Monday, January 21, 2013

just a quick post....

Took my first small trial dose of DLphenylalanine this morning, and my hands are shaking already!  WHAT IS IT WITH THIS BODY OF MINE???  I do have better energy than "normal" and i don't have the uncomfortably wired feeling i got with tyrosine, but it doesn't look like this "family" of amino acid supplements is right for me. :-(

DAMN.

15 comments:

  1. Tess-do u have the shaking often? I ask because I am also hypothyroid and suffer from weakness and shakiness on a regular basis. Sometimes when I stand I feel as though I am going to fall. If I keep moving I am fine. It is not blood pressure dropping as mine runs high. I really feel like it is a cellular energy thing. I am not as well researched as you but it just feels like more than just regular fatigue. Wondering if this is something to do with the thyroid mess. Or is it the adrenals . No doctor had ever figured it out. Mostly they allude to it being " all in my mind"... I wish it was....

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    1. Do you get tachycardia also when you stand up?

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    2. No....not that I realize... Just this weird heaviness in my legs and then I start to shake and feel like I just need to fall or sit. If I keep walking or moving I am ok. Have had my bp tested while standing. Stays the same or rises. Not my sugars. Are fine at the time. It all began about a year after the death of my six week old son, extreme ( purposeful) weight loss ( u know I needed to punish myself) and subsequent break down. Of course no one would have called it that, but I knew that was what it was. Craziness! Everything pretty much took a crap since then. I have good days and bad days. I can really see the difference when I have a lot of stress ... More than normal. I've always felt that if I could just go to the beach for a couple of years I could heal what was broken, but from what I understand once those nerves are frayed it's pretty much over. I have tried different things and they work for awhile but things always go back to square one. Mainly I just try to get sleep, eat right and avoid stress HA HA! I have 9 kids! And I live in this world!

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    3. yeah -- cultivating serenity will probably help, though of course that's easier said than done. :-) how old are your kids?

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    4. My children range in age from 33 to almost 12. Also have one son in law and two grand babies. The adult children are in various stages of independence. Some are through school and living on their own. Some are my "boomerang" kids and have returned to the nest due to financial reasons and or returning to school. A very busy household!

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    5. sounds like it! :-) i hope you have a space where you can get off by yourself and recharge!

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    6. I'm very sorry to hear about your son, foundin77.

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  2. grrrr -- that's why i have a prejudice against the medical profession! if you don't fit into a pigeonhole they don't know what to do about you, so they're inclined to consider your problem imaginary...

    there are a bunch of possible causes of shaking, and although "i'm not a doctor and i don't play one on the internet" it's possible that yours COULD be a sudden drop in blood SUGAR. you might read Wooo's blog on the subject -- i think she has been subject to hypoglycemic tremors. apparently, it doesn't require a particular low value of blood glucose, just an abrupt drop. :-) but DON'T assume i know what i'm talking about!

    i don't KNOW for a fact that my tremor is adrenalin-associated, but observing myself for years, i've kinda narrowed the possibilities to it.

    good luck in sorting it out!

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  3. Thanks Tess. I probably lean more towards the whole adrenaline thing. Oh my blood sugar can drop but it's a different feeling. Thanks for your response. Funny how it helps to know I am not alone in all this crap.

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    1. yes, it IS a pleasant kind of funny when others with similar problems (or knowledge of them) can help us realize our problems are not in our heads or "all our fault"! in Jim Morrison's words, "i love the friends i have gathered together on this thin raft."

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  4. Speaking in generalities, intolerance of being in an upright position and finding being upright more tolerable if one is walking rather than standing still is a hallmark of autonomic nervous system dysfunction.

    Fatigue, low energy, having to get sugar fixes frequently, weakness, shakiness, feeling dizzy/faint when standing up, orthostatic/postural hypotension (sudden transient drop in blood pressure when standing up), tachycardia. In some people, full-blown syncope. Psychological symptoms such as anxiety and depression are very common.

    These vague symptoms have been recognised for centuries and referred to by different names, you know, neurasthenia, neurotic personality, somatisation disorder, hysteria, depression. Usually it's women who present like this so it tends to get diagnosed as psychiatric and treated with SSRIs and benzodiazepines. Official medicine has no answer for this but the alternative quackosphere believes that this is part of the so-called adrenal fatigue syndrome.

    Oh my, there I go again bringing up this quackery. Will you ban me from your website, tess?

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  5. Tess, are you trying the DLPA to improve dopaminergic tone? I found both DLPA and tyrosine just turned straight to adrenaline, without stopping off at dopamine. So I am looking for things that increase dopamine and not adrenaline. What I know helps: vitamin B6 (I am sure I don't absorb it well) and fish oil (taken early in the day); eating gluten-free. I know that dopaminergic tone has improved if: restless legs symptoms improve; relief from insomnia; I can remember dreams; I have more affect and motivation; music sounds good rather than tiring.

    B12, as methylcobalamin, is a bit ambiguous - smaller amounts improve DA but larger amounts have the opposite effect because they seem to push up serotonin. I suspect that the recently adopted retinol supplementation is effective. I am going to start adding in zinc and magnesium but I have a new rule - that I change one thing at a time - to do otherwise is unscientific!

    I tried being all paleo for a while and not taking supplements (because my diet should be so good that I don't need them). But after reading Wooo and Sidereal and others, I am giving myself full permission to supplement as necessary because (a) I have lost a lot of weight; (b) my previous diet included gluten which I suspect impaired absorption of many micronutrients, leaving me deficient; (c) diet alone might not replete substantial deficiencies, especially as I don't need very much food at my age (mid-50s).

    foundin77, I am very sorry too, to hear about your son. I think it is possible to heal, but it might take longer than one or two years - sending you very best wishes.

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    1. Have you tried mucuna? Yes, tyrosine and DLPA are quite stimulating. Not everyone's cup of tea.

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    2. i tried DLPA for energy and got the same response you did -- more adrenaline! grrr. it's possible that the "good rush" i get from oysters and liver IS B6 rather than A, but i took a B12-with-B6 supplement at one time, and didn't feel it.

      you're definitely right, adding two new supplements in too-close succession is a mistake i've been guilty of a couple of times. :-( then you have to go back and drop one and.... yeah.

      what i've found helpful for my dopamine shortage was the mucuna pruriens and pregnenolone -- when i added them i felt like going out singing to fight dragons. :-)

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