Energy boost?

[Rebarns]

Hey all!
Does anyone have anything they use/eat/drink etc that's helps to boost energy even if only a little? I don't mean so you can go climb a mountain just anything that helps take the edge off and makes moving around less painful/draining?
Anything other than caffeine? As I don't really find that helps, the best caffeine really does for me is keep me awake at night!
Has anyone tried Matcha green tea? (I think that's what it's called) it's supposed to be really good!?
Thanks in advance,
Rose

 

[Wishful]

For a while, I had a problem with perceived muscle aches (likely no physical muscle cause), mainly in my front thigh muscles. While it didn't actually reduce energy, the pain was definitely draining my willingness to do things. LDN blocked those aches effectively, which allowed me to enjoy physical activity again. Climbing a steep hill, if not a mountain. After maybe a year of LDN, the muscle ache problems seemed to go away, returning only rarely.

I haven't found any stimulants that work for me, but blocking pain can be quite effective at countering the 'draining' issues. So, expand your search to include pain blockers/relievers. Acupuncture actually worked for me, one time (but not the second time). NSAIDs didn't work on those aches. LDN did work.

 

[Joly]

Magnesium works well for me, especially if I'm having bad muscle fatigue and lactic acid type pain. I found green tea too much of a diuretic and it gave me palpitations sometimes but I know some people like it. I also agree that pain relief can help a lot in the short term, LDN didn't work for me sadly.

 

[Mary]

@Rebarns - first, I don't generally deal with pain, apart from lactic acid at times. When I have been very achy, baking soda sometimes helps (1/4 - 1/2 tsp in 8 ounces of water, on an empty stomach)

For energy, I've found many different things that help, depending on what's going. Ideally you would be able get testing like Nutreval, but many of us don't have access to knowledgeable doctors or proper testing. Anyways, all of the following have helped me (and still help):

Drenamin - adrenal glandular, for when my adrenals are weak/stressed - weak adrenals caused severe fatigue for me

branched chain amino acids - small boost in energy and cut PEM recovery by more than half

thiamine - boosted energy - but also caused phosphorous to tank, causing severe fatigue, for which I found that kefir and a very small dose of monosodium phosphate were effective

methylfolate - boosted energy, also caused potassium to tank, causing severe fatigue - potassium gluconate took care of (and still takes care of) that. Actually my potassium was low even before starting methylfolate but never knew that was the cause of that particular fatigue until I started the methylfolate - you can have low intracellular potassium despite normal blood work

B6 (P-5-P) - Nutreval testing showed severe deficiency, and it boosted my energy when I started it

d-ribose- helps with energy

Naturethroid - for hypothyroidism

B12 methylcobalamin - helps with energy

Lab tests showed the hypothyroidism, Nutreval showed low B6, hair analysis showed almost nonexistent B12 and the rest I determined by muscle testing (done by a chiropractor and by myself) and experimentation. If you do any self-experimentation, it is extremely important to start low and go slow - we're all very different and what helps me could be poison for someone else (or it might help them too)

 

[ellie84]

@Mary Do you find that these help in the short or long term? I'm in desperate need of something that boosts my energy immediately.

 

[Mary]

These all pretty much helped immediately. But you have to be very careful with them. First, I would never start with more than one new thing at a time. If you have any way to get testing done for nutritional deficiencies, that would be best. I have had a lot of help from chiropractors who do muscle testing - often called applied kinesiology. Many years ago I was very weak and doctors could find nothing wrong. I went to my chiropractor and muscle testing showed that my adrenals were weak. He gave me an adrenal glandular supplement (Drenatrophin PMG by Standard Process) and within a few days my energy started returning. This was huge. So if you can find someone like this where you live, they might be very helpful.

The methylfolate boosted my energy almost immediately - but - it also caused my potassium to drop severely within a day or 2, which is potentially dangerous. I was prepared for this because i'd done reading here about this issue. It's very common for potassium levels to drop when starting methylfolate and B12 both. I had potassium on hand and titrated up to 1000 mg a day over a couple of days, which made the severe fatigue go away. But you have to be careful with potassium too and go slowly with it. A perhaps safer way to do this is to have low-sodium V8 or vegetable juice on hand. This is high in potassium and drinking 2 or 3 or even 4 glasses will probably help if your potassium drops. And if you do feel better a few hours after drinking it, you'll know that low potassium was an issue.

Thiamin (B1) boosted my energy also very quickly, within a day. It was amazing. And; then a day or 2 later I was again hit by severe fatigue but this time the problem wasn't potassium - it was low phosphorous. Dairy foods are high in phosphorous so I drank several glasses of kefir, and sure enough, the horrible fatigue went away. I have to take a phosphate supplement now 3 times a week or so.

B-6 did boost my energy a little, though not as much as the thiamine and methylfolate. And the B-6 did not cause fatigue after boosting my energy.

The branched chain amino acids have been very helpful. They did not cause any bad reaction for me and boosted my energy a little, and also cut my PEM recovery time by more than half. I've been taking them for 5 years. Many people here have had good results with the BCAAs.

d-ribose boosted my energy within a day or 2 and I never had a bad reaction to it, though some people do.

So I can't tell you what to do or what to try. This can all be tricky and this is why it's very important to only try one new thing at a time, and start with a low dose. Ideally we would have doctors we could work with but many if not most of us don't The muscle testing has helped me many times. I would be much worse off without it.

 

[Mary]

@ellie84 - I forgot to tag you in the above post!