Intermittent Fasting Fail and Ray Peat Articles!

Since my last blog post, I have tried some different things. I have cut down on acidic foods and increased my alkaline food intake. It's still too early to make any conclusions though. I also gave Intermittent fasting a go, for about a week and a half. In the beginning it seemed to work well, I snacked on carrots and beets upon wakening  and I didn't feel any hunger until around the 16 hour mark. Unfortunately after around a week or so, all the symptoms that I cured with RRARFing suddenly showed its ugly face again! I became dizzy and forgetful, like waking in a fog. Difficulty staying a sleep. Twice I actually had to get up and eat something, in the middle of the night, to fall back asleep which for me, is a clear sign of hypoglycemia.
Conclusion: IF was a fail for me. Maybe I am not healthy enough to pull it through or it might not be for me at all. I will leave it for now.
I was like a kid in a candy store, browsing through Ray Peats articles today. I've always felt that even though I have dealt with all my main stressors by excluding exercise and resting instead, eating lots of nutritious calories and getting plenty of sleep, I still showed signs of excessive cortisol or/and estrogen dominance, which also means I am deficient in progesterone.
Peat says that excess estrogen -or estrogen dominance act as a stress response in the body, meaning prolonged exposure to estrogen means prolonged exposure to cortisone:
 " Since Selye's work, it has been known that estrogen creates the same conditions as occur in the shock phase of the stress reaction. (And shock, in a potential vicious circle, can increase the level of estrogen.7)"


"They suggested that the bone loss sets in immediately when progesterone fails because cortisol then is able to dominate, causing bone catabolism; progesterone normally protects against cortisol. Other researchers have pointed out that estrogen dominance promotes mitosis of the prolactin-secreting cells of the pituitary, and that prolactin causes osteoporosis; by age 50, most people have some degree of tumefaction of the prolactin-secreting part of the pituitary. But estrogen dominance (or progesterone deficiency) also clearly obstructs thyroid secretion, and thyroid governs the rate of bone metabolism and repair. Correcting the thyroid and progesterone should take care of the cortisol/prolactin/osteo- porosis problem."
My most recent blood work showed the first signs of this bone loss progression.. It all makes so much sense to me now! 


I've also had trouble with my androgens being very dominant:
"It has recently been demonstrated that estrogen stimulates the adrenal glands, independently of the pituitary's ACTH. This can increase the production of adrenal androgens, leading to hirsutism, and other male traits, including anabolic effects.8"


Here is another quote from one of Peats articles:
"Blood sugar falls at night, and the body relies on the glucose stored in the liver as glycogen for energy, and hypothyroid people store very little sugar. As a result, adrenalin and cortisol begin to rise almost as soon as a person goes to bed, and in hypothyroid people, they rise very high, with the adrenalin usually peaking around 1 or 2 A.M., and the cortisol peaking around dawn; the high cortisol raises blood sugar as morning approaches, and allows adrenalin to decline. Some people wake up during the adrenalin peak with a pounding heart, and have trouble getting back to sleep unless they eat something."
This would explain why I still have trouble sleeping in general and why I sometimes feel the need to eat to be able to fall back asleep!

Peat says the best way to measure how well your thyroid is working, is by measuring BOTH your temperature AND your resting pulse. We all know that I increased my resting pulse by 20 bpm, which puts me at 60 bpm now. Peat says that healthy individuals are at a resting pulse of 85 bpm and unhealthy individuals are at 70 bpm.

My lab test has always showed an odd TSH in correlation to my T3 and T4, that is. My TSH being 0.20 -which would indicate hyperthyroidism, according to my oh so clever doctors, and then with my contradicting low levels of T3 and T4.
Here is Peats explanation:

 "Stress, besides suppressing the TSH, acts in other ways to suppress the real thyroid function. Cortisol, for example, inhibits the conversion of T4 to T3, which is responsible for the respiratory production of energy and carbon dioxide. Adrenaline, besides leading to increased production of cortisol, is lipolytic, releasing the fatty acids which, if they are polyunsaturated, inhibit the production and transport of thyroid hormone, and also interfere directly with the respiratory functions of the mitochondria. Adrenaline decreases the conversion to T4 to T3, and increases the formation of the antagonistic reverse T3 (Nauman, et al., 1980, 1984)."

My only question goes back to the old egg or chicken; Which came first? Is cortisol in excess because I am hypothyroid and therefor have adrenaline steaming in high gear? Or am I hypothyroid because I have cortisol (estrogen dominance?) in excess?

"But hypoglycemia also tends to decrease the conversion of T4 to T3, so heat production often decreases when a person is hungry. First, their fingers, toes, and nose will get cold, because adrenalin, or adrenergic sympathetic nervous activity, will increase to keep the brain and heart at a normal temperature, by reducing circulation to the skin and extremities. Despite the temperature-regulating effect of adrenalin, the reduced heat production resulting from decreased T3 will make a person susceptible to hypothermia if the environment is cool."


This would explain my cold hands and feet -and nose to be accurate (yes it gets cold too)! Finally!
It seems like my adrenals are STILL compensating for the lack of thyroid function. Maybe it would be wise for me to give thyroid medication another go... Just to give my body a gentle push in the right direction. No matter what, I am definitely giving the natural progesterone I ordered ages ago, a chance -with or without thyroid medication. At this point I feel like there isn't much I can lose.

Peats recommendations on how to observe your how well your thyroid is working:
" After eating breakfast, the cortisol (and adrenalin, if it stayed high despite the increased cortisol) will start returning to a more normal, lower level, as the blood sugar is sustained by food, instead of by the stress hormones. In some hypothyroid people, this is a good time to measure the temperature and pulse rate. In a normal person, both temperature and pulse rate rise after breakfast, but in very hypothyroid people either, or both, might fall."


Interesting reading! 
This will be my home assessment for my next blog post! Stay tuned! 


P.S. I got my period today which is officially the my first REGULAR period since i got sick! Last month it came on the 18'th and this month also on the 18'th!

Uric acid poisoning ?!

Winter is definitely here now. Snow, snow and more snow. I love winter! :-)
So how are things going? Pretty much the same. Temperatures are still really unstable. I ran out of my unrefined virgin coconut oil and have been using Palmin in my oatmeal,in the morning, which I normally only use for cooking. I got some new stash yesterday though. I have had a sneaking suspicion that Palmin doesn't get my temperatures up like my unrefined coconut oil does but I can not be certain. Normally my fingers get warm briefly from eating unrefined coconut oil in my oats, in the morning, but the past couple of weeks where I have been using Palmin instead, they have been icy. Hmmm.. I will take further notice of this, if it hold any water.
I still feel like I am gaining. Clothes continue to feel tighter and tighter. The past weeks I have been waking up to carbo face (water retention) Kinda feels like this problem is getting worse, which again leads me back to my last blog post about my kidneys. I found some knew info about that on Lisa's blog. She is reading a book about uric acid poisoning and how it relates to a lot of her problems. To my surprise, mine too! Well one of the many doctors I've been to, did actually say that I was very acidic and my kidneys had a hard time getting rid of the acid. He put me on a vegan diet AND and at least 4 l of water every day. That's a hell of a lot of water for a girl who is NEVER thirsty! The first error about this diet was it was too low in calories and crushed my already damaged metabolism even more. Second error was all the water consumption, it was too much for my system, especially when I'm never thirsty.
I am considering ordering this book by Alexander Haig: "Uric Acid as a factor in the causation of disease." but I have to admit, it scares me that the original book is almost 1000 pages long :-/
In short Dr. Haig recommends going vegetarian to clean out acidic poisoning. Eating a more alkaline diet will get rid of the uric acid. He also points out that uric acid poisoning is bad for the heat distribution and overall metabolism, which might explain why I still have trouble with my temperature/metabolism and my cold hands and feet.
The next few weeks I will focus on a more alkaline diet and take notice of any possible improvements.

Kidney problems?

Finally I got my period yesterday morning. It caught me a bit by surprise because I thought that train had left, for this month. I didn't have any real pre-cramps either, which I normally have ( I do have those cramps now though -there is no escaping, damn you uterus)!This also made my temperature drop, which at one point had been all the way up to the magic 37 number! Yesterday evening, it was all the way back to 35,7 :-( It's so fricking hard for me to keep those temperatures up!
Riles comment yesterday about cortisol inhibiting sodium loss and making kidneys produce hyptonic urine made me go on a little research which lead me to kidney problems. I've been told before, by my last doctor that I do have kidney and liver problems but I somehow haven't been able to untie the knots on this matter. Until I stumbled on this information:

• In the beginning, kidney failure may be asymptomatic (not producing any symptoms). As kidney function decreases, the symptoms are related to the inability to regulate water and electrolyte balances, to clear waste products from the body, and to promote red blood cell production. Lethargy,weakness, shortness of breath, and generalized swelling may occur. Unrecognized or untreated, life-threatening circumstances can develop.
  
• Metabolic acidosis, or increased acidity of the body due to the inability to manufacture bicarbonate, will alter enzyme and oxygen metabolism, causing organ failure.
  
• Inability to excrete potassium and rising potassium levels in the serum (hyperkalemia) is associated with fatal heart rhythm disturbances (arrhythmias) including ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation.
  
• Rising urea levels in the blood (uremia) can affect the function of a variety of organs ranging from the brain (encephalopathy) with alteration of thinking, to inflammation of the heart lining (pericarditis), to decreased muscle function because of low calcium levels (hypocalcemia).
  
• Generalized weakness may be due to anemia, a decreased red blood cell count, because lower levels of erythropoietin produced by failing kidneys do not adequately stimulate the bone marrow. A decrease in red cells equals a decrease in oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood, resulting in decreased oxygen delivery to cells for them to do work; therefore, the body tires quickly. As well, with less oxygen, cells more readily use anaerobic metabolism (an=without + aerobic=oxygen) leading to increased amounts of acid production that cannot be addressed by the already failing kidneys.
  
• As waste products build in the blood, loss of appetite, lethargy, and fatigue become apparent. This will progress to the point where mental function will decrease andcoma may occur.
  
• Because the kidneys cannot address the rising acid load in the body, breathing becomes more rapid as the lungs try to buffer the acidity by blowing off carbon dioxide. Blood pressure may rise because of the excess fluid, and this fluid can be deposited in the lungs, causing congestive heart failure.

 I kinda knew most of these things already but I guess I wasn't really aware of how many of these symptoms actually fits me like a hand in a glove.
I by no means, think that I have kidney failure. I just think my kidneys aren't working like they should.

For a long time I have had problems with my electrolyte balance and I often get generalized swelling or edema.  Basically I have great trouble with keeping the right water balance within and out of the cells.
Lethargy, weakness and shortness of breath is how I feel often.
My last doctor visit revealed that my body didn't use oxygen properly, it didn't get into the cells. I was too acidic and my body couldn't get rid of the waste product.
He also monitored my heart because it tends to skip a beat, every now and then. He found nothing wrong with it though, which I believe is true (nothing is wrong with my heart)! I believe the answer lies in my inability to control my electrolytes. As we now I also have high sodium.
I have been tested high on blood UREA, on several occasions. And I am also low in calcium.
I have a low red blood count which is almost anemic which explains the whole chain reaction explained above.
Only thing that doesn't fit, is a decrease in appetite, which I believe is only something you encounter when your kidneys are about to sign off.

Now I sit with the feeling; was upping my sodium intake a bad idea then? Suggestions for kidney-friendly-diet is low sodium, which I have done in the past. I just don't think cutting out things is a long term solution.
Maybe this explains why I am never thirsty? Because my kidneys have problems excreting and filtering urine?
If I obeyed my body completely, I wouldn't drink any water at all. I am literally NOT thirsty at all. Eating seems to be enough fluid for my body. I still force down 1,5 L because I am unsure what to do.      

Another epiphany..

Okay, so something just hit me today. As we all know, I have been trying to figure out why my temperature is always higher in the morning, upon wakening and then dropping as the day progresses. The past two days, I have been mostly bed written or at least lying down because of a sore neck/back. I took my temperature and it reached 36,7 degrees Celsius both days! As soon as I get up and about, it drops almost instantly. The opposite happens when I lye down. Here is my theory: My body is still in famine and any training or just moving around in general, is a threat to my metabolism and it therefor lowers my temperature instantly, to protect it from further energy loss.
When I was in Hungary, we walked around a lot and I am sure I didn't eat enough calories to keep up with that. I had crazy cold hands and feet on the whole trip and I noticed, when I came back, my appetite suddenly increased tremendously and I became very exhausted and tired the following days/weeks. Also, I expected my period around the 4'th but it never came, although I had all the signs; breast tenderness/increase, mild discomfort in abdomen and depressed mood/mood swings.
Conclusion: Stay in bed all day. LOL! That of course is not a sustainable option but it sure explains why I still have no desire to train, what so ever. I guess I need to be more aware of not requiring more of my body, that it can deliver, at this point (which is very little). I guess its weird to realize that my body is a lot weaker than I first thought. All the signs are there, that I can't push too hard and if I do, I will most definitely pay the prize, straight away.
I need to work hard on not working hard. Rest is key.

Please forgive me..

I have now been RRARFing for 2 months. One thing it has definitely cleared by now, is my dizzy spells and low resting pulse. Going from 40 bpm to 60, is a big improvement! I still feel it could get a bit higher, when you take in consideration that I haven't been exercising at all. I've read that a RP in the eighties indicates a well functioning metabolism. My periods is still not stable, I'm still waiting for this month. My hair has not seen any improvement. I still have trouble with my water/sodium balance. This is a sign for me that my adrenals haven't fully recovered, since the hormone aldosterone (regulates the water/sodium balance) is also managed by the adrenals. I believe when they are healed, my water retention will also go away.
I am still in two minds about if I should start doing some workouts again. I'm really trying to listen to my body at this time and not do what I have always done, which is; Just do it. If I listen closely, I still don't want to work out. The question is, do I trust my body's signals or am I just getting too comfortable not doing any training?? My logic tells me, if my body is healthy, it would want to exercise and use energy. If it's still trying to heal a damaged metabolism, it wouldn't want to use any energy, other than on fixing the body. Hmm.. I guess I just kinda answered that my self ;-) I'll wait a little longer.

Today I did some thinking/reflecting to as WHEN I really started doing some serious havoc on my body. I guess it's no surprise that competition diets is not doing any favors for the body. I noticed that every competition prep got harder and harder, over the years. But at my last comp, I really reached my ultimate best condition. I did 1 hour and 40mins at the end of my diet, plus my weight sessions. I was at the lowest body fat in my life! Even my legs (which is most girls problem area due to estrogen) had deep separations! My cheeks was totally sunken in. When you look/feel more dead than alive, you know you have reached your goal (pretty sick, huh?)!
On top of that, I had a lot of things going on in my life, I did some hardcore partying too (just minus the party) and totally overdid the dieting (I have no idea how my body managed to stay alive on the minimum of calories I was consuming. To make matters worse, I was on the show Survivor, which meant real starvation was a reality!
I never gave my body the time to heal from what I had put it through. I never did a re-feed  for real. For 2 days after the comp, I ate whatever I wanted and then jumped right back in the saddle. I remember having ravenous hunger afterwards but I ignored it or killed it with drugs (I was in a pretty bad place).

Today I realized, I am paying for all of that now. The dieting, the overexercising, the partying -EVERYTHING! I totally abused my body back then and instead of resting and re-feeding, I just continued the abuse and never looked back.

Poor body, what have I done to you.. I am so, so sorry.. Please forgive me..

I'm back!

I absolutely adore Hungary! I love how they live so primitive! I wouldn't mind moving there, at all! We had awesome weather! Sun, sun, sun, even though it was chilly. We went to the Thermal bath, which is steamy hot mineral water, coming from deep in the ground. It's about 70 degrees Celsius when it hits the pool and about 40 all over the pool. It.s an outside pool and people come on all times of the day, even though the weather is minus degrees. It's been told that people have been cured of various skin diseases, from this water. When ever we went there, we filled up bottles and brought them back home, to use as drinking water. My skin sure felt amazing and soft afterwards.
The food is so cheap, we felt like kings when going out for dinner! Goulash soup was one of my favorites and of course their yummy desserts!
I also got a dentist appointment while I was there, because it is so much cheaper than in my country.
On our last night, we went to a 5 star hotel and ate their buffet. It's a shame the human body doesn't come with an extra stomach, I sure could have used it that evening. LOL! After dinner we went to the hotel bar and got drinks. We were smoking water pipe while watching belly dance, surrounded by the most awesome live band, which played something that reminded of Spanish music.
i didn't get to taste any raw milk as we ran out of time but their milk, butter and cheese in general tasted fantastic because their cows all are grass fed and they don't destroy the fat particles with centrifugation. I ate a fair bit of white bread because it's a tradition there. I tried getting hold of oats but without any luck. The closest resembling of oats I could find, didn't dissolve in hot water so I'm not sure exactly what it was.
My stomach totally clenched on me. I think it was the lack of proper fiber. On the same note, my stomach always does that when I am on vacation. I couldn't sleep either. Probably from all the excitement. It doesn't take much to mess up my sleep pattern (which is pretty messed up anyway.LOL) It's weird because the room I slept in had a fireplace and the softest bed ever! I lay under the covers and just listened to the soft warm crackling fire -like just out of a movie... Ahhhh.. Maybe that was the problem. I was enjoying myself too much, looking at the fire, that I didn't want to close my eyes.
My grandmother was with us too and we were the only two people who ran in between each other, to the toilet, all night. The only difference is that my granny is 85 years old! My bladder doesn't seem to get that though ;-P
I had colds hands and feet on the whole trip. Not even the Thermal bath could fix that. Only 10 mins after I got up, they were ice cold again. I have been told once by a doctor, that my cold hands and feet are related to kidney problems. That could maybe also explain my bladder problems.
I couldn't help from noticing the body shape of the general Hungarians. All the elderly people had the pot belly! The young people was generally slim though.
All though the country is poor, they seem content.

Catch you later Health -Hungary, here I come!

My status is as follows: My temperature has dropped more than half a degree (from 36.5 to 36) since my first month on RRARF. This is morning readings. Later on is a different story, since it drops further, during the day/evening. Cold hands and feet. Yesterday I wrapped my feet in a blanket, in an attempt  to defrost the two giant ice cubes there were attached to them. NO luck what so ever.
I have gained more weight, since I was sick for a little week. I still have no desire to exercise. I'm actually pretty lethargic in general.
I've been studying my old lab results again and researching a whole lot. I'm thinking it might not be a thyroid problem but a pituitary problem. The last doctor I went to, suggested this as well. I'm thinking I have way to many hormonal issues for this to only be a thyroid issue. But then again, everything depends on proper thyroid function, just like everything depends on a healthy pituitary. Again, everything seems to come down to the chicken or egg question..
On a good note, I am leaving for Hungary tomorrow! My moms boyfriend owns a house there and the family is going for a 4 day trip. It's my first time there so it should be exiting. I am going to taste raw grass fed cow milk, while I am there -looking forward to that. I wish I could bring some home with me because it is impossible to get where I live.