Hey all, long-time lurker first-time poster here.
I didn’t feel I had anything of much value to contribute so I’ve laid low, but I made a personal breakthrough and thought I’d share it with people.
I’ve tried a lot of routines since I’ve had propecia problems (about 5 years now), some of my own device, others based on suggestions from this site. Things have worked with varying degrees of success, and I feel like I’ve made permanent good steps forward, but throughout each routine I felt like something was lacking.
I’m pretty open about my propecia problem since over the past five years I’ve managed to get myself up to the point where I have erections, a sex drive, less emotional displacement, et al, but things still bother me. But the point is that I’m not reticent to talk about this with friends, and they’ve been incredibly supportive.
Anyway, one of my friends is a nutritionist, and after I described my most aggravating symptoms to her–anxiety, brain fog, boredom, restlessness–she said it sounded like I had low blood sugar. I read up more about it and had to say it struck a chord. She gave me a few suggestions on how to change my diet, and I have to say I’m really impressed.
For one thing, I went on a fast for six days. By the third day I had strong morning erections and long bouts of clarity/mental energy, but in the evenings I would have these sudden crying spells. I’d be fine, then all of a sudden want to double over crying. Really weird. But my nutritionist friend attributed this to blood sugar instability and said not to freak out.
After I went off the fast, I cut out all caffeine, sugar, and refined flour. For good measure I also cut out lactose. Yes, my tongue is very bored now, but I allow myself all the salt and pepper I want!
I also started drinking licorice tea.
All in all, this diet has turned my life around. I eat two cups of brown rice with a sensible dinner each night, which gives me incredible energy, and sometimes have a cup in the morning with a small breakfast. I have licorice tea in the morning and evening, and genuinely feel like my old self. I still have bad days here and there, but I think that’s my body working out kinks.
Looking at other people’s theories, I can’t account for how my success incorporates everything, but I will pontificate a little.
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Inflammation. I took ibuprofen and got so sick I thought I was going to die. We’re talking too weak to move, canker sores all over the inside of my mouth, the whole works. I think it cut out some inflammation/cytokines in my prostate that then seeped into my bloodstream and made my system septic. At the same time, a hypoglycemic diet is very good for inflammation, so this could help.
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Candida. A hypoglycemic diet kills fungus. It’s hard to abide by, but I like to pretend I’m actively killing off candida (assuming I have any), and it makes me feel cool and bad-ass in an bio-ecology way.
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Cortisol. Licorice tea prevents your body from breaking down cortisol. It’s done wonders for me so I assume my body was producing tons of cortisol to counteract some sort of inflammation (or just because I went insane after I lost my libido), so keeping the cortisol in my system for longer gives my adrenals a break since they don’t have to produce nearly as much. A big also, after about a week of licorice tea I had some coffee, and it made me TOTALLY wired. I think this is a sign of recovery from hypoglycemia, because before then coffee just made me feel awful.
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Progesterone? I think I had too much progesterone because when I tried some progesterone cream I was so depressed I wanted to jump off a bridge. I’ve read that the body produces progesterone to raise blood sugar, so it could be that stabilizing blood sugar will go a long way in balancing hormones. But I don’t know much about the relationship between progesterone and blood sugar.
Anyway, I know this doesn’t sound like much, but I wanted to suggest that if you’re not sure what to do, a hypoglycemic diet + licorice tea could really help. You might feel worse for the first few days since your blood sugar will actually get lower than it usually is, so maybe start on a long weekend, but if you’re at all like me you should be having a lot more energy and way better sleep within days. And every little sign of progress I get improves my attitude, so I feel like I’m snowballing back to full recovery.
Oh, one more thing. I do take some supplements that I feel have also helped. Here there are, in no particular order:
Vitamin E to reduce progesterone (I think it does this since it’s a phyto-progesterone, but either way it makes me feel better)
Vitamin C and quercetin (1g morning and evenings) for any inflammation in my prostate (when I first started taking this it felt like someone was stabbing my prostate with a fork, it was crazy; the vitamin C helps your body absorb the quercetin)
Magnesium
5-HTP
When I feel an anxiety attack coming on because I’m more stressed than usual, didn’t get enough sleep, or strayed too far from my diet, I took some inositol (sometimes with Valerian root) and feel better in minutes.
Anyway, I’m not guaranteeing this is the end-all solution for everyone, but it really helped me so I thought I would throw it out there for people shopping around for what I think is a pretty simple routine. Good luck!