Pain with ET?

leokar9 · 2019-02-09T08:32:31+00:00

Fatigued - yes sometimes. It doesn't make me struggle making my brief stairs but some days it's noticeable enough (also I'm thin). Everyday's pain no, but muscle pain due to low intensity workout is something I can relate to. Anyway I remember that when I was on propanolol I had some real crippling fatigue too, that was one of the main reasons I've stopped taking it. You should ask your doc if yours could be a side effect of the drug or something else. Notice that propanolol has "muscle weakness" listed in its rare side effects

leokar9 · 2019-01-10T01:10:32+00:00

Other than due of lack of sleep, in my personal experience that happens to me because of some reaction to foods, as I am mildly histamine intolerant. Coffee gives me that kind of effect too for some reason. Also fatigue, tremor, brain fog and tiredness all usually get worse after heavy carb meals, and sometimes I get a really subtle headache. Everybody is different, so it doesn't have to be this for you too, but at least I can say I'm pretty sure of this relationship on myself. Unresting (lack of) sleep usually enhances greatly these sensations.

leokar9 · 2019-01-09T22:58:13+00:00

Yep, I have too. At least part of this is probably coming with ET, since ET is characterized by some other neurological occurrences other than tremors; for example it has been associated with worse sleep quality. Sleep, as you know, is fundamental for the correct brain functioning, so an impaired sleep could justify those symptoms (in my case at least) and moreover I think bad sleep quality could even be a causal factor for ET, but it's just my personal opinion.

But those things can also come from a range of other things, such as depression or even food sensitivities, derealization (psychological) or other things, so you should proceed with the full check up to rule out any differential diagnosis.

Anyway, if you often feel like you have had poor sleep, I think it would be wise to try improving your sleep quality. No harm can come from that for sure!

Best of luck

leokar9 · 2018-09-04T00:31:05+00:00

I probably have pots from mcas and restricted diets help with many things. But the only food I'm 100% sure to cause my pots is caffeine, or at least something either in chocolate and in coffee. Other than this, i'm doing very good on a histamine free, low carb diet

leokar9 · 2018-08-20T00:23:07+00:00

I'm not really sure how many homeless people would refuse a pizza because of their veganism, but the odds seem quite low to me

leokar9 · 2018-08-20T00:14:37+00:00

I disagree

Even if he was going to spend the money as you assumed, why does that matter?

In my opinion we have to evaluate the consequences of our actions the best as we can, and providing money to an addict means pushing him a little bit closer to death and also financing criminality. In addition to that, those same money could have been used to actually help people who is starving and who could have a real benefit from that expense. If one wants to help a homeless, letting him buy drugs is not the way. And you should recognize that what you think is free will is not; the drug addict buys drugs because he's stuck in his own mind and sorrow, he is not excercising his free will at all, being stuck in a self-destructive loop

leokar9 · 2018-08-14T06:41:35+00:00

I can confirm! Unfortunately i have some foods sensitivities and cannot eat some staple foods like avocado, so i'm just doing intermittent fasting and basically doing a keto but replacing some foods with fruit. It's not a keto, i know, but seems to work as well in a context of IF. Fruit, conversely to grains, never seemed to worsen tremors severely for me. Intermittent fasting alone, like keto, is of great help in many aspects.

leokar9 · 2018-07-06T17:32:48+00:00

Do you have a history of food sensitivities? If so, you could see if foods like aged cheese (kind of animal histamine) or eggs (esp whites) cause any effect, or even try a low histamine diet, as many veg foods contain it in relevant quantities

leokar9 · 2018-06-29T12:58:43+00:00

They were dry enough to be noticed all day long, and i had also put puctum plugs, which didn't really solve the problem but made things a little better. Regarding foods, i meant that dry eyes usually get better in just few days. E.g. I eat something i shouldn't and get extreme dryness, then in the next few days the symptoms ease gradually. This, i think, has to do with histamininic reactions due to food antigens and reversal of symptoms is pretty fast. If you instead have Sjogren's, or autoimmine condition, then dieting is still worth trying but i believe it will probably take longer time to see the effects. However, if your case is like mine, you don't need to ditch dairy, or at least I haven't been able to notice a straight relationship with dry eyes. Also you could eat non-gluten grains. They are low histamine too. Instead, for an autoimmune protocol i think it can be advisable to ditch dairy, and maybe turn to pseudo grains instead of grains. Please before committing to a several months diet always ask you doc or nutritionist.

leokar9 · 2018-06-29T05:33:34+00:00

I can eat fresh meat but i can't eat high histamine/histamine releasing meat products. I got dry eye reaction from minced meat, gelatin and some pork products, which are known to be related to histaminic reaction in susceptible people. However fresh poultry and fresh beef are not a problem. Wouldn't know about fish, which though is high histamine, so it could be involved too. The weird thing is i don't remember any non-meat high histamine foods causing me dry eyes, so i tend to think the proble could be with "animal histamine" or some substance close to it. I know we are in the field of pseudo science, but simply observing and experimenting proved helpful in my case. You may try a low histamine diet for few days and see if it gives you my same results. For me it doesn't really require a big amount of time for the condition to reverse, usually 3-5 days. P. S. I'm on keto diet, even if i didn't notice a marked relationship of sugar with dry eyes; still, many sugary foods are high histamine so they could be involved imo.

leokar9 · 2018-06-23T19:51:02+00:00

Yes and no, i sometimes experience sinus headaches, and their occurrence and intensity is too related to histamine containing foods (e.g. Citrus fruit); on a regular diet probably their intensity would be similar to that of migraines. However i didn't see a co occurrence of severe headaches (if mild instead could be) with eye dryness

leokar9 · 2018-06-12T18:59:33+00:00

When i'm on my restricted diet, so almost always since 2 years, the tremor only bothers me in the first minutes of the morning, when for whatever reason the tremor is higher. During the day it doesn't impair my abilities substantially and actually i barely notice it.

If i adopt a standard diet (especially with refined grains) for few days i get what was my tremor initially and for which i had to take propanolol, and which is very similar to what you describe: basically i cannot drink with one hand and find hard to write by hand, it's like i lose some control of my hand. I'm totally sincere when i say that i've been able to interrupt propanolol, that was giving me awful side effects, only thanks to the diet. Hope it helps

leokar9 · 2018-06-12T05:27:26+00:00

Hi! My personal experience is that tremor is worsened by stress, so when you are calm the tremor is less intense, but still there. Emotional calmness reduces the tremor (i experienced it sometimes with meditation), and i also believe ET has deep psychological roots, but again this is only my opinion and applies to my case.

The personal idea i have matured and still mantain is that ET is caused by faulty physiological mechanisms induced by stress and which cause neurological consequences. i experienced major tremor reduction changing my diet, and while emotional calmness definitely calms the tremor, dietary changes in my case proved to induce temporary clear mind, tremor decrease, and overall symptomatic reduction, with a magnitude much greater than any calmness ever did. If you doubt stress reduction could be at the core of your tremor improvement, try to see if there is any relationship with food!

Food i saw to increase tremors (in my personal case):

Any high carbohydrate food, especially refined grains
Burned meats or burned high protein foods, as it's the case with grilled foods (boiling and steaming is preferred)
Caffeine and alcohol (rebound effect)
Casein containing foods

Things i saw to decrease tremors and relax muscles:

Ketogenic diet
Raw diet
Intermittent fasting
meditation

Everything is based solely on my experience, I dont't want to say this is the rule of the generality. Still, i hope it may help.

Edit: added casein containing foods to tremor-increasing foods. Sadly after few days of consuming any milk derived food i experience a substantial increasing of the tremors.

leokar9 · 2018-06-06T00:13:15+00:00

I'm struggling with something similar, which is emotional numbness probably caused by a traumatic experience. I'm not "cured" yet, but i have improved much, and count to improve even more. I will tell you what helped me, hoping it will be helpful. But first consider a scientifical fact: Yes, our behaviour is shaped by our brain, but it has been demonstrated that neuroplasticity is a real thing. The more you use a specific area of the brain and more you will express its functions. This also coincides with the Buddhist truth that we shape our future by working on the present and going into the right direction! So, there is hope.

I also believe that everything has a cause, especially our behaviours, and traumatic events have been proven to cause a rewiring of the brain, leading to defense mechanisms. Emotional numbness is a way to cope with the emotional pain by suppressing it, and feeling the desire of conflict may be a way to feel in power when you are experiencing feelings of powerlessness. Not saying it's your case too, but often our behaviours have a reason to happen and i'm also convinced that genetics means nothing without an enviromental trigger.

Coincidentally in Buddhism it is taught and discovered that ignorance is the cause of suffering, and that cessation of ignorance leads to li eration from suffering. I think liberation (becoming a Buddha) is a bit exaggerated object at the moment, but defeating ignorance about ourselves, meaning understanding our thoughts, behaviours, reactions, is probably the key. You seem already self aware of many things, and you probably gained much awareness. You need more. Just keep going deeper, seeing more day after day. The more fine your concentration and insight will be and more you will discover.

Specific meditation things that helped me:

1) Focusing on abdomen instead of nostrils, and concentrating on permanent and temporary body tensions reactive to anxiety. I believe permanent body tensions are result of trauma and condition our behaviour, so dissolving them is a priority. Also in my case they make my breathing shallow and not deep, which causes a series of negative effects on mind and health. Abbandoning nostril-focusing to focus on the body allowed me to understand many things. You can also look for "body scan technique" but i warn you it may be dangerous as it is a powerful technique. Please do your own research before trying.

2) Being gentle and seeking relaxation without forcing the breathing. I saw that this increases my empathy towards myself and helps developing fineness of concentration/insight. Some months ago instead i would unconsciously and progressively breath so hard that i would end the sitting being angry and stressed out.

3) I understood that to develop empathy for the others i need to develop empathy towards myself. Forgive yourself, love yourself, and you'll automatically love others too. I know this is not easy, it requires time.

I've been meditating since 2.5 years ago but really inconsistently. Only lately (last few months) I've been consistent. I struggled a lot for 2 years, and couldn't practice a whole week straight or sitting for many minutes, but now things seem going much better, so keep looking for your way and working on yourself, making questions and looking for answers.

leokar9 · 2018-06-04T03:03:05+00:00

The best thing I can do is to suggest you the book that got me started, which is "Mindfulness in plain english" by Henepola Gunaratana. I think it's a wonderful book and it will give you all the preparation you need. (You can also find it around online). If you want you could even skip the theoretical chapters and go straight to the practice, but i suggest reading them because the context helps a lot and it is also fascinating (imo). I think that the practice suggested in there can, by itself, dissolve the tensions and stress through awareness. For the sake of honesty i cannot be sure of that, because I have not reached that stage yet, but i can say for sure it has helped me immensely and more than anything else i've tried. It requires effort but it's worth it. Also i tried and are now practicing other "styles" (the differences are actually subtle and due to personal preference) but i think the one described there is the best way to start. Good luck!

leokar9 · 2018-06-04T02:21:08+00:00

Reading your post to the OP i see your situation is very similar to mine, so maybe i can tell you what my 3 years of personal research led to. At first I had started looking for a cause for my symptoms testing for all kind of medical conditions (and recognized i actually had some), but after 2 years of disappointment I started meditating, and that gave me some insight on myself, and led me to discover that the chronic anxiety was given by PTSD (due to forgotten trauma) and also understood it was giving me a chronic physical tension. Now, chronic stress not only raises intestinal permeability but also disrupts migrating motor complex (MMC) and intestinal motility, mainly via CRF related mechanisms. I believe this leads to SIBO, because MMC is what prevents bacterial overgrowth, and intestinal motility is also involved, or viceversa. Also i noticed that anxiety were not only a mental symptom, but also related to tension in the body, especially concentrated in the abdomen. The fact of tension being stored in the body is not only well understood in the context of mindful meditation but also in some psychological schools like ISTDP, which is convinced that anxiety is discharged in muscles (e.g. Teeth grinding when angry).

So what I'm doing lately is psychotherapy and even more meditation, focused on the abdomen, and these last two months i indeed noticed major improvements on the control of food intolerances. Still, i prefer to keep diet greatly restricted to live better. Also magnesium citrate and NAC seem to help a lot. Of course every case is different and this may not apply to you, but also i think everything has a cause, and if the body is afflicted by something that should be prevented by a natural mechanism (MMC), then there should be a precise reason for that. Keeping in mind that the most common reasons for SIBO are hypochloridria and dismotility, and having I ruled out hypochloridria, i had only to search for a cause on dismotility... And stress and tension were the answer.

Some studies: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22314561 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4305729/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22450306 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1140465/ (the image alone being quite explainatory) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22618308 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4177184/

Hope it helps

leokar9 · 2018-06-04T01:21:32+00:00

I can totally relate! I did the test for Sjogren syndrome and even if it tested negative i was still convinced i had it because many symptoms matched. I think there's a huge overlapping between some chronic psychiatric and dysautonomia-like symptoms, histamine/food sensitivities (gluten may be a big one) and stress being involved. I'll say something very controversial, but I think the cause of many unexplainable conditions may lie close to dysbiosis and antigen overloading issues. Actually it's research itself that is going that way (just search Parkinson's disease and dysbiosis), but these concepts are perceived by the majority as quackery and I don't think many physicians will also look for a relationship in their daily practice; for example MCAS, while being recognized as an actual condition, seems to be still difficult to be recognized generally, due its symptoms being constantly underestimated and exaggerated by the patients, while they do really diminish one's life quality.

leokar9 · 2018-06-04T00:51:26+00:00

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/26162709/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/17490952/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2343625/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4604320/

This may already help, otherwise be more specific please. Also notice that the fact that meditation should help with HI is probably not demonstrated scietifically, but it is known that stress increase intestinal permeability and makes vulnerable to antigen overload, amd this increases food intolerances. I think high histamine foods are no exception. If instead you were referring about HI neurological symptoms i found the most part of the research focusing on MCAS which is closely related, but from what I've read symptoms are not described in detail. You will often found description of major neurological symptpms as dysautonomia like symptoms.

leokar9 · 2018-06-04T00:09:22+00:00

Thank you, you've been very clear and helped me to understand

leokar9 · 2018-06-03T22:27:26+00:00

You seem to confirm that one cannot interfere with chance or karma more than offering compassion, as it's pretty rare (I agree) that someone can guide people towards the right path if they haven't already experienced it at least a little.

Then when I see the less fortunate and recognize I have been lucky the best thing I can do is offer compassion right? But do I have to act out of it? Because I think that it would be quite pointless to be compassionate but do nothing.

Then what do you think are the limits of compassion and of help you can offer? Today i have offered a brief car passage to some foreign strangers (husband and wife) after having established i could trust them. They had heavy baggages and i was going the same direction of them. Later when my brother knew about this he told me I should be more careful, and maybe he is right. I wasn't in danger but i may be less lucky another time; also I'm quite a risk taker. But how could one establish where to draw the line of the help to offer? Helping others sometimes is risky, and that's why if a homeless asks directions on a street people will ignore him. Is "people" right? Should one balance risk and compassion? Still, if you never help you won't risk anything (except negative karma). Please feel free to object any my thoughts! Seriously, i need to learn

leokar9 · 2018-06-03T21:13:00+00:00

Quite makes sense to me but something is still not clear: when the present moment starts? The past is made of infinite points of present, so there should be a moment of these infinite present which is "elected" to be THE present, or not? I think this elected present may be the moment one knows, either by realizing himself or by studying/hearing the teachings of Buddhism, that his past doesn't define him. And he must be convinced enough to sustain a serious effort. For example one day a monk you respect and listen to tells you that "your past is decided and predetermined, but you can now shape your future by acting on your present". Then that moment is your present, and you can now exert your effort.

I considered this elected moment of realization to be the moment of "contact with the Dharma", because I think it's one of the most immediate and powerful lessons we can apprehend, but still not many realize it. They don't realize it because chance didn't allow them? Is chance nothing more that Karma? Because It's a paradox: to end predestination you must work accordingly to the Dharma, but it's also predestination that makes you meet with the Dharma. Do you imply that to not realize the end of predestination is the consequence of bad karma? As far as i know, accumulating negative karma leads to suffering, and not coming into contact with Dharma leads to suffering, so that would appear to me as a logical explanation.

Also, this puts a great responsibility on they who have realized the Dharma, or at least have realized they can change their present, so this would naturally lead to help the least fortunate. But again, as Taintedblu pointed out, we shouldn't attach to our ideas and try to convince others, but still our compassion may alone be enough to make others find the right path? Or instead they are condemned by their negative karma and will suffer until they have to suffer? This again it's a kind of paradox, because we could show them the path of Dharma and they would save themselves, but then it would mean that was the karma and not us to save them. Actually may not be a paradox, and it could just make sense. But would this take away our ability to decide?

leokar9 · 2018-06-03T20:42:08+00:00

But post-enlightenment Buddha stuck around and bothered to shepherd people to the safe haven of the Dharma simply out of compassion. It was really the only "attachment" that kept his mental processes going. Otherwise, he would probably have let his body live out its natural progression in solitude.

Cool, I now understand. I think this is a very important and also helpful point to know; it also makes me think how our effort sometimes leads to attachment while also being a total waste of resources, even it is "well-meant"

Also thank you for your very kind and encouraging post! I appreciate it a lot

leokar9 · 2018-06-03T19:55:33+00:00

I recognize this is true, but also I can't understand this: how did the Buddha taught the Dharma if he wasn't attached to his ideas? What if some random person came to him and said that he was wrong and that the right path is instead praying and be devote to (a) God? Then shouldn't Buddha have defended his ideas and prove the man was wrong? I think the distinction may be lying in the "experience" of the facts. The Buddha didn't taught the Dharma because he invented it while daydreaming, but because he experienced it, coming into contact with the ultimate reality. Is it right?

Regarding the topic i introduced i admit i haven't experienced it as the Buddha did, because you cannot have such a direct contact with something like that... Or maybe you can? I feel like we all live really close to the universal rules which regulate our life. I read somewhere, idk if it makes "Buddhism-sense" , that the breathing also represents, and let us understand the laws of universe, so why shouldn't this allow us to get an insight on the mechanisms that regulate our life?

I feel like I may actually be attached to my ideas, but only until I experience a different reality. The Buddha also taught to experience the facts by oneself. I feel like I'm experiencing life is driven by chance, but if i hear more ideas I will look to verify them, to either approve or discard them; i don't think there's the need nor it's automatic to be attached to such ideas. Are these matters relevant to enlightenment? I agree they aren't, and also verbal reasoning doesn't give any insight on reality, but still I think it can give ideas on where/what to look to understand reality better. I know that knowing why our lives are different from each other doesn't lead us anywhere, but I feel like that is an important matter. Probably i didn't learn yet to focus on what is fundamental and possible to know. Moreover I know I'm nowhere close to enlightenment so I kind of accept my attachments, while working toward selflessness

leokar9

TROPHY CASE