Please advise on supplement plan.

Demian.McLellan · 10-15-2009, 01:08 AM

I am managing my wife's pcos/FM treatment. She was previously taking a slew of meds (metformin, contraceptives, trazadone, cymbalta, spironolactone...), but stopped all during her pregnancy. After she finished breastfeeding she started all of them again, but she wasn't getting the same kind of reaction. They weren't really helping and she was getting alot of headaches and nausea. So we stopped everything, I read alot (mostly here), and started her on some new stuff, we have since added back in spironolactone and trazadone. She didn't want to go back on birth control (she had a tubal ligation so no concern there). Here is what we have been doing for the last few months:

Multivitamin (of course)
flax oil 2000mg
magnesium 800mg or 200% rda
chromium 400mcg or 340% rda
vandium 20mg
cinnamon 2000mg
vitamin c 2000mg or 3000% rda

We cut most sugar and white flour out of her diet and strictly tracked food consumption. She developed a gout attack right after we started so we limited meat also and added in daily apple cider vinegar and pure cherry juice. We limited to 2000 calories with limited success. In 2 months she lost about 5 pounds. I didn't take measurements, but I intend to start doing that soon. We recently further limited her diet to 1300 calories. with more success (she had plateaued it seemed), another 3 pounds in 2 weeks. We eat alot of fresh vegetables and salad. We swapped in roasted chickpeas instead of croutons.

She definitely feels better with the changes we have made, but is frustrated at how slow her weight loss is (I have lost nearly 30 pounds in a similar time frame limited to 2000ish calories).

We are preparing the next big step. I am planning to add (or work up to):
Myo Inositol 4000-7000mg
Licorice and peony 5000mg
vitamin d3 2000iu or 500% rda (she currently gets ~200% rda of d)
lecithin for choline 1700mg and a bonus free 900mg of inositol
biotin 5mg or 1666% rda
saw palmeto 1100mg
st. john's wort 750mg

Also considering adding 150g of Buckwheat Farinetta daily for 2000mg of DCI (but also 570 calories!!) I think to do this we would have to up her to 1700 calories daily.

My question for you all is, what are we missing? are we doing too much?
Her BMI is around 39 and she gets mild exercise daily (walking mostly, 20-30 minutes on average). Is it possible to make a cream of wheat sort of porridge meal out of the farinetta? I mean has anyone tried it? We eat oatmeal almost daily now so it would be a fairly painless change if it would work (though it is 3x as many calories!). I studiously track her nutrition numbers and except for vitamin e and k and potassium she is getting RDA every day in everything. Potassium is really hard. Is white rice bad? Are potatoes bad?

Any advice is GREATLY appreciated, and thank you for all the testimonials you have written, they helped alot!

mip1500 · 10-15-2009, 01:42 AM

Well, well, well, you are far beyond my world of knowledge and hopes and dreams and imagination, but to answer one question you posed simply:

"are we doing too much?"

Only if you aren't enjoying the love of family and friends and selves and this world

.

Samie · 10-15-2009, 01:49 AM

Ok, what she is taking and doing now seems good. Is there a reason she takes Flax oil instead of Fish oil?
The increase in d3 will definitely help, as will saw palmetto, at least, everything I have read and had experience with, both of those are very beneficial to PCOS. I would shy away from licorice and peony though. Especially licorice root. It can cause problems with blood pressure, especially if used long term. The other thing that jumps out at me, as a no-no is St. John's wort. It simply interacts negatively with too many other herbal supplements, vitamins and meds. If she is needing something for depression/anxiety there are other better alternatives. You may want to look into Sam-E, though I am not super familiar with it, I just know my mother takes this when she has her seasonal issues w/ depression.
One thing I noticed was lacking, and is essential those of us who have PCOS take enough of, is Vit. B complex. I personally take Super Vitamin B complex in addition to my multi.
I'm not familiar with Buckwheat Farinetta, though I do buy Buckwheat breakfast cereal (comes in a box similar to cream of wheat) at Whole Foods. Yes, white rice is considered a simple carb, go with brown, and limit it to a couple of times a week. Potatoes are too, considered too starchy. If you both like sweet potatoes, try implementing them into your diet occasionally, sweet potatoes are considered *high in sugar* BUT they actually help keep blood glucose lower and at a more leveled amount, unlike white potatoes, which cause it to spike really fast, and plummet back down.
I think its great that you are trying to do whatever you can to help your wife! I wish my dh (though I love him to the ends of the universe) was much more conscientious about our diet, it would make my life a little easier.

Oh, one other thing, has she ever been evaluated to check if she's hypothyroid or has hashimoto's syndrome? This could also interfere with her weight loss. HTH, and good luck!

Demian.McLellan · 10-15-2009, 02:18 AM

We could have her thyroid level's checked and check on hashimoto syndrome, but to do so we would have to cut all supplements for 2 or 3 months as we have no insurance. She is doing much better now than when we were relying on modern medicine, so I hesitate to shift our cash into the doctor's golf addiction rather than supplements.

I will look further into the sjw before I add it. thanks alot!

Samie · 10-15-2009, 09:37 AM

Actually, nothing she's taking will interfere with a simple TSH blood test, and depending on where you live, most areas have "wellness clinics" that actually offer to do the blood test for a reasonable amount, like under $50. If her TSH comes back abnormal, you can then evaluate the need to see a doctor, and get treatment, for Hypothyroid, it really just involves taking a synthetic thyroid med.

LoriJane · 10-15-2009, 04:06 PM

You are an awesome hubby!

One question: you can take DCI in pill form and save the calories. Is there any reason you may not be interested in going that route? I definitely second the advice on adding a Super B complex and Fish Oil over just flaxseed! Good luck, I hope you guys see results. I think it's important also to know how she is feeling regardless of the weight loss. Does she feel better and does she have energy?

Demian.McLellan · 10-15-2009, 05:58 PM

I wasn't worried about the stuff she is taking interfering with blood tests, It's the whole fixed income and no health insurance that makes that difficult. To be honest, I donate (sell) plasma so we can afford the supplements we do buy. To go to a wellness clinic (if we have one here which I don't think we do sadly), would require cutting expenses somewhere... I will look into switching from flax to fish oil when we reorder next time, I'm pretty sure the reason I went with flax was because it was fewer calories and less fat, but I don't think it costs more and if fish is better we will switch.

I track her vitamins pretty well and she is getting around 200% rda of all her b vitamins (except b12 which is over 1000% and biotin which is why I was going to add it as a supplement.), what are we shooting for as a goal? I can definitely change to a b-complex if it will help.

The answer regarding DCI pills is just that we can't afford them. She needs ~2000mg daily, and the cheapest DCI I can find is $30+s/h for 18g. It's like 100+s/h per month. Even if we cut out everything else I could only afford maybe half that, but with buckwheat we can get 2000mg of dci for about 0.43 per day or $12 per month (including s/h), I can just afford that with all the other stuff.

I read some posts about using Licorice and Peony root for reducing testosterone and androgens for hirsutism. Can anyone comment specifically on this? It's pretty expensive ($7/mo), and someting I read alluded to some side effects. Spiro is only $4/mo and does a decent job on the hisutism, but if it helps other symptoms or just general well being I am more inclined to consider it...

Basically I've got around $50 a month max, and I need to decide what to go for to best help my wife.

She has been feeling better than before we added anything, she says she has amazing amounts of energy, and now is mostly limited by her fatigue and joint discomfort (from Fibromyalgia). she is menstruating regularly (~34 days per cycle) which is big change from her past. She has been doing more exercise, but it is really difficult. This last week has been really hard because she has had a migraine for almost 9 days now. We made no changes in her routine, and she has continued to take her meds and supplements, it just won't go away.

Thanks for your help!