Like myself again

General Discussion
#1

I suffered from finasteride side effects for 5 months (august 13’-january 14’) after taking only 5mg of poison. I had all the typical signs and symptoms. You name it, i got it all. After the initial shock i got myself down to find a route for recovery.

I quickly understood after reading this forum and from personal experience that doctors are of no use in my situation and that we are alone on this. We, the people of this forum had to find the solution little by little, one piece of information here and there, some perosnal experiences and some critical thinking. I was right.

I do not claim to have the answer but i think my improvement started when i treated oxidative stress with methylation supplements.

The user droit has a very thorough thread about it. Also, user mario vitali has some very useful posts and threads. He is the person who helped me the most through his support.

Right now i can function very good, almost as i was pre fin, and still see improvements every day. I am myself again 90% and loading.

The supplements i use in an order of effectiveness are :

Mtafolin by solgar 1000mg-ed
Methylcobalamin 1mg by solgar-ed
P-5-P 50 mg by country life-ed
Vit C 3 grams a day
Alpha lipoic acid 600mg by doctors best-ed with empty stomach
Tongkat ali 1 gram a day by abs- just to free my test from slightly increased shbg (not excess)
Selenium by solgar 200mg-ed

I did not get lowered testo or free testo from fin, neither extreme brain fog and i consider myself lucky for this.

My understanding is that the problem is oxidative stress from glutathione depletion and depleted/altered neurosteroid levels. I cannot be sure whether the reduced oxidative stress is the answer or just creates the environment for natural recovery.

I do not want to sound dull but i do not expect much from all the studies going on, more likely they are going to come up with results like the italians studies which show altered neurosteroid levels in the brain. Ok thanks but what do we do with that? Nobody knows yet.

I could go as far as saying that the whole thing gave me a lot of positive things. I know how it is to be deprived of basic stuff and how important it is to live a normal life as a healthy person. Actually this is all a man needs in this world.
I also know a lot of medical stuff now, i can read and interpretate blood exams, hormonal exams, signs my body sends to me etc.

I also do not care about hairloss anymore if it comes cause i never had any real problem with it, i was just stupid. I might have saved time and money from applying all these stupid substances on my head. Minoxidil is also shit people stay away.

Finally, only reason i log in here is to advocate about the use of methylations supplements to people who have not been using them. I also do not claim this thread to be a recovery one as still i am not 100% and with this fuckin poison you can never be sure.

Thats all folks, stay positive and never surrender!

God bless you all,
Costa

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#2

Thanks for the update. I am finding some success with Methylation Protocol as well.

Did you do anything else as well? Juicing, special diet, other supplements, etc?

#3

No, nothing else in relation to diet etc.
i was a gym junkie prefin, lifting heavy weights etc, and i am back at my routine again now. But the improvement came with the listed supplements i used.
Funny thing is that in some areas i am improved even better as pre fin, thus some kind of oxidative stress definitely was going on in my body.
Believe it or not my hematocrit, hemosferin were raised in my ladt blood tests and my bad cholesterol was dropped.

#4

Hey Costa, Congratulations Man! :slight_smile:

Quick question : Could you tell us how you take the supplements? Are you taking them all at once or you have some specific order (for example Metafolin, P5P, B12 in the morning, C in the afternoon etc)

Thanks again,

Mario

#5

Guys i am happy to report that i do not longer have any finasteride side effects.
A lot of you are sending me private messages about wether my recovery is still present and how long did i notice a difference after starting those supplements.
After my supplementation with the methylation products i started to feel way better within a week.

Mario i am taking b12 and b6 together with vit c and magnesium.
B12 after food placed on the upper lip hours before vit c because the latter blocks proper absorption of the b12.
Ala with carnitine i take on the morning 20 mins before breakfast.
Tongkat ali i take it throughout the day.

1 Like
#6

Great news, so pleased for you, you can go enjoy your life now.

I only wish I had taken Propecia for 3 days then I know I would be much better.

#7

This is very interesting. Costas and I seem to share some issues. I’ll be starting these vitamins this week.

I’m having muscle spasms once in a while upon falling asleep (the kind that wakes you up and doesn’t letyou sleep), and I thought I could have low ferritin/iron. So I asked my doctor for an exam to those.
Ferritin and iron came out in mid range but then I saw I am very low for red blood cells which in fact, it was not anemia per say because it wasn’t under the range, but it seems borderline. This alone can be responsible for fatigue because you’re not carrying enough oxygen around. Guess what’s the suggested solution for such a case of anemia? B9 and B12.

My cholesterol was also in range for intermediate risk all this time (except I made some dietary changes now and last time I had checked it came out almost in the healthy range)

Then when Costa told me about the methylation I gave it a read. It seemed too much of a coincidence to me that some people are recovering through b6 b9 and b12, even in CFS which seems to share many points with PFS, and from my blood samples it seems I would benefit at least from b9 and b12…the fact this can happen because of a gene mutation in MTHFR, also seemed to be in line with a family history of mental ilness (some epileptic crisis, anxieties and depressions)…so I just decided to order the supplements to try them and I will be letting you know how it goes on my side, but I’m buying strongly into this…

Anyone has hematocrits panels that can relate to this?

EDIT: I just searched on the forum “haematocrit” and most of the results that I found were borderline low on this. maybe not a coincidence…it’s 2014, people keep looking at hormone panels and trying TRT and what not. it seems pretty obvious to me the flaw isn’t there!

#8

I do believe that there will be people like Costa who will feel themselves again with the Methylation protocol.

Notice that Costa’s regimen has some Twists : Carnitine, Lipoic Acid, large dose of Vit. C and Tongkat Ali.

Costa could you say a few words for the reasons for taking Carnitine and Lipoic Acid? As discussed, Both Carnitine and lipoic acid appear to have detrimental effects to hypothyroid patients as they bind both T3 and T4. However, I had a very positive effect when i used them which is somewhat contradictory but for now i will have to take them out from my regimen to get back to normal TSH values. Once TSH is stabilized i will add ALCAR and R Lipoic Acid to see what happens and if that affects my thyroid function.

Another thing is for those of us that have Low Free Testosterone. It would be great if having the methylation regimen we would notice also a return on being euthyroid and/or not in a state of hypogonadism.

Time will tell.

#9

Just a quick update:
stopped selenium and alpha lipoic acid as they mess with my thyroid.
a piece of advice from me is to stay away from too many supplements as you may put obstacles against your own body to recover and find its balance. I would recommend only folate, b6 and b12.
Keep in mind that my testosterone/thyroid were not affected by fin. If you suffer from hypogonadism and hypothyroidism/hyperthyroidism, then you might want to experiment with additional stuff to help you towards recovery.

Stay strong,
Costa

#10

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#11

Don’t want to cause any aggro by claiming what is PFS and what isn’t, but honestly if you never experienced any hormonal difficulty I don’t think your recovery is very applicable to most members on here.

I don’t doubt finasteride effected you adversely in other ways, but the sexual side-effects the rest of us suffer are unlikely going to be fixed by any methlaytion protocol. Wish you all the best in your recovery regardless.

#12

how have you felt since dropping these two? ALA and carnitine are both really good for some things with PFS in my opinion and i have been looking at them extensively. ALA actually increases glutathione in the body. it also acts as an insulin mimic and increases glucose’s transport into muscle cells. it’s really good if you have insulin sensitivity issues and is recommended by people for diabetes.

#13

You cannot exclude anything with pfs, especially when still we do not know exactly what causes it. If my assumptions are right, that it lies in neurotransmitter functions, then hormone values are not to be taken into consideration.
A sudden stoppage of neurotransmitter functionality by fin usage and an automatic negative response could be the issue. Do not forget that neurotransmitters control hpta axis among other things. Maybe my system, like other peoples here as well, was not harmed in a way that the axis was affected.
The oxidative stress that i believe everyone here is experiencing, is due to unbalanced neurotransmitters. That is why the key to recovery is first to keep OS at bay while finding a way to balance our neurotransmitters. Some people are experiencing positive results with prog cream, as it acts on receptors in the brain, likely causing a balancing effect. The thing i worry mostly is the possibility that a gene which is responsible for the balance of neurotransmitters has been harmed by fin, and thats why its so difficult to recover.

#14

What symptoms did you have?

#15

Hey man, how did this work out for you?