50% recovered and still improving – nathaniel protocol
REMOVED THEORIZING
Disclaimer 1:
I fully support research to find a cure for PFS and I donate money to the PFSfoundation each month on a recurring basis and I strongly urge everyone to do the same. Funding research is extremely important.
Disclaimer 2:
I am not a doctor; I am not a scientist. I am just an IT engineer who has PFS. Please consult with experts when beginning protocols and obviously the worst thing would be for someone to get worse or commit suicide. I am simply sharing my perspective and am not encouraging others to follow.
Strategy:
While we wait for research and a cure, I am pursuing functional medicine protocols (also called alternative medicine or integrative medicine). The protocol I have done to get me a 50% recovery is outlined below.
My high-level strategy is:
Give the body all the resources it needs to heal itself
The foundation of health is a healthy diet and a great gut microbiome.
Patience - It can take a minimum of 6 months to rebuild a healthy gut microbiome so I am being patient and measuring success week by week, not day by day.
Functional medicine is good to deal with multi-system illnesses and PFS is a multi-system condition because it affects brain, penis, emotions, gut, and more.
Background:
I am a 30 year old male. I took finasteride for 3 months, had mild symptoms then stopped. Had mild symptoms for 3 months and then crashed. I am writing this post 6 weeks after crashing and 3 weeks after starting my personal protocol, “the nathaniel” protocol outlined in this post.
Symptoms and improvements:
For my symptoms and improvements below, assume that 0/0 is how I felt during my PFS crash and that 100/100 is how I felt before finasteride. As an example, 50/100 means that I am back to 50% where I was before finasteride and that I am 50% better than my crash.
On average across all symptoms I am 50% better.
Physical
Fatigue (60/100)
Abdominal pain (50/100)
Testicular pain (90/100)
Hot flashes (99/100)
Tingling pins and needs in hands and feet (80/100)
Insomnia (80/100)
Headaches (60/100)
Pressure in skull (85/100)
Dizziness (50/100)
Emotional
Anxiety (90/100)
Depression (90/100)
Suicidal ideation (95/100)
Mental
Brain fog/lack of concentration (80/100)
Confusion (80/100)
Anhedonia (80/100)
Sexual
Libido (35/100)
Penile numbness (70/100)
Erectile dysfunction (50/100)
No connection between brain and penis (60/100)
Diet:
GAPS nutritional protocol. This is a diet to transform your gut microbiome (gut flora), brain, and overall health and has been shown to improve and even reverse neurological diseases like autism, bipolar, and schizophrenia, as well as physical diseases like Lyme, Fibromyalgia, auto-immune diseases, and hormonal disorders.
The GAPS diet focuses on organic meat/meat stock (60%), organic vegetables (30%), and organic fermented foods (10%). It’s a hard diet but it’s totally worth it. No alcohol, no coffee, no caffeine.
The GAPS diet is an elimination diet meaning you introduce foods one at a time to understand how your body.
I recommend doing the “Full GAPS diet” for a few weeks and then doing the “GAPS Introduction diet”. Then after a few weeks going back to the Full GAPS diet and staying there for 6 months, 2 years, or for the rest of your life.
For meat I mostly eat grass fed organic beef, beef liver, chicken, bone marrow, pheasant, and duck.
For vegetables I cook carrots, onions, celery in meat stock/bone broth
For fermented foods I eat sauerkraut and drink kombucha
Supplements:
I only buy high quality supplements recommended by doctors and naturpaths because I am told cheap supplements at CVS or Vitamin Shoppe can do more harm than good. Here is 2 places to buy high quality supplements: https://www.integratedholistic.com > Store. Thorne medical: https://www.thorne.com/products/dp/mediclear-plus-reg
Cod Liver oil (liquid) for brain repair, brain health, and reducing neuroinflammation
Strong Probiotics (many strains, 100 billion CFUs) for gut health
Vitamin B for energy and brain health
Vitamin D for depression
Vitamin C for immune system
Men’s multi-vitamin for overall wellness
Detox:
Colonics
I got a few colonics a week apart to flush out my gut. It helped with abdominal pain and rebuilding gut microbiome.
Elimination diet
The GAPS diet is an elimination diet that completely eliminates carbs, sugars, and processed foods. The first week or two of the GAPS diet was rough, I had flu-like symptoms, inflammation and headaches. This was actually a good sign that my body was detoxing. It is called the Herxheimer effect. Do not fear it, embrace it, and avoid Advil or drugs during the “die-off”. You need to lean into pain to heal.
Epsom salt bath for hands and feet
Using hot water on my hands and feet to increase blood flow.
Using Epsom salts in the bath for magnesium to relax and to aid sleep. Sleep is crucial to enable the body to heal itself.
Sleep / No masturbation / NoFap
Sleeping more and no masturbating are helping increase my libido.
Exercise
I go on walks once per day
I am too tired to lift weights or play sports
Lab tests and results:
Blood test results
Low vitamin D
Low Vitamin B
Urine test results
Cloudy urine
Organic Acid Test results
Poor diet (I need to eat more meat protein and fat)
Nutritional deficiencies
Low amino acid metabolites which means I need to eat more animal protein
High dopamine and low serotonin (depression)
GI Map results
Leaky gut (zonulin test)
Small intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO)
Fungal infection (Candida)
Gut dysbiosis
Lyme test results
Waiting for results
DUTCH test results
Waiting for results
Mindset:
I am staying positive and measuring success week over week / month over month instead of day by day.
Media:
I am consuming media regarding health, diets, and overcoming chronic illness.
Books
GAPS Diet for physiology (blue cover): https://www.amazon.com/dp/0954852079?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
GAPS Stories
The Deep Places
Chronic The hidden cause of the autoimmune pandemic
Do I have adrenal fatigue
The Paleo Cure
Videos
Food is medicine documentary: https://youtube.com/watch?v=hynNIf2M6n0&si=EnSIkaIECMiOmarE
What’s next:
Next month I am going to start “The Gonzalez Protocol”. This protocol started as alternative care for cancer patients and grew to include care for chronic illnesses like Lyme and Fibromyalgia. It is a 6-12 month protocol that focuses on a strict personalized diet (based on your hair sample), supplements, and detox cleanses.
I am going to look into a detox regime like the one on detox dudes.
More details:
Recent research from the PFS foundation and an Italian university suggests that finasteride affects the gut, which affects the brain, which effects sexual functions. The study was called “Allopregnanolone Counteracts Finasteride-induced Alterations in Gut Microbiota, According to New University of Milano Research”
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