Posts made by CrumblingCookie

@Serotoninskeptic said in Low dose naltrexone:

He recommends starting with 1.5mg, and increasing to 4.5mg. Any experiences eith this protocol?

I've felt mild benefits, as in a tiny bit more stable physically and mentally from 4mg naltrexone daily. I felt like the 4mg were too much. Ultimately it wasn't worth continueing for me after I had used it up.
Also, if I were to give it another try I'd argue against increased doses but instead go for 1mg or even less. As in ULDN (ultra low dose naltrexone).
The way it's reported to act through the opiod recepters in incrementally smaller doses is funnily kind of reminiscient of homeopathy.

@CO3 said in How to buy the right red-light device:

scam like every one of these people!clear 250w incandescent bulbs are like 5 dollars. all that you need.

Common incandescent bulbs would be preferable imo to the coated, colored infrared incandescent light bulbs which are the worst, as they do not penetrate nicely but due to their spectrum heat up water very strongly. Which is not a good thing. And not relaxing. And uneven. And a way too bad heat gradient throughout the skin and tissue. And actually a danger for the eyesight because of the latter.
All of which is why in the early 20th century researchers and practitioners in light-therapy went through lots of efforts of developing and setting up various apparatuses with the radiation from the light bulbs first filtered through double layers of water-filled glass screens etc.
The red light LEDs at 650-670 or near-infrared lights at 830-850nm are way safer and more convenient.
The infrared incandescent lights are only pleasant if never directly looked into and if at a big enough distance, i.e. an evenly irradiated field (notice how poultry rarely stay in the inner focus zone of their much too closely hung brooder lamps?).
Of course in contrast to real sunlight all of these lack the important little bit of UV-spectrum for peripheral breakdown of pituitary stress hormones.
Although I would like to know more specifically which spectra and conditions contribute to the latter and to what extent.

I've made my first secondary batch, using two table spoons of liquid whey /l from the BioGaia tablets batch:
(cow milk full fat, this time without cream. Again no inuline or starch. 12grs dextrose/l)
No whey separated at all.
The whole product is almost like a watery emulsion. Like almost liquid jello.
There's no particular smell. No particular taste. Very neutral. Totally different from my primary BioGaia tablet batches with their strong separation and tangy, cheesy flavor.
It made me wonder if there was any L.reuteri in the whey I had used.
Is this normal?

The pH is ≤4.0. So there's clearly been production of lactic acid.

Maybe I'll add half a gram of l-glutamine if that may help the reuteri to survive and duplicate even when not competing with other bacteria.

Accidentally, whilst looking for GABA-producing microbacteria (L. reuteri does not contribute, the small amount it produces merely helps its acid resistance. But it feeds of glutamine for that, much more than off glutamate),

The pH of the jars in which I had added 1g/l L-Glutamin is also ≤4.0.
Tastewise the L-Glut supplemented yoghurt is distinctly more sour!

@Mauritio I see two possible shortcomings in these points:
Low PTH (=sufficient dietary calcium/magnesium which compete with heavy metals for Ca/Mg uptake) is about lower absorption.
The injected gadolinium is already within your body. It's all about excretion now and preventing retention and tissue deposition.

the heavy metals they are relatively safe and will be excreted over time

The damage produced by moving the metals around could be fairly permanent, but the chelator leaves very quickly.

The gadolinium is already mobilized in your circulation and you want to keep it mobilized and prevent its tissue deposition and maximize its clearance right now. Before it settles down in your brain. Because that's where it will end up anyways if you don't excrete it in a timely fashion now.
Keeping the chelating agents or glutathionylation in a steady supply throughout the day rather than single bolus-dosing is a sound approach. I actually don't know whether or which chelating agents work on gadolinium. The NAC is about preventing stasis and maximizing the excretion.

@DkJoe2
Thanks. Your reply made me get up and mix a fresh batch instead of only seeing inadequacy and failing to obtain the additional agents.
The only thing which repeatedly and reliably stopped my hair loss throughout the years was when I regularly ate lots of garlic and/or onions in my meals every day or about every other day at least. I don't know why. Maybe something about their unique sulfur compounds.
I can't remember whether MSM could mimick that or not but MSM made me feel off and I didn't like it at all. Maybe MSM's yet another idea to put into a topical.
As is betula alba tincture, btw. That felt pleasant and helped but was costly. I then procured chaga chaga instead with the intent to make a tincture out of that but I just never did.

@Mauritio said:

today I had an MRI scan becuse of my abnormal hormones. Unfortunately I wasn't aware that the contrast they gave me is galadium , a heavy metal.

Do you have any other suggestion ? Chelation ?

N-Acetylcysteine with equimolar amounts of complementary glycine throughout three consecutive days at least. And anything that enhances timely renal clearance (bicarbonates perhaps? chloride ions?).

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15789388/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17906283/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28934030/

Maybe try GABA and supplemental dextrose loading.
Don't fall into the next victim trap set up for the noniniated when looking for god.

@the_black_jew said:

@gg12 have you tried the carrot salad?

This made me properly laugh. So cynical in playing naive and invested.
The peaty equivalent to "Have you tried confidence?"

@Mauritio
Interesting. From what I could scan it appears 7,8-Dihydroxyflavone lowers overall estrogen levels whilst upregulating quantity and (ligand-independent) activation of estrogen receptors.
What are any natural dietary sources for 7,8-Dihydroxyflavone?
Are you going to take it?

@DavidPS
There are places where you can therapeutically inhale the air straight from a beehive. There's a filter in between, of course, so there's no stinging. If anyone keeps bees it'd be easy to attach an inhalator tube and mask (and a separated enclosure where to sit in perhaps, or a short connection through the window/exterior wall) to the beehive.
It's said to help with various pulmonic issues. Also seasonal allergies. Also rheumatoid conditions. Up to several months after a course of some inhalation sessions. Quite amazing.

@Mauritio Thanks, but I might be too CAS myself rn to wrap my head around this. So the increased BDNF from (early) life stress is a reactive marker? And would serotonin be even higher if it weren't for the (initially) reactive increase in BDNF? Put more narratively: Is the increase in BDNF as a response to (early) life stress an effort of an escape mechanism, by increasing neuroplasticity to curiously find out better ways to cope with the environments?
And then practically, and paraphrasing the quote above, if we were to take 7,8-Dihydroxyflavone to raise BDNF again: Would that merely further entrench and enhance the previously adopted early life stress when in lack of opportunities or an overall positive and safe environment or at least situational and strategic awareness with distinctive goals?
So essentially proper self-flagellation without the latter beneficial/productive prerequisites?

@Mauritio
I had read about the enhanced neuroplasticity from high BDNF long ago and since then thought more BDNF would be a good thing. Pretty much like your first post above suggests.

Yet then there's something like too much BDNF and it appears to be related to increased estrogen receptor activation and serotonin levels (see study below).
And the context outlined in your second post seems much more crucial:

@Mauritio said:

So the chronological order could be as follows :
(Early) life stress- → adaptive increase in BDNF→ increased novelty seeking

And I regard this bold part as crucial:
@Mauritio said:

by increasing BDNF/TrkB signalling through antidepressant treatment a juvenile-like plasticity state can be induced, which allows for reorganization of the social circuitry when guided by psychotherapy and surrounded by a safe and positive environment."

because all that increased novelty seeking and curiousity induced by early life stress, exposing you to more unpredictability and more social defeat opportunities
fits very well into the pattern of such people trying to socialize and reach out and befriend others to their own detriment and falling deeper and deeper the more they try. And in this way, continously attract additional damage to themselves.*
Whereas the uninvolved would tackle such situations and strangers much more indifferently, carefully or adversarially and be therefore better off.

*The probability and frequency of making a potential lifetime friend who's just as early life damaged and uniquely resonating with oneself, overall, is really poor.

Estrogen and serotonin enhance stress-induced visceral hypersensitivity in female rats by up-regulating brain-derived neurotrophic factor in spinal cord
We previously reported that female offspring of dams subjected to chronic prenatal stress (CPS) develop enhanced visceral hypersensitivity (VHS) following exposure to chronic stress in adult life that is mediated by up-regulation of spinal cord BDNF.
Ovariectomy before CAS [chronic adult stress] or treatment with letrozole before and during CAS significantly prevented the development of enhanced VHS in female CPS+CAS rats.

Intrathecal application of ERα siRNA significantly reduced VHS, decreased lumbar-sacral spinal cord expression of both ERα and BDNF, and reversed pro-transcriptional epigenetic modifications at BDNF promoter lX.
Cerebrospinal fluid serotonin levels and 5HT3A receptor expression in the LS spinal cord were both significantly increased in female CPS+CAS rats.
During CAS, intrathecal infusion of alosetron significantly decreased VHS, reduced BDNF and ERα expression in the LS spinal cord, and attenuated RNA pol II and ERα binding to the BNDF core promoter IX.

Instead of using anti-serotonins (which are very limited, really) or pro-dopamines, this shows up the possibility of using aromatase inhibitors to achieve the former through lowering estrogens as a new angle to approach.

@DkJoe2 said:

Topical aspirin may be better?

I've done once or twice daily application of .5% ASS, .5% glycine, 2% dextrose.
Through dry hair, one application used up about 2.5-4.5ml of the above solution, i.e.
50-90mg dextrose and 12.5-22.5mg ASS and 12.5-22.5mg glycine.

Result: My hair follicles were more firmly attached to my scalp. I lost less hair every day.

Was pondering on how to thicken it a little bit into a gel with glycerine or potassium-alginate and ideally using boric acid as a preservative.
Or adding centella asiatica / Gotu kola to inhibit Collagen type III.
Or adding K2 Mk4 in ethanol.
Or some magnesiumcitrate for ATP synthesis and water-soluble exchange of Ca-oxalate to calcium citrate and Mg-oxalate.
Alternatively potassium citrate.
Or some simple coffeine for calcium-independent relaxation of capillaries.
I didn't proceed because of a mix of laziness and doom and gloom from other health issues.

@Sippy
Thanks for your feedback sippy!
So both the inulin and the use of half-and-half are both non-essential to culturing reuteri, but mainly part of Dr. William Davis' complementary ideology / therapeutic approach of high-fat diets and prebiotics?
I've finished two batches now. The latest one I ran at a slightly lower temperature of about 36°C/97°F and it tastes sweeter (from the added dextrose) than the previous batch which I ran at about 38°C/100°F. So it could be that the slightly lower temp led to less duplications.
One the other hand I wasn't being very accurate in measuring equal relative amounts of dextrose to both batches. I reckon 12grs of dextrose per liter/quart or even half of that are well enough. That will be my benchmark for the next batch.
Maybe I'll add half a gram of l-glutamine if that may help the reuteri to survive and duplicate even when not competing with other bacteria.

After cooling down in the fridge, it scoops like thick icecream.
If I added vanilla extract before fermentation I could really confuse myself and others for thinking it's vanilla ice cream, yet not frozen (mind-boggling).
I used non-homogenized cream and milk, so there's an extra firm and almost crust-like layer on top of the content. I imagine that if the fat content were to be equally distributed by using homogenized milk and cream it would make the yoghurt set more evenly.

Good info on the goats milk! In my prior experimentations with sheeps milk I've also noticed that it reliably sets with cultures which yield inconsistent, mostly liquid results with cows milk.
Have you noticed any benefits already?

I assume the added inulin is mainly meant to help build the consistency of the product. As a sort of thickener.
I had seen that some people use (potato) starch instead of inulin in their L. reuteri recipes.

Having had neither potato starch nor inulin at home I just threw a tablespoon of dextrose at my mixture, so that the reuteri won't run out of nutrients (the natural lactose content).
Accidentally, whilst looking for GABA-producing microbacteria (L. reuteri does not contribute, the small amount it produces merely helps its acid resistance. But it feeds of glutamine for that, much more than off glutamate),
I discovered that L. reuteri strain LGM (most similar to WHH1689) does not even eat inulin!
(see "LR" in table C below)

Regulation of serotonin production by specific microbes from piglet gut

So what's behind that story of adding inulin to feed the reuteri?
It seems to be untrue. The added inulin will feed other commensal bacteria, perhaps already in the fermentation batch, definitely once in the gut - yet it's seemingly no substrate for reuteri!
In fact, L. reuteri expresses inulosucrase as an enzyme which converts sucrose (saccharose, i.e. table sugar) to inulin, which other bacteria may then feed off.

Wouldn't it then be better to add lactose, sucrose or maltose to L. reuteri recipes?
And just be honest about inulin acting not as a substrate for reuteri but on its own as a prebiotic on other bacteria as well as helping with consistency?
Or are there such drastic differences between the L. reuteri strains that ATCC PTA 6475 is able to feed off inulin?

Whilst the L. reuteri are oddly fermenting (I'm not quite sure, it smells and tastes somewhat like tangy cheese), I've found a connection between GABA and the microbiome.

Essentially, not only does the notorious gut-brain-axis rely much on a GABA-producing microbiome raising GABA in serum and brain!
But a lot of bacteria of a (healthy?) microbiome exclusively depend on GABA as a crucial nutrient.
Many bacteria don't grow at all without exogenous GABA, which should be supplied by other bacteria of the microbiome.

Hence, supplementing GABA feeds such bacteria and reconstitutes gastrointestinal microbiotic diversity.
And feeding GABA increases IFN-y for innate immunity, TNF-a, MUC2 for the crucial mucin barrier.
Also, feeding GABA appears to enhance autophagy of enteric cells instead of them taking the route of destructive apoptosis.

GABA-producing gut bacteria are foremost Bacteroides (e.g. fragilis), Parabacteroides, Eschericia, L. plantarum, L. brevis, L. lactis, L. paracasei.

GABA content in fermented dairy (cheese) varies a lot depending on the microbiotic strains being traditionally used in the respective regions (huge differences e.g. just among the Italian Pecorino cheeses).

GABA-modulating bacteria of the human gut microbiota

Effects of dietary gamma-aminobutyric acid supplementation on amino acid profile, intestinal immunity, and microbiota in ETEC-challenged piglets

GABA attenuates ETEC-induced intestinal epithelial cell apoptosis involving GABAAR signaling and the AMPK-autophagy pathway

I'm now supplementing c. 3grs GABA every day.
Have already felt the "heavy chest" and mild flushing for a couple of hours after my intake, as reported by others in the RPF.

@shitty_kidneys
Assuming that this novel substance has not been registered anywhere as a pharmaceutical yet (so it's off-register) this shouldn't be treated as a drug but rather as any research or intermediate or chemical substance.
For shipping and import, there'd need to be the regular declarations (SDS, safety data sheet) filled in about it being non-explosive and its environmental hazards and so forth.

For its synthesis you would want to contact producers of the same or a similar compound class.
Could be practical to pay an extra commission by going through one of the pharmaceutical/chemical trading companies / export agents who would know various producers they'd ask and who'd handle the process along with quality control through a third party analytics labs before shipping it to you.

Before you get them all busy and thinking you should expect and be willing to accept costs of a couple to a few thousand dollars for custom synthesis. They probably won't charge you before ordering the product and it'd be bad behaviour to expect offers cheaper than that and ultimately decline everything.

@Pooooop
Could be also in part due to very contracted, dysbalanced muscles around your spine, specifically in the area of your shoulder blades and your lower cervical vertebrae. So the stiffness prevents the rotary motion and compresses otherwise pre-weakened nerve bundles to your hands, epecially when under further exercise load. Maybe your neck posture is way worse since the restart in the worse gym or you're training the wrong muscles instead of their necessary counterparts.

@DavidPS
I've ordered the BioGaia Gastrus tablets with the two L. reuteri strains to try it out.
It stands and falls with the lactose and dairy protein tolerability of the fermentation product.

@yerrag said:
Thanks for your literary weekend intro!

She encourages it's use against candidiasis, and no doubt has antifungal properties. I don't have candidiasis but I went to have my blood examined using live blood analysis and discovered my red blood cells to harbor fungal species much like candida that would act like a parasite as it's life cycle revolves

I don't have diagnosable candida either but the essential point I take from your report is the importance of whatever shapeshifting pathogens reside intracellularly in their respective tissue niche.
So I may very well have bred highly resilient cell-wall-deficient bacterial / fungal organisms in my gut cells from the antibiotics.
That turpentine
@CrumblingCookie said:

helps to maintain villous lenghts during a couple of days of starvation/fasting (I hadn't known that villous atrophy sets in so quickly from a "use it or lose it" point).

may very well also have an unexpected background then: That such organisms, when their intestinal environment becomes too inhospitable by lack of nutrients in fasting or by antibiotic treatment, penetrate and damage the intestinal villi.
As it's known and proven for hyphae, i.e. the protruding fungal forms of yeasts.

I had read Dr. Jennifer Daniels' short book on turpentine before.
And a couple of years ago I had already taken turpentine at 2 teaspoons per day for over two weeks. Which was a lot. I found 1 teaspoon already quite aggressive on the GI system. But I liked the "brain effects" of improved microcirculation (some headaches, though, too).

I'll continue the monoterpenes in the small amounts of 4 drops multiple times daily. Doing the maths, that comes to about 1.5 teaspoons a week in total which surprisingly matches the total of Dr. Jen Daniels dosing recommendation of a 3/4 teaspoon once or twice a week.

@DavidPS

Thanks for this hint. I've just watched the video/instructions by Dr. William Davis. I like him. 36hrs fermentation for 12 doublings of c. 3-4hours as the sweet-spot plateau of live bacteria; 300 billion L. reuteri per serving!

Previously I had only made my own "yoghurt" (by legal definitions it's not) with selected L-lactid acid producing lactobacilli or with bifidobacteria only.
I've noticed that using bifidobacteria can make dairy (proteins) completely tolerable. Including B. breve is crucial for that.
It needs at least 12-18hrs of fermentation, however, and with many brands/origins of milk it just doesn't work properly at all* (it either remains very liquid, doesn't truly ferment as it should, or as in one brand even starts bubbling wildly with a terrible stink because of prior contamination). Which left me dissatisfied. Along with the fact, that I don't actually want to mass-feed bifidos into my small intestine. So pasteurising the bifidobacteria-"yogurth" after its fermentation should have been the logical next step to gain maximum tolerability from dairy. With such efforts only to tolerate and utilize dairy, I simply chose to forego it and depend on other foods.
Nevertheless, it was a great thing to find out.
Using only the good lactobacilli (rhamnosus, casei, paracasei, salivarius. There was no reuteri, though) yielded a better and tastier "yoghurt" (or super-tasty cottage cheese!), but there was still incomplete tolerability.
A combination of selected lactobacilli with the selected bifidos gave the best taste in some milks in which the use of only bifidos would lack the "punch" of freshness from lactic acid – the acetic acid from bifidos has a stale taste in comparison.

I'll give the max-feeding with L.reuteri a chance. I knew about and used it before but merely as the mentioned small probiotic drops for infants which didn't do much at all. It sounds like a good continuation of my previous dairy experimentations.
*: Comforting to read that Dr. Eric Berg also struggles quite a bit to get his L.reuteri fermentation recipes and ingredients just right.

With bactericidal reutericin as its major metabolite this is another approach to circle in on taking out the nasty resilient hidden unknown varieties of pathogens in the guts. There's a common goal and effect there shared with the mentioned turpentine.
If those L.reuteri reports about shifting body composition, i.e. increases of youthful muscle and loss of abdominal fat become true that'd be fine with me.
Have you noticed anything of that?
Did you include or forego the also-mentioned L.gasseri and Bacillus subtilis?

Recipe as per Dr. Eric Berg: 1 capsule (20 billion CFU), 2 table spoons inuline, a little half&half milk/cream to blend everything into a paste, then a liter of half&half, ferment at 99° F / 37° C for 36 hours and then eat half a cup a day.