I needed to disable self sign-ups because I’ve been getting too many spam-type accounts. Thanks.
New 30 Day (or longer) Experiment
Fascinating experiment. Thank you for your insights. I am especially curious about your thyroid markers. Do you not test for antibodies?
Quote from mmb3664 on May 8, 2022, 7:02 amWeek 1 Update, here we go...
...
Friday – beef and rice day, did 3 rounds of Wim Hof breathing plus 3 minutes of additional breathing exercises, had 15 minutes of vD lamp use, and used the sauna for 30 minutes; had a lower left back spasm during deadlifting, which has happened before ~7 months ago
...
Summary: ...The bouts of diarrhea and back spasm might be indicative that I am pushing things too hard in terms of “detox”. I did want to take advantage of the weekend and do a salt flush to clear out my stomach and colon in case I did eat something that was causing the seemingly random bouts of diarrhea I have been having. On Saturday, I was able to release some of the tension in my back, but it will likely continue to be inflamed for the next few days. I can still perform kettlebell exercises, bench press, and some other movements that do not aggravate my back, so I will likely restructure my exercise to work around the back pain for 1-2 weeks, depending on how long it persists.
...
Back spasms are a particular problem of mine. I wish some things could come to light on this subject. I'm experiencing back spasm this week, it sure gets in the way of having a productive life, and the pain can be depressing.
My current theories are that it might be about dehydration and/or electrolyte imbalance. I did some reading today on a website devoted to home cures (earth clinic). Many people there have their favorite cures. Today I tried two of them, which both seem to be about electrolytes (possibly) namely raw cider vinegar and molasses. I've also been drinking more water.
For the last few weeks (leading up to the spasms) I have been doing epsom salt baths and finding they did give some benefits. This is probably the 3rd or 4th time I've found that taking magnesium (this time in the form of baths, other times it was in pill form or a rub on cream) can actually lead to muscles spasms (for me). Either the magnesium isn't needed or just upsets the balance.
Could it be that you are changing your electrolyte balance too swiftly with the coconut water? Or maybe, as you say, you are just stirring things up or detoxing too hard.
@beata-2 I have never tested for thyroid antibodies and honestly did not know it was a test. My other thyroid markers tend to come back fairly normal when I do get them tested, so I am not sure what value the antibodies test would provide; I have no suspicion of Hashimoto's or Grave's.
@lil-chick I agree that the back spasms get in the way of productivity...it is very frustrating not knowing what the root cause is. It may very well be related to electrolytes for me. The day I got my back spasm, I drank a majority of the 2L of coconut water before/around my deadlifting; maybe it was too much potassium at once? Unfortunately, I do not want to test the theory lol. If it ends up being true, I do not want to have to deal with this pain!
@mmb3664, I assumes that since you were testing the thyroid, you had an issue. Of course, no need to test for antibodies, when other markers are fine. I am even questioning the antibodies as they are presented in conventional medicine.
@mmb3664 Interesting that you grew to not want the coconut water.
How about this for an idea: maybe *some* of us need a lot of salt and not a lot of other electrolytes and water.
Some of us could have adrenal insufficiency (a condition in which salt is useful). (how low-adrenal is interacting with VA is an interesting chicken-and-egg question). Perhaps we have to be careful about taking loads of OTHER electrolytes and water, so that the balance doesn't become low salt! (personally I almost never get thirsty)
I was on a list yesterday, reading about electrolyte balance, in which people were trying to pinpoint which electrolyte they most need, and someone simply commented, in a very "Dr House" manner: "It's always salt!". That kind of blew me away, because all you ever hear about is people saying salt is bad LOL.
I *cut back on salt* for a few days and *increased foods with other electrolytes and water*, and I had *two* foot cramps in the night rather than my usual one or zero. My back hasn't let up either. I could see how chugging down coconut water might do a similar thing (ie it might *increase non-salt elecrolytes* and *water*)
It's interesting that Addison's (low adrenal) disease comes with a symptom of hyperpigmentation in the areas of sun exposure (and other hyperpigmentations such as on nails, gums). I could have a small amount of that. Is this a sign that Addison's people have backed-up carotenes?
People say stress is related to back spasm. Why would that be? If back spasm is about low-adrenal that might make sense. I was having a stressful week, but I was doing something I normally think of as relaxing (gardening). Do you think of lifting weights/working out as relaxing? Perhaps in a high stress week we need more salt. I know I crave it in those times.
(eating a salty pretzel now)
Another point that I would like to make, although I'm it sure it also doesn't apply to everyone, is that people whose kidneys are struggling can become overly high in potassium. If some of us are going down the same road that Grant did, perhaps we might have struggling kidneys but don't know it yet. If electrolytes are about balance, perhaps that is another possibility in the electrolyte imbalance situation. Perhaps we need to moderate our potassium. Anything can become toxic.
Adrenal insufficiency is actually kind of rare according to the inter webs. I think that thyroid insufficiency is much more common.
I know that whatever I am, whatever my problem is, isn't the norm. I seem backwards from the rest. Perhaps for the rest, salt *is* bad.
@lil-chick I think you may be onto something with electrolyte balances. I'm taking a Physiology course now, still on the first lecture, which is about fluid compartments. From what I understand, our bodies need a specific balance of electrolytes in our intracellular and extracellular fluid in order to maintain homeostasis.
Personal story: I had an acute, long-lasting IBS flare 3 years ago with intense diarrhea and nausea, and I lost a ton of weight unintentionally. I was hypokalemic (low potassium in the blood) for months. I got so bad 5 months into this episode that one day, I was having persistent PVCs and went to the ER. I was given a potassium IV (along with saline). Not fun by the way, the potassium burnt my vein badly when the saline ran out (I pinched the line till they put another bag of saline on..). Also, I was dehydrated with all the diarrhea, weight loss, and lack of appetite, so it wasn't my first time at that ER for some saline replenishment.
I think my blood K was 3.1 mEq/L at the time, and normal is 3.5 - 5.0. I think my sodium and calcium were pretty normal, I don't remember the bicarb and anion levels. But what I noticed on the blood work that day was that my magnesium was 2.5 mEq/L, which is right at the upper end of the range of 1.5 - 2.5.
I had just started taking the same Physiology class at the time, and thinking about fluid compartments made me realize that I was overdoing the magnesium. I had been applying topical magnesium chloride for months in an attempt to help with muscle pain, etc. I thought OK, my potassium is low and my magnesium is right at the top of the normal range. So I realized I was upsetting that delicate balance, thereby worsening my PVCs. At least that's my theory 🙂
My diet is currently red meat and white rice with some low vitamin A vegetables such as onion, water chestnuts, mushrooms, and cauliflower. Other foods I eat from time to time include oatmeal, brown rice cakes, macadamia nuts, turkey deli meat, white corn flour, and egg whites.
@mmb3664 Looking at this list of food, there are quite a bit of nutrients in them. It's not like you cut out empty calories like pastries and soda. I would look up each food on whfoods.com or a similar site and see which nutrients they contain, or even incorporate a few back in (if it were me : ). You know what they say, slow and steady. I also love jumping head-first into stuff, but it can be a lot for our bodies, even if our minds are ready.
Have you tested the pH of your carbonated water? I think commercial carbonated water is acidic. Might just be too many changes at once that are disrupting your inner equilibrium, on top of detox.
Also, I'm pretty sure I read in a thread that @wavygravygadzooks experienced (or still does?) yellow stool. If I recall correctly, Wavy may attribute it to detoxing vitamin A... Intriguing thought.
Yep, I had a lot of bright yellow liquid in my stool early on in my low Vitamin A diet. It finally seemed to go away after 1.25 years or so...I can't recall having any in the past 2-3 months. I'm still not sure if it was Vitamin A or components of bile, but I'm betting on Vitamin A given the strange pattern it followed.
I highly doubt you can get too much magnesium from topical application. In fact, I have my doubts that you can absorb much through the skin at all...if you're going to, it seems like submersion in a high-concentration bath is the best bet. I've searched numerous times for hard evidence of transdermal absorption and there is virtually none to be had. I've tried applying magnesium chloride solution to my skin and it always leaves an awful residue, and high concentrations of it sting...I'm not sure who thought it was smarter to put it on the skin than consume it, but we get all our other nutrients through the digestive tract. Seems to me that it just dries out on the surface of the skin and causes irritation.
@chickadee I honestly did not think that removing the foods other than rice and meat from my diet would be a huge deal, as I was not eating large amounts of those foods when I did consume them. Things have stabilized more this week; no diarrhea or weird cramping/spasms (yet at least), so I will continue on. Regarding the acidity of the water, I have not tested the pH, but I have also not been drinking commercial bottled carbonated water. I have been carbonating my own reverse osmosis filtered water at home using a soda stream, mainly to save money and avoid any heavy metals in San Pellegrino. I believe I do have some old pH strips lying around, so I will go ahead and test my water as well as the Fiji water. Hopefully I will remember to do it before my next update.
@wavygravygadzooks I have been on a low vA diet for over 3 years at this point and have never experienced liquid stool quite like this before in life! I am in agreement with you...I'm not sure if the bright yellow color was due to vA dumping or other components of bile, but I am leaning toward believing it was vA. I'm just curious what the trigger might have been for me. As I mentioned in my response to chickadee, I have not had any diarrhea this week (thank goodness) despite not changing anything in my diet. The only other thing I could blame the diarrhea on was some gut microbiome imbalance that was helped by the salt flush I did on Saturday.
I actually do believe that magnesium "gets in" transdermally because I've had problems from it in pill, cream and now bath form. Ooo I was so mad at the distributor of the cream when I got the neck spasm from her expensive product. I told her that magnesium seemed to give me spasms and she still suggested I try the cream...
It's funny though, I did feel like there were some initial benefits from the epsom salt baths.