I listened to an interview with Lita Lee and her incessant hawking of her enzymes kind of turns me off her. I guess I'll hold out in hopes that Dr. Peat will get back to me at some point. I'd like to try some pregnenolone and the thyroxine/cytomel combination. I am unable to find progesterone here in Kampot in any form other than contraceptive. Perhaps I will make a trip to Phnom Penh soon and see if I can find it there.

I've started the vitamin e but only able to find alpha tocopherols and am experimenting with a little aspirin. I'm able to manage the diet aspect of it fairly well here, other than finding a source for liver, which I'm still working on. I was able to find a big box of porcine sheet gelatin from a French company and am dissolving 6 sheets in water every day.

Other than that, I'm drinking two liters of UHT 1% milk from New Zealand and two liters of orange juice (not strained, however). I also eat a decent sized chunk of cheese daily and have two hard boiled eggs for breakfast with coffee (lots of milk and sugar) and plenty of oj. So I should be pretty well covered on good quality protein.

I'm eating the carrot salad with my homemade coconut oil. I usually have a can of coke and coconut water to drink additionally. And, I am taking copious quantities of locally produced salt. It's really helping with my long term frequent urination problem. Also, taking baking soda with water to combat acid issues with all the coffee and oj.

Not noticing a ton of benefit yet. A little more energy. Some weight gain, however. I think I've been in this hormonal imbalance for so long, it's probably going to take more than dietary changes to turn it around.

I guess I'll make the rounds to the pharmacies again and ask about pregnenolone, thyroxine and cytomel. I'd also like to find some Vitamin K2, but unlikely however. I also sruck out on niacinamide in my earlier sweep through looking for progesterone.

I'm one of the last holdouts on facebook, but it would be nice to have some give and take with people who are following his recommendations. Especially if I'm not able to do a consult with Dr. Peat. Maybe I'll have to sell my soul so I can get in the loop.

You can set your facebook privacy parameters the strictest possible. I have not gotten any problems from being there so far. But I am not able to participate in "friending" anyone, nor can anyone "friend" me. Not a problem, since I'm only there to be able to read/post to the closed Ray Peat Fans group. I also read the Danny Roddy page sometimes. But that is all I do on fb. I just wanted access to more peat info.

Oh, yeah, make a yahoo identity alias with a yahoo email, I did that also to increase security even more.

Oh, forgot to say when I emailed Dr. Peat asking about a consultation, I never did get a reply. However, when I emailed him asking an actual question he replied very quickly, same day as I recall. Eventually after a few more questions and replies, I just sent him some money. He never asked for any. So it might be worth simply emailing him your most urgent question.
sollyb

I have to issue this caveat, based on my own experience (and a few others that I know of): if you get the cytomel, PLEASE BE CAREFUL. It is not, in my opinion, something to play around with. I probably did not need it, took it and had some bad reactions to it. I will leave it at that, but unless you are really SURE that you need it and have tried all other options without success, don't tamper with it. It's not like a vitamin that you just piss out if you don't need it. Same goes for bromocriptine. I got burned taking that, as well.

Thanks sollyb for the facebook suggestions.

Yeah Thomas, I would like to talk to Dr. Peat before I mess around with thyroid hormone. Then again, I dont know if he can or will make any recommendations without recent labs, in that regard. Not too sure about what my options are here in Kampot, Cambodia as far as getting that kind of lab work done.

I am leery though, as well of taking the thyroxine on it's own, as I've read many stories of people doing worse on it alone. I was thinking of following Peat's suggestion of 40 mcg thyroxine/10mcg cytomel once a day, with a few mcgs of cytomel alone a couple of other times a day.

I really would like to find some pregnenolone (or progresterone) though. One of his articles says that just 300 mg of pregnenolone, once a week, can be beneficial. It seems that would be safer in terms of experimenting on my own than the thyroid.

Dr. Peat suggested to me that I start with just 1 mcg T3. Or 5 mcg swallowed with a meal.

That's interesting about his recommendation on T3, sollyb. I also just read a discussion about some people having very serious issues with some thyroid meds they got here in Cambodia. It was about 5 years ago, but still concerns me.

I'd prefer to find some natural progesterone or pregnenolone and try that first.

The last few nights I've had some stomach discomfort and awakened in the morning with some strange nausea. Don't know if it's the gelatin i've been drinking at night, the coconut oil, or maybe a little gas and constipation,maybe from too much cheese.

I think I'm going to cut out or way back on the cheese for a bit. Maybe I'll drink another liter of milk or just go with the lesser amount of protein (about 100 g) and see how it goes.

Dr. Peat did get back to me about the coconut oil, but didn't address my question about a consultation and whether he accepts paypal or not.

I guess I'll just send him a detailed email with my history and my specific concerns/questions and send him a check through paypal (I think this is possible) if he doesn't suggest a consultation, but reponds with his advice/recommendations.

The T3 definitely needs to be taken several times a day. It has a short-half life. I can tell you that I never took more than 15-20 mcg per day. I cut that to 10 mcg/day with meals. I was taking about 2-3 mcg each time. Some people will do well, even great with the T3. I am not disputing that at all. Not me. After about a month, I started getting weird side-effects (heart palpitations, mood swings, etc) that scared the hell out of me. It seems to have had a cumulative effect. I reduced the dosage, but side-effects continued. When I stopped taking the T3, I started feeling numbness in my extremities. That went on for a couple of weeks. In fact, I am just now getting over that and still get a little bit of it, though it's greatly reduced.

Even if you were to get a consultation with Ray Peat, you should pay close attention to your reaction to this stuff. We hear about all the GREATeffects of this approach in the interviews, etc. but you don't hear about the complications. I don't mean to rain on anybody's parade, but BE CAREFUL WITH THIS STUFF!

Peat definitely does not take PayPal. When I consulted with him, I had to send a check.

How hard would it be to have the progesterone or pregnenolone sent to you? Couldn't you have someone order it here and have them pass it on to you? Are the customs that rigorous in Cambodia that they would confiscate it?

That is pretty much why I no longer suggest anyone go to certain thyroid email lists and info sites........dosages recommended at many such places are, in my present view, far too high. And a lot of them recommend women take estrogen as well, compounding problems.

I myself do very well with T3, but I only take a tiny dose a couple times a day. A total dose of 15-20 mcg would be way too much for me.
(I can't take T4 at all).
sol

What side effects do you get when you take more than a tiny dose? (JUst curious). I tried taking a small amount of Armour a few years back, sent me into a depression for a few days. Not doubting this stuff is a Godsend for some, but for me, the results are downright frightening.

I hear you about some of these Internet thyroid groups. The RT3 group on Yahoo has some people doing 100 mcg of T3 a day (or more)! And cortisol!!!!!

Dr. Peat recommended the same very small dose of T3. Will give it a try when/if I can get a hold of some.

Thomas, I don't know if "confiscate" is the right term for what can happen to mail coming in from abroad here. I may give it a try though.

Thomas,
Depression.....starts when I am not taking enough thyroid. But other hormones/supps affect depression in me, too. But upping my T3 by one dose a day is one thing I try first.
Over dose symptoms are heart racing, palpitations, internal shakes. Too bad internal shakes and heart pounding and heart racing can also be symptoms of low cortisol. Feeling over-emotional can be hyperthyroid, hypothyroid OR low cortisol.
Also a huge symptom of too much thyroid for me is "increased GI transit time". When I was severely overdosed (from following bad advice) I had the runs constantly, with leaking! Being overdosed also dropped my total cholesterol like a stone within a very short time......trying to find out what caused that extreme drop is what led to me finding out I was hugely overdosed.
Cortisol and thyroid need to be in balance, which is why some groups tell people to take cortisol in order to tolerate higher thyroid doses, to my mind it becomes a vicious circle. I ended up taking hydrocortisone for a long time.........and it was hard to get off it the last time. But I do feel somewhat better when taking it, because it suppresses allergy reactions which I have to deal with daily (rare for me to have a day without antihistamines). I've done several prednisone tapers over the years for hives.
Peat's recommendation of Pregnenolone allowed me to wean completely off hydrocortisone a few months ago. And it seems to provide some of the same benefits, but particularly I have more energy and better mood when taking it.
sol

Sol,
When do you take your pregnenolone? I've switched to bedtime. Otherwise I'd get foggy when taking it early. This is one of the ways people react differently... I am taking 150 mg a day now. My DH takes 70.

I take it in the morning, 50 mg. If I took it at bedtime, I would not sleep.