simple cure, just supplements and di... 
omo
8 years ago
2,039
Not.
Wouldn't that be nice, though? If only.
I far greater prefer an easy solution like just popping a few pills a day. At least over a solution where I have to put real effort in, annoying and uncomfortable, doing something like meditating.
To be sure, the supplements and diet have helped. A great deal. But what has really made fundamental difference has been calming down my stress system. Sheer time has done that. Removing stressors definitely helped. But I never kept up with the relaxation and meditation. And of all the therapies I would recommend for curing, not just relieving symptoms, those would be top most. Relax.
"Akrasia".
I've gotten much, much better over time. I've dialled in some solidly beneficial supplements and dietary practices. I'm well enough for a 9-to-5 job as a tech worker, staying focused and clear-headed, awake all day. I get regular, restful sleep. My digestion is good. My hair has stopped falling out. My skin is rarely sorely dry. My tendons rarely spontaneously ache. I had dozens of painful, irritating, depressing, embarrassing symptoms, and they have been fading like morning fog. Well, on a slow-dawning day.
I can't help but think that it would not have taken 6 years if I'd emphasized meditation and relaxation exercises from the start. Sure, the diet and supplements would have been greatly supportive, even necessary, but the progress came from calming the dysregulated stress axis, the freaked out L-HPA axis. And, again, that was mainly time.
I know a lot of others out there have the same style of "Adrenal Fatigue" illness I do, the same syndrome, the same causes if not the exact same symptoms. You can't live in this world without great risk of getting emotionally beat down. There should be a lot of us here.
I'm basically done here, but I'm sticking around. It matters to me that everyone do well — though I'm trying not to be too attached to the idea! So, for those who'll hear me and benefit, I remain. Really, I'm only just out of the woods, anyway. And recent stress threatens relapse. So it still does me good to hang around. I want to nail down the relaxation, the equanimity, get it permeating to the core of my mind. But I should say that I'm just about done.
Turns out that one style of relaxation breathing is pretty damned easy. Think "sigh of relief".
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- Re: simple cure, just supplements an... Tena Cious
8 years ago
1,780
This is a reply to # 2,151,007Great news omo. Your experience sounds like the one of feo66. I also never kept up with the meditation and relaxation, and a lot of people have advised it.
It just was too annoying for me, because I am too wired and trying to meditate is very uncomfortable. Guess that was wrong. There is any specific technique you use? I used for a short while the Silva "rebirth" breathing, it really makes you feel weird.- "sigh of relief" omo
8 years ago
1,825
This is a reply to # 2,151,054Lately I've been trying out a simple and natural technique: the sigh of relief.
It's exactly what we reflexively do after a stressful situation. Take a good-sized in-breath, and then let it out while simultaneously letting go of stress and tension. That's it.
There's a reason we naturally do this. There's a reason it feels good. It helps regulate your HPA axis. It seems trivial, but that's because it's such a natural thing to do and it because it's such a small activity. But, again, our bodies are inclined to do it for a reason. Our bodies are programmed to help themselves. We have to facilitate that, and not get in the way.
Simple and convenient. I think this is a great tool.
I do this breathing every time I experience an adrenal shock. With my current dangerous and frustrating circumstance I find my stress axis is slipping into overdrive again. I keep getting adrenaline shocks every time I think about what's wrong. And after a while that'll spread out to even getting adrenaline shocks imagining that cars in lanes next to me might swing into my lane without warning. I'll be in freak-out mode where I'll keep being alarmed at even unlikely scenarios. Need to head that off.
The sigh of relief I think should help some there, but it seems, just to my intuition, that it works best as a post-alarm-surge therapy. It might ease the mind a little and reduce overdrive/hypersensitivity, but I bet there are other more effective techniques for that. I'm looking for those next.
- Re: purplepixie
8 years ago
1,836
This is a reply to # 2,151,215I totally agree Omo - i have found i take in and breath out a big sigh every now and again - usually after a 'stress' moment.
It happened this morning when my crazy horse in heat crashed through the electric fence and went galloping off!
That event crashed me for the entire day really but all day i have been 'sighing' quite a lot to 'release' the shock.
I often thought it would be wonderful if we could shake from nose to bum like dogs do after a stress situation!
Maybe the sighing is the human equivalent of that?...it would be quite a sight to see a human do a dog shake! lol
- Re: Tena Cious
8 years ago
1,695
This is a reply to # 2,151,215I am trying this stuff, it seems to help, but I am still plagued by insomnia. I need something for that!
- Re: omo
8 years ago
1,706
This is a reply to # 2,151,918What's your insomnia like?
When does it happen? Do you have a racing heart?- Re: Tena Cious
8 years ago
1,699
This is a reply to # 2,152,240It happens all night. I only have normal drowsiness pre-sleep at the evening. At nigh I usually feel my best, and also my mind is very active, normally thinking about my problems and strategies to fight them.
I lay in bed widely awake and suddenly fall asleep. It can take me hours. The difference is clearly pathological in contrast to my remembrance of how it was when I was physically healthy, I had drowsiness, my eyes starting dropping and eventually I was asleep.
No racing heart or adrenaline surges, I differ from most people here. My insomnia is like the one of the poster aerowallah.- Re: omo
8 years ago
1,847
Google AdvertisementThis is a reply to # 2,152,285I've had different kinds of insomnia over time, including the kind where I would just be clear-headed and awake, not at all tired, but neither wired. My body just wasn't interested in sleeping. Like you describe. I'm not sure what the cause of that is. It could still be cortisol levels. Maybe the early-wake-no-backsies insomnia is adrenaline based.
There's a kind of phase where my day-long cortisol levels are high, I feel energetic, my mood is great, I get tons of things done, but usually come grinding down a few days later with general irritability, sore joints, a weird libido spike, tendency to get cold sores, etc. I think that up phase may have been when I was prone to sleeplessness on trying to start to sleep. I don't know what's going on with my body during the up phase, why it's (as speculated) day-long high cortisol. I'm guessing it's a kind of physiological out-of-whack cortisol cycle, probably mixed with what-time-of-day-is-it? hormone cycle being out of whack.
I think my current insomnia is more limbic — I am emotionally on edge, Reviewing & Rehearsing, hyperfocused on fighting (my problems), anxious. I think my brain, whether the thoughts have risen to an intellectual level where I can see them, is jumping to fight, even before I wake up, and I think it's using adrenaline to power the more immediate battle.
So my guess is I need to calm down my emotions, and you need to get your hormones on a more regular cycle. Probably you also need to calm down your emotions. You might try melatonin to reorient your cycle. I found I was really sensitive. .25mg before bedtime and I was more frequently able to fall asleep and would have vivid, strong dreams. Maybe try taking melatonin at the same time every night whether it actually gets you falling asleep. Just to try to kick the cycle back into regularity. Now, it's better if you actually do fall asleep. That'll help your clock reset even more. Some other sleep aids that come to mind: 5-HTP (beware interaction with SSRIs), avoid stimulants, don't drink alcohol, walking in nature during the day, whole-body and engaging (making you think of nothing but what you're doing) but light physical activity (like dance or yoga). Maybe chamomile? Or Valerian?- Re: purplepixie
8 years ago
1,966
Google AdvertisementThis is a reply to # 2,152,366I have found chamomile flowers just steeped in hot water to make me very drowsy within the hour.
I also had 6 weeks of insomnia - not the wired kind or pounding heartbeat - just wasn't tired - mainly the mind wasn't. My brain and body was.
Those 6 weeks were stressful for me - i had a major problem i needed to resolve and couldn't find a solution. It was to make a decision that would be life-altering and put more stress in my life. I was in flux! The result of it was such intense insomnia - never before had i experienced insomnia - i've always had a problem of sleeping too much, always feeling sleepy and finding it easy to sleep at any time in the day/night.
Once i had made the decision of the issue perplexing me, THAT NIGHT i slept fine. Despite me making the decision that would ultimately bring more stress into my life - i still slept fine. If i had made the other choice i had available to me it meant that i would have 'potential stress' looming over me for 3 yrs, ready to pounce at any moment.
Despite having health issues i never felt they stressed me out - they concern me but have never sunk to a deep level to affect sleep.
Maybe other posters on here are finding their health issues as stressful as i found this 'decision' i had to make, therefore giving them long-term insomnia?
For me, obviously to find the solution to my issue was what stopped the insomnia immediately.
If your health is stressing you to a deep level then i guess only a cure would improve sleep...however, that 'cure' is an unknown for many of us, so how we view our health status needs a perspective that enables the mind to just put it to 'one side' to enable the mind to switch off and the brain to rest.
It's so much easier said than done i know, yet what i tried when insomnia gripped me was listening to extremely relaxing meditation type music.
It worked for me because it averted my attention to listening rather than the mind thinking.
I really feel for you guys with longterm insomnia - having now experienced it, not being able to sleep until 8am...then waking up at 10 feeling like crap and trying to get up and get a 'days work' done, despite living in peaceful surroundings, having a good diet etc...the exhaustion mounts up if sleep is compromised.
Now that i've improved my sleep hours i'm feeling much better - so focusing on sleep issues is more important than diet in my opinion.
Chamomile, 5-HTP 50mg, and as a last resort 500mg GABA helped me. I never took these things together by the way! Always rotated them singularly each night.
- Re: purplepixie
8 years ago
1,966
- Re: aerowallah
8 years ago
1,826
This is a reply to # 2,152,285Hey, TC...I am no3 down to one bad night in seven. Took some blood tests to nail down types of possible inflammation in the body. Got tired waiting for the results! (Some problem between clinic and lab!) So I started Olive Leaf, curcumin and lemon balm--plus one of my fave Kavinace. First thing besides sleeping better--noticed normal drowsiness (not so quick to come and go), and onset of hypos. Speculate that OL decreased some inflammation somewhere and cortisol slipped back as a result, and the cortisol pills I was taking were now unnecessary. Glutamate may also be down with inflamm. Hypos now gone and sleep, when I lose it, seems to be more under my control. That is, I have to work myself up, and then hair trigger cortisol obliges and keeps me up. Still working on busting thru that seventh night. Will advise!
- Re: Tena Cious
8 years ago
1,614
This is a reply to # 2,153,179Wow great news, 6 good nights per week!! What specific brands and dosages are you using?? Normal drowsiness is HUGE dude! I know of one Chronic-Fatigue-Syndrome person that fixed her sleep problems with big amounts of curcumin in a very expensive and high absorbable form.
- Re: aerowallah
8 years ago
1,798
Google AdvertisementThis is a reply to # 2,153,205Yeah, it's scary how fast things get bad and then get better with AF, but something feels different.
I got rid of two-thirds of my pills to arrive at the below. I will re-intro D3, multis, B multi, etc. as soon as the insomnia is gone and I can reintro one at a time. For now...
Gaia Olive Leaf (900mg per pill) 1 pill 3x a day before meals
Mg Cit 200 mg 2 with brekkie, 2 w dinner
1000 mg Lipo C plus 240mg Amla C before lunch
Gaia "Turmeric Supreme" (about 500 mg) 1 with lunch
15 mg food Zinc with lunch
Lemon Balm drops in water or Chamo tea before bed
1 Kav before bed
1 Lactium before bed (by Swanson)
That's it! After two weeks of only one bad day in 7 my energy feels normal...yup, pre-AF! But I have not started exercise yet. But, hey, I was 7 months on the couch up to two weeks ago. I also started swishing and flossing. After months of trying to knock down cortisol and glutamate and histamines UNSUCCESSFULLY I decided to treat what inflammation might underlie those elevations. Will have results of blood tests Thursday and will maybe target more precisely. food allergy tests may be next. Oh, this may be important. Decided to get off all gluten and casein in anticipation EXCEPT Manna bread and raw goats milk cheese and yog.
I really feel knocking down cortisol at night when it may have been elevated to tamp down inflammation may have caused another elevation (glutamate?) or internal stress. Also, not sure I ever liked the ashwagandha or melatonin. Dropped them both and haven't looked back.
Will keep ya posted!- Re: Tena Cious
8 years ago
1,633
This is a reply to # 2,153,250Interesting approach. I know I have inflammation, even an expensive doc and his extensive tests showed it, but it seems to be originating from my gut. Sooo will focus more on inflammation as well!! Right now I only take as antinflammatory Propolis, 6 caps per day, it is helpful for my intestinal inflammation.
- Re: Tena Cious
8 years ago
1,781
This is a reply to # 2,153,250Thanks a lot for the detailed follow up!
From these, which ones you were already taking and which ones are new? How much Kavinace were you taking before? Which of those would you say are more helpful with sleep?
I am inclined to the Olive lead extract because I have obvious digestive issues.- Re: aerowallah
8 years ago
1,754
This is a reply to # 2,153,466Everything new. Was taking one OL before, and two Kav before. Like someone on the forum said, "My (fill in the blank sleep aid) only worked for 3 days!" I concluded mine didn't work at all because the insomnia was on some inflammatory/immune cycle. It only seemed to work when I didn't need it. When the 2-3 days of insomnia kicked in nothing worked. So I may have peeled back another layer to look at underlying inflammation and am attacking that. The one bad day in seven is when I get worked up about something. So, for now, I still have a hair trigger brain...
So I'm going to say OL and lemon balm (anti-stress and anti-viral) may be helping the most with sleep. And then elminating all the other aids and adaptogens that my body has to work to balance. Perhaps for me less is more.- Re: Tena Cious
8 years ago
1,809
This is a reply to # 2,154,148I will try either OL or Cat´s Claw or both. Inflammation and immune issues are sometimes the underlying cause of AF, like in the case of the user glitchymomma that developed it once from Lyme disease.
- Re: Tena Cious
8 years ago
1,809
- Re: aerowallah
8 years ago
1,754
- Re: Tena Cious
8 years ago
1,633
- Re: aerowallah
8 years ago
1,798
- Re: Tena Cious
8 years ago
1,614
- Re: omo
8 years ago
1,847
- Re: Tena Cious
8 years ago
1,699
- Re: omo
8 years ago
1,706
- Re: purplepixie
8 years ago
1,836
- "sigh of relief" omo
8 years ago
1,825
- Re: simple cure, just supplements an... Tena Cious
8 years ago
1,780
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