Leptin Reset Experiment starts today - Jack Kruse style page 103

[DFH]

I bet if you were in dark earlier your results would be better. It takes four hours of complete darkness to go from serotonin to melatonin.....then at midnight leptin enters the hypothalamus.......sends a signal to the thyroid (via UCP3) to burn fats at a higher metabolic rate.........

I bet this is why melatonin became popular with flight crews. People used to call it the "jet lag pill."

[DigitalSurgeon]

On the sleep issues, I suspect hormones.

My thyroid hormone doc is a big fan of melatonin, lots of it, but he knows my history too, which includes hypothyroid, adrenal fatigue, and insulin resistance. To make it even more fun, I have sleep apnea.

I know Dr Kruse is not as much of a melatonin fan as I am, and he's the dr. Sleep is so critical to good hormones that maybe doing it temporarily would be worth it.

The melatonin I use has 5htp and L-Theanine mixed in.

Anyother thing came up last year when I kept waking up early too, about 4:30 every night. I have been supplementing with injectable testosterone for a couple years, and do HCG twice a week. My doc said that guys also need a certain level of progesterone. He added a 50 mg progesterone capsule (from their dispensary) and I take that at bedtime,making with a big dose of melatonin. It added 2 hrs of sleep right away. Now I have to be careful to not oversleep and I get good rest.

Your doc sounds good.......progesterone is an amazing sleep aid for women......I use it a lot in difficult cases especially in women with PCOS or bad peri or post menopause........It also improves the quality of sleep and the level of autophagy that occurs at night. The better autophagy that occurs the better rested you feel at rising. Autophagy is a levee in the quilt too. All these processes are tied to together. The more you understand how they are tied together the more you will realize why plateaus and stalls occur. You have to be consistent with the human machine. When you go off schedule your body makes you pay. There are always biologic costs. The more fit you are the more leeway you gain with time

[geostump]

I pretty much wake up on my own between 5:45-6:30AM daily. The only time I haven't was yesterday due to severe pain from AF.

[MollyMoo]

Horsewoman - when you did low-carb, did you eat high fat (I aim for approx 160g fat per day).

[RSL]

I bet if you were in dark earlier your results would be better.

Maybe I should read while it's still a little light and get the lights off around 9 (when it actually gets dark outside) instead of 10. Until I get sorted, if I do happen to still wake up too early, should I attempt to go back to sleep for a little while, or go ahead and get up and eat right away?

[DFH]

DFH, this ones for you. If you wouldn't mind sharing, what is "your" story and how did you get it solved? I've read a little here and there and it sounds like I am dealing with a lot of the same issues that you have/had. If you don't want to put it out there, no problem. Thanks.

Don't mind at all. Hopefully this won't be too long and boring. The leptin business is stuff I have been dealing with for a long time, but didn't call it leptin.

To keep it short, I will just write what happened in order...

College days- frequent IBS type flare ups that I didn't understand, but looking back I attribute it to wheat. Weight was normal.
1986-Took a 2 week trip south of the border, took an anti-biotic that I was allergic to (septra-sulfa based).
This started colitis-type symptoms that never let up. This started 5 years of pure hell, ended up on Prednisone for the last 2 years until the colon had to come out. health was terrible, high stress. I got a j-pouch surgery to replace the colon. This makes a mini-colon out of small intestine.

No one at the time said anything about possible hormonal side effects of 2 years on prednisone. A dietitian at the hospital gave me the "low fat" lecture.

Weight started creeping up steadily, no matter what I did. Exercise never helped. I even started training with a semi-pro motocross buddy because MX is hard cardio. I rode my ass off for months, and ended up 245 lb. I saw a doc and he found triglycerides to be 1,600. He had no clue.

Weight keeps creeping up, 260, 270, 280. I was hardly eating. I start getting thyroid symptoms, so I get that checked and all docs know to do is check TSH. Mine is 131. Upper limit is 5.5. I get Synthroid (synthetic T4) and it helped the symptoms, but weight keeps expanding.

I ask my doc to explain how the previous history could be a factor, and what about the high trigs? She says nothing to do with it. I mark up my lap sheet myself to add trigs. This gets her attention and she now things I have insulin resistance, but doesnt know what to do about it. She suggests gastric bypass, and I decline.

I change careers and start travelling full time, so it's hard to see a doc regularly. I'm still on a lot of synthroid, but weight and health start getting worse. Finally in 2007 I had enough. I'm over 300 and getting tired.

I go to Holtorf Med in Torrance Ca an a last-chance to figure this out.

The doc takes one look at me and says based on the high amount of Sythroid, he would bet that I have high reverse T3, and need to get off T4.

The diagnosis is now hypothyroid, chronic fatigue, adrenal failure, and insulin resistance.

For thyroid, I switch to bio-identical T3 instead of T4. The doc is going to manage it based on T3 levels instead of TSH. Adrenals had just stopped. Instead of high cortisol, mine was low. Testosterone was low, so was Vit D, B and DHEA. I do testosterone injectable, DHEA, and for a while, cortisol. For insulin resistance, trigs were still high, and insulin was over 17. I do VLC, lots of omega 3 fishoil, and maitake SX fraction (a mushroom). To help with fatigue I sleep with melatonin, 4 times what most people use.

I lost 1/3 of my body weight in a year. A long list of symptoms and problems went away. Blood tests are quite good. Insulin went down, trigs went down, HDL went up, LDL went down, blood pressure is 110/65.

Before and after pics here- dietforhumans.com: My Diet and Plan

[Horsewoman]

Horsewoman - when you did low-carb, did you eat high fat (I aim for approx 160g fat per day).

I don't know grams, but I ate lots of fat.

[JenCat]

@Mike and Vkiernan: I thinking that it's probably best to get up soon after waking, even we'll be tired. I know that for me that last hour or two isn't restful. Perhaps getting up and eating will help better prepare for sleep that evening? IDK. I might give it a try, even though it would be hell (I love my bed!). That would allow me to eat three meals before my workout. I guess it can't hurt to try - well, not much.

[Vkiernan]

Don't mind at all. Hopefully this won't be too long and boring. The leptin business is stuff I have been dealing with for a long time, but didn't call it leptin.

To keep it short, I will just write what happened in order...

College days- frequent IBS type flare ups that I didn't understand, but looking back I attribute it to wheat. Weight was normal.
1986-Took a 2 week trip south of the border, took an anti-biotic that I was allergic to (septra-sulfa based).
This started colitis-type symptoms that never let up. This started 5 years of pure hell, ended up on Prednisone for the last 2 years until the colon had to come out. health was terrible, high stress. I got a j-pouch surgery to replace the colon. This makes a mini-colon out of small intestine.

No one at the time said anything about possible hormonal side effects of 2 years on prednisone. A dietitian at the hospital gave me the "low fat" lecture.

Weight started creeping up steadily, no matter what I did. Exercise never helped. I even started training with a semi-pro motocross buddy because MX is hard cardio. I rode my ass off for months, and ended up 245 lb. I saw a doc and he found triglycerides to be 1,600. He had no clue.

Weight keeps creeping up, 260, 270, 280. I was hardly eating. I start getting thyroid symptoms, so I get that checked and all docs know to do is check TSH. Mine is 131. Upper limit is 5.5. I get Synthroid (synthetic T4) and it helped the symptoms, but weight keeps expanding.

I ask my doc to explain how the previous history could be a factor, and what about the high trigs? She says nothing to do with it. I mark up my lap sheet myself to add trigs. This gets her attention and she now things I have insulin resistance, but doesnt know what to do about it. She suggests gastric bypass, and I decline.

I change careers and start travelling full time, so it's hard to see a doc regularly. I'm still on a lot of synthroid, but weight and health start getting worse. Finally in 2007 I had enough. I'm over 300 and getting tired.

I go to Holtorf Med in Torrance Ca an a last-chance to figure this out.

The doc takes one look at me and says based on the high amount of Sythroid, he would bet that I have high reverse T3, and need to get off T4.

The diagnosis is now hypothyroid, chronic fatigue, adrenal failure, and insulin resistance.

For thyroid, I switch to bio-identical T3 instead of T4. The doc is going to manage it based on T3 levels instead of TSH. Adrenals had just stopped. Instead of high cortisol, mine was low. Testosterone was low, so was Vit D, B and DHEA. I do testosterone injectable, DHEA, and for a while, cortisol. For insulin resistance, trigs were still high, and insulin was over 17. I do VLC, lots of omega 3 fishoil, and maitake SX fraction (a mushroom). To help with fatigue I sleep with melatonin, 4 times what most people use.

I lost 1/3 of my body weight in a year. A long list of symptoms and problems went away. Blood tests are quite good. Insulin went down, trigs went down, HDL went up, LDL went down, blood pressure is 110/65.

Before and after pics here- dietforhumans.com: My Diet and Plan

OMG! You have overcome so much and look great by the way. My problems seem nil in comparison. If you managed to get where you are certainly means that I should be able to get healthy considering I don't have half the battles you have.

Sure hoping you are able to stay on the road to recovery. What an amazing story!!! Thank you for sharing.

[MamaGrok]

HW, what do they say at RR about the "get up and eat or stay in bed" question? I think it's, "start counting once you put your feet on the floor or otherwise start moving around actively" - IDK if that's accurate, but it's at least one sugar addiction group's answer to the question some of y'all are posing


So it sounded like Dr. K said it needs to be CO for depression b/c of MCTs (butter doesn't have that?) ... what about butter for fatigue? Just CO again there?


HW, is it possible carbs & tryptophan both play a role in gut metabolism of serotonin? I don't know nada. I liked the explanation of how the gut acts as a reserve for the brain, which converts it through dark exposure & time to the melatonin we need for sleep.