Myprotein saved my life!

[Ripped Barbarian]

Well, sort of.

It started in february 2004, not sure what date but it was a trip with my parents to lyme regis, before that day my whole life had been pretty well illness free.

That 'fateful' day i felt pretty damn ill, getting worse through the day, i went and got some garlic from the fruit and veg shop which had always stopped illnesses in their tracks, it didn't work and i was severely ill for about 2 weeks, lost about 3 stone or something, i began to feel a bit better and got on with things, at the time i was studying for A- levels and in the process of joining the marines, before the illness i was fighting fit and felt fantastic, i was 17, could do 150 press ups in like 1 minute 30 or something, bench 140kg and powered through 20 mile runs.
After the mystery illness i just didn't feel the same, a general feeling of nausea permanently (you know that feeling just before you're sick? i had that for months) i was getting severe cramps when swimming and the like.

It ruined my plans of joining the marines, it also ruined my a-levels.

I had various bouts of illness, in march, at my brothers wedding i was particularly bad so i decided to go to the doctors, went several times and they didn't have a *****ing clue what was wrong with me, gave me some stemetil and some other random drugs for the nausea and ****s.
Nothing really helped that much so, now i wasn't joining the marines and ****ed my a levels up i just kinda sat at home and did nothing for a while and worked on and off, i did start to feel a better after a while with improved nutrition but i never quite felt the same and alive as i did.

This is how it has been for the last 4 years.

Being a smart fella, soon after i was ill i did a much better job than the doctors and put together the pieces and found out what was wrong with me, i knew i had some kind of adrenal fatigue/stress related illness.
-Orthostatic hypotension
-Feeling of mailaise
-Alternating ****s/constipation
-Sweating and feeling uncomfortable
-Not 'feeling the same' and generally having a pretty **** time.

My body had the tendancy to dump of urine and electrolytes at any slight stress, if i went a night with insufficient sleep the next day i'd pay for it by pissing out about 5 litres of perfectly clear urine and feel a lot worse for it.
I knew i had to use rehydration salts, magnesium and the like but i would always seem to 'dump' these pretty soon after, frustrated i gave up and managed the best i could with how i felt now, i thought it's something permanent that i'll have to deal with.

Skip foward to a few months ago, i started getting more palpitations, and arrhythmias tens of times a day (heart stops and then thuds), this had me very worried and knowing how useless the doctors were with my condition (i had even told them before that i was sure i had adrenal fatigue and they said it was a psychosomatic illness and did nothing!) i decided to try some home cures:
Earlier this week i ordered magnesium orotate, magnesium ascorbate and electrolyte salts which i got yesterday, i also have some adaptogenic herbs coming soon to help my adrenals.

Started taking some fairly heavy dose of the mag supps yesterday morning when they came (3000mg magnesium ascorbate, 1000mg magnesium orotate) along with some sea salt and plenty of water.
I started feeling better towards the end of the day but when i came to go to sleep i felt absolutley fantastic, my body started feeling 'cool' again, the permanently 'wired' state my body had been in for 4 years started to subside, i simply felt like a kid again!
I couldn't get to sleep until 4:30 am as i just felt so alive.

Finally when i did get to sleep, i woke up and felt refreshed, i have not felt that feeling since pre feb 2004, not once.

Today at work, taking more magnesium, salts, and good food i felt even better.
-Didn't feel sweaty and 'flushy' anymore.
-Felt calm, didn't have my 'adnrenal surges'
-Heartbeat was much better (couldn't feel it)
etc etc etc
It's hard to explain what the adrenal fatigue actually feels like, not good.
My blood pressure seemed to increase a lot and despite drinking a gallon of water (literally) i only did half a cupful of dark urine.
Thinking became clearer, some of the fog lifted (i've been a dosy ***** for the last 4 years no joke) the 'mental illness' way of thinking of the last 4 years has also started to ease.

I prob feel 80-90% 'human' now whereas last week and the 4 years before i was prob feeling 50% on and off and 20% for the first 6 months of illness.
This is just after 2 days of taking the magnesium, there are also the adaptogenic herbs to come!

I feel like i have been given a second chance in life, i know it sounds strange but with the adrenal fatigue symptoms you feel pretty awful on and off and lack enthusiasm/energy, it's like i have a fresh body.

I can't believe it's all down to one simple element, magnesium.
I theorise that my body has not been able to obtain much from digestion over the past 4 years or something, magnesium supplements have been oxide in the past and i've eaten mg high foods but it's actually quite hard to get enough in your diet, even a paleo one.

Thank you MP for providing this wonderful substance!

Magnesium ascorbate and orotate are deff my fav supps now!!!

[mxd]

that sounds amazing rc can you post up your whole dosing protocol please your experiences sound very similar to mine after coming off a load of hard drugs.
btw I'm happy for you d00de!!

[Ripped Barbarian]

Morning: sea salt 500mg mg orotate, 1 ascorbate tab.
Midpoint: sea salt, 1 ascorbate tab.
Evening/pre bed: sea salt 500mg orotate, 1 ascorbate tab.

I'm going to be decreasing the dosage over the first week or 2 as i flush my body but i'm prob going to have to continue taking 1000mg orotate a day (not sure how much mg in that, prob over the 400mg rda)

[Karlos02]

Your illness describes me when i'm overtrained/under rested

glad you've found a cure and improved your quality of life!

[mxd]

love the avatar!
just to clarify what do you mean by "sea salt"?

[Ripped Barbarian]

Quote

love the avatar!
just to clarify what do you mean by "sea salt"?

I use 'danival unrefined sea coarse sea salt' about a teaspoon in a glass of water, you could use table salt which is probably rock salt but sea salt tends to have better mineral profile (including magnesium)

[PatBateman]

Wow, what a story. One of my greatest fears is having an illness that I can't control, or one that can't be cured. It must have been a rough time for you.

Kudos to you for not giving in and sorting it out for yourself.

[mjwild]

You could do 150 press ups in 1 min? and bench 140kg at 17? i want what ever u were injecting

Dont quite understand what the story is about, but its great that you arn't a dosy cu*t any more, explains alot

Edit: Prefer your old avitar aswell, your new one is kinda.. well, bland.

[Ripped Barbarian]

The effect i'm most enjoying is my breathing.

I always noticed my nostrils seemed constricted since i was ill, for some odd reason.

Today i've been feeling like i'm breathing alpine air or something, nostrils are really dilated, sense of smell is 10x better (back to normal? i can't remember)

I've been feeling much stronger too, i know that magnesium is used for ATP synth and i've just picked up my 17 stone dad.

[Wotan]

Ok RC.

Listen carefully.

Adrenal fatigue is a lot more common than people think. Its probably one of the most misdiagnosed conditions around. I rather think that ME (aka yuppie flu) is the same thing.

The only real way to beat it, as you have discovered, is through diet. To be in perfect health you need a "perfect" diet. Luckily for us the body has a variety of organs and mechanisms that regulate our internal environment so that we dont have to watch every grain we eat.

BUT ...

The one thing you have to do is supply it with the essentials. This much is obvious.

Now, you drink enough water. You take your vitamins and you obtain enough minerals. All good stuff.

You have probably got the protein essentials correct. You eat first class protein, ie you get all the amino acids. And probably in fairly generous quantities. No problem there then.

You seem to have the EFAs sorted out too. You take krill oil, or similar, and miss out on rancidified polyunsaturates. Hopefully you also pass over the hydrogenated fats too. No problem there either.

That leaves carbs.

I bet you are missing out on some of the eight essential polysaccharides.

These are complex sugars that get bound with cell-wall proteins and enable effective inter-cellular communication. Its how the immune system knows which cells to attack (bacteria, cancer etc) and which to leave alone. Without these sugars you age quicker, die quicker, and live at less than optimum levels. Chronic fatigue is one symptom of a lack of these substances.

Two things spring to mind.

One, take Ambrosine. Its a powder made of all eight essential sugars. From these the body can manufacture all the others it needs.

Two, to help things along you can also add rice bran (NOW foods section) oat bran and aloe vera powder (or liquid etc) to your diet. These also contain these sugars (or their compounded derivatives).

Full effects will take about a month or so to show up full effects. You can also experiment with various mushroom powders but some people find these not so good and not without side-effects. Its probably better to allow the body to make what it needs.

The second suggestion involves supporting the adrenal glands themselves.

One. You can take a glandular extract. Preferably one from New Zealand (BSE free etc). This will help.

Two. Adrenal fatigue is caused by, or causes excess cortisol. This is a very destructive hormone once it goes beyond certain limits or situations. Its fine to secrete cortisol when the house is on fire - it makes you jump out the window. Its not so good if you secrete it at work every time the telelphone rings. You end up "living on your nerves". Eventually you burn out.

A lot of things can cause this incidentally, not just stress at work or home but also viral infections for instance.

The answer here is to take DHEA to knock out the cortisol and allow your system to re-adjust itself. 50mg of DHEA is a pretty safe dose. Volunteers have taken 1600 mg a day without ill effect. DHEA is the body's own counter-cortisol hormone. I did write about last year (ish) in some thread regarding testosterone production and aging. See if you can find it.

Try these and see if they make a difference. Hope they do.

Welcome back to the land of the living incidentally.