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    Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of, and finding treatments for, complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia, long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.

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  1. R

    Why would Niacin cause depression?

    Another thing just came to my mind; I just remembered that cholesterol is the precursor to pregnenolone and progesterone and the depression felt very similar to my worst premenstrual syndrome experiences. So there is actually a link between cholesterol levels and the female cycle. In the...
  2. R

    Why would Niacin cause depression?

    This is a very old post. But since I have a very similar experience to which I didn't find a solution, I want to add my experience. One possible explanation could be the effect nicotinic acid has on cholesterole. I also noted that as much as I enjoy the niacin flush and also as much as it...
  3. R

    Why so many Vitamins and Minerals

    @SherDa thank you. I really was surprised how much I liked the taste in my coffee. I added 1 g Magnesium Chloride and 1 g Potassium Chloride to each cup which is approximately 100mg elemental Magnesium and 500mg elemental Potassium. The taste is amazing. I think the same goes for zinc and...
  4. R

    Why so many Vitamins and Minerals

    @Mary yes, it feels like playing detective... if I didn't observe so many improvements I would have given up already long ago. I am even thinking about quitting my thyroid hormones at some point in the not so far future. I already reduced the dose and tolerate it much better than I did in the...
  5. R

    Why so many Vitamins and Minerals

    @Mary Just very short. My Potassium Chloride arrived some days ago and I am taking at least 1 - 2 gram with my coffee. Together with Magnesium Chloride. I haven't had the deadly tiredness since then. I will report if it stays such. I also noticed that on the days when I was flushing with...
  6. R

    Why so many Vitamins and Minerals

    Benfothiamine is fat-soluble and therefore it can be overdosed exactly because it has a high bio-availability. The absorption of the water-soluble form of Thiamine is at 1-2mg - I don't know exactly how much it is - and some more if the dosis is really high, but most of the e.g. 125mg in the...
  7. R

    Why so many Vitamins and Minerals

    @Mary now you got me into Potassium :) It seems that it could be at the core of many problems. Particularly the deadly tiredness I feel. Symptoms include swollen face and paralysis, muscle weakness and even ADHD-like. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypokalemic_sensory_overstimulation...
  8. R

    Why so many Vitamins and Minerals

    Thank you @Mary . You made me notice the importance of Potassium, when I had my first experience with turning incredibly tired after my first dose of P-5-P. I honestly think that I have to use a supplement. In my experience there are very different kinds of feeling tired. I might be mistaken...
  9. R

    Why so many Vitamins and Minerals

    With a niacin deficiency you certainly deplete Tryptophan. I also think protein is one of the keys. Most people seem to actually eat way too little protein. 0.8g/kg is probably not anywhere close to enough. I agree that people look horribly malnourished. And they also look unhappy and...
  10. R

    Why so many Vitamins and Minerals

    Thank you. I eat plenty of nuts and add cocoa to my protein shake and drink magnesium and calcium rich mineral water. With the cocoa alone I already have 140mg, the water 150mg, with the nuts depending on how much I eat. I also really love sun flower seeds. Particularly after roasting them...
  11. R

    Why so many Vitamins and Minerals

    Hi, this is a very general question. I am not diagnosed with ME/CFS. But due to many heathy issues, particularly also with respect to energy and tiredness and brain fog I started the journey into the world of Vitamins, Biochemistry and all that which many of you know yourself. I have a...
  12. R

    What factor in red meat was responsible for my PEM relief?

    I just came across this publication where they examine the influence of the daily intake of B vitamins on the onset of PMS and remembered your question Dietary B vitamin intake and incident premenstrual syndrome https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3076657/ For both thiamine and...
  13. R

    What factor in red meat was responsible for my PEM relief?

    Zinc didn't help me as well. Niacin helped and B6 helped. If you went vegan, you might check whether you had a high enough niacin intake. It is also among the nutrients that can come short in vegan and vegetarian diets. The body can convert tryptophan into niacin, but it also needs B6 for it...
  14. R

    Niacin for sleep

    A google search for "niacin sleeping aid" brought me to this thread :) I experienced exactly the same. Nicotinamide for a long time now didn't do anything. For ten days I am now taking somewhere between 500mg and 1000mg of niacin. I take it diluted over the day. In our bodies niacin is...
  15. R

    Anyone quit smoking? and see improvements?

    You could try Niacin, the flush version. I am currently attempting to quit and Niacin is on my exit plan. Smoking influences the endocrine system on many ways. It raises thyroid hormones and Cortisol. It blocks thyroid hormone synthesis by Thiocyanate. So yes, in the long term your body will be...
  16. R

    could this be a Parasite? (warning - Picture enclosed)

    Apart from a parasite, it rather looks like mucus and or mucous membrane to me. Tell it to your doctor. Did you get tested for celiac? The thyroid? It can be bacteria as well.
  17. R

    Finding and identifying deficiencies while on SMP (Methylation Protocol)

    The thing is that it all isn't quite clear. Who actually really knows what they are doing? Isn't it trial and error for probably almost everybody, even doctors? If one had to rely on blood tests only most would not be able to try/do anything at all. I had several crashes in the last year. The...
  18. R

    Vitamin B6, Folic Acid immediate effects?

    Zinc is also involved in dopamine regulation. Together with Vitamin C, zinc has the most powerful effect in terms of mood regulation when I recommend it e.g. to friends. That someone more or less instantly reacts with better mood, more energy after taking zinc is something that I have...
  19. R

    Vitamin B6, Folic Acid immediate effects?

    I am just reading the article about the panic attack and before I forget I want to mention that I think and/or thought that I had found the cause of my panic attacks last year. I had a test for pancreatic Elastase, which was an advice that I was given in another forum, and it turned out to be...
  20. R

    Vitamin B6, Folic Acid immediate effects?

    At the moment I am taking 1000µg a day, which doesn't seem so much to me? Yes, they are stored at room temperature and away from moisture and heat. Thank you :) I didn't know that before, but all my supplements are in the same box, which fullfills all of the requirements :)
  21. R

    Vitamin B6, Folic Acid immediate effects?

    Thank you. I had a look at the threads. At the moment it is too much for me to process and understand. I started to feel better when I returned to take the B complex. Since I also still had Niacin at home I started by drinking 25mg dissolved in juice every hour or so such that in total I had 3 x...
  22. R

    Vitamin B6, Folic Acid immediate effects?

    It is true that I never liked but rather disliked the smell. But after some weeks the dislike became a strong aversion such that I just didn't want to swallow them anymore at all. I realized that the aversion keeps coming after some weeks of taking them and it goes away after some weeks of not...
  23. R

    Vitamin B6, Folic Acid immediate effects?

    Push ... :)
  24. R

    Vitamin B6, Folic Acid immediate effects?

    I have read through some of the folinic acid threads, but couldn't find exactly what I was looking for. From last year approximately September to this year April I suffered from something that could probably be best described as panic attacks combined with obsessive thinking and suicidal...
  25. R

    Lactobacillus Fermentum: a probiotic that creates/recycles glutathione, improves heart health

    It might be a Vitamin C issue, a) Vitamin C is a natural antihistamine and b) it is involved in dopamine synthesis. If you want you can just try to take higher doses of Vitamin C. If you start with it, you should start with approximately 0.5 g per day and then increase with another 0.5 g every...
  26. R

    Vitamin B6, Folic Acid immediate effects?

    I also wanted to make an explicit note that, @Mary 's tip with the potassium seems to have been spot on. In case that anyone will read this at some point. As far as I understand now, there were also other symptoms that were associated with low potassium. Thank you :)
  27. R

    Vitamin B6, Folic Acid immediate effects?

    I did take iron in the last weeks and follow the imperfect something is better than perfect nothing strategy ;) I am not sure that it helped. I have less herpes outbreaks and this is in my case related to my iron status. So I think it works. Me too. On some days I wish I could trow it all...
  28. R

    Daily Mail announces CF (CFS?) and fibromyalgia reclassified as BDS by WHO

    Well it is the same argument one of my family members used. I believe I am sick and therefore my body starts to be sick and thus creates all the problems, including blood parameters and such. Ergo, if I stop believing to be sick, I would be fine again. Only I know about the many years I was...
  29. R

    Vitamin B6, Folic Acid immediate effects?

    I use a small amount of orange juice, fill the rest with water, add 1 g of ascorbic acid and that is the basis of all the supplements I take, expect if it is selenium as vitamin C decreases selenium absorption, I am not sure about selenium yeast however... and in the mean time over the course of...
  30. R

    Vitamin B6, Folic Acid immediate effects?

    Thank you. I think in my case one reason is that I don't take the supplement regularly. Since I want to create ideal conditions for the iron absorption and I rarely have them in my day it is always iron that I "forget". E.g. I have a hard time in going through my days without coffee, so I drink...