Posts made by Energia

@Emilia My progesterone levels were actually low, so I've recently started supplementing it. Do you have personal experience using it, and if so, what dose typically works best for you?

@Emilia Yes, that's a good point. I should look into getting tissue levels of estrogen tested for. Some of the things you mentioned, I have already tried, but probably need to be more consistent with it.

@basebolt GFR and lactate were normal. What you mentioned about dehydration may be the case. It seems as though, interestingly, I can get hydrated, but also dehydrated relatively easily. My theory, although I don't know how plausibly it is, is the skin has gotten so thin that it's losing water through evaporation more quickly than what would be normal. Anyway, thanks for the info!

@BartL Hi, Im sorry to hear you're going through something similar. I would be curious to know if you have been diagnosed with ehlers danlos or just have a similar set of symptoms that you haven't received a diagnosis for? You're right about getting enough calories, but that's easier said than done lol. Nonethless, discipline and patience is probably key in this healing journey.

Thanks for all the great information you all provided. Culture turned out to be positive for a relatively common and most often benign skin bacteria, so it was most likely a false positive/contaminated sample. But, this is all useful information nonetheless.

@DavidPS Thanks for the great info. I actually bought the test myself, so I'm not under current medical supervision for this issue. It was one of the few labs left to provide any sort of clarity to my situation and has been ongoing for years, so might as well wait it out until the results come back.

@yerrag Glad to hear it worked out for you. I think partly this is what happened in my case, with my body just being too weak to maintain proper balance of organisms. I was more so concerned about a systemic fungal infection as I had reason to believe this was the case, but from what I've read the culture would have picked up on this. Regardless, I'm glad to finally get some answers. Probably best that you avoided the cipro, that's essentially the kind of info I'm looking for in case hospitalization is required. Procedures or medications to avoid if recommended by conventional doctors. I assume a hospital visit will be recommended as I've been experiencing pretty moderate neurological symptoms also.

Do you or anyone else know if theoretically bacteremia can be sustained for a chronic amount of time, as I've been having symptoms associated with this issue for years at this point?

@AkJono Culture was positive for gram positive bacteria but the identification process is still in progress. That sounds like a nasty scratch, glad it turned out okay!

Anyone familiar with how this is typically treated and what types of antibiotics are commonly used? How safe are these specific antibiotics (I know some antibiotics are more favored than others by this community)? Any tips for how to go about treating this?

Does anyone know of any more obscure mechanisms of vitamin C and its role in the body? Why would taking it (even from natural sources) worsen symptoms? In particular, autoimmune like symptoms, as my understanding is that in the bioenergetic theory autoimmunity is actually just tissue damage from stress hormones and the body's attempt to clean this mess up? I know one of the main mechanisms is its enhancement of iron absorption. In my case, ferritin is low and other iron levels are normal, so I don't understand why this would worsen symptoms, and am looking for other mechanisms.

@Kvirion Can you share the source and what dosages you used?

The most recent labs have been relatively normal. Cortisol levels have actually lowered over the past few years and at this point are probably within the range of normal or borderline high ( probably not enough to be causing issues this substantially). Looking at family history more closely is what lead me to consider ehlers danlos, more specifically the vascular type possibly. Autoimmune type issues seem to have taken over ever since cortisol started to lower. Although inflammatory tests such as CRP, ESR are normal, antibody tests negative, so autoimmunity is probably out of the picture. In fact, ferritin levels were low also surprisingly, so inflammation seems unlikely. Estrogen total was normal, on the somewhat lower end of the scale actually. Both regular and ionized calcium normal. TSH was around 3.0 but then dropped to about 1.4 within like a month (still had symptoms). The most common trend seems to be high protein and albumin results Cortisol shredding through protein? Also, low lymphocytes occasionally. Anyone have any other ideas? Thanks again.

@izkrov Thanks for the advice. The cholesterol intake might be difficult as I also apparently have gallbladder issues. I will add some additional information in case anyone is interested to hopefully help elucidate the situation.

Desperate for any kind of help. Myriad of health issues. History of chronically increased cortisol levels ( stress related, no cushings). Many signs typically associated with cushings, with the worst being skin thinness followed by muscle and joint/bone weakness. Very underweight, difficulty putting on and maintaining weight bordering cachexic looking. Sensitivity to most foods, so that doesn't help. Indigestion/ GERD elicit arrythmias (SVT), so I must be careful with food intake. Sudden movements also can trigger this rhythm. Issues have been going on for years, but have hit breaking point and progressing rapidly. Skin rapidly becoming too thin to the point where almost every blood vessel is visible, new fine line wrinkles popping up seemingly every day (and this is no exaggeration). Can't even smile slightly without getting pretty severe redness in face and visible veins due to the thin skin. Petechiae everywhere, new moles popping up. Extremely dry hair and skin, regardless of hydration. I thought it was all attributed to cortisol issues, but recently I have a strong suspicion of ehlers danlos. Joints extremely unstable/ pop extremely loudly when manipulated. Internal organs feel like they're hanging on by a thread (possible hiatal hernia?) Severe social anxiety/uneasiness which causes a cortisol/adrenaline response. Took beta blocker for many years but weaned off few years ago. Thinking about restarting it to help mitigate some tissue/muscle damage from adrenaline. Neurological issues. I could go on further, but basically every organ system seems to be wasting away and quite rapidly at this point. Don't know what to do as I've become extremely sensitive to almost every food and even just eating causes fatigue. Don't know how fixable any of this is at this point, especially the collagen/ thin skin issues, as I've read that once skin has thinned out it can't really be regrown. Although maybe the bioenergetic theory says otherwise? Anyone have any knowledge on this or any of the other issues I mentioned? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.