Newbie from Virginia

[IlseC]

Hi MC Members. I want to thank Tex and his support team for this wonderful community. I wish I discovered this forum when I was diagnosed in November 2021 but I'm here now.

I'm 57 female that is taking Estradiol 0.001 mg (patches), 200 mg Progesterone for HRT since 2017.

I started experiencing WD end of July after taking Amoxicillin for a Sinus infection. Needless to say, as you all know that was a life changing event. I went from a very active sporty individual who exercised 6 days a week so barely having any energy.

I have read so much on this forum and the wealth of information is invaluable. At first, I was prescribed (Welchol) and that relieved the symptoms, but the pain and bloat was so incredible I landed up in the ER. I stopped and was prescribed 8 weeks of Budesonide (9 mg), as we know this is the normal GI route. I stopped after 6 weeks because again the bloat and the incredible pain I started experiencing with the added symptoms of cramping in my GI tract, none of these symptoms were experienced during the WD bout.

I have started the GF diet (8 days), and also removed dairy from my diet. I will be ordering my Enterolabs tests. I have a few questions for the wonderful group here:

1. Did stopping or lowering HRT reduce symptoms? (Apologies if this was answered anywhere, I did not see anything specific)
2. I can process protein and have been eating eggs which seems OK, as soon as I add any vegetables (even overcooked green beans e.g.) that seems to get "bypassed" and not processed. The same obviously goes for salad which I will never touch) Rice seems to cause me pain. I can process some simple berries. I know everyone is different, but ANY vegetables hurt me.
3.I also started with IF and that definitely alleviates bloat.
4. I went to see a Functional Doctor in hopes that they might pinpoint the "Root cause" but her diagnosis was "Anxiety, Fibromyalgia, which was a bit of surprise. Yes, I definitely have anxiety and I think everyone knows that deep depression does sink in as you go through all these life altering events. I don't have any joint pains, so I was disappointed and feel that was a bit of a waste of money. She also ordered a SIBO test, and some other stool test from Genova labs which I'm hesitant to do.

Anyway, I would love to hear about anyone's HRT experiences and Tex your master opinion. I cannot thank you enough for writing about this subject and having this community.

[Gabes-Apg]

Welcome to the group

1. Did stopping or lowering HRT reduce symptoms? (Apologies if this was answered anywhere, I did not see anything specific)

Hormone changes do impact MC. Pregnancy and menopause cause big impacts to the body and MC reactions
Of note - these hormone changes deplete magnesium and magnesium is key for managing inflammation etc


2. I can process protein and have been eating eggs which seems OK, as soon as I add any vegetables (even overcooked green beans e.g.) that seems to get "bypassed" and not processed. The same obviously goes for salad which I will never touch) Rice seems to cause me pain. I can process some simple berries. I know everyone is different, but ANY vegetables hurt me.

Interesting that you can tolerate berries and not vegetables.
The meals that you had the vegetables, how were they prepared, how was the meat prepared? are you using any oils spices etc?


3.I also started with IF and that definitely alleviates bloat.
? what is IF


4. I went to see a Functional Doctor in hopes that they might pinpoint the "Root cause" but her diagnosis was "Anxiety, Fibromyalgia, which was a bit of surprise. Yes, I definitely have anxiety and I think everyone knows that deep depression does sink in as you go through all these life altering events. I don't have any joint pains, so I was disappointed and feel that was a bit of a waste of money. She also ordered a SIBO test, and some other stool test from Genova labs which I'm hesitant to do.

Fibroymyalgia is mostly caused by Magnesium deficicency. Along with other key nutrients for muscle tendon health.
I would encourage you to start with MC safe Vit D3 and magnesium
( I resolved chronic fibromyalgia when I fixed nutrient deficiencies such as Magnesium, B12 etc)

Anxiety is also linked to Vit D3 and magnesium deficiency.

Re the GF diet
with the GF diet - are you eating whole foods or having GF processed products?
Is the house hold Gluten Free or just you?

[IlseC]

Hi Gabes!

Thanks so much for the reply. Interesting on the Magnesium. I do take BioEmblem Triple Complex Magesium (600 mg) at night. I would love to know what supplement brand the MC team has found the most beneficial for Magnesium and Vit D. I forgot to ask that question.

IF - Intermittent Fasting :)

My meat is cooked very simple just like my vegetables, either steamed or baked in an oven with no seasoning and perhaps after a little salt or pepper is added. Carrots, mushed up steamed hurt me so bad.

I'm surprised that I can tolerate the berries, definitely no blueberries in the beginning, it was also "bypassed"

When I do eat GF food it is cooked by me, it is only my husband and myself and we don't use flour, he does eat wheat bread that is in it's own container. My GF bread is frozen (in plastic) and I take out 2 pieces for toasting. I just realized that I am cross contaminating toasting in the same toaster :( Bread is only on weekends .. I will have to fix that situation.

I appreciate the response from Australia!

[Gabes-Apg]

The magnesium product you are taking is a low dose product. the 600mg you are taking is only 71% of daily RDI

1. if you are deficient, you need more than the daily RDI to resolve deficiency
2. it is best to spread magnesium intake through the day, as too much at once can cause Diarrhoea
3. daily RDI is based on averaged healthy people. It does not take into account issues that deplete magnesium such as hormones, inflammation etc

I will find the posts that have the best products for USA based members. (Being in Australia I use different products)
I have used topical magnesium as main form of magnesium

in early days of healing be 'cautious' of having GF products like toast / cereal.
If you are reacting to one of the flour ingredients it is hard to confirm what you are reacting to.
and yes, cooking it in the same toaster is high risk of cross contamination

additionally, Gluten Free products in the USA can have up to 20 parts per million of gluten in the product. For someone who is sensitive to gluten this is enough to cause ongoing inflammation issues. (of note, in Australia for a product to be Gluten Free it has to be below 5 parts per million).

Re the vegetables. If can tolerate it just have meat for meals and stop the vegetables for a couple of days. see if the reactions improve.

[Gabes-Apg]

Products
Doctors Best Chelated Magnesium
Doctors Best 5000iu Vit D3

[IlseC]

Thanks Gabes, I will go find those Vit's and up my magnesium. Absolutely fabulous information!

[tex]

Welcome aboard. Gabes appears to have done a great job of answering your questions, I can only think of one thing that I might add, and that's regarding HRT. Past discussions on HRT have shown us that many MC patients react to the treatments, even including treatments based on wearing HRT patches. I'm sure there are exceptions, of course, but as best I can recall, the general consensus of opinion from those discussions was that HRT treatments (and also, taking oral contraceptives) are risky for most people in recovery. After remission is achieved, and you've healed for a while, it's possible that you might be more likely to be able to tolerate those patches.

Tex

[IlseC]

Hi Tex

Thanks and yes I'm going to speak to my Obgyn to start reducing my HRT. I'm post menopausal so I'm "hoping" I can come off all completely. I did see the Magnesium and VitD and ordered those. Any recommendation on the amount to take?

Any good magnesium lotion in the US as Gabe mentioned that you know off?

Are there also any other supplements that you recommend that has helped the community with their MC recovery? Thanks so much for the support and quick responses.

It is much appreciated.

[tex]

Any recommendation on the amount to take?

I only take 300 mg per day, these days, one tablet after each meal. But back when I was deficient, I roughly doubled that amount for a month or so until I got back on track, then I slowly reduced the dose to what I'm taking now. Once we become deficient in magnesium, it's usually tough to get our bodies to start rebuilding those reserves, again.

Any good magnesium lotion in the US as Gabe mentioned that you know off?

I suspect that most folks here who use magnesium lotion (or magnesium oil), use Ancient Minerals brand, but there are other brands that probably work just as well.

Are there also any other supplements that you recommend that has helped the community with their MC recovery? Thanks so much for the support and quick responses.

Over half of us have methylation issues, and that causes us to have compromised capabilities for converting our vitamins into the active forms so that our body is able to use them. Methylation is important for the B vitamins, especially, so many of us take a product made by Thorne Laboratories, Methyl-Guard, or Methyl-Guard Plus. I've had the 23 and me genetic testing, so I'm aware that I definitely have methylation issues, and because of that, I take Methyl-Guard-Plus, but many probably do well with Methyl-Guard. Methyl-Guard plus is approximately twice as strong as Methyl-Guard.

That said, it's probably best to wait until you're in remission before you start taking any additional supplements, because the key to recovering quickly and surely, is to minimize the variety of everything we ingest, in order to make absolutely sure that it's all safe. There's plenty of time to fine tune our diet, to get the nutrition we want and need, after we're in remission. But if we happen to make a bad judgment on something we're eating while we're in recovery, we may never be able to reach recovery. At least that's the way I see it.

Tex

[IlseC]

Thanks so much Tex! Absolutely makes sense to me.

[Erica P-G]

I’ve used ReMag magnesium lotion for a few years now…it works and absorbs well.

[IlseC]

Thank you, I will go look that one up.

[jessica329]

I use this one and love it-
https://nfusemagnesium.com/collections/ ... -replenish

[IlseC]

Thank you. Just an update from my side. I increased my Magnesium to 600 mg and added in Vitamin D, my pain has been manageable and I have been having nearly Normn's , which is positive. I did add Vitamin B from Thorne back into my daily vitamin intake but the pain in my upper tract seems to be on a low burn all the time now :(. I also received a call from my Functional dr saying that I possibly have Lyme's. I'm still waiting on the Genova stool tests and hope to do Entero in the next few weeks.

I see a couple of folks had to take anti-biotics for Lymes but with mixed results. I'm not wanting to go back to full D again :(. Can the increase of Vitamin B cause the extra pain?

I have been tracking my food and pretty much the same every week , I'm confused about the extra pain. I also started getting very fatigued, very unusual for me. Is that a sign that my body is busy getting better or I'm needed to adjust my diet more.

Thanks again to this wonderful group here!

[tex]

Persistent fatigue and brain fog are common symptoms for most of us, and they can last for a couple of years in many cases. Apparently it's caused by the fact that the immune system has to use a lot of energy to fight the inflammation, and like Long Covid, those symptoms persist long after remission. Some of us have lower back pain as a symptom, but in my case, upper back pain is associated with eating beef. Are you eating any beef? I had to stop eating it for that reason. It doesn't cause me to have diarrhea, but it causes upper back pain and bloating, and the next day I'll have a headache.

Tex