Do you think the caffeine is bad idea? I cant drink coffee at all with out feeling really agitated.
What about cycling bacopa a few days on a few days off? A few people on reddit said they felt extreme lethargy and zero motivation but slight improvement in memory but the trade off wasnt worth it. Did you feel loss in energy and motivation? Would you take it again or have you moved on? Sorry for the 21 questions.
I’m done with bacopa. I know this isn’t gonna be a popular answer but I’m a week into using an ssri and you can’t take bacopa with it. So far I’m doing well
Do you know why you can’t take an SSRI with bacopa? I’m not taking an SSRI but now curious why the two would interact. Does bacopa impact serotonin?
Someone above mentioned it raises serotonin more than fluoxetine
You know, the more and more threads I go through, the more I see similar symptoms. Wich many people have in different facebook groups I am. Sibo group, leaky gut group, autoimmune group etc. From my experience, these are all histamine intolerance related issues, wich lead to inflammation. In my case I have kind of daily brain inflammation, wich lead to the symptoms described here. I also have MCAS, wich specially flare up after excercise or long massages.
That’s why diets work so well for most people everywhere. You get histamine and therefore inflammation levels down.
Fin destroyed something related to histamine. Dont ask me what. Maybe hormones. Especially estrogen. Since histamine intolerance is 99% a female issue. But it becomes a male issue with hormonal inbalance or gut issues like leaky gut and sibo.
At the moment I have a constant histamine flare up for weeks wich I cant get under control. And I have so much pfs issues due to that. Probably because I took rifaxamin / xifaxan 2 months ago because I thought I can heal my gut issues with that. Ever since everything got worse again.
Edit: Adrenal fatigue is involved as well in this.
I think if it was as simple as histamine you could just take Benadryl every day and feel fine
No the body needs histamine to function. These antihistamines block the histamine receptors. Thats why people say they feel like zombies on these. I dont say its only histamine. But its a main player.
Any evidence to support this hypothesis?
No but I have daily headache for years all over my brain, that does not hurt but you feel some inflammation shit is going on in the brain. Most of people with histamine intolerance have cluster headaches and migraines.
Someone that had taken Accutane did get diagnosed with low grade brain inflammation through analysis of a PET scan at Mayo clinic.
Again its funny i didnt start to develop more serious problems until after coming off Accutane.
https://www.cisbio.com/content/retinoic-acid-focus-yields-insight-into-neuroinflammation-therapy
in a context of microglial overactivation and inflammation, the vitamin A metabolite retinoic acid (RA) has been identified as a potent neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory compound that calms microglia activity and decreases the expression of β-secretase (BACE1). This enzyme is known to promote amyloid-β precursor and amyloid plaque formation. With its anti-inflammatory properties, RA also downregulates the synthesis of the inflammatory cytokines IL-6 and TNF-α, making it highly interesting for neuroinflammation research.
Our data suggest that RA, besides increasing cell viability in the cortex of young and even of aged mice, might also result in targeted DNA repair of genes important for cell or synaptic maintenance. This phenomenon would remain functional up to a point when A β increase and RA decrease probably lead to a pathological state.
Dear @thisisarealbummer,
Thank you a lot for sharing your journey! I am very happy for you.
I just read all the 131 comments 
and ordered Curcumin Bacopa and BHB right away.
I wanted to have my CSF tested in a long time, but I still have no idea what I should try to „order“ neurologists to test for. Would it be possible for you to post what we would have to ask doctors to test in the CSF? I couldn‘t find it in the thread (or if so I didn‘t realise it). Thank you a lot for helping us.
Kind Regards from Switzerland
Michael
idk, @thisisarealbummer seems like he might be long gone and not coming back.
The most important thing he could have posted were those tests results.
That might have been more helpful than going on about everything else.
Although it seems like great news for what the author said, I feel the need to tell my side of the story and just like the author himself: this is not the cure by far, and my experience was terrible with the bacopa.
I am 23 years old and had all the symptoms imaginable with finasteride: sexual, cognitive … all in just 45 days of use. Some of the symptoms resumed a few days after the crash, mainly the sexual ones, however the cognitive and visual ones persisted until today 2 years of symptoms.
Just like you, I read the topic and understood the proposed therapy. I used bacopa in the correct dosage of examine.com daily with curcumin for a few days. And for some reason, my sleep, which was well regulated with melatonin, lost its effect. New symptoms appeared: I have spasms every time I try to fall asleep or relax, excessive salivation, I was never able to nap again, and even extrapyramidal symptoms appeared. Although the author is a well-formed and transparent person, it is worth remembering that this pathology is not fully understood and the benefit of the proposed therapy will always be unknown. Probably this herbal medicine that is indicated for the treatment of alzheimer’s due to anticholinesterase activity caused an accumulation of this neusthroides and manifested these symptoms for months. Anyway, what I would like to say here is that I am not and do not want to be an example to anyone, but people who have experienced worsening symptoms understand the complexity of the disease and the risk they are subjected to when trying new treatments irresponsibly.
After that, I really got off the hook. I take advantage that my sexual part was not so affected so I can have a relationship with my girlfriend, I adapt to cognitive limitations and whenever I can I enjoy with my friends, the way I want. I am graduated in pharmacy in Argentina, I apologize because I am not fluent in English but I hope you can understand what I wanted to pass, and i wish everyone the best recovery.
Sorry to hear that bacopa made you worse
It’s good that you don’t have the sexual sides.
Note that thisisarealbummer claimed to know that his GABA receptors were down regulated, that he had high Allopregnanolone in his CNS and urine.
In my opinion I think we could progress in our understanding of the different variants of PFS and how to and how not to treat them much faster then the researches if we know what our levels are of these things before we trial a particular thing.
By not returning and giving us a layman’s terms explanation and break down of his testing and how we could get the same tests did us a disservice. Not that this was his intention. I’m speaking from the perspective of furthering our understanding of the condition
To take all that time and not post his test results seemed pretty strange to me.
Im sorry but I would have to question his credibility at that point.
Hmm
Maybe. Another possibility is that he does not want people contacting the doctor who ordered his CNS test . I also recently heard that he thisisarealbummer may be another user from any other forum. Don’t know if this is accurate or not though
Great write up, thank you for sharing.
I’m dealing with many of the issues OP reported, my GABA is heavily dysregulated. I too believe downregulated GABA receptors may lie at the root of my problems. I had a consultation with LeoandLongevity who also believed I was experiencing downregulated GABA-a receptors, similar to an ex-benzodiazapine addict.
Supplements that target GABA; Ashwagandha, Glycine + Taurine, low dose Fluoxetine, Progesterone, Benzodiazapines, help immensely, but tolerance builds very quick and the supplements lose their effect quite rapidly.
I plan to avoid GABA receptor agonists moving forward to mitigate against further receptor downregulation, and may experiment with your protocol in the future.
I wonder how one would go about getting the testing done to prove this is truly the issue.
Thank you so much for taking the time to share this knowledge and congratulations on your recovery.
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