I’m taking a break right now, but I had been taking 2gm lysine daily for months. Are you saying take it or don’t take it?
I don't know if you absorb proteins/aminoacids well.
I had this period of 3 months when no matter what I took or what I ate I kept losing weight. I had severe gastritis (confirmed by endoscopy). Of course, they wrote: mild gastritis, barely visible. So... nothing to worry about it would seem. And no drug would help only zinc carnosine. I immediately felt relief (after an hour of taking it). After 6 weeks of taking it I felt that something is going on again. This time these were signs of zinc deficiency vanishing. I would have never guessed that I had zinc deficiency. Simply because 3 years earlier I had a zinc blood test done and it was OK. So severe deficiency can't develop within 3 years, right? Wrong. After that test I was on a tablet that contained 10 mg of zinc oxide. So it may absorb not as efficiently as other forms but it still absorbs, right? Wrong again. The zinc blood test is a BS. The body may keep the level but be deficient (as with many other minerals). I know for sure that I was deficient even when taking this test. Then the zinc oxide in the tablet doesn't absorb almost at all (it's 1% of absorption afair). Add to that gut inflammation (because it was not only gastritis but my whole gut was inflamed but they will not tell you that because they have no means to examine it, ie. they do but with the so-called capsule endoscopy but it is expensive and not widely available). So this one zinc deficiency made me aware that I may be deficient in all nutrients. It was in January of 2017. Despite the fact that I knew I still haven't brought all other nutrients to a normal level which shows how difficult it is and also that if you are deficient you are not thinking straight. You just can't think due to brain fog. Now I'm much better but not as good as it should be.
I eat a fair amount of protein daily.
I didn't notice that at first. If you do eat protein then it may still be not absorbed. Worse, it may cause gut inflammation due to sensitivities/allergies. Does your gut feel better when fasting?
Then after about 6 weeks, I began to feel somewhat better.
But what felt better - your gut or your overall mood or stamina?
I think you said, you found out you were deficient through testing.
No, just the opposite. I'm not saying that testing is bad. I've tested a lot, spent a lot. I could buy a small apartment if I didn't test. But it almost never brought me immediate answers like the test showed that I had a deficiency. Only after a careful analysis I was able to confirm that indeed I had a deficiency. One example is protein deficiency. They measure albumin content in blood when you do calcium blood test. But albumin is just a parameter that is never raported as deficient, it's just an auxiliary parameter that is printed but not flagged. But still I made a nice diagram of the values that were measured over the years. In 2005 I had 55 units and in 2016 just above 35. That's the difference! If you look for the normal range for albumin you will see that 55 and above 35 is still within normal limits but when this kind of difference is noticed as in my case it just can't be normal.
And so it was with every damn parameter, every deficiency, except for vitamin D. But I found about vitamin D in 2002 when there were no OTC supplements available in Poland and no doctor wanted to prescribe me a higher dose. They were scared of side effects, they knew nothing how it affects fatigue and general well-being. And so, it was easier for me to arrange to buy high-dose vitamin D at puritanpride site than to make them prescribe me vitamin D. I went to every possible doctor, I had my bones examines (X-ray densitometry) and it was OK... so the answer was: your bones are OK so get the f..k out here (almost doctor's exact words).
And we all know that it is ridiculous not to prescribe a high dose vitamin D to someone who is below detection level.
These days people and other doctors shout at me: but it's obvious that vitamin D had to be prescribed, you're making this story up... yeah, right.
So the point is that you can't trust doctors. They live in their world of fantasy, sometimes called routine. If you have a symptom A then routinely you will get a treatment X, symptom B -> treatment Y, etc.
And it this way we arrive at this topic...
The gastro isn’t trying to get rid of me, he’s just doesn’t know what to do next. His wife is a psychiatrist, he’s trying to arrange for me to see her.
I was in a similar situation - multiple times. I was referred to psych for the very same reasons. This allergologist simply didn't know what to do with me next but he had a friend who was a very good psychiatrist who helped a lot of people. Seeing him may help me too as I obviously have problems with engaging with other people. Obviously - if you are unable to even stay conscious/clear-minded for an hour... but what do I know, I'm just a patient. He knows better and this psych knows even better.
So I can see the scheme here: that lady may be great, may have helped a lot of patients. He keeps hearing about it probably every day after work and probably not that much about failed cases which only re-appear when they are cured somehow - so it's like always a success - sooner or later but a success. But this still doesn't mean that she can help you or that these cases were indeed psych cases from the beginning.
I asked this allergologist of mine: this your psychiatrist friend of yours - what's his success rate?
He replied: well, I don't know but it must be as high as 90% because every patient that I refer to him returns to me and says that he helped this patient. Of course, the success rate will be that high because of the way how it's measured. A patient is counted as a success if there is clinical progress, any clinical progress, even a small one. For example if the patient stops obsessing/thinking about his/her disease all the time...
But I'm not saying that you shouldn't go. If your insurance pays for it, then it may be prudent to go. But also be aware that in some countries going to a psych will brand you for good and no doctor will treat you seriously. In such a case, if another doctor asks: have you been to a psychiatrist? - I always anser, yes, I have been to one, I was prescribed drugs, and they didn't help, just the opposite, I wasted a lot of time doing nothing because I just stopped caring for a while.
So, to sum up, a psychiatrist may help, but you should stay alert.
I almost stopped going to any doctor at all because we are simply running around in circles (I say the same over and over again and they reply the same over and over again). And now there's this stupid coronavirus... which makes things even more complicated because many doctors simply increased their fees due to increased risk. But that's me - I hope that I manage somehow to diagnose and treat myself which may not be the case for you. I wasted at least 15 years trying to find a diagnosis so I have a lot of experience and now I use it.