I have paralysis by analysis – please help! page 3

[marcadav]

Cook,
Free T3 is a separate test. It was not measured with the tests you had done. I'm not sure if it would be useful to have it tested now. I think I would try to improve things with nutrition and exercise tweaks. By that I mean, get enough selenuim, eat at least 50 grams of carbs a day, watch over-exercising, get vitamin D up.

My vitamin/mineral supplement has 200mcg selenium. Eating 2 brazil nuts would fulfill the 200mcg requirement.

Ferritin is also a separate test and must be asked for. I haven't had one doctor order it on their own. I've always had to request it-even after having results come back very low.

[piano-doctor-lady]

Notice, please, that if you fry up chicken livers in coconut oil, make sure they are COOKED RIGHT THROUGH! despite the fact that liver usually tastes better (nicer texture) when it's cooked really rare.

Chickens are infected with campylobacter a horrifying percentage of the time -- even "organic free range" chickens. Cook chicken very thoroughly, and clean up your hands and any surfaces which have been touched by uncooked poultry.

Campylobacter can lead to Guillain Barre Syndrome, which I'm just about over now. Believe me, you don't want to go there!

I thought that a little carelessness about rare meat wasn't all that awful a thing -- maybe a couple days of the runs -- okay, bad but not terrible. I was wrong. Too bad, I loved sushi and very rare beef.

[Minxxa]

Hey Cook!

Yeah, I'm surprised they ordered the T3 uptake... if you google it even most docs know it's a completely useless test. Free T3 is the one, and Reverse T3 is useful too. If you're highly stressed (so this can go in conjunction with adrenal issues), your body will convert your T4 into Reverse T3 (which is a fat storage type of thing), instead of the usable T3 which is what powers your metabolism and gives you energy.

It's possible that you're adrenals are a bit taxed (from all of the continuous stress, busyness and so forth), and are affecting your thyroid. (You can have thyroid issues that are reactions to other parts of your endocrine system, and so possibly can be fixed by fixing the underlying problem.)

I'd look up adrenal fatigue (or the correct doctor type name mild adrenal insufficiency). It's not caused by low immune system, it's caused when you keep jump starting your adrenals with "stress", which can include being super busy non-stop all day, not getting enough sleep, worrying, too high intensity of exercise too often, etc., your adrenals pump out adrenaline each time, but they're not used to being needed as much as we do seem to need it nowadays, so they just get overused. This may or may not be an issue or contributing to your problems, but finding out either way can be good. I had some pretty sad adrenals a couple of years ago and just got restested and everything's in the normal spectrum now. And I treated it with a couple of herbs, but mostly just slowing down my life, removing stressors that didn't need to be there, some yoga/meditation, and basically a lot of TLC of myself.

On the other hand, low D made me exhausted as well, so bringing that up should be a point (for general good health if nothing else!). And ferratin as was mentioned above as well. And yes, you have to ask for that one, because even when they test your iron they test the amount in your blood. Your body stores iron as ferratin, and will deplete those stores in order to keep your blood iron level where it should be. So by the time your blood iron levels have dropped it means your ferratin stores are pretty much gone. And low ferratin can cause issues even if your blood iron levels are normal.

For some info on adrenals, google Mary Shomon at about.com and there's a few articles on the thyroid/adrenal connection, and a recent interview by a doctor explaining mild adrenal insufficiency (and why most doctors say adrenal fatigue doesn't exist).

I've found that it took a lot of time for my system to regain it's equilibrium, but looking into each thing and adapting it, and eating primal and removing the bad stressors from my life really have made a difference. I still have work to do, but I'm MUCH improved from where I was (which was coming home from work, sitting on the couch and trying to work up the energy to shower... so I get where you are!)

How's that for a book? Hope some of it helps, I kinda just blyeaaaahed out anything I thought might help you sort through some issues. (I worked on one or two things at a time and eventually everything was coming up to where it should be, so don't feel like you have to figure out or get to be an expert on everything at once... that can be overwhelming!)

[ysheaito]

This article is fascinating.


Grizz

I have ALL of these symptoms minus one. Need to go do blood work, but it's obvious that I have iron deficiency. Not strange, too, I've been eating very little meat the past 5 years and was anemic during both my pregnancies. Thanks for sharing this.