I’m a 34 old woman from Germany. Health wise, my childhood was unremarkable. My health issues began in my teenage years. I was feeling ‘off’ and dizzy. I was told that was because I am tall and thin and many girls feel like that when their period starts. I was also experiencing visual disturbances, intestinal problems, and tinnitus. I attributed these problems to ‘stress’ and my tinnitus to my ‘hearing problems’ (I was born deaf in one ear).
When I began studying at the university, I suddenly developed insomnia and very bad vertigo/dizzy spells. I was then given antidepressants which helped with my insomnia (they made me insanely tired). The dizzy spells came and went and I kind of learned to live with these. I took antidepressants for several months before deciding to taper off. Coming off the antidepressants gave me withdrawal symptoms that included brain zaps. I had to slowly taper them off over many months. Even years after stopping them, I would sometimes experience recurrences of these weird brain zaps.
Over time, my symptoms list grew and I gave up going to doctors. I was always told that I was healthy and the symptoms were all in my head. By the time I was in my twenties, I had developed frequent headaches, pins and needles, fatigue spells and brain fog among other things. I realized that I feel better during autumn and winter but had no explanation why. Although I was functional, I was truly one of the walking sick. In an attempt to feel better, I was constantly tweaking my lifestyle to find out what was helping me and what not.
I became pregnant in April 2020. I became very fatigued, had restless legs and headaches. I meditated every day and felt better towards the end of my pregnancy. That was during the winter months, the time of the year when I always improved.
My health went downhill fast after giving birth to my daughter. My fatigue became so awful that I could not function. I suffered from nerve pain all over my body. I couldn’t have proper conversations with my husband because my brain fog was quite severe. I was getting new symptoms such as muscle twitches, strange inner vibrations and hot flashes. I was not able to go back to work. I tried the carnivore diet and felt even worse.
Discovering Thiamine
I read about thiamine and finally understood some mechanisms of what could be going wrong in my body. In March of 2022, I began taking TTFD alongside a B-complex and magnesium. It has helped me very much but it took many months of paradoxical reactions before I began to improve.
A few weeks in, I realized that this form was maybe a bit too strong to begin with, although I titrated up very slowly. On TTFD my brain fog got so severe that I went nuts. I felt like I entered the world of dementia. I also suspected that the oral B12 was not working as it should. I switched the B12 to sublingual tablets and that cleared the brain fog. I was so thrilled about the effect of B12 that I self-injected it a few times, but oh boy, this made me so fatigued and all my symptoms, except the brain fog, remained the same or even got worse. So I went back to the sublingual.
I decided to give up TTFD and switched to Thiamine HCL to see if that worked better for me. Plus, I added NAC and glycine to my regimen to support glutathione production. I titrated up to 2 grams of oral Thiamine HCL per day (over several weeks/months) and didn’t experience significant paradox but also didn’t feel better at all. I was puzzled. Would I need to kick start energy metabolism by having injections of vitamin B1? I gave it a try and injected a tiny, tiny bit in my muscle to check how I’d react. As nothing bad happened I got braver and titrated up my injections to 25mg of thiamine HCL per shot. Now I got some paradox reactions in the form of heart palpitations. I thought I’d only need to push through it but it got worse over time. Also, I got weaker and more sleepy and finally decided that I’d try potassium and calcium supplements. That was in November. I was already 9 months into my thiamine journey, and finally I felt improvements!!
However, some weeks after that I had that weakness and achy feeling again. I have learned that having high-doses of thiamine inhibits carbonic anhydrase and thus bicarbonate supplements are needed. Adding potassium bicarbonate into my regimen felt like a real game changer. Now, most of my symptoms are gone. I am only left with some fatigue and headaches, mostly in the evening, but I’m hopeful that time and finding the right dosages will dissolve my remaining symptoms.
I still feel like a delicate plant and I’m afraid that this improvement will be temporary. I am able to incorporate some activity back into my life and spent time with friends and family without crashing afterwards. I am so thankful and enjoy life again. The feeling of normality is priceless.
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Guten Abend Anna Simone
Ich empfehle Dir aus eigener Erfahrung, die Dosierung der Supplemente regelmässig mit Kinesiologischem Muskeltest zu überprüfen. Eine Kollegin von mir macht das im Raum Feldkirch.
Dr. Katrin Bieber arbeitet mit Bodybio, der Blutuntersuchung mit dem besten Preis-Leistungsverhältnis, das ich kenne ( Mit empfohlenen Supplementen, und wie sich diese auf die Blutwerte auswirken)
Der Aufbau von ATP über oxidative Phosphorylierung ist das Eine, u. A. die Vermeidung des Abbaus des intrazellulären Phosphatspiegels wird von Dr. Richard Johnson in drei videos auf YouTube, low carb down under sehr gut erklärt.
Das Verhältnis von nüchtern Insulin zu nüchtern Blutzucker, und Harnsäure unter 4mg/dl wegen Insulinresistenz der Muskulatur, und HbA1c würde ich vielleicht noch überprüfen.
Gute Besserung, bzw. maximale Zellenergie wünsche ich Dir!
Darüber