matter2003
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OK,
This is kind of embarrassing to be writing about this, but I figured if anyone could help it would be Dr Houser, as I have read a lot of his info and its usually pretty solid.
I have always had a larger than normal chest as a kid growing up, and always have had glandular tissue around and under my nipple, as a woman would have. My body has always been "soft", and even as I have gotten in good shape with a lot of muscle, it is not as hard as it should be. It definitely helps when I work out but I still have issues getting "ripped" muscle. I have pretty decent size, but most of it looks "smooth", which I understand can be related to having excessive estrogen in the body. Even as bodyfat got down to around 10-11%, I still was not as cut up as I should have been. In fact in college, I got down to about 5% bodyfat(professionally caliper tested) and still had significant amounts of fat around my midsection(way more than I should have).
I believe my hormonal profile is exceedingly screwy, but living in New York state, you need an order from the president, the pope and santa claus to get your hormones checked(most labs are not certified by the state, and the ones that are are not covered by my insurance). I have always had bad teeth and had cavities filled since the time I was 8 or 9, a total of 14 or 15 teeth with 2 of them being 3/4 of the tooth. I believe this may have been a part of my hormonal issues, as I started having more and more signs of mercury related issues until I finally got them all out this year and started detoxing from it...twitching(triceps, calves, eyelids especially), dark circles under my eyes(completely gone now after 4-5 months of detoxing), difficulty concentrating, increasingly slurring words unintentionally(knew I wasn't pronouncing the word properly but couldn't pronounce it right...would happen maybe once a week or so but was still annoying), very low energy levels bordering on lethargic at times, premature gray hair, growing lipomas(body locking away heavy metals in fat deposits) and various other symptoms that all fit with low level chronic mercury exposure. Almost all of these issues have either improved or went away completely since I have had my fillings out and have been detoxing.
Anyway, mercury exposure can really screw your endocrine system up, and depending on how sensitive you are, depends on how much exposure it takes. Apparently I am pretty sensitive to it, so I believe this had a role to play in all of this. How much of a role, I guess we will never know. At this point, I have no idea whether this is fully repairable or not, as I have dealt with it for the better part of 30 years. One of the main ways it screws a male up is it greatly impairs the body's ability to absorb zinc, the essential "male" mineral. Males are zinc based, females are copper based. It should then come as no surprise that zinc plays a key role in testosterone production and copper a key role in estrogen production. In addition, zinc and copper are antagonists, meaning as zinc levels fall, copper levels rise, and vise versa. Males with low zinc by definition have excessive copper(however, it can be unavailable), which leads to excessive estrogen. I have a zinc challenge, which I have taken for several months now and my zinc levels are still low, even as I pull the mercury that is likely blocking the zinc from the receptor(the receptors prefer heavier, denser metals like mercury to zinc) and take 100-150 mg of zinc daily. Zinc also has a crucial role in gene expression(turning the on/off switch on) for up to 3% of all genes, and researchers have found things called "zinc fingers" in DNA that require zinc to operate properly. Basically, my zinc levels have pretty much sucked my whole life I would say.
What I want to know is what is the best way to deal with this. Obviously getting my body to absorb and utilize zinc properly will be a good start as it is one of the strongest aromatase inhibitors there is, and is responsible for a lot of "male" characteristics. That being said, I am sick and tired of dealing with this gyno issue. I want to be able to take my shirt off in the summer and be proud. Right now with my build, my chest looks great under a shirt, but I still can't take my shirt off. Upper part of the chest is thick and muscular, lower part is more glandular and fat. Just finished an 8 week run on A-HD from BPI and noticed my chest was looking flatter as time went on, but still nowhere near "normal". Getting ready to start running a Formeron/DAA/Divaniil stack to send T soaring and estrogen plummeting. I am assuming my T:E ratio is probably very bad, and am wondering if my body is producing excess estrogen outside of the aromatase conversion. IE, is it possible I am one of those freaky people that may have a partial ovary inside producing estrogen itself---almost like a person that has both sex characteristics with one being the dominant one? I don't really know what else to think, and I am tired of dealing with this. It is so frustrating to work as hard or harder than most people I know in the gym, do everything right(rest, supplements, timing, measuring food, etc) and still not be able to reach my goals due in part to my hormonals being so jacked up. Its almost like I have been fighting an unwinnable battle and I just want to get some potential answers as to how I can win it. I also take Calcium Glucarate, DIM and Borax(1/4 teaspoon daily in a liter of water) to help balance my hormones, but haven't really noticed too much in the way of anything from them.
Any help would be appreciated, I have to get this fixed. I am 38 years old, I want to know what it feels like to be proud to walk around shirtless. The work at the gym, the eating right, taking the proper supplementation, the sleep---the stuff most people find the hardest is not a problem for me...I do all of that stuff to a "T". I feel like I am playing poker and being dealt a pair of two's and trying to win against a guy that has 3 aces already. I gotta get this fixed, I just have to. I don't know what else to do, I have tried everything I can think of.
I would think I need to get my T levels up and my E levels down, but without a hormone test it is hard to exactly know where they are at. I do know my cortisol levels are "off the chart" high .64 on a test with levels ranging from .04 to .59 and my thyroid levels are not good with TSH to free T4 ratio of 3.26(was reading a good level is under 1.50 and even where most consider 2.50 good it is still too high), which again is consistent with mercury exposure as it impairs the ability to convert T4 into T3...have started taking Lugol's iodine(3 drops daily) to help combat this...
Any help is appreciated, and I am honestly open to ANYTHING at this point.
This is kind of embarrassing to be writing about this, but I figured if anyone could help it would be Dr Houser, as I have read a lot of his info and its usually pretty solid.
I have always had a larger than normal chest as a kid growing up, and always have had glandular tissue around and under my nipple, as a woman would have. My body has always been "soft", and even as I have gotten in good shape with a lot of muscle, it is not as hard as it should be. It definitely helps when I work out but I still have issues getting "ripped" muscle. I have pretty decent size, but most of it looks "smooth", which I understand can be related to having excessive estrogen in the body. Even as bodyfat got down to around 10-11%, I still was not as cut up as I should have been. In fact in college, I got down to about 5% bodyfat(professionally caliper tested) and still had significant amounts of fat around my midsection(way more than I should have).
I believe my hormonal profile is exceedingly screwy, but living in New York state, you need an order from the president, the pope and santa claus to get your hormones checked(most labs are not certified by the state, and the ones that are are not covered by my insurance). I have always had bad teeth and had cavities filled since the time I was 8 or 9, a total of 14 or 15 teeth with 2 of them being 3/4 of the tooth. I believe this may have been a part of my hormonal issues, as I started having more and more signs of mercury related issues until I finally got them all out this year and started detoxing from it...twitching(triceps, calves, eyelids especially), dark circles under my eyes(completely gone now after 4-5 months of detoxing), difficulty concentrating, increasingly slurring words unintentionally(knew I wasn't pronouncing the word properly but couldn't pronounce it right...would happen maybe once a week or so but was still annoying), very low energy levels bordering on lethargic at times, premature gray hair, growing lipomas(body locking away heavy metals in fat deposits) and various other symptoms that all fit with low level chronic mercury exposure. Almost all of these issues have either improved or went away completely since I have had my fillings out and have been detoxing.
Anyway, mercury exposure can really screw your endocrine system up, and depending on how sensitive you are, depends on how much exposure it takes. Apparently I am pretty sensitive to it, so I believe this had a role to play in all of this. How much of a role, I guess we will never know. At this point, I have no idea whether this is fully repairable or not, as I have dealt with it for the better part of 30 years. One of the main ways it screws a male up is it greatly impairs the body's ability to absorb zinc, the essential "male" mineral. Males are zinc based, females are copper based. It should then come as no surprise that zinc plays a key role in testosterone production and copper a key role in estrogen production. In addition, zinc and copper are antagonists, meaning as zinc levels fall, copper levels rise, and vise versa. Males with low zinc by definition have excessive copper(however, it can be unavailable), which leads to excessive estrogen. I have a zinc challenge, which I have taken for several months now and my zinc levels are still low, even as I pull the mercury that is likely blocking the zinc from the receptor(the receptors prefer heavier, denser metals like mercury to zinc) and take 100-150 mg of zinc daily. Zinc also has a crucial role in gene expression(turning the on/off switch on) for up to 3% of all genes, and researchers have found things called "zinc fingers" in DNA that require zinc to operate properly. Basically, my zinc levels have pretty much sucked my whole life I would say.
What I want to know is what is the best way to deal with this. Obviously getting my body to absorb and utilize zinc properly will be a good start as it is one of the strongest aromatase inhibitors there is, and is responsible for a lot of "male" characteristics. That being said, I am sick and tired of dealing with this gyno issue. I want to be able to take my shirt off in the summer and be proud. Right now with my build, my chest looks great under a shirt, but I still can't take my shirt off. Upper part of the chest is thick and muscular, lower part is more glandular and fat. Just finished an 8 week run on A-HD from BPI and noticed my chest was looking flatter as time went on, but still nowhere near "normal". Getting ready to start running a Formeron/DAA/Divaniil stack to send T soaring and estrogen plummeting. I am assuming my T:E ratio is probably very bad, and am wondering if my body is producing excess estrogen outside of the aromatase conversion. IE, is it possible I am one of those freaky people that may have a partial ovary inside producing estrogen itself---almost like a person that has both sex characteristics with one being the dominant one? I don't really know what else to think, and I am tired of dealing with this. It is so frustrating to work as hard or harder than most people I know in the gym, do everything right(rest, supplements, timing, measuring food, etc) and still not be able to reach my goals due in part to my hormonals being so jacked up. Its almost like I have been fighting an unwinnable battle and I just want to get some potential answers as to how I can win it. I also take Calcium Glucarate, DIM and Borax(1/4 teaspoon daily in a liter of water) to help balance my hormones, but haven't really noticed too much in the way of anything from them.
Any help would be appreciated, I have to get this fixed. I am 38 years old, I want to know what it feels like to be proud to walk around shirtless. The work at the gym, the eating right, taking the proper supplementation, the sleep---the stuff most people find the hardest is not a problem for me...I do all of that stuff to a "T". I feel like I am playing poker and being dealt a pair of two's and trying to win against a guy that has 3 aces already. I gotta get this fixed, I just have to. I don't know what else to do, I have tried everything I can think of.
I would think I need to get my T levels up and my E levels down, but without a hormone test it is hard to exactly know where they are at. I do know my cortisol levels are "off the chart" high .64 on a test with levels ranging from .04 to .59 and my thyroid levels are not good with TSH to free T4 ratio of 3.26(was reading a good level is under 1.50 and even where most consider 2.50 good it is still too high), which again is consistent with mercury exposure as it impairs the ability to convert T4 into T3...have started taking Lugol's iodine(3 drops daily) to help combat this...
Any help is appreciated, and I am honestly open to ANYTHING at this point.