Nighteyes' log

[Nighteyes]

To anyone who might read this,

I have decided to create this log as a place to share my experiments and results in balancing my body's mineral ratios and chelate heavy metals.

According to Trace Elements I am a "slow 1" with very high magnesium and copper and borderline high calcium. Sodium and potassium are both low along with molybdenum and manganese. I still haven't completely been able to figure out exactly what high or low values on the hair test means (should avoid or supplement) but the high copper indicates copper toxicity as indicated by the lab. Results: https://hackstasis.com/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=195

Short history about me (Male, 27):

0-13 years: Has a great childhood with loving parents. I did almost die from meningococcal disease that turned into sepsis when I was around 6 years old. Got through it but wonder if it has had lasting effects...

13-19 years: Was a very tired teenager, very skinny and not the best at being social. No drinking or smoking at this point.

19-23 years: Drank a lot every weekend with friends, often with blackouts.

23 years-current: Stopped drinking in 2013 and havent had alcohol regularly since. Lost desire for it along with a lot of the social stuff that goes along with it.

My symptoms are many and the most severe ones started back in 2014 when I got a vaccine for hepatitis B+C (Twinrex). After this I got a crazy viral infection and my sleep got screwed up. In the following months, neurological symptoms developed (waking up at night seeing figures and such) and my personality changed. I wouldn't call myself borderline, but ability to feel joy and love has been way gone for some time, only appearing once in a while in short bursts of euphoria and then disappearing abrubtly.

I was following a peat diet until a few months ago with lots of whole milk and dates. This probably messed me up even further as I think copper imbalance is what is causing my personality disturbances. Dates made me feel a lot better temporarily though, but would always need more and more. Is probably explained by biounavailable copper.

So, basically I know that the advide for me to do is: fast. A lot. I have been reluctant to do so until now as I have had many problems with my electrolytes going haywire in the past. But I have decided to try it after all. I am at around 8-10% body fat. I have absolutely no fat on my upper body to live from so hopefully my thighs and buttocks will provide enough.

I have started a short introductory/experimental fast (currently at around 30 hours and will be continuing it for as long as I feel like it. No goals regarding number of days as I am quite competitive when I decide something, so I will rather just listen to my body. Then I dont risk pushing me farther than I should too fast. I live alone with noone to watch me.
Since 30 hours ago I have had 500 mL of Breuss juice made in slow juicer with extra salt added. I will also have backup chicken soup in my fridge that I will use on days where I go to the gym and sauna to try and up my sweating. I expect to lose electrolytes doing this.

Goals:

Chelate heavy metals that I have probably contracted from the vaccine and many years of eating salmon, shrimp etc. And from never being able to sweat.

Get copper down on my hair test (will do another test when summer arrives and I have the money).

Solve digestion problems (always tended toward constipation).

Current supplements:

Thorne Bio-gest (enzymes and betaine): Only when eating big meals with fat and protein
Magnesium chloride: 100mg when I feel I need it
Tetra-cleanse: Combination of herbs for the liver and gut (including dandelion, psyllium and others)
Psyllium husks: Every day
Activated Charcoal: Sometimes

Planned supplements:


Swanson's Zinc Carnosine: every day
Zeolite: every day

Any comments or suggestions are always welcome. I will be updating about the fast and my results when I make progress (or not)

 

[Nighteyes]

Oh and recently I have been having experiences where I for a minute or two dont know if something I remember happened in a dream or not. I googled this symptom and found an interesting article about DRM (dream reality confusion) relating to BPD (borderline personality disorder). For anyone interested: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4569816/

And it seems there are many reports of children with Wilson's disease having symtoms of BPD.. Interesting. Copper (and its balance with zinc) certainly is important for shaping our personality it seems.

 

[HerrFisch]

[mention]Nighteyes[/mention]
If you really got problems with constipation, psyllium husks are not too good for you.

Unsoluble fiber will worsen your constipation.
Soluble fiber would be my way to go for you

Zinc Carnosine, I would like to try that for my high copper too. But Zinc Carnosine or Carnosine on its own, is damn expensive.
I wonder if beta alanine and histidine would be an alternative. (carnosine = beta-alanyl-L-histidine = beta alanine + histidine)

 

[Nighteyes]

[mention]HerrFisch[/mention] Thanks, actually psyllium husks helps my constipation (who knows why). Sometimes I think my constipation is due to low density of the foods I eat (rice, meat etc). Vegetables and oats also help.

Soluble fiber, as in inulin?

I am actually reading up on carnosine, beta alanine and histidine right now and finding some mixed/contradictory information. This blog post mentions how carnosine or beta-alanine as it breaks down into might make copper toxicity worse because it lowers/inhibits formation of taurine: http://onibasu.com/archives/fdc/71220.html

Quote from link:

"However, histidine and carnosine are powerful carriers of copper. They transport copper from the intestinal milieu into the portal blood and from there to organs and tissues in the body. And don't think you can displace copper with zinc once the copper is on histidine - you cannot. The equilibrium constannt for copper II chelated to histidine is 18.3; for zinc it is 6.7 to 12.9, depending on chelate structure (Ref. Chaberek and Martell, Organic Sequestering Agents, John Wiley & Sons, p.549). Because these are exponential relationships, the real difference in the constants is 10 tothe5th up to 10 to the 11th. Only glutathione, cysteine and thionein can intercept this carnosine-copper transport, but that's one of the big problems in autism, isn't it? These sulfur players have gone AWOL, and copper is excessive at the expense of zinc. Dr. Bill Walsh has made excellent presentations on this. You might think that carnosine plus zinc will act to putzinc in and take copper out. With these equilibrium constants and with the natural copper content of food, that's very unlikely. You need a million or more zinc atoms for each copper atom to be competitive in this game!

Histidine/carnosine-copper wisdom has graduated into medical textbooks. We're not talking about research papers; we're talking what you should andshouldn't do per medical texts. Copper homeostasis with histidine and histidine-albumin complexes are well discussed by David Danks, Chapter 58 of Stanbury et al, The Metabolic Basis of Inherited Disease, 5th Ed, p.1252-1254. For carnosine, the publicity is a bit worse. Carnosine is a threat to worsened Wilson's disease because it and its sister anserine are such good importers of copper to body tissues. Ref: Scriver CR and TLPerry, Chapt26 in Scriver et al eds, The Metabolic Basis of Inherited Disease6th ed McGraw-Hill (1989) 765.

Now, let's go to the really bad guy here, beta-alanine. To be concise: beta-alanine blocks renal conservation of taurine and causeshypertaurinuria - loss of taurine in the urine. This, in tuurn, causes urinary loss of magnesium, which worsens sulfotransferase activity as well as lots ofother necessary enzymatic processes. If you give carnosine, you lose taurine and magnesium. There are lots of references, but you can start with Dr.Charles Scriver's work referenced above, because all of this biochemistry (carnosine, beta-alanine, taurine, etc.) is closely related."

 

[HerrFisch]

[mention]Nighteyes[/mention]
Wow that find is awesome.

I actually took ~5g Beta alanine 1-2 years ago as pre workout. So this additionalyl to the fact that my gluthatione and cysteine is probably pretty low already.

So Beta alanine flushes out Taurine. Interesting, Taurine was my first supplement I got improvements on.
So Beta alanine-> less taurine -> less bile ->less copper excretion via bile-> more copper accumulation.

Did you find any suggestions on doing copper detox right from Jon B. Pangborn?

Soluble fiber can be resistant starch from potatoes or corn, resistant dextrin, inulin, FOS.
They are in oats as well as banans, legumes, cashews, potatoes etc.

Maybe carnosine can transport tissue copper back to the blood +
blocking copper in the intestine by zinc supplementation (like wilsons d.) +
increasing bile output with Taurine, artichoke, milkthistle etc ?

-I think carnosine is only bad for Wilson D. people. Their problem is already lowered copper excretion. So maybe with the possibility from carnosine to transport some copper into tissue / brain, it can get worse too.

 

[Canari]

Thanks, actually psyllium husks helps my constipation (who knows why). Sometimes I think my constipation is due to low density of the foods I eat (rice, meat etc). Vegetables and oats also help.

Atrantil works super well for constipation, that was solved for my father. Also helps with gas.

Then for your fast, if you use some chicken sometimes, maybe your body will not react as if really fasting but as if undereating?

 

[Nighteyes]

Thanks, actually psyllium husks helps my constipation (who knows why). Sometimes I think my constipation is due to low density of the foods I eat (rice, meat etc). Vegetables and oats also help.

Atrantil works super well for constipation, that was solved for my father. Also helps with gas.

Then for your fast, if you use some chicken sometimes, maybe your body will not react as if really fasting but as if undereating?

But isn't fasting undereating, just in a more extreme sense? I dont know if calorie restriction would do the same things that fasting does but over a longer time? Say 30 days on 500 calories per day vs 10 days juice fast or something like that. Or do the "undereating" on 500 calories negate all benefits? I genuinely dont know, but it is a good point Canari!

 

[Canari]

But isn't fasting undereating, just in a more extreme sense? I dont know if calorie restriction would do the same things that fasting does but over a longer time? Say 30 days on 500 calories per day vs 10 days juice fast or something like that. Or do the "undereating" on 500 calories negate all benefits? I genuinely dont know, but it is a good point Canari!

Fasting is resting, undereating is different because your body has to work and feel in famine time, which triggers adaptation without the benefit of resting the body.
Look even at what says Breuss, it is for minerals and not for calories. So, I think you negate the benefits if you eat a little.

I don't know what others think about this?

 

[Nighteyes]

Alright, so my first fast ever went really, really well. Broke the fast with regular food as it was only around 2 days while working during the weekend. No problems with electrolytes or energy levels probably thanks to the Breuss juices.

I discovered something though that I have probably known for a while. I simply cannot digest when standing up/walking around. Only when I lie down on my back can I hear my stomach/liver/gallbladder rumble and food move on. If I simply stand up or walk around after eating my stomach never empties and food just stays there. For hours and hours. If I then lay down later in the day surely my stomach moves. I think I have some stuctural issues. And often get lower back pain as well. Like very often. These things went away during fast, as there was no digestion needed.

Have joined the gym again and will start training my legs and back (squat, deadlift etc) to see if that helps. The gym also has a sauna that I will be using for heavy metal and copper chelation.

Will do another, slightly longer fast soon when circumstances permit. Too much going on with family gatherings etc and I feel good having lots of meat lately (probably the carnosine that I so desperately need). Will post more soon.

 

[Canari]

Congrats!

Alright, so my first fast ever went really, really well. Broke the fast with regular food as it was only around 2 days while working during the weekend. No problems with electrolytes or energy levels probably thanks to the Breuss juices.

I discovered something though that I have probably known for a while. I simply cannot digest when standing up/walking around. Only when I lie down on my back can I hear my stomach/liver/gallbladder rumble and food move on. If I simply stand up or walk around after eating my stomach never empties and food just stays there. For hours and hours. If I then lay down later in the day surely my stomach moves. I think I have some structural issues. And often get lower back pain as well.

What you describe correspond well to the difference between sympathetic and para-s states! You need para-s to digest, they also call it the rest and digest system... directed by the vagus nerve. It seems you stay too much activates when you do not really rest, and it prevents digestion. And yes, the vagus nerve can be also affected by posture, and it is especially true for people with asthma or eczema.

 

[Nighteyes]

Congrats!

Alright, so my first fast ever went really, really well. Broke the fast with regular food as it was only around 2 days while working during the weekend. No problems with electrolytes or energy levels probably thanks to the Breuss juices.

I discovered something though that I have probably known for a while. I simply cannot digest when standing up/walking around. Only when I lie down on my back can I hear my stomach/liver/gallbladder rumble and food move on. If I simply stand up or walk around after eating my stomach never empties and food just stays there. For hours and hours. If I then lay down later in the day surely my stomach moves. I think I have some structural issues. And often get lower back pain as well.

What you describe correspond well to the difference between sympathetic and para-s states! You need para-s to digest, they also call it the rest and digest system... directed by the vagus nerve. It seems you stay too much activates when you do not really rest, and it prevents digestion. And yes, the vagus nerve can be also affected by posture, and it is especially true for people with asthma or eczema.

Thanks, Canari that makes perfect sense. It's just that I dont feel stressed when standing or walking. I can be completely relaxed (mentally at least?) and yet my body just cannot digest. I am sure you are right that the vagus nerve is connected somehow. I really hope I can fix this problem as I am sure it is not healthy to walk around not digesting and while at work or uni I cannot simply lie down. All the more reason not to eat while at uni or work. Maybe best thing for me currently is intermittent eating, say only at night or something. This way I know I can lie down afterwards.. But is this making things worse? Must the body be trained to digest while standing? No clue on this one....

 

[Canari]

Being by definition automatic, the body just do the way it wants, and we are mere spectators! And actually, we need quite a lot of stress to feel stressed. Sometimes we do not see that our baseline level is not as rested as it should! I can feel very relaxed and have hard knots in some muscles. I am a false calm with more freeze than real relaxation. Your digestion cannot lie, it tells you when it feels your state is in real rest and digest mode anyway! Trust your sensations, they tell about the inner life better than anything else.

I just must admit that I offer some understanding but not much more. I have even joined the program of Irene Lyon so that I can benefit of her exercises, audio etc. You can train the body, and we should even all know how to do it! But you cannot train what you said, you can train your body to do its job of alternating activation and rest. We just tend to stay high too long and not alternate enough.

The first thing you can do at work is to stop a few seconds from time to time and look around you, looking for nice things you like and appreciate them, and feel the result of this shift in your body. It makes you relate to your outside and inside at the same time. First practice at home! Just to tell you what it is about: you surely feel different if you look at a child playing with a kitten or at the mess of your waiting washing up in the sink! Select what you look at, and feel without trying to modify anything. Another way is to look around just looking for colors, for example all the blues, then the reds etc. Then also, look at the window and what is outside, and orienter your self by noticing the doors, and feel if you feel safe in your environment. Sometimes even just sitting with a door in our back can create an automatic sense of vigilence! It is well known that in a restaurant, people prefer to eat with a wall in their back. It is just the old sense of safety that is still at play in the modern human.....

You see, digesting has to do with the sense of safety. Notice how it feels to be safe, and try to see how you feel with a change of orientation to doors and windows. Just play with all this and noticing that an exterior change makes an interior change.

 

[Nighteyes]

Thanks for the tips Canari. I definitely sleep better up against something and always have so that is probably related to what you are saying.

I have also started some breathing exercises to release tension from my diaphragm (pushing the sky and breathing deep into stomach and holding. I think tight diaphragm might be related to back pain and poor vagus nerve function.

Also my zeolite supplement arrived today and I have started taking the suggested dose (6 sprays in mouth twice daily). Hopefully it will help lower the heavy metal burden and stop it from getting worse while I detox in sauna etc.

I did another short fast from evening to evening and this sort of eating pattern really feels nice. I am just worried about getting enough calories as I am as mentioned already really skinny. cutting calories is not really helping performance at gymnastics. But health is more important!

Eating intermittently definitely feels right but it is hard to cram enough calories into one meal, damn! I can hardly get to 1000 unless I overdo the fat big time.. good thing butter and cream tastes so nice..

 

[Canari]

Thanks for the tips Canari. I definitely sleep better up against something and always have so that is probably related to what you are saying.

I have also started some breathing exercises to release tension from my diaphragm (pushing the sky and breathing deep into stomach and holding. I think tight diaphragm might be related to back pain and poor vagus nerve function.

As i know my tips and as I do not do them enough, just to tell you that it looks too simple to be useful, but it does change things deeply in a simple way....

What do you mean "up against something"?

I also have tension coming from diaphragm, mainly from falls. When I breathe in deep, I feel the tension, but not lower back, nearly beneath omoplates! The diaphragm is very high.

Good exercise, I do it at the toilet! Push when you breathe in! So it make respiratory diaphragm works with pelvic diaphragm and also shoulder diaphragm as you fill in lungs...

 

[Nighteyes]

Thanks for the tips Canari. I definitely sleep better up against something and always have so that is probably related to what you are saying.


What do you mean "up against something"?

Good exercise, I do it at the toilet! Push when you breathe in! So it make respiratory diaphragm works with pelvic diaphragm and also shoulder diaphragm as you fill in lungs...

As in sleeping with my back against the back of a sofa or sleeping snuggly up against the wall. It seems comforting rather than in the middle of the bed

 

[Nighteyes]

So i thought I would write down some of my experiences in the past week or so where I have introduced two new supplements; namely zinc carnosine and zeolite. Fist I would like to state that since day one of taking the zeolite I have had absolutely no more hallucinations during the night - which is awesome! I can still get nightmares and wake up unexpectedly but that is a welcome change from the semi-awake state where I thought my room was being invaded by aliens (sounds kind of funny when I write it but believe me... it isnt...)

My brain function just seems sooooo much better and my mood is a lot more stabe too. I think the high copper was making me either apathic and moody or euphoric before and the zinc carnosine is making me much more stable.

I still go to the gym to sweat every day including 20 min of sauna daily. I also do cold showers as I really like them. They seem to help me stimulate sympathetic nervous system and at the same time let me relax afterwards.
My latest focus in on loosening up my diaphragm by breathing exercises and I am trying holotropic type exercises. I force a slightly faster breathing pattern at is seems to stimulate my appetite and get the gut moving. Interesting. I think I cronically hypoventilate which would make sense based on my high copper.

I havent felt like fasting this week but I still skip meals rather than eat when not hungry. No problem going from dinner to dinner next day. I just get waaay too thin this way, so I eat two times per day in stead. This way I can exercise and sweat more.

All in all I am really stoked about the many benefits I am getting from picking up small tips here and there on this forum. Thanks to mattyb and gbolduev who throw many little golden nuggets out there. Like the zinc carnosine which I feel really great on. Time to get that copper out of my brain and put to good use!

 

[HerrFisch]

Nice news! I hope carnosine will work as good on me as on you
Seems to be pretty fast results

 

[Nighteyes]

Nice news! I hope carnosine will work as good on me as on you
Seems to be pretty fast results

yeah, honestly I know I incorporated a lot of stuff over the last two weeks... so take my ramblings for what they are - pure feelings and anecdotal. I am just glad I have an approach that has brought back my energy and sleep. Cannot say which parts are the biggest factors (increased sweating, sauna, zinc carnosine, zeolite, breathing exercises, less copper from foods, short fasts etc.)

My goal has been to get better and get rid of the nightmarish hallucinations and so far so good. It has by no means been a good, controlled experiment to test the effect of any one supplement. It could be that the carnosine is doing little/nothing and all the other stuff is responsible for my success... but then again maybe it is the key factor. I know I feel better on it so I will keep taking it over the next weeks (along with the rest of the stuff I am doing) and update here.

 

[Nighteyes]

Alright

So things are going really great! I am still taking the zeolite and zinc carnosine and both seem to be helping. I still havent had a single hallucination since starting the zeolite which really tells me that it is working. I sleep much better during the night overall but still have some things to resolve.
Fasting wise I have decided that I am too skinny to try any sort of extended fast. Therefore I will be doing small 1 or 2 day fasts here and there to try and help my digestive system and give my body a break from all the lactic acid. Really interesting what is causing this but maybe my body just has a block somewhere in the processing of glucose. Exercise is helping me greatly and I have incorporated both running, other forms of cardio and strength training. These all bring down lactace levels nicely.

Next up for me is to try and limit my feeding window to from 1 pm to 9 pm or something like that. Every day. This will give my digestive system a daily break and still allow me to be social with the family etc. Am eating mostly vegetables and meat (pork, beef, chicken) and that seems to agree with me. Too much fat and I get slooow and food just sits around..

Still doing breuss juice every day along with herbal teas (Sage, horsetail, rosemary and others).

These last few days I have been attending two christmas dinners that included mulled wine and some beer and these gave me no problems whatsoever! This is quite an improvement to right after the vaccine where they set me back big time. The mulled wine even makes me feel better digestion wise and I suspect it is the resveratrol as I suspect I have low estrogen.

 

[Nighteyes]

So this week I introduced a new supplement and removed another. I replaced the zeolite I was taking with sodium alginate per Gbolduev's advice regarding chelation. I also think it is good to rotate things and really believe in gboluev's quote about doing anything cronically is never a good thing. This is probably especially true for supplements! probably also explains a lot of the honeymoon periods that a lot of people (including myself!) get. It is easy to create a new imbalances. Hard to tell if something is really working /good for you in the long run.

I have been off the zeolite for three days and the good effects have stayed. No more hallucinations or nightmares. Started the sodium alginate today and will se how I go. Not expecting anything drastic, just aiming to keep any new exposure to heavy metals on the low low. I get the occational nightmares still if I overeat before going to bed but that is something that is easily remedied.. Shouldn't do that anyway. Plus they feel like normal intense dreams. Nothing like the MS type hallucinations with weird depersonalization from before zeolite.

I have been following mattyb's advice on increasing stomach acid with greens and also about not going full on into any long fast. I am just too skinny. I therefore eat only in afternoon/evening on some days and normal on other days. Lots of protein (chicken, pork and beef), coocked vegetables and bread/potatoes.
I think I might be retaining too much CO2 as I feel soo much better with lots of exercise and breathing exercises (forcing hyperventilation). I always yawn when increasing my breathing rate intentionally and suspect that GABA is kept low because of high CO2. Therefore hyperventilating might be helping me relax by increasing GABA conversion. I also feel soo much better after beer/mulled wine which increases GABA (along with many other effects, I know).
I absolutely crave bread and it is the season for rye bread here in dark scandinavia, so I am loading up on that every day with meals. Maybe bread really has something I need so I am not planning on cutting it out any time soon. Rice doesnt do the same for me.

I still use zinc carnosine but only occationally, not every day as planned. No reason for this other than is doesn't feel good taking it every day. Emotionally, yes but digestion not so much. I suspect low taurine. I have ordered histidine to try in stead. Not even sure copper is still high since I am emotionally so much more stable (maybe even too stable and sort of dulled). I suspect low histamine might be the cause (food sitting long in the stomach/bad digestion/low emotions/lowish libido) so I will be experimeting on increasing histidine/histamine over the next few weeks. Along with the histidine I will use more cheese (aged cheddar). I cut this out completely after getting the hair test to try and follow the slow diet but I suspect there is a reason for my cheddar craving and it might be the histamine.

Btw I know all of this is not as useful as if I made tests (blood etc) but I simply cannot afford any and therefore try different things and see how they work. I did the same with ray peat style things ... but I have gotten so much further with the advice given here! Things just seem to match my case very well. The stuff outlined by mattyb feels right to me. We gotta go by what feels right, eh. Even if that doesn't feel right tommorrow; then we adapt.

The biggest impact for me so far is the chelation and short fasting, I suspect. There was simply no focus on this on the RPF and I think this was largely what I was missing. Also, really liking the atmosphere here.