Re: How did your AF start?

My AF started with flu-like symptoms back in '98 or so. I had just had a flu shot, too, so I developed a suspicion of flu shots.

I had grown up with a lot of social anxiety, I had been bullied a lot in junior high and high school. There was a lot of fighting in my family. I ate crap and never exercised. Then I started playing combative video games, really getting into the conflict. I was always fighting in one way or another, though almost never physically.

After the initial symptoms of a weird feeling in the back of my throat, getting awful sleep, being tired frequently, and blood Sugar crashing after meals, things took a turn for the worse. I was laid off from work (dot bomb), got into some very frustrating relationships, and one supremely frustrating relationship, and my symptoms bloomed. Extremely dry skin, substantial hair loss, awful digestion, plummeting intelligence, rashes, lots of floaters (in eyes), dramatic fatigue, palpitations and chest pains, debilitating anxiety, frequent adrenaline bursts at the smallest surprises, severely compromised balance, apparently pronounced systemic inflammation, etc.

I've managed to come back from all that. Most recently my digestion has come back, thankfully. My constitution, my energy throughout the day, has improved to the point where I only need a nap once a week or so. My intelligence, however, isn't returning so quickly. Could be that the (mostly achieved) resolution of the disease isn't enough and that I need to get back to being more intellectually (and physically!) active.

Weird symptoms are not necessarily indicators that we have something other than "Adrenal Fatigue". We're talking about some fundamental systems in our bodies, critical for regulating a wide variety of functions from metabolism to immunity, and they are complex, and there are many, many different ways for them to misbehave.

Note how I put that disease name in quotes. I want to help people get away from the idea that it's all about the adrenal glands, and about a particular state of them. The illness as I understand it is more about the whole stress/anxiety system: the limbic system, the hypothalamus, the pituitary, and the adrenals. The system is like a whip, with the handle at the limbic system and the tip at the adrenals. Indeed, my thinking these days is that the primary source of the problem, the hand flicking the whip if you will, is in the limbic system — our minds. But bear in mind that the system has feedback loops, so you would do well to support all parts that are problematic instead of working on only one. (More of my thoughts on the idea of the dynamics of this disease.)

A lot of people think that "Adrenal Fatigue" is often in part product of secondary infections or stressors like heavy metal poisoning. I'm keeping an open mind about it, but my guess so far is that "Adrenal Fatigue" can be phenomenally crappy even without additional problems, and that focusing on heavy metals, mold, toxins, or parasites is most often done as a way of having a reassuringly simple, manageable foe. That's a guess. Read on.

I've recently been trying out glutathione precursors (N-acetylcysteine and S-adenosyl-L-methionine) and, interestingly, have had an increase in flu-like symptoms. Don't know what to make of that. I hear that glutathione is involved in detoxing, fighting off infection, and is the body's major antioxidant. I'm currently only able to put these puzzle pieces together in a way that says I am detoxing or fighting off infection. But, as noted, my brain power isn't at full, and I've only started this part of my investigation. (I note also that I love the idea that maybe I've just got a virus and could conquer it and then be perfectly healthy. The urge to believe is a sign that one needs to be extra cautious in their thinking. It's not always a product of logic; it's often a product of just wanting something to be true for other, comforting reasons.)

I'll keep this forum updated on what I figure out.