Hi folks,
I am new to this forum and would and decided to post my health issues in hope of getting some help. For the last 5-7 years if not longer, I have had deteriorating health. My blood tests are all normal or within normal range. My doctor says that I need to exercise, but that's difficult to do so when one has no energy. I am 56 years old, 5'-9" tall, weigh 175 pounds, do not drink, smoke or do drugs. I eat healthy but do occasionally have a burger, fried chicken or a cupcake. I take supplements daily, some of which are vitamin C, A, B Complex, E, D-3, magnesium, digestive enzymes, probiotics, omega 3's, drink purified water, rarely a soda, some lemonade or limeade sweetened with stevia. I do drink decaf coffee, but limit the amount. I avoid caffeine except what is in cocoa, which I occasionally put in my almond milk. I rarely eat white flour; if I have flour it is usually whole wheat or corn tortillas once in a while. I have tried meditation and I am planning on doing some yoga. I limit my stress as much as possible and always try to get things done ahead of time so to reduce stress during my work week. Over 15 years ago I was under a lot of stress which really wore me down. I was in a bad marriage, was working in a job I hated, and I was dealing with my daughter's health issues which lead to her needing open heart surgery. I eventually got a divorce, changed jobs after working in a job I hated for 20 years, if you can believe that.
I read a lot of literature on health and from what I read it appears that I may have adrenal fatigue. The books I read recommended the Diurnal Cortisol (4X) Saliva test, which I had done. My morning and noon cortisol levels were within the normal range, but my afternoon cortisol levels were high and my night cortisol level is borderline high. I also had my doctor run a test on my blood cortisol levels for morning only and it was within normal range very similar to what saliva tests demonstrated. My testosterone level is also very low, my DHEAS level is in the normal range but slightly high for my age group. My vitamin D level is 58, up from 23 a few years ago. My thyroid levels are within range, but if you compare them to my levels three and 5 years ago, the are closer to the lower range. I have a very slow recovery from any type of physical activity. I usually get a headache after a physical activity. Even a 10 minute walk gives me a headache. When I bend down to pick up something, I often get dizzy or feel faint. I don't have much trouble falling asleep except occasionally. I usually wake up at 4 am, probably 90 percent of the time, almost like clockwork. This week I started taking rhodiola 2-3 times in the morning and I started waking up 2 hours after going to bed. I will fall back asleep and then wake up a couple of hours later. Last night I went to bed at 10PM (my normal bed time) and work up at 12, 2, 4 and 6am. Before I took the rhodiola I would sleep at least 5-6 hours on average before waking up. I also had a sleep study completed this month and I have a mild sleep apnea. I recently researched Phoshatidylserine and I am thinking about taking some. According to Julia Ross who wrote the book "The Mood Cure" this supplement may keep me from waking up during the night. At this point I am willing to try almost anything.
Anyone who has some recommendations on what might help my situation please feel free to do so. I appreciate anyone's comments that have some experience or knowledge in what I am experiencing. Thank you and God Bless. Eddie

PS: I also have a lot of inflammation in my joints, eyes, skin, etc.

Hi Eddie, some of your symptoms : exhaustion after exercise, sleep apnea, dizziness, sound similar to mine when I was very sick. Was there anything that changed in your environment around the time this started.? I believe mine was a massive dose of chemicals from our house extension which kicked off MCS. However your prob sounds rather vaguer than that. At one point I had all my mercury amalgams removed .. the specialist who recommended it said he had many patients whose energy levels improved a lot once they had those taken out. Dentists who do this measure the worse offenders (the leakiest fillings) first and remove them no more than 2 at a time. I noticed the difference as soon as the first 2 came out.
The lady who saw me thru all this & did extremely comprehensive tests runs a college which trains nutritionists & will do email or phone consultations. Let me know if you would like her details. Others may have more recommendations, but sounds like you need a really experienced alternative practitioner who can do a thorough work-up. None of my NHS tests - endocrinology, blood, liver, adrenals, allergy - ever came back with anything ..still at least they told me what I *didn't * have

Hi Eddie

I was diagnosed with CFS and found that following the "Stonage Diet" and taking D-Ribose help me.

Hi Jodie,

First and foremost thank you taking the time to reply. Now that you mentioned it. I did have numerous amalgam fillings removed prior to all this happening. The only thing was the dentist was untrained on proper removal and I didn't realize this until after having them removed and reading an article on proper removal after the fact. I know this was dumb, but my ignorance got the better of me. I would say after my last amalgam filling was removed my health started spiraling down within months. The first thing I noticed is that I started to retain water. I now limit my sodium due to this fact. I would sure like to get in contact with that individual you mentioned. Is she a Naturopathic Doctor? Thanks again.

Lily wrote:
Hi Lily, Did you ever have trouble sleeping through the night? I have trouble sleeping through the night. I can't remember the last time I slept past 5 am. Thanks

Hiya,

I guess it's possible you have some mercury or other heavy metals remaining in your system from the amalgam removal (my guy was dressed head to toe in what looked like chemical warfare outfit & had special dust/fume extraction equipment in my mouth, was quite a procedure!). You can detox remaining mercury from your system with this www.resultsrna.com/products/acz_nano_faq.php#.UiWg_hZpvBI
that's a practitioner's site but you can buy it on ebay.

I've just noticed you're in the US. I'm in UK. I just checked my link for the woman I mentioned and looks like she's retired! www.cnelm.co.uk/clinical/kate.html I know some of those who worked with her tho www.cnelm.co.uk/clinical/practitioner.html Michelle Barrow & Ian Craig were the best of the bunch. However you may want to get a recommendation over that side of the pond, will make life easier and the tests over there may be slightly different to here.. this organisation comes up quite a lot on my groups, but seems to be oriented to environnental illness aaemonline.org .. you could also try Yahoo groups, they mostly seem to be US based..