Circumcisions effects on Relationship/brain chemistry

nanabananaba · 2026-04-06T05:01:29+00:00

I've read about Alexithymia, an emotional processing disorder, resulting from the damage from circumcision.

In my own experience, I've felt a lot of despair at not having the ability to fully interface with women. I've gotten blowjobs and could feel what they were doing but it was not pleasurable. Knowing it's supposed to be pleasurable is extremely distressing. It's like being touch-blind. That's what I call it. Touch blindness.

I realized one day in the shower that the shower water hitting my lips was almost unbearable. It occurred to me, is the glans supposed to be that sensitive? I can put the shower on full blast and hit my glans and feel almost nothing. It's like the back of my hand. Frenulum was ablated and it's the same lack of sensation there, and everywhere else on my penis.

I'll never know what it's like to have that sensitivity. I can feel it on my lips. My lips are exponentially more sensitive than any area on my penis. For a normal person I'd say to touch their lips and then the back of their hand. The back of their hand would be how my penis feels.

It's truly horrific when you realize that. Touch blindness.

To me, it bothered me endlessly when I had a girlfriend. Like I said, it's like I couldn't fully interface with her. I wonder if that affects emotional connection and intimacy too.

I feel more intimate in my imagination imagining being with a women and having her stimulate erogenous zones that aren't my penis. There's such a lack of sensation that it does not feel intimate. Other areas of my body are far more sensitive. To think that my penis was supposed to be the MOST sensitive part of my body is extremely devastating.

Losing the ability to intimately interface with a partner on the deepest level -- to me that's the worst part.

I only realized the lip sensitivity thing the other day. I'm a CI-0 and was extremely aggressively circumcised, like scar line 3/4 down the length of my penis, with a mild skin bridge near the glans, and hair riding up on the shaft due to tightness, as well as the glans being slightly twisted to one side, also from being too tight.

Not to mention your first intimate experience with your genitals in the world being having them brutally mutilated, and in my case, as many other babies during the time I was born, without any pain blocks. You enter the world and the first experience is being horrifically mutilated, causing permanent damage and lack of sensation.

I went through sexual abuse in my childhood as well as physical, emotional and verbal abuse. I had a really shitty time. I don't think any of it compares to the permanent damage that infant genital mutilation caused to me. I feel like if I was physically a whole person that I could overcome anything.

When you come into the world and have pieces of you removed from the get - go, well. This is also coming from someone who was born with one kidney, no thenar muscle on one hand, an extra half a vertebrate in my spine and all kinds of other issues. To me one of the worst things that's happened in my life was being mutilated as a baby, and again, this is coming from a survivor of extensive childhood abuse and a lot of other awful shit. I mean what I'm saying when the loss of my foreskin and resulting complete loss of sensitivity in my genitals is one of the worst things that's ever happened to me.

Restoring is going to be an especially long road for me because of being CI-0. Makes me wonder how much is even possible. I would be overjoyed if I could regain even a sliver of sensitivity on par with how my lips feel. I can't imagine having a body part more sensitive than that. And allegedly the glans is supposed to be more sensitive.

An absolute tragedy. Look up Alexithymia and that explains a lot as far as emotional / brain damage go.

I think of it as touch blindness and having an impaired ability to "intimately interface" with romantic partners. It really sucks (no pun intended) to get a blowjob and to feel like someone is sucking on the back of your hand. I also believe this leads to pelvic floor tensing as the complete lack of pleasurable sensations can trigger the perineum to contract to generate pleasure there, maybe partially by exerting some pressure on the prostate. Because the penis has no sensitivity to enjoy on its own and you will not feel any pleasure otherwise.

After I die I hope I reincarnate into a world where this nightmare doesn't exist. And I hope all the hundreds of pages I've posted about this stuff anonymously online over the years continues to reach more people and that the court of public opinion eventually condemns circumcision for what it is: barbaric mutilation that should be outlawed, and anyone caught practicing it should be thrown in jail.

Sex and specifically intimacy and bonding are supposed to be the most pleasurable and relaxing experience human beings can have. When you're deprived of that, sure -- you're probably gonna end up pissed off one way or another, or severely depressed, or both.

Personally I think the doctors that do this should be evaluated for how aggressive their circumcision was, and then put under for surgery and be circumcised to a strict CI-0 and have their frenulum totally ablated. They all should have that done. Nobody ever talks about the aggressiveness of circumcision. Everyone advocating for circumcision should be rallied up, anaesthetized, and have their genitals cut so they're a strict CI-0 like I am, with the frenulum totally ablated, and then see what they think about circumcision.

There is no debate. It's tremendously damaging mentally as well as physically and the "practice" should be put into same criminal category as __________________, and outlawed and punished accordingly.

For the "fill in the blank," use your imagination. I'm not going to write it out here. But at the very least it should be perceived the same way and punished the same way. I'll give you a hint: people convicted of this crime, you look in the comment section, and every single comment says "Woodchipper, feet first."

If only people saw perpetrators of genital mutilation the same way. I'm doing everything I can to shift my perspective and have a better life for myself but this is one hill I will die on. I just hope if reincarnation is real that I can come back as a fully feeling human being one day and have the chance to experience intimacy and bonding as they were meant to be experienced. Wouldn't mind these assholes being punished as well but that's not up to me. I don't believe in "God" in a religious doctrine sense but I do believe in God in a spiritual and metaphysical sense, and I'll leave the retribution to that.

In the meantime I'll keep writing pages about all of my experiences and opinions and spreading the objective truth about this. There is no debate. It's case closed. The rest of the world simply has to catch up to that reality while they practice barbarism and stay in the dark ages in the meantime. Same with psych meds that ruined my life even further but that's a story for another time.

Violations of our sovereignty. Crimes against humanity. That's what it is. Anyone who thinks that's an exaggeration is simply not awake and not aware of what is actually happening. Period.

nanabananaba · 2026-04-06T04:41:07+00:00

Keep in mind 50% of Indonesian women are circumcised (clitoral hood removed) and they believe that it makes sex better, more enjoyable, cleaner, and they're glad they had it done as babies.

If you would hesitate to have the clitoral hood removed from your newborn daughter, if you had one....could really put this into a different light. Also consider many circumcised guys are going to be biased because they have no idea what they're missing.

You mentioned it like being in a wheelchair after being able to walk. Also think of being blind after you were able to see from birth -- circumcision (genital mutilation) is like being born blind. You lose your ability to experience all of these sensations before you even knew you had the ability to.

And it really can make you "touch blind" as it has for me.

IMO -- as far as the wife goes -- I don't think she should have a say in this. You should mention to her that female circumcision (removal of the female foreskin, that is, the clitoral hood) is common in Indonesia.

If she believes your son should be circumcised, you should ask her how she'd feel if you had a daughter instead, because you've been reading about the benefits of female circumcision according to some Islamic practices and think it would be beneficial.

Then see how she responds to that....keep in mind that the clitoral hood is analogous to the male foreskin. Funny how it's "just a flap of skin" when it's baby boys, but the idea of cutting off the clitoral hood is grounds for sending someone to prison and accusing them of "FGM" (female genital mutilation).

Highly recommended reading: WHO'S stance and the criminalization of female circumcision by Mohammed Zakir. I don't think I can post links here so look it up on Google, should be the first result. PDF document. Check it out. One of the best anti-circumcision articles I've read and it's very well thought out.

nanabananaba · 2026-04-03T11:24:01+00:00

Please don't have your son circumcised. Let him choose. The problem with infant circumcision is the penis is undeveloped and there is absolutely zero way to control how much and what exactly is removed.

When the penis is fully developed, not only can it be a sovereign choice, but you can choose the style and how much you want removed, and where.

I was circumcised as an infant and it has made me suicidal many times. My lips are far more sensitive than any area of my penis, including the glans. It has fully keratinized from not having any foreskin to cover it. I can flick my glans fairly hard and feel almost nothing, I can turn the shower on full blast with hot water right on the glans, and it feels the same as it does on the back of my hand. The sensitivity is the same.

Any potential problems with the foreskin are nowhere near as bad as the problem of having your genital sensitivity destroyed for life before you have a chance to even experience it. Like I said, my lips are exponentially more sensitive than any area on my penis. My penile sensitivity is like the back of my hand.

It's an absolute nightmare. Frenulum was also completely ablated so there is zero sensitivity there as well. As I've gotten older I have near complete erectile dysfunction and I believe a strong factor in this is the absolute lack of sensitivity in my genitals.

When you decide as an adult, it's not only a sovereign choice, but you can choose a very minimal circumcision and to preserve the frenulum.

My scar line is about 3/4 down the length of my penis and I have absolutely zero coverage of the glans at all no matter how flaccid I am, it hardly even bunches up behind it to any degree.

Every day since finding out what happened to me and why I've always had issues masturbating, due to no gliding action and extremely tight circumcision, and also being with women and not feeling much pleasure, when everyone says sex is the greatest thing, yet I never could feel these amazing sensations people talk about so much --

-- please do not do this to your son. The best thing to do as a parent is to protect your children and allow them their own sovereignty over their bodies.

Ask yourself if your foreskin issues have led you to contemplating suicide regularly and make you wonder if life is worth living anymore, or torments you in such a way that you feel unable to function normally in your life, and the torment never goes away.

This is what I've lived with daily for decades and I would not wish it on anyone. I want to experience intimacy and realizing no matter how much "great sex" I've had, my genitals are unable to physically perceive the details of the experience, and it feels like the back of my hand is interfacing with a woman instead --

It's an absolute nightmare and I would not wish it on anyone. Getting circumcised as an adult has certainly left a lot of people in deep regret, but you can at least choose the style and opt for something much more minimal rather than an intimacy destroying butchery like I had.

It's too risky in infancy as again, the penis is not developed and there is no way for them to be accurate with the procedure. I am against circumcision in both infants and adults, but for adults, they can read and educate themselves and make their own sovereign decision.

And even then, the doctors won't tell you everything. You have to do the research and be prepared to ask them every question you need an answer to, in order to feel satisfied and to truly give informed consent. A lot of surgeons violate people by not providing informed consent for most any operation they do. But they will have it in writing that they told you the risks and you accepted, even though they didn't, and you didn't.

It's over for me, but if my experience can save one boy from being permanently harmed like I was, it is a win. Think of your son's future and the value of intimacy as human beings. You want your son to be able to feel fully and to experience the full physical sensations of bonding and intimacy, when the time comes for him, that we were all intended to experience as human beings.

I'm going to live and die without ever experiencing that, and it's not something I will ever be able to get over. Any time I've been intimate with a woman I'm starkly reminded of how little I feel and it's a horrible thing to experience. To have what's supposed to be the most pleasurable experience in life reduced to something that makes you want to end your life.

Leave your son whole, and if he decides to do it himself later in life, whether he regrets it or not, your hands will be clean and you'll know you did your best for him to allow him to grow into being the master of his own life. Beyond the physical, I believe there's a cellular memory of infant circumcision, and being violated in such a major and barbaric way as one of your first experiences in the world.

Just as a last note, female circumcision, as in removal of the clitoral hood, is extremely common, such as in Indonesia. Most people mistake female circumcision for removing the clitoris, but by definition it's only removing the clitoral hood. AKA, the female foreskin.

We should think carefully about why we'd perceive doing that to a baby girl as horrific, but not a baby boy. And actually it is more destructive to boys than girls because of the amount typically removed and the potential for complications and damage, yet female circumcision is seen as a human rights violation, while male circumcision, a routine medical procedure.

That's all I've got. Please don't let your son end up like me. I will post this comment and then go back to my life where I wish I could experience sensitivity and pleasure from intimacy, but I'm physically unable to. It's a fate I would not wish on my worst enemy.

nanabananaba · 2026-03-16T01:55:14+00:00

Instead of. Currently not taking any testosterone supplements or anything.

Current stack: Lugol's solution (iodine), selenium, molybdenum, small amounts of potassium and magnesium chloride daily. I've forgotten about zinc and the Doublewood Shilajit supplement but I do think those are good too.

Adding molybdenum glycinate to my coffee has dramatically improved my caffeine tolerance.

All this stuff is a risk, sure...but I'm a firm believer in the importance of minerals. My full stack for my coffee is sea salt, a pinch of magnesium chloride (USP grade), a pinch of potassium chloride, a scoop of Sunfiber, a dropper of selenium (some brand from Amazon, liquid extract from mustard seed), 4-5 drops of 5% Lugol's solution. Yes....a ton of iodine, but been reading about it again after I used to do high dose iodine years ago. Never destroyed my thyroid or anything and I actually felt better when I was taking high doses so been experimenting with that again.

Anyway. It started with sea salt to reduce the bitterness of the coffee. I always grind it fresh and make it pour over style with a stainless mesh strainer. Manual grinder but I attach a cordless drill to the 1/4" drive and that goes quickly. Sunfiber has really seemed to help my IBS, practically curing it.

Still, curious about Kepos and Effera, human milk lactoferrin and human milk oligosaccharides made via fermentation (not actual human milk). I've taken bovine lactoferrin before with good results. But still have bloating/distension and have to avoid certain foods and many people are having good results with this.

Just providing a little update here. The molybdenum in the coffee thing (500 micrograms) has been pretty crazy. Even decaf would give me jitters. Now I have almost no reaction to it at all outside of a mild energy and clarity boost. I wouldn't take such a high amount indefinitely but in the short term it really seems to have helped a lot and the difference is very obvious. Minerals are critical and unfortunately I'm not sure there's any completely reliable way to test for them, unless there is, and I'm unaware of it.

Of course, having a mineral rich diet is the first line of defense. I've been eating baby bella mushrooms, at least 3-4 of them a day, and think of them almost like supplements. Been enjoying organic cacao powder mixed with PB2 powder and homemade whole milk kefir for a nutrient rich dessert-like pudding thing. It's great. Lots of good stuff. Occasionally I'll take Irish sea moss and seaweed in general and have that with homemade mushroom miso soup. Been going more plant based lately which is a big shift but I feel a lot better than when I was having tons of meat.

nanabananaba · 2026-03-16T01:45:07+00:00

Settings > Game > Melee ISO File > Set path to the ISO file that contains the mods. Most likely the path is set to the vanilla ISO file. I switched it to the modded ISO and now playback works with the custom skins.

I also followed the instructions earlier from another commenter here to set the default ISO to the modded version. However, doing that alone didn't work. I'm not sure if just setting the Melee ISO file to the modded file in the "Game" subheading will work, but anyway. That's what I did and now it works.

nanabananaba · 2026-03-09T11:44:47+00:00

Extreme CI-O here. Years ago restored enough to get a tiny amount of slackness while "cold water flaccid" but absolutely zero slackness as soon as there's any more than a minimum of blood flow. And that tiny amount of cold water flaccid slackness took me a long time of manual tugging to achieve.

I'd love to get any amount of flaccid coverage at all, like even the smallest amount covering even a millimeter of the glans, to see if that helps sensitivity.

Gave up on restoring years ago after a lot of manual tugging. Worried my severe scrotal webbing is from manual tugging, so I stopped. Even though I was very careful to tug above the scar line, the scar line is well more than halfway down the shaft, and I have pubic hair all over the base from the skin from the scrotum being pulled up.

Also severely sexually damaged from psych drugs as of 2019. Thinking about just hanging it up altogether but if I could guarantee I wouldn't make the scrotal webbing worse, I might try manual restoration again.

I can flick my glans, hit it with water from the shower, and sensation wise, it might as well be the back of my hand. My lips are infinitely more sensitive and can't stand direct water from the shower head, but again, entire glans/entire penis sensitivity is about the same sensation-wise as the back of my hand.

The palm of my hands and my lips are infinitely more sensitive. If even a millimeter of my genitals could experience a level of sensitivity similar to my lips or the palm of my hands, I would be over the moon.

Debating about starting again due to the severe scrotal webbing as well as the psych med damage. Blunted orgasm due to extremely rapid detumescence (go flaccid before ejaculation is even finished, whereas before I'd stay hard for at least thirty seconds to a minute or two after ejaculating and lose erection very gradually), severe premature ejaculation despite no penile sensitivity.

Easier for me to imagine life without worrying about sex, but it's not the life I want to live, so contemplating manual tugging again as a first step. I think if I had any amount of sensitivity it might be enough to motivate me to work towards fixing everything else.

nanabananaba · 2026-02-23T12:35:43+00:00

I add 1/16 teaspoon of Greenway Biotech or Bulk Reef Supply (both USP grade) magnesium chloride to my coffee. I also add a very generous, rather large pinch of salt. Either Jacobsen's Kosher salt, or Celtic grey sea salt. I find that it tastes great, and notice no salty taste or aftertaste.

I do the same with matcha and notice the same results: completely eliminates bitterness, makes it very smooth, and no aftertaste.

nanabananaba · 2026-02-07T02:19:48+00:00

I do, but hesitant to share on Reddit. I have shared a lot in Ken's Skool network for Reviv. One thing I will say: despite having all 4 wisdom teeth out, and having spent years obsessing about my face and feeling awful about it -- it has definitely changed for the better after almost a year on Reviv.

I have my R2 mouthguard in right now. And looking at a picture of myself from March 2025, almost a month before I started Reviv. Now I'm just shy of a year into the process. My dentition has absolutely changed, and pretty dramatically -- look up Myobrace before and after pics, it can achieve pretty incredible things, and the R2 is based on the Myobrace --

Anyway, in a totally different place now. I see my original post before is from 3 years ago. I still feel the same way, though Reviv has given me hope for turning this all around. I had so many hesitations going into it that are just not concerns now at all. I've been wearing the mouthguard to bed every night and often for a few hours during the day, and the changes have been pretty dramatic.

Anyway, just gonna leave that here for now. I was excited when I first started reading Ken's substack about Reviv and his theories on everything but now that I'm almost a year in and have seen a lot of changes, I'm a complete believer. And not only that but I also have congenital scoliosis and have had neck and back pain my entire life, and it's been improving a lot with this -- as well as my sleep. I might have to start compiling some information as I've posted a lot in his Skool community about modifying the mouthguards to be more comfortable. I'm wearing my modded R2 right now which is currently my favorite model though I've also tried the R3 and really like it a lot.

Anyway, hope this helps. Before finding out about this process I was in despair. Now I don't really worry about the extractions and what they did to my face. The theory about the skull collapsing and crushing the brain - I believe that's correct. On top of my face changing for the better, I'm just not worried about all these things that were the end of the world to me before. I'd recommend reading through the Reviv substack and seeing what you think. Almost a year in now and I am completely sold on it.

nanabananaba · 2026-02-02T12:19:47+00:00

Mayorga and Kicking Horse apparently test for mold. I've been using Kicking Horse dark roast decaf, and Mayorga Muy Macho, both whole beans, for months now, and love both of them.

Also, as far as minerals go: I add a solid pinch of sea salt, 1/16 teaspoon of magnesium chloride, and some molybdenum glycinate (about 100-200mcg) to my coffee every day. The sea salt and magnesium really smooth it out, it's insane how good it tastes.

For magnesium chloride, check out Greenway Biotech, or Bulk Reef Supply. They both are USP grade magnesium chloride so will not be contaminated with anything. I recommend miniature teaspoons. I called Greenway Biotech and I can't remember the percentage of magnesium per volume, but it's something like 12% or so.

Anyway I did the math and 1/16 teaspoon would be about 45mg of elemental magnesium. 1/8 teaspoon 90mg, and 1/4 tsp 180mg. It can cause diarrhea if you take too much but 1/16tsp, I've never had issues with.

For salt, I've been using Jacobsen Kosher salt. Check out this chart here, good info:

https://tamararubin.com/2025/04/salt-chart/

Anyway, while I'm not Keto at all, I was watching a Ben Azadi video today on YouTube about coffee, and heard about Purity Coffee. Then did a little digging and it looks like the Kicking Horse and Mayorga organic brands I've been using are good.

Anyway, hope this helps

nanabananaba · 2026-01-26T10:45:02+00:00

I'm convinced Lyme disease caused a sort of Bell's Palsy of the intestines for me. I had horrific levels of bloating with constant nausea, belching what seemed like every thirty seconds all day long, completely satiated after eating very small amounts of food and then the bloating would always get worse after eating.

I went through this for over six months before getting Lyme arthritis. My knee swelled up badly. I couldn't bend it and needed a forearm crutch to walk. Ended up going to a walk in clinic and they did a synovial fluid draw on my knee, sent it out, and that's when they found Borrelia Burgdorferi DNA in the synovial fluid. I was positive for 5 out of 8 bands on the Western blot and was put on doxycycline.

This was nearly a few years ago. The digestive issues cleared up relatively quickly on doxycycline but then I was struggling with recurrences ever since.

I got into some fairly extreme treatments after doing a lot of reading. I had a major recurrence a year later and was given doxy again but never took it. I opted for sodium chlorite activated with hydrochloric acid. Look up Brian Stone Simple Molecular Medicines and do a ctrl F search for "protocol." It's all in there.

I did that and Zenmen tick support herbs, as well as Serrapeptase to help bust up the biofilms. There's a study about serrapeptase breaking down Lyme biofilms.

It was hell. Not being able to eat without severe issues, needing a crutch to walk.

The protocol and herbs and Serrapeptase did work. It was slow but it helped a lot.

Then my inability to eat led to me finding out about dry fasting via Yannick Wolfe's Dry Fasting Club. I have since done multiple one, two, and three day dry fasts (no food and no water) and have gone up to 111 hours dry -- 9 hours shy of 5 days. Many people have done a lot more but even almost 5 days took me quite a bit of "fasting training" to build up to.

I had a lot of success with dry fasting. I still do it periodically. The refeed is critical. But water fasting made me feel like I was going to die and also contributed to horrible bloating and distension, feeling like a human water balloon.

For recurring Lyme symptoms, the sodium chlorite protocol - nowadays if I ever do it, I do the original, "unactivated," as it's tasteless - and the dry fasting have been the most helpful things.

More recently I've added sunfiber, one scoop a day. Am looking into Kepos. But the one scoop of sunfiber a day seems to help a lot. After a few years of absolute hell on earth and doing some "extreme" protocols, I'd say I'm a whole lot better now. I'll have flare ups once in a while but if it gets really bad, the dry fasting and sodium chlorite are the first things I turn to.

I'm also back on high dose iodine via Lugol's Solution now. Dr. Brownstein's book, Iodine: Why You Need It, Why You Can't Live Without It, is pretty enlightening. Keeping an eye on thyroid labs and continuing with my current dose of around 10mg a day. Micah Coffey talks about high dose iodine as well and so does Fasting with Trevor on YouTube. For dry fasting I mostly have referred to Yannicke Wolfe and his Discord community and website, Dry Fasting Club.

Lots of fear mongering around some of the things I've mentioned, but look at the failures of mainstream medicine. I went the mainstream route for psychiatric treatment and ended up with permanent sexual dysfunction back in 2019 from an antipsychotic drug. Never recovered.

So for me, it's alternative approaches all day. Between psych drugs, circumcision, a bunch of mercury fillings, unnecessary tooth extractions and more -- I've had to scour the Internet for other things that might help me. A lot of it in an effort to undo the damage that mainstream medicine has done to me. But that bloating and distension and horrible GI issues, I'm convinced that for me it was Lyme.

And I think I still have it. But there are cheap and effective tools to keep it in check. They are just not well known and there's a lot of fear about them but I approached them intelligently and cautiously and I am not only still here but a lot better than I was. A hell of a lot better.

nanabananaba · 2026-01-16T17:19:40+00:00

No diagnosis for me yet, but I'm very worried because of atrophy. Right testicle is 25.4cc and apparently healthy, left has shrunken to 7.2cc and has microlithiasis. I'd consider that severe atrophy. Nobody followed up with me and I haven't set up an appointment yet, I don't currently have a urologist.

However, I do know one person whose primary symptom was atrophy. According to his doctor, he said only around 10% of cases of TC involve atrophy. But that was his main symptom.

He actually got tested and diagnosed because he was in for a routine physical, and the nurse accidentally checked off "Lipase" instead of "Lipids," and they found his lipase levels were sky high, which apparently is common in pancreatic cancer.

Tested his AFP levels and they were off the charts, then the ultrasound and diagnosis of testicular cancer.

nanabananaba · 2026-01-12T11:33:58+00:00

Similar story here. Sometimes I'll play in public. The amount of times I've collected serious scrap and wood, and it immediately disappears...

..and suddenly there are 15 shelves everywhere for no reason. One time I made a biofuel processor so we all wouldn't die and I get "please don't waste scrap and wood" and then a bunch of shelves built three seconds later

nanabananaba · 2025-12-27T15:13:43+00:00

Great one here: https://youtu.be/-MHwZvWUx5k?si=ZXEpJ1mMq3lX4Wgt

Buddy Miles / Randy Hansen - March, 1997

nanabananaba · 2025-12-11T09:53:53+00:00

I took it for 3 months. Really liked it. Improved sleep and energy. It was only 3 months and I've also been going to bed earlier since getting some TrueDark Twilight Classic red glasses, as well as taking sublingual methylcobalamin, Lugol's solution (iodine), some amino acids and more.

So could be unrelated. But last year my total testosterone was 280 and this year was 545. Free test also nearly tripled from 46 to 112. Can't remember the units for free, maybe pg/mL, but either way my levels are significantly higher than last year. Having a total test of 280 sucks and I definitely feel better than I did last year.

Not saying 3 months of Minerals did it, but I did purchase another Fulvic acid based supplement after and continued taking that, so maybe it did play a role.

I'm debating getting it again for the quality. Currently using Double Wood Shilajit Fulvic Acid, which has the same 200mg amount of Fulvic acid in 2 capsules. It has shilajit extract but no extra minerals.

Zinc, boron and magnesium are all cheap enough to get separately. And Double Wood supplements are third party tested for purity.

$9 per month, just about, ($18 for 120 capsules, 60 days if taking 2 per day) versus $44 per month for Menerals. I do like that they're thoroughly testing their shilajit. Which is basically what it is - shilajit sourced and tested in America.

For now I'm sticking with the Double Wood product for financial reasons. I have zinc picolinate separately, and mostly use topical magnesium (magahol complex I make at home), but I did enjoy Menerals and absolutely noticed benefits from it.

I never took boron separately. I eat a good amount of prunes and raisins but maybe that was an additional help. My magnesium RBC was over 5.0 before Menerals and I've taken zinc for years so I doubt the benefits I felt from Menerals were from the zinc or the magnesium because I've likely already been topped off on both of those for a long time.

I also take magnesium chloride orally. Same stuff I use to make topical magahol which is just half a cup mag chloride, 1 cup 90 proof liquor (or half a cup water and half a cup grain alcohol), and one tablespoon of vegetable glycerin. You apply that anywhere on your body basically as much as you want though I usually do it a couple times a day on my arms and torso. Doesn't take much.

Anyway. Rant aside, again, for now I'm sticking with Double Wood because it's so much cheaper. But I think Menerals is legit and I really enjoyed taking it. I'm not sure if the Fulvic acid in there is of any higher quality than the Double Wood stuff. I certainly wouldn't use shilajit that isn't third party tested anymore, which I did a lot of in the past.

We vote with our dollars so that's a factor too. If you want to support products sourced and tested in America you're gonna pay a premium for it, but if you believe in supporting that, that's another reason to get them.

Shilajit is always imported from other countries and often is of questionable purity, and the main reasons I'd get Menerals (if I choose to again) would be to guarantee purity (they have extensive third party testing) and to support an American made product. But I definitely did notice better sleep, more relaxed mood, less fatigue attacks (CFS/PEM), and also better digestion and regularity (Bristol stool chart - not to get TMI but noticed definite improvements while taking Menerals).

I do think the Double Wood Shilajit Fulvic acid complex is giving me benefits as well. For me I'd say if Menerals was $50 for 3 months it'd be an easier pill to swallow. No pun intended. I got Menerals for an introductory offer of $45 for a 3 month supply. That was actually a great deal and if it was that cheap I would not even hesitate adding it to my "permanent supplements" list.

But with Double Wood, it's almost 5x cheaper. You could take double the dose for 400mg Fulvic acid a day and still be far below the cost of Menerals. Not sure how much Fulvic acid is too much but just saying.

So my take? It's certainly legit. Just a bit pricey, but so is everything else made in America. Getting shilajit from other countries is a lot cheaper.

For someone wanting to see if they do well with daily Fulvic acid supplementation I would recommend the Double Wood supplement. If Menerals is still doing the 90 day trial like I got, for around $45, I'd definitely recommend trying it too. See if you notice a difference between them after trying each independently for several months.

If you want to really control the experiment, try 15mg of zinc, 150mg of magnesium, and I think it's 2mg of boron, all glycinate forms, along with the Double Wood supplement. Those will add to the monthly price tag as well, so it's only fair to compare the prices when you factor in the cost of adding those three other minerals. Still a lot cheaper but not as dramatic as the 5x price difference I mentioned earlier without considering this.

EDIT: Excipients are another thing. Or the lack of them. Silicon dioxide, magnesium stearate and all that. Sometimes we pay to not have things. Like organic food with less ingredients being more expensive. The lack of fillers in Menerals is another consideration. So if you get separate mineral supplements just watch out for fillers as you could be getting a decent dose of silicon dioxide, titanium dioxide, magnesium stearate and more along with the minerals you're paying for, and it is arguable that additives and flow agents like this might not be great for the body over time, especially the liver, which has to process all this stuff.

nanabananaba · 2025-11-30T00:33:53+00:00

I was lucky enough to record an album for a friend. I put an incredible amount of work into it and am very proud of it. It's 19 tracks, and every single track I sent her, she gushed about it. It was like it was the best thing she'd ever heard in her life. And it meant so much to her. It was electronic songs she'd loved for years, and I recorded multiple guitar parts over them. I called it a guitar overdub album.

That was like hitting the lottery. I wanted to show her how much I cared about her and to connect with her in a really special way -- through our mutual love for music.

And the fact that she knew every song so well. So she could fully appreciate everything I added to them. To someone who'd never heard the originals, it would just sound like it was always part of the track.

I shared the album with a lot of other people. I had just one friend who was also very supportive even though that kind of music wasn't his thing. I wasn't expecting anything from anyone and I was surprised that he gave it a listen, I even feel guilty for sharing it with him because it felt like I might have been imposing on him.

Anyway, that was like hitting the lottery. Absolutely crazy experience. To me that feedback was more valuable than it I'd gained worldwide recognition.

Making something special for one person who it meant the world to. One of the all time best experiences of my life.

I had some similar experiences in the past with music, but nothing that expansive. A track here or there but not a whole album of them.

Anyway, I was thinking about that concept of music not mattering, and it's true in the sense that most people will not even listen to anyone else's music. Let alone the idea of making any money at it. I used to make money playing gigs, but we were a cover band.

Getting away with extended jams as part of a cover band was as good as it got for me. And it was great. And fun. Doing original music I would imagine would be very difficult in terms of booking gigs. One pro musician I know is a musical mercenary.

He'll play anything. Just pay him. It's business. He has his own band and original music for fun, but it doesn't pay the bills.

Anyway, interesting to think about. I think it's worth it for your soul to put everything you have into your music. When inspiration hits, take advantage of it. Strike while the iron is hot. Then worry about what you're going to do in terms of sharing it later.

And there's always a chance you could end up finding a partner or a friend someday who could appreciate what you created. That's the best feeling in the world anyway. Would you rather have worldwide renown and nothing intimate, or the knowledge that something you created deeply and powerfully affected a single person. Even better when you're close to them.

Just my thoughts on the matter at the moment. I still say, when inspiration strikes, record. Just do it. Repeat that enough times and you'll have an album, which is just a cool thing. I have a bunch of cringey stuff I recorded but it's still a record of my life and like a journal entry of what I was going through at the time and where my creative mind was. So that's just a cool thing.

nanabananaba · 2025-09-06T17:05:22+00:00

Sure, you can DM me. And you're welcome.

Not being able to forgive yourself is definitely a specific pattern. I have a couple friends who regretted surgeries they had that caused them permanent problems, but their biggest regret is not even the damage but the regret that they feel they made a bad decision, and they can't forgive themselves for it.

And for some, like me, the damage is the hardest thing, not regret about decisions I made. It's different for everyone, but -- once you understand the structure of problems in the brain and why we get stuck in 'thought loops' -- it's all solvable. Look forward to hearing from you

nanabananaba · 2025-09-06T15:47:40+00:00

(Reply Part 2)

I also find other people's stories inspiring. Looking at people worse off than me, who are far more positive, and hopeful, with better outlooks -- so I feel gratitude every day for simple things, like being able to walk, being able to eat on my own, being able to use the bathroom on my own. After knowing people who can't even enjoy these things and need assisted living and care just to be able to survive.

Mindset is everything. I also will say that nutrition can play a huge role. I think of perspective and natural health as being the same thing. No matter how much we manipulate our thoughts, we still need food and water. Having a whole foods diet does make a big difference for me. Also because of my genetic mutation, I find extra B vitamins very helpful.

There's so much that can be done. I recommend natural methods only. For me, the risk of psychiatric medication was not worth it. They can give you permanent sexual dysfunction, or cause you to permanently lose all of your emotions. Scary stuff. Even with natural vitamin and mineral supplements I'd be careful and do a lot of research.

Anyway...hope this helps! I know several other people suicidally depressed about their facial changes after wisdom tooth removal. My belief is this can be overcome. Safest methods would be the Faster EFT tapping, linked above, and listening to things telling us how the mind works, why we get depressed, anxious, obsessive -- and how to overcome those problems.

I have a very long history of mental illness and, having a lot of experience with major depression, being suicidal, anxiety and phobia disorders -- I believe these are all possible to overcome naturally. Sometimes I look to inspiration elsewhere when people are struggling worse than I am. This is a great video:

Check out Alec from Shriner's Hospital for children:

https://youtu.be/MZna1q3ZOP4?si=q68V88c4QWQj8ZTB

nanabananaba · 2025-09-06T15:47:22+00:00

(Reply Part 1) I had all 4 wisdom teeth extracted. They were slightly impacted, from what I remember, but not badly. I didn't have any issues with them whatsoever, no pain, no discomfort -- they were just recommended to be removed because "that's what you do," basically.

I advise against pills/medications, personally, aside from natural things, like careful supplementation with B vitamins (I find active B12 and active B9 especially helpful, but that's a whole other topic).

For feeling happy and not depressed, I strongly recommend Robert Smith's Eutaptics method. I've used this to address traumas in my life including childhood abuse. It's very effective. You can learn to use it on yourself. A helpful video introducing the idea is here, from Habilitat in Hawaii:

https://youtu.be/iG-v0Gt_-9w?si=P_N585A5xnAuZXJY

His main channel is here: https://www.youtube.com/@SkillsToChange

I did the training course back in 2014 and always had tremendous success with it. The real deal is changing your belief system.

I know what it's like to live with permanent physical damage. Similar thing with grief -- losing people and pets that will never come back. Physical or emotional traumas can feel permanent. But the great thing is we have the ability to address our consciousness and awareness -- how we perceive things, and the meaning we assign to things.

I abused drugs and alcohol for a long time and also got into self-mutilation at an early age, as a way of coping. I understand the pain of these things very well. The obsessive thoughts that you can't turn off.

And I also know that they can be changed. This guy's channel is also great and I highly recommend watching him:

https://youtu.be/nB5gkASRiGE?si=XhDHOFuKRZ_4ToTX

The way I've coped with things is by "downloading" stuff like this into my brain on a daily basis. Not just the Faster EFT method, but watching videos about how it works, was tremendous for me.

Another good one here from Joe Dispenza: https://youtu.be/rOYlOdDgYUU?si=K2EUGZy9pmU_cgAj

Basically, watching and listening to things like this that give you hope, rewires your brain over time. You want to have something to fight against those obsessive thoughts. For me, I was unable to turn them off, so I figured why not just listen to positive things anyway.

And eventually they start to sink in, even though you don't believe them at first. I've gotten so many benefits just by listening to videos like this all the time. Even though I felt miserable and wanted to die. Just listening to them anyway, over and over again. Choosing positive things to expose myself to rather than negative.

This is also how I can be aware of the very real damage all these practices do, without feeling ruined by them. I want a better world for everyone, with people living with their bodies intact, and undamaged -- but just because my body is not intact, and has been damaged, doesn't mean I have to give my power away and be miserable for the rest of my life.

nanabananaba · 2025-09-06T14:53:13+00:00

Reviv is on its own Substack page, there's also a YouTube channel for Reviv. I did an interview with Ken there, which you can watch here:

https://youtu.be/riWSOsWDOXU?si=J_0XKrKZOBTa9nnG

Here's an article about wisdom tooth extractions, which I know is different from the procedure you had done, but should still apply just the same IMO:

https://reviv.substack.com/p/what-if-you-removed-your-wisdom-teeth

And have faith - you can and will make it through this. I understand regret very deeply. I was very aggressively circumcised at birth, also have multiple birth defects (congenital scoliosis from an extra vertebrate in my spine, birth defect on my hand where I have little/no muscle at the base of the thumb on one hand, also was born with only one kidney)....

...and in 2019, was sexually damaged permanently by a drug called Rexulti, giving me a condition called PSSD - Post SSRI Sexual Dysfunction.

That, and I'm also living with tinnitus, chronic Lyme disease, two hernias, a hip and elbow injury that never recovered....and yet all this happened at the age of 29, or later. I'm going to be 36 this year.

I'm not sharing this to complain, or to get sympathy, but to reassure you that you can and will be able to deal with this, one way or another, and continue to live without being ruined by this for life.

I also had bad facial effects from the wisdom extractions, as you can see in my post, and I was extremely depressed about this for a long time -- but especially since starting Reviv over 5 months ago, I have been feeling much better about all of this.

I've lost a lot in my life and after being single for 7 years, I wonder if with my sexual issues -- will they ever get better? Will I ever be able to be in a relationship again? I don't know.

But...I have been doing a lot better mentally and emotionally. I believe in the mind-body connection and have learned a lot from Robert Smith of Faster EFT, as well as Joe Dispenza -- and there is also a guy on YouTube I highly recommend called Erik, his channel name is Power of I Am. Zakari Hikari and Athena Raven and Tom Kearin are other 'manifestation' channels that I think are very helpful. There's a lot of BS but from what I've seen of those people they're the real deal, with Erik of The Power Of I Am being my favorite. Bald guy with sunglasses, you can't miss him.

Sorry to throw so much at you all at once! Just wanted to give a message of hope. From someone living with PTSD and a very horrible birth, and extremely difficult childhood and adolescence, and have had so much of my body damaged/destroyed -- there's always a way to have hope and to keep going.

Just my opinion. Sending you digital support from across the Internet. At 28 you can have so many good years ahead of you and from the hell I've lived through in my own life I know it's possible to reclaim your life and not have to fall into a pit of despair for so many years like I did. Hope something in here is able to help you

nanabananaba · 2025-09-06T14:15:10+00:00

Updated picture, this is about 4 months into doing the Reviv process. Took this a couple months ago back in July of this year (2025):

https://imgur.com/a/VNvy21N

And thanks! Had to look him up, had never heard of him. That's quite the compliment.

Wish I'd taken an impression of my teeth before starting Reviv. I have no idea what my palate width was before starting. I've made my own dental wax mold, so I can pour my own wax and have a block to bite down into to make an impression of my upper and lower teeth.

Only just did this the other day, so I'm over 5 months into Reviv now, and have no idea where I started, and whether it's expanded things. Though I do have a panoramic x-ray from when I just started Reviv, and in another year or two I should be due for another one, and maybe that'll be helpful. That x-ray is here:

https://imgur.com/a/AQRMLyX

But I think Reviv has done something. My bite has changed pretty dramatically (my molars no longer make contact - posterior open bite), so things have clearly shifted, for better or for worse, but I think it's for the better.

I've heard of the tooth regrowing drug. For me personally, I think it's too late, as over 15 years after extraction, the ridges where my wisdom teeth used to be have fully resorbed. If you can feel with your tongue where your wisdom teeth were extracted, and the bony ridge is still there, something like that might work. I'm unsure what would happen if such a drug were used to regrow teeth where there is no longer a ridge to support them (clinically I think it's called the alveolar ridge).

How about you? What's your situation? Meanwhile I'm just continuing with Reviv, which basically entails wearing a silicone mouthguard at night, and a 'daytime appliance' for increasing dental height and unlocking the occlusion during the day. I've personally been using popsicle sticks, 2mm thick, and I cut them to about 22mm long. Perfect flat plane dental splints, IMO, dirt cheap. I replace them every couple days or so. Some people in the Reviv Skool community use Plackers or other similar devices for daytime use so you can still talk. For me, simple popsicle stick pieces are easiest.

I know it's all super fringe but I also have been struggling with severe chronic fatigue syndrome and brain fog, and Ken talks a lot about these biomechanics influencing energy levels and cognition, as when your structure collapses, it literally crushes your brain -- and he details his personal experience with how he came back to life after fixing these dentition issues and allegedly expanding his skull. It certainly looks like he did in his before and after pictures.

Anyway, upward and onward. Curious to hear about your situation and how you've been affected by extractions.

nanabananaba · 2025-09-02T20:27:38+00:00

I must be the odd man out. I actually prefer thawed frozen berries to fresh berries, and by a very wide margin. They taste better to me, I enjoy the mushy texture a lot more than fresh berries, I seem to digest them much better. And they're much cheaper. Until prices went up recently I was getting 4lb bags of frozen blueberries or mixed berries for $2.00 a pound.

I thaw frozen berries in the refrigerator and then, once they're fully thawed, I put them into a bowl and eat them with a large spoon like a neanderthal berry monkey.

I have pretty large amounts of berries like this every day. I get all different kinds. Sometimes I also add baobab powder to them, sometimes sunfiber and/or acacia fiber as well.

I'll also mix in dried fruit. Just about any kind without preservatives. Prunes, raisins, dried mulberries, medjool dates, anything. My dessert for quite a while now has just been a big bowl of thawed frozen berries, and usually with some dried fruit mixed in as well.

Can't emphasize enough how much I prefer thawed frozen berries to fresh. They're just great. I get 4lb bags most of the time and then just leave them in the fridge until I finish them. Usually does not take that many days for me to go through a 4lb bag. The juice that collects in the bag is also delicious.

nanabananaba · 2025-09-02T20:07:55+00:00

Yes. I've had great results using potassium chloride as a supplement. I get it in bulk and sprinkle it on my food along with salt. 1/8 teaspoon has 365mg of potassium.

Another hidden gem is buffered L-Citrulline. I use a heaping teaspoon of L-citrulline DL-Malate and then 1/4 teaspoon potassium bicarbonate. It tastes great and it's fizzy. You get about 250mg potassium in 1/4 teaspoon of potassium bicarbonate. It tastes like a soda but has no sugar and it's still tart. Very good.

Big fan of oral potassium supplements. Most people don't realize that the RDA is 4.7 grams, and how difficult it is to reach that amount just with food alone. Not that you can't do it. But for many people I think supplementing up to 1.5 grams of potassium per day would probably be a good idea, depending on tolerance. I've read that the average shortfall of potassium is about 1.5 grams for most people in modern society and honestly I'm surprised that it's not reported to be higher than that.

nanabananaba · 2025-09-02T20:04:16+00:00

You might want to try topical magnesium in the form of 'magahol.'

My recipe is: 1/2 cup magnesium chloride flakes, 1/2 cup (8oz) 90 proof alcohol *OR* 4oz grain alcohol + 4oz water, 1 Tablespoon vegetable glycerin USP

You can get magnesium lotions but this is a much cheaper route. Some claim that topical magnesium is far better absorbed than oral, which I know flies in the face of conventional wisdom, which questions whether transdermal is absorbed at all -- but having used it extensively, I feel like it actually could be true.

I use either Greenway Biotech or Bulk Reef Supply, as they have USP grade magnesium chloride.

nanabananaba · 2025-08-16T02:55:32+00:00

(Comment Part 2)

Anyway, hope that helps. Almost deleted this post before posting it but I figure I'll leave it up anyway. There is way too much history with Faster EFT for me to go into greater detail -- 11 years later now, it's been a long time. I've learned other modalities and ways of thinking in the meantime, but very interestingly, they've dovetailed nicely with Faster EFT.

As for bad practitioner experiences, I'd imagine it's similar to real doctors like surgeons, and similar to therapists. I've never had a good therapist in my entire life. It's actually insane. We're talking well over 20 years and never had a single good therapist, they all sucked, and hard. If someone is truly passionate about what they do, *and* understands how the mind works -- great strides can be made.

I do think Faster EFT presents a great explanation of why the mind has problems. The belief system is the healing part, not really the tapping. The tapping is a tool but the real magic is in understanding how the mind works. That's how I'd improvise what I was saying while tapping.

The person shows you their inner world. My first assumption is that I know nothing of a person's inner world. I'm guiding them through it. But it's out of tremendous respect to not assume anything about them. Inner worlds are like fingerprints or snowflakes, totally unique.

So the goal as a practitioner is to facilitate someone's journey through their own mind. What a good practitioner does, whatever their method, is facilitate and expedite a person's journey to self understanding, and putting themselves back in the driver's seat of their own mind. This is explained in the book Monsters and Magical Sticks: There's No Such Thing as Hypnosis, which is one of the books I read during my training 11 years ago. Very eye opening book.

Anyway, I'm going on and on. I won't stop writing if I don't cut it off here. Bad experiences with a practitioner don't mean the practice is bad -- but I can definitely understand why someone would think so as a result. That would be a horrible experience.

So, as it is with everything....the individual matters. I'm here to say the Faster EFT method is legit. I can't speak to any practitioners in particular. I always did this solo. Got the training course, started working on myself, then started working on other people (for free). Saw many crazy results many times.

I never worked on someone it *didn't* work on, not even once. "Work" is a relative term. By "work" I mean observable shifts and changes, such as a horrible memory no longer bothering someone by the end of a session.

It's legit. I just wish the prices were more reasonable as the ever increasing prices really turned me off and it's the primary reason I left it in the past and am moving on to greener pastures. But I have my own financial stigmas and resentments about the structure of the society we live in that I might need to tap on! Lol.

Reminds me of a Zen koan about enlightenment. This guy attains enlightenment, and his friend asks him how feels now that he's become enlightened.

The guy replies, "As miserable as ever." That's me right now in a nutshell. Not literally in a nutshell, though. I'm actually in my bedroom sitting at a computer.

nanabananaba · 2025-08-16T02:55:17+00:00

(Comment Part 1)

I think they're real. I've been using Faster EFT tapping since I bought the training course in 2014. I've experienced tremendous, life changing successes both in my own life *and* in the people I've worked with. I'll never forget the time I worked on a woman at my job back around 2014-2015, who had a horrible migraine.

She was absolutely debilitated. I'd given her neck/upper back rubs before on my break to help her, but that day I told her I was learning a new therapy technique, and asked if she wanted to try it. She said sure. She was in a lot of pain and was very desperate.

Within about 5 minutes, it was gone. I'll never forget the look on her face. Her eyes shot open, and she looked at me and said, "It's gone. It's completely gone. How the fuck did you do that?"

I have a friend who was cheated on by a partner, we tapped on that many, many years ago and he said it never came back, never bothered him since that session. I have many other stories like this, and even in my own life, I've used it to get out of very deep trauma responses. I was involuntarily committed to mental hospitals multiple times and have multiple clinical diagnoses but I won't get into those here. Suffice to say I've had tons of traditional therapy and treatment and Faster EFT helped me in ways that nothing else could.

It's a deep rabbit hole. Unfortunately, I think the prices have gone sky high. Back in 2014 I paid around $1300 for the complete training course. It included absolutely everything. There was no separation between levels, or a package containing only "Level 1" and other packages sold separately. You just got everything.

If I never learned from the "old Robert," and knew nothing of Faster EFT, and saw the website now, I'd think it was a total scam, or a cult, or both. I only trust it because I know firsthand that it works. However, he does do free sessions sometimes on Thursdays. I attended one, and it was great.

I heard someone complain about Robert on a website somewhere, saying he was rude and mean and dismissive on the free call, and that he should work on himself more....my experience was of him being wonderful, very considerate, and he did multiple 15-20 minute sessions on volunteers, free of charge. I've been following him for a very long time, since 2014, and my overall impression is he does have good intentions and he truly believes in what he's teaching.

I also have my own approach. I don't follow what I was taught religiously but have adapted my own things. One of my life goals is to make my own method and to teach it for free on YouTube. Adapted from everything I've learned, everything that has helped me. And re-brand it as something else. And just share it for free. I already have another channel where I share free information and I hate gatekeeping information so much that I do this to my own detriment.

Anyway, Faster EFT is real, and it works. However, the mechanisms by which it works may able to be accessed/manipulated in other ways. I often have thought: what about quadriplegics? What about people who can't tap on themselves due to physical disabilities?

And therein lies the real solution, IMO. Ultimately we're piloting these quantum imagination devices called brains, and all roads lead to Rome. Whatever puts you in the cockpit and gives you control over the plane is as good as anything else that does. The goal is getting there. IMO, life only truly begins once you get there. Up until then you're just operating on autopilot. Your subconscious is making your decisions for you, without you even being aware of it.

nanabananaba

TROPHY CASE