Pain, Pain, Go Away!

Maybe it was getting rid of a biofilm. Maybe it was the iodine in the kelp pills. Maybe it's the adrenal medicine. Or maybe (probably) I got rid of SIBO last year. Whatever it was (probably all of those), I've gotten my strength back. Over the weekend, I made headway on the garage, mowed the lawn--without stopping!--canned some pasta sauce, baked cookies, did the grocery shopping and got the laundry done.  Three-herb marinara. I took six pounds of roma tomatoes from my garden and blanched, cooled, peeled and chopped them. They went into three-herb marinara, made with basil and oregano I picked in the dark and Italian parsley I went to two stores to buy, along with a dab of brown sugar, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper.  While it simmered, I took a shower and then baked a big batch of low-carb cookies. I filled the jars with the sauce and a tablespoon of lemon juice, put them in the water bath, then put the second batch of cookies in the oven. I got to bed at midnight. This wa...

 Five minutes, and lunch is ready! 1/2 T butter 1/4 c sliced mushrooms 1-1/2 c stock 1/2 c chopped cooked chicken (no skin) 2 T nacho cheese 2 T salsa In a small soup pot, melt the butter over medium-low heat and cook the mushrooms. Chop the chicken while they're cooking. Add stock and chicken to pot and heat. Stir in the cheese and salsa and serve (or pack up for lunch).  It looks a lot like this stock photo.

I stopped taking all thyroid medicine, and now just use a little bit of hydrocortisone now and then. I think I've always run low on it, and a little bit helps with aches and pains I'm now incurring since I feel 45 again--back when I had the energy I should have had in my 20s.  I've been working on my garage, which needed so much work I asked a handyman what it would cost to replace it. (Too much--like what they wanted to re-side it). I decided to fix it myself. Work was slow-going at first since I didn't have any energy in the morning and afternoons were too hot to work. But last week I turned a corner. A boarded-up window was rotted and I thought that as long as I had to do repairs, I might as well put in a window. Browsing online, I fell in love with a small, inexpensive vinyl double-hung and had to have it.  You never know what will inspire you. Most window installation videos show nice, neat jobs that don't require retrofitting, or unusual situations. I have a v...

We tend to want to do something. If we're tired, in pain, not feeling well, we often take something. And take more if a little bit feels good.  That was my problem with my thyroid medication--and adrenal medication. Last year when I started taking the stuff, I went from sputtering along to firing on eight cylinders. Then problems started: odd aches and pains, rapid heart rate--and I stopped taking the medication. When my hypothyroid problems re-emerged, I started over and ended up overmedicated again. Contrary to what you might expect, more thyroid medication, which amps up your metabolism, doesn't give you more energy, it just makes you sit and idle faster. The problem is that overmedication isn't addressed very much, unless you follow low-carb authors talking about statins. And then, the amount they say you should take is zero.  Dr. Davis actually addressed thyroid overmedication in one of his videos (just for Inner Circle members). He also said your morning temperature s...

I'm still trying to get my thyroid dosage straight. It isn't easy. I had my thyroid tested a few weeks ago. Free T3 and Free T4 were high; so was reverse T3. The good news: antibodies were very low. So I quit taking thyroid medication for a number of days until I started feeling shaky and nervous...the same symptoms you get when your thyroid is too high. Using the basal temperature method from Dr. Broda Barnes, I tried assessing my thyroid status by taking my morning temperature. My temperature has run low, yet when I take thyroid medication, I get jittery. I'm now going to try going by instinct. My instinct say my thyroid is too high, regardless of my low temperature. I remember reading long ago that being on a low-carb diet tended to lower your temperature, but I can't find any reference. In any case, I don't feel cold. The other frustration is that I have a lot of work to do outdoors--my garage needs the paint scraped, the window fixed, the termite dam...