Wow! If that ain’t the most Ray Peat title ever! Beat that old man!
Okay, I don’t expect this post to really appeal to a broad audience. I mean, that’s the most uncatchy title of all-time. Well, other than the fact that I listed enough health problems that virtually everyone will have had some problem with one of those at some point. Maybe that will lure in a few readers.
This post is important though, as there are some very interesting connections between all of these conditions and metabolism/thyroid. Understand some of those connections and you will understand the human body better than most. Be warned that this post will probably jump around a lot and seem a little schizophrenic, but bear with me. I didn’t want to separate it into 5 different posts for the sake of redundancy. Hopefully I can tie this all together at the end and stick the dismount.
As you may or may not know, I have been spending a lot more time talking to people over phone and Skype. This has been incredibly rewarding, fun, and interesting. Enough to where I haven’t done a post in 9 days! How often does that happen!
And there have been many connections of late to the above-listed conditions. For starters, I have worked with a little boy who suffers from very low platelet counts and frequent nosebleeds. Another is a 20-something female that has low T3 and iron-deficiency anemia, recently had the heaviest period of her life, and just broke out with bruises all over her body. And of course, the bleeding gums and bruising issue, which is intimately tied to these other problems, is something that has surfaced at this blog before (but the pieces of that puzzle didn’t stack up at all ? and I have really reconsidered some things since writing the Bruising Easily post ? in fact, increasing vitamin C intake may be the worst thing you can do if you are anemic ? which is probably why eating a bunch of vitamin C-rich fruit and juice can cause or worsen bleeding gums and related conditions? we may discuss this in the next post).
Here is a brief description at what is most likely the core condition for both of these cases (ITP), from NCBI (National Center for Boneheaded Information)?
Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura is a bleeding disorder?in which the immune system destroys platelets, which are necessary for normal blood clotting. Persons with the disease have too few platelets in the blood.
ITP is sometimes called immune thrombocytopenic purpura.
Causes, incidence, and risk factors
ITP occurs when certain immune system cells produce antibodies against platelets. Platelets help your blood clot by clumping together to plug small holes in damaged blood vessels.
The antibodies attach to the platelets. The spleen destroys the platelets that carry the antibodies.
In children, the disease sometimes follows a viral infection. In adults, it is more often a chronic (long-term) disease and can occur after a viral infection, with use of certain drugs, during pregnancy, or as part of an immune disorder.
ITP affects women more frequently than men, and is more common in children than adults. The disease affects boys and girls equally.
Symptoms
- Abnormally heavy menstruation
- Bleeding into the skin causes a characteristic skin rash that looks like pinpoint red spots (petechial rash)
- Easy bruising
- Nosebleed or bleeding in the mouth
Treatment
In children, the disease usually goes away without treatment. Some children, however, may need treatment.
Adults are usually started on an anti-inflammatory steroid medicine called prednisone. In some cases, surgery to remove the spleen (splenectomy) is recommended. This will increase the platelet count in about half of all patients. However, other drug treatments are usually recommended instead.
The young kid should be an easy fix. I got to actually see this kid over Skype, and he could wear a Cheerio as a necklace. He is underweight, pale, depleted, and anemic-looking. He has a severe low platelet issue and suffers from frequent nosebleeds. And he has been RBTI tested for several months with consistently low refractometer readings (frequent urination could have been stuck in the title here as well), and overly-alkaline urine (constipation-proneness). He is, of course, an enigma to the medical doctors who don’t really know what to do with him.
But all I see is underweight and hypometabolic. His root problem becomes even more obvious when I start mentioning things like ?macaroni and cheese? and mom proudly boasts that her kids didn’t even know what that was until they were like 5 years old ? because they had been eating a ?healthy diet? since birth.
Mom’s intentions were fantastic. Commendable. Raising kids on made-from-scratch homemade food is pretty awesome. That’s love. But kids don’t always do well on all that health food stuff. This kid just didn’t like food and didn’t like eating. Of course, his favorite foods ? like ice cream and things, were really limited. I told mom to supply his favorite foods in abundance ? that the importance of getting him a large amount of easily-absorbable and enjoyable calories trumped absolutely all other concerns about diet. She was like, ?Ice cream ? he’s gonna love you!
A whole entire week later, this is the update from mom?
?I’ve been feeding [him] as much as we can get into him even bribing him with payment if he eats everything I send him for lunch and snack at school. The 1 day he didn’t want to eat and we couldn’t make him, he had a nose bleed that night, so he knows what he has to do. He’s been having ice cream for breakfast, lunch and supper. I send ice cream to school in a thermos frozen overnight. He loves it! I’m kind of not sure when not to give him water, this morning his sugar was at 5.5 ( 2nd pee of morning) without food, and then he had cantaloupe and ice cream for breakfast, and I gave him 1 oz of water b/c his sugar was high and 1 hour later his sugar level was 1.2. I’ve given him some candy now to bring it up. I send him about 16oz of liquid to school 1:1 orange juice and water, yesterday I gave him a bit more water than juice b/c his sugar levels when he got home had been up in the 5’s. So I’m not sure if that’s where I caused a problem or what. I’ve been going into the school and checking him about 11:20 ish during the week and he was always between 2 and 3.5. But I think my sugar drops when I eat too. [He] has gained some weight over the past week at least a couple of pounds, and his energy is wayyyyyyyyyyy better. More than I’ve ever really seen him with, he is even pushing his limits more the little buggar. Any ideas on this water drinking would help, so I don’t get him too low or too high.
Cheers to ice cream!
Anyway, I think he’s rapidly moving in the right direction. Say what you want about ice cream John Robbins (who, incidentally, could also wear a Cheerio as a necklace), but it is the closest approximation to human breast milk of any commercially available food. Ice cream is a miracle food in the right context. It can also make you a ?fatass,? using one of Chief’s terms, in the wrong context (I don’t see myself telling a mom with an obese and diabetic kid who had never had a homecooked meal to eat the same way as this lil? fella ? but fat or skinny, dieting can certainly take you to this state, no matter what your current weight). By the way I told mom to cut out the bribes of course! That is a surefire way to de-motivate him to eat. Pointing out the nosebleed connection to his lack of eating, however, is very motivating.
Will his platelet levels come up?? I think this case study about a woman who received standard medical treatment (which involved barbaric things like spleen removal and other dumb, dangerous, and unnecessary shit that only the medical industry could dream up) followed by treatment for her hypothyroid condition for her Thrombocytopenia shows the metabolic connection pretty clearly?
The case of a 52 year old woman with chronic severe refractory thrombocytopenia is presented. Over a three year period, her platelet count was persistently less than 20 ? 109/litre (normal range, 150?400). She required repeated hospital admission for management of bleeding and received multiple blood transfusions. She was given repeated courses of steroids, immunosuppression, immunoglobulin, and splenectomy, without success, in an attempt to stop the chronic blood loss. Eventually, she was found to be profoundly hypothyroid. On correction of her thyroid deficiency the platelet count returned to the normal range and all bleeding stopped. The platelet count remains in the normal range three years later.
I love the line, ?Eventually, she was found to be profoundly hypothyroid.? I wonder how many times a nurse routinely checked her body temperature to make sure she didn’t have a fever, she busted out readings like 97F and below, and no one paid attention?? Sofa King We Tar Ted. A low metabolic condition should ALWAYS be the very first thing checked whenever any health problem arises ? physical, mental, emotional, or otherwise. And thyroid hormone panels should only be a SMALL part of determining whether or not a low metabolic condition exists ? as circulating hormone levels are only part of the equation (body temperature is only part of the story as well ? as adrenal hormones can raise body temperature too while the thyroid goes on permanent vacation). ?But I digress.
The other case?? The young woman with anemia, a recent super heavy period, sudden appearance of bruises?? Obviously there is a close connection here (BTW ? she has a high body temperature and low thyroid hormone levels, a perfect case in point of what I mentioned above).
First note that every single man in Ancel Keys’s starvation study developed anemia as they lost weight. As you lose weight, metabolism slows down. As metabolism slows down, you form fewer and fewer red blood cells (and platelets, and leukocytes, etc.) ? the result being ‘too little blood,? basically what the word ?anemia? means.
Next consider the changes that fitness superhero John Berardi observed as he dropped from a potentially healthy 10% body fat level (although he was already flirting with low platelet counts, anemia, and leukopenia from the start ? probably from being a calorie-conscious, health food nibbling, exercise fanatic for many years) down to an extremely unhealthy 4% body fat level, as reported in his eBook on Intermittent Fasting?
As you can see in the table above, my total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, and triglycerides all increased. While some might suggest this is a result of the high meat and high fat/low carb intake ? and that this increase is a problem ? many well informed physicians and physiologists would suggest otherwise. Well-respected naturopathic physician, Dr. Bryan Walsh, suggests that increased cholesterol levels ? within certain limits ? can actually be an indicator of better health; especially when the cholesterol/HDL ratios are lowered and the triglyceride/HDL ratios decrease, as they both did during my experiments. In his words: ?When it comes to blood lipids, I’d much rather have those after results than the before results.
Moving in the opposite direction of my cholesterol levels, significant decreases in my haemoglobin, red blood cell, white blood cell, and platelet counts were observed. While this may indicate a nutrient deficiency (not good), it also could indicate a decrease in bone marrow cell production (due to the negative energy balance and the intermittent fasting) or even an increase in the efficiency of these cell lines (which could actually be a good thing).
Again, after talking with Dr. Walsh, we concluded that my chronic negative energy balance probably led to the decrease in cell production at the bone level. This probably contributed to some of the fatigue I experienced during my experiments. I’d be interested in measuring these values again after a few months of weight stability, a bit higher training volume, and a few more calories. Perhaps these will come back to my pre-testing values.
Both thyroid hormones and testosterone are sensitive to energy balance. In other words, when energy balance is negative, these tend to drop. Therefore, I expected this small decrease in hormone levels. However, I’m not worried about the reductions since they’re very small.
In studies with more extreme energy deficits, testosterone and thyroid hormone levels drop to well below the reference range values. Since mine saw only small decreases, I didn’t suffer any testosterone or thyroid related problems, and I ended up preserving most of my muscle mass and strength while getting extremely lean. I’d say these drops aren’t anything to worry about.
To the contrary, according to Dr Walsh, with intermittent fasting, these reduced values could mean that I was becoming more efficient at using these hormones, reducing my requirement for their production. While this is pure speculation, there may be some merit to the idea. In fact, if intermittent fasting does contribute to increased lifespan/longevity, this potential increase in physiological efficiency may contribute to the effect.
Before continuing, I can’t resist commenting on the above. Oh yeah dudical dudes! It is totally like a good thing when you see a rise in LDL and simultaneous drop in testosterone. These are hallmarks of aging in men, but ?could mean? increased longevity in a parallel universe or something. And a drop in platelets, WBC, and RBC all below the reference ranges for these values?? Health-o-rama to yo mama! I know what you should do! Increase training volume and see what happens! When in doubt, go workout! And then post pictures of your neato?abs?while brushing off the most obvious signs of health destruction to ever show up in a blood test as potentially being a good thing!
Hey boys, why don’t you get together and pursue work in a field that your intellect is more suited for. I hear Wrigley field is running low on peanut vendors. The start of the 2012 season is just around the corner! Job openings are posted HERE.
Walsh is correct that a rise in cholesterol can be a good thing ? when there is a simultaneous rise in testosterone, RBC, WBC, hemoglobin, and platelets!
Alright take it easy. These guys are actually both pretty smart. We all make mistakes, me more than most in the health/nutrition world, and they are thinking about things intelligently. Dr. Bryan Walsh actually seems to be light years ahead of most health practitioners. Berardi is certainly a step up from Bob and Jillian, even acknowledges that his health decline stemmed from being in a calorie deficit in the passage above,?and his free eBook on intermittent fasting shows many signs of intelligent thought.
Okay, so case #2 is much more complex and even more interesting. We will stop here and continue this in a later post, as it ties in exercise, autoimmune tendencies, gluten, vitamin C’s interaction with iron (fascinating), repeated crashes to 0.0 on a refractometer on a daily basis, and so much more. Well, a little bit more at least.
As a final note to those who are finding this site for the first time and thinking that your platelet/bleeding/bruising/ITP/anemia problem can’t stem from the same problem as an underweight kid, and you’re thinking ?Hey I ate lots of ice cream on my way to developing this condition,? it can, and probably does, stem from a similar root problem. I would be more than happy to try to help you solve your own health mystery ? hopefully before you lose your spleen or completely obliterate your entire system with corticosteroid abuse.
Ooo, quick, get part 2 out. This is fascinating as I suffered an average of 5 nosebleeds a day from the ages of 8 to 21. And frequent urination – I’m there from childhood onward. And immunity – what immunity! Excellent Matt, thanks.
I had nosebleeds very often as a kid. This is also when I had the most health problems. The health problems and nosebleeds all went away together at the same time. What did it? Hitting puberty. The increase in anabolic hormones completely overhauled my metabolism. Things are good now. I got a live blood analysis done for the first time last year, and the guy doing it made sounds like he was looking at pictures of Vida Guerra covered in baby oil. I guess that’s good.
As a kid, I always had nose bleeds. I remember the sheer terror when I was 9 or so and going to the doctor about it, only to watch him light what appeared to be a 6 inch giant match and stick it up my nose to cauterize it. I don’t remember it hurting, but the combination of giant match + fire = panic.
What the heck?!
Matt, do you have any thoughts on the mother’s comment “But I think my sugar drops when I eat too.”?
I had skipped breakfast this morning (but was still consuming distilled water) and was surprised to see my brix super high (9.2). Would this be cortisol freeing high amounts of glycogen? After getting ravenous and scarfing around 11am my brix dropped to 7.8. This would seem to validation that breakfast could be important to those with jacked up brixs, no?
Hi Frank, Hopefully Matt will answer. Ive been doing this RBTI stuff for a couple of months now and I have noticed that when I eat, a lot of times, my sugar initially falls but then shoots back up once my body has digested some of the food. I believe, in discussing it with Matt, it is because the system initially releases a certain amount of insulin which pulls sugar out of the blood before the food we just ate refloods the blood with more sugar.
Of course I could be totally wrong…
-Drew
sounds about right
I was in the hospital for five days the other week. I wasn’t acutely ill, but due to health
insurance crap, I could only get the tests done as an inpatient. The place was like an oven and I was overheated the whole time. However, since I am still hypo and still cannot a
prescription for T3 my temps are still woeful. Diet has never budged my temps ever.
The nurses regularly took BP, pulse ox, temperature and pulse. You are so right about those forehead thermometers being useless too; I had my normal digital thermometer with me and the forehead temp always measured about .8F above it!
Anyway, one day the nurse took my temp and said “Ooh, you’re a bit hot, it’s 98.6” She then tried to brush it off and said “Oh well, that’s still in the normal range” as if to convince herself I wasn’t about to pass out with heat stroke.
Another nurse then took my temp in the morning and said “Perfect”. I asked what it was (thinking it was 98.6 or so, since she said “perfect”) and she said it was 96.9! Perfect?! I call that dreadful, woeful, worrying etc.
I guess the issue is that they are taught that the problems come about when people have fevers, since these present acute symptoms. So they never connect the dots to the low temps and chronic conditions.
They also told me that hospitals are kept so hot because old people feel the cold a lot. I
wonder what their temps are!!
Nice post! I’m very interested in the next and reading about how vitamin C interacts with iron (all I ever read was that it increases the amount of iron you take from food).
I second the interest dealing with vitamin C and iron. I’m hoping for real data here and not just conjectures!
I will link to a real study and everything showing how harmful vitamin C supplemenation was. Note – case #2 has been taking a shitload of vitamin C!
What about Linus Pauling =( I thought takin a lot of Vitamin C was good. He made so much sense…and why did you make me look up Vida Guerra with baby oil, now I’m all distracted I got things to do! (sleep)
I thought everybody knew that excess vit. C can cause bleeding, where have you people been, anyway?
Out to lunch. :)
I have both of these symptoms:
Abnormally heavy menstruation
Bleeding into the skin causes a characteristic skin rash that looks like pinpoint red spots (petechial rash)
They both started after my pregnancy in 2007.
Please write more about this, Matt.
OK that’s it — I’m officially going to start RRARFing. And I’m going to get back on the RBTI lemonade.
Also, where do I buy my refractometer? I meant to get one from you at the conference but for some reason I didn’t. Can I buy one on Amazon?
I would skip the lemonade. That causes a lot of problems. And it’s a pain in the ass. I will see you in 10 days, and I have several refractometers. Was planning on bringing them anyway because a couple of people wanted me to play with their urine while I was in L.A. Bummer it won’t be in Vegas – buffet nirvana. I think you should do RRARF Vegas buffet style. We’ll talk about it a bunch over organ meats at Animal :) Haha. That sounds awesome.
Is that your official stance with the lemonade now? I thought it was important for flushing out the liver and what not. But I will grant, the lemonade and the drinking schedule are the biggest pains in the ass with RBTI. I’m not doing the lemonade anymore. And I don’t need a drinking schedule or refractometer to tell me when my sugars get in the 1.5 range. I just know, and the refractometer usually verifies it.
I think the drinking with the RBTI thing is the most problematic and troublesome and weird. It’s great for high sugar people to be drinking lots of fluids like that. But for those on the other end of the spectrum, the drinking is a kiss of death. And for those somewhere in the middle – the drinking can really wash a person out and leave them feeling cold and depleted. I’ll talk about this soon. I’m thinking of doing an RBTI update post next week.
“But for those on the other end of the spectrum, the drinking is a kiss
of death.”
That is the truth!
Matt, I am happy for you and, those who are blessed by your efforts. :)
Something is up with the pH values too. I can be near perfect (RBTI) range, but feel terrible. I decided to take 1/2 tsp of baking soda. It was like a miracle! I felt wonderful! My brix came up to a six! That has never happened. :) However,(over 2 weeks) my body soon made adjustments and, the baking soda didn’t seem to help. So, I quit taking it.
Today, I was feeling so awful and, remembered the baking soda.
Bingo! Feeling so much better! :)
Have a clue what is up with that?
I think Brix and urine pH can move up together.
that’s me too Aaron, but still I would love to see a pee pee test though..lol
For some the regimented drinking makes it more idiot proof especially for those who are worse off and don’t even remember what normal feels like. Like this skinny kid I’m helping, I first started asking him if he was hungry and he always said I don’t know.
So, what should we drink instead of the lemonade, juice? I’m so worried about not drinking enough, especially with being pregnant. I cannot drink plain water without dropping my sugars. I’m really struggling with keeping my sugar up right now, I’m eating fruit and drinking juice into the evening to try and keep my sugars up so they don’t drop in the night and make me have to pee!
Oh, good. The lemonade is a pain in the ass.
OK I will bring cash for the refractometer.
Can’t wait to see you!
It’s interesting you mentioned Dr. Brian Walsh. 3 years ago I worked with him for a couple of months for adrenal fatigue. He is a nice guy but he didn’t help me. I had a GI function test which came back high for salmonella. He told me some things to take and he was going to order supplements that had them but it would be a week or so. I went out and found some other stuff with them and without the ones he said would be unhelpful and used them in the mean time. He politely said he didn’t want to work with me anymore since I was doing too much stuff on my own. What he was doing for the adrenal stuff wasn’t really helping.
I think he has some good ideas and some not so good ones. I also think he wants to be right. It’s the same treatment model as regular doctors. Do what I say to do and nothing more. It’s not like I was doing things he recommended not doing. He said it was important for me to start the GI treatment as soon as possible but he wasn’t prepared so I worked around it.
I remember him saying something about adrenal fatigue being common among people who have dieted. He never made the connection with starving. He recommended small and frequent protein based meals.
My situation improved when I ignored them all and ate the dangerous fruit. I was following a lesser version of 80/10/10 for a few weeks. The improvements in energy and sleep were noticeable but I didn’t want to continue eating only fruit and green vegetables only. But I never made the carbohydrate connection. It wasn’t until I found this site in March that I really began to improve, and get fat. I gained about 50 lbs since April. It was funny. I wore a suit for an event at the end of April. By the end of June, it barely fit. By Thanksgiving, forget it.
One thing I find interesting about this is that even though I’m a little above where I was 8 years ago when I first started the diet routine, I am not as disgusted with the way I look as I was then. And being a 38 year old man with more vroom vroom than at any time in the last 7 years is a nice boneus as well.
Excellent spelling of the word Boneus. Catching what you’re throwing there Diggler. Protein is the worst thing for a starving person to eat. It is inefficient from a metabolic standpoint (requires more energy to digest, so fewer net calories) and has a strong appetite-suppressing effect. Not to mention protein stimulates increased adrenal activity, especially in the absence of carbohydrates (glucagon is more of the adrenal side of the nervous system).
Do you think you could comment or post about the pulse in the pillow that you mentioned in RBTI? I’ve seen that mentioned in a few other places but I’ve not read why it occurs. That happens to me occasionally. I have not had high blood pressure any time that I have measured it but I haven’t measured it when this happens. Is it a symptom of something bad? What can be done to eliminate it?
This has been happening to me while rrarfing (as best as I can) Like I ate a whole pizza and got tired and layed down. Boof, boof, boof, boof and my did I feel really toasty when I woke up from my nap.
I think this is just from eating a lot. It usually passes after a few hours – although drinking extra water does help tremendously. When it’s really a problem is when you feel constant pressure on the chest and start to feel pain or weakness radiating down the left arm. Nice work on that whole pizza Mean Dean. Although I think I may have beaten you today. Went to a pizza buffet and ate about a whole pizza but also a big plate of spaghetti, 6 chicken wings, 2 breadsticks, and 2 ice cream cones :). $6.59. Winning! Solid 99.5F right now too.
They have cheap pizza buffets there too?! With wings, spaghetti, AND ICE CREAM too?! For $6.59?! Sweeet!
It sounded sweet enough to try it. In actuality it was a pretty scary joint. Enjoyed Golden Girls reruns on the big screen tv though. Ah, Sarasota.
Aww, really?! So we ain’t be goin’ there huh?
Wait. Scary how? At a place that has Golden Girls playin’ on the big screen, scary could mean any number of things! Haha. You mean the place is nasty kinda scary? Or the people are kinda scary? Or both? Or worse? lol
Kinda nasty. Like I’m surprised I didn’t get food poisoning. The place backs right up to the bowling alley though, so there’s a chance I’ll be going back!
Laughing over the bowling alley comment. Man, I can picture that place. Actually, one of the best slices of pizza I ever had was at a seedy bowling alley.
Bowling alley too?! Um yeah I’m there. All you can eat pizza, wings, pasghetti, and ice cream, AND… your left-handed stoner? What more could a girl ask for?
Uh yeah still workin’ on the name. But stoner is still sweeter than swoop. Haha :)
lmao too matt, I knew 6.95 was too good to be true
The pizza was triple cheese =\ I guess you could say I’ve been trying to eat chief style. One “bad ass” meal after work sometime. Albeit not your average sized tacos I had 27 tacos yesterday all with sour cream on them. 1 pitcher of beer and 2 jack and cokes. Probably could have had a lot more tacos without the liquid and I’m sure its probably not a good idea to have a bunch of beer with a meal but it was somewhat celebratory anywho. I’m also thinkin maybe tacos arent the best thing cuz they’re more meat than carbs =\ but nevertheless, shit loads of food. Today (an hour ago) I went to quaker steak buffet. 4 heeping plates, taters, chicken wings, nachos. I’m stuffed to the rafters (brian regan) hahahaha. Why is every single waitress their gorgeous omg, but I digress…lol It would be really helpful if someone would tell me how to keep my circulation good and keep my hands and feet warm throughout the morning when I’m not eating a lot and its 20 degrees outside and still gettin colder =) I chugged a bunch of pop a couple times out of desperation and I finally got my feet warm. I don’t think thats a very efficient method..But ya, sometimes I’ve felt like I was wearing too many socks and my circulation is cut off and no matter how much insulation I had on my shit would stay cold. Chugged the pop, boom, blood. Bought a big box of emergen-C at Sams Club couple days ago. Don’t you dare tell me I wasted my money!
Elevated ureas supposedly put a lot of pressure on the heart and make it beat much harder. Avoiding pork, shellfish, and big game fish like marlin and tuna as well as drinking distilled water are the primary ways to bring this down. It’s a pretty easy fix. My heart beats much softer and I have no pain in my chest after becoming aware of this with my RBTI adventures. I first started having chest pains while living in Hawaii. My favorite food at the time was local pork :)
I am planning on doing an RBTI update post next week. Probably Monday-ish.
It’s funny. I wouldn’t have thought it when starting RBTI, but there is a difference with the distilled water. I think it brings down the sugar numbers and “clears out the system” so to speak much faster.
Exactly. Distilled water is like water on steroids. It performs the same role as water, but is “stronger.”
As much as it sucks to do, the distilled water on a regular schedule was surprisingly effective for me.
My starting numbers: 6 Brix 42C
Then I got my distiller and started drinking only distilled and within a day or two my Conductivity came in line with my Brix. The ratio dropped from 1:7 to 1:5 (normal range according to Jacqueline is 1:4 – 1:5).
But even though I was drinking more water than usual and only distilled water, my numbers would not come down.
It was only when I was finally able to stick to a regular drinking schedule (which I could not do without help of alarms) that my numbers finally came down. It took about a week. I was colder than usual and found that I was 3.5B and 15C.
I don’t know where I got the motivation to follow through on such an unusual plan, but I’m a believer now (in the water drinking part of RBTI at least).
Except I don’t have to “believe” anything, I have proof. That’s the nice thing about having something to measure. The evidence is there. Some change happened. Whether it’s an improvement or not I guess is still up for debate, but that a change occurred is a fact.
I don’t want to have to drink on schedule forever, though, so I’m hoping that the closer I get to the healthy range the less strict I need to be about it.
@Stirch
Great to read that you are doing better.
The better your health is, the less rules you have to follow.
see also
http://www.rbti.info/Knowledge-base/the-gift-that-keeps-on-giving.html
I finally got to read this entire post uninterrupted. Fascinating.
“By the way I told mom to cut out the bribes of course! That is a surefire way to de-motivate him to eat. Pointing out the nosebleed connection to his lack of eating, however, is very motivating.”
Was thinking the exact same thing when I read that she helped him connect the nosebleed to not eating and let him decide it was best to eat. Nice. And yay for no more pay-per-food! :)
“A low metabolic condition should ALWAYS be the very first thing checked whenever any health problem arises ? physical, mental, emotional, or otherwise. And thyroid hormone panels should only be a SMALL part of determining whether or not a low metabolic condition exists ? as circulating hormone levels are only part of the equation (body temperature is only part of the story as well ? as adrenal hormones can raise body temperature too while the thyroid goes on permanent vacation).”
Absolutely agree. Yeah those are only the symptoms of the root problem. The root problem being metabolic – almost always. Heal that and the rest will balance itself out. Provided there are no underlying psychological issues at play. But oftentimes the metabolic malfunction is the root of that as wall and will disappear as the physiological stuff balances out.
Fascinating work Matt.
So glad that little boy’s mom found ya. I’m sure she’s very glad she did too. And I know that kind of work has to feel pretty great for you! :)
Takes me back to my Red Cross blood services dayz of working with rare and CMV negative blood donors for blood transfusions for just such cases. Which BTW, anyone who is a well-informed frequent blood donor, would know Vitamin C’s interaction with Iron. That is true. Interested in hearing more about it in case# 2.
Oh and this is true too. And it is why people who are under 116lbs cannot donate blood…
“As you lose weight, metabolism slows down. As metabolism slows down, you form fewer and fewer red blood cells (and platelets, and leukocytes, etc.) ? the result being ‘too little blood,? basically what the word ?anemia? means.”
WTF you are talking about me here. Insanely skinny kid, anemic till puberty and during first 2 pregnancies, ITP – treated with prednison, often bleeding noses, till this day, bruises all over for no good reason till now, bleeding gums my whole life. Add to that a weak back and joint pains. And since 4 years somewhat overweight, hey, what can i say, I love food :-)
Please come quickly with part 2 of this post, as I have been looking on how to fix this shit for years now, I am 44 and fed-up.
I won’t be talking specifically about how to fix it (as each case presents its own challenges) other than eating a lot of palatable food, resting, sleeping well, de-stressing, and keeping urine brix at 2 or above – all strategies geared towards raising metabolic rate and thus the formation of platelets, red blood cells, decreased autoimmunity, etc. Consuming less fruit, juice, and sweets and more starches, vegetables, meats has always controlled the bleeding of gums for me, Jenny the Nipper, and a couple others that I communicate with. It’s been something we’ve talked about here from time to time for 3-4 years now.
I wish i could talk to you in more detail about the whole thing. But being at the other side of the ocean is not helpful here. You ever come to Amsterdam ? Maybe come along with AnnMarie next time she comes to town ? I will certainly go for RRARF as that sounds like a good plan and take the whole family with me as one of my kids is following my skinny non-eating childhood path. There was icecream for breakfast this morning LOL. Started reading your stuff recently and so far its made a load of sense. Still a lot of reading to do.
I believe Matt does consultations over Skype for a good price. I do not know how easily you can get all of the equipment needed (refractometer, conductivity tester, etc), but I would imagine you could get it all shipped to you. I bet Amsterdam will really help with the eating lots of food bit. Mmmmmm the munchies…
There’s a lot that can be done without the full kit as well. The numbers are helpful, but to believe that one must KNOW their chemistry to be helped by diet and lifestyle intervention is silly. The kid helped in this post had been doing RBTI for months with no progress. His solution was much simpler and wouldn’t have required any testing, as are many situations. I reserve RBTI for when I’m really stumped!
You know I have been working on RRARF for weeks now and I am really having a hard time with it. I seems to have a serious resistance against eating more than twice a day. I am going for apple pie and other stuff that I really love, which I used to consider being an issue, but now seem to need to eat to actually eat. I also remember eating apple pie for breakfast for years when I moved out and lived on my own, it was for me the ideal breakfast, but then with a boyfriend commenting on how wrong that was I quit doing that and did not restart. I am planning on starting that again. What do I do about feeling sick when I eat more than twice a day? Keep at it and slowly work the amount of food up? I cannot even say its a physical or a mental thing.
And as for temperatures, as a kid I was in the 35C ranges, now I am in the high 35C ranges pre ovulation and in the low 36C ranges after ovulation and in the high 36C ranges during period. So that is something I am working on with eating more carbs as well.
I think a twice daily meal schedule can work. I have basically been eating a 2x per day meal schedule for months. Not sure if I prefer it or would recommend it to someone who is really struggling, but it can work. I had apple pie for breakfast today for the first time in about 3 months today. And lived to tell about it.
I just leaned to dodge the baseball bats in the fights during my teenage years. took care of the bleeding gums issue.
Interesting post. I have indeed noticed a link between fructose and bleeding gums. I also wantes to comment on the hilariously off prescription of small, frequen t protein based meals for adrenal fatique, since just such a regimen put me in the unhappy place of even knowing what that is. BTW I still have my permabruise. it, ir
And you notice that with not just refined sugar but fruit as well if I’m not mistaken. So do I. Fruit even seems to be worse sometimes, although I have managed to completely overcome this in the last couple of months. Not really sure how I did it exactly, but I can eat pastries and juice and fruit all day long without any issues. 6 months ago it wasn’t like this at all.
“Say what you want about ice cream John Robbins (who, incidentally, could also wear a Cheerio as a necklace), but it is the closest approximation to human breast milk of any commercially available food. Ice cream is a miracle food in the right context.”
^^ Are you serious??
Nuffins… No I’m not serious. John Robbins may have a very small neck but I don’t truly feel that he could fit it inside the center of a Cheerio! I may do a separate post on ice cream vs. breast milk because it is interesting and too involved to hang out forever in some obscure comment.
Haha. I was more commenting on your reference to the ice cream vs breastmilk issue, not the Cheerio/Robbins part.
Back when I first started reading about “health” stuff I almost always came across how dairy is terrible. I didnt drink milk for years (was lactose intolerant anyways) but still had cheese though. I remember specifically reading about how there is so much potassium that it actually leeches calcium from the body in order to neutralize it from the bloodstream. Wonderful world of conflicting convoluted corn cobs =D
So this rings true.
I have a skinny as a rail 8 yo daughter (born long and skinny, at 8lbs 12 oz, that’s bigger than most newborns) who has had regular nose bleeds and middle of the night waking. She would wet the bed as post potty training and is cold regularly. We have used homeopathy since she had an ear infection when she was 18 months. We don’t go to a conventional doctor. They usually don’t know about nutrition anyway. (Going from several times a week to once a few months when it was time to redose.)
It is only since coming across 180 for myself that I’ve noticed her issues come from the same thing.
She LOVES raw red peppers, intrestingly enough. (I touched on a couple of the red links and I think that food was mentioned there.
She has my husband’s build and he is wary of her being a skinny child. He wants more meat on her bones, as do I but I feel that it needs to be done intelligently, well, and steadily as opposed to haphazzard.
During the last half of my pregnancy, I ate according to Dr. Brewer’s diet, which honestly is very close to RRARF. Here’s the site: http://www.blueribbonbaby.org I was RRARFing before I knew it. Gained 60+ pounds. Lost it all plus with extended breastfeeding.
So why is she like this now if I was eating well during pregnancy? It it because I didn’t start the pregnancy that way? Or because of dieting on my part before pregnancy? Birth control? (Which I will NEVER do again; caused a liver tumor the size of a hand ball–scared the crap out of me.) It really doesn’t matter to get an answer, I think those statements above are links to why. Her genes play a part.
But what to do about it now? Matt, do you do family consultations or is it a one person per phone call thing?
Yes of course. When I had the chance to Skype with the little bleedin’ small fry we discussed several family members. Everybody was there.
I don’t know why your daughter has the problems that she has as far as being underweight and what not, but clear that up and she should see some improvements with many of her other issues. You can start by keeping her warmed up with more highly-digestible food with a low water content and avoidance of liquids that don’t have any sugar in them (water, tea, etc.).
Matt – You say to keep the brix at 2 or above, what’s the upper limit?
Hello Matt,
Quick question…what would your thoughts be on a 30 yo female with petechaie on arms, trunk, abdomen, and thighs with normal bloodwork (with the exception of slightly elevated LFTs)? TSH is 1.75, plts were normal at 200-something, and Hct was around 41. There were no signs of anemia. 2-2 1/2 years ago, waking temps were mid 97s before ovulation and mid to upper 98s after ovulation. Just started taking temps again (only a few times now in first week of cycle) and they are all very upper 96s with a couple low 97s. Have had weight gain and emotional stress (husband’s job in another state for a year) since my higher temps 2-2 1/2 years ago. Husband is back but I feel like I am at my worst in terms of weight and energy. No exercise during the past couple years. Spent a year and a half eating out every meal while husband’s job was in another state. Have been eating at home again with occasional eat out for past few weeks. Planning to do kettlebells and walking for exercise…hiking on weekends. Trying to include any details that could be important. I know you are super busy but I would greatly appreciate ANY insight you may have. I would like to feel great again…healthy with energy. Thank you!!
Well we would start by getting your temps up. That is huge. Eating really hard at breakfast and lunch, with a strong emphasis on carbohydrates, and making sure you are not having sugar crashes is the first thing I try to do for most people with an obvious low metabolism isssue. I would probably take it easy on the hiking on weekends unless you really just love it. I wouldn’t hike in a low metabolism state otherwise.
Let me know how it goes. I’m always happy to give you really specific stuff once I know what’s going on with you. But that often requires a long Q and A from me.
Once your temps are up, a hike will feel really good, especially if it is cool outside. I love to go hiking when I’m nice and warm. I just always carry my baton cause of the mountain lions of course.
Hey Matt,
My step mother is going through a smattering of testing right now, mostly for being anemic. She was complaining about lack of energy (she also is a nurse and does the 3rd shift and has been on that shift most of her professional career). She was tested about a year ago and they found that her kidneys were not functioning properly. Over the fall they had her going in for blood transfusions to help bring up her energy. Well doing so it didn’t help with her energy and worse when they took blood samples she was still low. Now they have her going through all these test to find out where everything is going. As far as I know to date they have not found where it is going. From what I understand they checked her for internal bleeding, ulcers, dysbiosis, and I think the next test is going to be checking the small intestine.
I know her work schedule does not help with overall health, as well as being overweight. What are things her doc’s or what she should be asking her doc’s to check out that might have been over looked (thyroid)?
Thyroid is a good place to start, but even if her thyroid is looking normal on blood tests that doesn’t mean her metabolism isn’t low. In her case I’m sure stress hormones are interfering with leptin, and she is somewhat leptin and insulin resistant. This always suppressed metabolism. There are always diet and lifestyle strategies that can be toyed around with that will probably make a lot more progress than these silly temporary strategies like blood transfusions that in no way address the root problem. Have her take her body temperature and contact me.
Hi Matt,
I recently found your site and it is really cool and interesting. This post has hit the nail for me. The main reason I have been reading your site and others is to try to figure out why I have pains in my heart and weakness and pain in my left arm. I have been lo carb on and off for a number of years. This pain started happening on and off since the summer, which is when I started eating bacon more often. Is there any other post or any info I could check out in relation to this? Any other advice? I have started eating much more of a variety of foods and have been taking a fair amount of Fukitol.
Drink 4 ounces of distilled water every half hour for 8 hours a day for one week. Avoid all pork, shellfish, and big game fish like shark, marlin, and tuna. Eat a light vegetarian dinner – putting your focus on eating a big, satisfying breakfast and lunch instead. That should do wonders. Many of us former low-carbers developed chest pains. It is very common.
I find eating moderate amounts of dairy and not going too big on it to be helpful too. When I did an all milk fast my chest pains got the worst and stayed bad for a long time after.
If you really want the whole kit n’ kaboodle on this stuff, read my RBTI Introductory Materials available in the store.
Thanks!
Matt,
Would you mind explaining the reasoning for the advice you have John G. I am not doubting, just curious and interested in your thoughts. Why vegetarian? Could he eat meat in other meals? Also, if you get a chance, I would greatly appreciate your thoughts on my post above – I know you are super busy so I appreciate your time!
I think the idea of the dinner of veges is to keep away meat and sweet foods before winding down in the evening and going to bed.
Meat is harder to digest than other foods and you don’t want your digestive system to be working overtime when your in bed and your body should be resting.
As for the sweet foods, a rise in blood sugar is not want you want in the late evening before bed.
He can eat all the meat he wants at lunch, just not at night, and never pork, shellfish, or the big game fish. These proteins digest really quickly and elevate the ureas, putting pressure on the heart – and when severe the heart beats so hard that it causes pain and weakness in the shoulder on the left side of the body.
Distilled water washes the ureas out. I know it sounds really simple, but it would blow your mind to see this in action!
Thx again Matt,
Just got your e-book on diet recovery – looking forward to reading it. My first inclination when the heart pain started was that I wasn’t being pure enough. Less carbs! More meat! Whoops.Wierd. Glad I found yer site. Feelin’ good.
OK…I’m trying to follow along here.
I’m *not* familiar with lo-carb/fad dieting type stuff, but I *am* familiar enough with the whole foods and alternative medical stuff. Currently reading the Mood Cure.
With the cases you are outlining here, are you saying that just addressing the fact that the body is not able to get enough energy out of the foods is the first line of defense? That just addressing the metabolic rate is the primary focus for anyone with a low metabolic rate?
I know the ideology from ‘whole foods’ type camps is to give the body ‘optimal nutrition’, which is a good goal, for sure. IF you can digest/afford/will eat the stuff. :)
Just wondering how you balance ‘rev it up with pizza and ice cream’ with the nutrition angle. That’s what I shoot for here. Doesn’t a person *need* those basic building blocks of minerals, vitamins, amino acids, etc. to really experience long term health/balance in the body?
I’m also noting that viruses are implicated in the low platelet scenarios, with kids being able to bounce back, usually, but adults having ‘chronic’ issues after that. Do you think metabolism and immune function may be intrinsically linked?
I’ve been reading about a genetic predisposition to not be an efficient ‘methylator’ of the B vitamins. In English, that means that some of us are not that great at turning the B vitamins from water soluble to fat soluble, so they are not able to be utilized by the nervous system/immune system. Experiencing a health crisis, like illness, getting vaccinated, etc. can further damage this process, and start a person in a downward spiral, where their body isn’t able to catch up with repairing the damage in then neuro-immune systems. Look up Kendall Stewart on YouTube if you’d like to know more. The one on the Neuro-Immune Stabilizer Topical Cream is where he talks about low methylation and what that means…it links up with lowered immune function and inflammation.
OK…off to have ice cream for breakfast. ;)
For starters, pizza and ice cream are very nutritious. I don’t see much of a problem there. If it were doughnuts and Mountain Dew we might have a problem.
Immune function and metabolism are intrinsically linked. Your body temperature being high is a great deterrent to infectious disease – just as a fever ramps up the intensity of the immune system to help it fight infection. Having a low body temperature almost insures that there will be a low grade infection at any given time. Viral, parasitic, or bacterial – or all of the above!!! A cool body is like Maui to these lil’ invaders.
As far as the methylation cycle and low metabolism, these two are linked as well. Read my post on Kilmer McCully… http://180degreehealth.com/2011/03/val-kilmer-mccully
Do you know of a reason why my 8 1/2 yr old son could have slightly high platelets (401 last time we checked) but low ferritin (10 at age 4, now up to 24 at age 8)? He’s also underweight (doesn’t look super-skinny if he’s wearing shorts/shirt because of his bone structure, but he doesn’t seem to have any fat at all on him, he needs to gain weight).
He had nosebleeds a lot last fall. He hasn’t had any in the past few months.
He doesn’t like eating much (this is partly because he has other fun things he would rather do) When he does eat enough, he has so much more energy and is in a better mood. He eats 3 meals a day and 2 snacks.
He is a very hard sleeper, and doesn’t look rested in the morning even though he sleeps long enough (low ferritin is connected with sleep apnea and restless legs syndrome, which he seems to have symptoms of),
We were told by a new naturopathic dr. last week that he needs to eat 3 times the protein that he’s currently eating, but not carbs. I’m not sure how he could gain weight by only increasing protein, especially at his age. She said he has low blood sugar.
This is what I don’t understand — I hope someone can please explain:
If the boy was so anemic, pale, weak, etc., how did ICE CREAM bring him back to life without depleting his mineral reserves, like magnesium, zinc, iron, etc, let alone supply him with sufficient b vitamins?
And how is it possible that vitamin c, or citrus fruits could cause bleeding gums when they historically were discovered to be the only things to stop scurvy?
Thanks in advance.
Calories primarily. That’s the primary factor in anemia and platelet formation.
Ice cream is very nutritious – high in minerals and vitamins and more nutritious overall than human breast milk.
As for fruits and bleeding gums, it’s a strange phenomenon that I don’t fully understand. Probably some unforeseeable interactions between foods, minerals, systems of the body, etc.
I wouldn’t have responded if i noticed ya beat me to it..lol dont like beatnig dead horses.
shouldn’t have took a break half way through my comment.. haa
i don’t know much about fructose malaborption, but i would look into that to try to connect the fruit/bleeding gums dots.
as for why ice-cream helps, i have an idea i’ve been toying with for my youngest son. he had an amazing appetite when he was still nursing. he ate so much it was confounding. after i weaned him he has grown more and more fussy about eating, eats very little sometimes, is very thin. he hates to drink water. i never could understand why he won’t drink much water. some days in the winter he’ll drink only a few ounces over a day, where is his thirst? does his body know that water isn’t what it needs? it doesn’t make sense to me?
when we went on gaps diet to heal from allergies/asthma (grain-free, sugar-free, starch-free), plus therapeutic probiotics + daily detox + fermented veggies. he ate TONS of meat and vegetables, especially spiced winter squash cooked with coconut oil. he ate things he’d been fussing about for years. it was nice to see his appetite return.
we’ve since put back grains, starches and dairy. guess what happened. low appetite, reluctance to eat, complaining of tummy aches, low energy, reluctance to play outside (too hot out there he’d claim).
my theory is that when kids don’t feel well they have a low appetite. food they usually tolerate is unpalatable. i get the same way when i’m sick. when i’m coming down with a cold all i want is tubs of mango sorbet and pizza. so food that is very palatable, like ice cream and pizza goes down because even though the kid doesn’t feel well, he still feels like eating the very palatable food.
so why did my son all the sudden after 4 years of getting thinner, fussier about food and in declining health (mostly related to digestive and allergies/asthama). because during GAPS diet his gut was healing. we got rid of the tummy troubles and all the sudden less palatable food became tolerated, even enjoyed again.
so my theory is that yes, the calories are a big healer because when compared to the constant lack of calories and calories are going to feed the body. but i don’t think it stops at calories. i think that for my son, the GI healing (which was a three pronged solution including 1) removing pathogen food like grains/starches, 2) increase of beneficial microflora- cultured food like kefir, yogurt, feremented veggies and probiotic supplements, and 3) detoxification via fresh squeezed juices, and detox baths )was CRITICAL to his improved appetite.
the dots that don’t connect for me right now is whether or not a strict removal of grains/starches/sugars (other than honey) is necessary to heal the gut, or if the cultured foods, detox combo can also be successful, even if it takes longer.
and i have another mystery to solve, since we put dairy, starches and grains back in his meals, my six year old developed fluid in his ears to the point of hearing loss, more dry cough and return of allergy attacks (it was also allergy season, so some of that was too be expected). we took dairy and gluten out of his diet, put a probiotic supplement under his tongue nightly (to restore proper flora to the ear, nose, throat) and within 10 days the fluid was gone from his ears and his hearing returned to normal. yay! but now, if he gets gluten in is diet he reacts by waking up with shiners under his eyes, something that had never happened before we did GAPS.
forgot to mention, i’ll be talking with cheeseslave re: the GI healing / grain/starch restriction in an upcoming podcast.
Hi kelly,
Lack of total over all calories getting to his body’s cells was the issue in question for ice cream eating. He was not getting enough of anything and metabolically suffered as a consequence. Ice cream is simply a a food with high calorie density. It’s easy to maintain balance because it does not “flush” a person out like what a large salad would do because it has a high water content with very little to supply direct energy the body needs. As far as vitamins and minerals these can go out of balance by too much of one not enough of another or in cases where there is low cellular energy output overall this can throw all sorts of things out of whack.
Vitamins are not a “magic pill” to be taken in a more is better fashion.
As an example when Jauques Cartier’s entire crew had scurvy so my peeps gave them cedar tea but cedar tea is not something we drink for breakfast like Orange juice just because it helps scurvy. You wait for the signs of ill health before taking it, not before. frankly the taste of cedar tea is only one step above asscrack but it gets the job done with scurvy because it contains alot of vitamin c and some other properties beyond our discussion. As with all things I have been told by many medicine people the difference between poison and medicine is either dosage or lack of need to begin with which comes back to dosage when you take something that is not lacking in the first place.
Thanks Matt and Cheifrok for your replies. I’m not sure I still get it exactly, but it does make sense that salad — even if it had a lot of vitamin c from say, tomatoes — is not going to supply the overall dense caloric nutrition that ice cream would.
Anyway, thanks.
Geez, your advice seems to be very close to medical advice (and may have stepped far over the line) and I don’t see that you are a doctor of any sort. You seem to be making a diagnosis of an underlying health condition after seeing someone over Skype. I’d advise that you better start reining in your pronouncements unless you have a medical degree and unless you personally examine a “patient”.
You’re right I know. And it’s good advice. It’s frustrating to have to keep my mouth shut when I know what’s wrong with a person, how to fix it, and there is no other source of information on the planet that can help them. Hopefully I can continue to talk to people one-on-one, and not be forced to learn useless information and perform standardized, ineffective, and dangerous medical procedures in order to work with people with health problems.
I’ve been RRARFing for the past month and a few days. My temps have gone up from midday 96.4 to 98 during the day. Today I broke 98. :oO I can feel the difference, *especially* in my fingers and toes. My husband notices a difference in my body temperature. I’ll lay a hand on him and he’ll comment on how warm I feel!
I notice when I eat cereal with milk I get cold, start to shiver. I’ve cut down my liquid intake significantly. I was trained to drink and drink and drink water in Brain Gym classes, and that’s hard to break. (Not after realizing the connection between too much and being cold. I hate being cold.) Today I had a big meal at lunch, nice prime rib with sweet potato and green beans, little bit of water, then I went promptly to sleep for 3 hours. I was HOT and had my highest temp reading yet at 98.1. It is amazing.
Now how do I back down and start losing weight? LOL… I purchased a couple of your books already, I just need to find the one that has the info on working it down. I’m thinking it’s in Metabolism.
Er, do I still get to keep eating like a fiend? :o)
Hi,
I read your ebook diet recovery in a number of days only just two weeks ago I had been feeling not great for some time and decided to try out your techniques, I also had blood tests done the day before I started. I found it so interesting and all of teh points you made fascinating, I am studying personal training and nutrition at the moment and found it’s information invaluable. I really felt like my metabolism was seriously slowed after years of over training and poor diet, so I began to take Basal rate temps each morning, which has steadily risen to approx 97.6 / 97.8 average, Anyways, I began to follow the programme not as strictly, a lot more fruit and was feeling totally great, and then today my bloods came back as being hyperthroid borderline and anaemic too; these tests were done only three days into refeed, so Im wondering could that have spiked it?… Im about to purhase the eblook you have on thyroid and hopefully equip myself with more knowledge on teh subject, Id love to hear any feedback you have on this though?… Thank you for some really interesting reading and some great new ideas and perspectives on the health and nutrition realm! :)
3 days changes in blood work is pretty irrelevant. Blood work in general isn’t always that revealing unless something is extremely off.
Well my bloods showed I have an over active thyroid and also anaemia, I am very confused as my body temperature is never above 97.8 ever first thing and I would never have thought I was over active I am waiting to see an endocrinologist but I am wondering over what course of action nutrition wise you’d recommend. I have been following you’r programme and continue to as I feel strong and healthy and so much better after years of awful nutrition and high stress, after only two weeks on your plans I feel terrific so I’m very confused as to where to go from here, slightly anxious also… I plan on continuing you’r plans and trying to de stress.
Just found your site so interesting. I have not connected all the dots yet but I love the title of the post. I have always had very very heavy periods. I have often said that being born a girl was my first health complication (sad). I had multiple nose bleeds a day a as a child. I am dealing with auto immune stuff (Ulcerative Colitis), low thyroid function, and in the last 3 years I have had bouts with nose bleeds that bled for hours before I could get control. I am anemic and have very low iron stores I am going in for an iron infusion today. Every time I have tried to taper off the pednisone for the last 6 months I have ended up back in the hospital (today however I am down to 15mg!) I have also started another nasty immune suppressant drug. In my desperation I have done 4 DIY fecal transplants and I swear it is helping but we’ll see. I can’t wait to read more of your site. I research all the time and it amazes me how much I find everyday.
I am wondering if you can help me. I am new to your site. I have a 3yo son who weighs only 25 lbs, and we have had trouble getting him to gain weight since birth. Of all our children (we have 8) he is also the only one who has whining and hyperactivity issues. He walked at 19 months and was very slow to talk, and even now, though he has a high vocabulary and understanding, has speech problems..again a first in our family. He is intelligent in every other way. He was exclusively breastfed, until we started solids according to the Weston Price guidelines, and continued to breastfeed until two years old. He is extremely gluten intolerant (diarrhea and rashes) and also lactose intolerant, which we discovered while breastfeeding, and I omitted dairy from my diet. We are a natural foods family, and have tried for him sprouted, fermented grains, etc, with no success whatsoever, not even soaked oatmeal. (In fact, that especially does him in.) He can’t tolerate even raw or fermented milk products, but seems to do okay on goat’s milk products of any kind. Doctors have tested his thyroid and done other blood tests, including ones for celiac, but all have come back “normal”. Hemoglobin was 11. He is always hungry but is extremely finicky–won’t eat vegetables and hates meat, only really wanting dairy and grains, which he can’t tolerate–and does love lots of fruit. He also will not drink much water. How do I get him to gain?
I know you say he has diarrhea with grains and dairy. But does he gain weight when eating those to appetite? It sounds like that’s the only thing he really wants. I would definitely trust his instincts on the meat, lack of water, high sugar cravings. I ask because gaining weight is probably the top priority here, and some rashes and poor digestion is trumped by weight gain.
Otherwise I would just put him on tons of goat’s milk ice cream.
Thanks for the reply. No, it doesn’t seem that he gains weight from eating those taboo things; before we took him completely off them he was still struggling to gain. From some of the research I did on gut disorders, I gathered that because he couldn’t digest them properly, he wasn’t absorbing the nutrients out of them, so they were actually worthless. Our supply of goat’s milk has disappeared, so I will have to look harder. I’m sure he’d love to eat ice cream all day. Right now all he wants to eat is natural peanut butter on rice bread and eggs. I can’t see that being very good for him all the time…and who knows if he is allergic to that too! As for water, his skin is dry and lips are cracked, so I know he needs more. Maybe I’ll just have to keep pushing the goat’s milk…now to find some again!
Allergic or not, I just want to see him gaining weight properly. The production of hormones that accompany healthy growth have a way of making many of those problems diminish or disappear.
You actually posted a job opening for the cubs…….awesome.
jsears
Lisa Have you researched Spirulina. Spirulina has been used as an infant formula for infants allergic to soybean and dairy. Spirulina is an easily digested protein. Spirulina is considered nutritous. Spirulina is one of the best food source Gamma Linoleic (GLA). This could be useful if your son has a problem converting Omega 6 Fats into GLA. My concern about Spirulina is the B-12 analouges it contains. B-12 analouges may compete with B-12 for entry into cells. There is an experiment where Spirulina cured Anemia in 30 days.
You might want too look at the amino acid Glutamine. Glutamine is good for the small Intestine, one pathway of detoxification, Brain fuel, and Immunity.
I am so glad to find this website, I am wondering if you can help me! As a kid, I was almost never sick (only tonsillitis). I rarely had a cold or a fever. At 10 I occasionally started getting migraine headaches accompanied by an aura and vomiting. At 10 I also started having allergic reactions to raw fruits and vegetables (previously only pollen). I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis at 12. I was sick until I was 17 and at 17 i ended up battling getting off steroids. I ultimately had to go through a flare up that I luckily got through in time to go to college (way underweight). After college I got a cat and wound up getting a whole host of worse allergies and “asthma.” with and sadly even after I gave my cat away, I often felt exhausted, had headaches and very frequent swollen glands. I can say that I never felt good. I never got typically sick but I started to notice that I never had a fever, in fact, I ran typically 97.9 to 98.2ish. I also was working in NYC downtown across the street from the world trade center on September 11th and I continued to work there for 5 years afterwards. After experiencing chronic migraines for years I found a doctor who helped me a bit (got me off of of over the counter meds) and In 2005 I left my job in hopes of some peace and went to grad school(not so peaceful). I had my first daughter in 2007 via c-section. It seemed I never healed and the scar was always irritated and inflamed until I had my 2nd daughter and the incision healed perfectly. Since then I have had a partial tonsillectomy and removal of a pilonidal cyst On another note, all my life I have had issues with needing to eat often. I now typically eat every few hours otherwise I do not feel well at all. I seem to have some low blood sugar or something…My newest issue is that 6 months ago, after a routine blood test my platelets were on the low range of normal (139-142 on 2 blood tests). I went to a hematologist who tested me on 2 subsequent visits which yielded 1 normal reading and then one slightly low in the low range of “normal.” She said she would not diagnose without a platelet count below 100,000 but that she thought this might be “ITP lurking around.” In the past few years I have had very heavy long periods and I don’t know if there is a correlation (could be from having kids). I do think that there are some underlying causes here and doctors are not willing to consider anything but their route way of doing things. After reading your site, I am hoping you might have some ideas or answers. Also to note, my mom has hashimoto’s disease, temporal arteritis (she just got off steroids a few months ago) and a blood clot in her leg and lug. She is 65 and in good spirits. I hope to hear a response soon…
I think raising your metabolic rate/body temperature will bring about a lot of positive changes, certainly to ITP. Try it and see.
Thanks Matt, how do I do that? Is that one of your books? I am happy to read…
The book Diet Recovery is a good place to start.
will check it out. I’m in the beginning stages of discovering this so will take me a while to educate myself. thanks again!
looked at some info on your book, i will for sure purchase it, but I do want to add that i do not limit myself to any diet. I pretty much eat what I am in the mood for but I keep the portions in mind. I also sleep about 7 to 8 hours and night and I have a lot of energy–i have all the other symptoms of low body temp, allergies, headaches, and auto immune stuff…I will let you know how I do with the book! I am sure you will be waiting at the edge of your seat :)
My grandson had really high salt levels in his urine so was told to drink 2.8 oz. of distilled water for 15 hours for 7 days. At 5 days he started having nosebleeds. Is this related or of concern?
I am just now finding this site, so I have a lot more reading to better understand your true purpose and what information is available. That being said, I’m eager to find some answers for the questions about my own health issues, and I’m posting in hopes you may have some advice for me.
I am taking oral contraceptives and have been for past 2 years. I’ve switched to.different types every 3 months due to the fact I had breakthrough bleeding issues with each. This month, my breakthrough bleed started heavy and it became so heavy I opted to go to the ER to make sure it wasn’t dangerously heavy. Meanwhile, I have had an eye twitch for past few months that comes and goes, which I recently saw an eye doctor about and he said it might be thyroid.
I decided to take matters into my own hands and go and see an endocrinologist. Hypothyroidism runs in my family, my mom and sister both have it. So I usually have it checked as part of routine blood work at annual exams. The doc said my TSH level was 1.6, which is in the normal range, but it is an increase from 2 years ago when my TSH was 0.6. She’s starting me on a very low dose of a thyoid med used to treat hypothyroidism, and I’m due to see her in 3 months to evaluate the effectiveness of the med.
I should mention some other issues I’ve been having, too:
– tingling and numbness in feet and toes
– cramping inbetween toes and arch of feet, sometimes legs too
– hair seems to be thinning and I seem to have a bit of a receeding hairline
– tonight I had bleeding gum after brushing only
– slight cramping and abdominal bloating
Any thoughts for me??
Thank you for this post. I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry when I read this:
“she busted out readings like 97F and below, and no one paid attention? Sofa King We Tar Ted”
I’m 45 and the only times in my life I’ve had a temp over 98F when I was very ill with a fever and for the first time healthy yesterday.:) Number of medical professionals who have ever paid attention to my low temp in 45 years? ZERO.
The kid you’re helping could have been me 40 years ago. I commend you for helping him out. When I was six I looked like a three year old. Too much cheerios and you can wear a cheerio as a necklace.
Sorry John Robbins, but I’m going to go have some ice cream now.
I have nosebleeds, low red blood cell count, low hemoglobin and hematocrit, easy bruising, joint pain, low temps, and dropping thyroid levels. However, TSH and Free T4 are BOTH low. TSH is 0.910 and Free T4 at 0.79. They have been dropping steadily over the last year and a half. I’ve finally convinced doctor to do full thyroid panel with antibodies plus cortisol testing next week, but I wondered what your take on it would be?