Lots of fruits grow everywhere in my area, saw palmetto included. Squirrels, ants, crows, deer, and etc will devour the wild blackberries, poke berries, lantana berries, beauty berries, elderberries, muscadine grapes, belladonna berries, some of which are listed as poisonous, and others I cannot identify, but they do not touch saw palmetto berries.
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I never knew that. Has that been documented somewhere I can read about?
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Just my observations having had a saw palmetto plant in my yard.
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I found a few lines about it. It does seem like some animals do indeed eat them.
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Maybe you didnāt have any black bears or white tailed deers visiting you?
I could not find much info that other animals did eat the berries, so it seems they are not in very high demand.
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Been mulling over this one. I think ultimately itās because their women are less judgmental than ours. Any update?
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I reached out to you privately with an update awhile ago, although it was a tad late. Might as well do so openly. I was wrestling with whether I should or not because I fear it would upset others rather than give them hope. I am not trying to brag by saying this, that Iām doing very good. I am not able to give a percentage because the numbers wonāt tell anyone anything, so I will give details instead. My brain works again. Donāt want to get into that. Penis works again too. Before saw palm (I never took finasteride), I could sexually perform 6 times a day. After saw palm, I was a chemically castrated, impotent eunuch for awhile. Today, I can sexually perform 1 or 2 times a day. Had significant relief around the 2 year mark, if I recall correctly, and the trajectory has been positive ever since. It will be 4 years since my journey began come February the 8th. I still hate that midget palm tree for the misery it caused me, but Iām grateful for relief. May you all experience relief before long. Again, not bragging. Wishing everyone all the best.
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Hey Taw, thanks a lot for the update. Did you follow a certain diet or skip out on things?
What do you think contributed to your improvement?
Iām also coming up on the 4 year mark, no improvement. Still 0 libido, lack of general desire, severe anhedonia, flat emotions and numb body.
I think Iām living super healthy, but I wonder whether thereās something Iām doing which impairs my chances of improvement. Like drinking tea, eating oats for breakfast, eating certain vegetables, drinking 1-2 coffee per day. Iāve skipped on all of them for 6 months+ but didnāt notice any difference. Maybe thereās one thing I should leave out for longer.
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Hey there, glad to see your reply @PFS. Sad to hear you have seen no improvements though. I had lack of general desire, severe anhedonia, flat emotions too, but those are resolved.
Most of the things I think contributed were also things I did long before crashing, and they did not prevent me from crashing, but maybe it would have been worse if I werenāt doing those things. Fasting, exercise, diet, meditating, wild herbs I harvested myself, etc. What I really, really think helped above all else was potent immune suppressing agents such as periwinkle. I think autoimmunity was involved in my case. Sadly, suppressing the immune system too much opens you to the nastiest infections. Is it worth it? I donāt know. If all goes well, maybe. If things go wrong, maybe not.
What vegetables are you referring to? Since you mention tea, coffee, oats, I have eaten those before and after on occasion, and I donāt think they hurt or helped. You might love kombucha, a probiotic tea that is fizzy, sweet and sour. Coffee with maca gives it a nutty, malty, butterscotch flavor. I prefer oats for dinner instead of breakfast. I ferment them with a sourdough starter before cooking, creating a sour porridge.
I eat ketogenic most of the time. Elaborating on what I eat or donāt eat would be lengthy. Any questions, ask. I harvest wild edible plants from my local area for free instead of farm raised plants. I donāt eat only 1 cut of meat. I believe in consuming the entire animal, including the organs. I use the bones to make broth. Nothing is wasted. That said, my diet is likely more varied and diverse than most people. I mostly avoid wheat though. I can handle small amounts on occasion, but too much gives me diarrhea, gut cramps, anxiety, depression, and brain fog, before and after my saga. I donāt think it hurt or helped sexually though. Not sure itās the gluten though, considering rye and barley have gluten too yet they donāt cause issues for me. Gluten allergies are immune system mediated, so itās logical to say my saw palm syndrome was too.
Best wishes to you.
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Thank you for the elaborate answer.
Not any vegetables in particular. I just eat a variety of vegetables everyday but am not sure whether I should ditch any.
Iāve tried many diets over the years but nothing seems to budge my baseline.
Interesting you eat ketogenic most of the time. Some people really seem to benefit from this approach.
Did you grow the periwinkle yourself or buy it as a supplement? What did you notice after consuming and how long after consuming? Or do you think it helped over the long run without a very clear relation to your improvement?
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Forgive me for the delayed response. Not meaning to ignore you. Sadly, not everything I harvest from the wild. Alas, periwinkle does not grow wild where I live. I think wild is healthier than home-grown, and home-grown is better than mass-produced. I tried growing it to no avail. I had a bunch of periwinkle plants from a friend who moved away, except the plants died. When I ran out, I bought cut and sifted dried material because you get more for less money. Those tiny but fancy little encapsulated pill bottles weighing an ounce at best with filler cost the same as or more than a 1 pound bag of the bulk plant material without the filler. Nonetheless, I did not consume it daily or even weekly, only when I craved it. I rotated it with other supplements in its class. Worth noting is I did not pursue them in isolation. I also rotated supplements for adrenal, thyroid, sex hormones, gut (probiotic & prebiotic), vitamins, minerals, etc. Therefore, I donāt want to overemphasize immune suppressors such as periwinkle. Even in proven autoimmune diseases (MS, Lupus, etc), immune system suppression alone does not always work for everyone even after high doses for months or years. There is no (known) magic fix here or there. Nevertheless, periwinkle makes me feel less inflamed. Note that alkaloids from the plant are used to make chemo drugs. I wonder if saw palm is used to make finasteride. White willow bark is where aspirin comes from. What is noteworthy is that immune boosters such as echinacea and goldenseal helped me battle colds/flus before saw palm without side effects, but after all they do is make me feel awful. That said, I should mention the things that I feel held me back or made me worse such as lobelia, stinging nettle, spurge nettle, acai, fenugreek, lavender, and others Iām not recalling. Interestingly, fenugreek bothers me by itself, but not when I use a curry spice blend or sauce containing it. Maybe there was ancient wisdom forgotten in popular spice formulations. Speaking of, I formulate my meals with a spice for each taste, meaning a sweet herb, a salty herb, a sour herb, a pungent herb, and a bitter herb. The more taste buds you stimulate at once, the better the meal tastes. Such a spice blend described would look something like this: Morinda root (sweet), saltwort (salty), oxalis (sour), garlic/onion (pungent), ginkgo biloba (bitter). I like using tinctures to flavor drinks. My favorite drink mix is licorice root (sweet), cistanche (salty), lemon/lime juice (sour), clove (pungent), tumeric (bitter). Interestingly, coconut oil and mct especially will raise ketone levels even if you eat a high carb diet. It still doesnāt feel as potent as a proper keto diet though. These oils will induce āketo fluā if you donāt start off small and slow though. Proper keto with these oils was the best diet for me. Never tried it pre-saw though. Iām tired from working, but I plan to share more later. Hope you find this post elaborate.
Side thoughts: Sex was always my most powerful motivator, more so than food, sleep, money, etc. My experience is sexual sides were the worst because they were the most persistent. How something so motivational could be so difficult to restore baffles me.
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