Hormones, Fasting Blood Glucose, and CT

It’s past time for an update.  Between work, being a mom and wife, and trying to wrangle the cats that make up my health I've been a bit busy of late.   So here’s where things stand.  In September and October my PCP ran a bunch of labs.  We quickly discovered through labs that my thyroid medication isn't enough!  My T4 and Free T3 were on the low side of normal, and the TSH (which is a test that shows whether the pituitary gland is properly working) was out of range.  Before getting the blood work I knew my thyroid wasn't working right. Since July, I've been running HOT, and having hot flashes. The best way I can describe it is it feels like I’m in a car sitting at idle, and pressing on the gas – but not going anywhere.   My progesterone, and estradiol ratio is still upside down.   Given the Rash of back to back migraines I've had of recent – that’s no surprise.  So, Dr. Dzugan increased my thyroid meds – we’ll be retesting to see where I’m at, once I've been on my increased dose armour for at least 4 weeks.  Intuitively I feel like I need more armour than I’m currently taking – but we’re going to see what the labs say, as well as what my body is telling me.  Dr. Dzugan also increased my Progesterone, I’m now using a 10% gel, and we’ll see how my body adjusts.  We’ll be retesting a full work up sometime within the following dates: 21 Dec -21 Jan depending where I’m at in my cycle.

One thing we added is metformin to help with the PCOS and the high Fasting Blood Glucose. So far one month in, I haven’t seen any decrease in FBG.  This is coupled with taking the cycloset as well.   Only positive is my post- prandial blood glucose doesn't move beyond a 10-15pt window (I’m not very good at taking my BG post meal – I usually forget). So it may be time to consider increasing my metformin dosing.   But before we up the metformin – I’m going to see if I can run a little experiment until I see my PCP, to discuss my next set of labs.

What is my little experiment (also known as a bio-hack)?  I’m going to get back on the CT band wagon and embrace the cold, and see what it can do for my FB.   CT?  What’s that?  Cold Thermogensis. Start with the following The Cold Thermogenesis Protocol, and then read the rest of Dr. Kruses’ CT series.  I've been CTing since mid February, with breaks depending on what my body is telling me.  I haven’t been hitting the stock tank regularly since September.  It’s been a bit of a challenge trying to find time given new work schedules and working on following circadian cycles.  Also my low free T3 makes cold not so appealing, even though I feel hot.  

Well, this week the weather turned cold, and the urge to get in the tub struck me.  So on Monday after work it was a balmy 47 degrees out, and the stock tank registered 43 degrees.  I put on my compression gear and hopped in and lasted for 20 minutes.  The next morning my FBG was 80!  I didn't CT Tuesday or Wednesday and my FBG was running in the 100s, which seems to be normal at the end of my cycle when Pg drops.   Thursday I hopped in the tank after work again.  Air temp was 43 degrees and water temp was 42.5 degrees.  I stayed in for 20 minutes.  This morning’s FBG wasn't as stellar as Tuesday, but still better than it is w/o CTing.  These two separate events had me thinking that I’d missed a key element to getting my body back on track, ignoring CT b/c my low Free T3 was keeping me from embracing the cold.

So, I went back to look for threads on Dr. Kruse’s form regarding CT and FBG changes, and re-discovered the following thread: Iceman IR and FBG Dr K nugget in the comments that touched on these issues.  I realized as I read it, it was this thread that lead me to daily monitoring of my FBG.  And that daily monitoring allowed me to pinpoint a problem with my FBG.  The more I continue on this journey to health I find myself circling back around to several of Dr Kruse’s blogs, re-reading them, and digesting how they impact me even more, now that I know more.  As I read more, and educate myself I now think my high Fasting Blood Glucose in the morning is being driven by two things, PCOS and Leptin Resistance at the Liver.

The Iceman thread I mentioned above and my experience with CT earlier this week have energized me to conduct a bio-hack using CT to drive my FBG down.  I’m going to get in the CT tub at least 3x/week and see if I can bring down my FBG without adding any additional metformin.

I posted the following in the comments of Brain Gut 11: Is technology your Achilles heel?

Light is the key that starts/stops the engine. (Circadian cycles)

Food & Hormones are the fuel.

CT is the accelerator

The Brain is the navigator.

Optimal requires all systems working in concert, if one is off the entire system doesn’t work properly or efficiently.

It seems I missed my own revelation!  Dr Kruse says: “When you know better, you do better.”

As I embrace the cold in this bio-hack, I'll let you know how my FGB changes as I cold adapt.