My experience with a new Doctor today

[drob31]

Today I met with a Holtorf trained doctor by the name of Charlie Selzter. What I like about Charlie is the fact he talks the talk and walks the walk. He graduated summa cum laude from med-school then goes on to transform his body and becomes a winning natural bodybuilder.

At one point during the appointment I mentioned how I wish I had his genetics so I could be like him. And he said he didn't have the genetics for it either, at which point I said, "No I mean the genetics to not be fatigued in my quest to be like that."

In any case, I've posted a lot of my lab work on here. I have high cortisol, but I don't think that's my problem, and I think my cortisol has been high for a decade. I presented Charlie with my binder of lab work and notes, which is a ridiculous amount of information. One thing I realized is that I may be trying to do to many thing at a time. His goal was to stabilize me so that I wasn't crashing and that I wasn't fatigued. He said that since I'm sitting in his office it proves my CFS isn't as bad as it could be and that it could be mito related.

Since he's a thyroid/health doctor he wanted me to try some slow release t3 to see if it could help stabilize my hypo symptoms. Personally, I have no idea what it will do, it may not work, but I'm willing to try it. I will start low at 5 mcg's and move up 5 mcg's a week.

I'm also going to finally get my candida lab done, as well as all the other basics. My rt3 was high normal, and my free t3 was almost mid range (3.0), so he wanted to see both of those number change to see if symptoms got better. Personally I like the idea of trying to at least partially stabilize someone while trying to figure out their issue. I may need to try one thing at a time and then see if it works, but he was very open minded to try anything, and I think that's very important; that your doctor will work with you instead of against you.

 

[harveykelley]

Have you started on the slow release t3, and did it help?

 

[Little Bluestem]

@drob31 ?

 

[drob31]

Yes, but it's complicated.

I started my first week on 5 mcg and honestly I felt like I was going more hypo.

I was supposed to do 5 mcg the first week, and add 5 mcg a week, until I reach 20 mcg.

I got baseline blood work before I started the slow release t3. Labcorp is backed up and the baseline blood work is still not back. My rt3 was hovering around 20. ref (5-21).

In any case after the first few days I realized the 5 mcg wasn't enough. I emailed the doctor and he said I could raise the t3 to 10 mcg. I raised it but still did not feel it. Again I emailed him and he let me raise it. After about a week I realized I needed to move up much faster. At week 2 I was up to 15 mcg, and I still felt the same, infact my hands started getting cold after eating meals. At the end of week 2 I moved up to 20 mcg but I dosed 15 mcg in the morning, and 5 mcg in the afternoon. THIS is when I noticed a difference. All of a sudden I had a weird sort of energy. My heart rate and temperature were not increasing, but my evening energy was almost normal, besides the fact I needed a usual nap. It was clearing my brain fog by a large amount, and my recall was getting better.

However, all of my other symptoms persist. Diffuse hair loss, water retention, mild cognitive disfunction (getting better). And also, my new energy seems to have changed to "tired but wired." I know my cortisol is high during the day, but I don't know what's causing it to stay that way. I think I have pealed by the layer of hypothyroidism affecting the brain, and revealed the layer of high cortisol adrenal fatigue.

What's next? I need to keep increasing my dose of slow release t3. I don't even know if slow release t3 is right for me. I talked to the chemist and he says slow release t3 is out of your system pretty quickly, which is why i moved to two doses. I think it slows the digestion down by 2-3x but it's highly depedent on the compound.

I have been using Seriphos and phosphatidylserine for high cortisol. When I use the right dose and time it correct, and the t3 and seriphos are taking affect, I feel 80% better. There is still much experimentation to do however,