Updating now on Elle's trial of DCA. Recap: We thought this should be safe to try, as DCA has been taken by young children for long periods. We thought it worth trying as in the reported trial with 22 adults with ME 'Ten patients (45%) experienced significant improvement of their health condition with reduction to almost half of their score in the fatigue severity scale.'
Elle has a history of taking time to tolerate supplements, she tries to stick with new ones a few days to wait out initial abreactions. She wanted to take DCA in combination with the 3 other supplements used in the ME trial and decided to begin by taking the other supplements, adding a new one each time she was sure she was tolerating the last one she'd added.
2nd Aug Began Acetyl l-Carnitine at 500mg / day - no issues.
3rd Aug Added 300 mg Alpha Lipoic Acid / day. She had stomach issues & felt queezy that day & the next two, but this had settled by Aug 6th.
7th Aug Added 100mg B1 / day. She felt queezy by the end of the day & was freezing cold in bed, wrapped in a dressing gown & 2 duvets that night despite it being a warm evening, but things had settled down by 8th Aug.
Elle was going away on a meditation retreat for a few days, after which I was away for a week. She continued with daily doses of the 3 supplements but decided to begin DCA once we were both home.
17 Aug Took 1 x 333mg DCA. She was very tired that evening (but had done a lot, for her, the previous 2 days). She also felt 'sinusy'.
18 Aug Took 333mg DCA. She took it with her other supplements in the morning and had a bad headache within an hour. She hasn't any previous history of migrane but this sounded very like that. She said her head felt as if it might explode. The pain didn't respond to headache meds & got worse & worse. Her eyes hurt and her vision was affected. By late morning she began to feel increasingly queezy. She slept 2 hours in the early afternoon, after which her stomach & head felt somewhat improved, but she still had a headache by the evening.
19 Aug As she wasn't feeling well she didn't take DCA. She said she was finding breathing hard work - decongestant helped. She had a bit of a headache all day, & said her stomach didn't feel quite right. By evening she said 'I don't feel quite myself'.
20 Aug The headache was gone, but the dodgy stomach continued until 26 Aug and on 29th she got what she calls an ME bug - shivering, body aches, sore throat. On 1st September she finally felt OK again.
Elle really didn't want to believe any of the headache or stomach issues could be related to DCA. She so wanted to be one of the 45% who gained energy from it. We agreed she'd wait until she'd felt OK for 3 days, then try it again.
4 Sept. Took DCA at 9am. By 1pm she had another migraine-type headache, again said she felt as if her head might explode. Her vision was affected - she was finding it difficult to focus. Her stomach had no signs of upset but she didn't feel like eating because of the headache. Felt poleaxed.
5 Sept. Decided not to take any more DCA. Still had a bit of head pain, coming & going during the day. Felt sinusy and was finding breathing an effort. Said she felt dopey, a beat behind.
6 Sep. Headache gone. Breathing fine; still a bit sinusy. Eyes 'not quite right' - her left eye not focussing properly, contributing to the 'spacey' feeling. Feeling a bit queezy, but ate quite a lot.
8 Sep Stomach still a bit queezy & still a bit sinusy.
As the headache, sinus issues and dodgy stomach repeated almost precisely both times Elle tried DCA, she's not going to take any more. She noticed no increased energy after taking DCA - though that could be because she wasn't able to take it long enough to generate that effect. The side effects for her are not worth trying further.
However, during the 10 days during which she took the other 3 supplements but not DCA she did notice increased energy & that's borne out by the amount she was able to do on those days. Other people in this thread have noted that they found ALA gave them increased energy and Elle thinks that may be the case for her. If the pattern following the first DCA tablets repeats then the stomach & sinus issues should be gone within the next week. She's then planning to double her daily dose of ALA to see if that makes any difference to her energy.
In the meantime - one last thing. If anyone one reading this thread would like to try DCA, or if you've taken it successfully but find it expensive, we have a pack of 87 x 333mg DCA tablets which I'm happy to send to anyone in the UK who can use them. PM me if you'd like them.