Food eats emotions?

[Nanina]

Hello everyone,

I'm having a bit of an odd problem, and I hope you can help with some insights.

I'm not exactly new in the world of intolerances and allergies, in fact I've had the former for 10 years and the latter for all my life (I'm 36 now). What's new ("new" being a year now) is the overwhelming fatigue and sadness.
Since exactly Dec 30th, 2016, while spending a year abroad in the UK working (I'm originally from Germany), I've been in a pretty much constant low mood, coupled with anhedonia and blunted affect. Sometimes it's very present, sometimes it's just underlying. This low mood and lack of feeling is punctuated by days of strong exhaustion, when I feel like all I can do is sit/lie somewhere, whine/complain about it, and cry. In the last few months, I found out that these days of exhaustion and sadness, when I'm crying at the drop of a hat, follow ingestion of animal protein. Dairy, eggs, meat... doesn't matter which. I've had dairy and egg reactions before, but the meat thing is new. I'm vegan now (which I hate), but still the low mood is there, and I've also had a day of complete exhaustion and deep sadness. Right now, I called in sick at work because I can't take it. My work load is not that much, but I'm completely overwhelmed by it.

I had two great days recently, after taking a supplement with tyrosine in it. These two days helped me see that it's not my routine that is overwhelming me, it's "me". Something has happened to me, and now I can't function and everything is too much. However, the effect lasted only two days and the supps did nothing more after that.

If I should describe the picture I have of me in my head right now, it's of an exhausted person on her hands and knees, panting, and trying to get up but not yet being able to.

I know CFS involves a lot more than "just" the fatigue, I hope to find some information that helps. Can this be the way into CFS? What can I do? Where can I look? I've had a lot of tests done, but I'm still in research mode.

Thank you for reading!
Nanina

 

[Richard7]

Hi Nanina I also read your introductory post.

I do not know if this will help but I have a few ideas.

One is to work on digestion. Pwcfs/me have problems with making their stomachs acidic and with producing the bile and digestive enzymes needed to properly digest food.

To deal with acid the usual trick is to take betaine hcl. The way most people do it is to start with one tablet per meal, and then increase the dose with another tablet every meal until they feel a "burn" (unusual heat) and then drop down by one tablet to set the dose. 4-5 650mg tablets seems a pretty normal dose.

If you want to see some research showing that it works here is a link https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23980906)

When you buy it buy it in a tablet that also contains pepsin (most of them do). Pepsin is an protease, an enzyme that breaks down proteins.

Pepsin only breaks proteins down into peptides, you will also want other proteases to break these peptides down into individual amino acids.

You will also want a range of amylases (which break down carbohydrates) and lipases which break down fats.

I take Creon (which is a brand of pancreolipase: a purified pancreatic extract that contains amylases, proteases and lipases) and Klaire Labs Sibb Zymes a mixture of amylases and proteases which are meant to emulate the brush border enzymes that break carbohydrates into fructose and glucose and peptides into amino acids.

I personaly avoid anything that contains cellulase or any enzyme that will break down foods that healthy people normally cannot digest.

To properly digest fats you will also need to take bile. I take ox bile.

(I used this site when I wanted to learn about digestion http://www.vivo.colostate.edu/hbooks/pathphys/digestion/index.html)



The second thing might be to look at PoTS. PoTS, often hits people as teenagers (though it is diagnosed in young kids too) and is often misdiagnosed as anxiety because it feels the same.

I just gave a bit of an explanation about PoTS here http://forums.phoenixrising.me/inde...again-since-having-the-flu.57139/#post-948126

And the third idea is not mine at all I just second Hip's idea that trying tumeric + flaxseed oil and N acetyl Glucosamine would be a good idea. He reports that it works in about half the people who have tried it.

 

[Gondwanaland]

And the third idea is not mine at all I just second Hip's idea that trying tumeric + flaxseed oil and N acetyl Glucosamine would be a good idea. He reports that it works in about half the people who have tried it.

After taking glucoasmine for a couple of months and flaxseed oil for a couple of weeks I find myself in the exact same state as Nanina described.

I think I have depleted my copper levels.

I had two great days recently, after taking a supplement with tyrosine in it.

Tyrosinase needs copper

I found out that these days of exhaustion and sadness, when I'm crying at the drop of a hat, follow ingestion of animal protein. Dairy, eggs, meat...

Estrogen intolerance (crying fits), and high calcium (dairy), sulfur (eggs) and zinc/methioinine (meat) aggravate low copper.

I wish it was as easy as just taking a copper supplement, which is intolerable.

 

[Richard7]

@Gondwanaland I think @Hip is pretty specific about it being n-acetyl-glucosamine rather than just glucosamine.

Interesting about the copper though, and it seems more directly related to Nanina's most recent experience.

 

[Gondwanaland]

I think @Hip is pretty specific about it being n-acetyl-glucosamine rather than just glucosamine.

I don't think it matters which one re copper status.

There is extensive info on copper here
http://forums.phoenixrising.me/index.php?threads/copper-dysregulation.53851/

 

[Hip]

Since exactly Dec 30th, 2016, while spending a year abroad in the UK working (I'm originally from Germany), I've been in a pretty much constant low mood, coupled with anhedonia and blunted affect. Sometimes it's very present, sometimes it's just underlying. This low mood and lack of feeling is punctuated by days of strong exhaustion, when I feel like all I can do is sit/lie somewhere, whine/complain about it, and cry.

These were some of the symptoms I developed after catching a virus (most likely coxsackievirus B4) that caused a sore throat initially. Within a few months, I was hit with anhedonia and blunted emotions, severe anxiety, and some increased fatigue, all caused by the virus.

Full ME/CFS only appeared a few years later. As this virus spread to friends and family, it tended to trigger these same symptoms in others as well, but in most cases much milder than I experienced. See my website here for more info: https://chronicsorethroat.wordpress.com

 

[Wishful]

When I had intolerance of meats, it turned out to be the fatty acids (probably palmitic) that weren't accompanied by adequate carnitine. Taking supplemental carnitine allowed me to eat meats. I no longer seem to react to the fatty acids or need supplemental carnitine. If you're more sensitive to chicken (minimal carnitine) than beef (plenty of carnitine), you might give carnitine a try.