Changexpert
Senior Member
- Messages
- 112
After doing some research and talking to forum members, I finally realized that I have autonomic dysfunction (dysautonomia). Since I was a small child, I suffered from muscle weakness, excessive sweating, muscle twitching including facial areas (around lips and eyes), frequent thirst, bladder dysfunction, orthostatic hypotension, and shortness of breath with an exercise. The common symptoms for dysautonomia can be found here. It may be too broad to include all those symptoms under dysautonomia, so please talk to your physician about your circumstance.
One symptom I severely hate is excessive sweating. So far, only one supplement has helped with this, which was sage extract. However, sage extract's long-term effect has not been studied, so I stopped taking it after 2 months. After doing some Google search, I came across many people saying that benfotiamine can help with diabetic neuropathy. Some websites even said benfotiamine can help with autonomic neuropathy. I was skeptical as the websites were a little shady, but my serum thiamine level was at the bottom of reference range when I had my lab work done last year. I was actually supplementing with 5 mg of thiamine back then from a multivitamin, but stopped taking it from this year. I suspected that my thiamine should have been depleted from increased metabolism by other vitamin B supplements I have been taking. So I decided to try benfotiamine.
I took 160 mg of benfotiamine on the first day and 320 mg of benfotiamine on the second day. Within two days, my body temperature became a lot more stable and I noticed I was sweating relatively less. I even did a test by going to a gym for my regular routine. Regardless of how hard I tried on the treadmill, I did not get soaked with sweat, which was very surprising. I did another test by going out in the sun with a black T-shirt. Usually I would start sweating within 5 minutes in the sun, but despite today's high temperature (91 F, 33 C), I came back inside with no sweat on the back. I also noticed I sweat less during sleep and my armpit, palm, and feet are less wet than before.
So benfotiamine might be the magic pill I have been looking for, but here's a kicker. Since benfotiamine contains sulfur, it somehow reacts with my sulfur sensitivity, resulting in side effects. The immediate side effect I noticed was increased hair loss. I have sulfur sensitivity for some reason (definitely not due to CBS and my SUOX gene is fine), which I think is due to excessive sulfate reducing bacteria and gut dysbiosis. I cannot take any supplements that contain sulfur like cysteine, taurine, methionine, B1, biotin, patethine (less problematic than others), glutathione, NAC, MSM, and chlorella. If I take any of the supplements that were mentioned, my hair loss at least triples the next day. My body simply cannot metabolize sulfur properly, so sulfur supplements always cause "shock" (oxidative stress?) to my body. How should I go about tackling sulfur sensitivity? Benfotiamine would be a wonderful supplement only if I can tolerate sulfur. Please share your experience and opinions. Thanks in advance.
ps: I do not react negatively to ALA as long as I take it every 3 hours or less. I am not sure what is causing this paradox either.
One symptom I severely hate is excessive sweating. So far, only one supplement has helped with this, which was sage extract. However, sage extract's long-term effect has not been studied, so I stopped taking it after 2 months. After doing some Google search, I came across many people saying that benfotiamine can help with diabetic neuropathy. Some websites even said benfotiamine can help with autonomic neuropathy. I was skeptical as the websites were a little shady, but my serum thiamine level was at the bottom of reference range when I had my lab work done last year. I was actually supplementing with 5 mg of thiamine back then from a multivitamin, but stopped taking it from this year. I suspected that my thiamine should have been depleted from increased metabolism by other vitamin B supplements I have been taking. So I decided to try benfotiamine.
I took 160 mg of benfotiamine on the first day and 320 mg of benfotiamine on the second day. Within two days, my body temperature became a lot more stable and I noticed I was sweating relatively less. I even did a test by going to a gym for my regular routine. Regardless of how hard I tried on the treadmill, I did not get soaked with sweat, which was very surprising. I did another test by going out in the sun with a black T-shirt. Usually I would start sweating within 5 minutes in the sun, but despite today's high temperature (91 F, 33 C), I came back inside with no sweat on the back. I also noticed I sweat less during sleep and my armpit, palm, and feet are less wet than before.
So benfotiamine might be the magic pill I have been looking for, but here's a kicker. Since benfotiamine contains sulfur, it somehow reacts with my sulfur sensitivity, resulting in side effects. The immediate side effect I noticed was increased hair loss. I have sulfur sensitivity for some reason (definitely not due to CBS and my SUOX gene is fine), which I think is due to excessive sulfate reducing bacteria and gut dysbiosis. I cannot take any supplements that contain sulfur like cysteine, taurine, methionine, B1, biotin, patethine (less problematic than others), glutathione, NAC, MSM, and chlorella. If I take any of the supplements that were mentioned, my hair loss at least triples the next day. My body simply cannot metabolize sulfur properly, so sulfur supplements always cause "shock" (oxidative stress?) to my body. How should I go about tackling sulfur sensitivity? Benfotiamine would be a wonderful supplement only if I can tolerate sulfur. Please share your experience and opinions. Thanks in advance.
ps: I do not react negatively to ALA as long as I take it every 3 hours or less. I am not sure what is causing this paradox either.
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