I feel it’s my duty to post more than lbv in this thread in order to rearrange Frequent Posters to ‘FML’
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Sorry to hear about your symptoms. Yes, sadly this is a syndrome because it can be caused by and is a result of many different factors affecting different people in different ways. This is probably why so many different “cures” work for different people. Sorry also to hear that this and other treatment options still aren’t giving you relief.
Oh, and yes i do think that the 10-day water fast helped significantly in the beginning.
I only took my first and ever dose of fin on August 7 of this year, so it hasn’t even been two months yet. I also haven’t started to lift again. I remain optimistic though and think your other thread about turning things around in the face of these obstacles through sheer will powered by anger is great and is something to strive towards.
Though what I don’t agree with is not being angry with multinational pharmaceutical companies like Merck rushing to get drugs out to market before evaluating potential catastrophic risks. But regardless, that anger even if it’s just, is ultimately impotent and fruitless.
Obligatory FML sequence post. lol
Hey, i say use any anger directed at whomever you want to to help. These drug companies, some of which i have/do work for, can be evil. They are literally just trying to get money while getting as close to the ethical/moral boundary line as they can. Sometimes they go over that line, and, if the current politicians are paid up, they wont get into trouble.
i just do my best to do ethical work for them. Cogs in a machine, my friend.
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I mean if these companies were individuals they’d be diagnosed as full blown psychopaths. From creating potentially dangerous, life-destroying drugs, operating through a profit motive of treatment over cure (“innovation”), political maneuvering at the expense of patients, and price gouging, they are downright evil and they functionally have to be in a market that rewards it. Creating drugs that benefit society is only incidental to that evil and not the other way around. At least with PFS, we won’t die from not being able to afford 1000% priced insulin.
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Taking drugs against gut inflammation is only symptom relief. The root is not adressed.
It is important to get comprehensive stool testing as I have been saying for months.
Then you know whether leaky gut, Morbus, pathogens, bacterial disbyosis is to address.
All of them are to be addressed differently.
If your gut is inflammed - calprotectin shows that - you need to do intermittent fasting and changing your diet (raw food, blended food like carrottes)
Restoring gut can take months.
Important is to check liver as well (detox cap.and functional cap.as the liver metabolizes and produces hormones).
But nobody is listening to meet cause everybody is awaiting for the one cure or step.
Thanks so much for sharing this idea. I will give it a try over the next two weeks and report back. Could you share a general outline of what foods you chose to eat and what foods you avoided?
Noprop and others,
I am a whole food vegan, which i do believe played/s a roll in my recovery. I thank you for bringing tha tup.
I have been able to correlate my mini crashes to times in which i cheated for a few days or more (such as thanksgiving, etc.). That being said, immediately jumping to the conclusion that I/we/everyone that has PFS have some form of ‘leaky gut’ is perhaps not the most logical of assumptions. Nor is me saying that ALL PFS is related to/caused by gut inflammation. This is why i mention the word ‘potential’ in the title of this thread.
What i believe is logical is to assume that the dietary changes (which i can correlate to bowel habit changes, mild abdominal discomfort, and mini crashes) are related to eating food that my GI tract is not accustomed to.
When presented with a substance that it is not use to, such as unhealthy processed food or animal products, it is logical to assume that the gut would react in an untoward way. The first thing that epithelial surfaces do in response to an assault, be it pathological or traumatic, is to become inflamed. (I see this response on a daily basis while treating patients.) When the GI tract becomes inflamed, among other things, it swells and the protective mucus coating changes making the underlying epithelium less resistant to chemicals such as the acid, digestive enzymes, and bile chemicals released by the stomach, gall bladder, and liver. “Leaky gut” or not, most people’s GI tract will react by becoming inflamed–as did mine.
Taking omeprazole was simply an effort on my part to speed my GI tract back to homeostasis by reducing one of the insults to its already inflamed surface–acid. Of course, switching back to pure veganism was the best choice, but the omeprazole (a pontent proton pump inhibitor [PPI]) certainly helped, as did the other antacids.
In response to another claim about omeprazole in this thread, I have never seen that drug listed as AR inhibitor, nor have i seen the side effects mentioned in that post listed on its label. However, as we all know, some side effects can go undisclosed with some drugs (finasteride), but I seriously doubt the questionable AR inhibition ability of omeprazole is what helped me. I say this because i have gotten help from other antacid drugs such as ranatidine (an H2 blocker). In fact, i should recommend an H2 blocker because these are considered safer drugs that PPIs, longterm.
My regimen is for only 2 weeks. What i should have also disclosed is that people should be eating healthy whole food–hopefully vegan–diets during and after that initial 2 week regimen. The 2 weeks is a period of treatment, like putting a salve on a wound for 2 weeks then allowing the wound to heal itself after that with healthy living.
So calm your gut down with some antacid for a few weeks, eat no animal products, and your gut will be happy. The way i see it, the things i recommend are easy and part of a healthy lifestyle anyway. It has helped with my PFS symptoms. I hope it does with you guys’ too.
This could also explain why people have good reactions with backing soda, isn’t it also neutralising the acids in the stomac an GI?
Zodiacs:
It might indeed.
Sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) is a base that can help neutralize acids such hydrochloric acid (HCl) which is the primary acid the stomach produces. The chemical process is shown below:
Na2CO3 (sodium bicaronate) + HCl (stomach acid) ----> NaCl (salt) + H2O (water) + CO2 (carbon dioxide gas [burps])
Sodium bicarb actually works so well in this regard that there is actually another prescription antacid medication that is simply a PPI (omeprazole) with a bunch of sodium bicarb added to the pill. It is called Zegerid. See the following link.
Sodium bicarb isn’t long acting though (like PPIs) but it helps.
Dallas:
Sorry for the late reply. For food, i try to stick with vegan whole foods. Even if i didn’t have PFS (or used ot have it), I would still choose this diet.
Any progress to report?
Actually I recant. I can attest to worsening of my IBS-C and my stomach started having problems again with irritation/acid reflux problems post-fin. My constipation was actually cured by eating a lot of probiotic yogurt before taking fin and after taking fin it started coming back recently either as a direct or secondary cause of PFS or a mix of both. I could imagine all sorts of knock on effects from a disrupted gut microbiota as it is implicated in a lot of maladies in research including the latest Melcangi study of PFS.
What are safer antacids to take or the best way of taking and dosing baking soda?
To address gut issues, test your stool comprehensively.
Eat raw food or even better do a juice fast.
To avoid further inflammation.
You can add 3*tsp a day of anorganic sulfur.
Okay i have some actually quite encouraging news, and i stumbled upon it by accident. This also plays into what many of us have been talking about in this thread.
Recently, I had to take a Z-pack (azithromycin) for a sinus infection. Long story short the antibiotics worked wonders on the sinus infection, but a few days after i finished the regimen, I noticed that my stomach was bloated and painful. I was wracked with fatigue and my dick simply stopped working, as did my libido in general. On the 3rd night with my brand new gf, i couldn’t perform–and couldn’t for over a week. She was a trooper and hung tough. But yes, it was yet another crash…or was it? This time I knew that the symptoms were being caused by stomach problems, so i went with my go to cure: omeprazole/esomeprazole.
This is important because some have suggested that omeprazole can help PFS because it is a 5AR inhibitor. Well, this time omeprazole didn’t work, so I’m pretty certain this isn’t an issue in which I’m getting help from another form of 5AR inhibitor.
Growing desperate, I gave up on the pharmaceuticals and decided I’d try a different way to calm my stomach down. After hours of searching the web i found several supplements that were rumored to have a calming effect on the GI tract and that people use for autoimmune gut problems. I started taking digestive enzymes with every meal. I also started culturing my very own coconut water kefir (im vegan). I drank kefir (more than 20 types of probiotics) morning and night. Also took colostrum day and night (not vegan 
). Took L-glutamine, marshmellow root, shilijat, and licorice root. Lookup any of these herbs/supplements on amazon and you will find hordes of reviews touting their ability to alleviate all sorts of gut/autoimmune issues. Not very scientific, but whatever.
A week and a half later, I must say I am dumbfounded by how great my stomach feels. My libido is back and my little buddy stands to attention quicker and with more gusto than ever.
What i’m going to do is slowly ween myself off each supplement one at a time and see which is having the greatest effect. If none of them prove to be helping more than the others, then ill just stop them all and see if i can cruise on without taking anything. Perhaps, I just needed to reset my gut and i wont have to continue taking these pills. But either way, im not sad. My stomach and pelvis feel better now than even before i’d ever heard of propecia or PFS.
If anyone wants to try this, i can provide links to the stuff i bought on amazon. Each item was between $9 and $13. Total was around 50 bucks. I would have paid thousands for this result in the past.
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Id definitely like a link to some of these products.
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I am interested too.
Please DM me the links
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