Good luck, brother!
To clarify: Mariano’s basic viewpoint is that we suffer from chronic, systemic inflammation, chronic positive feedback loops that need to be broken, poor fundamental nutrition, neurotransmitter signaling problems, etc… And that each patient’s profile is different and needs to be treated as such. He treats underlying root causes of symptoms, understanding that Finasteride caused an overload to the system, but believing that Finasteride is not the only thing capable of crashing the system. Although I’ve convinced my brother and father to get off finasteride and proscar (5mg), respectively, they suffered no apparent side effects. It’s unclear if they would have, and why chance it, of course.
Point is, everyone tolerates it differently, some bodies adjust/compensate for the signaling changes that finasteride induces, for others, it’s the kiss of death…it lowers progesterone, among many other things, the body’s anti-inflammatory response, it causes a cascade of chain reactions. Despite the most basic common denominator on this forum being finasteride use and sexual dysfunction, low ejaculate volume, “brain fog”, etc., you’d be hard pressed to find 2 people with EXACTLY the same profile. That is, if you open up the bloodwork panel, and include all vitamins, 3adiolG, all hormones, etc, no 2 people would look the same, and no 2 people suffer from precisely the same list of symptoms. Thus, you might feel better by taking something that ups your Dopamine, that might have a temporary positive chain reaction, but it might not have a lasting effect either, if the root problem is not discovered and treated. One-size-fits-all treatment (upping Testosterone, for example), makes no sense to me, when there are SO many measurable levels of health to explore, many checkboxes to go down. And yeah, Testosterone, DHT and all that jazz are part of it, but doesn’t it make sense tweak all that you can via nutrition FIRST, before further supplementing hormones, powerful meds? Make the body as strong as you can (by whatever process you view credible), and then build from there?
I come and go from this board, and I’ve been reading a lot of threads the last couple of days—seems like “Nutrition” gets poo-poo’d a lot. As if nutrition is not a valid scientific position. I’m NOT of a medical background, I have no scientific background, I cannot explain a lot of the technical aspects that some rather brilliant minds on here discuss. But I’ve read enough convincing, well-researched books that document the decline of our health. And the reason? NUTRITION!!! Just a few generations ago, my family had 90 year olds. Not so, more recently. When people at whole foods, native, ethnic diets gleaned from years of natural selection, when they prepared foods in their traditional manner, they had great immunity, strong systems, far less decay. I think the definition of “eating healthy” is very screwed up, that even when we attempt to eat healthy, we are mislead by the health industry, by the silly ever-changing government-issued food pyramids, the FDA, the Heart Foundations who sell out to companies looking for their sticker of approval, the food industry, the Nutrition industry, advertising, etc.
I submit once more this book: Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston Price. It’s the most dry/boring and fascinating book on nutrition I’ve ever read. The author traveled the world in the 30’s searching for indigenous populations of great health, those untouched by civilization, and monitored the effects on those that had ventured out. What he found, was astounding! Because of the time period of his travel, he was able to still find these untouched populations, and also photograph them. Those who ate their native, unprocessed diet, whether it was eskimos eating fish or swiss eating whole raw milk cheese or africans eating steer, blood and milk, he found that they were immune to dental decay, that their bone structures/facial features formed better, that they were immune to disease, that they lived longer. As soon as members of those societies traded their ways for sugars, white flour, canned goods, etc, they would get cavities, compromise their health, etc, etc. This is but a brief summary of the concept, but I believe the importance of nutrition is very misunderstood in general, and downplayed on this board. You should see these pictures! There is one striking photo of two brothers who had different diets–one is good looking, has all his teeth, the other looks like he was beaten with an ugly stick, and is missing many of his teeth. Generation to generation, the effects of the changed diets is stunning and obvious. This is despite wide-ranging diets. The common denominator, was found to be transport/absorption of fat-soluble vitamins…those found in whole milk, whole/raw cheese, cultured foods, meats, etc. Things that are black-listed today. Pre-natal special diets, the nutrition of the conceiving parents. What’s the point in all my rambling? We have compromised systems, many symptoms, and they point to root problems of nutrition and systemic well-being. I do not believe we can overcome a chronic illness with bandaid solutions or neglecting seriously addressing true nutrition, we’re talking a far bigger panel of testing than androgens. Oh yeah, one more example. Take bread. You’d be hard pressed to find a TRULY whole wheat bread product these days that didn’t have nutrition robbed from it and then re-injected (fortified) with b-vitamins, etc. Bread should only have whole wheat flour, water, yeast, I think? But most bread products on the market have 20 different bullshit things in it. Way back when, bread was nutritious! Now, it’s an inflammatory product.
Mariobros, the previous rant was not directed towards you, buddy. Thanks for the link to this study, I do find it quite interesting. As, btw, I find the epigenetics link, procaine therapy, and all the science on this board. Again, I’m not gonna knock anyone’s research or experimentation into any angle. I do feel as though the inflammation angle, the nutrition angle is give short shrift. Very unfairly so.
