm the results of the bile test.

Do you have acid reflux? Or feelings of it? Like something sour on your throat?

Could the stuffy nose indicate an attempt to hold on to CO2? What is your breathing rate?

Maybe you have poor acid-base balance. The neck pain could just be lactic acid, or maybe uric acid crystallizing, as a result of metabolic acidosis. Low CO2, resulting from lactic acid pushing out CO2 from your blood, leaves you with an impaired gastric acid production, and your food is not properly digested. Bicarbonates are needed to allow chloride to be exchanged, and without chloride available for HCl production, you don't have enough gastric juice to digest properly.
The effects of low CO2 is systemic.

What is your temperature and heart rate? What is your serum bicarbonate level? What is your urine pH?

If you're urinating a lot, is it really just because of drinking OJ? If you merely drank water, would the urination be lessened? Frequent urination could just be the body excreting acidic wastes, and if you're highly acidic, you would urinate heavily.

 

[Sourdoughbanana]

Some of this sounds incredibly familiar.

Half of the symptoms Went away focusing on stomach acid, so whichever method you go for, you could get a nice return.

I found out my liver is quite weak, cholesterol rises quick no matter what macros I go for... although LDL has bottomed around 110 when eating 15% fats. I help bile acid production with taurine. Cholesterol being the main endogenous source for bile acids, if cholesterol is elevated, your bile acids could very well be low.

 

[General Orange]

Hello,

I am looking for your help in fixing my weak digestion.
Whenever I start eating foods I am usually left with a white tongue and feel a bit heavy/fatigued after meals.
I know the white tongue can disappear because if I stop eating for a day it goes away. In addition if I only drink juice it also goes away.

Eating any sort of protein or fat makes it hit me big time and I feel like it is poisoning my body. I get some brain fog and neck pain after meals and don’t feel as powerful.

I am trying to compose of an easy to digest yet nutritious diet.
Drinking a lot of liquids, like relying on orange juice as a main calorie source makes me go to the toilet constantly and drops my temp by 1 degrees celsius. Energy is good but I feel cold. I feel like I should focus more on denser food with a lower liquid content.

My digestion is very weak in the morning (has always been, I would secretly throw away my breakfast as a 5 year old because I had poor appetite) so I will focus on getting most of my calories later in the day. Also I will try to avoid very large meals and split it up more.

I am thinking about the following foods:
Carbs:
- white rice
- a bit of very ripe fruits I can find, bananas don’t sit well with me either
- heavily processed breakfast cereals with a good amount of sugar (will try to avoid added iron as much as possible)
Protein:
- start off with an essential amino acid blend, while slowly transitioning into lean meat/skim milk as digestion improves

I will also eat a few raw carrots daily. After I had a poor digesting meal I start to crave raw carrots, so I am sure they benefit me.

In addition to this I will look into using cascada sagrada and activated charcoal as I have seen a lot of positive feedback on these items on the forum.

Also while exercising I will try to avoid too strenuous exercises that tax my nervous system excessively (think squats/other barbell exercises) since I feel doing this contributes to my poor digestion.

Any critiques or ideas are greatly appreciated!

Careful with the raw carrot alone will ferment somewhat, prevent endotoxin by adding vinegar, coconut oil, olive oil. Don't overfeed the microbes.
Glutamine / Glutamate helps to improve your gut function. Consider bone broth or seaweed.

 

[JustAGuy]

Not sure how you'll take to fats and oils, as you mention bile production is bad, as bile emulsifies oils. But if you don't take it well, it would confirm the results of the bile test.

Do you have acid reflux? Or feelings of it? Like something sour on your throat?

Could the stuffy nose indicate an attempt to hold on to CO2? What is your breathing rate?

Maybe you have poor acid-base balance. The neck pain could just be lactic acid, or maybe uric acid crystallizing, as a result of metabolic acidosis. Low CO2, resulting from lactic acid pushing out CO2 from your blood, leaves you with an impaired gastric acid production, and your food is not properly digested. Bicarbonates are needed to allow chloride to be exchanged, and without chloride available for HCl production, you don't have enough gastric juice to digest properly.
The effects of low CO2 is systemic.

What is your temperature and heart rate? What is your serum bicarbonate level? What is your urine pH?

If you're urinating a lot, is it really just because of drinking OJ? If you merely drank water, would the urination be lessened? Frequent urination could just be the body excreting acidic wastes, and if you're highly acidic, you would urinate heavily.

I respond bad to fats similar to protein, just carbohydrates I respond very well to.

I have no acid reflux, just a heavy feeling in my stomach after protein/fat foods like it’s sitting there for ages.

Breathing rate is slow & relaxed if I eat pure carbs during the day, fast and restless if I eat protein/fats.

Temp depends on liquid intake, if I eat low liquid starch carbs it’s 37 celsius, if I eat only fruits for a day I feel cood and it goes to lower 36.

Serum bicarbonate and urine pH I don’t know, have no way of testing this since I am in a remote area currently.

Frequently urinating comes from both high water intake and high fruit, I sm not thirsty often, I urinate a lot if I drink when I am not thirsty.

Some of this sounds incredibly familiar.

Half of the symptoms Went away focusing on stomach acid, so whichever method you go for, you could get a nice return.

I found out my liver is quite weak, cholesterol rises quick no matter what macros I go for... although LDL has bottomed around 110 when eating 15% fats. I help bile acid production with taurine. Cholesterol being the main endogenous source for bile acids, if cholesterol is elevated, your bile acids could very well be low.

I wonder what you did to correct low stomach acid? And did you notice benefits of the taurine?

Careful with the raw carrot alone will ferment somewhat, prevent endotoxin by adding vinegar, coconut oil, olive oil. Don't overfeed the microbes.
Glutamine / Glutamate helps to improve your gut function. Consider bone broth or seaweed.

I will buy ACV tomorrow to test it out. I feel a lot worse adding any fats like coconut/olive.
I can’t get bone broth here but seaweed is very easy to get for me here.

 

[Sourdoughbanana]

Lower cholesterol and better liver enzymes on taurine, on the same macros. I didn’t test for bile acids, I’m confident taurine helps at this level. I don’t really do much advanced bloodwork, body temperature, energy and digestion, fasted insulin, cholesterol and sex hormones tell most of the story.

I fixed the stomach acid going brain dead... using betaine HCL+pepsin. Didn’t wanna go the experimental route with “natural” stuff. HCL is natural enough to me since our parietal cells produce it (via histamine’s action). If the meal is light I may not take it. If I’m eating animal foods (typically with a salad including apple cider vinegar already) I pop one or two. I absolutely perceive betaine HCL as a double positive since we should be avoiding histamine triggering AND digest better. I’m aware of potential acid problems but it’s still a very underrated supplement IMHO.

 

[JustAGuy]

Lower cholesterol and better liver enzymes on taurine, on the same macros. I didn’t test for bile acids, I’m confident taurine helps at this level. I don’t really do much advanced bloodwork, body temperature, energy and digestion, fasted insulin, cholesterol and sex hormones tell most of the story.

I fixed the stomach acid going brain dead... using betaine HCL+pepsin. Didn’t wanna go the experimental route with “natural” stuff. HCL is natural enough to me since our parietal cells produce it (via histamine’s action). If the meal is light I may not take it. If I’m eating animal foods (typically with a salad including apple cider vinegar already) I pop one or two. I absolutely perceive betaine HCL as a double positive since we should be avoiding histamine triggering AND digest better. I’m aware of potential acid problems but it’s still a very underrated supplement IMHO.

Thank you, I will be getting both!
In the past (1+ year ago) I used over 8 pills with one meal and still noticed no effect, I suppose my stomach acid is very low, what effect did you feel from using it? What I read online is that people said the food feels lighter upon eating and you aren’t left with that heavyness in the stomach post meals?

 

[Sourdoughbanana]

Yeah I can say the same thing.

I never dosed up because 650-1300mg should be a pretty hefty dose that would help “dissolve” most of the food you eat. Make sure you get the version with pepsin for your protein meals.

A low fat diet also helps being easier to break down.

 

[yerrag]

I respond bad to fats similar to protein, just carbohydrates I respond very well to.

I have no acid reflux, just a heavy feeling in my stomach after protein/fat foods like it’s sitting there for ages.

Breathing rate is slow & relaxed if I eat pure carbs during the day, fast and restless if I eat protein/fats.

Temp depends on liquid intake, if I eat low liquid starch carbs it’s 37 celsius, if I eat only fruits for a day I feel cood and it goes to lower 36.

Serum bicarbonate and urine pH I don’t know, have no way of testing this since I am in a remote area currently.

Frequently urinating comes from both high water intake and high fruit, I sm not thirsty often, I urinate a lot if I drink when I am not thirsty.

You indicated already you have a problem with temperature, being subject to swings when drinking orange juice. Is your orange a sweet one? What other fruits give you low temperature?

Your digestive enzymes may be okay, since it didn't makes a difference whether you ate raw meat or not, or raw milk or not. So, even if you have no acid reflux, you may still be low on stomach acid. Just a guess, but because you easily get a bad reaction from meat and oils, I suspect that your acid-base balance is just teething on the edge, having no buffers, that any increase in acid load (such as from the sulfates from meat) gives you pain in your neck (lactic acid, or uric acid crystallizing, among others). If a lot of the acidity in your blood is coming from endogenous acids from poor metabolism (lactic acid and ketoacids) and from acid loads, there would be little room for carbon dioxide (carbonic acid) to make up the acidic component of your blood. High acidity triggers the lungs to exhale CO2. This could explain why when you eat meat, your breathing rate increases. Another effect of low CO2 is that CO2, in the form of bicarbonates is needed to allow chlorides to be released to form gastric juice, or HCl, for the stomach to digest food.

Since you seem to be able to order things online, you can order Hydrion pH paper, ph 5-9, and use it to test your urine.

Urinating is a good thing in your case if your blood is acidic. It is the body's way of dealing with it by excreting acid. But it uses plenty of energy as the kidneys and liver have to concentrate their efforts on continually correcting your acid-base balance. But you have to find a way to improve acid-base balance.

I'm just not sure why starch works differently from fruits for you. Starch increases your metabolism, while fruits seem to decrease it. Starch breaks down to purely glucose, whereas fruits have both fructose and glucose. It could be that digestion takes longer for starch, being that it is a complex carbohydrate, whereas fruits are mostly disaccharides and simple sugar. I think it has mostly got to do with the rate of absorption of sugar from the gut to blood . If you add two teaspoons of sugar to your juice, would you feel better? I think the potassium in fruit also increases sugar intake into your cells, so you can easily lower blood sugar.

As to your question on taurine, taurine is used to make bile amphiphilic (to attach to both lipids and to polar substances) so that the cholesterol portion in bile is enclosed in a micelle structure. Bile is used to emusify fats so that it can be absorbed by the body.

 

[JustAGuy]

You indicated already you have a problem with temperature, being subject to swings when drinking orange juice. Is your orange a sweet one? What other fruits give you low temperature?

Your digestive enzymes may be okay, since it didn't makes a difference whether you ate raw meat or not, or raw milk or not. So, even if you have no acid reflux, you may still be low on stomach acid. Just a guess, but because you easily get a bad reaction from meat and oils, I suspect that your acid-base balance is just teething on the edge, having no buffers, that any increase in acid load (such as from the sulfates from meat) gives you pain in your neck (lactic acid, or uric acid crystallizing, among others). If a lot of the acidity in your blood is coming from endogenous acids from poor metabolism (lactic acid and ketoacids) and from acid loads, there would be little room for carbon dioxide (carbonic acid) to make up the acidic component of your blood. High acidity triggers the lungs to exhale CO2. This could explain why when you eat meat, your breathing rate increases. Another effect of low CO2 is that CO2, in the form of bicarbonates is needed to allow chlorides to be released to form gastric juice, or HCl, for the stomach to digest food.

Since you seem to be able to order things online, you can order Hydrion pH paper, ph 5-9, and use it to test your urine.

Urinating is a good thing in your case if your blood is acidic. It is the body's way of dealing with it by excreting acid. But it uses plenty of energy as the kidneys and liver have to concentrate their efforts on continually correcting your acid-base balance. But you have to find a way to improve acid-base balance.

I'm just not sure why starch works differently from fruits for you. Starch increases your metabolism, while fruits seem to decrease it. Starch breaks down to purely glucose, whereas fruits have both fructose and glucose. It could be that digestion takes longer for starch, being that it is a complex carbohydrate, whereas fruits are mostly disaccharides and simple sugar. I think it has mostly got to do with the rate of absorption of sugar from the gut to blood . If you add two teaspoons of sugar to your juice, would you feel better? I think the potassium in fruit also increases sugar intake into your cells, so you can easily lower blood sugar.

As to your question on taurine, taurine is used to make bile amphiphilic (to attach to both lipids and to polar substances) so that the cholesterol portion in bile is enclosed in a micelle structure. Bile is used to emusify fats so that it can be absorbed by the body.

I am able to order products online yes, but it takes quite a while to reach me.

Which protein sources would you consider least acidic? How about free form aminos?

Today I have tried eating only grapes, nothing else, feel good and temp has been 36.9 celsius whole day and I feel warm. So grapes seem to do very well for me.

 

[yerrag]

Which protein sources would you consider least acidic? How about free form aminos?

You would need less of the aminos with plenty of sulfur/sulfate such as methionine and cysteine. Not sure, maybe tryptophan as well. You're not going to be able to avoid them but minimizing is the key. Then add more glycine-rich cuts of meat such as the skin and internal organs. Ox tail, ox feet, ox face, pork ears and nape, tripe, intestines, kidneys, chicken feet, goat innards, liver - these have plenty of gelatin/glycine. I really eat these very often nowadays. But I still maintain a high carb/protein ratio, and I have to have plenty of fruit juice to increase alkaline minerals. These help bring the acid load from eating as low as possible.

Today I have tried eating only grapes, nothing else, feel good and temp has been 36.9 celsius whole day and I feel warm. So grapes seem to do very well for me.

Good. Why do you think you're taking well to grapes? Is it because it's got a higher sugar/potassium ratio? Or because it has more magnesium and calcium to go with the potassium? Try drinking coconut water to see how it goes with you.

 

[JustAGuy]

You would need less of the aminos with plenty of sulfur/sulfate such as methionine and cysteine. Not sure, maybe tryptophan as well. You're not going to be able to avoid them but minimizing is the key. Then add more glycine-rich cuts of meat such as the skin and internal organs. Ox tail, ox feet, ox face, pork ears and nape, tripe, intestines, kidneys, chicken feet, goat innards, liver - these have plenty of gelatin/glycine. I really eat these very often nowadays. But I still maintain a high carb/protein ratio, and I have to have plenty of fruit juice to increase alkaline minerals. These help bring the acid load from eating as low as possible.
Good. Why do you think you're taking well to grapes? Is it because it's got a higher sugar/potassium ratio? Or because it has more magnesium and calcium to go with the potassium? Try drinking coconut water to see how it goes with you.

Honestly I think it is simply due to the fact that the grapes can be easily digested by my body.

I get way more energy/calmness eating just 2000 kcal of grapes than I would eating 4000 kcal of random food with protein, the grapes are also super satiating, no hunger at all.

 

[yerrag]

Honestly I think it is simply due to the fact that the grapes can be easily digested by my body.

That may very well be. But you still need to think through it more. I offered my take on it, and those are just some ideas that you can try. See how you'll take to drinking the orange with sugar added. I've drank a cup of sour orange juice with 2 teaspoon of sugar, and it lowered my blood sugar. Then I diluted the sour orange juice with water to make 2 cups, and added 4 teaspoons of sugar, and drank it. It didn't lower my blood sugar anymore.

It worked on me but I can't say it would work on you.

 

[Sourdoughbanana]

Just ate a whole sourdough bread, which IME doesn’t cause any sort of trouble. I was in the car driving back home and could not resist the smell :) whole body temperature WAY up.

Eat more folks :)

 

[fradon]

Hello,

I am looking for your help in fixing my weak digestion.
Whenever I start eating foods I am usually left with a white tongue and feel a bit heavy/fatigued after meals.
I know the white tongue can disappear because if I stop eating for a day it goes away. In addition if I only drink juice it also goes away.

Eating any sort of protein or fat makes it hit me big time and I feel like it is poisoning my body. I get some brain fog and neck pain after meals and don’t feel as powerful.

I am trying to compose of an easy to digest yet nutritious diet.
Drinking a lot of liquids, like relying on orange juice as a main calorie source makes me go to the toilet constantly and drops my temp by 1 degrees celsius. Energy is good but I feel cold. I feel like I should focus more on denser food with a lower liquid content.

My digestion is very weak in the morning (has always been, I would secretly throw away my breakfast as a 5 year old because I had poor appetite) so I will focus on getting most of my calories later in the day. Also I will try to avoid very large meals and split it up more.

I am thinking about the following foods:
Carbs:
- white rice
- a bit of very ripe fruits I can find, bananas don’t sit well with me either
- heavily processed breakfast cereals with a good amount of sugar (will try to avoid added iron as much as possible)
Protein:
- start off with an essential amino acid blend, while slowly transitioning into lean meat/skim milk as digestion improves

I will also eat a few raw carrots daily. After I had a poor digesting meal I start to crave raw carrots, so I am sure they benefit me.

In addition to this I will look into using cascada sagrada and activated charcoal as I have seen a lot of positive feedback on these items on the forum.

Also while exercising I will try to avoid too strenuous exercises that tax my nervous system excessively (think squats/other barbell exercises) since I feel doing this contributes to my poor digestion.

Any critiques or ideas are greatly appreciated!

start with increasing stomach acid
try 100 mg of mag citrate
10-25mg of zinc gluconate
salt/ sodium chloride avoid if it has aluminum
50mg b complex

avoid driking too much during or before meals

a

 

[yerrag]

@JustAGuy I hope you are doing better but I think you need to have a strategy to fixing your problem. I'm reminded of my brother-in-law who has high blood pressure and diabetes, and recently had to be confined to the hospital. I asked him what he's doing about it. And he tells me he's doing everything that everybody in that situation is doing - a long list, this includes everything naturopathic as well as conventional - involving diet and medication. I ask him if he knows the cause, and he doesn't but he insists he's doing the right things.

I don't know, but if the world runs on this approach, I don't think we'll ever get to solve anything. We have to try a hundred "possible" solutions, to find out none of them works, or maybe one will work but we didn't have the confidence to sit that one out as we wait for its effect to be felt. There would be a lot of wasted effort, with a lot of time and money lost. Somewhere along that line, we could even lose hope and feel fatalistic and say "oh well, it's pre-ordained and I'm cursed" or worse, it's "genetic."

Are you now going to try each and everyone's suggestions? If you don't have a way to separate the signal from the noise, you would be overwhelmed. You have to start first with developing a theory of why you have a condition. A theory is not a wild guess, you have to add up your research and make an educated guess - that's the theory, and you may not validate the theory immediately. But at least you have started a process of eliminating possible causes.

Which is why I asked you some questions to help get you a start on that process. I asked you what your temperature is, and I don't know if you bothered to take it. It's the one frustrating thing about helping people. When asked about their temperature, they pretty much ignore that question. It's forgivable if they're not on the Ray Peat Forum. But in this forum, temperature is at the core of your toolset. Unless you appreciate the role of temperature as a marker for your health, you really have not begun on the road to understanding about metabolism.

You're not going to find answers from conventional doctors. It's because they have the wrong ideas on metabolism. They only test temperature when there is already a fever, and think everything below 37C is hunky dory.

 

[JustAGuy]

@JustAGuy I hope you are doing better but I think you need to have a strategy to fixing your problem. I'm reminded of my brother-in-law who has high blood pressure and diabetes, and recently had to be confined to the hospital. I asked him what he's doing about it. And he tells me he's doing everything that everybody in that situation is doing - a long list, this includes everything naturopathic as well as conventional - involving diet and medication. I ask him if he knows the cause, and he doesn't but he insists he's doing the right things.

I don't know, but if the world runs on this approach, I don't think we'll ever get to solve anything. We have to try a hundred "possible" solutions, to find out none of them works, or maybe one will work but we didn't have the confidence to sit that one out as we wait for its effect to be felt. There would be a lot of wasted effort, with a lot of time and money lost. Somewhere along that line, we could even lose hope and feel fatalistic and say "oh well, it's pre-ordained and I'm cursed" or worse, it's "genetic."

Are you now going to try each and everyone's suggestions? If you don't have a way to separate the signal from the noise, you would be overwhelmed. You have to start first with developing a theory of why you have a condition. A theory is not a wild guess, you have to add up your research and make an educated guess - that's the theory, and you may not validate the theory immediately. But at least you have started a process of eliminating possible causes.

Which is why I asked you some questions to help get you a start on that process. I asked you what your temperature is, and I don't know if you bothered to take it. It's the one frustrating thing about helping people. When asked about their temperature, they pretty much ignore that question. It's forgivable if they're not on the Ray Peat Forum. But in this forum, temperature is at the core of your toolset. Unless you appreciate the role of temperature as a marker for your health, you really have not begun on the road to understanding about metabolism.

You're not going to find answers from conventional doctors. It's because they have the wrong ideas on metabolism. They only test temperature when there is already a fever, and think everything below 37C is hunky dory.

Hello Yerrag,

Apologies, the mistake is mine, I had thought I had already posted regarding the temperature, but I did not.
I got confused with one of my other topics regarding my low resting heartrate where I reported a lot on my temperature (Resting BPM Always <35, How To Fix?).

I also want to say that I greatly appreciate you and everybodies help, I know I cannot do anything to help you back, my only repayment is that I do my best to help other strangers with their problems whenever I can (which I do on some IBS problems, sharing my method of curing the very severe IBS I had from age 13-19).

I am trying to incorporate all the suggestions mentioned here and have ordered a bunch of products on which I will report once I receive them (I am in a very remote location so it takes a bit to arrive).

Regarding my temperature, it fluctuates between 36 celsius and 37 celsius depending on what I eat or drink.
I have just measured it and right now it is sitting at 36.5 celsius.
If I bring my liquid intake very low and eat mostly dry food I can bring my temperature to around 37.2 celsius after meals.
The more liquid~ish food I take or drink the lower my temperature goes.

A major problem that my whole system has is a very low resting heartrate, which you can read about in the topic I mentioned earlier.

I understand that looking for a magic bullet is not going to work with a systematic problem like I am having, which is not what I am doing.

My general strategy currently is based on two factors:
- Increase rejuvenation
- Reduce stressors

Increasing the rejuvenation will be done through dietary measures, feeding myself nutritiously and very importantly improving my digestion so my body can utilise the nutrients (which I am extensively experimenting with now to try to fix this).

Reducing stressors is done through the following mechanisms:
- Keeping calm psychologically
- Tailoring my workouts to be minimal stress inducing (which I try to do by removing all free weight exercises and replacing them with machines, doing most exercises seated or laying down to lessen the burden on the CNS, and doing sets while focusing on getting 70-80% of the benefits for 30% of the work (just do only 1 strength set per exercise in the lower rep range for example, taking long rest between sets etc.).
- Trying to minimize endotoxin, which I suppose I am trying to do through improving digestion and diet

I just feel like the overall missing factor for me is the poor digestion that I am trying to resolve in order to let my body be able to rebuild itself. I have a history of very bad IBS from age 13 (which I fixed a few years ago) in which I was given laxatives and opiod pain killers daily for years, I think this really wrecked my whole digestion and system and I am still trying to recover from this.

I feel so calm and good when I barely eat and my white tongue dissapears, I think the major stressor for me right now is the endotoxin generated through poor digestion. My wellbeing completely correlates to how coated my tongue is at the same moment, every time I haven't eaten for a while and I feel better/very calm, I look at my tongue and it is much more clear, my body gives a huge adrenalin release after meals so something bad must be happening for sure, it feels like I am poisoning myself with the food and I also start craving raw carrots then.

Edit: Just had a meal of very thoroughly cooked white rice, 100 grams rice ~400 kcal with salt, 5 min after meal 37.2 degrees celsius, pulse actually 45 now which is quite high for me while resting, so that is a good sign I guess?

 

[yerrag]

Hello Yerrag,

Apologies, the mistake is mine, I had thought I had already posted regarding the temperature, but I did not.
I got confused with one of my other topics regarding my low resting heartrate where I reported a lot on my temperature (Resting BPM Always <35, How To Fix?).

I also want to say that I greatly appreciate you and everybodies help, I know I cannot do anything to help you back, my only repayment is that I do my best to help other strangers with their problems whenever I can (which I do on some IBS problems, sharing my method of curing the very severe IBS I had from age 13-19).

I am trying to incorporate all the suggestions mentioned here and have ordered a bunch of products on which I will report once I receive them (I am in a very remote location so it takes a bit to arrive).

Regarding my temperature, it fluctuates between 36 celsius and 37 celsius depending on what I eat or drink.
I have just measured it and right now it is sitting at 36.5 celsius.
If I bring my liquid intake very low and eat mostly dry food I can bring my temperature to around 37.2 celsius after meals.
The more liquid~ish food I take or drink the lower my temperature goes.

A major problem that my whole system has is a very low resting heartrate, which you can read about in the topic I mentioned earlier.

I understand that looking for a magic bullet is not going to work with a systematic problem like I am having, which is not what I am doing.

My general strategy currently is based on two factors:
- Increase rejuvenation
- Reduce stressors

Increasing the rejuvenation will be done through dietary measures, feeding myself nutritiously and very importantly improving my digestion so my body can utilise the nutrients (which I am extensively experimenting with now to try to fix this).

Reducing stressors is done through the following mechanisms:
- Keeping calm psychologically
- Tailoring my workouts to be minimal stress inducing (which I try to do by removing all free weight exercises and replacing them with machines, doing most exercises seated or laying down to lessen the burden on the CNS, and doing sets while focusing on getting 70-80% of the benefits for 30% of the work (just do only 1 strength set per exercise in the lower rep range for example, taking long rest between sets etc.).
- Trying to minimize endotoxin, which I suppose I am trying to do through improving digestion and diet

I just feel like the overall missing factor for me is the poor digestion that I am trying to resolve in order to let my body be able to rebuild itself. I have a history of very bad IBS from age 13 (which I fixed a few years ago) in which I was given laxatives and opiod pain killers daily for years, I think this really wrecked my whole digestion and system and I am still trying to recover from this.

I feel so calm and good when I barely eat and my white tongue dissapears, I think the major stressor for me right now is the endotoxin generated through poor digestion. My wellbeing completely correlates to how coated my tongue is at the same moment, every time I haven't eaten for a while and I feel better/very calm, I look at my tongue and it is much more clear, my body gives a huge adrenalin release after meals so something bad must be happening for sure, it feels like I am poisoning myself with the food and I also start craving raw carrots then.

Edit: Just had a meal of very thoroughly cooked white rice, 100 grams rice ~400 kcal with salt, 5 min after meal 37.2 degrees celsius, pulse actually 45 now which is quite high for me while resting, so that is a good sign I guess?

I'm the one who has to apologize to you JustAGuy. I got mixed up with another thread and going through this thread you had talked about your temperature, and so I didn't ask that anymore but I thought I did.

I think that it's very difficult to find out why your heart rate is low, as I am in the same boat but with a heart rate that's higher. I wake up with a heart rate of 56 and lately the highest it's been is at 67. But as far as finding out why your temperature varies so much, it's easier to experiment to find out why. As someone who's had problem in the past with blood sugar and having been able to solve my blood sugar problems, I think I can help with finding out why. You offered some clues already. Your response to drinking orange juice and to grape varies. With orange juice, your temperature drops. But with grape it doesn't. You urinate a lot when you drink when you're not thirsty. When you eat meat and fats, you don't feel well. When eating protein, you experience neck pain, and you also breathe more. My theory is that the problem is two-fold.

One, acid-base imbalance: too acidic blood such that any acid load such as meat is enough to cause pain on the neck (possibly crystallization of uric acid or too much lactic acid). The increased breathing is an attempt to expel CO2 out of the increased acidity from eating meat.

The second one is a problem with blood sugar control. Drinking orange juice causes you to shake while grape makes you feel calm and composed. Eating rice as well. Since potassium increases your sugar absorption, it may just be that orange juice has less sugar, while grape has more sugar. And rice has much less potassium. This means that drinking orange juice causes your blood sugar to go down more quickly than that of drinking or eating grape as grape has more sugar than orange. Because white rice has less potassium and much more carbohydrate, the glucose from it takes longer to get used up, and it takes longer for the blood sugar to go down as well.

At least that is how I see it. Now, if I were you, I would test these theories to see if they hold up. Let's say they hold up. Would you have a better idea of how to proceed? I'd say you would. There's a saying: Identifying a problem is a problem half-solved.

 

[JustAGuy]

I'm the one who has to apologize to you JustAGuy. I got mixed up with another thread and going through this thread you had talked about your temperature, and so I didn't ask that anymore but I thought I did.

I think that it's very difficult to find out why your heart rate is low, as I am in the same boat but with a heart rate that's higher. I wake up with a heart rate of 56 and lately the highest it's been is at 67. But as far as finding out why your temperature varies so much, it's easier to experiment to find out why. As someone who's had problem in the past with blood sugar and having been able to solve my blood sugar problems, I think I can help with finding out why. You offered some clues already. Your response to drinking orange juice and to grape varies. With orange juice, your temperature drops. But with grape it doesn't. You urinate a lot when you drink when you're not thirsty. When you eat meat and fats, you don't feel well. When eating protein, you experience neck pain, and you also breathe more. My theory is that the problem is two-fold.

One, acid-base imbalance: too acidic blood such that any acid load such as meat is enough to cause pain on the neck (possibly crystallization of uric acid or too much lactic acid). The increased breathing is an attempt to expel CO2 out of the increased acidity from eating meat.

The second one is a problem with blood sugar control. Drinking orange juice causes you to shake while grape makes you feel calm and composed. Eating rice as well. Since potassium increases your sugar absorption, it may just be that orange juice has less sugar, while grape has more sugar. And rice has much less potassium. This means that drinking orange juice causes your blood sugar to go down more quickly than that of drinking or eating grape as grape has more sugar than orange. Because white rice has less potassium and much more carbohydrate, the glucose from it takes longer to get used up, and it takes longer for the blood sugar to go down as well.

At least that is how I see it. Now, if I were you, I would test these theories to see if they hold up. Let's say they hold up. Would you have a better idea of how to proceed? I'd say you would. There's a saying: Identifying a problem is a problem half-solved.

Orange juice does not cause me to shake, the only thing I get from it is that it cools me down more than grapes, and way more than rice or other starch.

Any fruit drops my temperature more than starch, I think it has to do with the liquid content of the food, since dried fruit does not seem to have this cooling effect.

I don’t feel worse when I am colder from these liquids energy-wise, just feel colder.

Fats and protein seem to have quite a similar result, both brainfog and fatigue and a general feeling of malaise. I hope to receive the betaine hcl and amino acids this week, it will be interesting to see if I respond to the essential amino acid blend in a similar manner as to protein foods. Also I am curious if the betaine hcl will reduce the symptoms after meals, I think I am just digesting the food very bad and causing a massive endotoxin load on my system?