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Visual Snow and Testosterone


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I wanted to share some information that may help visual snow sufferers. My son (who has lived with HPPD for 5 years now) had standard blood lab work done which revealed he had a low count for testosterone.  This, of course, has various medical implications and treating it is important.  He was placed on a bi-weekly treatment of intravenous testosterone to increase the count. 

An unexpected outcome was discovered.... within hours of getting the testosterone, his visual snow cleared to a significant degree.  It lasted for weeks.  

There is currently no research on testosterone and its effect on visual snow.  Not sure if what happened to Kevin is an anomalie, or there is something here worthy of further study.  Just thinking it might be worthwhile for others to check their blood levels and, if low, ask the doctor for supplementation and see if visual snow symptoms improve.

Hope this information helps someone!

Doreen Lewis, PhD

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 6/13/2019 at 6:08 AM, facesofhppd.com said:

I wanted to share some information that may help visual snow sufferers. My son (who has lived with HPPD for 5 years now) had standard blood lab work done which revealed he had a low count for testosterone.  This, of course, has various medical implications and treating it is important.  He was placed on a bi-weekly treatment of intravenous testosterone to increase the count. 

An unexpected outcome was discovered.... within hours of getting the testosterone, his visual snow cleared to a significant degree.  It lasted for weeks.  

There is currently no research on testosterone and its effect on visual snow.  Not sure if what happened to Kevin is an anomalie, or there is something here worthy of further study.  Just thinking it might be worthwhile for others to check their blood levels and, if low, ask the doctor for supplementation and see if visual snow symptoms improve.

Hope this information helps someone!

Doreen Lewis, PhD

Placebo, testosterone cypinate does not fully stabelize in the blood stream until 6-8 weeks. Let me know how it goes. I'm currently on testosterone and its only increased my anxiety thus increasing.symptoms

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By bi-weekly I'm assuming he gets 1 200mg injection every 2 weeks, this is actually counter productive as the half life is 4.5 days. It takes 6-8 weeks to fully stablize in the blood. While increasing test does increase dopamine & seretonin, as well as increasing SERT the other hormones such as progesterone are.natural anticonvulsants, dht a testosterone dehrivitive is important for mood and well being as well as cognition. 

 

Injecting bi weekly is a recipe for disaster, he will peak 48 hours after first injection and then crash 4-5 days later and feel terrible for 2 weeks. I'm sure hes already informed you of this by now, a healthier protocol is 2x weekly injections every 3.5 days. I currently inject smaller doses daily to mimic my bodys natural production and to lower aromatase to estrogen a pro convulsant.

Edited by josht9210
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On 6/13/2019 at 9:08 AM, facesofhppd.com said:

I wanted to share some information that may help visual snow sufferers. My son (who has lived with HPPD for 5 years now) had standard blood lab work done which revealed he had a low count for testosterone.  This, of course, has various medical implications and treating it is important.  He was placed on a bi-weekly treatment of intravenous testosterone to increase the count. 

An unexpected outcome was discovered.... within hours of getting the testosterone, his visual snow cleared to a significant degree.  It lasted for weeks.  

There is currently no research on testosterone and its effect on visual snow.  Not sure if what happened to Kevin is an anomalie, or there is something here worthy of further study.  Just thinking it might be worthwhile for others to check their blood levels and, if low, ask the doctor for supplementation and see if visual snow symptoms improve.

Hope this information helps someone!

Doreen Lewis, PhD

You mention the benefit lasted for weeks.  Is he still benefiting?

Androgens have both genomic effects (through Androgen Receptors) which take hours to days and non-genomic effects which can be less than a minute.  The latter are prominent in the CNS.

It should be noted that low T is common among those with brain injuries, mild or otherwise.  Generally people with HPPD object to the idea of 'brain injury' since is sounds frightening, but when things are not functioning correctly due to a drug aftereffect, how has the brain NOT been injured?  Injuries can heal and often do.  The benefit of the comparison is to broaden one's scope for treatment options.

Hope he is doing better

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Thought I should share this here: reduction in autoimmune disease via testosterone

 

" In our study, we substituted testosterone levels in experimental autoimmune orchitis (EAO) in rat by s.c. testosterone implants. EAO development was reduced to 17% when animals were treated with low-dose testosterone implants (3 cm long, EAO+T3) and to 33% when rats were supplied with high-dose testosterone implants (24 cm, EAO+T24) compared with 80% of animals developing disease in the EAO control group. In the testis, testosterone replacement in EAO animals prevented the accumulation of macrophages and significantly reduced the number of CD4+ T cells with a strong concomitant increase in the number of regulatory T cells (CD4+CD25+Foxp3+) compared with EAO control. In vitro testosterone treatment of naive T cells led to an expansion of the regulatory T cell subset with suppressive activity and ameliorated MCP-1–stimulated chemotaxis of T lymphocytes in a Transwell assay. Moreover, expression of proinflammatory mediators such as MCP-1, TNF-α, and IL-6 in the testis and secretion of Th1 cytokines such as IFN-γ and IL-2 by mononuclear cells isolated from testicular draining lymph nodes were decreased in the EAO+T3 and EAO+T24 groups. Thus, our study shows an immunomodulatory and protective effect of testosterone substitution in the pathogenesis of EAO and suggests androgens as a new factor in the differentiation of regulatory T cells."

https://www.jimmunol.org/content/186/9/5162

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