Androstenediol Increases Thymus and Spleen Size by a Factor of 4, and Protects Against Viruses

[Hip]

Hi @Hip - well, I do believe the AET is definitely doing something to me. I am quite tired, and somewhat spacey, similar to when I detoxed mercury - arggh! Not unbearable, but it's pretty strong so I am going to cut it out for probably 2 days to see how I do. I am hoping that it's my immune system, as you suggested.

Same here, I am more tired and feeling more under the weather, and the initial positive emotion-promoting effects I noticed with AET have now morphed into an unpleasant increase in the ME/CFS emotional sensitivity, and sound sensitivity.

I am also going to stop for a few days. I am always wary of supplements and drugs that begin to worsen mental state. When my ME/CFS was more severe a few years back, I could not take immunomodulators like inosine or oxymatrine, because they would induce strong depression. Now I seem to be ok with these immunomodulators (they don't help my ME/CFS much, but they no longer seem to induce depression symptoms in me). Nevertheless AET is having a quite a strong effect on fatigue.

I think it is important when trying supplements and drugs to be intuitively sensitive to your own body, and to pull back when you sense things are amiss.

This is definitely strong stuff, and needs to be treated with circumspection and caution.

When I recommence AET, I will probably use just ¼ of the 25 mg dose each day.

 

[Mary]

I've tried a couple of adrenal glandulars and didn't notice much difference, but maybe I just haven't been taking enough. I just checked into Drenatrophin PMG, and Drenamin and found this message on the pureformulas web site:


So that's not an option for me at the moment. I've got some Vitacost "Adrenal Stress Combat" capsules that include adrenal cortex and "adrenal polypeptide fractions", and I have some Thorne Adrenal cortex. I'll start taking the Thorne in addition to the Vitacost ASC and see how I feel.

Actually, you can buy some Standard Process products on-line - e.g., you can get Drenatrophin here: https://www.pureformulas.com/drenatrophin-pmg-90-tablets-by-standard-process.html

Standard has not sold their products on-line for a very long time. I generally get them from my chiropractor, but on-line is also an alternative.

The recommended dose is 1 tablet with each meal, and I had to start with I think 9 a day, 3 with each meal, and within a couple of days I noticed a difference. I'm not telling you to do this, but this is what worked for me and I know if I had only taken 1 a day, it would have done very little, or else taken a very long time to help.

The products you already have may be good and certainly worth a try!

 

[PatJ]

Actually, you can buy some Standard Process products on-line - e.g., you can get Drenatrophin here: https://www.pureformulas.com/drenatrophin-pmg-90-tablets-by-standard-process.html

On the right side of that page it says the product is out of stock. Then in the Q&A section near the bottom of the page, someone from PureFormulas says that they no longer sell Standard Process products.

The products you already have may be good and certainly worth a try!

I took a Thorne adrenal cortex capsule yesterday, in addition to the usual Vitacost supplement, and slept much better last night. It might be a fluke, but I'll keep it up and try dose increases in a couple of days to see how it affects me. Thanks @Mary. Taking a higher dose may be just what I need.

 

[Mary]

Hi @PatJ - sorry about that, I didn't look closely enough at the Pure Formulas website.

Well - I hope the Thorne product helps you - keep us posted!

 

[Hip]

@Mary how are you feeling today after stopping the AET?

I stopped it two days ago, but even today I still feel whacked; more fatigue and zombie-like brain fog that I have felt for a long time.

 

[Mary]

Hi @Hip - I'm better than yesterday, but yesterday was quite bad Actually I'm surprised that I feel as well as I do, though I am still recovering, had to go very slow this morning, though I was just able to wash my hair (always a major task for me)

My brain is still a little fuzzy but not as bad. I binge-watched Chopped on Food Network yesterday, about all I was capable of physically and mentally. Actually, I got fairly emotional watching it which I don't usually do .....

I'm really sorry that you're still having such a rough time. It was weird, to be honest - it reminded me of detoxing mercury, but detoxing always affected my gut as well as my brain and energy, and this did not affect my gut. Whacked is a really good term to describe it!

This is my second day with no 5-AT. I'm going to see my chiro this afternoon to retest this and something else. He may have some clue as to what's going on, or maybe not. But in any event I won't take any more for at least a few weeks because I have to go out of town in 2 weeks (am going to see one of my sons and his family)

So I just don't know if this was good or bad, too soon to tell, but I think I know one thing for sure and that is if it is good for us on some level, we were probably taking way too much!

Something just occurred to me - you used it transdermally, I took it orally, I wonder if the transdermal application was more potent. I don't know how our doses would compare, adjusting for that - more variables!

 

[Mary]

@Hip - well, muscle testing indicated that it was a Herxheimer reaction and I still test positive for the 5-AT, that it would be good for me, but at a smaller dose. I know the muscle testing doesn't mean anything to you, but it has helped me a lot the last 20 years.

The chiropractor said that one thing that would help me with herxing is something called Cholacol II by Standard Process - it has betonite, collinsonia root and bovine bile salt. It's also used for detoxing.

It did feel different than my usual detox symptoms. I tested today to use 1 capsule a day of the 5-AT, and I bet if I started herxing again, I would have to cut the dose - it changes. But I'm not going to retry it until after June 7, when I return from my trip.

I think that detoxing and herxing, though different processes, may use the same pathways of elimination, and, if so, the progress I've made detoxing may have helped me recover more quickly from this herx. The things I believe which have helped me with detoxing are glycine, inositol and choline. The glycine especially I had to go very slowly with - it hit me like a sledgehammer (detox) the first time I took it (well, actually took gelatin, which is high in glycine, at night for sleep). I can now take straight glycine with no problem.

Maybe you could try some charcoal or whatever helps you with detoxing - I hope you feel better -

(FWIW, here's a link to one method of muscle testing, you might find it interesting - there are lots of variations and my chiro is actually pretty sophisticated in what he does compared to some methods, much more so than when I first had it done 20 years or so ago https://www.crawellnessartists.com/about/
)

 

[Hip]

@Mary
I am also going to give AET a break for a week or so, and then restart using a ¼ or even an ⅛ of the 25 mg dose.

 

[Jesse2233]

@Hip any updates with your use of AET?

 

[Hip]

@Hip any updates with your use of AET?

I have not yet tried it again, but @eljefe19 has been using it for a while.

 

[eljefe19]

@Jesse2233 I've been taking 5-AT for about a month now, but unfortunately due to the sheer number of experiments I'm running on myself at all times it's hard to say if it's helped or not. I do know that it did not cause me to get any worse during the initial stage. I take it still in order to try and cover all my bases. Hope this helps.

 

[Jesse2233]

@Jesse2233 I've been taking 5-AT for about a month now, but unfortunately due to the sheer number of experiments I'm running on myself at all times it's hard to say if it's helped or not. I do know that it did not cause me to get any worse during the initial stage. I take it still in order to try and cover all my bases. Hope this helps.

thanks for the update @eljefe19, notice any improvements during the last month?

 

[eljefe19]

@Jesse2233 Actually yes, since I've started taking 5-AT I have noticed some real improvements. However, during the same time period I've completely reshaped my entire regimen. I will PM you.