All about me - Page 3

[lil_miss_understood]

I'm officially stupid.
I've read the ithyroid site before, really I have.
Zinc and selenium are both used to detox heavy metals (ie mercury from amalgams). Thyroxine (thyroid hormone production) relies heavily on zinc and selenium.
Gee. Could that connection have possibly bit me in the butt a little harder?

[tanyalynn]

Originally Posted by JacquelineR

Tanya, I was just reading over on ithyroid and came across this:

So should I be concerned about copper intake? Particularly since I'm also supplementing with zinc? Could the vitamin C and zinc supplementation partially explain my fatigue, since copper is another metal implicated in anemia? My iron is fine, according to my latest bloodwork, though... And I just started with the vitamin C again...
Hmm.

You probably don't need to worry about your copper. Even if right now you're not eating a lot of high-copper foods (liver, beans/legumes, nuts, chocolate), people with mercury issues have such depleted zinc (long-term, I know I'm probably going to be fixing my zinc issue for a while still) that our copper is way out of balance. I think all the C I'm taking is probably good for my copper, eve now.

I'd guess your fatigue is more thyroid and adrenal related, unless you get bloodwork that points to non-iron-deficiency anemia (and then I'd look to a B12 supp first). Statistically, given your health issues, copper is the last thing that would probably be causing your fatigue (unless you have copper toxicity separate from the mercury).

Originally Posted by JacquelineR

iThyroid.com:

*sigh* I need to look up more about this.

But selenium's good for T4 to T3 conversion, and ya know, it probably is low in diabetics too. Selenium is important for immune function, so being low is likely part of a lot of these autoimmune things. I'm going to institute a brazil-nut day, where I figure out, 1x/week, how to get the kids to eat several, maybe 3 or 4. They're high in copper, so I realized I want to cluster them all together, so it's a high copper day once a week and then all our other days will be devoted to our zinc issues. I dreamed about selenium last night, ya know. This is weird.

Originally Posted by JacquelineR

I'm officially stupid.
I've read the ithyroid site before, really I have.
Zinc and selenium are both used to detox heavy metals (ie mercury from amalgams). Thyroxine (thyroid hormone production) relies heavily on zinc and selenium.
Gee. Could that connection have possibly bit me in the butt a little harder?

You're not stupid! Geez, you're helping me out a ton with this amino acid stuff. The minerals, I think they're fairly straightforward, but I'm studying that methylation chart and putting together the amino acid stuff a lot slower.

Zinc is your friend! How much are you taking now? I forgot (if I ever knew).

[Theloose]

Jacqueline, go read here:
http://george-eby-research.com/html/...n-anxiety.html
"Free intracellular calcium-ion concentrations are elevated in platelets and lymphocytes of manic and bipolar depressed patients but not in control or unipolar depressed patients"

I've been reading about calcium regulation. There are a couple pieces of the picture - first is how high your blood calcium is. The second is how much is getting into the cells. The second is what matters for most symptoms, and is regulated by magnesium and taurine. The first is what's affected by lithium and what shows up on blood tests.

[tanyalynn]

Originally Posted by whoMe

Jacqueline, go read here:
http://george-eby-research.com/html/...n-anxiety.html
"Free intracellular calcium-ion concentrations are elevated in platelets and lymphocytes of manic and bipolar depressed patients but not in control or unipolar depressed patients"

I've been reading about calcium regulation. There are a couple pieces of the picture - first is how high your blood calcium is. The second is how much is getting into the cells. The second is what matters for most symptoms, and is regulated by magnesium and taurine. The first is what's affected by lithium and what shows up on blood tests.

Lithium is involved with calcium regulation? Huh. Cause that's one that I suspect is accurate on my daughter's hair test (and presumably for all of us) and it's all the way low, at edge of the graph.

[Theloose]

Originally Posted by TanyaLopez

Lithium is involved with calcium regulation? Huh. Cause that's one that I suspect is accurate on my daughter's hair test (and presumably for all of us) and it's all the way low, at edge of the graph.

Yeah, if you search pubmed for lithium and PTH, you get some interesting stuff. PTH is the hormone responsible for bone resorption.

[lil_miss_understood]

Originally Posted by whoMe

Jacqueline, go read here:
http://george-eby-research.com/html/...n-anxiety.html
"Free intracellular calcium-ion concentrations are elevated in platelets and lymphocytes of manic and bipolar depressed patients but not in control or unipolar depressed patients"

I've been reading about calcium regulation. There are a couple pieces of the picture - first is how high your blood calcium is. The second is how much is getting into the cells. The second is what matters for most symptoms, and is regulated by magnesium and taurine. The first is what's affected by lithium and what shows up on blood tests.

Yeah, apparently there are two calcium binding proteins which are affected by reelin levels. They are both vitamin D dependent. I haven't learned much more than that about them since I went to bed not long after I found out about them.

ETA: They're apparently called calretinin and calbindin.

[lil_miss_understood]

Originally Posted by JacquelineR

Disregulation of an enzyme (GAD) used to synthesize GABA from glutamate, along with a downregulation of a protein called reelin, is implicated in schizophrenia and bipolar disorders. This same enzyme (there are actually 2 forms) is/are the target of the auto-antibodies responsible for diabetes.
Reelin expression increases when the liver is damaged. (could this be why so many people with bipolar and schizophrenia have some form of addictions issues? They're instinctively trying to damage their liver to increase their reelin?)
The cells in the adrenal gland responsible for synthesizing reelin are the same ones responsible for producing epinephrine, norepinephrine and enkephalins. Enkephalins bind to opiod receptors and either leucine or methionine is required for their production. Tyrosine is also necessary for producing this hormone.
The same cells in the liver which produce reelin are also responsible for storing vitamin A.
All of that because what I was reading about taurine kept mentioning GABA, so I decided to read about GABA again...

Just copying this over here since I feel it's relevant.

[lil_miss_understood]

I am adding MSM back into my supplement regimine tomorrow (Sunday). I know some of the pain I'm feeling right now probably has to do with being pregnant, but my feet are seriously killing me from the time I wake up until I go to bed and it is not helping with the fatigue. For some reason, I find that I get tired much more easily and quickly when my feet are sore.
I am debating whether to add my cal/mag (Osteo-Nutrients) supp next week or the B-complex. Thoughts? The cal/mag ratio is 2:1, fwiw. It also contains horsetail powder, Lysine HCl, Boron and 400iu of vitamin D3.
Hmm. Maybe I'll hold off on the cal/mag supp for now so I can talk to my ND about it. Horsetail powder isn't usually suggested for use during pregnancy, according to something I just read. So I guess next week it'll be the B-complex.

[lil_miss_understood]

Just posting this here too:

My doctor's appointment is tomorrow regarding thyroid stuff. Maybe if I can get that increased a bit, I won't be dragging my butt after sleeping for 10 hours and will be able to get more done (because I'll remember what I'm doing!). Didn't get my bathroom cleaned today because by the time I got to the hallway from the kitchen (where I keep my household binder), I forgot why I was in the hallway. Had to go around the store a couple of times to get everything on my grocery list because I'd forget what I was looking for. Focus is "off". Yadda yadda. It's like all the symptoms of brain fog, minus the fog (I hope that makes sense to someone).

[lil_miss_understood]

Okay, updates.
Thyroid appointment with the doctor went well. Got increased 1/4 grain- already feeling a difference. I'm thinking maybe I should try increasing my Adrenal Support to 2 per day to help with using my thyroxine properly- perhaps the barely below "normal" T4 wouldn't be kicking my arse so badly if I had the proper adrenal support.
Also, on a TMI front... My stools have stopped floating. This is only in the last couple of days so I'm not certain if it's the increase in thyroid hormones or if it's the MSM showing it's work... Could MSM be the factor there?

ETA: I'm thinking, too, that the decrease in tiredness is probably from the decreased pain due to the MSM since it usually takes about a week for the thyroid meds to "kick in".

[Theloose]

Yay!

Originally Posted by JacquelineR

Also, on a TMI front... My stools have stopped floating. This is only in the last couple of days so I'm not certain if it's the increase in thyroid hormones or if it's the MSM showing it's work... Could MSM be the factor there?

Taurine is needed to make bile and it's a product of sulfur metabolism. I bet the MSM is helping with the demand of other forms so more taurine can go to bile?

[lil_miss_understood]

Tanya and whoMe,
You both answered me in different threads in H&H, but I'm going to ask you here, since I can't remember which thread it was being discussed in (it wasn't either of the threads you answered in, I know that much. ).

Which B vitamin is it which needs to be taken away from bedtime? Would taking my B complex with zinc and selenium and or my Armour possibly have any deleterious effects? (Anything competing for uptake?) If not, I'll just throw it in my morning pills rather than my night time pills.

Just for the sake of posterity:
A couple of days ago, I started having problems going back to sleep when I wake up to go pee in the middle of the night. I feel wide awake and my thoughts sort of race. I'm wondering if it's not an effect of the increase in my Armour (thyroid med), so was inquiring if it may have something to do with my adrenals.
Tanya answered in the Thyroid Thread, saying it may be and we were discussing increasing my adrenal support supp (since I was originally on 4 pills and am presently on 1) and whoMe answered in the Adrenal Fatigue Thread with the suggestion that increasing B6 may help.
My plan right now, since I'm adding in my B-complex tomorrow, is to allow a couple of days for my B-complex to "kick in" to see if that will help before increasing my adrenal support supp.

[Theloose]

Originally Posted by JacquelineR

Tanya and whoMe,
You both answered me in different threads in H&H, but I'm going to ask you here, since I can't remember which thread it was being discussed in (it wasn't either of the threads you answered in, I know that much. ).

Which B vitamin is it which needs to be taken away from bedtime? Would taking my B complex with zinc and selenium and or my Armour possibly have any deleterious effects? (Anything competing for uptake?) If not, I'll just throw it in my morning pills rather than my night time pills.

Just for the sake of posterity:
A couple of days ago, I started having problems going back to sleep when I wake up to go pee in the middle of the night. I feel wide awake and my thoughts sort of race. I'm wondering if it's not an effect of the increase in my Armour (thyroid med), so was inquiring if it may have something to do with my adrenals.
Tanya answered in the Thyroid Thread, saying it may be and we were discussing increasing my adrenal support supp (since I was originally on 4 pills and am presently on 1) and whoMe answered in the Adrenal Fatigue Thread with the suggestion that increasing B6 may help.
My plan right now, since I'm adding in my B-complex tomorrow, is to allow a couple of days for my B-complex to "kick in" to see if that will help before increasing my adrenal support supp.

Not sure if you want a repeat response, so here ya go...

For me, waking up and not being able to fall back asleep due to racing thoughts means B6. I've heard it associated with low melatonin (so low serotonin).

[lil_miss_understood]

I was actually asking: isn't there a B vitamin which shouldn't be taken around bedtime? Which one was it? Also, would any of the B vitamins inhibit absorption of zinc or selenium that you know of?

ETA: But thank you for repeating your answer.

[Theloose]

Originally Posted by JacquelineR

I was actually asking: isn't there a B vitamin which shouldn't be taken around bedtime? Which one was it? Also, would any of the B vitamins inhibit absorption of zinc or selenium that you know of?

ETA: But thank you for repeating your answer.

I've heard that B vits can make you hyper, so maybe that's why not before bed?

I've never noticed any issues in myself, but I'm usually just doing B5 before bed. The rest are in the morning.

[lil_miss_understood]

Originally Posted by whoMe

I've heard that B vits can make you hyper, so maybe that's why not before bed?

I've never noticed any issues in myself, but I'm usually just doing B5 before bed. The rest are in the morning.

Great, thanks. I'll just throw them in with my morning supps then. I can never remember mid-day supps... at least, not consistently.

[tanyalynn]

B-12 before bed can cause sleeplessness. And a high-dose B-complex (like my kids get) can cause some sleeplessness too, I think, and some hyper-ness when it's first started (but that's supposed to subside within a few days if it happens--didn't happen to my kids).

[lil_miss_understood]

Added in my B-complex this morning. I've also been taking papaya enzymes to help with reflux (seems to be working). We'll see how the B-complex works- if it helps with the going back to sleep issue I've been having, though I didn't have the same problem last night, so maybe it was just a bad couple of days for some reason?

[lil_miss_understood]

Originally Posted by TanyaLopez

B-12 before bed can cause sleeplessness. And a high-dose B-complex (like my kids get) can cause some sleeplessness too, I think, and some hyper-ness when it's first started (but that's supposed to subside within a few days if it happens--didn't happen to my kids).

Thank you, Tanya! I knew there was one in particular.

Just a quick little update about the thyroid increase and/or the MSM (I'm not sure which is responsible because of how closely they were implemented), I've noticed the last few days that my patience is increased. I seem to remember this happening when my thyroid dose was "good" before, so that makes me think it's the Armour.
I didn't have any sleeplessness Saturday night when I had to go pee. I was sleepless last night, but that had nothing to do with anything with supplements. DS2 decided 3:30ish was a good time to be awake.

[lil_miss_understood]

All right, so my ND appointment was today.
No re-dosing of my remedy, we both feel I'm still good for it and we're convinced it's the right one. He did say he'd make up some bellis for me for post-partum though so I don't have to rely on drugs to deal with all the bruised feelings "down there". : He also said that arnica would do, in a pinch. He said he'll be giving me 30c, 3x's per day and that should be enough but, if not, he will try me with 200c 2x's per day. I still don't know what my constitutional is but that's okay. As long as it's working, I'm content.
We also discussed colonics/colon cleansing, which I talked about in Kathy's thread, since that's where we had been discussing it.
I asked about increasing my Adrenal support supp and he said that may be a good idea. I realized that my coffee cravings have coincided with not having HG and not having appropriate adrenal support, coupled with lower energy. He agrees that it's most likely because I didn't have the B-complex in place that I had the strange reaction to my Adrenal supp before. So, as of tomorrow, I am increasing my Adrenal supp to 2 per day and we'll see how that goes- whether or not I get the weird feelings (sick/dizzy weirdness) again and, if all goes well, I will increase to 3 next week and 4 the week after.
Additionally, he gave me deglycyrrhizanated licorice for my reflux. I'm supposed to take 2 before bed.
Let me see, what else?
I made him late for his acupuncture appointment. I feel really badly about it, actually. This was not supposed to be such a long appointment, but me and my 4 billion questions under the sun...
Oh yes, and I asked about whether the horsetail powder in my Osteo-nutrients is okay during pregnancy. He said he doesn't know and will get back to me on it.
So, that's all I really have to say I guess. I asked about zinc citrate vs zinc picolonate (sp?) and he said he wasn't certain. I said "Okay, well I have a friend who's testing it. I'll let you know what she says." He laughed but said "I'd like to know." (You're everyone's guinea pig now, Tanya, don't you feel special? )