Figuring out digestive issues
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Log entry. Had another go with cascara for a week, EOD, after a 2 week break. No direct problems from using it, but recently I've continued to feel generally worse physically and mentally, drained and lethargic. Unsure if cascara was contributing, so I stopped again. When I was just about to restart it, I really enjoyed the smell and taste of it, less so at the end. Maybe craving it can guide use.
My overall symptoms are a little worrying, and am thinking about seeing a doctor again. What's going on currently, besides the stomach back and forths - general fatigue, listlessness, no appetite as usual, difficulties socializing, eyelid twitching, difficulties waking up, apparently continuing weight loss. Slight muscle soreness sometimes. Things can vary somewhat from one day to the next, but seem to revert back to this baseline.
Recently, I've been pondering whether my symptoms could possibly be something diabetes-like. Reading things like this makes it seem at least plausible. I guess a similar situation could result from a chronic B1 deficiency.
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Another check-in. Things have happened recently that have made me shift my focus somewhat. I haven't used cascara for about a month, and bowel movements have mostly been moving along since then. At minimum once a day, but lately it's been more like 2 or 3, mostly earlier in the day.
A stupid thing happened recently, which has made me consider whether some kind of hypogonadism may be a bigger issue for me than my stomach. As background, eight years ago, I did stupid things with androgens and gave myself bad side effects. Recovering from that took a few years, and I've never really felt completely back to normal since, although things have improved.
Anyway, the stupid thing that happened - recently I accidentally came into contact with some old androsterone residue when I was cleaning off another old bottle that had stood next to the androsterone. I had soap on my hands, and realizing the residue probably contained hormones, I washed it off right away. It was hard to guess, but I thought any hormone exposure from this would be very minimal. But, the past 2 weeks since it happened, I've felt some significant mental and physical changes, which can't be coincidental. More comfortable socially, more willing to work on things at moments where I would usually just slack off and do nothing. My bowel movements also improved, and I generally felt better, more care-free.
I wasn't sure if what I was experiencing was hormonal or not. After 2 weeks, the good things have now started to fade, I've started to become very fatigued, and I don't seem to be doing very well downstairs, so the previous experiences being due to some androgen boost is seeming more likely.
Hopefully things will normalize in a bit. I haven't had other suppression effects that I've had before, like breast itches and muscle aches, so there's that. It still is crazy to me how such a minimal exposure could have these effects, and I'd assume it means my testosterone situation hasn't been very good for a good while. Will get blood work soon. I'm not sure what I could be doing to improve my hormonal situation, and I've tried lots of things before, but if anyone has tips on this, do chime in.
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@chosroes said in Figuring out digestive issues:
stupid things with androgens
What stupid things did you do with androgens if i may ask?
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@edouard Sure, about 8 years ago I bought DHT powder off the internet and used it transdermally for a few days. I didn't really measure the doses, and got myself into a bad situation, shrinkage, bodily changes and whatnot, scary stuff. Tried to use it again a few weeks afterward, with the same effect. Also had some similar thing with androsterone not long afterward.
While I likely applied more than reasonably sized doses, probably 10 to a few ten milligrams at a time, I really didn't think the effects would be so severe and long-lasting. Might've been made worse on account of where I applied the stuff.
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Okay, I think I'm starting to do what the thread title says. Summer was good, I started using a few drops of Energin daily (the new one with fat-soluble B1) and had a really good stretch of about 1,5 months, haven't felt that good in years. About a week ago, stomach stuff returned. I first noticed something bad happening the day after having had oxtail for both lunch and dinner. The next day, I topped it off with sushi, with a good helping of wasabi and ginger. Bam, not long until I was dizzy, cold extremities, unable to focus, with an uncomfortable feeling in my upper left abdomen.
With my newfound clearer head, and this experience, all signs seem to point toward some kind of gastritis or stomach ulcer as the root issue.
All this being said, I wasn't able to find too much on concrete stuff on gastritis or stomach ulcers on the old forum, at least no direct comments from Ray.
What has worked for you guys? Avoiding excess acidity and irritants, eating a bland diet for a while looks like a common approach, which I've been doing mostly anyway, with these small trial runs of trying more exotic stuff that sometimes end up stinging. Skipping coffee too, and trying to keep the nicotine use down for a while. I'm also dissolving honey in a little hot water at morning and night on an empty stomach, seems to do something. I sure hope the Energin isn't contributing here, cause I've been feeling great at about 4-5 drops, but I don't really have any reason to think it is.
What else. Could do the endoscopy or maybe an H pylori test, but I don't know whether there's much to be gained, at least not from the endoscopy. I won't be taking any PPI anytime soon.
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@chosroes Not here to help but this summer I started to experiment with PureBulk B1 HCL (along with Pure Encaps. B vits.). It was only 200-300mg/day and after a few days I had some bad gastritis. I don't know if it's linked with that though, because I also tried to incorporante some aspirin at the same time
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@chosroes How much protein do you average? I notice my digestion is much better when replacing some protein with honey/fruit. I keep warmer this way too. Maybe replace muscle meats with gelatin or try putting gelatin in your coffee.
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Do not take b1 if you do not feel any effect or bad effect. If you need b1 you will feel good after consumption in the hours after. This is true for all consumption. Do not eat foods which make you feel bad. Do you know what foods you do not tolerate? For example oxalates, histamine, meat, milk, egg.
Do you still have pain left side of the body? Maybe this is a clue: bad kidney health?
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@edouard Thanks for chiming in! Did your issues resolve? Back when my problems started many years ago, besides the hormones I was using, I'd also been going pretty hard with aspirin.
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@Serotoninskeptic I average about 125-175 g mostly ground beef or cod daily, and about 3 eggs, which according to Cronometer is about 60 g protein. Then from other foods I'd guess maybe 10 g on top of that. How much are you getting, that you're comfortable with?
I don't do much fruit at all, but eat steamed broccoli and usually spinach every day. Potatoes. Didn't drink milk for about 1.5 months, to see if it would help with the constipation.
I'm a little wary of gelatin, my last flare of symptoms actually started after eating oxtail, although it's always hard to say what is really going on.
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@foxgelb I've actually been feeling good after B1, or at least after Energin, whether that's the prosultiamine working or something else. This stretch of good mood for almost 2 months seems to be underwritten by Energin in big part. Yeah I'm eating pretty blandly, with safe stuff, and I've been recovering from the flare.
The uncomfortable feeling on the left side is starting to disappear.
And yeah, kidney does go with the symptoms I have, but then so does liver problems, which I'm thinking might be the core issue. Probably those can go together. When I feel my stomach acting up, my sweat usually smells like ammonia, and I will get dizzy, unable to focus. Cold hands & feet. Circadian rhythm changes, tired in the morning (and daytime) and less sleepy at night. A year or more ago, I'd come home and take naps, wake up feeling like a dead person at awkward times of the day. Even further back I'd have all that, and terrible dandruff and itchy skin. Serious fatigue, again with the dizziness and that. Even my personality is affected, I guess no brain can really have much fun when this stuff is going on. Nausea sometimes. Hepatic encephalopathy?All this is lessening over time, and the last 2 months have been great on all fronts. Then, with this flare, some of the things come back, it's like a small scab has been formed across the old symptoms and when the scab is peeled off for whatever reason, the symptoms come trickling back a little. Constipation tendency comes back a bit, stool even changed color, libido tanks. Apologize for the wall of text.
It's possible the current flare wasn't started by the oxtail, or takeout sushi - just prior to that, I'd accidentally eaten mashed potatoes, made with carrageenan-laced cream, two days straight. Bastards are planting landmines everywhere.
