Help me choose supplements
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Hi all. I struggle with what you guys would call learned helplessness, what my doctor calls ADHD.
I've been going down the Ray Peat rabbit hole lately. I started measuring my temperature regularly and it's quite low (~35.9 C upon waking, ~36.2 mid-morning, never seen it go above 36.7).
I tried taking T3 (IdeaLabs Tyronene) and unfortunately it didn't raise my temperature at all and a few times it seemed to lower it, and it also gave me heart palpitations. I started with 1mcg which didn't seem to do anything, then 4mcg which gave me heart palpitations. After I stopped taking it I still had occasional heart palpitations for days, especially when I took my nightly magnesium.
I'm guessing there's another deficiency I need to address before I can try again. My most recent blood test in August did show a vitamin D deficiency. (It also showed high LDL cholesterol and "mild hepatocellular damage".)
I need you guys' help figuring out what to do next. The amount of information is overwhelming and I'm currently in a phase where my brain fog and fatigue are worse than normal and I don't have the energy to read through lots of stuff.
I want to try and fix whatever else is wrong so I can try thyroid again, what are the most important things to try/lowest hanging fruit?
Obviously I need to start with vitamin D since I know for sure that it's low. I've been taking a 1000 IU supplement but I saw someone in a thread on the old forum tell someone to take 10 000 IU, is this a good idea?
Apart from vitamin D :
- Should I be taking vitamin A at all?
- Should I be taking vitamin E? If so, it needs to be "mixed tocopherols", is that right? Anything else I need to know?
- Should I be taking vitamin K?
- Anything else I should get? Zinc? Selenium?
I think magnesium is another important one but I've been taking that every night for years to help me sleep.
Another thing to mention is I tried cyproheptadine on the weekend. I feel less stressed today but more tired.
Thanks in advance.
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Cholecalciferol (D3) at 5,000 IU daily will keep most people's levels in a good spot. Maybe 10,000 IU short term to correct a deficiency. Get a good quality product, something with no additives. I like Throne's liquid product, cheap too. You may also need vitamin E, but again, it's a product that easily tainted. Tocovit and Unique E are probably the best ones I know of right now. Vitamin K is expensive as hell, and I wouldn't recommend it just for economical reasons. Same with vitamin A, just extra money spent when you could get it from diet. Eat leafy greens and liver for A & K.
The least amount of supplements the better. The idea behind this is the more stuff you take, the more likely you'll end up taking something with bad excipients in it. There's a lot of nasty shit in supplements and medications. And some should only be utilized when you absolutely need to. Cyproheptadine pills, for example, have some bad stuff in them. Most mineral tablets do as well. I've seen a lot of nasty magnesium products on the market.
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@Mulloch94 - Good Advice, I agree completely.
I would like to add that it is important to get high glycine foods in your diet. Glyphosate (the Monsanto herbicide) is in our food supply and it competes with glycine. I try to avoid glyphosate contaminated foods because it has been associated with a the rise of a number health issues.
Does Glyphosate Have A Negative Effect On Thyroid Health? -
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@DavidPS Good point about the glyphosate. Aspirin will also cause the need of glycine to be increased. I like oxtail and cow's feet broth. I can get them at relatively affordable prices where I live. Also plain unflavored gelatin.
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@Mulloch94 - As you probably know, gelatin is much better than plain glycine.
SourceThe amino acids in muscle meat — methionine, histidine, tryptophan and cysteine — promote inflammation and suppress thyroid function and metabolism.
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@scamp Aspirin, K2 (unless you eat a very large amount of greens), and D3 are the minimum. Aspirin and D3 should not be taken without K2 as to avoid bleeding and calcification, respectively. Most people are deficient in magnesium and if you eat relatively within Peat guidelines then you would have to get enough from milk, orange juice, and espresso; if you don't, it's worth supplementing magnesium glycinate. Iodine is also worth supplementing if you don't drink milk which is most likely your primary source of iodine by far. Peat doesn't recommend supplementing iodine but his reasoning is based on fundamentally flawed evidence, which is unusual for him.
Vitamin E is good to supplement when you consume PUFA goyslop to mitigate damage, otherwise it shouldn't be taken every day and isn't too important if your PUFA intake is low. Gelatin is good to "supplement" but at relevant amounts it is extremely expensive. L-theanine is good to use therapeutically for lowering cortisol.
Gericare aspirin (fewest excipients), Thorne liquid K2 (expensive upfront but is very cost effective over a 4-year period at 1mg a day), Thorne liquid D3 (pure and cheap), NOW magnesium glycinate (legit and cheap), Idealabs Tocovit (also expensive upfront but is cheaper than many competitors at 2-3 drops or 60-90IU a day for at least 249 days, which is the dose Peat recommends), NOW beef gelatin powder (legit and cheap), Nutricost L-theanine (legit and cheap).
For anything else you should analyze your dietary micronutrients in Cronometer and adjust your diet accordingly.
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@DavidPS Yeah I much prefer gelatin anyways, I hate that weird sweet taste to glycine. It's sweet but not in a pleasant way, kind of makes be gag whenever I take it. It's why I could never stomach mag-glycinate well.
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@forty thanks for giving me a list with the best brands, exactly what I was hoping for but didn't have the brain energy to figure out myself.
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@Mulloch94 "Maybe 10,000 IU short term to correct a deficiency" short term meaning how long roughly?
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@scamp Anywhere from a few weeks to a couple months. Really depends on how low you are, so you need to know where you stand first. Some people can respond well to treatment, and others will have the hardest time making their blood levels budge. I've seen a common trend that people report when a doctor prescribes them vitamin D for a clinical deficiency it's usually 50,000IU twice a week for several months.
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@Mulloch94 37 nmol/L
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@scamp said in Help me choose supplements:
@Mulloch94 37 nmol/L
That's borderline. I think it's still technically "in the reference" because the bottom end is 30 nmol/L for most standard tests, but for me it would be too close for comfort.
If it were me, I would probably do 10,000 units daily for a couple weeks then reduce it to 5,000 units daily for maintenance. Check yourself again in about 12 weeks to reevaluate your situation.
