Are you sure the head pain isn’t a separate problem? Have you visited a doctor and gotten it scanned or something? If you had a tumor or some sort of inflammatory disease that could effect your other sides...
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Are you sure the head pain isn’t a separate problem? Have you visited a doctor and gotten it scanned or something? If you had a tumor or some sort of inflammatory disease that could effect your other sides...
I am sure it is related to PFS. It all started when I took the fin. I did go see a neurologist way back in the beginning and had an MRI of my head and neck. He said all was well. I told him about the fin and he said that the sides should pass within 1-3 months. This is the top neurologist in my city btw. Thats when I really realized that doctors dont know shit about this stuff.
I've seen lots of other guys post about head pressure and things like that. No one else seems to think that is their biggest issue though. For me that one just happens to be the biggest.
5 months later... I did a 12 week andro cycle over the summer. (iconicformulations 6 pumps of ultrahard in the morning and 6 pumps of alpha four in the afternoon) It allowed me to enjoy my summer and take a couple trips including to Hawaii for 2 weeks PRACTICALLY symptom free. And also enjoy going back to work after having 8 months off due to COVID. I feel improvement in a lot of areas. I’ve been back in the herbs for 5 weeks now and haven’t lost much of the gains to this point.
Unfortunately I tore my ACL and meniscus at the gym a few weeks ago. Had to have surgery and take a bunch of pain pills. I stopped taking them a couple days ago and am going through slight withdrawals now. It’s noteworthy how similar opioid w/d symptoms are to my first 6 months of crashing feelings were. Fucking hell I don’t miss that feeling. So far my symptoms have been mostly leaving me alone amazingly while I’ve been laying around for almost a month. They’re still around sometimes but not too bad.
I can easily see my recovery now. Once I get this knee shit sorted out and get back into the gym plus 1 maybe 2 more cycles I have little doubt this is behind me.
UH definitely for me. I felt nothing from Super R. I think I did 2 full cycles of it with basically no results. UH I’ve done 3 cycles and noticed big gains during and after each one.
Playing basketball. Just trying to get my legs warm for leg day and went full send. Rookie mistake
Hey alphacfi,
We never interacted but I read your thread a lot when times were hard, I'm glad you're feeling better, that's motivating.
I am also considering combining UltraHard and AlphaFour for my next cycle. Any tips to do so? Do we absolutely need equal amounts of pumps?
Hey man I’m glad to hear my thread has been helpful to you and hopefully other guys with the mental sides. I can honestly say that I had the worst possible mental side effects that fin has to offer. I’m sure some guys have, or have had, as bad as me but no way has anyone had worse mental sides than me. So the fact that I’m sitting here feeling normal, and feel normal most of my life these days, is a true testament to CDs protocol. 100%
I just do what works for me and that was 6 pumps of both every day. If I had any negative effects I would have adjusted. I wouldn’t start with 6. The bottles say 5 pumps but I’m a stickler for even numbers. You can’t apply both on the same place though or your skin will dry up and flake off. So I applied the UH on my upper body shoulders arms and back of neck. And A4 on my thighs hips stomach and lower back.
I don’t wait. As long as I have had the equivalent time off from my last cycle I start the next cycle regardless of how I feel that day or week or whatever. But I didn’t start Android cycles in the first place until I was 8 or 9 months post crash. I stabilized with the protocol first which is paramount before starting cycles. Not that a cycle would hurt you necessarily if you started early but it wouldn’t help you as much or at all without the foundation of diets herbs and exercise etc. already established. But I think you have that established..
Damn yah looks like they discontinued the four. DPS nutrition has some here on a discount: Iconic Formulations Alpha Four - 7 fl oz
I would stock up. I’m set for a couple years. Not taking any chances. I’ll wait to see if CD or anyone else has any idea of replacement.
Better with it. Last fall was my first cycle with the UH. I was feeling good effects from it but didn’t last all day. So I ordered the four to supplement. The last week of cycle I applied the four in the afternoon and it boosted me back up again. And since then it’s been 2 full cycles of that. I look forward to both applications everyday
I noticed a slight drop off from cycle baseline after my first 2 cycles but no suppression. After this last cycle I haven’t had any drop off at all. The benefits have stuck around. I had non perfect days on cycle and have non perfect days now. But they are rare and never last all day. My first 2 cycles were 8 weeks and this last one was 12 weeks.
Alpha four is out of production and has been removed from the Iconic site - DPS/Strong/SoCal-Nutrition/etc still have inventory.
Anyone looking for Alpha Four can dm me to find some - I also have quite a stash of them personally.
Which symptoms are left for you? We need to hear the positive side.
I still get this strange head pressure/pain around the sides of my head. Mostly on the right side but can be both sometimes. It’s uncomfortable at best and can lead to me feeling anhedonic and depressed at worst. It can come out of no where but it usually shows up when I’m stressed or feeling melancholy about my past. Sometimes it only last a few minutes and the rest of the day is great. Most of the time it doesn’t start until late afternoon. It’s a unique symptom I guess because I never read anyone else talking about it. But it’s my last one and it’s the toughest one to get rid of completely. It’s definitely PFS related because it started right after I crashed. Other than that just eye floaters (these I can keep for life for all I care. And even they have gotten much better. I don’t even notice them unless I’m staring at white wall or white clouds.)
The positive side is my life is not controlled by my fears of PFS symptoms any more. I used to be completely slaved to it and couldn’t enjoy life or the thought of doing anything somewhat fun or productive. The thoughts of fear and dread were overwhelming. Even as recently as 6 months ago which was 2+ years after my crash I would still feel this way. Now my life isn’t like that anymore. I can sit and enjoy my thoughts and have good feelings about going out with friends or going to work and just literally everything else in life people do without even thinking. I still have some PTSD though. Like yesterday I was invited to go to a birthday party tonight and my initial thoughts were oh no I will probably have a terrible time. I had to check myself and remember that that’s not a problem for me anymore. I used to have major upswings and downswings. I don’t have downswings anymore. I mean sometimes my head pressure problem will be pretty bad a few days in a row. But it’s not a real PFS downswing. Where you are feeling great for a couple weeks then all of a sudden it’s like you are back to square 1 for a couple weeks. I know that bothered the shit out of me because it was like what’s the point! The last real downswing I had was December/January. I’m better talking about this shit in person lol. It’s hard to write it down and really exemplify how I feel now compared to how I used to feel. I’m certainly not perfect yet but compared to how I used to feel it’s almost not even the same disease anymore. It’s like I went from full blown COVID to having a stuffy nose.
I got a DM for my daily routine/regimen. I mostly just follow the protocol as tightly as possible but here it is. I take the recommended doses on the bottle or package of everything. I just take that recommended dose more than the recommend amount of times a day on a few things.. (I.e. the herbs on cycle are almost always 1/2 tsp or 1 tsp twice a day. I take the recommended does 3 times a day)
Morning- cold shower then breakfast. Eggs and meat, sometimes gluten free oat meal or yogurt and fruit. 1 maybe 2 cups of coffee after breakfast as a pre workout. Gym between breakfast and lunch usually. 5 days a week lifting and a little cardio. The other two days cardio sprints or jump rope. I get my sun with cardio because I like to do it outdoors.
Supplements and herbs
Vitamin D
Vitamin E
Ancestral supplements Beef Brain
Royal Bee Jelly
Glycine
Magnesium
Gotu Kola
L-Theanine
Lions mane
Bacopa
Pine pollen
Albizia
Cycled herb (19 different herbs on cycle)
Lunch- get back from the gym and take another cold shower. Usually a huge salad with nuts for protein. Sometimes some lean beef especially on hard workout days.
Supplements and herbs
Beef brain
Vitamin B
Tudca
Gotu Kola
Bacopa
Albizia
Pine Pollen
Spirulina
Chlorella
Cycled Herb
I have a protein shake and snack on fruits and nuts in the afternoon. Sometimes a protein bar. Lay by the pool and meditate. Or meditate inside for 20 mins. TBH I hate meditation so this is the hardest part for me. But I try. I used to do wim hoff daily. Haven’t done that in a year or so. I used to be forced to do it by my symptoms. So it’s actually a sign of improvement that I never think about doing it anymore.
Dinner- Usually salmon and veggies. However, I have been eating a lot of various normal foods for dinner for a while. Chicken and rice, gluten free pastas, steak and veggies, gluten free pizza, burger with gluten free buns, etc.. I just avoid the gluten. No gluten since the crash. Food is fuel for me now and it doesn’t seem to lead to anything negative if I vary from Paleo. Probably not positive either but at least it’s not negative.
Supplements and herbs- an hour before dinner
Beef brain
Ox bile
Glycine
L-theanine
Bacopa
Lions mane
Albizia
Pine pollen
Cycled herb
This post is already entirely too long but a couple other notes. I try not to masturbate too much. I wear blue light glasses at night. I sleep 8-10 hours a night. I drink once or twice a month. Drinking doesn’t lead to a downswing for me anymore. Nothing does. I avoid all the xenoestrogens. I get a massage twice a month. I try and do one thing every day that makes me or someone around me happy. That’s about it.
P.S. I find it incredibly helpful to keep a log of how I feel everyday. So maybe the most important thing I do is this. I use a number systems 1 through 10. 1 being suicidal and 10 being perfect. Each number I have associated with a particular type of feeling. I have 3 different time zones each day that I put the number by because I can feel like a 10 in the morning and a 7 at night. So it looks like this
Sunday 9/5/2021
Bed-12pm: 9
12pm-5pm: 10
5pm-bed: 8
I have the same symptom, I just have never talked about it on here. Intense crushing pain on the right side of my head near my temple, sometimes spreading to under my ear, causes my jaw to grind and pop. Accompanied by a huge bulging vein that appeared when I crashed. Always wondered why it was predominantly on the right side of my head. It’s basically gone away, but on rare occasions I’ll feel it. It’s my telltale way to know if I hit a downswing
I had this symptom. Always behind my eyes though. Felt like my head was in a vice. Best way to describe it. Keep doing what you're doing and it will also eventually go away.