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Inflammed brain - supplements

justy

Donate Advocate Demonstrate
Messages
5,524
Location
U.K
LOL Michael - lucky old dad! I haven't noticed any libidinous effects (unfortunately) but my white cell count has gone up or the first time in years to a low normal.

I have been using aluminium free antiperspirant for years as i heard it increased likelyhood of alzheimers/dementa, but i cant seem to convince other people to switch. Healthy people just dont know what they've got till its gone i suppose!
 
Messages
28
Location
UK
As others have said, it's difficult to know what to credit with improvement but I've noticed my brain capacity is much improved now I'm combining L-Carnitine, Q10 and D3. Plus I'm in love with magnesium but that's a personal bias so I'd ignore that :p
 
Messages
18
Thank you for all advice. You won't believe but I tried 90+% of all supplements and some prescription meds mentioned in the topic and in the given links. I also take Sulfasalazine on a regular basis for my Arthritus (plus Plaquenil), but it doesn't help my brain. However, a few things would, probably, be worth trying.
I did take Azythromycin, but don't remember the dose, and I didn't have the brain problems at that time. Definitely, would like to try it again. If somebody had been taking it, what doses have been helpful?
Regarding Clonazepam, would Diazepam be a good substitute? It's something I'm prescribed but don't take on a regular basis. If not, I'd try Clonazepam as well.
Finally, Ashwaghanda. Where can I get it and what is a therapeutic dose? Is it expensive?

Also, I will try higher doses of Tumeric (Curcumin) and see if it make s some difference. That's what happened with taking Nimodipine. When I tried one tablet per day, nothing much happened. When I started taking three tablets per day, it did make some difference.

Thank you for food for thought, again (not that my fed up brain is up to digesting any mental food). However, it made me aware how many supplements and meds I tried and how much money has been wasted. And how little hope left.
 
C

Cloud

Guest
OnlyResting....what kind of Magnesium do you use? I know I need it...always test low, but taking it never seems to do a thing for me.

Randalbond....Just 250mg a day on the Azythromycin works for me. It takes into the second day, but the response for me is profound. It really gives one a good look at how much inflammation plays a role in the symptoms (no way would I get a response that fast killing off bugs).

Mike...I had a friend interpret my DocData mineral and heavy metal results graph...maybe that's what you mean by checking mineral derangement? It looks good which from what I am understanding, minimizes chances of undetectable toxicity.
 
Messages
28
Location
UK
OnlyResting....what kind of Magnesium do you use? I know I need it...always test low, but taking it never seems to do a thing for me.

Randalbond....Just 250mg a day on the Azythromycin works for me. It takes into the second day, but the response for me is profound. It really gives one a good look at how much inflammation plays a role in the symptoms (no way would I get a response that fast killing off bugs).

Mike...I had a friend interpret my DocData mineral and heavy metal results graph...maybe that's what you mean by checking mineral derangement? It looks good which from what I am understanding, minimizes chances of undetectable toxicity.

Hey Cloud :)

I use a magnesium oil spray by BetterYou ('original' version). It's 31% magnesium chloride as part of seabed mineral concentrate. I'm finding I am getting great results spraying this onto my skin as opposed to taking oral supplements. I also add Epsom salts to my bathwater.
 

Dreambirdie

work in progress
Messages
5,569
Location
N. California
Hey Cloud :)

I use a magnesium oil spray by BetterYou ('original' version). It's 31% magnesium chloride as part of seabed mineral concentrate. I'm finding I am getting great results spraying this onto my skin as opposed to taking oral supplements. I also add Epsom salts to my bathwater.

I tried to find this today online, but it is a UK product and I wasn't allowed to order it on Amazon. It there someone in the US who distributes it?
 

slayadragon

Senior Member
Messages
1,122
Location
twitpic.com/photos/SlayaDragon
This is a great thread.

I think that the "brain inflammation" is indicative of the core of our illness, and that if we can control that everything else falls into place. The main problem with this illness seems to be the inflammation in general.....it's just that it's most noticeable in the brain.

So if we can make the brain inflammation go away, we should improve in general.

Biotoxin avoidance will do this. But that's really hard.

Antivirals helped. Famvir actually helped almost immediately. Valcyte took a whole year. (I was detoxing too, so I'm not sure how much credit to give to the Valcyte.)

It's interesting to hear that Lauricidin has been helpful. I am having a hard time with that supplement (even 1-2 pellets makes me go catatonic), but I think that means that it may be necessary for me to continue to make improvements. I'm going to forge ahead with it.

The easiest thing I've found to reduce inflammation is Vitamin C iv's. They're not miracle cures, and when I was living in a bad place I don't think they'd have done anything. But they did take the edge off the inflammation, for sure.

Does anyone think that enzymes do this? Do you have brand/type suggestions, if so?

A long time ago, when I actually had Lyme problems, doxy made the inflammation worse. But now that the test I recently had done (from Fry Labs) said that my blood is mostly clear of biofilms etc., maybe the immunomodulation would make the inflammation better. One of my doctors (Dale Guyer) suggested I take a small amount of it (100 mg) for a while, so this may be a good incentive to give it a try.

Actos is supposed to be helpful for this, for some people. Jamie Deckoff-Jones and her daughter apparently have benefited from it. I may try that too soon. (I just have to break my recently re-acquired sugar addiction first.)

Amy Yasko (www.holisticheal.com) makes a RNA product that's supposed to address inflammation. I have a bottle of it. Part of me feels like it may have helped. Part of me feels like putting my faith in "magic drops" (like "magic buffalo cream") is a little too much hocus-pocus for me. It's pretty expensive ($85/bottle), so I doubt I'll buy any more.

I'm going to try some of the other things mentioned here and see if they do anything. Thanks, all.

Best, Lisa
 

Michael Dessin

Senior Member
Messages
608
Location
Ohio
I like pancreatin8x by source naturals--enzymes

I think magnesium should be a daily supplement for all cfs patients...It does plenty but most of all for me, calms down the nervous system and beneficial for heart..

a good magnesium-pottasium mix in one is very beneficial
 

leela

Senior Member
Messages
3,290
Thank you for all advice. You won't believe but I tried 90+% of all supplements and some prescription meds mentioned in the topic and in the given links. I also take Sulfasalazine on a regular basis for my Arthritus (plus Plaquenil), but it doesn't help my brain. However, a few things would, probably, be worth trying.
I did take Azythromycin, but don't remember the dose, and I didn't have the brain problems at that time. Definitely, would like to try it again. If somebody had been taking it, what doses have been helpful?
Regarding Clonazepam, would Diazepam be a good substitute? It's something I'm prescribed but don't take on a regular basis. If not, I'd try Clonazepam as well.
Finally, Ashwaghanda. Where can I get it and what is a therapeutic dose? Is it expensive?

Also, I will try higher doses of Tumeric (Curcumin) and see if it make s some difference. That's what happened with taking Nimodipine. When I tried one tablet per day, nothing much happened. When I started taking three tablets per day, it did make some difference.

Thank you for food for thought, again (not that my fed up brain is up to digesting any mental food). However, it made me aware how many supplements and meds I tried and how much money has been wasted. And how little hope left.

A great source for ashwaghanda is Banyan Botanicals, they consistently use the best and purest source materials. Also Dr. Lad's Ayurvedic Institute has a store with reliable products at http://ayurveda.com/shop/herbs.html
It's cheaper to buy ashwaghanda in bulk; it has an odd but not unpleasant taste, and you can grab a little pinch and put it on your tongue any time you feel "fritzed out."

Enhansa from LeeSilsby is expensive but is somehow super-asorbable. If you don't go for that, make sure you get curcumin with black pepper (if you tolerate it) because it increases absorption.

Ancient Minerals makes a good topical magnesium oil, whoever asked that, I forgot already :ashamed:
For oral mag, I take the glycinate form, because it doesn't cause the digestive distress in higher doses.

P.S. Oh I forgot to add that with bulk ashwaghanda you can make a nice evening drink by boiling, say 1/4-3/4 tsp (depends on your sensitivity--makes me sleepy not libidinous) in some water for a few minutes, and while that's boiling heat up some milk or milk alternative with some cinnamon, cardamom & ginger to taste. Mix them together, sweeten with honey or maple if you like, and enjoy a delightful warm relaxing beverage a couple hours before going to bed :)

You can do this in the morning or any time you're feeling stressed or fritzed out or what have you, but for me if I go over 1/4 tsp in the am, I want to go right back to sleep!
 

Dreambirdie

work in progress
Messages
5,569
Location
N. California
Lauricidin and Ashwaghanda

My experience with Lauricidin is that it is a VERY STRONG anti-viral, and in addition it is also a rather potent chelator. According to Brian Kabara, one of the owners of the company (who I have spoken to on the phone several times), autistic children have had some positive results with it because of its chelating properties. I proved this by doing a fecal metal test during a very strong detox reaction that I had while taking Lauricidin last year. Several metals showed up in my poop at a moderate level and one (thallium) showed up very high.

Like you Lisa, I can only take a few pellets at a time of Lauricidin. And I have to take breaks in between to allow my body to process out the toxins it releases. I have never been able to take more than 10 pellets in one day, and usually take on 3-5 pellets/day.

As for Ashwaghanda, I have also had positive results with that for helping to boost both my adrenal and thyroid. It was prescribed to me by a naturopath who gave it to me specifically for the purpose of raising my Free T3 levels, which it did. I took it regularly for 3 years, and stopped just a few months ago, due to the fact that it seemed to be making me hyper. I would advise anyone taking it to keep an eye out for any over-stimulation of the thyroid that it might cause. Other than that, it is a great herb.
 

August59

Daughters High School Graduation
Messages
1,617
Location
Upstate SC, USA
This is a great thread.

Actos is supposed to be helpful for this, for some people. Jamie Deckoff-Jones and her daughter apparently have benefited from it. I may try that too soon. (I just have to break my recently re-acquired sugar addiction first.)

I'm going to try some of the other things mentioned here and see if they do anything. Thanks, all.

Best, Lisa

Hey Lisa - I noticed the "re-acquired sugar addiction". What is up with this symptom? It hits me every time I have the slightest flare. I check my sugar with a meter and it goes up some, but not a lot. I'll wake up in the middle of the night and the granola bar craving hits me and I'll eat it too! I figured it must be thyroid or adrenals acting up, but not sure what to do about it?
 

slayadragon

Senior Member
Messages
1,122
Location
twitpic.com/photos/SlayaDragon
Hey Lisa - I noticed the "re-acquired sugar addiction". What is up with this symptom? It hits me every time I have the slightest flare. I check my sugar with a meter and it goes up some, but not a lot. I'll wake up in the middle of the night and the granola bar craving hits me and I'll eat it too! I figured it must be thyroid or adrenals acting up, but not sure what to do about it?

The following is from Shoemaker's "Mold Warriors." It's in reference to the fact that people with mold illness (such as many ME/CFS patients have) are low in VEGF:

>If you're low VEGF, you'll be low in delivery of oxygen to capillaries too. And that deficiency is made tremendously worse with activity. The active cell, looking for oxygen, won't have the right amount available to burn glucose for energy. Normally the cell gets two ATP (energy) molecules from the initial breakdown of sugar (glucose), generating breakdown products (pyruvate and lactate). These compounds are full of locked-up energy and can be processed further in mitochondria, but only if oxygen is present.

The mitochondria are called the "powerhouses" of the cell, because they generate so much extra ATP. Using oxygen, the two sugar breakdown fragments are eventually broken down into water and carbon dioxide, creating 36 additional ATP molecules along the way. If there isn't enough oxygen available during exercise, the cell acts like it doesn't have any mitochondria. The cell starts to be energy inefficient, burning a huge amount of sugar but giving the cell only two of the required ATP at a time, not two plus the 36.

Then the cell quickly begins to consume all the stored sugar (glycogen) from the cell's warehouse. But the amount of the storage glycogen is limited and must be replaced quickly -- or else we die. So to restore glycogen levels, the cells reach for whatever alternative fuel sources it has on hand. Typically, that's your own body's protein, because protein is quickly broken down into amino acids. Two of those building blocks, alanine and glutamine, are rapidly turned from amino acids into sugar. Glycogen is replenished and we live! But the cost of burning lean body mass is enormously expensive for biotoxin patients. We can measure lean body mass too.


So for me, when I get hit with a lot of biotoxin exposure, that's when my cravings for sugar go up.

The interesting thing (and perhaps Mike or others who know something about physiology can comment) is that this section makes it seem like consuming sugar at that moment isn't necessarily such a bad thing. If the cell is burning sugar like crazy, then it's either going to come from converting muscle (which sounds bad to me) or from sugar that's just been consumed. If there has to be a choice, isn't it better to keep the muscle rather than burning it up?

I ask this because I'm convinced that at moments of big exposure, eating sugar actually is a good thing for me. Much better is to get away from the exposure, and usually I try very hard to do that. But if I can't get away, sugar helps somewhat. I honestly don't think it's bad for me.

I was in Chicago (where I was getting more exposure) from July through November. I ate a goodly amount of sugar and gained some weight. After a week away from the city, in a clear area, my sugar cravings have disappeared and my waistline has gone down to where it was at the beginning of summer.

The downsides of sugar are that it is itself inflammatory, that it feeds candida, that it offers empty calories and that it encourages the body to produce more insulin (thus craving sugar to compensate). These things are bad. But I wonder if the decreased mitochondrial output and/or burning of protein stores might be even worse.

Again, staying in a bad environment and eating a lot of sugar to compensate is a very bad strategy. This is emergency use only. Other tools I use during bad exposures include very strong coffee, ibuprofen (usually three tablets) and high-dose melatonin (20 mg). (Plus strong peppermint tea, though there may be no downside to that.) This is self-medication, no doubt. But sometimes that seems to me to be called for.

Does anyone have any thoughts about this though? I'm really going out on a limb here, suggesting that sugar can have a function.

On another note, I just found some spray magnesium at a health food store. Would it be better to just spray it on my skin or to mix it with hand cream?

Thanks, Lisa
 

leela

Senior Member
Messages
3,290
On another note, I just found some spray magnesium at a health food store. Would it be better to just spray it on my skin or to mix it with hand cream?

Hi Lisa,

I dunno if all spray mag is the same, but the one I have is derived from or floating in (forgot) seawater extract, so putting it on straight makes my skin itchy
like I've just been at the beach all day, and stings anywhere there's a little scratch or blemish. I like to mix it with something very pure and plain, like jojoba oil or the
baby oil from here: http://www.saradausa.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3&products_id=45
Mixing it with the oil totally solves the stingy/itchy problem. I do that all over after bathing, and also apply it to my legs and feet at night for better sleep.

For bad exposures, my accu recommended a high-quality protease every 15 minutes or so until symptoms subside. Of course this works better if you have not just eaten... This helps me with Perfume Lady, Smoking Man, Stealth Air Freshener as well as mold etc.
 

Dreambirdie

work in progress
Messages
5,569
Location
N. California
For bad exposures, my accu recommended a high-quality protease every 15 minutes or so until symptoms subside. Of course this works better if you have not just eaten... This helps me with Perfume Lady, Smoking Man, Stealth Air Freshener as well as mold etc.

What brands would you recommend?
 

justy

Donate Advocate Demonstrate
Messages
5,524
Location
U.K
For me i cant see that eating sugar is ever going to be a good thing. I had th mitochondrial proil function test done, so i know my body isnt making enough/converting ATP, but sugar is not a good idea as it makes most of th systems in the body go haywire. Eating regular snacks of protein should help. Besides your body isnt directly using "sugar" to make nergy, it is converting all your food into "sugars" that can then be used to drive energy systems etc.
I see sugar cravings as always being a bad sign that something is awry - and as you pointed out Lisa it is terrible for candida, whcih i have had pretty bad. It only takes one slip off the nosugar regime to get me feeling very ill again, and thats after an extensive anti-candida programme.
 

leela

Senior Member
Messages
3,290
What brands would you recommend?
The protease I use is from Transformation Professional Protocol, which I'm not sure you can get except through a health care professional. They're a little pricey.
[It's a nice line of products; for their other formulas (like Viral Dx or HM Dx) they use very tiny amounts of active ingredient, potentized by the appropriate enzymes which is nice for those of us who are super-sensitive.]
A reasonable alternative would be ViraStop from Enzymedica, which delivers a reliable dose of protease and is easily available.
 

redo

Senior Member
Messages
874
I've got the same thing. Came after a failed ARV trial.

Inflammation, which is probably the reason I've lost much hair lately (TE, a normal hair losing phase s which should stop my itself in ome three months hav ejust kept going).

Inflammation is why I get severe problems with hands and feet from time to time. They haven't been overstrined, it just comes.

Inflammation on the muscles around or connected to the eyes have also got me problems.


I'll try to use Imunovir and see how that goes. I made a post about it here today, that it's effective on regulating TH1 and TH2 even in healthy people.
 

kaffiend

Senior Member
Messages
167
Location
California
I found this study on ashwagandha.

J Altern Complement Med. 2009 Apr;15(4):423-30.
In vivo effects of Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) extract on the activation of lymphocytes.

Mikolai J, Erlandsen A, Murison A, Brown KA, Gregory WL, Raman-Caplan P, Zwickey HL.
Source
Helfgott Research Institute, National College of Natural Medicine, Portland, OR 97239, USA.

Abstract
OBJECTIVE:
This study investigated the immunologic effects of Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) on four types of immune cells in a human sample to determine the immunologic mechanism.

DESIGN:
Five (5) participants consumed 6 mL of an Ashwagandha root extract twice daily for 96 hours. Ashwagandha was administered with anupana (whole milk). Peripheral blood samples were collected at 0, 24, and 96 hours and compared for differences in cell surface expression of CD4, CD8, CD19, CD56, and CD69 receptors by flow cytometry.

RESULTS:
Significant increases were observed in the expression of CD4 on CD3+ T cells after 96 hours. CD56+ NK cells were also activated after 96 hours as evidenced by expression of the CD69 receptor. At 96 hours of use, mean values of receptor expression for all measured receptor types were increased over baseline, indicating that a major change in immune cell activation occurred across the sample.

CONCLUSIONS:
Effects on immune cell activation with use of Ashwagandha warrant further study.