My journey to the promised land

[Maxout777]

Hey all,

Glad to find this community of guys who accomplish their goals and don't let anything stand in their way. Hope to be a valuable asset to this board, as I've been lurking for awhile now. I'll spare you the spill, I'm one of "those guys", and got to that state by using Saw Palmetto for a month and a half. My symptoms and situation are very similar to what Freepressright on this board went through with Fenugreek. I've been off for three months now, and while I've seen some natural improvement in those months, I've always been a fan of taking things into my own hands, and decided a few weeks ago to embark on the quest of Cdsnuts' routine.

I decided to register on this forum to interact and become one of you guys, because I was tired of sitting on the other boards dedicated to "our cause" and listening to naysayers and people grasp at thirty different ideas each week, and find a place that people stick to what works and accomplish their goals through hard work, whether it be recovering from PFS or accomplishing weightlifting/body building goals. I've always preached that you become what you associate with, and I believe my chances of succeeding in what I want will be much better from having you guys over here to talk to. I won't bombard your board with a bunch of PFS-related posts, just wanted to introduce myself and what I'm going through - any support and or advice you have for me would be greatly appreciated, as I'm still a little fresh to this subject.

A little about myself, I've Been a football/baseball player my entire life, and have worked out regularly since the age of 15. I've been a winner and found much success in all of these arenas, because I understand the hard work, dedication, and discipline required to be a winner. I plan to translate this to my recovery here. I have a wonderful girlfriend, whom I plan to marry soon, and she deserves the best me I can give her, and that's just what she'll get. Success is my only option here - just how I like it.

My routine so far has included:

- Intermittent water fasting. I didn't do a whole long water fast because I don't believe my case is as bad as others. I have the energy to workout 6x weekly with weights and running 2-3x weekly and my body has responded to it. I put on muscle and it doesn't "crash" me.
- Cycling t-boosters/herbs. I have about 11 of the ones on Cdsnuts list that I rotate daily. Planning on moving up to 14 soon to have a full two week cycle.
- Working out 6x weekly and running HIIT sprints 2-3x weekly.
- Getting 7-8 hours sleep a night minimum.
- Meditation to relax the mind.
- Most importantly, keeping a positive mindset and not letting the doom and gloom get me down.

Thanks for reading and I hope to hear from you guys, like I said any advice or support is greatly appreciated. Hope we all have a ton of success accomplishing our goals. Lets get to work.

[Maxout777]

Also, had some blood work done close to a month ago now before starting the current protocol. (I don't put a lot of stock in bloods, but here they are in case someone can possibly interpret what else could be going on):

Total T: 463 ng/dl (348-1197)
Free T: 12.8 pg/ml (9.3-26.5)
Estradiol: 14.5 pg/ml (7.6-42.6)
DHEA-S: 365.1 ug/dl (14.3-530.5)
SHBG: 25.3 nmol/L (16.5-55.9)
DHT: 30 ng/dL (Range: 30-85 ng/dL)
LH: 5.9 mIU/mL (1.7-8.6)
FSH: 11.9 mIU/mL (1.5-12.4)

[English]

Also, had some blood work done close to a month ago now before starting the current protocol. (I don't put a lot of stock in bloods, but here they are in case someone can possibly interpret what else could be going on):

Total T: 463 ng/dl (348-1197)
Free T: 12.8 pg/ml (9.3-26.5)
Estradiol: 14.5 pg/ml (7.6-42.6)
DHEA-S: 365.1 ug/dl (14.3-530.5)
SHBG: 25.3 nmol/L (16.5-55.9)
DHT: 30 ng/dL (Range: 30-85 ng/dL)
LH: 5.9 mIU/mL (1.7-8.6)
FSH: 11.9 mIU/mL (1.5-12.4)

Hey fella,

First up, welcome to the forum. Like CD says, you've been pretty much got it sorted.

I just want to add regards your bloods, your LH is quite high considering your free T level, and there's a recovered scientist kind of guy "Josh" who talks alot of sense in his articles within this link regards calcium and magnesium issues in pfs guys that struggle to convert good LH numbers into T. It is very easy to remedy it, have a read (you must scroll right to the bottom to see the next article of 5 i think) and you should also take not of his articles on inflammation in the gut. You can ignore the thryroid article as you wouldn't be performing as you are physically if you needed thryroid meds. Also, when taking magnesium, always co-factor it with calcium, and always take the glycinate version predominently, other types are poorly absorbed and tolerated:
Post-Finasteride Syndrome Recovery: How to reduce gut inflammation PFS Healing

[Maxout777]

Hey fella,

First up, welcome to the forum. Like CD says, you've been pretty much got it sorted.

I just want to add regards your bloods, your LH is quite high considering your free T level, and there's a recovered scientist kind of guy "Josh" who talks alot of sense in his articles within this link regards calcium and magnesium issues in pfs guys that struggle to convert good LH numbers into T. It is very easy to remedy it, have a read (you must scroll right to the bottom to see the next article of 5 i think) and you should also take not of his articles on inflammation in the gut. You can ignore the thryroid article as you wouldn't be performing as you are physically if you needed thryroid meds. Also, when taking magnesium, always co-factor it with calcium, and always take the glycinate version predominently, other types are poorly absorbed and tolerated:
Post-Finasteride Syndrome Recovery: How to reduce gut inflammation PFS Healing

Thanks for the article, I'm going to take a look at it.

This LH level was taken about a month after those T levels, and I was already taking Tongkat Ali and Tribulus, so I have a feeling that may have thrown it off. My original LH with those T levels was 3.7. Would that make more sense with my levels?

Gonna do a dig of that article and see what I can tailor around myself. Thanks again for the information!

[English]

Thanks for the article, I'm going to take a look at it.

This LH level was taken about a month after those T levels, and I was already taking Tongkat Ali and Tribulus, so I have a feeling that may have thrown it off. My original LH with those T levels was 3.7. Would that make more sense with my levels?

Gonna do a dig of that article and see what I can tailor around myself. Thanks again for the information!

Yeah even at 3.7 that is a high LH number for free t of low normal. To give you some comparison, my last t number was over 800 including high normal free T and my LH was definitely under 3, i think it was 2.7 from memory.
It's pretty difficult to go overboard with calcium and magnesium as both are needed and used in virtually every function of the body.
Following CD's suggestion, another great way of getting both calcium and magnesium is by making your own Kefir. Kefir could be made by a monkey it is so easy to do, and it is an incredibly cheap and effective pro-biotic. Although it is still dairy, if you use goats milk then the protein is A2 type which is the easy to digest type (it is A1 proteins responsible for many dairy intolerances) and most of the lactose gets fermented and converted. If you really want to avoid lactose completely, simply add some lactose enzyme to it after you've fermented it to your tastes. Many people cure themselves completely of crohns disease by taking Kefir daily, it is that good, and if you're doing that, you may as well ferment Kombucha too which again, is a probiotic. It is great tasting and you can ferment it so it is fizzy, making it something you can drink cold as an alcohol replacement - actually it does have a small amount of alcohol in it but the postives way outstrip the small volume of alcohol in it.

[Maxout777]

Yeah even at 3.7 that is a high LH number for free t of low normal. To give you some comparison, my last t number was over 800 including high normal free T and my LH was definitely under 3, i think it was 2.7 from memory.
It's pretty difficult to go overboard with calcium and magnesium as both are needed and used in virtually every function of the body.
Following CD's suggestion, another great way of getting both calcium and magnesium is by making your own Kefir. Kefir could be made by a monkey it is so easy to do, and it is an incredibly cheap and effective pro-biotic. Although it is still dairy, if you use goats milk then the protein is A2 type which is the easy to digest type (it is A1 proteins responsible for many dairy intolerances) and most of the lactose gets fermented and converted. If you really want to avoid lactose completely, simply add some lactose enzyme to it after you've fermented it to your tastes. Many people cure themselves completely of crohns disease by taking Kefir daily, it is that good, and if you're doing that, you may as well ferment Kombucha too which again, is a probiotic. It is great tasting and you can ferment it so it is fizzy, making it something you can drink cold as an alcohol replacement - actually it does have a small amount of alcohol in it but the postives way outstrip the small volume of alcohol in it.

Thanks for the help English, I'll definitely take those suggestions into consideration. I'm accumulating quite the arsenal of tactics to combat this shit! I'm having bloods done again soon, my GP has me regularly doing hormone tests. He has no idea about PFS or what is going on but he did recognize the low T levels and wants to keep track of them. I'm interested to see where they sit - I'm feeling much better than my last test.

In other news, I finally made ground in the sexual department. Far from saying I'm back - but I can go into action without PDE5s and actually get a decent erection from stimulus instead of manually having to bring it up. Just the kinda improvement I needed to see to help see me through this feast!

[Cdsnuts]

Hey fella,

First up, welcome to the forum. Like CD says, you've been pretty much got it sorted.

I just want to add regards your bloods, your LH is quite high considering your free T level, and there's a recovered scientist kind of guy "Josh" who talks alot of sense in his articles within this link regards calcium and magnesium issues in pfs guys that struggle to convert good LH numbers into T. It is very easy to remedy it, have a read (you must scroll right to the bottom to see the next article of 5 i think) and you should also take not of his articles on inflammation in the gut. You can ignore the thryroid article as you wouldn't be performing as you are physically if you needed thryroid meds. Also, when taking magnesium, always co-factor it with calcium, and always take the glycinate version predominently, other types are poorly absorbed and tolerated:
Post-Finasteride Syndrome Recovery: How to reduce gut inflammation PFS Healing

IMO the best place to get magnesium and calcium that are properly paired and are more importantly, bio available is in the form of dark green juices or smoothies as an addition to your diet. Something to keep in mind. Get in a large green smoothie or juice daily and you will more than satisfy this need.

Another fantastic benefit to magnesium is that it increases testosterone by binding to SHBG. It directly increases your free testosterone levels. Among the hundreds of important things the mineral does in the body, this to me is one of the most exciting.

[Maxout777]

IMO the best place to get magnesium and calcium that are properly paired and are more importantly, bio available is in the form of dark green juices or smoothies as an addition to your diet. Something to keep in mind. Get in a large green smoothie or juice daily and you will more than satisfy this need.

Another fantastic benefit to magnesium is that it increases testosterone by binding to SHBG. It directly increases your free testosterone levels. Among the hundreds of important things the mineral does in the body, this to me is one of the most exciting.

I have made a habit of doing a green type smoothie everyday before, just got out of it and stopped doing it. Will definitely add that back to the diet. I supplement Natural Calm magnesium twice daily so I will add Calcium to it just to see if it helps any as well. Can use all the Free T I can get at this point.

CD, I did have a question that I forgot to ask, given that I'm performing pretty well, should I stick to just doing intermittent fasting or do you believe a longer water fast thrown in from time to time will be better? Thanks in advance for the help guys, much appreciated! Hitting the gym for the day as we speak.

[MichaelZurich]

Dear Maxoutt777

Sorry I tried to read thru a lot of your posts but they are just too many :-) First of all: Congratulations from the bottom of my heart! I am suffering for the past 4 years and just started full commitment some weeks ago after a failed HCG trial. My blood work looks pretty much the same as yours except some higher SHBG and E. Have you ever done blood work after your recovery? It would mean a lot to me to stick to it and look forward. Also, besides the herbs have you ever had any benefits of prohormones (I just got a bottle of ultra hard and two bottles of sustain alpha) or anything else beside the protocol? Anything I should pay close attention to?
Kind Regards from Switzerland

Michael

Also, had some blood work done close to a month ago now before starting the current protocol. (I don't put a lot of stock in bloods, but here they are in case someone can possibly interpret what else could be going on):

Total T: 463 ng/dl (348-1197)
Free T: 12.8 pg/ml (9.3-26.5)
Estradiol: 14.5 pg/ml (7.6-42.6)
DHEA-S: 365.1 ug/dl (14.3-530.5)
SHBG: 25.3 nmol/L (16.5-55.9)
DHT: 30 ng/dL (Range: 30-85 ng/dL)
LH: 5.9 mIU/mL (1.7-8.6)
FSH: 11.9 mIU/mL (1.5-12.4)

[Maxout777]

Dear Maxoutt777

Sorry I tried to read thru a lot of your posts but they are just too many :-) First of all: Congratulations from the bottom of my heart! I am suffering for the past 4 years and just started full commitment some weeks ago after a failed HCG trial. My blood work looks pretty much the same as yours except some higher SHBG and E. Have you ever done blood work after your recovery? It would mean a lot to me to stick to it and look forward. Also, besides the herbs have you ever had any benefits of prohormones (I just got a bottle of ultra hard and two bottles of sustain alpha) or anything else beside the protocol? Anything I should pay close attention to?
Kind Regards from Switzerland

Michael

Everything I did is on this forum in my posts for PFS recovery. Yes, I did pro-hormones, four cycles to be exact. And I have old bloodwork from a year or so ago, I posted it over on Hack Stasis and I can post here as well when I find it. Test was in the 800s, Estrogen was 25-ish, LH was around the same and FSH was lower a bit, IIRC. SHBG about the same.