Granite

Well, like you mentioned about sensitivity, my diet was so poor and lacked protein for so long, it's no surprise to me that my T went crashing down. You could be right about the dopamine, but I'm hoping as I get more protein in my diet my T will rise. The quercetin thing is baffling. It didn't work for me at all. I don't know how to describe the skin thing other than it is very unusual. My skin becomes itchy and so weak that it breaks open if I scratch myself on a cardboard box for instance. It takes days to weeks for it to go back to normal after I get off quercetin. It's worth noting that a food that really bothers me are red apples, and those are supposed to be high in quercetin. I get very depressed after eating apples lol. I remembered one other supplement side effect. Pantothenic acid (B5) causes itchy skin and I break out in hives a little.

Patience is all you have. It's a terrible feeling...I know, because I share the same. I dealt with it for a very long time. Like Cannabrain talks about, the hope is what kept me going. As long as I could measure a tiny bit of progress every week, I knew I could continue on with my recovery. One thing to point out, at least with me, is sex or masturbation worsen those feelings for me. The longer I abstain, the better I feel. Try it out for yourself, and see what happens. Not saying you have to do it forever, but it could help your recovery to give yourself a break if you're frequently having sex.

I have HPPD, and have had issues with testicular pain since the beginning. You're not alone. I saw a urologist many many years ago and was diagnosed with epididymitis. The pain I had was fleeting, sometimes sharp but didn't occur very often. I remember trying antibiotics, but that really did nothing for me. I think perhaps it's a side-effect of an overstimulated nervous system or hormonal/neurotransmitter side effects, perhaps also creating changes in androgens as well. A change in lifestyle will probably correct it, but as long as you do things to irritate your HPPD, you may continue to make things worse. Just my opinion.

Oh, man... I have some of the strangest reactions with supplements and medications. Most of what I have tried is supplements, but I'm going to list some of the more memorable experiences and reactions I've had. 1. Quercetin -- This one boggles me. My skin becomes clear and translucent on this supplement, to the point that within a day or two, I find my skin to become weaker and break open very easily to light scratches and cause bleeding. 2. Licorice Root and Cannabis -- These are the only 2 things I have used that have caused an increase in my visual tracers and light sensitivity. The effect is usually temporary but very noticeable. I also get an effect of panic, shaking, tremors, anxiety, hyper-alertness especially when using Licorice root. 3. Ashwaganda, Gingko, 5-HTP, -- All this stuff that seems to be touted for adrenals is awful for me. As soon as I take it, I get the panicky, shaking, tremors stuff with hyper-alertness. Then once that has worn off, I'm burnt out, depressed and fatigued for days. I learned early in my trials to avoid this stuff. 4. Bilberry, Dandelion Root, Wobenzym -- These are the supplements that have the greatest impact on me. Initially, practically all my symptoms disappear and the effect lasts at least 24 hours depending on dosage and which one. I feel relaxed, my muscles aren't tensed, no tingling/numbness, and my mood is incredibly happy. Then, it wears, and I'm sent into a complete slump. Generally, I wake up with inflamed or bulging blood vessels all over me. I have deep tissue or nerve pain that is very sharp, my joints feel like they are shredding each other; stiffness and non-fluidity, I'm depressed and suicidal, and fatigued to the point of giving up. That's the rebound effect I get. 5. Cat's Claw -- This stuff nearly killed me. I took literally one half of ONE drop in a diluted cup of water. I got all the tremor stuff I mentioned with the adrenal supplements, and severe mood psychosis that last for about 6 hours. I was completely out of my mind. 6. Zinc -- for some reason this supplement always causes pain in my chest the day after I use it. A very sharp pain right in the center of my chest. I think its costochondritis. I can't think of anything else right now, but if I do I will edit and post them later. Yes and no. I also get this problem with bleeding from my nose around the septum area when I take Prednisone. My skin is very good after taking Prednisone for a couple weeks, then it goes back to dry/dehydrated and weak. Salt is terrible for me. It seems like it tenses me up. I get very tired. I can't urinate. I'm bloated and pale. My blood pressure is all over the place. When I'm having a severe reaction to something (fats are really bad for me) then it seems like my blood pressure takes a dive... But, sometimes its high too. I have a bigger problems tolerating fats than I do salt. It doesn't have to be ingested either. Just putting oil on my skin causing reactions. This is why I think norepinephrine is involved because it's supposed to be a major player in fat metabolism. While I do get very sick from Espom Salt baths, I dont seem to have too much of an issue with supplementing Mg, Ca or K. I believe it's my total T that is low in the high 100 range and free is normal. Another thing to note is at one point my Free Carnitine levels were through the roof high. That seems to have leveled out over time. Yes, I can't tolerate opiates either. They fill me with anxiety the first 45 minutes and my visual symptoms of tracers and trails gets worse too. Thanks again for all your input.

Wow! Great stuff, Visual. Really appreciate you taking the time to share all your thoughts with me. I'm going to respond with a lot more information later today. I just woke up.

Amy, Sorry to hear you're going through this too. I hope you can keep it in check before it gets worse. I'll share with you some more insight that might help as you can see I've been going through this for a very long time. The tingling and numbness is most likely related to the nervous system and chronic muscle tension. The sympathetic nervous system is working in overload, thereby creating all those effects. So, you're on point when you talk about stress. The fight-or-flight response is jacked up beyond control. And the muscle tension creates the pressure around the chest, as well as bronchoconstriction. For me, adrenergic receptors seem to play a potential role in this. Because, androgen hormones send a response to the norepinephrine pathway and to the nervous system. This is my theory as to why drugs like prednisone and finasteride initally affect me in such a positive way. The problem becomes they cannot remain balanced and the great relief is short-lived. There are other supplements I've tried with great initial effect, and I've tried hundreds; believe me. If you want to test something out with me, go out and buy some Bilberry Extract. The brand I got was from Solaray and is 42mg a serving. I recommend opening the capsule, halving the dose, and resealing it. If the nervous system is overworking, this supplement should provide great relief to you initially. However, you could have a rebound effect and your symptoms might come back temporarily worse for a couple days after the supplement has worn off. That is why I recommend halving the dose to see how you react.

Hey Visual, thanks for the reply. Yeah, I've been down that road with hormone testing. Funny thing is, now my LH and testosterone are low. But, this is after 5 years of dealing with this major flare-up. At the beginning and middle of this episode, all my hormone levels were normal. So, I suspect that the recent findings of low hormones has more to do with malnutrition than being primarily correlated with the actual cause. In that five year span I lost 50 pounds, because foods were provoking terrible reactions. I was forced to live on a diet of rice, vegetables and soup for nearly four years. I haven't had the ACTH challenge. Corticosteroids do have a major initial benefit for me -- including the clearing of the skin problems I have. The problem lies in the rebound effect, once the positive benefits have gone, the symptoms I had before come back even worse than before I took the medication. Thanks for the suggestion though, it might be a good place to look into.

Hi, everyone. First, thanks for checking this out and I would love to hear any thoughts on what could be at the bottom of my problems. 15 years ago, I experimented with ecstasy. The 2nd to last time I used it, I had sex on it. I had a very strange reaction upon orgasm. Saw lots of blue flashes in my vision, felt tingling around my body, itchy and weird. Some symptoms lingered, but I tried ecstasy again not long after. Within minutes of ingestion, I felt really weird and anxious. My hands and feet started tingling very strong and curling up like I had poor blood flow. My mood was terrible but was able to calm myself until the tingling settled. The damage was done somewhere in this mix. Days after I developed chronic hives for the first time from exposure to the sun or heat. I still had annoying tingling in my hands and feet, as well of feelings like things were crawling on me, ringing in the ears, rapid heartrate, and visual disturbances. I went to the doctor about the hives and was put on anti-histamines which only made things worse for me. I broke out in larger welts from all the anti-histamines I tried. Funny thing, is I noticed having alcohol settled my hives and made all my symptoms calm. So, that's how I became an alcoholic. For years I managed my symptoms with alcohol. Then, it kind of stopped working. I started becoming intolerant to alcohol, getting a cold feeling throughout my body, very pale, fatigued, lots of joint pain. I saw several doctors at that time, no one could really see anything wrong. By off chance, because one of my symptoms was hair loss, I got on the drug finasteride (propecia) and had an amazing result. Within a month I was feeling better than I had in years. My hives werent coming out much, my vision was clearing, I wasn't tired and my hair grew in massively thick. But, like everything else, that didn't last long, within a year on the drug, I was having side effects, feeling very tired and getting sick multiple times a month. I pulled off the drug and felt better pretty soon, but all my other symptoms started returning and new symptoms I didnt have before -- food intolerance issues, severe anxiety, sinus problems and more. I also tried to prednisone, which worked amazing and cured all my symptoms for 2 weeks, but everything returned maybe worse than before. Fast forward a couple years and I'm having serious sinus difficulties. I have surgery for a deviated septum which is a disaster, my skin isn't healing properly. The doctors put me on opiate pain medication which I start having a strange reaction to -- felt high anxiety and severe brain fog, but the feeling subsides about 45 minutes after ingestion and I feel good. Anyway, during this period I meet a new girl and have a crazy sex weekend. A couple days later I get very sick. Now, I start having intense visual tracers or trails, blue flashes in vision all the time, constant pressure in the chest, anxiety, lots of pain... all sorts of things. I don't recover from this. In fact, it's been 5 years. I have made a lot of progress, but am still hindered by whatever the problem is. I can't have sex often because my symptoms get worse after an orgasm. This makes me think there is something androgen/hormone related by the fact that prednisone and finasteride were very helpful for me initially. I also seem to have some issue with chronic dehydration. Epsom salt baths make me very sick, anything that causes dehydration seems to make my symptoms a million times worse. I feel kind of trapped. Obviously, I've been through the ringer... but I've seen tons of doctors and we have barely gotten a step closer to the cause. I've been upfront about potential drug causes and such, but whenever I bring it up, they just kind of give me a brush off like there's no doctor to see for drug related damage. I know that ecstasy plays some role in dehydration, and maybe I messed up some mechanism in this area... The androgen thing as well is very intriguing, but I can't get an endocrinologist to work with me on it. So, I'm hoping anyone, someone has some knowledge on what could have happened so I can keep on my journey to recovery. Thanks for reading..