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Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of, and finding treatments for, complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia, long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.
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I did not benefit from D-ribose. Dr. Sarah Myhill noted that taking D-ribose depend on the condition of the digestive system. She said that if the digestive system is fermentative that is, dominated by dysbiotic bacteria that ferment foods, D-ribose will not be helpful and in fact will feed these dysbiotic bacteria.
I see. The ARG formula has 4grams of 'blend' compared to NutriCology's 1.3grams. I have emailed ARG to find out how much NT is in their blend and I will post back here when/if they reply.
Hip,@Radio I have been taking 3 scoops (= 3 x 1.4 grams) daily of the NT Factor EnergyLipids Powder for three days now.
On the second day, although my sleep was a little restless, on waking up I noticed some general improvements from the NT Factor: I felt more calm, more content, and I felt like I was moving away from the ME/CFS of mind, and towards the normal state of mind I used to have before I developed ME/CFS. I felt more sociable and talkative than usual, for one thing, and my sound sensitivity was much reduced. So I was quite optimistic that NT Factor was already working.
However, on waking up on the third day (today) of taking NT factor, I felt much worse than normal: I felt an increased in mental numbness, and I felt pretty "spaced out" and unable to focus well mentally. Furthermore, my sound sensitivity and general sensitivity to stimuli were increased, and I found sounds and visual stimuli sort of strangely jolted my mind in a mildly perturbing manner, in a way that reminded me a bit of the anxiety psychosis states I used to get several years ago. I also felt much less sociable. I generally was in an unpleasant and weird state.
So all the gains I made on the second day were reversed by the third day.
After going for a brisk walk today, things improved a bit.
Did you get any bad days like this when you first started taking NT Factor? Did you get these "spaced out" and mental numbness states?
Aerose,The only thing that concerns me about the NT Factor is that it contains phosphatidylserine. This is a phospholipid that is not found naturally in our bodies and can also lower cortisol.
I know my reaction was rare, but taking PS gave me encephalitis which subsequently caused M.E.
if a short walk improved things the issues is likely to be improved Cortisol levels. As your body and immune system recover you will experience some 'healing shocks'. You are likely to experience several such cycles during your recovery. It's all a bit suck it and see whether you worsen because of healing shock, because your doses are too high, or just because some aspect of treatment is not right for you.
The only thing that concerns me about the NT Factor is that it contains phosphatidylserine. This is a phospholipid that is not found naturally in our bodies and can also lower cortisol.
One theory I have about this bad reaction experienced with NT Factor is that the lipids in NT Factor were damaged by the high state of oxidative stress thought to exist in ME/CFS. Dr Cheney thinks that ME/CFS involves a state of chronic oxygen toxicity.
This oxidative stress in the body and brain may be oxidizing these phosphoglycolipids in NT Factor before they can get to work. I understand that some oxidized lipids can be toxic and neurotoxic.
The remedy for this would be to take some good antioxidants at the same time as taking NT Factor, which should protect these lipids from oxidation. Such good antioxidants include:
Vitamin E 400 IU †
Vitamin C 1000 mg
Grape seed extract 500 mg
Astaxanthin 12 mg †
Q10 200 mg
So..................in general.......would it be unwise to take NT factor if you know you have low cortisol? I definitely have low cortisol.Aerose,
I am sorry to hear you had such awful experience with phosphatidylserine, I have not tried it personally but it is present in diet (most meats, large amount in white beans) and it present in cell walls. You are right however that it lowers Cortisol levels in some circumstances.
Have you seen any research indicating how it does this?
Leo
No idea of it's half life but ALC can cross the blood brain barrier and is an effective anti-oxidant.N-acetyl-cysteine has some use; I will add it to my now extended list below.
The important thing is to use antioxidants that are able to cross the blood-brain barrier, and so get into the brain and provide protection there.
It's also good to use antioxidants that have a long half life — days rather than minutes or hours — so that you get long term protection. NAC, ALA and vitamin C unfortunately have short half lives, so you would have to take these several times a day to maintain protection. On the other hand, antioxidants like astaxanthin, vitamin E and grape seed extract have long half lives in terms of days, so you can take these just once daily.
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Some Antioxidants Which Cross the Blood-Brain Barrier:
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Astaxanthin 12 mg · · · · · Half life: 52 hours · Crosses BBB: Yes
Vitamin C 1000 mg · · · · · Half life: 30 mins · ·Crosses BBB: Oxidized form does
Vitamin E 400 mg · · · · · ·Half life: 2 days · · Crosses BBB: Yes, to a degree
Grape seed extract 500 mg · Half life: 3 days · · Crosses BBB: Yes
Q10 200 mg · · · · · · · · ·Half life: 1.4 days · Crosses BBB: Yes
Fisetin 100 mg · · · · · · ·Half life: 3 hours · ·Crosses BBB: Yes
Rutin 500 mg · · · · · · · ·Half life: ?? days · ·Crosses BBB: Possibly
Lutein 10 mg · · · · · · · ·Half life: 15 days · ·Crosses BBB: Yes
Zeaxanthin 4 mg · · · · · · Half life: 12 days · ·Crosses BBB: Yes
Alpha lipoic acid 200 mg · ·Half life: 30 mins · ·Crosses BBB: Yes, easily
Lycopene 25 mg · · · · · · ·Half life: 3 days · · Crosses BBB: Yes
N-acetyl-cysteine 400 mg · ·Half life: 2 hours · ·Crosses BBB: Yes
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Tammy,So..................in general.......would it be unwise to take NT factor if you know you have low cortisol? I definitely have low cortisol.
No idea of it's half life but ALC can cross the blood brain barrier and is an effective anti-oxidant.
Obvious question here small half life means protection for less time, but does it also mean faster action?
Hip,Thanks, I forgot about acetyl-L-carnitine (even though I take it everyday!). I have added this to my list.
I don't think plasma elimination half-life affects how quickly the supplement is absorbed from the gut and into the blood stream.
The half-life is useful to know if you want to work out how many times a day you need to take a supplement. If a supplement has a half-life say in the 4 to 6 hour range, you might want to take that supplement 3 times a day (once every 6 hours), to ensure that you always have adequate levels in the blood. But if the half life is say 12 hours, twice a day will suffice. And if the half-life is around 24 hours or longer, then once a day is fine.
@Hip ,@Leopardtail
I think a substance only generally disappears from the body by being metabolized, by the liver for example, or eliminated by the kidneys or bowels.
A long half life can be bad news if a drug has caused some bad side effects, and you just want it to leave your body. I had this once when I took thyroxine (T4) once for a specific experiment. It made me very agitated, but T4 has a half life of around 7 days, so it took me nearly a week to start getting back to normal!