My Journey from Sugar Burner to Fat Burner - jenn26point2's Primal Journal page 129

[jenn26point2]

And this weekend when I go shopping, I am going to pick up some really heavy sweaters for me. I am so tired of being cold already. Jacket isn't cutting it. Need gloves and a blanket at my desk. Brrrrr

[tomi]

Looks like you're working out a good strategy and putting your plan to action! I'm looking forward to watching your progress. I've done a little reading on the leptin theory......... just can't get a good enough grasp on it to see if its something I should be looking at. So, I'll watch and see what you do first

[Judg]

Big Sister is watching you, LOL! Two of them...

[jenn26point2]

hahaha

Basically, what I read in PBPM and in It Starts with Food is that everything starts with Leptin. If your leptin is wrong, then everything else will be wrong. According to Dr. Kruse, it is pretty easy to see if you're leptin resistant. Here is a blurb from his site:

1. First make sure you really are Leptin resistant (LR) to begin with.
The easiest way to do this if you are heavy is to look in the mirror. If you’re overweight you definitely are Leptin resistant. If you still have a large appetite and crave carbohydrates, especially at night, these are also signs that you are likely Leptin resistant. If you are fit or in decent shape and not sure based upon the above symptoms, I would tell you to go get a blood test and check your reverse T3. It will be elevated. I also recommend simultaneously checking a salivary cortisol level. With LR, you will always see higher cortisol levels later in the day.

MY LEPTIN PRESCRIPTION | Jack Kruse

Not to change the subject, but... I brought PBPM to work with me today. Here is what it says about insulin and testosterone and all that.

The excesses of fat being generated by insulin and cortisol also more readily secrete enzymes (such as aromatase) that stimulate the excessive conversion of testosterone to estrogen in men (the number one cause of so-called testosterone deficiency in men) and the conversion of estrogen to toxic DHT testosterone in women, making weight loss extremely difficult in both men and women and mimicking in women many symptoms commonly associated with low thyroid function.

This can make one appear testosterone or estrogen deficient in blood or saliva tests. Lower testosterone levels also make men more prone to dopamine neurotransmitter deficiencies, as depressed testosterone activity also depresses dopamine receptor activity. Excessively lower estrogen levels in women suppress serotonin receptor activity and increases the proneness to depression and other issues. Good times.

The answer here is almost never hormone replacement, even with bioidentical hormones, which only temporarily alleviate the symptoms and can eventually greatly exacerbate the problem. You may feel temporarily better with supplemental estrogren, or even feel like Superman, at least for a while, on supplemental testosterone, but in the end, you are only making the problem worse. The underlying answer is in controlling this whole cascade of events by basically doing what is necessary to manage your levels of leptin, insulin, and adrenals (which usually means starting with addressing your blood sugar issues). The excessive conversion of hormones is an extremely viscious cycle and is at the heart of syndrome X, or metabolic syndrome.

Metabolic syndrome and its other related negative hormonal influences cannot ever be effectively micromanaged in the long term by hormone replacement. Bioidentical hormones have their rightful place in medicine, but their overuse often causes many more problems than they ultimately solve. The practices of functional medicine should have its foundation in respect for the complexity of the human organism and the intricate, interrelated web of endocrine function. One must peel back the layers of the onion to find the source of the problem and not simply persist in treating the symptoms.

Basically, what that says is that high sugar levels and high insulin throws leptin and cortisol out of balance. This loss of balance prevents testosterone and estrogen from being used properly and causes a slowdown in dopamine receptor activity, which causes depression. Bingo. There is the source of Brad's and my depression. And Mr. Blouse, the PA who read Brad's blood draw is doing it wrong by giving him testosterone shots.

I plan to send this blurb to my husband and ask him to reconsider his testosterone shots. It's amazing to me that simply eating low carb and keeping blood sugar in check is enough to fix all these things. It really does start with food. I hope he'll listen and consider. I know he feels all powerful right now. He feels stronger and says his arms feel bigger, and that might be so, but according to this, he needs to fix his insulin output to control his leptin and cortisol instead of taking testosterone shots.

*shrug* If nothing else, at least the bug will be planted and he can make up his own mind.

And speaking of hormone therapy, the effectiveness of my shot is no more. I was supposed to get my next depo shot yesterday and Brad and I agreed not to. Hopefully it wears off quickly so those hormones can start to regulate. In the meantime, I'm going to stay the course and work on fixing my leptin and cortisol.

Which reminds me. I don't think it's so much a problem of not being able to get out of bed when the alarm goes off, but more a case of not wanting to. I set my alarm to go off at 18 minutes to 6 so I could snooze twice and get up, get dressed and make Brady breakfast. I got up at 6:30 instead... I still made him breakfast (sausage and eggs) but I didn't get up when I wanted to. Shame on me. I guess I just enjoy sleeping too much. Maybe once my cortisol starts peaking in the AM I won't be able to go back to sleep and will have to get up.

[namelesswonder]

It will get easier. In high school, I could wake up at the time my alarm went off, but sometimes I would just lie in bed and stare at the ceiling for half an hour, and then not have time for breakfast. I forgot how little I used to eat back then. A bowl of cereal?! Granted, sometimes they were large bowls, but really. Not enough food. Anyway, when I really started to try and adjust my sleep schedule this year (starting in January), it took about a month for me to get on track with it. First I got myself to get up at 7AM consistently, now I get up at 6:30 consistently. If I started going to be reliably by 10PM, I could probably push it back to 6AM, but with the changing sunlight, I don't think I want to. I'm pretty much settled on the fact that I won't be biking to work this Fall. It would be way too cold. Early on, with my waking challenges, waking up was never the issue, and getting out of bed always was. It will come, just give yourself time to adjust. Eventually, you will get bored with waking up and just get out of bed instead of snoozing. At some point, you realize it isn't worth it.

[jenn26point2]

Sent it to Brad. I told him I read it in PBPM and thought it might be of interest to him and placed special emphasis on the parts where it says low T causes depression and taking supplemental hormones is not the answer. He'll probably get defensive and ask what the answer is, which will annoy him more b/c he's one who would probably rather take a pill to fix the problem than to work on it with diet. He has come a long way with the whole switch to Paleo, but he's not 100% there yet, so there's still some resistance. He still snacks on high sugar foods, still consumes a ton of carbs and likely eats entirely too much, but he's coming around. Hopefully this will change his mind about the hormone therapies.

Now, if he had lost a testical to a freak accident and was no longer producing his own testosterone, I'd be all for it. But given that he's overweight, most definitely insulin and leptin resistant, and depressed, I don't think tesosterone is the answer and instead he needs to focus on his diet.

[jenn26point2]

Tash, I think the changing sunlight is playing a huge role in it too. It's still dark when I get up whereas it was sunny a few weeks ago. Hopefully the upcoming time change will assist with that. I have considered one of those natural light alarms too that mimic sunrise by slowly getting brighter and brighter. But they're like $200 and I can't justify that.

[jenn26point2]

Interesting... all he said in response to my email was "thanks". hmmm...

[namelesswonder]

Remember that if he gets defensive, and you feel like you need to retaliate, it's probably better to walk away. I hope he is receptive to the article and sees your sharing it with him as you taking interest & caring, rather than being critical.

[jenn26point2]

I hope he sees it that way too.