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Janelle's log
Quote from lil chick on October 31, 2024, 5:16 amHi Janelle, great update. Sigh regarding legumes. I just love them but they do cause lots of digestive upset even after all this time with me. I can't help but think that I might be one of those people who are just not legume people. My best diet is kind of dull without them, but there it is. I guess there are benefits to a simple diet, easy to shop LOL.
Yeah I'm kinda having a moment of despair with the legumes. I definitely had side effects with them. Now I'm wondering if I was poisoning myself with oxalates. My gut has not been good for a very long time and people with gut problem absorb more oxalates. I've had some benefits, but if my eyes are so dry and painful everyday it wouldn't matter what other benefits I had because that is unacceptable. Also I've heard of people getting dry eye after menopause but I'm very much still ovulating, did the legumes remove so much estrogen that it's like I'm going through perimenopause faster? is that possible?
I put the mag oil on yesterday a little bit more than I usually do and it did not help my eyes. They were dry and sore all day, culminating in such tension at bedtime I couldn't fall asleep. Did I just experience an oxalate dump?! I had to pee twice too. It never stings though.
Just saw someone on the low oxalate group say that Dr. Mercola's eye supplement helped her halos and dry eye, it has zeaxanthin, lutein, astaxanthin and anthocyanins. I get plenty of some of those! But then again I've seen people say cod liver oil helped their dry eye.
@janelle525 Dry eye is mostly due to retinoic acid excretion. The worse the detox, the dryer the eye. Of course putting vA on it will stop this in the short term, which is why there is a vA cream to put on eyes after cataract surgery. But it is certainly not a good idea if you want to get rid of excess vA!!
Grant explained this eye phenomenon in his books. I used to have terribly painful eye problems which is why I embarked on the low vA diet nearly five years ago. The dryness and pain are 100% gone, but is was not immediate and came back, though milder, a few times. The Russians have developed eye drops containing 4% taurine, which wash away the retinoic acid. They are extremely effective and I so much wish I had discovered them earlier. There are quite a lot of applications for them, glaucoma, cataracts etc. Called TAUSTIN or TAUFON. Because it is a bit difficult at present to get medicine out of Russia it is possible to buy a replica made in Vietnam under licence, called Solopharm 4. I got mine from someone travelling. In China they copied it but it is not the same product at all, much less taurine and lots of other stuff.
Thank-you so much I had not heard about putting taurine in the eye but I just read a study about how taurine protects against visual fatigue at least. I wonder if I could just add taurine powder to eye drops? I might try that vs trying to ship it from another country or buy a knock off brand.
I think I may have plenty of retinoic acid because during these flare ups of dry eye I've been having flaking of my facial skin all over not just in my eyebrows or on my nose, but everywhere. There's no redness or anything but I've never had it this bad unless I had a sunburn. Just crazy that it would be getting worse not better the more I detox? I've been low A for many yrs. Though I did drink OJ and eat ice cream during most of those yrs. It was when I decided to quit OJ and eat beans beef and rice that the dry eye appeared.
Quote from ItsMe on November 1, 2024, 6:48 am@janelle525 if the dry eyes appeared when you stopped OJ, maybe it's because by stopping OJ you also had cut out a significant amount of vit.C
I did cut down on natural vitamin C but I supplement about 200 mg a day. I did just read a testimonial about lemons being able to restore some functioning of the glands that supply an oil film over the eye, when we have thick gooey oil in the glands it doesn't operate normally and the tears evaporate within seconds.
Quote from ItsMe on November 1, 2024, 11:00 amQuote from Janelle525 on November 1, 2024, 9:36 amQuote from ItsMe on November 1, 2024, 6:48 am@janelle525 if the dry eyes appeared when you stopped OJ, maybe it's because by stopping OJ you also had cut out a significant amount of vit.C
I did cut down on natural vitamin C but I supplement about 200 mg a day. I did just read a testimonial about lemons being able to restore some functioning of the glands that supply an oil film over the eye, when we have thick gooey oil in the glands it doesn't operate normally and the tears evaporate within seconds.
Is it a food based vit.c supplement?
Bc from my own experience (*ahem* as queen of supplements🙄) I've noticed that non-food vit.c supplements weren't as potent as a food-based vit.c powder. In fact, I needed to cut down on the natural C compared to the little amount I was already using previously from non-food C.
No I've always used ascorbic acid. But yes I can see how food based is stronger. I am trying out some fresh lemon slices in my water.
Update:
Horrible, horrible period this month. Only went a day or two late, but had awful night sweats and hot flashes like a woman going through menopause! Then my bleeding stopped overnight day 3, then after breakfast I had an unbearable menstrual cramp that lasted 15 minutes when bleeding started again, almost thought something really bad was happening. Never experienced that level of pain during my period before it was at least an 8/10. I have also had really bad headaches and my eyes were really dry. So I guess I'm going through perimenopause. Would explain the change in my periods over the last yr. I blamed it on starting the beans back in January, but I haven't been eating any beans for a couple weeks and it was way worse. Also explains the dry eye. Can be a symptom of perimenopause. I'm only 39 🙁 Totally did not think it would start this early, but I did already go through what felt like menopause back in 2014 when it took forever to get my period back while breastfeeding and getting really thin. When it did come back I had horrifying anxiety and night sweats. Thankfully I don't have the anxiety and panic attacks, but definitely experiencing hormonal imbalance.
I'm going to go back on the bean protocol, at least most of the symptoms were better when I was strict. But such a bummer that when I changed my diet so suddenly in January it seemed to set in motion perimenopause, I had some bad symptoms before that, but nothing like this. Just goes to show how delicate our reproductive system is and putting stress on our body to detox or go through massive diet changes can really do a number on our hormones. I hope I can level it out. Women end up getting hysterectomies and go on birth control pills for these kind of symptoms. But I'm not giving up. Women need to protect their hormones from stress. So that is my number one priority in terms of health goals. Stress reduction, getting good sleep, minimizing blood sugar swings, not worrying about the minutiae like oxalates or even vitamin A. It is more important to resolve insulin resistance, lose excess body fat, get good sleep, and minimize stress. The benefit of going low vit A is that you might resolve those things just by eating better. Eating high carb and high fat I think is a recipe for insulin resistance and hormone imbalance. Going low A means cutting out those high fat high carb foods like ice cream. Anyway, I'm not an expert in anything, all of this taught me to have loads more humility that I don't know what the most optimal diet is for anyone, we all need to do what's best. What I do know is untreated insulin resistance causes all manner of harm. My husband is experiencing the best health since going carnivore, even with all the fatty beef, the fat is where the vit A is. But it isn't about that, it's about getting his insulin and blood sugar down. Losing the visceral fat that causes inflammation. Some who do low A go high carb low fat which can also resolve insulin resistance.
Quote from ItsMe on November 11, 2024, 2:50 pmAnother woman who's period has gone rogue on this diet.
The past 2 months my period has gone from 28 to 32 days. However I experience no pms symptoms anymore such as cramps,tender breasts etc. I basically have no way to tell anymore if my period is about to happen.
The only thing I'd say which remained is that my mood and ability to feel certain emotions are dampened,but that already slowly starts to set in from the beginning of the 4th week.
That's not so bad then! On the bean protocol the breast tenderness disappeared, I still get some fatigue and weepiness, but it was definitely better, but my period became super heavy.
Menstruating was never easy for me, I assume being VA overloaded didn't do anything helpful... (which everyone is here, right, even if they are ingesting less VA) I encountered meno and Grant in the same year at 55. I'm still having hot flashes, 5.5 years later, so being on VA reduction hasn't cured all my hormonal problems either and I suppose it is a tough thing to overcome. And it isn't just about VA either, there is this estrogenic stew we are all living in... and as you say, Janelle, your entire health is involved in your hormone balance.
Sorry to hear you had a hard time, Janelle!
Once I was having a really bad period and my MIL asked if I could have possibly conceived and lost the baby very early on. I bet that would cause a harder period! It was an interesting question that I had never thought about.
Thanks @lil-chick, yeah I have considered early pregnancy loss, but the symptoms seem similar from month to month other than the awful cramp this time around. I didn't have a bunch of tissue come out after the cramp. I thought I might. Could be a fibroid. My sister has a large one and had heavy periods for yrs. Thankfully I don't think mine are even as heavy as they could be, no where near soaking through every few hours or something. I just think my blood is thinner since eating the best I've eaten in my life! But I guess that comes with downsides. I did watch a video that claimed thick blood could be one cause of heart attacks and strokes. But thin blood does come with that risk of bleeding.
Ray Peat believed hot flashes were excess estrogen, he promoted the use of sugar and salt to bring down excess stress hormones. I think eating more frequently could help me when I get like that. The liver needs glucose to process hormones.