Peculiar Body Chemical Switch After Long Bouts Of Activity. Looking For Explanation

[Pyro]

Very frequently I'll notice a dramatic change for the better but I still don't understand why (after a couple of years of the same thing over and over). And yes, I've been to the doctor to get lots of blood tests for thyroid & all the issues that commonly plague us and most of the results will come back clear showing nothing in particular. Also before I begin, it kind of sounds like ketosis but when I go and have my meals afterward the feeling usually doesn't go away at least for awhile (meals usually have peas, carrots, or some moderate veggie carbs of some kind).

What usually happens is I'll go on with life normally but things start deteriorating. I'll become bloated, feel clogged, drained of energy, irritable, sore, with little or no appetite, and when I eat the food will seem to just disappear not giving any energy and sit in my intestines. This will keep happening and I'll feel less and less like myself. Normal life stresses will start getting to me making it hard to focus.

Sometimes it'll go away regularly, but a lot of times I'll just go for a very long walk. Then when I come back I'll just go about my business waiting until the real hunger feeling kicks in. Until then I keep drinking a lot of fluids until my urine becomes very clear (strange it wouldn't be clear in the first place because I already drink a lot of water.). When the hunger finally comes I'll have a normal meal and it's always like my body has some kind of epiphany. My head will clear up, my eyes will feel clean and sharp, my focus is there, energy comes back, and my muscles will relax into position and are a lot more easily controllable. I'll even look different, with a fuller color to my skin and my face will relax with the bags under my eyes going away.

It's like there's a wall of decaying matter that builds up in my stomach and it needs the stronger enzymes of prolonged activity to melt them away. Or maybe blood needs to pump through my body to circulate new blood everywhere. Which is weird because I'm hardly sedentary the rest of the time. And I'm healthy, definitely not needing to lose weight or anything. I've thought about it and wondered if it could be a mild form of diabetes (the walk helps drop the blood sugar back to normal?), or countless other medical things. Even psychological, but I don't really have anymore problems than anyone else and it seems like life anxieties pile up when my intestines feel like they are piling up.

I'll try to prolong this feeling of vitality by avoiding anything that would clog up my stomach again & making sure I become hungry between meals so they digest better but it seems like inevitably something will get stuck and my organs will all start feeling sluggish again. This being why I try so hard to understand what's happening, so I can prevent the crappy feelings from ever building up.

Does this make sense to anyone, any explanations?

[angel9165]

Very frequently I'll notice a dramatic change for the better but I still don't understand why (after a couple of years of the same thing over and over). And yes, I've been to the doctor to get lots of blood tests for thyroid & all the issues that commonly plague us and most of the results will come back clear showing nothing in particular. Also before I begin, it kind of sounds like ketosis but when I go and have my meals afterward the feeling usually doesn't go away at least for awhile (meals usually have peas, carrots, or some moderate veggie carbs of some kind).

What usually happens is I'll go on with life normally but things start deteriorating. I'll become bloated, feel clogged, drained of energy, irritable, sore, with little or no appetite, and when I eat the food will seem to just disappear not giving any energy and sit in my intestines. This will keep happening and I'll feel less and less like myself. Normal life stresses will start getting to me making it hard to focus.

Sometimes it'll go away regularly, but a lot of times I'll just go for a very long walk. Then when I come back I'll just go about my business waiting until the real hunger feeling kicks in. Until then I keep drinking a lot of fluids until my urine becomes very clear (strange it wouldn't be clear in the first place because I already drink a lot of water.). When the hunger finally comes I'll have a normal meal and it's always like my body has some kind of epiphany. My head will clear up, my eyes will feel clean and sharp, my focus is there, energy comes back, and my muscles will relax into position and are a lot more easily controllable. I'll even look different, with a fuller color to my skin and my face will relax with the bags under my eyes going away.

It's like there's a wall of decaying matter that builds up in my stomach and it needs the stronger enzymes of prolonged activity to melt them away. Or maybe blood needs to pump through my body to circulate new blood everywhere. Which is weird because I'm hardly sedentary the rest of the time. And I'm healthy, definitely not needing to lose weight or anything. I've thought about it and wondered if it could be a mild form of diabetes (the walk helps drop the blood sugar back to normal?), or countless other medical things. Even psychological, but I don't really have anymore problems than anyone else and it seems like life anxieties pile up when my intestines feel like they are piling up.

I'll try to prolong this feeling of vitality by avoiding anything that would clog up my stomach again & making sure I become hungry between meals so they digest better but it seems like inevitably something will get stuck and my organs will all start feeling sluggish again. This being why I try so hard to understand what's happening, so I can prevent the crappy feelings from ever building up.

Does this make sense to anyone, any explanations?

Have you tried a probiotic with your meals? It will help your food digest and maybe keep things from getting clogged up. I took it when I had to do a course of PrevPak and it really helped with my digestion. I stopped taking it when I ran out as I was done with the antibiotics but I'm thinking I'll go back to taking them as I don't feel as good as I was feeling. It might be worth a shot for ya.

[chasbari]

It makes sense.. but I don't know why. I will have to think about this for awhile. I know that all my other autoimmune complications have flares and cycles so why not the digestive aspects of celiac as well.

[Pyro]

I take acidophilus pearls every day along with digestive enzymes & sesamin with my meals. Sesame oil is supposed to help your liver and kidneys and I was hoping my body needed that. Fish oil is supposed to help your digestion too but it seems like my daily use doesn't completely insure things will keep clean.

Sometimes I wonder if it's a nutrition deficiency of some sort, but I'm left in the dark about what exactly is the cause. B12 pills never helped too much, adding more fruit sometimes helps but sometimes backs me up worse or cause what I think is a blood sugar crash(along with making my tongue gray & with toothmarks which is candida right?), adding more leafy greens will either help, have no effect, or stop me up REALLY bad for days. Then sometimes I'll try to get some starch in, seeing as my diet is completely grain free. Sometimes they invigorate me, making me more energetic and feeling healthy. But like the fruit sometimes they just bloat me out, and make me tired & cranky. So as you can see it can be hard keeping up with myself!

Things are generally easy when my appetite comes back because when you're hungry you can try and discern what your body is naturally telling you to eat. In the future, if my energy levels keep going up and down, I'm going to try for South Asian cuisine and see if my body can adapt to what the consider easy to digest. Such as mung bean noodles and stuff made from glutinous rice. Definitely not going to jump into piles of rice because anytime I do it's like having a couple of pairs of socks in my intestines.

[YoloGx]

I take acidophilus pearls every day along with digestive enzymes & sesamin with my meals. Sesame oil is supposed to help your liver and kidneys and I was hoping my body needed that. Fish oil is supposed to help your digestion too but it seems like my daily use doesn't completely insure things will keep clean.

Sometimes I wonder if it's a nutrition deficiency of some sort, but I'm left in the dark about what exactly is the cause. B12 pills never helped too much, adding more fruit sometimes helps but sometimes backs me up worse or cause what I think is a blood sugar crash(along with making my tongue gray & with toothmarks which is candida right?), adding more leafy greens will either help, have no effect, or stop me up REALLY bad for days. Then sometimes I'll try to get some starch in, seeing as my diet is completely grain free. Sometimes they invigorate me, making me more energetic and feeling healthy. But like the fruit sometimes they just bloat me out, and make me tired & cranky. So as you can see it can be hard keeping up with myself!

Things are generally easy when my appetite comes back because when you're hungry you can try and discern what your body is naturally telling you to eat. In the future, if my energy levels keep going up and down, I'm going to try for South Asian cuisine and see if my body can adapt to what the consider easy to digest. Such as mung bean noodles and stuff made from glutinous rice. Definitely not going to jump into piles of rice because anytime I do it's like having a couple of pairs of socks in my intestines.

Its very possible you are allergic or sensitive to some things you think are healthy. Many here (including moi) are allergic/sensitive to sesame for instance.

I have SA (salicylic acid sensitivity) and thus when I went off all grains and ate lots of zucchini, tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers, kale, peppers, oregano and basil and sunflower seeds (almonds never worked for me--as it turns out they are very high in SA) I actually got very much worse.

It might be something you would want to check into since high SA is in many fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds and most herbs. The SA in the skins of fruit seem to be the worst. The SA acts as a natural agent that many growing things make use of to protect them from insects etc. Unfortunately some of us are very sensitive to it. For me it eventually caused eczema as well as nerve difficulties.

SA is basically what aspirin is made of, which alerted me to the possibility of this being a concern. That and not being able to sleep well, and being groggy and constipated half the time like you despite my otherwise very healthy diet and regular exercise.

The grey tongue can also be a telling sign of SA--I thought it was candida overgrowth, but no, not always... If taking a teaspoon of baking soda in a large glass of water helps this could be a direction for you to investigate. Taking magnesium helps me counteract constipation by the way.

Good luck!

Bea

[etta694]

I have SA (salicylic acid sensitivity) and thus when I went off all grains and ate lots of zucchini, tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers, kale, peppers, oregano and basil and sunflower seeds (almonds never worked for me--as it turns out they are very high in SA) I actually got very much worse.

It might be something you would want to check into since high SA is in many fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds and most herbs. The SA in the skins of fruit seem to be the worst. The SA acts as a natural agent that many growing things make use of to protect them from insects etc. Unfortunately some of us are very sensitive to it. For me it eventually caused eczema as well as nerve difficulties.

SA is basically what aspirin is made of, which alerted me to the possibility of this being a concern. That and not being able to sleep well, and being groggy and constipated half the time like you despite my otherwise very healthy diet and regular exercise.

Bea

That's what I have!! I would never have known if I wasn't just reading posts... Thank you, Bea, for posting!! I ran and had a glass of soda and water and...relief! Aspirin always made me sick and I didn't know why.

[YoloGx]

That's what I have!! I would never have known if I wasn't just reading posts... Thank you, Bea, for posting!! I ran and had a glass of soda and water and...relief! Aspirin always made me sick and I didn't know why.

Hi Etta--Glad to be of service! EatMeat4Life pointed out the possibility I might be SA intolerant. So I am helping spread the word when it seems appropriate. Certainly no doctor suggested it even though I told umpteen million of them that I got bruises from taking aspirin. Same goes with celiac however. I laid it in their lap and still nothing. I had to figure it out for myself along with all the help I have gotten on this forum..

I am hoping you aren't as intolerant of SA as I am. But even there, it is way worth feeling better without the stuff. It is a learning curve however. I am still figuring it out. Seems that it just is not an exact science as to what has SA or not. There are lists that are very helpful, but they don't list everything. Plus they vary a bit.

One thing to note--coconut oil is high on the SA list. Plus filtered water unfortunately also is high in SA's since the charcoal filters they use are made of coconut husks--extremely high in SA. Its actually better for me to drink tap water than filtered. Though of course even better still to drink spring water.

I think I may also be amine intolerant since bananas and papayas don't work for me either. Some of the SA food lists also list amines. I have never done well with aged meats.

It isn't an allergy--rather its a chemical overload, however, it acts a lot like an allergy. Taking benedryl at night helps me when my eczema flares up and my nerves are on fire. For some reason its worse at night. I read somewhere that it isn't at all that uncommon.

There is a relation with SA intolerance and anxiety/hyperactivity/inability to concentrate or have strange perceptual difficulties. The Feingold diet is of use though for me it does not go far enough. The combo of SA and gluten intolerance can be a doozy.

Good luck with your investigations!

Bea

[deezer]

Is there a test for the SA sensitivity?

[etta694]

My guess is that it's the elimination diet... (right Bea?) When I asked my doctor about food intolerances, she just passed it over by saying, "oh, there are so many food allergies that you just have to figure it out yourself by taking them out of your diet." Thank you, I'll get right on that.

[YoloGx]

My guess is that it's the elimination diet... (right Bea?) When I asked my doctor about food intolerances, she just passed it over by saying, "oh, there are so many food allergies that you just have to figure it out yourself by taking them out of your diet." Thank you, I'll get right on that.

You are right Etta--though SA doesn't cause a true allergic reaction--it is very like one. It instead causes a chemical overload in certain people. The main way to determine it is through trial and error. The patient has to take charge really though its very possible an experienced doctor could point you in the right direction (I just haven't run into him or her yet--but that doesn't mean they don't exist). Fortunately there are SA lists out there available on the internet.

By the way, it takes a while to get rid of the toxicity of years of eating a high SA diet. One problem is that detox herbs don't help since they are high in SA too! So patience, time, exercise, drinking lots of water becomes a necessity. I have yet to try doing saunas again, but I hear they are a good idea too, in moderation.

[Pyro]

Wow, yolo, thank you very much for pointing out the SA thing. I've known in my gut that some of those foods on the list bother me (especially Tomato with skin on.) and lots of them seem to go straight to my eyes if that makes sense. Sounds funny but getting puffy eyes so often is hard on your ego. I'll see if I can't cut back on SA foods, slowly, and try to monitor if there are results. Well there will be, because SA seems to apply to everyone to some degrees.

[YoloGx]

Wow, yolo, thank you very much for pointing out the SA thing. I've known in my gut that some of those foods on the list bother me (especially Tomato with skin on.) and lots of them seem to go straight to my eyes if that makes sense. Sounds funny but getting puffy eyes so often is hard on your ego. I'll see if I can't cut back on SA foods, slowly, and try to monitor if there are results. Well there will be, because SA seems to apply to everyone to some degrees.

Hi Pyro,

Again I am glad to be of help. I question whether SA sensitivity does apply to everyone, however.

For instance, there are some here who just have a tomato/potato/red and green pepper allergy (i.e., the nightshade family)-- and many others aren't allergic to the nightshade family at all.

I am grateful to now be able to eat any potatoes at all, even if it means they must be peeled white potatoes. And now when I eat lettuce, I have discovered from the SA lists that it should be ice-burg lettuce, something I hadn't eaten in years, preferring in the past red leaf lettuce (high in SA) instead--not realizing it messed me up. Like I said, it is a slow learning curve, but it does get easier.

If needed for health reasons, you can quicken the pace by going on a very simple safe low SA diet by following the lists.

Is any of this making sense?

[Pyro]

Yep, you're making sense.

What I mean by applying to everyone sort of has to do with badly prepared foods. Like badly prepared sweet peppers, with most of the tough skin not removed or a tomato sauce with the skins left in. I'm pretty sure most people get some degree of indigestion from that and don't quite appreciate that bile like bitterness.

On another note I remember when I lived in a commune and the conditions weren't good enough to warrant a lot of preparation especially because some were crazies and banned fires. So I was basically living on canned tomato sauce, dipping zucchini and slices of quickly fried peppers along with lightly sauteed fresh spinach into it for veggies, tossing some heavily spiced meat into the mix, and having mainly strawberries for veggies. Other factors aside (too much acidity, crappy place to live, etc..) this was one of the worst periods ever and I felt like I was decaying. Pretty sure it took over a month to get my tongue to stop burning and for my kidneys to stop hurting. Again I'm sure there were other factors but I see a lot of similar somewhat unique symptoms I had and will still get mentioned for SA.