Amino Acid For neurological symptoms

Therapeutic Efforts
#82

Day 41: I’ll give last night an artificial 10/10. I went to sleep feeling tired at 10:30 pm, felt asleep within 15 minutes and slept without waking up until 6:30 am. It’s an artificial 10/10 because I took 3.5mg clonazepam and 2mg hydroxyzine to achieve this.

I will now stop hydroxyzine (an anti-histamine), reduce clonazepam by 0.5mg per day until I get to a compromise between comfort and lower doses of drugs. I will not start Agomelatin again.

Intermittent fasting does wonder (that’s eating in a 4-6 hours window only, and fasting the rest of the time). I’m doing it along with my regular ketogenic / carnivore diet, with a protein shake in between. I’ve reduced all aminos and I think 5=HTP 100mg and L-Tyrosine 500-1000mg at 3 pm was a mistake. I will now take them at Noon, along with gelatin or bone broth, as I’m breaking the fast everyday. Not eating after 6 pm also makes the sleeping pills work faster and more efficiently as I’m taking them on an empty stomach.

#83

Day 42: Sleep is still good. 8/10. I do wake up before dawn, around 4 am (after sleeping at 10pm) and then I tos and turn 4-6 times for two hours, but I fall asleep in between. Overall sleep quality is good enough to get me through the day. I consider this to be my baseline (or baseline with drugs). Without drugs, I go to hell in 3 days.

The simplified diet as per above may be good for losing fat, but it’s not for pfs symptoms. Yesterday I had anxiety, demotivation, procrastination, bad mood, depression, low sex drive etc… bad to where I was 4 months ago, and it’s not a good place. That’s when I ask myself why is it exactly that I bother go to work and take care my family. Why don’t I just do nothing and everyone just leave me the f*** alone !

So today, I’m back at the most efficient thing I know: Taking 5-HTP 100mg + L-Tyrosine 500mg + L-Dopa 350mg as soon as possible in the morning, and again no later than 1:30pm. Plus a protein shake with added L-Valine 2000 mg and 500 DLPA, and a pea size (or half) Pine Pollen with DMSO on my forearm and I rub my two forarms together to spread it. I may do some intermittent fasting every few other days and I will try not to eat after 6pm as it makes the sleeping pills more efficient.

This way, I get confidence (with a bite), good mood, I’m calm and happy. Plus sex drive is back.

#84

Evening Update: Wow. Aminos with a POW !

First thing in the morning and a second time before lunch, I took:

5-HTP 100mg
L-Tyrosine 500mg
L-Dopa 350mg

I also took Theanine 200mg with my morning coffee.

(I followed all the above protocol which says to take those at that time anyway)

I felt strong, confident, happy, motivated, in a good mood, full of energy all day. What a difference it makes.
It enabled me not only to train my staff with confidence, but to exercise and eat well also. Motivation goes a long way. Without it, even if I have energy to do things, I’ll just procrastinate.

So only one thing remains to be seen: will I sleep good tonight ? If I don’t I’ll have to choose between good days and bad nights, or good nights and bad days.

But if I do sleep good, I’ll have the best of both worlds !

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#85

I hope you get a good sleep @Ozeph. :slight_smile:

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#86

Thanks Greek. That’s very considerate of you.

It answers our previous question: it looks like my baseline, without the aminos, is still pretty grey: no sleep, anxiety, depression, no motivation, low sex drive, bad mood etc…

On the good side, I seem more or less stable on my regime. I’m still adjusting and testing, but I think what’s ruining my sleep is taking 5-HTP and Tyrosine too close to bedtime. That’s why I moved the second dose to 1:00pm. Let’s see if it works…

I might be wrong, but I think amino acids can be taken on the long term. They’re not drugs, they’re stuff our body produces or stuff we get from food. I’m pretty sure if not taken in excess, our body can metabolize and discard them naturally without causing damage (like drugs do. Most of them are bad for the liver or the kidneys…)

When I’m satisfied with what I’ve learned, I’ll do a full review of each amino acids and supplements I tried during this experiment and describe in which way it was beneficial or detrimental (or had no effects)

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#87

Day 43: I had a good night of sleep. 7.5/10. I overslept a bit, as it’s Saturday morning.
I conclude that taking 5-HTP sooner in the day improves sleep while enabling me to have a good day.
This seems to concur with Wikipedia’s article on cortisol that quote “The serotonin receptor gene 5HTR2C is associated with increased cortisol production in men.”, 5-HTP being the precursor of serotonin (and the reason why I take it)

Read the whole article (if you don’t mind the scientific language) as it talks a lot about the effects of elevated cortisol, especially on the immune system and related to insomnia. I think it’s pertinent to us, as many of us (including me) had elevated cortisol levels after crashing.

I took aminos as per my regime as soon as I woke up, and intent to take it again before lunch. However, this time i will take only half of the 5-HTP and no Tyrosine. I’ll take L-Dopa as usual. This is to test if sleep improves from slightly less 5-HTP and also to see if I’m still having somewhat of a good day.

New test, an hour after taking my sleeping pills (to give them time to go down) I will take a slice of cheese with some honey. This is to test a theory suggested to me by @Shellnyce that low cortisol levels may be the cause of the 4am wake up call every god damned night, as per this article: https://www.drdeborahmd.com/do-your-adrenal-glands-wake-you-3-am

Low cortisol levels could happen from adrenal fatigue after a period of producing too much cortisol (after a pfs crash for example). The body replaces the absent cortisol with adrenaline and you go from sleep to completely awake and ready to run in a minute… Not good for rest.

I’ll post my results tomorrow as always.

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#88

Day 44: It worked ! I had a better night of sleep, although still not 100%. 8/10.

So taking a slice of cheese and half a cup of warm milk with a tbsp of honey results in a better night.
It might be that I didn’t have a depleted cortisol response due to lack of energy, and it didn’t trigger an adrenaline response to replace the lack of cortisol.

Taking 5-HTP 100mg, L-Tyrosine 500mg and L-Dopa 350mg as soon as I wake up at 6:30am, and again around noon works also. It makes a great day and does not interfere with my sleep.

Taking Theanine 200mg with my morning coffee makes me calm and mellow, yet focused instead of having a caffeine rush (cortisol rush ?)

Being on a ketogenic / carnivore diet with almost zero carbs is the most beneficial thing I’m doing, exercise being second. I do intermittent fasting (18/6 hours) on a regular basis. I never do complete fasting.

Look at all the success stories you can still find on this website, you will see low carbs, high protein (sometime high saturated fat) diet along with exercise and fasting are common elements in recovery stories.
High saturated fat repairs the brain and nervous system, and hormones are made out of cholesterol.

To the moderators. If you could find in an old data base the success stories of past users and post them, we could see what’s the common thread in those recoveries.That could be one of the most useful thing you can do for 2019 in my opinion and it would be greatly appreciated. We need information on what those who recovered did in order to do so. You’re doing great work anyway.

Thank you if you can do this, and if you can’t, well, there’ll be more success stories in years to come. Save the stories in multiple places and make sure it can’t be lost. This is like finding gold nuggets among pebbles.

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#89

Low carb diets sure seem to be a common theme among people who have improved. I have always eaten a bunch of protein but the last few years have had a lot more sweets, so I’m a ways away from a low carb diet. I guess I’ll blame the “skinny” genes on making it too easy to eat all the sweets I want

I’m starting to think it’s worth cutting them out and getting carbs under 30g/day or so for a few weeks to at least test if it helps. I remember doing it once years ago (before PFS) and I don’t think I ever got past the initial super tired/light headed from no carbs phase so I guess I’ll just have to tough it out and push through this time

Thanks for all the updates–you’re one of the few giving regular, specific updates with things people can actually try.

#90

Aim for less than 10 gr a day in my opinion. The first day is a breeze. The second day, your body starts kicking back. It wants its carbs. You’ll feel tired, maybe you’ll sleep in the middle of the day, you mat crave carbs etc… It’s called keto flu (you may actually get diarrhea for a few days) you can google it to know what to expect.
The third day is easier already but it takes a week or two to adapt. after a month, you’ll be completely adapted and after 4 months your body will be so used to burning fat as its source of energy that even if you eat carbs once in a while, you can get back to ketosis in a day or two.

When I started it, I had glasses half with milk, half with water to try and get pass the first few hard days. After, milk is off limit of course. Do what it takes to get through the first days. If you need to eat carbs, take as little as possible.

Once your on the diet, You can only drink water, plain tea, plain black coffee, low carbs herbal tea. You can also have 35% cream, butter or cheese. You eat meat (beef is the best) cooked in tallow, lard, ghee or butter. Avoid all liquid oils, especially vegetable oil. The only exception is coconut oil and it’s a must. Coconut oil is made of medium chain triglycerides and will efficiently replace carbs as a source of energy. (it also prevent colon cancer from eating red meat). When you feel energy depleted, just take a few gulps straight from the bottle and you’ll be back to normal in 20 minutes. (I suggest extra virgin, cold pressed organic coconut oil. Avoid coconut cooking oil. It will make you nauseous because of the solvents it contains)

Good luck ! This may be the single biggest step you take toward recovery. It’s worth the efforts.

#91

Day 45: Yesterday I had mac and cheese for dinner, thinking I was doing a carbs reload. It turned out I did a pfs reload. I had a horrible night of sleep, 4/10, not good enough to get me through the day. (although I can’t nap, so it’ll have to do). I can take one night like this, but not two. If tonight I sleep as bad for a second time, tomorrow i’ll be disabled for the day and until I can have a good night.

On the good side, If I get absolutely zero carbs (well, less than 5 gr) and full keto / carnivore today and take all my aminos and protein shakes on schedule, chances are very good I’ll have an excellent night, mainly because I’m exhausted and also because doing the regime without failing, I have no reason not to sleep.

So that’s one more experiment. Once again it shows me I have to follow my protocol to the letter or I’ll feel bad. I crashed 7 months ago. My body didn’t have time to completely heal by itself; probably didn’t heal that much at all. I believe it’s on its way to do so, but only if I don’t deviate from what makes me feel good, what makes my body heal.

I consider myself lucky I have found a way to be symptom free while I’m healing. It may take 3-5 years before i can start deviating from my diet and aminos without falling sick. I may still have to follow some kind of diet with supplements 20 years from now. That’s fine. As long as I have a way to feel good and function normally, I’m ok with it.

#92

I think it’s incredible what you’ve done so quickly. That you can pinpoint missteps and reactions is great.

I agree that we may all have to use charged diets for decades to come. Perhaps you should consider a career in nutrition!

#93

Thanks Greek. I’m learning as it goes. I’m not too far to have a complete protocol to suggest, first to people that are not too affected by the disease (to be safe) and then to everyone. It doesn’t involve drugs, everything is taken in tiny quantities to begin with and the rule of thumb is to check how we’re doing in the following hours after taking something, and to reduce or stop at first sign of trouble.

And don’t worry, I won’t be selling anything to anyone. I’m already doing well financially and the last thing I want is money from my fellow pfs sufferers here. I won’t push anything either. People have to right to choose their path.

But I’m linking the dots. The few recovery stories I’ve read all had low carbs / high protein diet, and exercise.
I added high saturated fat to my diet as it does wonder to brain tissue and hormones (plus without carbs, I need a source of energy.)
Two story was about resistance training, another was about cardio-vascular training (although the guy posted pictures that can only be the results of resistance training in my opinion)

As you know, I then added specific aminos to address remaining symptoms the diet and exercise won’t fix.

This thread talks about reactivating 5a-reductase throught resistance training.

#94

Do you have links to success stories ? i’d like to see if i can find commonalities we can use.

#95

No, I’d have to just use the search function too.

I wish people that have got better would check in from time to time and update us.

#96

Oh yes, nice ! I just made a search and found plenty of things to read.

Thanks for the tip.

#97

Ah, sorry. I thought you would have known about search. I’d have phrased that differently otherwise.
If you put things in " " you can search for specific sentences / phrases, I think.

#98

It’s fine !

I just didn’t think the search function would search through all the database.

I can search “I’m cured” or I’m normal again" etc… and I can find stories.

Certainly you guys have the registration emails from all the users ? If you think it’s appropriate, you could send a message to each and everyone and ask them if they have a success story, to write it in a brand new success story section designed for that purpose.

It’s just a though. You guys do as you see fit.

Thanks for you help.

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#99

Day 46: I didn’t have the night I wished for. I would rate it 5 on 10. On that scale, 5 means barely enough with some repercussion during the day. So yesterday was a four, today a 5, that means I’ll be lagging behind all day. Better try and get a 7+ tonight !

I’m still experimenting with milk and honey, and a piece of cheese before sleep. The purpose was to avoid a cortisol response due to lack of energy, with the assumption that cortisol is depleted by adrenal fatigue and adrenaline would kick in instead. I think I took it the wrong way. I react badly to carbs and my body is used to ketosis (using fat as an energy source). So tonight, I’ll try 2 tbsp of coconut oil with the piece of cheese.

I also took sporadically Glycine 500-1000mg and Glutamine 5-10gr without being able to tell if it changes anything. Tonight, I’ll take 500mg and 5gr respectively, not for their specific properties but just to give my body a source of energy for the night, to avoid any potential cortisol spike at 4am. Protein and fat last longer than carbohydrates anyway. Honey will be burned 4 hours after taking it at most. Probably within 2 hours.

If that doesn’t work, tomorrow I’ll try the same without the Glycine and Glutamine.

I’ll also take 1/4 pill of anti-histamine (that’s 2.5mg of hydroxyzine). I really mean it when I say I want to have a good night of sleep tonight. I’m fed up with waking up all the time.

On the good side, Theanine 200mg with coffee works very well, and 5-HTP 100mg, Tyrosine 500mg and L-Dopa 350mg as soon as I wake up also greatly improve what would otherwise be a groggy morning.

I take 5-HTP, Tyrosine and L-Dopa a second time at lunch but yesterday I cut 5-HTP to 50mg and I was still very calm and confident. I’ll do that again today. Too much of something can be bad, and considering SSRI can cause Serotonin syndrome, I’ll have to be careful with 5-HTP which converts into serotonine without the body asking for it (taking tryptophan instead gives the body the option to convert some of it into 5-HTP if needed, but I react badly to tryptophan. Before bed anyway, I haven’t tried in the day time.)

Aside from waking up frequently at night, I have no other symptoms, as long as I stick to my regimen.

I believe I had a spike of sex drive after eating a bowl of oat one morning. I’ve read in another post someone mentioning a correlation between taking carbs and a rise in sex drive. I’m on a very low carbs diet, but I’ll try that again (40 gr. of oat) once I can fix my sleep patterns.

#100

Carbs generally raise testosterone so could be the reason https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20091182

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#101

Thanks. That would explain.