When suffering from chronic digestive issues, I've found that well-cooked starches, like white rice, potatoes, and oats, are better tolerated than simple sugars—and by well-cooked I do mean boiled for thirty minutes and mushy, but that's what digests easiest. I've never had a single issue with eating white rice boiled in bone broth; no matter my state of health, I can always digest it just fine.

Also, while I have tried eating only fruit for my carb source, I've found that it causes some lower-bowel discomfort and never fully satiates.

But the true slave diet, since we're on this topic, is one where you daily ingest chemically-contaminated, highly-processed, PUFA-laden, poison-laced food, with neither the will nor the knowledge to eat something that actually promotes, and not destroys, your health. Moreover, it's the lack of courage to comply with that health-promoting diet, especially when others may view it as unorthodox.

And, I should emphasize, to blindly follow any diet, be it one based on Ray Peat's work or another doctor's, without regular reflection and adjustment based on your body and health, is itself a form of slavishness!

Below are some thoughts on recent changes to my treatment protocol:

• Thyroid dosage remains at half cynoplus and half cynomel tablet nibbled throughout the day, with the occassional quarter or eighth cynomel tablet added after my afternoon snack depending on pulse and temperature. Latest thyroid blood panel results are nearly identical to the last panel I pasted in this thread, and so are not worth repasting
• Adrenal overactivity, which previously caused cold feet and contributed to gastrointestinal issues, seems to have resolved after removing caffeine from my diet. As an unexpected result, my chronic pelvic soreness, while not entirely reduced, has improved somewhat. Effects of thyroid medication do also seem more potent after removing caffeine. Some ideas for why this might be are that improved adrenal function potentiates the effect of thyroid hormone (think of the synergistic effects of cortisol and thyroid when in proper ratio) or that my metabolism was burning too hot, causing an energy deficiency and preventing the thyroid meds from having their full effect
• All glutenous carbs have been removed from my diet. After doing a short elimination diet, I've determined that even sourdough bread, home-baked and well-fermented, now provokes an autoimmune response. Otherwise, diet now consists almost entirely of fruit, milk, eggs, and meat
• One rounded tablespoon of baking soda before bed has, after only a week, resulted in some improvement to gastrointestinal issues. It has reliably increased transit speed and seems, I think, to be causing more fungal biofilm elements to be excreted in stool. More time required to assess true efficacy
• Recent experiments supplementing with moderate to high dosages of calcium carbonate (1-2g), potassium gluconate (500-800mg), methylene blue (5-15mg), ox bile, prescription digestive enzymes, berberine, grade seed extract, bromelain, and L-glutamine have not resulted in any meaningful symptom improvement
• I'm considering retrying high-dose allicin. The last time I did this, I experienced significant symptom relief, albeit temporarily, when taken with each meal. The benefits of allicin supplementation may have been curbed when I (quite stupidly) started taking bismuth subsalicylate before meals, which binds to and neutralizes intestinal sulfur (forming the black chemical compound bismuth sulfide), and which likely negated the antifungal effects of the allicin. Sometimes the results of our self-experiments only make sense in retrospect, and only after several months of brooding on why they were successful

All in all, nothing too significant to report back on; my digestive symptoms persist, with minor improvements here and there. I'm beginning a new business venture next month, so I'm hoping to see some more improvement before then; but if not, I'll continue researching, experimenting, and working hard to regain my health.

Cheers to all of you; I hope the summer sun has kept you warm and energized.

What's the recommended dietary regime when dealing with a fungal overgrowth in the bowels? The mainstream consensus is to go on a carnivore or ketogenic diet. Do those in the bioenergetic community agree with that?

La Farmacia del Niño ships to the US. In my experience it takes about one month for items to arrive.

@GreekDemiGod The plan is to retest thyroid levels (fT3, fT4, TSH) every couple months. I'll continue to post those results here.

Update #4 on thyroid therapy:

• Protocol at 25 mcgs T3 / 50 mcgs T4, taking T3/T4 in morning and evening, only T3 during the day.
• Sleep has improved tremendously. For the first time in well over a decade, I can sleep soundly through the night, for 6-8 hours, without waking to urinate. As a result, I'm not as fatigued as I was before treatment.
• BBT is consistently at or above 97.8 degrees Fahrenheit, unless experiencing an hypothermic adrenaline spike from digestive issues
• PR is at 70-80 BPM and stable, unless (again) experiencing adrenaline issues.
• Lightheadedness and fainting are gone. I can now stand up without reaching for the wall to stabilize myself.
• Mood has improved dramatically. Ambition and drive has been mostly restored, which were all but gone before treatment.
• Appetite is much higher. On most days I can eat enough to satiate it without exacerbating digestive issues.
• Gyno was transient. Maybe once a week I'll notice slight nipple tenderness. At this frequency, it's not concerning.
• I'm pleased with the bloodwork results I pasted earlier.

As you may gather from the above, thyroid therapy has been a success; in almost all areas it could directly improve my health, it has. However, I think it has taken me about as far as it can. No changes have been observed in my digestive health. All digestive symptoms I dealt with at the start—severe bloating, indigestion, oral thrush, stool biofilm, cognitive impairment—still persist. I think that thyroid can only do much on its own to resolve chronic intestinal overgrowths, or whatever it is I'm dealing with.

That is not to say that I'll discontinue treatment; in fact, I see no reason at all to discontinue, as I've not experienced any real side effects. Instead, I'll likely continue at this dosage for the foreseeable future. I hope that being euthyroidic will improve my immune system resilience as I begin another self-treatment protocol for these digestive issues. I'm very satisfied with this experience over the last three months, and grateful for the insights you all have provided.

I'll update the forum either in this thread or another with the progress I make on resolving my other issues.

@GreekDemiGod Per my above comments, I feel that thyroid treatment has taken me as far as it can. Despite the low fT4, I feel mostly euthyroidic at this dosage and frequency.

Does anyone have experience with fluconazole (a.k.a. Diflucan)? Anecdotes here and on RPF are limited.

I think that fluconazole, taken at a moderate dosage and concurrently with natural, Peaty antifungals, would be a very potent treatment for intestinal fungal overgrowth.

Update #3 on thyroid therapy:

I'm staying at 25 mcg T3 and 50 mcg T4 for now, as work and family activities are too overwhelming this week to worry about adjusting the dosage and monitoring my response.

In Update #4, I'll provide a more comprehensive overview of my experience so far. For this one, I only wanted to share recent endocrine bloodwork results after about 6 weeks of T3/T4 combination therapy (all previous bloodwork data are in this thread):

• TSH: 0.456 uIU/mL (Ref: 0.450-4.500)
• T4, Free: 0.98 ng/dL (Ref: 0.82-1.77)
• T3, Free: 4 pg/mL (Ref: 2-4.4)
• Cholesterol, Total: 197 mg/dL (Ref: 100-199)
• HDL Cholesterol: 55 mg/dL (Ref: >39)
• LDL Chol Calc : 133 mg/dL (Ref: 0-99)
• Dihydrotestosterone: 51 ng/dL (Ref: 30-85)
• DHT, Free: 3.21 pg/mL (Ref: 2.30-11.60)
• FSH: 1.2 mIU/mL (Ref: 1.5-12.4)
• Testosterone: 748 ng/dL (Ref: 264-916)
• Free Testosterone (Direct): 221 ng/mL (Ref: 109-353)
• DHEA-Sulfate, Prolactin, Estradiol, and LH were all in range

@bubble Last year I tried very high dose thiamine HCl (3g+/day) to no effect. On this forum and Twitter I've read many success stories, but it proved ineffective for my condition.

@JulofEnoch

Specificity in discussions like this is good! So far, I've changed my protocol every two weeks. I think this has given me ample time to adjust to the new ratio and dosage, and assess my body's response.

With your feedback in mind, the plan is to stick with gradually increasing the T4 dosage, pulling back if any protocol change suddenly leads to daily episodes of hyperthyroidism.

I'll continue to update this log with my progress.

Your advice is much appreciated!