Posts made by JulofEnoch

@Ray-Peat-Fanboy

Current dietary trends are simply confused. This is the end result of conflicting commercial interests each funding their own studies to say that xyz is good and abc is bad. The average person believes whatever the latest few convincing headlines were saying. Keto diet and fasting are having their moment but many people were pro-fasting, pro-keto, etc. are seemingly beginning to shift away from it.

Much of this stuff is due to "evidence-based" practices, which means a religious deference to meta-analysis, RCTs, and institutional guidance. The result is that conflicting corporate interests are considered "variations in the science" and the continual vagueness and contradictions are simply a total failure to account for biases and do real science.

@banquos-ghost

5 days ago, I added T4 into the protocol, at 25mcgs nightly, increasing my total daily dose to 25mcgs T3/25mcgs T4

What is your thought behind the 1:1 ratio? I can see as a stimulatory dose for a serious hypothyroidism, though I don't know if you'd count as such. The T4 may be converted quickly into T3, so your 1:1 is like taking a larger dose of T3, by itself. This is probably behind your rapid temp increase. I would suggest shifting to a 1:3 or 1:4 dosage.

From my understanding, 25mcgs of T3 and equivalent T4 would be about 1.25 grains(1 gr of T3 and 1/4 gr from T4). This might give you some perspective on how your T3 and T4 doses are working out in the grains.

My thought here is that addressing chronic issues resulting from years of hypothyroidism will take time—likely several months—before I experience significant improvement.

I believe Barnes said that one should supplement for, at least, one month with thyroid before coming to any conclusions.

I've tried to cut out caffeine and nicotine to assess my response to thyroid without conflicting variables, though I still use dipping tobacco and drink coffee on occasion (mainly to stimulate BMs)

The coffee is probably fine to take and I would support restricting tobacco as much as possible.

Why the gynecomastia? I'm not sure. It could be that thyroid supplementation has elevated levels of testosterone, which is then aromatizing and causing estrogenic symptoms.

Entirely possible, I would give it time to normalize and, if possible, consider more zinc and iodine foods. Have you tested your cholesterol?

Howdy

About one month ago, I developed a serious inflammation in my right armpit. I took a course of antibiotics, to no effect. I developed no fever but would have annoying pains and itching at night or after any exertion. The area was nearly rose red, at all times- I had some bumps and the area was clearly highly inflamed. The inflammation continued to get worse and after two weeks, the night pain and itching was truly horrible. I concluded, through mystic commune with Ray's spirit in the neutrino sea and a visit with my dermatologist neighbor, that I had a serious candida infection.

I did a number of topical treatments before deciding that I'd need a prescription antifungal. I did a coconut oil and blended garlic assault and cried out in pain for an hour. Not my finest hour.

I've been tracking my temperature more and noticed that while I was normal temp on the readings, I was feeling cold during the mornings. As such, I determined I might be hypothyroidic and the temp test was not 100% accurate for me, at this moment.

I had a suspicion that this might be the case, before the candida, so I'd bought a bottle of Tyromax which arrived seven days ago. I started taking Tyromax(1gr) in the mornings and have now done 8 doses over six days(on two non-consecutive days I've taken an additional 1gr at night before bed).

Since I began taking Tyromax, I noticed an immediate shift. I had no itching or pain after two days(3gr) and the area has gone from inflamed red to a dulled brown and normal skin tone is beginning to creep back in on the edges. Sensitivity to sweat and other substances is gone.

I will continue updates as progress changes. BTW, current TSH is 1.48.

@Chad-Maxwell

What form? Pills, powders?

BTW, you can give aspirin to a 10 year old though they are smaller than an adult so you'd need a pill cutter and cut a baby aspirin(81mg) in half.

@cs3000

Thanks for the reads, good stuff here. The ability to accelerate wound healing under "pathological" conditions, especially diabetic foot ulcers, is very significant. I am unable to read the full study, I would like to see the numbers.

I am curious whether severe ulcers and deep wounds(in general) can be accelerated. Pressure sores and MRSA infections would also be of interest to me. If the thyroid application is accelerating healing, then I assume that there's immune-protective effects. I'd like to see a test of topical thyroid and its effect on MRSA recovery and wound healing.

@Chad-Maxwell

What are you doing for b-vitamins?

@Chad-Maxwell

Focus and attention issues-often diagnosed as ADD or ADHD-are a result of a heightened adrenal state. It takes energy to be still and focus. This is the same condition with sleep issues, it takes energy to go to sleep. Ritalin and other amphetamine-like drugs that influence attention and focus seem to work by increasing blood glucose levels, thereby increasing the brain's access to sugar. Low blood sugar may be due to lower metabolism, vitamin deficiencies, and contribute to/or result from hypothyroidism.

Blood sugar regulation requires B-vitamins and minerals, especially biotin and manganese. Liver is a good source of biotin, mussels/oysters/clams are good sources of manganese. Egg yolks are also a good source of biotin.

Consider giving honey and sugar dissolved in milk with some added salt. Consider making a tasty jello with gelatin and grape/pineapple juice- the glycine and other amino acids are anti-excitatory and pro-metabolism. Grape and pineapple juice are good sources of manganese. I use a pineapple concentrate that I mix with water into juice.

I would suggest making sure that your child is getting enough salt in their diet. The adrenal response that is associated with attention issues can be attenuated with additional salt.

I encourage trying a month or so of targeted nutrition before giving aspirin or any other medications.

@yerrag

You talking about Hattman's Cell Wall Deficient Forms?

@AkJono

Very cool, thank you. Hillman's work is excellent- I've suggested Evidence-Based Cell Biology to many people interested in biology.

@Sippy

They were full of excipients if I recall correctly.

So many things are these days.

Do you know of any resources for interpreting the results and deciding how to correct imbalances?

Regarding interpretation, I am no expert myself so I've relied on others knowledgeable to help me. I cannot vouch for everything this guy says but his videos on HTMA have been useful for me. If you want a real expert with a focus on mineral balancing, fertility, etc. then Andra is someone who you should consider speaking with. Her Twitter is a good resource for free knowledge. Andra is no stranger to Peat and the Bioenergetic community.

@AkJono

TCM, very cool, I have been slowly chewing through some TCM books, mostly acupuncture, though I'm interested in TCM dietetics.

May I ask what led you to bioenergetics?

@mostlylurking

Thanks for sharing the reads.

@banquos-ghost

Thanks for the update. The diminished sleep quality and rapid heart rate sound like adrenal activation, increasing your calories will no doubt help. Make sure that you are getting a good amount of salt(3.5-4g, usually) as that is a major component for keeping the adrenal activity from being stressed.

Look forward to more.

@Peatful

I bet the residents love that time spent with you and your family. I've spent many long days in nursing homes and the like and residents could talk about a visitor who came and played blackjack with them for weeks afterwards. I remember a woman who spoke about a young violin player who came six years prior, only once, and she remembered everything about that young woman, her music, what the rest of that day was like. It's a big deal, especially when some assisted living places are, unfortunately, where people are sent to be forgotten and made ignorable by their families.

@Wily

For the record, I'm not a fan of donating to charities. I only donate to organizations who I've had personal contact with and can personally vouch for the quality of their charity. I understand that this may be less "optimized" and I could be, in theory, giving my money to an übercharity that's hyper-effective but I know of no such charities existing.

I prefer to do my charity and service work with my own hands, my own mind, and my own time, rather than outsourcing good works to others.

@Wily

That's the sort of mental calculation I'm thinking of though, if it makes any sense.

I understand your considerations. I have made similar calculations myself. You can justify planning out a wargame for a seven-figure income and an "optimized" annual givings, running utilitarian calculus on whether to give a nearby homeless guy $50 or donate $50 to a water charity in Indonesia, but quite frankly, people who do this kind of mental math rarely do it right and they end up either with decision paralysis leading to them just selecting whatever is easiest or they end up talking themselves into some weird scheme which ends up being less effective than they hoped for.

This is because this optimization approach is, more often than not, an analytical approach to the problem, rather than an insight problem. It represents a cognitive bias towards persistence and fails to utilize the brain to its fullest of creative problem solving. Analytical problem solving can be highly accurate but it is often less accurate than insight problem solving based on domain expertise and time spent doing something.

Understanding oneself and one's surrounding are essential to understanding one's Being in the world and what one can do, based off of that knowledge.

May I suggest that you should grow your awareness of the present state of your community? Not to make any negative assumptions, of course, but I find that many people asking about "what can I do?"- in the analytical fashion that you are- are often not fully aware of what's going on outside their front door. Learning more about the people and things around you will be invaluable in providing hints and information as to what you might be able to do, now and in the future, to help things, near and far.

Anything you care about on a "big picture" scale is happening right now in your community. Often times, the conditions of your communities issues and the solutions thereto are the same in issues and solutions very far away and of a much bigger scale. Master the ability to learn about and address local issues and convert that domain knowledge into insight solutions to novel and larger problems.

If you're running this sort of calculation on whether to spend some small amount of your week doing something small but useful or talking to neighbors for a few minutes when you see them, then I question how much you actually want to do it vs how much you're trying to talk yourself into wanting to do it. This is the analytical mindset at work, high serotonin and high estrogen.

The idea is to maximize that ratio to the best of one's intelligence, because doing anything other than that would be negligence or 'bad faith' (you COULDVE done more... think 'I held the door open for someone so my good deed for the day is done')

I understand but I will stop you here and say that placing your engagement with charitable acts under the criteria of "could I have done more?" is going to be something which will end up torturing you because the answer is always yes. Analytical solutions needs ten minutes to arrive to something that insight quickly determines as "yes." You will have to learn to live with that if you want to do anything. To do more is why we do things, at all. Life exists in order to do more things. Humans have hundreds of unique differentiated cells in order to do more things. To do more things is fundamental to the universe.

A truly "charitable" existence is not wherein you've carefully designated certain hours of the week to being in a specific place or a meticulous accounting for charitable giving. A charitable existence is something wherein you will be influencing people and things around you, for the better, nearly 100% of the day by seeking and living a high metabolism life. Think about charity as a life process, not a singular or recurrent action or thought pattern. It is something which, ideally, is embedded into your existence at fundamental levels.

You could take a college class in algebraic topology but insight will grant you a vision of how you can use that knowledge to help others. You could use your insight to write a short and thoughtful ebook to boost your resume and secure your job position so you can reliably donate an amount of money while setting up for future actions. Regardless of what you are doing, if you are of good metabolism then you will not be complacent in your life, you will want to do more and the question of "could I have done more?" will not be a looming shadow but something else entirely.

Do you like animals?

@Wily

If you have the time, will, and ability, then your local fire department probably needs volunteers. Local animal shelters are often needy for volunteers. I tutor math and science sometimes at the request of local high school teachers. If you are someone with faith, then your local religious center would be happy to take a few hours of your time.

Where is the best "return" on investment for genuine charity to be found?

Don't expect a "return" on investment outside of a job well done and maybe some public cred. At least in the US, people rarely care about volunteers or volunteering. Most often, people take it as a wholesome oddity that someone does- "Oh, that's so good that you do that. That's really important work, I wish you the best with that." Don't expect people to give you things, say thank you, and don't expect a "return" in any monetary way.

A regular volunteering practice is very beneficial to the mind and can be a gateway towards relationships with other altruistic socially-minded people. This is the return that you'll get.

@Wily

I don't know much about Spice but I know a little. Probably the greatest room for issues is that there isn't a singular Spice; there are hundreds of synthetic cannabinoids. IIRC, the first synthetic cannabinoid which made its way into drugs was actually made by Pfizer. Most Spice comes from China or India, mostly China. There are zero quality regulations and it's reasonable to assume an amount of outside contamination.

The major synthetic cannabinoids are frankenstein amalgamations of aromatic compounds, amines, and whatever else. The result is that for most synthetic cannabinoids(save for the most common ones) have no toxicological assessment and their metabolites are unknown.

As to recovering the brain- progesterone, pregnenolone, thyroid, K2, D3, Vit A, niacinamide.

@wolfy

Boric acid is often used by women to deal with yeast infections. On the RPF some people talked about using boric acid with coconut oil as a topical antifungal.

Study link

Important to note that this is not a structural change. The post-exertion swelling of the feet is due to increased blood flow. If one were to walk for many hours, for many months, then you'd develop structural changes.

Walking on a treadmill for three hours sounds like it sucks.