self-experiment Archives • Avoiding Rx

14Feb 2022 by Marjorie No Comments

How to speed up your health research

I first started my self-experiments with nutritional therapy two decades ago, when internet searches for "XYZ deficiency symptoms" landed me on sites featuring iguanas, Yorkshire terriers, cockatiels, and, on one auspicious day, a Colin Farrell sex tape. At the time, I was amused that veterinarians, ornithologists and herpetologists had put more effort into researching the effects of vitamin and mineral deficiencies on their patients than human doctors had. Unfortunately, researching alternative health treatments still involves wading through a lot of crap. Here are some guidelines to keep in mind. If you have other suggestions, let me know. Learn about your filter bubble These TED talks cover the topic, which had its heyday about 10 years ago. The browser Duck Duck Go also offers tips on how to minimize tracking. And…

01Jun 2019 by Marjorie No Comments

Amusing effects of correcting nutritional deficiencies

self-experiment, side effects, symptoms and conditions

(This is a repeat of a 2011 post.) These "side effects" happened more than a few times following supplementation of some duration. 1. Vivid dreams. This effect of vitamin B6 is fairly well-known. Some members of Yahoo's pyroluria group (pyroluria is a condition in which vitamin B6 is chronically deficient) say that you're at the right dose when your remembered dreams are pleasant, and that you're on too much if they are too vivid or jittery-making, but I've never come to any conclusion myself. 2. Random, pointless memories. I've occasionally experienced this when repleting with big doses of calcium, magnesium, iron, or B12, all closely associated with memory. At the same time I realized I could recall long-forgotten Photoshop commands or go to the grocery store without a shopping list,…

03May 2019 by Marjorie No Comments

Scary leg pain resolved with calcium

nutritional therapy, self-experiment, supplements, symptoms and conditions, Uncategorized

(This is a repeat of a 2011 post.) Before my gluten-freedom (which commenced April 4, 1998) I became aware of a constant, aching bone pain in my legs -- not a tissue or a muscle or a joint thing -- that was most noticeable when doing the dishes or standing in line at the airport. In 2000 or so I realized that if I didn't take vitamin B-complex, along with biotin and vitamin B12, for two days, by the third day my legs would hurt so badly my jaw would do that shaking thing and I'd start breathing in the kind of way that makes your fellow shoppers at the grocery store edge away from you. Since I took B-complex/etc. every morning for years, though, I sort of forgot about…

23Apr 2019 by Marjorie No Comments

Another early nutritional therapy success: hypoglycemia

self-experiment, side effects, supplements, symptoms and conditions

I had this for years without knowing what it was. At its worst, I had to eat every 45 minutes or my brain would do that revving/screaming/wheels spinning thing (silently, I mean; I'm pretty sure no one else could hear it). If I drank fruit juice alone without food, I'd get woozy and almost pass out. Long periods without eating would leave me shaking and practically comatose. However, when my doctor tested me for it with blood tests and an oral glucose tolerance test, they came back negative. All this resolved after I started taking magnesium and biotin. I don't remember how much magnesium I had been on -- 500 mg/day? -- but when I added 2,000 mcg of biotin, after a few weeks I could go for eight hours…

15Dec 2018 by Marjorie No Comments

Fun with lymph cleansers

self-experiment, side effects, symptoms and conditions, treatments

Except for a few half-hearted liver flushes, I did not bother with detox treatments in any of my health self-experiments until I suddenly switched my entire focus to mold avoidance. I immediately started taking two binders (bentonite clay and psyllium) and a lot of water, as well as sweating for hours in the sun, and quickly discovered that anything more than this, detox-treatment-wise, was too much for my digestion (full stop) or my skin (my heels would split open) or my noggin (jitteriness and listlessness would worsen). So I rolled with the binders-and-sweating approach for a few weeks until I started feeling, every once in a while, for a few minutes at a time, fantastically frickin awesome. As in, just this side of a religious experience. I mentioned this…

30Oct 2018 by Marjorie 2 Comments

Revisiting the gluten thing

diets, self-experiment, symptoms and conditions

I've been gluten-free since April of 1998, when I discovered that my decades-long crushing depression lifted considerably 12 hours after I stopped it. I now believe my quick recovery was due to a major reduction in brain inflammation due to the elimination of gluten *** IN ADDITION TO *** the accidental, inadvertent, and very strict mold avoidance I'd been practicing for five months, the latter of which I will cover in a later post. Why gluten can be unhealthy In terms of the dangers of gluten itself, I have concluded that its already-inflammatory nature is magnified 3.62 gazillion times by being coated in glyphosate like no other food staple in the US. The combination is a disaster when added to the dozens of inflammagens we've all been ingesting and…