First 2 weeks on Freddd protocol

[Johnmac]

Two weeks now on the @Freddd protocol, with some nice changes. Any comments will be welcome:

Pre-protocol: Bad brainfog, fatigue, low mood, 10+ hours sleep a day.

Aug 27: Began the general support supps (various Bs, lecithin, taurine, E, etc). The short-term effect was euphoria. The lasting effect has been that the brainfog of recent months evaporated on Day 1 & hasn't returned. 'Jaggedness' & 'stressedness' of recent weeks is gone. No longer obsessive, irritable & pissed off.

Was able to drop my dose of hydrocortisone from 20mg to 15.

Aug 29: Began the actual protocol with Metafolin 200mg x 4 times a day.

Aug 30: Began m-B12 x 1mg sublingual/day. A few waves of tiredness & nausea. Felt a bit 'pummeled'.

Aug 31: A bit of anxiety on waking. m-B12 tab doubled to twice a day. 2 hour period of tiredness in afternoon.

Sep 1: A bit of nausea, so took some potassium. It passed.

Sep 2: Woke bright as a button on 6 hours sleep. Haven't done that for a long time. Increased the folate to 400mcg/4 times/day.

Sep 4. Still on 8 hours sleep, down from 10+ hours pre-protocol. Took 2mg Adb Cbl - made me a little groggy.

Sep 5. Took the AdbCbl on an m-B12-free day this time: total of 8mg through the day (all sublingual).

Sep 6: Waking temp 36.3, so that hasn't changed with the protocol. Had a 'whacked' feeling, tho it was paradoxical: as if my body was sending a message to my brain that I was tired: but in fact I could work just fine. Never had this feeling before. Yesterday's AdbCbl?

Sep 8: Began 1 capsule of acetyl l fumerate 855mg daily. No effects yet.

The big changes are that the support supps removed my brainfog, & the mB12 and m-folate removed my fatigue. The AdbCbl seemed to lift the fatigue a little more.

Questions:

1. I didn't have any significant start-up symptoms. Any comments?
2. Should I be titrating up, or is everything fine? (Now m-B12 1mg x twice a day; Metafolin 400mcg 4 times/day; AdbCbl 8mg once a week; Fumerate 1 cap daily.)
3. I have had a great improvement in energy, & the brainfog is gone. Should I be shooting for something else? (I have psychological symptoms of long-standing - e.g. tendencies to obssession, depression, anxiety, tho they don't loom too large any more thanks to therapy & time. And psoriasis for 40 years.)

Thanks to all.

 

[ahmo]

Wow, I'm really impressed with how much improvement you've seen, and w/ no side-effects.

OTOH sounds like everything's fine. OTOH, your final par lists some reasons you might want to try increasing. But you might just stay with what you're doing and see what happens over another couple weeks. Sometimes there's a honeymoon period, where the first level of healing kicks in, and later the deeper needs signal w/ some sort of deficiency symptom. Good work Johnmac!

 

[Mary]

So glad to hear you are doing so well! I don't know the next step, whether you should increase what you're doing, but just wanted to say I'm happy for you.

 

[sueami]

Super glad for you that the early results are so strong and positive! Two weeks is definitely still in the honeymoon phase. I, personally, would keep going with the DQ at or near current levels for another week or two, because you have some slipperiness of mood and energy levels, even if they are mild and it would be useful to see what happens there, whether they smooth out or intensify. I would advise letting those stabilize rather than trying to power through to high doses. I suppose if they get worse, then it might be a sign of paradoxical insufficiency and time to titrate up folate and perhaps mb12.

You have plenty of time to heal and you don't want to push so hard and fast that you create a crash. There are layers upon layers of processes that want to be restarted and fully supplied with nutrients. Let the current layers fill up before pushing on to higher doses and new levels of healing is my advice.

Do keep an eye out for potassium deficiency; it can hit huge and suddenly, in my experience. It took me quite a while to realize what that looked like in me. I was expecting leg cramps in the middle of the night but it was more heart palpitations/weird hi-tension feeling in my heart center and attendant anxiety. And I ended up needing way more than I thought I would. Currently supplementing at about 3000 mg a day, in divided doses. I did find muscle twitching ramping up at some point and took that to be magnesium deficiency, so that was another mineral I had to supplement.

 

[Sherpa]

Great results and you moved relatively fast. If you feel good and have energy, that says a lot. Thanks for the notes.

 

[Gondwanaland]

From my short and bumpy experience I can only say do not underestimate magnesium.

 

[Johnmac]

Thanks everyone for the great feedback.

The consensus seems to be that I should stay the course for a while, & see what happens - I concur.

Yep, Sueami, will be interesting to see if mood & other symptoms "smooth out or intensify" over the next 2 weeks. Thanks, I'll watch out for that K deficiency. I've had a smidgin of jittery anxiety, but not enough to even prompt me to take K.

Thanks Gondwanaland: I'm having Mg footbaths nightly at present.

If nothing much changes, but the gains remain, what does one do next? Titrate up, or be happy with what you've got?

To be continued...

Thanks again,

John

BTW, I also have my depressed/anxious daughter on the protocol - similar supps to me. She was vegetarian for many years, including all of childhood, & still doesn't eat red meat. She reports "no change" from 2 weeks on the mB12 and m-folate, & 1 day on the AdbCbl. Yet she seems much brighter in mood & more engaged to me. Not sure if I'm imagining it, or if she is somehow not seeing it. Anyone seen a case like this before?

 

[Johnmac]

Great results and you moved relatively fast. If you feel good and have energy, that says a lot. Thanks for the notes.

Thanks Sherpa. How are you going now? Have you posted somewhere with an update?

 

[Gondwanaland]

Thanks Gondwanaland: I'm having Mg footbaths nightly at present.

If your ammonia raises, like mine did, you might want to have another form of magnesium at hand (for me it had to be amoinoacid-free).

If you have time, look up the users Caledonia and ahmo, they have extremely helpful documents about Freddd's protocol in their signatures that you can download.

About your daughter, perhaps the change was so subtle for her that she will only notice if she stops the supplements... It was like that for me when I went gluten free for 2 weeks. I was sleeping better and would wake up with no pain. I only noticed when I ate gluten again and then I knew I wouldn't eat it anymore, ever. This was one year ago. Unfortunately the benefits of the gluten-free diet didn't last, so I am here.

izzy

 

[Johnmac]

If your ammonia raises, like mine did, you might want to have another form of magnesium at hand (for me it had to be amoinoacid-free).

If you have time, look up the users Caledonia and ahmo, they have extremely helpful documents about Freddd's protocol in their signatures that you can download.

About your daughter, perhaps the change was so subtle for her that she will only notice if she stops the supplements... It was like that for me when I went gluten free for 2 weeks. I was sleeping better and would wake up with no pain. I only noticed when I ate gluten again and then I knew I wouldn't eat it anymore, ever. This was one year ago. Unfortunately the benefits of the gluten-free diet didn't last, so I am here.

izzy

Thanks @Gondwanaland.

I'll keep an eye out for ammonia.

Your case (of not immediately seeing improvements that were there) is interesting - maybe it's happening with my daughter too. We'll see. I'd be interested if @Freddd has seen cases like this.

Update:

*I hadn't noticed any change from the fumerate, tho the last couple of days I feel calmer & more psychologically stable - so, who knows?, it could be that. Either that or the benefits of the m-folate (&mB12?) - now I've reached Week 3 - are gradually building up.

* And I have put on 3kgs in 2 weeks. I find it impossible to put on weight - but now weigh more than I have for years, which is good news.

John

 

[Gondwanaland]

@Johnmac congrats on the weigh gain then! That is good to know since I need to put on some weight as well.

Maybe you could trial with magnesium chloride footbaths, I have never tried it myself but I believe it is the form used in magnesium oils.

Freddd's appearances have been sort of "sabbatical" lately... He shows up for a few weeks, replies promptly to everyone who ask him questions then disappears for a couple of months again.

 

[Johnmac]

Thanks @Gondwanaland.

Yep, nice not to be quite so scrawny.

Actually the science I have seen (a study on the absorption of Mg from bathing) favours epsom salts (Mg sulfate), thus that choice:

http://www.epsomsaltcouncil.org/articles/report_on_absorption_of_magnesium_sulfate.pdf

The study found that 1% epsom salts in a 12-minute bath daily lifts serum Mg levels average ~40% in 7 days.

Thanks for the Freddd info. Can't say I blame him.

 

[Gondwanaland]

Having read a lot about Epsom salts, this was the 1st form I tried. Never felt good, had a burning sensation around the ureters since the beginning. The last time I had Epsom salts footbath I ended up in the ER - could not breathe, it was terrifying.

izzy