I’m going to try to be as brief as possible here but there’s kind of a lot to convey…
I just turned 40 and the last 5 years I have had a very noticeable drop in energy, mental function, and overall quality of life. I feel like a total zombie and something is definitely not right. I’ve always been motivated, driven, and prone to action. Now I just don’t have it anymore. It sucks.
Just had a physical and confirmed low T but everything else seemed OK according to the doctor. But after spending some time around here I’m not so sure… See attached.
My outer eyebrows are thinning, my lower calves loosing hair, and of course after reading the threads here I decided to check my body temps yesterday. I was 95.9 at the lowest and just broke 97 at the highest. This morning I was 96.9 upon waking. Definitely appears to be thyroid issue.
Another thing that has become a major game changer is chronic pain, and I’m talking everywhere. It’s basically like once I put my body under any kind of strain (home repair, weight lifting, cardio, etc) it just never recovers. Actually it doesn’t even recover with long breaks because I’ve tried that too.
I’ve got muscle knots everywhere and muscles and tendons are burning all the time. I have and use every type of massage tool/foam roller,I stretch, and I’ve been to countless chiropractors, physical therapists over the years. Small improvements at best and it never really lasts. I’m chronically inflamed. Can’t even come close to hitting my physique goals like this because I can’t lose the last stubborn fat and gaining much muscle is nearly impossible cuz I can’t get past a certain amount of intensity or volume in the gym. Hell, actually I can’t really do anything anymore much less training properly…
Here’s a few facts:
-Never took steroids
-Took accutane med when i was 17 or 18 because I had severe cystic acne. I suspect it may have f’d my hormones up bigtime but can’t really be sure because I know see that my hormones have probably been a mess my entire adult life.
-Bought a business when in my early 20’s that became so unbelievably stressful that I know it effected my cortisol levels chronically. I didn’t know what was going on at the time but I lost libido, had ED, exhausted all the time, moody, started to develop minor gyno (which I also didn’t recognize at the time). I was involved in that until my late 20’s. I felt some improvement in libido and the ED after I got out of that business so I know some of the problems were stress related. Still though I think all that took a heavy toll on me…
-In my 30’s I worked my ass off at physical jobs and got involved with doing home repair on my own. Very physically demanding and of course stressful for years and all the while I was lifting weights, doing cardio, and drinking and eating poorly on the weekends. I think I probably had low T the entire time and maybe thyroid and adrenal fatigue from stress and physical output. I’ve really seen a decline in my well-being during my mid to late 30’s.
-I don’t take any medications even tylenol or advil. If it turns out I need to take TRT I’ve decided I will, but I really want to improve it naturally. Is that even possible? My TT reading was 227 and free T was 6.
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I bought the adrenal fatigue book and I’m just getting into it. I also just started taking Lugol’s iodine yesterday. I’m starting with a drop or two a day and slowly build up.
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Interesting side note: I’ve always noticed that whenever I’m in the middle of dieting and have a cpl days of a free menu I notice a big increase in well-being, energy, and libido and morning wood. I wonder how much testosterone swings up and down with low calorie or high calorie eating plans. Thoughts on that?
-I was never big into coffee and energy drinks until about 5 or 6 years ago. Once I felt the kick of caffeine I quickly became a junkie and now I see why (hormones all out of whack).
-I’m now on a paleo eating plan that excludes dairy, wheat, grains, sugar, alcohol, processed crap. I’m also doing trace amounts of carbs for about the next 3 weeks to balance gut bacteria. After that it’s going to be moderate protein/ moderate fat/ lower carbs. I did this type of eating last year for a few months (with moderate carbs) and a lot of my pains went away. Unfortunately I went back to old eating habits and now starting over again.
OK so just a few questions:
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Can I heal my testosterone production without meds by fixing thyroid and AF?
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How should I be training and dieting at this time? I still would like to lean out a bit. Is moderate intensity lifting and moderate cardio OK? Or should I not be training with low T/thyroid hypo/possible adrenal fatigue?
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What should I do about my f’d up hormones? Everything seems to be screwed up. I have an appointment with an endo in about a month, but after reading up on this I don’t have much confidence in the medical community.
Please help me understand what’s available to me, thanks in advance.