@LucH I think the pathogen is irradiated and I am dealing with the aftermath of the effects of the inflammation. I have a new working hypothesis. Please see my response to Jennifer.
Posts made by RPadmirateur
-
RE: How to stabilize blood sugar during COVID illness?
-
RE: How to stabilize blood sugar during COVID illness?
@yerrag I am thinking I need to try cyproheptadine, for its anti-serotonin effects. Yes, serotonin is deactivated in the lungs. Was cyproheptadine part of your healing regime? In a nutshell, how did you heal your lungs?
-
RE: How to stabilize blood sugar during COVID illness?
@ThinPicking Right now, I am just going by taste. The heavily salted broth is very soothing. I have stopped the baking soda, because it may have been contributing to my intestinal irritation....not sure, so many variables. Please read what I wrote to Jennifer and lmk what you think.
-
RE: How to stabilize blood sugar during COVID illness?
@Jennifer Apple juice is too high in pectin, and, unfortunately, the grape juice that I could get without citric acid added is no longer available. Ditto for coconut water. But excellent ideas! It's just that anything with added citric acid causes intestinal irritation, at least for me. And I hear you on the powdered gelatin, I cannot do that either, unless I am really healthy! I do make my own gelatinous broth. My working diagnosis is that the stress of the illness/ adrenalin response, over sensitized me to the T3 I was taking, and at the same time, because I wanted the antiestrogen, anti-cortisol effects of aspirin, as well as aspirin's ability to limit G.I. absorption of tryptophan in the 2+ quarts of milk I have been drinking, I had increased it, (most days, 31/2 - 4 g), up until yesterday morning. Yesterday morning, I stopped all aspirin and Cynomel, because of aspirin causes unbinding of T3 from the protein carriers in the blood, essentially causing hyperthyroidism. http://content-assets.jci.org/manuscripts/106000/106905/JCI72106905.pdf Although I do not have signs of hyperthyroidism except about 10-30 min after drinking milk, o.j. and consuming a small amount of heavily salted gelatin, (my heart rate elevates about 12bpm more than normal), and I get really warm. I think I simply don't have the fuel and the nutrients for the hyperthyroidism to continue, so adrenalin/ cortisol kicks in and my b.p. shoots up. This is a working hypothesis. If it turns out to be true, I will post it as a separate post. I just stopped taking the aspirin and the T3 yesterday morning. I see varying information on the half life of T3, anywhere from 24 hours to 2 1/2 days. And I have not found anything in terms of the length of time that it takes for aspirin to have this globulin knocking off effect of T3. Lmk what you think. Your other recommendations are all good. I have stopped all oral supplements, including PenVK and Doxycycline, as well as the oral vitamin K, due to the intestinal upset, as of yesterday and today, (PenVK was prior to the Doxycycline). I am still going to supplement with topical vitamin K and D, and I rub Progest-E into my gums. Thank you for the reminder for the vitamin K! I might be a bit deficient, even though I was supplementing, and that might help with the BP. As of today, simply drinking less o.j., and a little more sugared milk and gelatin seems to be working. I log when I finish these drinks and start them again an hour later. My bp still goes up by the end of that time, but short of an I.V., it might just be a waiting game. Check out the link and lmk your thoughts. Thank you!
-
RE: How to stabilize blood sugar during COVID illness?
@Jennifer After a night of coughing, bloating and gas from trying to introduce solid foods, I am following your suggestion. This morning, I just consumed orange juice with baking soda and homemade gelatin with salt. I had noticeable irritated bowels, but that many have been a layover from the day before. Still high systolic b.p. This afternoon, I am just consuming milk with less gelatin, (salted), than I was doing with the o.j. Still high systolic b.p. I don't know what else to try.
-
RE: How to stabilize blood sugar during COVID illness?
@yerrag If I felt good having high b.p., that would be different. I feel terrible and my sleep is poor. Also, R.P. indicated in previous emails that a split systolic/ diastolic, (high systolic and normal to low diastolic), is caused by excessive cortisol and adrenalin. Also, now that I am no longer running a fever, I struggle to get my temps into the 98s, even up to 98.0 in the afternoon, even with taking Cynomel, 1/6 every hour, if I can manage it. My guess is that COVID simply increased every inflammatory substance in my body, and my intestines are highly inflamed and unable to handle what I put in them.
-
RE: How to stabilize blood sugar during COVID illness?
@ThinPicking I may have made some assumptions regarding your comment on osmotic stress.
Please tell me more about possible osmotic stress with a milk and o.j. diet. I add 1-3 TBSP of white sugar for each cup of milk. If I am daring enough to try a bit of coffee with it, I add 3 TBSP, and I also use that concentration before bed and during the night. Otherwise, it is between 1 and 2 TBSP per cup of milk. As for the o.j., I generally drink 52 fl oz per day, (1.6qt.), adding a total of 3 TBSP to it as I go, sprinkling it on a ladle. Lmk what you think. Dr. Peat recommended 200 - 300 g white sugar to be added per day when under great stress with systolic b.p. elevation, but he never asked me how much milk total I was drinking. (These days, it's just under 2 qts.) -
RE: How to stabilize blood sugar during COVID illness?
@LucH I have been thinking about and trying the "ideal order of foods: fiber – proteins (with fat) – carbohydrates. The fibers ingested first considerably reduce the glucose peak caused by sugar." I used ground white button mushrooms and hard cheese + gelatin, (homemade) for the protein with fat, and whole fruits for the carbohydrates, plus 1% milk My systolic b.p. is back up in the 170s. I do have experience with a CGS monitor in the past, when I also had b.p. issues with insomnia, and the spike, as well as the dips, did, in fact, cause a surge in blood pressure. I just don't know how to get in more sugar without creating these surges, since it seems that not assimilating enough sugar during times of stress, (current COVID infection), is what raises my b.p. Also, I know from experience that starches are completely OUT when I am under stress...I simply cannot digest them.
-
RE: How to stabilize blood sugar during COVID illness?
@Jennifer Thank you for your thoughts. This has been a process, and I have been eliminating things as I went, since nothing seemed to digest. Today, I added some cheese, (Asiago, naturally aged with animal rennet), and that has elevated my b.p., but it could be more that I haven't eaten as much sugar...I am not sure. I have tried different milks and different orange juices, but I haven't tried omitting either the milk or the oj. That is something to consider. Overall, the bloating this time around has lessened as I heal/ am less in crisis.
-
RE: How to stabilize blood sugar during COVID illness?
@ThinPicking Yes, thank you, someone is looking after me. And yes, I do measure the sugar and baking soda. I am trying to eat more gelatin, plus I tried some cheese and solid fruits ,and space intake in 4 meals, with sipping a bit of o.j. between meals, cut back on sugar in milk. It is turning out badly, with systolic b.p. back in the 170s. I have been taking 4 1/2 - 5g of aspirin, spread throughout the day, up from my usual 1500mg.
-
RE: How to stabilize blood sugar during COVID illness?
Thank you for taking the time to do your replies. In response, I can only send you some Ray Peat quotes for an email thread of when I was experiencing severe insomnia. It brought me to the conclusion of what I am currently doing, after trying to eat regularly, 4 meals a day with protein and coconut oil and my fiber meal, and failing miserably while having this severe respiratory illness. (When I got sick, nothing worked, including digestion!)
Ray Peat: Have you tried having a large amount of carbohydrate during the night? The morning stress results from failure to maintain glucose oxidation during the night. A fat free diet might help you to increase glucose oxidation efficiency.
Ray Peat raypeat@gmail.com
Feb 14, 2022, 5:01 PM
to meEliminating fats (ice cream, coconut oil) for a while might improve your carbohydrate metabolism and lower the stress hormones. Some people have good results from starchy foods at bedtime.
Ray Peat raypeat@gmail.com
Feb 14, 2022, 6:52 PM
to meNo, I think the fat late in the day is likely to be most disruptive to good sugar metabolism; increasing calories of carbohydrate can lower stress hormones.
Ray Peat raypeat@gmail.com
Feb 15, 2022, 7:35 PM
to meTemporarily (4 or 5 days) cutting out eggs and cheese, and limiting coffee to mornings, and increasing calories from carbohydrate should improve the depth of your sleep, as your metabolic rate increases. It should raise your temperature a little.
Ray Peat raypeat@gmail.com
Feb 16, 2022, 2:27 PM
to meI think the amount of fat in 1% milk would be o.k.
-
RE: How to stabilize blood sugar during COVID illness?
@ThinPicking All I know is that I have never been this sick and for this long in my 64 plus years. It is also different in that it went directly to my lungs, and incessant, severe and wheezing coughing for weeks on end, sometimes wondering if I would pass out for want of air.... Definitely severe acute respiratory distress. Anyway, salt is super important, for sure! I have been consuming probably close to 3 TBSP baking soda throughout the day, with my o.j. I literally ladle in bits at a time, so the CO2 won't all be released into the air. I do also add NaCl to my gelatin, and sometimes to my milk with sugar.
-
RE: How to stabilize blood sugar during COVID illness?
@yerrag I had to eliminate fat in order to get my dangerously high systolic b.p. down. I was up to 192/69. Reread my R.P. notes and he suggested to remove all fat and protein, except in 1% milk, and add lots of sugar to milk to bring the split down, which it has. I still have some rises in systolic pressure by the end of and hour, and especially at the end of the day, but more in the 130s-150s range. I wish it were as simple as adding fat, but right now, that causes dangerously high systolic b.p.
-
RE: How to stabilize blood sugar during COVID illness?
@LucH Thank you for your reply and links. I due consume more vitamin E in the form of Progest-E. Right now, it's the only thing that helps me sleep. In Ray Peat's Blood Sugar, Starches, and Carbohydrates in Context Excerpt, he states that "Glucagon, cortisol, epinephrine, growth hormone, and the thyroid all tend to raise blood sugar." Cortisol and epinephrine also spike when blood sugar drops. And as I recall from my RP notes, too much T3 can also lower blood sugar too much, spiking cortisol and epinephrine. I am hypothesizing that given the relative increase in thyroid stimulating foods, milk, o.j., and gelatin by eliminating all other foods, that perhaps I need to taper down my normal doses of T3 supplement, so that I can make it an hour without my cortisol/ epinephrine rising, as indicated by my b.p. split systolic starting to rise. Lmk what you think.
-
RE: How to stabilize blood sugar during COVID illness?
@yerrag Thank you for your reply. I try to take a CO2 bath in a bag daily, (although many days, I am simply too tired). I also take baking soda with my hourly orange juice and bag breathe a few times per day. Interestingly, my blood pressure split is exacerbated by the CO2 bath. Not sure why, maybe I stay in too long and get too hot, which could be a stressor. I am still trying to figure it out.
-
RE: How to stabilize blood sugar during COVID illness?
@ThinPicking Thank you for your reply. I would love to be able to just eat 3 solid meals per day and be okay. But I have the SARS-CoV-2 virus and have been really sick for over a month. I used to do consults with Ray Peat, and we email back and forth a lot. During other times of complete duress, he recommended removing all proteins and fats in the short herm, other than the fat in 1% milk, and drinking very frequent sugary 1% milk. Orange juice was inferred in our emails, but everything else was recommended to remove, until I could get my split blood pressure down. He said that a high systolic and normal diastolic meant very high cortisol, and the aforementioned was his remedy. However, this was for a short term. I have brought my b.p. down from 192/69 to 116/67, following this regimen. However, since I have been sick for so long, and still have lesser b.p. swings by the end of the hour, eg., 153/78, I still need to tweak something.
-
How to stabilize blood sugar during COVID illness?
Hello new Friends! I am wondering about how to stabilize blood sugar while sick with COVID. I drink a mixture of o.j. with baking soda, followed by milk with sugar, (about 3Tbsp per cup), every hour. A few times throughout the day, I eat a Tbsp of homemade gelatin with this mixture. My blood pressure, systolic only, goes up before the end of the hour, and drops again after consumption of the mixture, indicating that cortisol/ adrenaline are rising from a drop in blood sugar. I am wondering how to stabilize it. I found this study: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000709121730572X
The milk doesn't even fully empty the stomach in an hour, so I am unsure about consuming the same mixture in lesser amounts more frequently. Everything is slowed down, as well, so bloating is an issue. I have also thought about adding a bit of ground mushroom that I cooked for 3 hours to sustain blood sugar levels, but I am not sure how that would work with trying to consume milk and o.j. on a frequent basis. Do you know of any anecdotal experiences or studies that address this issue? My current regime did get me out of chronically elevated high blood pressure (systolic only), with the illness. Now the b.p. is only elevated before the end of the hour. The milk with the sugar is what noticeably decreases the b.p. (I learned this tip from Dr. Peat.)