What could this be?

[Yuliasir]

holy crap Dennis, you call THAT ALL 'a little stress"????????
End of job contract, prospective to live with the parents, need for save money and prospective to go to other side of the globe...

another good illustartion of how we consider that nothing special is going on... while we may be at the edge.
My daughter got severe blinding migraines (she just had hemianopsia - half of vision out) ONLY becasue she had to pass school exams (very stupid ones in a form of the test) and enter the university. She was so stressed that she really 'would not like to see it' - and she got migraines with aura, typical for stress. She did not recognize she was extremely stressed.
I got my only (thanks GOD) panick attack after several major changes in my life (like new job for me and my husband, and he had to leave home and go for assignment, my daughter got migraines, my home was heavily repaired and my friend which i did not see for decade came to me with her 10 years old dsughter for a week) - it appeared enough to me to break down. And I was sure I am Ok and in a good touch with myself...

[Dennis_dw]

Maybe you people are right,

Yea i know the migraine aura's I've had them for years now but only 2 or 3 times in a year. The first times i panicked so hard i went almost completely blind. I have them at random moments I also got one of them at a party so I don’t link them to stress. My mother and brother also have them so that doesn't worry me

Yea I can imagine that it must have been a very stressful period for you, I've had quite a few panic attacks while there where mayor changes in my life. I know how they feel let’s hope you never get one again! I assume everything is ok now with you and your family?

I don’t think that’s it I am really thinking in the line of something like diabetic or food allergy or a slow/fast working thyroid some sort of vitamin deficiency or something in that line not ALS or MS or all the other diseases everyone is so paranoid about.

Because I haven’t slept more than 4 hours a night in more than a week it kept getting worse and worse, yesterday I went almost faded/crashed at work, ate some fast-food went climbing, took some Xanax and slept for 8 hours. I woke up and half of my symptoms are gone… Sometimes it makes no sense at all, nothing changed in my life I didn't worry more than other times, and maybe the B12/magnesium supplements that I had been taking the last weeks started working or who knows. Still the shaking stays it’s like there is a phone on vibrate function attached to my spine…

I just refuse to link this all to stress, but I don’t deny that it can have a huge impact on your body but to be honest I am sick of hearing stress/hyperventilation.

[SecretAgentMan]

I went to the doctor yesterday.

He said that all of the symptoms that are listed above are vague, that it’s about every symptom there is. That they all could be from hyperventilation/stress/anxiety/BFS that it is hard to diagnose any of those conditions, that there are a lot of quacks that try to exploit it and claim to have a cure or therapy. That it is going to cost a lot of time and money and probably won’t help a thing. That it’s probably something I am just am going to have to learn to live with. That I could go and visit every type specialist there is. That an endocrinologist won’t be happy to see me if there is absolutely nothing wrong with my blood. So next Wednesday I need to take a sober blood analysis if something is out of the ordinary that I should go and see one. As for the candida he seriously doubts it, he says that I could take a colonoscopy but where will all of this end…

Too be honest I can live with the fasciculation’s its irritating but nothing more, the same goes for the muscle cramps and all the other little symptoms. But the heart palpitations and cramps make me paranoid even though a cardiologist said that my heart is perfectly fine and that it has been monitored a whole night while I was feeling them a few months back, I really want to know the source of this problem rather than taking Xanax or any other garbage. For the cramps I’m not even sure that it is even my heart.

If I think about it, it could be that I am under a little stress knowing that my contract at works ends the 10 of June. That I need to move out of my apartment one of these weeks to live with my mom. That I need to save every € because in a few months (probably January) I am leaving everything behind to go backpacking the other side of the world. Still I had these problems when I wasn’t under stress like: In the middle of a vacation, I also didn’t have them in the Christmas periods when things where crazy at work. Most people say that it is anxiety, hypochondria or an obsession with my heath that it is probably the way of my body saying that I am under pressure. And I wish I could believe them but it’s just too random, I can eat healthy for months and be in a low stress situation and still have it…

Sure if you see me explain it like this it looks like I have been going to a doctor every other week but knowing that all of that is in 2 years I wouldn't call it an obsession. It’s just that I feel like everyone eighter thinks I am crazy or I’m making things up or want some attention or whatever. It’s frustrating if someone could just give me an answer I would leave it alone and move on.

Sorry for not getting back until now, but I did want to comment on the above, especially the first paragraph. It is understandable that your doctor is biased in his opinion in the way that he is because my brother is a doctor (surgeon) and I know the views they are taught in medical school. My brother went to the University of Michigan for medical school and told me about how the students and professors would laugh and joke about the guest speakers that would come in periodically to talk about alternative medicine practices. They never had to take any classes in nutrition. Guest speakers came in all the time for pharmaceutical companies and they were always treated with the utmost respect. Right across the street from the highly impressive U of M med school campus was an equally impressive Pfizer campus. There is a very strong and mutually beneficial relationship and the two (medical schools and pharmaceutical companies) have with each other.

Alternative medicine practices focus far more heavily on nature and the science of nature to treat illness and balance health. This is so foreign to conventional medical doctors because their entire careers they have been trained to treat the body as a machine and treat it with chemicals. Nature has been stripped out of the equation. Anything that goes against their training is foreign to them and instinctively they react to anything alternative as quackery. There is an interesting component of human nature that also makes us want to fit in. Fear of non-conformity alone is enough to have someone close their minds to anything not socially acceptable by their peers. In a great sense we have created an artificial prison for ourselves. Anyone who wants to fit in and be accepted thinks inside a pre-determined box and dares not leave.

What is this box that mainstream medicine has forced so many of us into though, some of us knowingly and others unknowingly? It is the pharmaceutical centered approach. Anything but this is just plain quackery. "Oh, you're wasting your time going to see those fruit cakes," and "you're just throwing your money away" are some of the common criticisms.

I ventured out of my comfort zone when I realized that conventional medicine has no answers for me. I spent a great deal of my money and my insurance company's money on test after test to just rule things out. Ruling things out brought me no peace of mind. I wanted answers. I wanted to know what changed in me to suddenly bring about these symptoms and what I needed to do in order to correct it so I could live my life again. Believe it or not, alternative medicine was able to give me those answers and facilitated my recovery. I am over BFS. It is in my past now. I have zero remaining symptoms because I got my answers, addressed the imbalance, and healed. I have been BFS free for years now and the only reason I come back here is to try to provide support to others who suffer as I once did. I don't claim to have all the answers. All I know is what worked for me, and what I learned along the way in my own experience. I offer my perspective to anyone willing to listen and let people make up their own minds.

One of the most important things I learned in my experience though is that most conventional medical doctors have no clue just how science oriented alternative medicine is in some areas and just how misguided they may be about so many things they were taught as fact in their medical school training. This is not something most people can be told and be open minded about considering though. Nobody wants to hear that their very expensive medical school training is misguided. Nobody wants to consider that they may not know everything they think they know. Nobody wants to be wrong. I know that I never really like being in that situation. In my experience though I have learned to keep an open mind always and to never be 100% certain about anything. I have my preferences based on my experiences, but I always remain open to new information as best I can. It is easier said than done, but I am making progress.

I owe so much to the doctors practicing alternative medicine who helped get me to where I am today. Interestingly the cost of these doctors was far cheaper than the cost of the conventional medical doctors I started out with. The results I have received from them have been staggering too. I will leave you with just one more point. Doctors are people and every single person is different. You cannot judge an entire branch of medicine off of the actions of one individual or you are doing yourself a dis-service. Feel free to make your own mind up on what to do or where to go from here, but please do not fear or indecision prevent you from following your gut instincts. This can be fear of finding a 'quack', fear of non-conformity, or fear of wasting money. You simply would not believe just how much is possible in certain areas of alternative medicine. It would flip your world-view on it's head. Just because they don't teach any of the practices or science behind it all on the campuses of prestigious medical schools does not mean it is not true though. The proof is in the pudding if you dare keep an open mind about it all. To each their own though. I wish you luck on your journey wherever it leads you...

[Dennis_dw]

I do believe that there are unconventional medicines that are very helpful, however here in Belgium healthcare doest cost a thing so i really want to rule everything out. Like I said I am not afraid of ALS or any of these deadly deceases, I believe that there is something wrong with my blood, because of my thyroid, diabetes, some food intolerance or something like that.

As for the supplements and unconventional medicines, I think that most of them are placebo. Just like I find magnesium supplement helpful, I guess its in my head but who cares. Its not that my doctor doesn't believe that there is no cure or therapy, he just thinks I should get lost in the search to find a cure. Because you make your self vunerable that way and there are people that are going to take advantage of it.

I did a lot of searching about a to fast/slow working thyroid, hashimoto and graves diseases. I think this could be it, but then again I thought I had found it like 10 times. Stress, crypto tetania, hyperventilation, anxiety disorder, magnesium deficiancy, benign fasciculation disorder... And I am 90% sure that it is completely random from everything I've searched hashimoto disease fits the most.

The shaking is out of control, I have had a headache for about 3 days now, when I sleep I wake up because of the shaking 3 times I night. I have big blue eye bags for quite a while now. I really cant take this much longer. Even when I go climbing or when I am really tired I still cant sleep very long , its driving me crazy. If this keeps getting worse like this I think I will end up in a mental institution instead of Australia.

Tomorrow I get a blood test, every time I get one I say to search for everything possible. Then when I get to a specialist they say: Oh they didn't test for .... lets take some more blood and test that again. So my questions is:

What values should he test for sure? Magnesium, Calcium, CK, B6, B12, D3, THS, TPO, T3, T4. Anything else?

I am also going to ask to send me to a endocrinologist to test me for my thyroid.



Thanks in advance!

Greetings
Dennis

[Yuliasir]

considering that fascial edemas may be also a kidney related (plus your compalins for ammonia isweat), ask for uremia test (level of ureic acid in the blood) and urine protein test.
Do also basic liver enzymes test (ALT, AST). this will allow your doctor to see the whole picture.

In fact, as you may wish to see endocrinilogist, fasting sugar and glycolized haemoglobine might be useful. Fasting sugar will show if you have any current issues, GH shows if you had any sugar upsets on a regular basis for the last three months.

all the rest is far out of basic tests and would be a mater of discussion with endocrinologist.

[Dennis_dw]

Magnesium, calcium, uremia, Uric acid, CK, B6, B12, D3, THS, TPO, T3, T4, ALT, AST, GH (HbA1c?), FBS.

So thats it?


Thanks all of you!
I will post the results as soon as i get them.

[muppetdog]

Yeah, HbA1c is another good one to show your over all blood sugar over time. Do a quick search for a FULL thyroid panel. You want to test for all the anti-thyroid antibodies. There is a ton of good info about it if you search enough.

Sorry about the shaking. I have been down this road if inquiry before. Do yourself a favor and read how the thyroid works and how TSH relates to T3 and T4 levels. It may turn out that that is not the problem, but you can at least cross it off your list.

Good luck and keep us informed.

[SecretAgentMan]

Highly relevant since candida is key to the balance of gut flora. It's only 9 min.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/artic ... n=20140517

[muppetdog]

Great Ted Talk. Did you notice that he did not mention candida once? These are the guys mapping out and studying the total gut biome (look up gut biome project) and they still don't know how it works. But, you have quack-attack doctors like Mercola using it as spin to try and sell probiotcs and cure "candida"; something you can't even reliably test for, because the condition does not exist.

Check out this article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/magazine/say-hello-to-the-100-trillion-bacteria-that-make-up-your-microbiome.html?pagewanted=all&_r=3&

Read it and then ask yourself why do most of the people studying on the project come to the conclusion they that have no idea what is really going on down there; or what is really good for the gut. They say using probiotics is akin trying to plant a putting green in the Amazon Forest. Worthless waste of money.

They do however, like in that Ted Talk, say that diet has a lot to do with it - surprise surprise. They don't however allude to some magic chiropractor candida overgrowth that causes every symptom listed in the Physicians Desk Reference.

I think it is irresponsible to tell Dennis that he has some candida problems, when he could have something else.

Here is the best advise you will ever get Dennis: Don't take anyone's advise from any board on the internet. Look for ideas but not advise or, heaven forbid, a diagnosis online.

If you want to sleep with a crystal under your pillow and try to cure your candida, go right ahead. If it works, more power to you. But, don't overlook obvious answers that could be important, first.

[SecretAgentMan]

Just for the record, I don't try to diagnose anyone on the board. I do my very best to share my perspective as an offering for consideration. I try to avoid telling people what to do, what to think, or how to live.

Regarding candida from this angle, I would like to agree with you muppetdog that "they still don't know how it works." People from across the spectrum of the scientific and medical fields are working to find answers though. I would argue that your statement that "the condition does not exist" is a premature conclusion based on the earlier statement. You may not believe it exists and some of the data may indicate that it does not exist, but not all of the data indicates this. Every researcher is a human being with their own unique backdrops of experiences, assumptions, biases, and expectations from which they draw. Objectivity is incredibly difficult to maintain, as we all have egos that can blind us when we believe we are right.

Until we know everything there is to know about everything, no statement can ever truly be absolute except for in the mind of the believer. Candida overgrowth may or may not be real. My experience indicates to me that it is real. I am an engineer with a masters degree married to a scientist, so I am no stranger to the scientific method. If placebo/nocebo were at play in my recovery, it worked despite my skepticism. Do I really know for sure though? Honestly and objectively I cannot say. None of us can.

All we can do is make the best we can with what we have at our disposal. As you can see, we (humanity) have a lot of diversity in approaches. I benefited from mine. Are you truly benefiting from yours? That is for you alone to decide.

[Dennis_dw]

They tested everything listed above and called me to say that everything was normal...

The endocrinologist only wants to see someone that has anything out of the ordinary on the blood results, so I am back to square one. I've had a great week/weekend saw a lot of friend I didn't see for a long time had a lot of fun... I am sure that I wasn't stressed at all still it feels like there is something crawling/tingling inside of my left foot. Sometimes during the day I feel anxious/nervous like i could fade, even tough people probably wont notice this.

But the most irritating thing is the shaking (tremors?) I've had it since mid April so its not going away. If I would know what is causing this i could do something about it...

So what specialist do I see now?

So now i know that it isn't any vitamin deficiency, and its not my thyroid. Its not my sugar i guess. So what else could it be a food allergy?

[SecretAgentMan]

Dennis_dw,

I understand your desire to find out what is wrong so that you can do something about it. That is exactly how I felt. When I myself got to the point near where you are now, I was frustrated enough and seemingly out of enough options that I began to consider avenues I had not yet considered. This is where I first took a chance on holistic medicine. Everybody is different, so where that point is for you may not be where that point was for me. To each their own. All I will say is that although their methods were foreign to me at first, I am happy I gave them a chance to prove themselves because they did (and I benefited from it). After all of my experiences I believe one of the biggest missing ingredients in modern medicine that is present in certain forms of alternative medicine is the 'energy' aspect (like what acupuncture works with). Although many would have you believe this is a new age, woo-woo concept I have found that there is a great deal of scientists that take this concept very seriously and have made significant progress. The only issue they face is poor publicity and a great deal of closed mindedness from establishment.

The basic essence of this 'energy' is believed to be photons or biophotons as the physicist who did extensive work in the area, Dr. Fritz-Albert Popp, referred to them. Dr. Popp observed DNA absorbing and releasing photons. Cancer cells absorbed the photons at one frequency and released them at a different (scrambled frequency). People under stress release photons at a dramatically greater rate than people who are happy. Here's a page with some info on Dr. Popp and his research: http://biontologyarizona.com/dr-fritz-albert-popp/

Interestingly enough experiments conducted on Remote Viewing showed that people who were consciously viewing a target under controlled conditions emitted bursts of photons when they were accurately perceiving the target. Because this may be confusing I will explain further. Remote Viewing is a technique that was reverse engineered by the US military during the cold war era so that they could train 'Viewers' to gather intelligence data on targets removed from them in space and time. Basically they reverse engineered ESP and came up with a process to teach people to be able to use it under controlled circumstances in a repeatable manner. The program was declassified in 1995 in an effort to discredit leaked material. Since it's declassification several former members of the multiple programs used by the military have written books, taught classes, and are growing the field in the private sector. You can learn to use the process yourself from free classes available on youtube, you can purchase a book and learn, or you can sign up for one of the classes offered worldwide. In the experiment I referenced above scientists wanted to better understand how a physical flesh and blood person could sit in a room and perceive anything beyond their physical 5 senses. They placed a target inside a dark room with very sensitive photon detecting equipment. At the times when a 'Viewer' was accurately perceiving the target the measuring equipment would pick up dramatic spikes in the detected photons in the room, well above the typical background photons that are always present. The experiment was successful in correlating the surges in photons with the activity of the 'Veiwers'. Read the actual report here: http://www.remoteviewed.com/files/starg ... riment.pdf

Yes, all of this is fantastic and probably difficult to believe at this point. Furthermore, why am I going into Dr. Popps work and the RV study? My point is that there is more to your health and well-being than the chemistry composition of your blood and the ecosystem of your gut along with a long list of other physical things. There is a very real aspect to the energy system that acupuncture works with. You may want to look into it. There are many various forms of energy based medicine techniques beyond just acupuncture. Acupuncture happens to be one of the most popular, common, and accepted. Unfortunately the field that studies this aspect of our health is far less funded and popular than the pharmaceutical areas. That's where all the money is. So as a result you will have a lot more variety depending on the background of each particular doctor. Good luck.

[Dennis_dw]

Dennis_dw,
Yes, all of this is fantastic and probably difficult to believe at this point. Furthermore, why am I going into Dr. Popps work and the RV study? My point is that there is more to your health and well-being than the chemistry composition of your blood and the ecosystem of your gut along with a long list of other physical things. There is a very real aspect to the energy system that acupuncture works with. You may want to look into it. There are many various forms of energy based medicine techniques beyond just acupuncture. Acupuncture happens to be one of the most popular, common, and accepted. Unfortunately the field that studies this aspect of our health is far less funded and popular than the pharmaceutical areas. That's where all the money is. So as a result you will have a lot more variety depending on the background of each particular doctor. Good luck.

I really don't believe in these kinds of things, but I do want to give it a try if i don't find anything else. What do you recommend? Sometimes i take magnesium supplement and it feels like it helps allot, other times it does not help at all. So i think its some kind of placebo I've never been much of a believer anyway.

Like today i had no symptoms at all. Laughing the whole day no stress or reason for anxiety at all. Then all of a sudden I felt very cold one finger turned so white it looked dead. Its 25°C... I got hunger cramps in my stomach, shaking, I got the feeling I could have faded any moment, nervous like hell. This went on for about an hour, then i ate a snicker and a nuts to ease the hunger feeling 10 to 15 min later i felt better. For the amount that I eat it is abnormal that i am that hungry all the time.

I really think its one of these things: Sugar, food intolerance (a flatworm maybe? but i guess not) I have the feeling that most of the times it begins 1 to 2 hours after eating.

The only thing that has been constant the past weeks is the shaking and the restless legs/feet and the fasciculations.
There is one spot above my mouth that is almost constantly twitching, like i said a few times before that doesn't bother me that much. Its the shaking that keeps me awake that bothers me, and the feeling that I am going to fade during work...

This is really my last resort I just don't know where to go anymore everyone gets annoyed, treats me like I have psychological problems, stressed, anxious, exaggerating. While I am still sure there is something wrong that can be found.

My mother and doctors say: Well what are you going to do then? Go to every kind of specialist there is? That would be a waste of time... I sure ass hell is better then sitting on my ass shaking like crazy without any info, convincing myself that everything is ok. They say well we will just have to wait until your symptoms get worse they are kind of vague... The only way they could get worse is that i actually start to faint instead of feeling like it the whole time.

I think a different neurologist would be a waste of time, a endocrinologist wont see me... My mom was speaking about something where my food goes to fast from my stomach to my colon resulting in these symptoms, but it starts to feel like it could be anything.

[Yuliasir]

well, for the flatworms there are three tests to do: stool for eggs, blood for formula (too much eosinophiles may indicate them - but this is non-selective, same may be a sign of autoimmune condition or just inflammation) and specific immunoglobuline tests for certain species of flatworms.
practically it is hard to get one really making you sick too much if you do not have a habit of eating raw fish, raw meat like tartar, especially raw heart or liver of big cattle...

the fact you complain for sudden issue with the finger and frequent feeling of being almost faint may mean that your autonomous system is a bit too autonomous causing you sudden transient ishemias via spasm of various vessels (like in your finger or in the brain). This condition is close to optical migraines and other transient ishemias, sorry to say it but it is usually related to chronic stress. This is a condition to be dicussed with the neuropatologist of course, and usually you may be prescribed with someting to improve microcirculation (at least neuros in my country do that with the good results) and proper schedule and lifestyle change for a certain period.

The problem with autonomous system disfunctions is that this system is not under our conscious control pretty much, so it needs a lot of time to get settled back.

[Dennis_dw]

Well I always had periods for as long as I can remember (second grade or earlier) that I felt very weak/nervous. I remember allot of times when I needed to come home from school because I felt sick, I could never explain how I felt except for fatigue ,feeling faint , I was nervous and anxious without any reason at the same time I looked very calm, jerks (startled), also seeing flickering lights. Mostly the feeling like I could fall down every second was what made me nervous.

No one really understood what was wrong, tough they always said that I indeed looked a bit white/sick. I'd rest allot and after a while it went away, tough it mostly went on for a couple of weeks/months. My parent had to come to school allot because I didn't pay any attention and I was almost falling asleep during class. I had difficulty swallowing, difficulty sleeping tough I was very tired, hypnic jerks at night, feeling nervous in general. I had a lot of friends and a caring family, I was a very calm child, a bit lazy and always daydreaming they said.

There are 4 of these periods that I can recall very well: 2 of them in primary school, one when I was 14, then the most extreme one was when I was smoking pot every day for about 2 or 3 years (5 or 6 years ago). When I stopped smoking it went better for a few years except for feeling fatigue all the time I got a 1 or 2 migraine aura's a year, I skipped school a few times because I was to exhausted but nothing extreme.

2 years ago it started again. The first thing I got was a tingling feeling running from the top of my finger down into my hand (It's the finger that always turns white now) Then the constantly nervous feeling came back along with fasciculation’s and the faint feeling the whole time. I feel so week that even when I sit down it feels like I need to go lie down, sometimes i startle and get a little jerk when i am awake standing/sitting it does not matter (Its feels like someone turns my head off for a split second), palpitations, heart cramps and the whole list posted on page 1.

I really learned to suppress this nervous feeling but sometimes there is just no other option then to go lie down. It’s not that I am anxious or panicking It’s just that I have no energy none at all everything feels like is too much. I’m 24 but feel like I am 20 years older. The only thing that keeps me going is thinking: Well I've had this *** before, it might go away tomorrow or the day after.

Then in the periods everything goes better only the fasciculation’s the restless legs stay even though they are relatively new. Since a month ago there is the shaking off course. I think I have dealt with this as best as I can in the past, but it is just too much now and keeping thinking positive won’t work much longer. Who am I kidding anyway me going traveling... The only place this could end is in a mental hospital where they are going to stuff me full of anti-psychotics and benzodiazepines again or six feet under.