Re: A Request From Uny For Rink

Thanks for taking the time to respond, Willowley.

First off, I wish I could take credit for the term threadjack, but I've seen it many times in various, probably more hostile forums where people genuinely get upset for "threadjacking." lol. As a first time poster, I wanted to make my intentions clear.

Answers to the questions:

- I am not colon cleansing now, nor have I ever, but after reading and listening, I am definitely strongly considering it. I have maybe 2-3 small bm's daily, consistently hard, compacted, and dark. I always feel like I'm not getting it all out, though.

-Supplements I am taking right now (have been for about three weeks), 450mg cayenne pepper nature's way brand, 500mg ginger nature's way brand, and jarrow's brand curcumin (500mg) each once a day. Prior to that I had been taking a multivitamin, quercetin, N-acetyl-cysteine, biotin, hyaluronic acid, and glucosamine/chondroitin, all of those recommended on various forums for symptoms I've been experiencing, mostly for my dry eye and skin issues. None of them seemed to do much.

-Not taking any pharmaceuticals, though occasionally (about once a month) I will take phenibut in social situations (I have moderate social anxiety, used to be more severe), occasionally (maybe twice a month) drink a few beers, and occasionally(maybe once a month) have smoked a little bit of weed (also helps anxiety temporarily. I have gone for long periods of more than a year without using weed since my Accutane course was up with no improvement of anxiety/depression/symptoms.) I am, however, willing to stop them all as there is no dependance/addiction to any of those.

-Last SSRI was Zoloft, 50mg daily, stopped in August of 2008.

-I am a 25 year old male, 5 foot 11 inches, about 185lbs. Very proportionate, good weight for me. Not under or overweight.

-Depends on my motivation. But when I'm motivated, which I have been lately, I exercise about 4-5 times a week, for ~1 hour each time, varying cardio and weight training as well as climbing rope that's attached to a tall tree.

-I drink 1.5-2 gallons of water a day. Ever since Accutane, my thirst has been out of control. I am constantly drinking and peeing. It is filtered from my refrigerator, I think it's an Arrowhead filter.

-Occasionally white tea, maybe one cup, once a week. I also LOVE nonfat cows milk, but the last couple of days I've not been drinking it. But prior to that, I would drink 3-6 glasses a day. I grew up on it, and unfortunately, it tastes SO good to me. And it is easy to get protein with milk. As you can probably tell by my gushing about milk, it is probably going to be one of the hardest things for me to give up.

-Breakfast is always the same, a few hundred calories from Chia seed gel, a spoon of coconut oil, and fruit, usually banana and/or blueberries. As well as a ton of water (but water is constant, and throughout the day.)

-Lunch is usually a few hundred calories of hemp seeds, a cup or two of milk, and maybe some processed granola bar or leftover meat dish. Sometimes a can of tuna, Kirkland brand, straight out of the can, with nothing on it.

- Dinner varies vastly. Most always meat is involved, either Wild Frozen Salmon from Costco, lean steaks, chicken dishes, or turkey dishes. There is almost always added salt, sometimes white Sugar (other times brown) and occasionally flour, but not often.

-Occasionally there are cookies in the house or some other sweet, but it's less than once a week. I tend to binge on sweets when they are around. Like if there are cookies (homemade), I will eat 8 of them, not 2-3.

-No soy at all, sometimes frozen then steamed corn, sometimes canola oil.

-I eat maybe 3 servings of fruit daily, usually a banana, some berries (either blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, or some combo of them.) I also, depending on the season, enjoy mangos, pineapple, oranges, tangerines, etc. Veggies, maybe 3-4 servings a day. Always have raw broccoli, sometimes steamed beans/corn. Always have a nice large salad with either red leaf, green leaf, or Romaine lettuce. Oftentimes there will some other veggies, including carrots, red pepper, radish/bean sprouts. And I put an olive oil based dressing on it.

-Dairy 3-6 cups a day, lately none.

-meat usually 8-10 ounces a day of the meats I already listed above.

-I eat a ton of oils/fats. Organic Coconut oil, Organic hemp oil, olive oil, hemp seed, walnuts, pecans, almonds, chia seeds, whole hardboiled or fried eggs(fried in olive oil), and whatever fat from beef (usually lean, sometimes more fatty, though.)

-Very little is "organic." Probably less than 5%.

-Microwave I don't use at all. But I used to.

-Very wired at home. Cell Phone , computer with broadband. Home phone is a cordless 2.4ghz phone/answering machine. At work, which isn't every day, I have access to the internet, but it's limited. I take my Cell Phone , but rarely use it at work.

-I definitely don't think I'm exposed to overly harmful chemicals either at home or work.

-I don't think I have any allergies, except maybe the "supplement" 5HTP. It may have caused hives, but I don't know.

-No food reactions ever in my life.

-Past drugs- Minocycline for an extended period of time (several years), benzamycin a topical for Acne (several years), prednisone for an insane case of hives, 40mg a day, for a week, Accutane of course, 60mg a day for 4 months. The doctor wanted another month, I couldn't do it. Then I was on a couple of Rosacea drugs,the name brand doxycyline(i forget the name), an anti-fungal for seb derm, and Metrogel for Rosacea as well. Also, I was on Zoloft 50mg for 6 months, xanax .25mg PRN for the same amount of time (I only used ~twice a week) and 25mg Atenolol PRN, which I didn't use much. No current pharmaceuticals.

- Over the counter drugs, I've taken benadryl rarely, and that's about it.

-Marijuana infrequently, usually smoked, sometimes vaporized or eaten. Magic mushrooms (maybe three times about 5-7 years ago), alcohol infrequently, I tried Dextromethorphan recreationally once about 7 years ago, and Phenibut maybe once a month. I also tried Hydrocodone once and didn't feel it, so dosage was real low.

-I am taking the cayenne, ginger, and curcumin that I described above.

-No other strict protocols, other than trying to eat decent, exercise, get fresh air and sun, and practice good hygeine.

-Oil pulling I feel has a positive effect, I do that every morning with various oils.

-Binge drinking ( this hasn't happened in years) wasn't great. No surprise, huh? lol. I know the other drugs certainly haven't helped, either, both pharmaceutical and recreational. However, marijuana, when eaten, seemed to make my skin look way better. Don't know what's up with that.

-A flu vaccine up the nose, once in my life, in late 2009. That is the most recent

-I have 2-3 bm's daily, I explained above.

-I have no juicer, but looked up the juicers that Unyquity linked in an earlier post.

-Current health issues I'll start from the top down. Dandruff, thin/shedding hair, dry flaky skin, red face/blushing/flushing(especially in warm weather or anxious situations), tinnitus, extreme dry eye ( I can't stand this one, this one is connected with my blushing, once my eyes get too dry and gritty, for whatever reason my face gets hot and red, I don't get it?), extreme photophobia, poor night vision, moderate keratosis pilaris on my triceps, dry nose/flaky boogers, premature wrinkles(especially on my neck and hands/feet), cold hands and feet, along with purple fingernails and toenails, joints don't feel as well, inability to heal cuts/new acne, year old hives "marks," Acne came back, but only on my back, where it now scars very easily, yellow toenails,very thin skin ( I can see veins EVERYWHERE, and I'm not in THAT good a shape), sunburn easily. I think that's just about all of them.

-Yea, went to a dermatologist (different than the one that prescribed Accutane.) On different visits, he told me I had Rosacea, Seb Derm, Keratosis Pilaris Rubra Faceii, he seemed to change his mind every time, seemingly not even realizing he was doing that. I don't agree. The only possible one in my view is Rosacea, but even then I don't think it's that. I think my skin is so much thinner, that the blood vessels are much more easily seen, but who knows. He suggested laser treatment, which I did have a couple sessions of VBEAM with no negative or positive results. My psychiatrist told me I had social anxiety/ depression. That, I do agree with. He suggested anti-depressants. Tried them with xanax and atenolol for six months than was done with them all.

-No cleansing ever done.

-I've tried acupuncture with seemingly no results.

-At one point I had a strong, psychological addiction to Marijuana. I still smoke/vaporize/eat occasionally, but it is no longer apart of my life like it used to be. I only use about 1-2 times a month. I binge drank once a week, my freshman year in college for about a year (7 years ago.) After that, I couldn't continue and now if I drink, it's 2-3 beers tops, no more than 1-2 times a month.

-Major changes in diet include adding a ton of chia and hemp seeds, oil pulling, coconut oil internally. very recently (ie last 3 or so days) is taking out milk, eating almost all raw, minimal meat. My stress levels are lower now then when I was teaching full time a year ago. There were many times when I was on the verge of panic attacks while teaching (full time.) Needless to say, I HATED my job at the time. Now I build/fix computers and substitute teach 1-2 days a week, as it is much less stressful for me, much easier for me to get through the day. I think that the less stressful situation has definitely lessened my typical anxiety levels, I don't wake up with a pounding heart like I used to when I taught full time. Also, I was able to to go hiking outdoors and take photos (I'm really into photography) which was such a healthy distraction. Once it warms up a bit, I plan on doing more hiking.

-I don't know if I know the difference. Let me take a crack at it, though. My initial thoughts are that alternative medicine has a much broader scope. It can be anything from acupuncture, to electric shock therapy, to off label prescription drug usage, to meditating, etc. Basically, anything that isn't a part of traditional Western Medicine is my guess. Natural, I would assume would come from or incorporate nature/natural things into the program. I do, however, believe that just cuz' it's natural doesn't mean it's good. Opium poppies, useful yes, not addictive simply because it's natural? Not a chance. Same is true for many plants/drugs. As a weed smoker/eater, I've heard the argument that weed is benign because it's natural. I cannot prescribe to that, because, to me, it's absolutely ridiculous. I am big enough to admit I've had issues with a so-called "natural substance." So to me, natural doesn't mean it's good, just that it's from nature. However, natural things, to me, typically would be a better route to go down than pharmaceuticals, albeit with some exceptions (like I've mentioned.) Basically I am so skeptical, I prefer to form my own opinions about everything, from all sources. I think my experience with Accutane has made me far more skeptical of everything than I was before.

-I have gone through so many theories about why my body/mind is in much worse shape than it was prior to the Accutane. I read on some forum that one guy is convinced that Accutane changed DNA structure, based on some article, and causes increased telemere shortening, resulting in vastly more skin shedding, no oil production, and lower life expectancy. My acupuncturist told me that was impossible. But oh yea, he was the one prescribing his OWN son Accutane. Clearly a biased source. When asked what it did do, he didn't know. It was news to him when I told him it was a chemo drug. Had I known it was a chemo drug when my derm was pushing it on me, I would've probably shit myself that she was pushing it on me, especially for moderate back/shoulder acne. I think I was so embarrassed about my Acne before, that I was driven to it. Now I have the same acne, but I don't even think twice about it, because compared to the myriad of other, way more serious problems, it truly doesn't matter to me. Wish I would've realized that before. But basically, I think my issue is a lack of natural oil production. I'm convinced all of my physical symptoms stem from that. As far as mental symptoms, I am quite sure they were both directly and indirectly caused by Accutane. Directly in the sense that I was more anxious and ancy while on the drug. When I got off the drug and my skin started getting worse and worse, my anxiety levels rised dramatically. Then since I had had anxiety for so long, Depression started creeping in. These are my theories, but truly I have NO clue why I am the way I am, on a biological level.

-I'll apologize in advance for any spelling errors/grammar. This is so long, that I just don't want to proofread it, and I need to make an errand. Thank you Willowley and Unyquity for taking the time to get to know me and my situation.