Sorry about the long post ahead. I’ve been having health problems for the past 3 months, feeling exhausted most of the time, not being able to breath enough oxygen, accompanied with tachycardia, shaking and anxiety or panic attacks.
I was on a Paleo/LCHF diet for the last few years, but at the beginning of last year I had many stressful situations within my family (death of my father), and I didn’t took proper care for myself, I started eating too much chocolate and other products containing white sugar, and most often skipping breakfast and sometimes lunch (drinking coffee).
In January of this year, I started working in nearby factory which produces eco-products made of all sorts of grains and my job was mainly to run a flour packing machine, but the problem was that, contrary to my expectations, there was no ventilating system at all in this facility, and the flour particles were flying around every day without some useful mask protection for any of the employees. After a couple of months working there, my boss decided that I also have to learn working with the mill, which was located in other large room, and it was hell working there, on some days you “couldn’t see a finger in front of your face” because of the white gluten fog, and the noise of the machines was extreme. So I needed to do something about it, I asked my boss several times if I could permanently go back to my other job tasks (lesser evil), that I couldn't breathe here and it was too much for me having to lift heavy bags daily with my 54 kilos of weight (it was hard for me, but I didn’t mind it actually because I gained more muscle strength, which I liked), but he refused because he didn’t want to hire another worker, so a few weeks of almost daily work in white fog conditions led me to decision to quit my job (in May).
During the time I worked there (especially the last few weeks) I was having a high-blood pressure issues, feeling faint and without energy, with lots of phlegm coming out. After I stopped working there, all hell broke loose in terms of my blood-pressure, tachycardia, shaking and indigestion – acid reflux (which stopped later), and daily loose stool. In June and July I was having additional issue – always feeling really hungry just few hours after I ate (breakfast, lunch or dinner), so I needed to eat something every 2 or 3 hours to keep this feeling of strong and weird hunger in control, otherwise I would start shaking, heart racing, and generally feeling unwell. Also, different kind of sounds and noises in my environment started to irritate me strongly.
In July, I ditched all the remaining refined sugar and coffee, and lowered my carbs drastically, eating meat and fat and just some veggies, and 1 green banana at the evening. When I eat like that it helps to postpone the hunger to more normal 5 or more hours between meals, and on some days I feel better mentally, with more energy, but it’s usually an exhaustion almost daily, despite what and how much I eat. And I started to have really bad breath after food leaves my stomach.
I visited my doctor in June, made the ECG, blood and urine test, and everything was ok according to her, but just in case she also sent me to check my thyroid hormones, and everything was ok with that too, so she said that the problem must be in my head, that I shouldn’t fear so much, and she prescribed me some betablocker and something for blood-pressure, which I never took, and Alprazolam 0.5mg which I took for the first time yesterday afternoon because I felt strong panic and fear during waves of tachycardia. I asked my doctor about gastroscopy but she said that I’m young and healthy and there’s no need for that, that I just need to calm down.
Last week I went to the Emergency because of a really high blood pressure, heartbeats and pain in the left shoulder and arm - I thought I was having a heart attack and that I will die, it also felt like a strong fire sensation in my chest area, but after ECG and blood and urine tests were done I was told that it’s just some “sinus tachycardia” and everything is fine with me, no signs of any infection or inflammation.
In addition to my diet, I’m taking some supplements: bromelain 500mg once or twice daily with meal, b2 b3 b6 b9 vitamins, taurine 1-3g, magnesium glycinate 200mg, magnesium malate 200mg before sleep, NAC 1000mg, Q10, selenium 200mcg, zinc 50mg (I’ve stopped taking it lately because of possible copper deficiency), and I‘ve started taking 5g of chlorella and 5g of vitamin c on different days. I was having 7mg of Iodine/Potassium Iodide last month for a few times a week but stopped taking it until I find out what is wrong with me.
I can no longer live like this, unable to finish my daily chores, unable to finish cooking or enjoy anything. I was doing EE every day since May (just the first part), but I stopped doing it few weeks ago because sometimes it helps me to get more oxygen and even to stop my heart beating fast, but more often my heart and shaking problems start in the middle of it, leaving me unable to finish the three part breathing.
Searching through the forum health threads for the past few months, I was thinking my problems might be related to heavy metals, gut dysbiosis, thyroid and hypoglycemia. I took one round of Elixa probiotic for my loose stool and other possible gut issues, but I can’t say it did anything noticeable. Reading recently through the B1 Thiamine deficiency thread I thought maybe that’s the big part of my problem, so I’ve took Benfotiamine 150mg a couple of times but I didn’t noticed any effect, and few days ago I took Sulbutiamine 300mg pill with other b vitamins and half hour later my heart started beating faster, dizziness and blood pressure rising, and it cooled down few hours later.
Yesterday I took it again and at first I was feeling well, with more energy, but then the same thing happened with dizziness and all, coming in waves more strongly and I was panicking a bit so I took that 0.5mg Alprazolam in the evening because it just continued throughout the day, exhausting me and making me fear for my life. But I wonder if that is connected to the refeeding syndrome because, since May, I’ve lost about 7kg gradually (I’m 155cm in height), regardless of the amount of food I eat daily. Maybe I should just stop taking thiamine and stop making mess with myself not knowing what I’m doing. My husband is taking all these daily and he’s feeling ok with it. However, these problems are not coming only when I take it, so I don’t know what is causing all this.
Any advice will be highly appreciated!
Just for info (from my visit to the Emergency last Thursday)
Serum Unit Ref. interval
Leukocytes = 14.2 x109/L 3.4-9.7
Erythrocytes = 3.86 x1012/L 3.86-5.08
Hemoglobin = 121 g/L 119-157
HCT = 0.353 L/L 0.356-0.470
MCV = 91.5 fL 83.0-97.2
MCH = 31.3 pg 27.4-33.9
MCHC = 343 g/L 320-345
RDW-CV = 13.7 - 9.0-15.0
Thrombocytes = 297 x109/L 158-424
MPV = 9.8 fL 6.8-10.4
AST (GOT) = 16 U/L
ALT (GPT) = 18 U/L
ALP = 44 U/L
GGT = 14 U/L
AMY-S = 38 U/L
CK = 59 U/L
CKMBa <10 U/L
cTnI = 0.000 ug/L
GUK = 5.9 mmol/L
Urea = 5.8 mmol/L
CRE(s) = 119 umol/L
T-BIL = 4 umol/L
CRP(s) = 0.9 mg/L
Na(s) = 137 mmol/L
K(s) = 3.8 mmol/L
pH = 6.0
Nit(u) = neg (0)
Prot(u) = neg (0)
Glu(u) = neg (0)
Ket(u) = pos (2)
Urob(u) = norm.
Bil(u) = neg
Blood(u) = neg (0)
RBC(u-s) = 0-1 (RBC/HPF)
WBC(u-s) = 0-1 (WBC/HPF)