Day 29: I found the reason for my increased anxiety: it was the antibiotics killing my biodome. I stopped the antibiotics, started taking pro-biotics, and I had no more anxiety. That simple.
5-HTP 100 mg really help for reducing irritability and aggressiveness, while augmenting assertiveness and confidence. The days I take it twice are better than the days I take it in the morning only. Tomorrow, I’ll try taking it 3 times. (but I won’t take more than 2000 mg of Tyrosine)
The only thing that’s keeping me from being symptom free is insomnia. With the latest episode of decreasing Pregnenolone (which got me under stress) and destroying my bio-dome with heavy antibiotics, I ended up increasing Clonazepam by 33%. I’m now at 4 mg before bed, and it doesn’t even guarantee I can sleep. I have to do more research.
Pfs sufferers commonly have insomnia. If I’m to describe mine, I would say it’s somewhat a feeling of being fully alert, as in the day time, with a feeling of being excited. There’s no anxiety or depression although I do feel bored and exasperated by it. I’ll do more research on Orexin.
Quote: “Orexin, also known as hypocretin, is a neuropeptide that regulates arousal, wakefulness, and appetite.The most common form of narcolepsy, in which the sufferer experiences brief losses of muscle tone (cataplexy), is caused by a lack of orexin in the brain due to destruction of the cells that produce it.”
Quote: “Deficiency in orexin has also been linked to narcolepsy, a sleep disorder.”
Quote:" Narcolepsy results in excessive daytime sleepiness, inability to consolidate wakefulness in the day and to consolidate sleep at night." Mice with Orexin deficiency had narcolepsy and " were transitioning frequently and rapidly between sleep and wakefulness" Now I can definitely relate to that. This is what I’m experiencing. Falling asleep and waking up dozens of time in a single night.
So a lack of Orexin would cause losses of muscle tone, loss of appetite and loss of sleep, as well as loss of arousal and loss of wakefulness (brain fog ?)
I’ve read pfd sufferers having symptoms related to all those four (in bold letters). I personally had severe lack of muscle tone that would last for hours, and then be normal. In those episodes, I couldn’t climb stairs or stand up for more than 5 minutes. Later it would disappear, showing it had nothing to do with the muscle themselves. I have sleep disorder. That’s a fact.
Orexin is produced in the hypothalamus. I believe this little (pituitary) gland is responsible for A LOT of the symptoms we’re having. From lack of sex drive, to desensitization to ED, all the neurological symptoms, including anhedonia, lack of motivation, anxiety, depersonalisation and insomnia.
I have to find the precursor to Orexin and understand its mechanism. I don’t believe in inhibiting the receptors. I think this can be damaging. But if I could take the amino acid that makes Orexin in the morning, maybe I could have a productive day and a good night of sleep !.
Quote:“Orexin seems to promote wakefulness. Recent studies indicate that a major role of the orexin system is to integrate metabolic, circadian and sleep debt influences to determine whether an animal should be asleep or awake and active. Orexin neurons strongly excite various brain nuclei with important roles in wakefulness including the dopamine, norepinephrine, histamine and acetylcholine systems[14][15] and appear to play an important role in stabilizing wakefulness and sleep.”
Quote:“In humans, narcolepsy is associated with a specific variant of the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) complex. Furthermore, genome-wide analysis shows that, in addition to the HLA variant, narcoleptic humans also exhibit a specific genetic mutation in the T-cell receptor alpha locus. In conjunction, these genetic anomalies cause the immune system to attack and kill the critical orexin neurons. Hence the absence of orexin-producing neurons in narcoleptic humans may be the result of an autoimmune disorder.”
I’ve already suspected auto-immune response to be a cause of pfs symptoms.
I looked on how to increase Orexin levels and I found this:
- Consume more fermented foods. Eating fermented foods like sauerkraut and pickles can help increase orexin production. …
- Eat less sugar and carbs.
- Try intermittent fasting to increase your orexin levels. …
In my opinion pro-biotics would therefore also help, as it’s a larger amount of good bacteria than fermented food, Eating less sugar and carbs is the diet I’ve been on for 5 months and it has eliminated almost all neurological symptoms, and many people have talked about the benefits of fasting. (a Ketogenic diet like the one I’m doing activates mechanism in the body similar to fasting.)
I’ll continue my search for information, but I think I’m on to something.
