again this is a 1998 paper, ideas, not recommendations
and nothing for sale
----
copyright Dennis Argall 1998
questions and comments to grargall@alphalink.com.au
Thyroid and Mitochondrial Function
PRELIMINARY NOTE Clinical hypothyroidism, as revealed by tests, may reflect serious and urgent requirement for medical treatment. That should have been excluded by a doctor before any diagnosis of CFS/FMS, given the essential similarity of symptoms. This paper deals with circumstances short of such diagnosis, but argues that weakness and dysregulation of thyroid and mitochondrial function are central to the persistence of this illness and its correction is necessary for recovery. The paper also suggests that cholesterol or sugar problems ought to be interpreted or avoided by improving thyroid performance. However, the paper should not be taken as recommending that any person receiving essential treatment for vascular or diabetic conditions should abandon such treatment.
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The ideas to be presented here reflect conventional physiology
but challenge some ideas in conventional medicine today.
"All great truths begin as blasphemies"
"Every man over 50 is a scoundrel"
George Bernard Shaw
"In assessing the following, you can take your pick between those two propositions"
Dennis Argall age 54
Why is it relevant to discuss thyroid? What has this to do with you?
If you have a diagnosis of 'FMS' or 'CFS', etc., this does not mean that you have a meaningful disease of known cause or known solution. It means that you have shown a range of symptoms which fit a pattern which is clinically identifiable.
For the most part clinical approaches to these syndromes address symptoms. In my view it is dangerous to start poking medicines and other interventions at symptoms when that may compound the problem causing the symptoms.
A large number of the medications and other treatments on offer work especially significantly at the level of the nervous system. Sometimes people write saying that they only take medicine X "for a particular side effect". Unfortunately, the medicine being used does not know of this intellectual distinction. After many years of treatment with such limitations, and having felt a growing concern about the cumulative effect of the medications themselves, I have considerable concern about just using substances for symptom relief by side effect.
Dr Jay Goldstein's argument (CFS The Limbic Hypothesis 1994; Betrayal by the Brain 1996) that the key issue is neurological disregulation is extremely important. It helps point the way to why people, from an apparently common problem, develop such markedly different symptoms at times.
But Goldstein's arguments lack clear explanation of why this disregulation comes about. In recent months, reading biology and medical research, it has become increasingly evident to me that we may, as humans, infatuated by our intellectual capacities, tend to ascribe many things, many problems, many solutions to our psychological, or neurological systems, when in fact we are, as organisms, not really run at that level.
That is, we would like to think that our nervous systems are in charge, when in fact they are not. As discussed in my April paper, I take the view that the nervous system rides, at times precariously, on the back of our endocrine system, although our nervous system can cause great problems for our endocrine system. An endocrine gland is a " ductless gland". This is a formal definition of very little use. Endocrinology is the study of the products of such glands, hormones, which in fact constitute a most remarkable communications and management system within our bodies.
It seems sensible to look upon the endocrine as the system with primary responsibility for internal management, with the nervous system as the system of greater importance in dealing with the external world. And the endocrine is far more important in 'lower' organisms than it is in man.
A Cambodian doctor recently asked me whether Australians believed, as was the traditional belief in Cambodia, that snakes did not attack pregnant women. I said that Australians had no such belief, but that I knew snakes depended greatly on smell. It would seem sensible to presume that a snake had a much superior ability to our own to discern the hormonal state of a passer-by, and that, indeed, a snake might well be able to tell a progesterone-drenched woman from a testosterone and adrenalin drenched hunter.
This anecdote helps us make a critically important point. As we, as a species, have made such enormous gains in our use of our nervous system, our capacities in relation to the endocrine system have perhaps tended to be buried. I suspect that this has all become much worse in this century of development and chaos.
Another problem that arises in reading about the endocrine system and our hormones is the lack of any hierarchical sense of that system - too many books give a higgledy-piggledy account of how this does this, that does that.
In fact it seems both easy and essential to identify a major starting point, where the system which controls and produces thyroid hormone controls our bodies' conversion of cholesterol into steroid hormones [the 'ster' in cholesterol is the 'ster' in steroid]. This is an obvious point at which this system acquires its basic resources, one of the major points at which our body converts a fuel into a management resource. In this situation, it becomes logical to recognise that the system around the thyroid has to be a critical monitor of what is happening in the body. Whatever goes on in the nervous system, or is reported by the nervous system, is going to be conveyed to the thyroid.
The reaction of the thyroid system will determine what resources we have available to deal with issues. If our nervous system is confounded, then our thyroid may be confounded too, and its adjustments may be entirely inappropriate and may perpetuate problems.
In modern society, we expose ourselves to a range of stresses of all kinds which are far removed from the stresses our systems seem to have been designed to deal with. I refer not just to social stresses but to the physiological stresses imposed by travel, different work, living environments, exposure to new diets and strange chemicals, etc. Entangled in this is exposure to viruses. Some viruses become relevant because more people travel, some may become newly relevant because although travelling benignly in our DNA for vast periods of time, new circumstances may make them hostile.
The argument in this paper is not a simple proposition than, say, people with these syndromes have hypothyroidism - insufficient thyroid function. It is that our thyroid systems are disregulated sufficiently to disrupt many body functions and that, though this disruption may not be clearly identified by currently available technology, we ought to think about the health of this system as automatically as we think, say, of washing our hands before eating.
Having begun thinking along these lines, I have found the syndrome labels less and less useful, and I have moved a long way from ideas of measuring body states and taking medicines, to considering basic ways of supporting my thyroid system. This turns out to be cheaper, simpler, cheerful, constructive, mind-clearing and increasingly painless. Now read on...
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As Teitelbaum observed in his 1996 book From Fatigue to Fantastic Avery Publishing New York, see pages 25-39. "My impression, and that of many other physicians, is that the current method of testing still misses many people with underactive thyroids. Therefore the physician must treat the patient, not the blood test."
Why is thyroid important? My argument is that unless you have an efficient thyroid system supporting a powerful respiratory system and steroidal hormone system, there is no remedy for symptoms in the syndromes such as CFS and FMS. On the other hand, if you repair that basic system, recovery should be possible, except to the extent that time spent with a dud thyroid system means time for damage which may be difficult to fix. Hence the urgency, in my view, of doing relatively simple things to support thyroid, before such damage is substantial and irrepairable.
Symptoms arising from severe hypothyroidism include weakness, lethargy, slow speech, dry, scaly, or course skin, swelling of the face and eyelids, decreased sweating and frequent sensations of cold, especially in the extremities. Symptoms associated with under-functioning thyroid include depression, weight gain, low body temperature, infertility, rheumatic pain, menstrual disorders, repeated infections, colds, upper respiratory infections, skin problems (itching, eczema, psoriasis, and skin pallor), memory disturbance, concentration difficulties, paranoia, migraines, oversleeping, "laziness", muscle aches and weakness, hearing disturbance, burning/pricking sensations, anaemia, slow reaction times, constipation, breathing difficulty, hoarseness, brittle nails, poor vision.
[1960s medical text quoted at
http//www.alternativemedicine.com/digest/issue22/i22-a54.shtml]
Thyroid hormones must reach the mitochondria in the right amounts (and that statement covers a number of processes that can go wrong) so that the mitochondria can convert cholesterol into pregnenolone. Pregenolone has its own values, especially in relation to brain health, but it also is the precursor to all 'steroidal hormones', major players in the endocrine system. The steroidal hormones include pregnenolone, progesterone, DHEA, estrogens, testosterone, cortisone and aldosterone. Their balance and sufficiency is fundamental to many other hormones and notably to adrenal performance and noradrenalin.
Make these key distinctions among these hormones
[1] pregnenolone is the precursor and there is no evidence of any damage if taken in large amounts. When first discovered it was tested in young people and was then believed to be inert because it did nothing. Pregnenolone production declines with age.
[2] progesterone is the major product of pregnenolone, the most protective of hormones, precursor of most of them (including testosterone, itself a precursor of estrogen - lets abandon those boy-girl hormone categories for this purpose, they tend to be exaggerated and mislead) and PROGESTERONE IN SUFFICIENT SUPPLY WILL MAKE AND BALANCE THE HORMONES THAT YOU (MAN OR WOMAN) NEED. This is 'progesterone' not 'progestins' like 'Provera' -totally different things, though confused by some doctors.
[3] all the other downstream products are essential for all of us, but their excess, including by taking supplements, can swiftly derange the whole system, starting with the thyroid.
Add this consideration. Steroidal hormones are also fundamentally important for the mitochondria, of which ten to who-knows-how-many live in each cell. So if thyroid is out of whack, mitochondria die or decline in performance.
cholesterol
\ /
plus thyroid hormone [mainly T3]
and vitamin A
\/
_______________
sugar + oxygen --> MITOCHONDRION -->ATP + carbon dioxide
_______________
\/
pregnenolone
/ \
+ vitamin E
/ \
progesterone DHEA
We depend on mitochondria for 'respiration' or 'oxidative metabolism' - the burning of oxygen and sugar to make adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and carbon dioxide. Both these substances are important. ATP is used directly for energy, throughout the body - a shortage of it in the brain is the beginning of muddling. ATP is also essential to the recombination of amino acids into proteins. Carbon dioxide is fundamental for the protection of cells, the management of calcium, the strength of bones and breathing, etc. It is appropriate to have in mind that much of the cellular life inside our skins is anaerobic, it wants to be away from oxygen carbon dioxide is the major protectant and marker of cellular health.
Hence, the fundamental importance of thyroid performance for the bedrock of our physiological performance. No fix thyroid? - no fix immune system, disease resistance, pain, autonomic dysfunction, bowel and bladder problems, etc. Forget all the rest until you've fixed thyroid.
Revisit Teitelbaum quote at the top.
References
White Handler Smith Principles of Biochemistry a major text, through various editions, for medical undergraduate teaching of biochemistry. Not so much like a 1000 piece jigsaw as a description of most of the parts of such a jigsaw. Not easy to derive a sense of what comes first in hormonal mechanisms.
Raymond Peat From PMS to Menopause 1997, Mind and Tissue Russian Research Perspectives on the Human Brain 1976, 1994 etc, see internet site http//www.efn.org/~raypeat/ ;
other newsletter material and books from Ray Peat, available or orderable from that web site;
personal correspondence with Ray Peat, accessible from me.
John R. Lee, MD with Virginia Hopkins What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause Warner Books 1996, widely available from health food stores. Lee's work follows Peat's.
Broda Barnes Hypothyroidism the Unsuspected Illness 1976 provides an account of both research and clinical practice. Peat and others draw on Barnes; Peat carries the functional account of the whole endocrine system further than others.
There is also an interesting discussion of thyroid at the internet site
http//www.alternativemedicine.com/digest/issue22/i22-a54.shtml [sic - 's' before html in the url]
Jacob Teitelbaum From Fatigue to Fantastic Avery Publishing New York 1996 has a readable but not, to my mind, very orderly discussion of hormones at pages 25-39.
for interesting discussion of mitochondria, see
Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan Microcosmos 1986
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How can thyroid go wrong?
Some people are born with thyroid weakness. A major geographical [demographic] cause is where people live in areas where soils and water are deficient in iodine. Hence iodised salt is a useful general public health measure (rock salt or sea salt contain a whole array of minerals, including iodine - what suits whales, salt-wise, by and large suits us; to bathe in warm seas, for those so lucky, is immensely beneficial, more so than the hot tub of chlorinated water). Broda Barnes noted that such hypothyroidism can persist when people move away from iodine-deficient places, given the tendency of people with like thyroid states to marry (i.e. we tend to marry people who enjoy similar levels of energy consumption and rest).
If, for whatever reasons, a mother has thyroid deficiency in pregnancy, this has consequences for the child. The obvious extreme circumstance is cretinism. I think it reasonable to suggest, however, that this sort of problem, this kind of deficiency and consequences, is not a simple ON-OFF choice, there are gradations of consequence, and this may be a factor in perpetuation of disregulation problems from one generation to the next.
There are a number of factors controlling thyroid. It is important, however, to start with understanding the two most important thyroid hormones, T4 and T3 (the numbers relate to molecular structure; T4 is a precursor of T3, not the other way around). T4 is mainly a reserve store, with a half life of several weeks in humans; T3 is produced on demand from T4, is far more active in promoting metabolism and has a half life of a day or so. So the organisational process involves building a sufficient base store of T4, parked all over the body, and then converting that into an operational supply of T3 on short notice. I like to compare this to a house in the country, with its own water supply, a tank in the ground for storage of collected water, and a small pump to keep the right amount of water in the pipes to the house. Anyone who has ever had a shower while someone flushes a toilet will know the difficulty of maintaining the right pressure to the house. In my analogy, the tank storage is T4, the water between the pump and the house is T3. The analogy also indicates how such a system can be disregulated at a number of points and identification and solution of the problem may be difficult.
The next wrinkle in thyroid treatment is that if you take supplements of T4 [Thyroxine] your thyroid will decide it does not need to work itself and may in time atrophy. The same adjustment problem does not arise with small doses of T3. Yet it is T4, not T3, which is more widely used for thyroid treatment. T4 may be 'safer' than T3 to take, in terms of the possible immediate effects of taking a lot of directly acting T3 - but T3, taken only occasionally and then only at less than the normal hourly human production rate (<5 micrograms) is of more immediate benefit, without long term complications.
How T3 and cholesterol actually get together in the mitochondria is a matter still being researched. In 1995 new research focussed on the role of 'steroidogenic acute regulatory (StAR) protein' in allowing cholesterol into the mitochondrion, where its interaction with T3 takes place. While not the focus here, it appears that StAR protein production is vulnerable to stress-derangement of adrenal function and corticosteroid production. See my April paper for more discussion on this issue of adrenal dysfunction.
Leaving aside the foregoing factors, I think the answer to how thyroid can go wrong rests very substantially on what it is doing, day to day. As the system that controls, moment to moment, supply of the right amount of energy, the thyroid system is obviously a monitor of our whole system, moment to moment. The hypothalamus, the pituitary and the adrenals are involved, but we do not need to think of this as a nervous system adjustment. It's much more basic than that, and I'm not sure that the nervous system fully grasps the issues, indeed the nervous system tends to derail this system, by getting stuck in inappropriate ruts. (Again, see my April paper.)
My recent search through medical research indicates that the following are implicated in suppressing thyroid and mitochondrial performance (details available for the curious)
- unsaturated oils (this is not the place to try to set this out; see Raymond Peat's papers at www.efn.org/~raypeat/ I should note that while Ray Peat's papers are the definitive statements on this subject, I found them sufficiently at odds to want to check the basics with standard biochemistry texts. Basic undergraduate biochemistry seems to support Peat rather than support conventional wisdom.)
- certain foods, notably brassica and legume vegetables
- insulin, noting that in circumstances where the thyroid mitochondrial setup is already weak, sugar metabolism is going to be poor and prospects of sensible behaviour by the pancreas will decline and surges of insulin (evidenced in symptoms of hypoglycemia) will be more common
- estrogen and cortisone at inappropriate levels
- high levels of neurotransmitters, including serotonin and norepinephrin (which implicates anti-depressant medications and tryptophan, but also implicates stress states - including especially unrelieved stress, post-traumatic shock, etc - as such, with or without medical intervention)
- histamines and narcotics, directly or indirectly
- other neurologically active substances, including the anti seizure drugs like clonazepam [Klonopin/Rivotril]
- various endemic chemicals, including pesticides
- among these chemicals is mercury, in many teeth fillings (be especially careful if such fillings need removal - you need a dentist who can get the rubble out of your mouth, not down your throat.)
- unfortunately, taking T4, one of the thyroid hormones, can also give your thyroid the impression that it should take a holiday (see above)
- inadequacy of the lymphatic system (probably a circular issue, each feeding off the other)
Which brings us back to Teitelbaum "My impression, and that of many other physicians, is that the current method of testing still misses many people with underactive thyroids. Therefore the physician must treat the patient, not the blood test."
So what can be done?
Well, first, in my view, act on the symptoms and fret not if the tests are negative. (But see preliminary note at top.)
Second, I now lean to the view that you should regard sugar and cholesterol problems as immediately relevant to thyroid. If we cannot sensibly use cholesterol or sugar and if these are among the most fundamental needs of our physical life, surely we should suspect the processing mechanism before we simply cut off supply. People with this illness seem to succumb to eating obsessively, especially eating sugary snacks, and especially when taking antidepressants. Now that I am aware that antidepressant depress thyroid, why should it be surprising that some mechanism then disrupts normal appetite for sugar? (If sugar metabolism is sinking under the waves, is some mechanism desparately trying to take in more?) There are issues to explore in the future about eating disorders generally, prospects that eating disorders may respond to the following too.
Third, consider cutting down on all those things listed above as contributors to depressed thyroid performance. To list them again, with words altered to reflect the need to cut them down
- don't use unsaturated oils - the vegetable oils, margarine, fish oils, including the so called 'essential oils'
- avoid brassica (cabbage family) and legume (peas and beans) vegetables
- insulin. Think carefully about getting entangled in diabetes treatments. They are undoubtedly life-saving and sight-saving in many circumstances, read nothing into this paper to suggest anyone should abandoned treatment for established problems - BUT... everyone in this disease pattern should presume he or she is vulnerable to sugar management problems, given the proposition that a failure of sugar processing is involved. The steps suggested here are steps that may prevent sugar problems arising, reducing any need for their correction.
- avoid taking estrogen or cortisone supplements; read the substantial literature AGAINST HRT and in favour of natural progesterone. If cortisone is necessary to cope with trauma, be aware of the prospect that syndrome syndromes will be exacerbated. Consider using natural progesterone at the same time as and after the cortisone, to help adjust the system back to sense.
- as high levels of neurotransmitters hurt thyroid, try to avoid prolonged stress, and recognise the likely impact at this level, not just on the brain; avoid using drugs which increase neurotransmission - anti-depressant medications and tryptophan - for any prolonged period, if at all.
- avoid histamines (as in red wines and chocolate) and chemically closely related narcotics
- avoid the anti seizure drugs like clonazepam [Klonopin/Rivotril] at least for prolonged periods
- avoid using pesticides, be careful with food products which may be contaminated. If exposed, think of the impact in terms of this paper, not just in the straight line from contaminant to illness or cancer or whatever. Supporting this thyroid system may greatly enhance capacity to resist such consequences, by strengthening immunity and optimising cellular health.
- take T4 if you have no thyroid, but otherwise look at the issues set out above.
- assume that lymph gland swellings reflect the sorts of problems we are discussing here.
Then consider these approaches and supplements
[1] Mitochondria die in darkness so get yourself enough time in the light. There is more popular discussion of Seasonal Affective Disorder and 'clocks' affected by light but I think this is more important. Get the light onto as much of your body as possible. Abandon the human infatuation with the head and look after the mitochondria in the rest of your body.
[2] Vitamin D is important. It is put in milk in the USA because of the darkness of winter and lifestyle, but it is in fact made from cholesterol by exposure to U-V radiation -- now, back out in the sun again!
[3] Vitamin A is available from milk and eggs, also available from fish oils, but these are otherwise unsaturated oils that keep fish from freezing but which rancidify, like the grain oils (canola, etc) at our normal body temperatures.
[4] Use coconut oil and butter, some real olive oil, rather than the unsaturated oils, most importantly use coconut oil or butter rather than margarines, whose 'value' is made even worse by conversion to 'trans' fatty acids so the margarine will be solid, not liquid. I am monitoring my cholesterol levels with this diet change. The idea is that if you lift thyroid performance, you should consume cholesterol and levels should reduce. A high cholesterol level may indicate failure to convert to pregnenolone. A low cholesterol level will mean you just won't be able to make pregnenolone.
[5] Take supplements of vitamin E. Saturation with vitamin E will enhance conversion of pregnenolone to progesterone and DHEA. Like vitamins A and D, vitamin E is fat soluble; but there appears to be no risk of excess dose of vitamin E, unlike A and D.
[6] Walk and exercise to a point where there is no exacerbation of symptoms - happy exercise. Use only half your energy to exercise, you need to leave a sufficient supply of ATP for your brain to work and for protein building.
[7] Epsom's Salts baths, also adding sodium bicarbonate and NaCl or sea/rock salt - remember that the mechanism by which this works is not 'old-wives-tale' but fundamental cellular chemistry.
[8] Use CO2 [as carbonated drinks]; avoid calcium supplements. The simple substance in the kitchen cupboard, labelled baking soda, or carb soda, is sodium bicarbonate, a substance of fundamental importance to our intercellular fluids. Baking soda works in cakes, because as it is heated it releases carbon dioxide gas, making the bubbles. A pinch of carb soda drunk in water does wonders sometimes against food reactions and several spoonsful in the bath do even more for general physiology. Raising carbon dioxide levels will enhance fixing calcium back in bones (from which it is released by estrogen, among other things), and will help get calcium out of the way of mitochondria. If you don't do this, mitochondria are likely to park the calcium where you don't want it - bone spurs, muscle calcifications, atherosclerosis.
[9] Do not lose appetite and stop eating under stress but ensure you have access to good protein and sugar (oranges good but some some may have a salicylate reaction to oranges) in good meals. Milk and oranges are easy to use if you wake at night (I used to use chocolate, but there are histamines and neurotransmitters which have rogue effects) - make sure you have something available that is healthy and not a great digestive burden.
[10] Walk or drive to high vantage points to enjoy the altitude. Altitude [air pressure] enhances retention of carbon dioxide; see [8] above regarding carbon dioxide. Also can be good for the soul, and involve more sunlight.
[11] Take care of your posture and activity - avoid sitting or lying in one position for a long time; this will make it harder to exercise and increase muscle spasm.
[12] Adopt whatever suits you best as mechanisms for your big front brain to try to calm itself and send calming messages to the lower brain. Some people do well on yoga, some with relaxation techniques, some with meditation. Little things, like having something nice to say about yourself, to yourself (even if it's far from the truth right now) are good. Or visualising yourself in a wonderful calm place while you have positive thoughts about yourself. Goal setting can be important, people who set goals have, according to studies, achieved more than those who have not e.g. "In five years I would like to be warm and happy and have three good friends." These should be self-indulgent approaches, not disciplines or guilt trips. There are lots and lots of books and advisors in this territory. The thing I urge is that such activity be seen in this context.
[13] Breathing doctors have observed (e.g. Dr Charles Lapp, writing about his North Carolina CFS practice) that people with this kind of illness 'do not breath properly' and 'have to be taught to breath properly'. I have in the past been confounded by quite contradictory advice from doctors and alternative therapists on this. But I think such advice starts from an entirely wrong premise. You should, in my view, absolutely not breath 'properly' - more deeply, etc., etc. - until you have satisfactory cellular respiration. If you can't use the oxygen (same argument as relates to sugar), you have no business trying to breath it in. My experience is that if you have a warm bath with Epsom's salts and bicarbonate of soda, and get into a warm bed, you may quickly find yourself breathing deeply and comfortably, because of the swift impact of this kind of treatment on cellular well-being and carbon dioxide levels. I understand that the breathing therapy for asthma, 'Butyko' has some focus on elevating carbon dioxide, but I have no experience of it.
As you get along through this process, some other little things become increasingly important
[14] Raw carrot salads. You will need to give strong support to bowel and liver as you get rid of toxins, including excess estrogen. Carrot roots contain an ingredient that resists rotting, so it becomes the fibre of choice, reducing gassiness and bad chemical reactions.
[15] Now to deal with sugar. All the conventional wisdom says use complex carbohydrates, but we know that our pancreases are weak and it's a lesser burden in the end to use simple sugars. Cutting down on the bread, etc, will have benefits. You can get back to the big pasta meals the night before, some years hence, you take on the Boston Marathon. What you will need, as your system cleans up, is a good sense of matching protein and simple sugar doses. Oranges provide simple sugars, nothing complex about them. But you will still be vulnerable to overdose if not sensible; hypoglycemia is real and means elevated insulin which will set the whole process back.
[16] My capacity to drink coffee has altered since I started this approach. Coffee supports thyroid and contains manganese, which is also supportive. But not all coffees are equal. Some brands/blends seem to have strange effects. I stick to a strong Italian espresso fresh ground coffee, lots of sugar. For me, if not drunk too often, it tends to calm, not excite. That should be your basic test. You do not want to be excited by coffee, you want it to calm; and if it going to be helping your thyroid, then you need sugar in it.
[17] Having cut down on the complex carbohydrates and altered the oils, ensure that protein intake is high. That is a different matter for vegetarians and meat eaters. Beware the problem with legumes, if trying to base protein on plant sources. If eating meat, try to stick with the range-fed animals if you can. Avoid meat from birds and animals that have been fed abnormal diets or antibiotics (intensive-raised chickens, most pork, lot-fed cattle). Feed a pig decent food and it will run around and grow slowly. Feed a pig grains and grains and grains and it will gobble and gobble and gobble and put on weight quickly with a thin soft layer of unhealthy unsaturated fat - anyone remember when lard was hard? A factory chicken lives six weeks two weeks on chick rations, two weeks on grower rations, two weeks on finishing rations, tends to taste like dishwater and is unsatisfying. A range fed chicken should be 12 to 13 weeks old, taste like chicken and feed quite a family to satisfaction.
[18] Provide yourself with mineral and vitamin adequacy. I still use an occasional multivitamin. The anti-oxidant task is much reduced by the changes above. (And be conscious that the industrial manufacturing processes for vitamin are not of the highest possible standard. Large doses may have negative effects for that reason alone. Mineral deficiencies will also not be so significant as this correction proceeds, and good food may suffice. Marine shellfish will provide selenium and zinc and a host of other things. B2 may be especially important, but again we are looking at this stage at supplementation, the need for which hopefully will diminish with physiological improvement and better capacity to metabolise from a good diet.
[19] These points add up to these thoughts about diet
[i] the purpose of a diet is not to lose weight, but to enhance physiology and thus health and fitness, from which a happier body and mind will follow;
[ii] be careful about saying "I just need to eat a good balanced diet", because their are traps of conventional wisdom to be avoided;
[iii] thyroid promoting fresh food with a minimum of processed foods and cans and bottles with preservatives will reduce the need for vitamin and mineral supplements. Undertakers know that bodies don't rot as quickly as they used to rot, because of our intake of preservatives. You don't need embalming yet! Stick to the fresh.
You see where I'm heading folks dinner of prawns or oysters or mussels, followed by steak and chips and tomato and carrot salad, with soda water, followed by creme caramel and a double espresso with two sugars. Is that so bad? Bear in mind that I did not include martinis, cognac or chocolates.
Can you use (do you need) endocrine supplements?
I wrote in my April paper about T3, pregnenolone and progesterone. The latter two are accessible (in the USA) without seeing a doctor. You need to see a doctor to get T3. I sent messages recently about both pregnenolone and progesterone.
In my experience, the first, huge, prompt, change starting with pregnenolone was the change in my state of mind, the equanimity it provided, the ability to think clearly about what I am doing.
I think that is probably the issue to address in considering whether you need these endocrinal extras if a person just can't turn the mind upwards, then that is where I think the pregnenolone can have a major prompt benefit - but then also my experience and Ray Peat's advice is that pregnenolone supplementation needs support from T3. There's no doubt, from my experience, that someone starting on pregnenolone will be desperate to go on getting the equanimity gift it provides, which is direct pregnenolone to the brain, the dosage of which can be stabilised with the T3.
On the other hand progesterone is more calming than pregnenolone, as it does not involve production of DHEA, and there is probably benefit in using progesterone at the same time as pregnenolone, for men as well as women.
But if you rely on big medications for pain, etc... What do you do?
I will send some thoughts on this later. I have my own experiences of getting off major medications but it would be good to have others' thoughts. The recipes in this message should reduce pain, in many ways. The problem is how to get from here to there... and I don't want to suggest it's easy. But the change has a point and offers a better prospect, in my view, and is worth trying sooner rather than later, because prolonged disregulation will cause damage to tissue which may be hard or impossible to repair.
Dennis Argall
June 1998
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