Posted by bleauberry on March 4, 2010, at 20:44:13 [reposted on March 6, 2010, at 9:21:32 | original URL]
In reply to Medication Phobia (pharmacophobia), posted by Vincent_QC on March 3, 2010, at 15:46:43
Vincent I just wanted to follow up on a couple things.
Eleuthero. That is the name of Siberian Ginseng. It is claimed to rebalance bodily systems and to strengthen the body against stress. If cortisol is too high, it will lower. If cortisol is too low, it will raise it. It does a bunch of stuff, but very mildly and over a long period of time. Benefits may not be noticeale for 3 to 6 months. It is important to keep taking it every day just as you would with your vitamins or minerals. It is one of the premier plants of the earth. There are literally hundreds of scientific studies on it. The claims of what it does are mostly true.
But again, very very low doses to start with. I am sensitive and had to start with 25mg. My only side effect at that dose was agitation. I skipped a day, took another, skipped a couple days, took another, and after a four weeks was able to 50mg every day with no problem. And it keeps going like that on the climb upward in dose. It was at about a month I started to notice hints of better energy, better mood, more relaxed and comfortable, and such.
I am off the medication topic here for a moment, looking at the alternative methods, because in this case it is strongly warranted. Meds alone are not going to fix you, and in fact as you have already seen can make things a lot worse. When this happens, we have to say, "ok, the rules that everyone else plays by do not apply to me, my game is different than theirs." This situation needs a more comprehensive full package approach versus any single pill.
My doctor let me borrow one of his books on healing cortisol problems with just food. The typical pattern is to feel worse for a few weeks or even a couple months, improvements beginning at about 3 months, better at 6 months, and completely healed at 2 years. The diet basically goes like this: Mostly fresh raw veggies; some very slightly cooked veggies; fruits, but avoid the very sugary ones, all the berries are your best fruits, granny smith apple is the only apple choice, no bananas; avoid starchy veggies such as potatoes and carrots and most root veggies; avoid all forms of sugar...sugar, sucrulose, fructose, corn syrup, etc; avoid all artificial sugars except Stevia, stevia is good and actually has some healing power of its own; very little or no caffeine; lots of water, more than you think; herbal teas are good; heavy on proteins from meats, nuts, seeds; generous amounts of healthy fats such as nuts, avocados, eggs; eat all the butter and cream you want, but cut back on milk; avoid wheat, barley, barley malt, and instead go for brown rice, millet, quinoa, and oatmeal; and take either yogurt or a good refrigerated brand of probiotic supplement everyday.
Avoiding wheat deserves mention of its own. With your gut history, avoiding gluten is probably a very wise thing to do. Gluten is found in wheat, barley, barley malt, and traces in oats. It would be safe to assume you are either gluten intolerant or gluten sensitive.
In a nutshell...heavy on proteins and fats, heavy on veggies and fruits, avoid sugars and caffeine as much as possible, avoid starches and most grains.
In the early weeks, food changes like these can be hard because you miss your old favorite foods that are not on the good list. But after a few months, your taste buds become trained to actually like your new foods better, and you no longer desire or like your old foods anymore.
Adrenal cortex extracts can be helpful. But with your sensitivity you would have to take extremely small doses to start with. Your system can easily be thrown for a loop by any little changes. Even a diet change would cause you to feel weird things happening. If you do get an adrenal extract, be sure it is the adrenal cortex extract and not the whole adrenal extract. This helps to do what the missing cortisol would have done. I mentioned licorice in the last post. Licorice slows down the breakdown of cortisol and so allows what little you have to last longer.
Tyrosine is a building block for the adrenals and thyroid. While most people talk about doses in the 500mg to 2000mg range, for you it would realistically be 25mg. Even that little amount would make a positive difference.
With anything...anything...meds, herbs, food changes...do it with extremely tiny doses and in small steps.
When it comes to meds, you are in a different game than most people, and the rules for you are different. For example, someone else may start with 5mg lexapro and have a target of 20mg, even before they have any clue of what will happen.
In your case, there is no preconceived target. You do not have a target dose, and you do not even have a plan to increase your dose. You wait and see what happens at the lowest dose you can tolerate before making any other moves. Your response guides your journey, not a preconceived blind plan. Your ending dose may very well be your starting dose. And your starting dose may be as low as 1/10th of 1mg, or 1mg, or whatever...some amount that would seem ridiculously low to someone else. Can such a tiny insignificant amount actually work? For someone else, maybe, maybe not. For you, yes. You are sensitive not only to the side effects, but also to the therapeutics. The entire game you are in is vastly different than what your doctors are trained in, so to play their game is an almost guaranteed losing game. Only a few doctors have a keen talent at treating people like you.
Most of this information I got from the year I spent seeing a most excellent medical doctor not far from Canada actually. I learned a lot from him. Almost every single one of his patients was like you and me. He didn't have any ordinary patients. All of his were the ones failed by multiple other doctors. So what I have shared with you in my posts is a collection of realworld wisdom seen in actual practice with very difficult patients and I hope you will find some of it helpful.
No matter what you do, it is going to be slow going. So don't expect fast changes. Keep your eye on 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, as your targets. Don't think in terms of days or weeks. And I think you are going to be fine.
poster:bleauberry
thread:938689
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20091202/msgs/938689.html