Pain, Pain, Go Away!

The PRIME Act Remember the panic buying and food shortages of 2020? When grocery store shelves were cleaned out and restaurants closed, I recommended a family farm that raised beef (previously bought by closed restaurants) to my coworkers. The PRIME Act has been re-introduced to help family farms like this. It was introduced in 2020 to remove the requirement for most livestock to be processed at a relatively small number of industrial-size slaughterhouses.  Smaller, local "custom" slaughterhouses could be used instead for meat staying within the state and would eliminate the need for those animals to travel for hours in trailers. Custom slaughterhouses "must follow federal, state, and local health and safety guidelines and are periodically inspected for cleanliness and safety— similar to how restaurants are inspected," says the Institute for Justice . Critics say the PRIME Act would make the meat supply less safe, but similar laws already apply to poultry.  The Fre...

Twitter under New Ownership "Let the good times roll!" -Elon Musk, October 28 Twitter was one of the best sources of information for me during the pandemic. I found journalist Alex Berenson and others there whose information, even with Twitter's censorship, helped guide me through with accurate information. Now some are in a tizzy because Elon Musk bought Twitter and promised to restore free speech to the platform. Twitter's new Head of Safety and Integrity tweeted, "Over the last 48 hours, we’ve seen a small number of accounts post a ton of Tweets that include slurs and other derogatory terms. To give you a sense of scale: More than 50,000 Tweets repeatedly using a particular slur came from just 300 accounts"  (emphasis added). But if it's like "the gates of hell opened," I just haven't seen it in my feed--but then, I don't look for fights and I don't troll, scold or dox people. There's still the option to block people or simpl...

It's been a tough year and a half for most of us, but I've been taking advantage of the things available to us in 2021. DIY health, LED lights and modern home improvement tools have improved my life this year.  The main thing has been DIY health. As many readers know, trying to get necessary labs from doctors can make you feel like Oliver Twist: "Please, sir, may I have some proper health care?" Being more irreverent and more of a do-it-yourselfer, I've ordered my own labs (allowed here in freewheelin' Indiana), researched my own care, and experimented with hormones ordered online. I've also been a member of Dr. Davis's Inner Circle group and found it invaluable. The L. reuteri/B. coagulans yogurt in particular has been helpful. It has been a bumpy ride, but my last thyroid panel came back normal. Normal--on no medications! My free T3 and free T4 are in the middle of the reference range. TSH is above program ideal at 2.4, but I'm not tired, I'...

 March found me back in quarantine, as it did last year. This time, it wasn't a bad cold, but a three-week case of diarrhea. Pepto Bismol, Candibactin BR, black seeds (nigella), NAC, thyroid medication and probiotics did nothing; a jar of kimchi made it a lot worse. So I went to urgent care, where the doctor prescribed a stool test for C. difficile and other nasties that will make you extremely ill. C. diff is so toxic that my employer advised me to stay home until results were in. Of course, I didn't want to infect others, so I quarantined myself...again. I'm even working on my computer in the sunshine as I did last year. I forgot that it's hard to see the screen.   Photo from pixabay.com All the test results were negative, so I'm still trying to figure out why I have diarrhea. Hypotheses include too much B vitamins and too much gut bacteria. It all started shortly after beginning a new probiotic and re-starting thyroid medication (25 mg). As I mentioned, I took ...

Home Improvement Projects I'm finally finished painting. There are still a few places where water is getting in during rain storms; I'll be darned if I know where how it's getting in. On the next warm, dry day (we get a few in Indiana during the fall and winter), I'll go around with a fresh can of foam when the wood is dry and hope for the best.  My garage and vegetable garden. The window sill and the front door on my house are fixed, too. The sill, facing west, got badly weather beaten; the door is just old. I fixed the rot at the bottom of the door, put on a new sweep and numbers, painted the door and spray-painted the hinges with Rust-oleum. The deadbolt broke and I had to do quite a bit of retrofitting to install a new one. I bought and used a wood chisel to make room for a new strike plate. I think I learned how to use one in junior high shop class--one of those "useless" classes going by the wayside--but oddly, I don't remember what project I used it...

How soy makes me feel. Fatigue, puffiness, hunger--these have been keeping me from getting much done the past few weeks. It was discouraging after I felt so well at the end of August. But when I took a look at what I was eating (Atkins bars), I saw they were full of soy protein. Soy is a thyroid inhibitor--just what I don't need. So I quit the Atkins bars and ate more real food, but got a few things from the deli. Hey, more fatty food is good, right? Not when it gives you...more fatigue, puffiness and hunger. The broccoli cheese soup and cole slaw were made with soybean oil. Into the trash they went. I was careful about what I ate today, and I'm feeling better. One good thing about COVID has been working from, and eating at, home. I had scrambled eggs and coffee for breakfast, leftover coconut curry chicken and a green salad for lunch, and the same chicken, some homemade lentil salad and homemade low-carb chocolate chip cookies for dinner. Coincidentally, someone on a chat site...

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...

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...

This weekend, I was well enough to wear myself out doing landscape projects. I added to my shade garden, then spaded up an 8x30 foot plot on the corner. The next day, I put down some old bed sheets donated by a neighbor, weighted them down with bricks, and started setting out a hundred home-grown perennials in Xs cut in the sheets. It was hot, sunny and humid. Halfway through, a storm was coming. I worried the sheets would billow up in the wind and break some of the plants, so I threw down two bags of mulch, grabbed the clothes off the line, went inside and watched the rain come down in sheets. When it stopped I finished planting, looking like someone from Dirty Jobs when it was over. Being too tired to cook, I got a low-carb burger and small fries at the drive-through and came back home. In spite of two days' hard work, from the street, the house looked like hippies lived there: tall grass, a missing picket, and of course the bed sheets and plants that were all either little o...

I've got it back, I'm feelin' better every day. Tell all those pencil pushers, better get outta my way. I'm doing well enough that I've worked out the past couple of days and started going for walks at lunch again--once when it was 14F (-10C). I'm cooling off at night now. It's good to put on my winter pajamas and pull up the covers. Adrenal cortex and hydrocortisone FTW! Here's what I've learned from my reading and experience: Minerals=>Adrenals=>Thyroid In other words: Sort out your minerals first: iron, magnesium, potassium and iodine. Salt your food to taste. If you think you have adrenal problems--being tired or wired at the wrong time of day, heart palpitations, frequent colds, sex hormone problems--take a 24-hour cortisol test. Sort out your adrenals--I use Seeking Health adrenal cortex; others use stuff with adrenaline in it, or "adaptogen herbs." The former gave me palpitations; I haven't tried the latter. I...

Changing my adrenal medication has done me some good. I'm now taking one that's just adrenal cortex. That's what the last one was supposed to be, but I'm sure it had adrenaline in it. I've been a lot less jittery and the heart pounding has all but stopped. It was so distracting when I was trying to sleep! I can't quit wholesale--I start catching cold every time I try. Even in the few days after I quit the one and waited for the other to arrive, I got cold and tired. So Saturday I had groceries delivered because I didn't feel like leaving the house. I filled up my online cart with about 20 items, then tried to change my address from work to home. I couldn't. The site said my home and work were in different regions. So I emptied the cart, changed the address, and started again. I got a pop-up message saying I'd changed my address--did I want to change it? I clicked yes, I wanted to change it. When I was ready to check out, there was my work address...

Taking more adrenal and natural desiccated thyroid was a bad idea. I had an instinct Friday morning that I didn't want to take NDT, but I ignored it. All day and part of Saturday, I was jittery and my heart was pounding. I finally decided to follow my instincts, informed by reading and experience. I didn't take any NDT Saturday and didn't take any NDT or adrenal hormones today. I'm feeling better. I also quit doubling up on iron, since I've started feeling hot at night. There are times when it's better to have a specific plan, but this might not be one of them.

Saturday, I quit taking NDT (natural desiccated thyroid) for a while, figuring my problems (pounding heart, feeling hot, lack of energy) were from taking too much. The problems went away, so I was right. Yesterday, I felt great: normal heartbeat, energetic, cheerful...then I went outside after work and felt too cold. My heart started pounding again. I woke up later that night and felt puffiness behind my eyes. This morning I was up a pound and my face was so puffy it looked like Elvis circa 1976. My stomach was rumbling after lunch and sending acid the wrong way. Not wanting to repeat the misery I went through from taking too much NDT, I waited until this afternoon, thought about making absolutely sure my iron and adrenals were straightened out this time, and finally said, screw it, if I don't like taking NDT, I'll stop. So I took 150 mg--and felt better.  My face doesn't look like I need to lay off the peanut butter, bacon and banana sandwiches. What I'm doing now...

Figuring out my endo problems has been hard. Palpitations can be caused by too much or too little potassium, magnesium, iron, adrenaline and T3 (thyroid hormone). Having experimented with the first three, I think I still have too much T3 in my system. That, and I felt a lot better a week ago after taking a break from taking it, then cutting my dose in half. Back when my adrenals were low, eating more carbohydrate made me feel better. It doesn't now. Another sign that the problem is too much T3. Lab tests last week showed almost everything was normal: iron, magnesium, potassium, hemoglobin, and various kidney functions. My fasting glucose was high, though (106); I'm hoping it's because I was in some distress. I'm also hoping that getting my iron straightened out will help downstream functions of adrenals and thyroid. I went about things backwards: first (says Nora Gedgaudas), it's iron, which affects adrenals, which affects thyroid. There's more to it than...

Reducing my NDT was a success: the aches and pains are gone and I can sleep at night again. However, my heart started pounding after meals, then between meals, and then I had to lie down after meals or any exertion like bringing a basket of laundry upstairs from the dryer. Google is a lot less helpful than it used to be for finding answers. No matter how I phrase search terms, I get answers involving high cortisol, which I don't have. And the top answers are from corporate pill pushers and official sounding agencies that are adrenal fatigue deniers. I finally found some answers from Nora Gedgaudas's book Rethinking Fatigue , which I heard about over at Jimmy Moore . The second suggestion in the chapter about low cortisol is to check your iron. It's a big deal in adrenal fatigue and thyroid problems. She also says that doing keto is going to be really hard with low cortisol (but to try anyway) and to dig deeper for the source of your adrenal problems. I respect what...

Even with lab tests, it's hard to tell if you're dosing yourself right on NDT (natural desiccated thyroid) and adrenals cortex. Palpitations, being hot or cold, aches and pains, fatigue and nervousness are symptoms of high and low levels of both. They can be symptoms of other things, too. Changing only one variable at a time helps; so does changing doses a little at a time. Turns out I've been taking too much NDT and got symptoms of headache, rapid heartbeat, insomnia, and a bit of diarrhea. I wasn't hot, but didn't get cold even when going out in 44 degree weather with no coat. I've stopped taking it for the time being and will start again at a lower dose. 

Several years ago, I tried intermittent fasting when it first became all the rage. Result? I was hungry all day and ended up binge eating that night. I'd been on a low-carb diet for quite a while. I now know that the problem was likely low cortisol. I've had symptoms of low cortisol all my life: allergies, wonky blood sugar, sinus infections, and recently, my three-month bout with bronchitis--in the summer. And I'm hypothyroid, a condition that tends to go hand-in-hand with low cortisol. Cortisol helps regulate blood sugar. Without enough cortisol you can get hypoglycemia; your liver won't make enough blood sugar. In other words, I need to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner. When I had a more stressful job, I also needed some snacks in between. Since about half of people with thyroid problems also have adrenal problems(1), and Syncrap (levothyroxine, a thyroid medication) is the second-most prescribed medication in the US(2), low cortisol must be a pretty common con...

Merry Christmas! First, I'm happy to say my cold got nuked out of orbit before it had a chance to set in. Hydrocortisone and Mucinex FTW! Second, my health is much improved from a year ago. The scary palpitations are now infrequent and only mildly concerning and I'm starting to slowly lose weight after upping my thyroid supplements again. (My latest test showed free T3 in the lower half of the reference range.) My digestion is better, probably thanks to lots of Pepto-Bismol early this year, peppermint lattes (LC, of course), L. reuteri yogurt, and adrenal supplements. I don't have all my energy back, but I've lost the neurotic fear of trying things like making a slipcover and no longer have the feeling of being in la-la land. Next year I'd like to try tuck-and-point the masonry on my house--I think I could now handle a tuckpoint grinder. Third, I'm thrilled to see the complete turnaround in dietary ideas. When I started low carb almost ten years ago, peop...