Hey all,
I've not been around here in a long while because I found that getting to the root of my problem was being somewhat obscured.
Personally, I think the term "adrenal fatigue" should be completely abandoned.
I spent a year on this notion of adrenal fatigue, supporting the adrenals etc. and it got me nowhere.
I now discovered that my body is harbouring large quantities of toxic, heavy copper. I'm not talking about the kind of copper that you get in chelated copper supplements or in good quantities from food. I'm talking about the kind of metallic copper that's dissolved in water from pipes etc.
I also discovered that there's a soil-based organism in my gut that has an affinity for copper (S. Griseus), so I'm malabsorbing copper from my diet.
Ultimately, my copper is low and my ceruloplasmin is low. However, my body is high in the toxic, unbound, ionic form of copper, which is presumably hanging on to binding sites and being released willy nilly, causing all manner of pro-oxidant damage.
I also have the problem of chronic, subclinical dehydration, which is due to some dysregulation of aldosterone, even though my blood aldosterone is apparently low-normal (so within acceptable range).
Because of the combined heavy copper toxicity and copper deficiency, my body has an insufficiency in the following enzyme systems/pathways:
- lysyl oxidase (collagen building enzyme)
- cytochrome c oxidase (mitochondrial electron transport chain enzyme)
- superoxide dismutase (master antioxidant)
My skin is losing loads of collagen daily with thinning and wrinkling. My veins are bulging everywhere, all over my body now.
I actually stopped breathing a few times in the past months due to the impact on my brain function, whereby I had to call the emergency services.
I've tried many different chelation methods to try to get the bad copper out in a non-destructive fashion, but all attempts either have been unbearably destructive (terrible stirring effects) or prohibited by countering factors.
I'm also trying to find alternate routes to absorb copper other than my GI tract. I already tried Chlorophyll enemas (which contains sodium copper chlorophyllin), which don't seem potent enough. I'm now going to try DMSO with a chelated copper tablet crushed and rubbed on the skin, although I'm not sure if I can find a good enough copper, plus I'm also worried about the effect of that (also, sulfur compounds are copper chelators themselves, so maybe it will be ineffective).
On the matter of ceruloplasmin, nobody actually describes the mechanism by which the adrenals signal the liver to produce ceruloplasmin and which copper stores are used to make ceruloplasmin itself (yes, copper is required to make ceruloplasmin). I know that my ceruloplasmin is low, but this could just be secondary to copper malabsorption, which is ultimately secondary to bacterial infection.
Also, removing copper without optimal SOD (superoxide dismutase) is quite dangerous, so I've been suffering quite badly when experimenting with heavy metal chelators that seem to be creating more harm than good.
The impact on cytochrome c oxidase seems to require carbohydrate feeding every hour, otherwise I lose collagen and incur further injury wherever the collagen is lost. Naturally, I have problems with overnight fasting, so I just try to eat plenty before bed and plenty upon waking.
Suffice to say that combined copper toxicity and copper deficiency is one of the most dangerous conditions for a human body, especially because bad copper is difficult to remove safely in the absence of copper-based enzymes.
Getting through the days is extremely taxing on my mental and physical resources, not to mention having to spend a lot of money and time on food preparation while I do more research. My first child will be born in March, so that will add a new interesting dimension...
Any comments anyone?
Cheers,
Scotty