Further adventures in trying to get healthy

I've been taking Diflucan for about a week now. It's gotten to the point that it doesn't seem to have any effect at all. I still have the same digestive problems I always have had-- although my nose runs less, I must admit.

I suspect that, when I see the expensive doctor again, I'll be put on a stronger dose for another month.

Meanwhile, I have begun to self medicate a few things. Maybe that's a bad idea, but it's nigh impossible to get in touch with the doctor between visits, so I feel that I'm on my own.

About a year ago, I had explored augmenting my diet with coconut oil. But, when I ate it, I had a horrible reaction. I assumed that I was allergic to coconuts from that point on, and avoided it everywhere I could.

I now know that what had happened is I'd had a herxheimer reaction-- a reaction caused by injesting or otherwise being exposed to something that causes a die off of infectious bodies, be they viral, bacterial, fungal, or parasitic in nature.

Sure enough, I can now eat coconut oil without any reaction whatsoever. Indicating that the diflucan did kill at least some of the nasties in my system.

Coconut oil gives me additional calories without carbs, is good for my skin, contains caprylic acid (along with others) which play havoc with bacteria, protozoa, and fungus, and is primarily made of medium-chain triglycerides, which are directly used by the mitochondria in each and every cell of the body. And it's tasty.

I also have been increasing my intake of probiotics from those given to me by the doctor. She had said in the consultation that they had to be in the billions to be effective-- then the office manager gave me the brand they sell, which has the bacteria cultures only in the millions.

So I went out and bought some "Ultimate Flora" critical care probiotics. They've got a few billion active cultures, so I figure that'll help.

Meanwhile, I am still trying to figure out another part of my health puzzle that no doctor seems to care about-- the fact that I cannot go a day without eating red meat.

Say I had eggs and bacon for breakfast, some chicken for lunch, and some salmon for dinner. That night or the following morning I would start getting really bad pains in my back, neck, side of my head (the side varies), behind my eyes, my sinuses (most notably on the side the head already hurts), light sensitivity, TMJD, overwhelming fatigue, clumsiness, trembling, slurred speech, changes in vision... the whole shpeel.

And this problem, if not fixed, can last for days, the pain getting worse to the point of nausea.

What fixes it? A few meals of red meat.

No joke. I also need to be sure I don't mess up my blood sugar in the mean time (because the symptoms are similar to a hypoglycemia episode), but just eating a few steak meals in a row seems to make all that pain go away.

And if I travel, I make a point of eating steak twice a day (maybe bad quality, chewy buttmeat steak, but steak nonetheless), and almost never have a bad episode.

To make matters worse, the steak can't be too well cooked, or it doesn't work as well. And although ground meat will work in a pinch, I need more of it to accomplish the same thing.

I told this to doctor, after doctor, after doctor, and they all ignored me. It sounded so far fetched.

And believe, it sounds far fetched to me too, but that doesn't make it any less true... and any less a nightmare.

Imagine not being able to skip a day of red meat. Ever.

But I think I've had a break through.

You see, I'm suffering from a chronic, high titer case of Epstein Barr. That's a type of herpes virus and can hide in your body like the kind that gives you cold sores or chicken pox. It needs certain conditions to really get to express itself and reactivate-- an acidic environment, a weakened or extra distracted immune system, and low lysine levels.

L-Lysine is an amino acid that is a building block for several other important amino acids, and exists in direct opposition with another amino acid, arginine. L-Arginine and Lysine can't exist in the same cells. One is always pushing the other out.

The herpes virus (whatever sort you have) hates Lysine and loves Arginine. It needs the balance of power to lean towards Arginine and will actively supress Lysine in an infected person's body (supposedly).

Thus, people with active viral infections likely are low on Lysine. This is especially true of those who suffer from cold sores and fever blisters. Those outbreaks can't happen if the body has enough lysine in it. However, the amount a body needs does change, so there's no silver bullet dose. Further, the body does need Arginine for things, so you can't afford to totally push it out of the way.

So, I've got chronic Esptein-Barr. And I am addicted to steak. What do these two things have in common?

Oddly enough, Lysine.

I was doing research on what nutrients I might be missing in my ongoing attempt to remain healthy after the diflucan (you see, getting rid of the infection is only part of my problem, I need to keep it gone too). I came across a document listing the nutrient components of red meat.

And guess what? Red meat contains the most L-Carnitine of practically any food available for humans (http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1053&context=hbspapers). Grinding it makes the red meat lose some of it's effectiveness, and overcooking it also loses carnitine.

L-Carnitine is an amino acid made in the body from L-Lysine and methionine. If it can't be made, it has to be injested. I am low on Lysine due to my viral infections. Therefore it is likely that I am not able to make adequate amounts of carnitine on my own.

Therefore I need to eat foods high in carnitine every day.

Tada, steak.

Furthermore, chronic fatigue suffers often have mitrochondrial disfunction issues. And wouldn'tcha know it? L-Carnitine is specifically used by the body for "the transport of fatty acids from the cytosol (intracellular fluid) into the mitochondria during the breakdown of lipids (or fats) for the generation of metabolic energy." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnitine)

To that end, I have decided to take L-Carnitine supplements in order to see if I can kick my steak habit.

There weren't many options at my small, local health food store, so I bought the only one I could, 500mg from Solaray. That's about 400mg more than I really need, but pill forms of amino acids aren't as readily absorbed as those from food-- so I figure I'll probably get about 200 or maybe 150 mg's from it.

Now, if the carnitine doesn't work, I can try for L-Taurine. It's another biggy that meat offers. But the symptoms of a carnitine deficiency more closely resemble what happens to me-- so I'm going to try that first.

In addition, I figured it wouldn't hurt to add more Lysine to my diet as well. In addition to its antiviral properties, it also works in conjunction with arginine (which I get a lot of in my diet) to build muscle. I am a bit hopeful that maybe this will help me regain muscle mass and stamina when working out as well.

So as of today:

-Diflucan is causing no side effects and no apparent improvements except I don't get the sniffles when I turn on the AC like I used to (a blessing, if minor), and I can eat coconut again.
-I started taking the compounded T3 at 10mcg once a day. I am not sure if it's doing anything, honestly. It isn't causing me harm as far as I can tell.
-Because I've been doing to the T3, I've cut down the synthroid from 88mcg to 75. I started about four days ago, and today feel really wiped out. Not sure if it's the synthroid (which I thought, since it is the only way my body can create reverse T3, I needed to cut back on), or something else. Will stay at 75 til the end of the week to be sure.
- Can tolerate the ribose better at this point, doing 2grams twice a day (at this point, for comparison, the container says I should be doing 5grams three times a day or more).
- Am doing the DHEA/Pregnenolone supplement once a day, but making it later in the day. It seems to help me get restful sleep, but that could be coincidence.
- Have added Magnesium citrate to daily routine in attempt to stablize my digestion. Things don't seem to passing through my system as quickly as they should. I am blaming the Diflucan, but gahd knows what the problem really is.
- Taking higher doses of probiotics at this point (although there seems to be no change there either)
- Finally, going to take 500mg of L-Carnitine and L-Lysine starting later today.

Wish me luck.