retaining water

IH,

Not sure what's going on but I'm retaining water like crazy again. It seems if I miss even two days at the gym, my body is holding onto water in my belly and my feet. It goes down with exercise, but it's really frustrating.

Is there anything natural I should be taking daily to keep this at bay?

Is there anything possibly in the reigmen that causes water retention?

Thanks in advance.

hadrion - Here is a very low cost product that helps with water retention. http://www.iherb.com/Naturade-Herbal-Diuretic-60-Tablets/5617?at=0

This one here should be quite effective also: http://www.iherb.com/Now-Foods-Water-Out-Herbal-Diuretic-100-VCaps/15373?at=0

I'm not sure about men, but in women, high dose B6 is quite helpful (this is usually due to hormone changes).

As far as cause, it could be related to your kidneys. In rare instances it could be from the liver. If it is, I know of only one thing that works, I would have to look it up, but it prevents astrocyte swelling in liver, that causes water retention.

How is your intake of potassium? The herbs in the formulas above should help with electrolyte balance.

Finally, do you know if you're prone to getting gout? See if you get anyway swelling in the ankles following intake of HFCS. If this is the case, try celery seed extract.

IH-I've never had a gout attack in my life, although my Father and his Brother had them often. When I get the swelling in my foot/ankle there isn't pain per se, just a tightness. That said, since I have a family history of gout perhaps I'm experiencing a mild form of it?

My Potassium is probably not as good as it has been of late. I was usually consuming a banana a day but have scaled back on that.

Also when you mentioned HFCS I found it interesting since I ate a few Reese's Peanut butter cups that past few days having them kicking around the house for halloween. I don't normally eat these. I'm sure they have HFCS and I'm wondering if this could just be a reaction my eating them.

I'm gonna order the 2nd supplement you listed from NOW and try that out. I also think I should find a celery seed extract and see if that helps the situations.

Thanks for the thoughts.

While on finasteride, I retained water like crazy. The drug made me look sick -- dark junkie circles under my eyes, bloated face. Some call it "minoxidil face" in tribute to the actor, Vince Vaughan.

I tried different things to flush the water out of my system. Some girl told me to avoid salt. I did & only retained more water. Some doctor told me to take a diuretic but it made my skin dry, lips peel & throat ache. It sucked -- and did nothing to help my water retention.

It wasn't until I started avoiding sugar & refined carbs that I began flushing out excess water.

Magnesium, zinc & potassium helped a lot, along with dandelion root. Ironically, drinking tons of water was a major help, as well.

I notice that whenever I eat a lot of HFCS my body does retain more water than usual. Salt doesn't make me retain water as much, anymore.

Thanks for the thoughts LA,

I'm starting to think this bout of water retention has a lot more to do with me indulging in Halloween candy (which I normally never do). It's just amazing to me that it was such an instant reaction.

My wife actually said we have to go get me some dandelion root tea today since apparently she's used it in the past for bloating.

I definitely need to get my potassium up higher than it's been this week. My Magnesium is already high as I supplement with it, use the oil and eat a good amount of sources containing it.

If anyone reading this wants to know the severe effects of diet and exercise here you are. I missed 2 days at the gym and ate some sugar crap and bam, instant issue.

I also took some B-6 last night and this morning and that seemed to help.

While you are looking at triggers, consider Aldosterone, cortisol and eventually Adrenals connection as well. High aldosterone can cause water rentention - How is your blood pressure?

If I were you I would try to find out why you are retaining water (do some investigative work)- yes, you can take diuretics but you would not know what is causing it.

lund wrote:While you are looking at triggers, consider Aldosterone, cortisol and eventually Adrenals connection as well. High aldosterone can cause water rentention - How is your blood pressure?

If I were you I would try to find out why you are retaining water (do some investigative work)- yes, you can take diuretics but you would not know what is causing it.

I'm on the high side of normal blood pressure wise.

hadrion - I think lund makes a good point. HFCS can raise blood pressure by raising uric acid levels. The mechanism of obesity and elevated blood pressure comes from this effect. Celery seed extract (3-n-butylphthalide) lowers uric acid levels, reduces blood pressure and does not adversely affect electrolyte balance.

I take 3-n-butylphthalide when I cheat (drinking soda or eating candy).

CausticSymmetry wrote:hadrion - I think lund makes a good point. HFCS can raise blood pressure by raising uric acid levels. The mechanism of obesity and elevated blood pressure comes from this effect. Celery seed extract (3-n-butylphthalide) lowers uric acid levels, reduces blood pressure and does not adversely affect electrolyte balance.

I take 3-n-butylphthalide when I cheat (drinking soda or eating candy).

IH -- Any recommendation on a supplement in this area? I'm gonna get on it. With my family history and the fact that once I avoided the candy and started drinking tons of water this weekend the swelling went down I'm starting to think I'm on the road to gout if I don't watch things more carefully.

hadrion - This brand here is excellent, and very inexpensive.

http://www.iherb.com/Nature-s-Herbs-Power-Herbs-Celery-Seed-Power-60-Capsules/4399?at=0

Initial stages of AF : Stress --> High cortisol and High Aldosterone --> Sodium retention --> water retention --> High blood pressure.

So while you think about your options - consider this angle as well. If this is the case, you might be low on Mg / K - avoid Na and somehow heal the adrenals. It is fascinating these little organs carry so much punch....

I had the all the adrenal fatigue symptoms from the get go and thought I had addressed them since my energy levels were good and I had lost a lot of weight.

The good news is the swelling is completely gone. I literally drank about 2.5 gallons of filtered water yesterday and the more I drank the more the swelling dissipated.

I have no pain and I feel fine, even when I had the swelling, so I'm pretty convinced that it was something I was eating that caused this most recent bout of this and that I need to be more vigilant with my diet since I strayed for stupid candy.

I'm going to try the celery seed extract and see how that goes and I think I'm also going to put myself back on the Natural Sources Raw Thyroid supplement I was taking last year (when trying to rebuild my adrenals). I had stopped it early this year thinking I had turned a corner.

Probably unwise to willy nilly try glandulars w/o testing.

And You want to take Thyroid glandular for rebuilding Adrenals?

Please link from where you are getting this suggestion - I am both hypo and in AF, it is against all what I have read so far, would like to correct myself if needed be.

The key is sustained levels of energy over time w/o supps - that's the only way you can confirm if Adrenals have recovered. Throwing glandulars will surely buy you some energy in the short term. It is like whipping a tired horse one last time...

hadrion wrote:I had the all the adrenal fatigue symptoms from the get go and thought I had addressed them since my energy levels were good and I had lost a lot of weight.

lund--IH had advised me way back when (I believe on the old board) that the Natural Sources Raw Thyroid was a good supplement for rebuilding adrenals. I'll wait for him to weigh in with specifics. Natural Sources had an Adrenal product on there, but IH felt the Raw Thyroid was more comprehensive.

When I was on it I was doing very well. I've been off of it for many many months though. I'd say 6 or more.

hadrion - The most basic way to measure adrenal fatigue is a low DHEA level. Rather than taking DHEA itself, taking a glandular complex, containing the pituitary, thymus, adrenal, and thyroid along with iodine can potentate a normal DHEA level.

Of course, there are medical professionals who sometimes advise against taking glandulars, however results that I have seen contradict this advise. Moreover, physicians who have treated patients for decades have had good experience with glandulars for this purpose.

We may humbly tend to agree to disagree here - I have no personal experience, just what I have read and read and read. So I am a Google practitioner....you are probably better of following what CS says...

Glandular is absolutely important arsenal in recovering Thyroids or Adrenals. So do not get me wrong, if you need it, you need to take it. But this is powerful stuff. Just like supplementing with "T" tends to shut down endogenous production of "T" due to feedback mechanisms, you need to be aware of possible additional atrophy to adrenals if you continue to take glandulars for a *longer* period of time. There is a potential to be hurting the week by taking glandulars. Now if you are carefully monitoring your hormones/cortisol/dhea and other parameters and titrating accordingly, you are probably going to be OK - hence the comment that taking willy nilly this stuff is probably unwise in my opinion. Everyone wants instant gratification...sometimes that's not the best long term route.

If you are doing everything (diet, supps, herbs) and trying to manage your cortisol and if you are not improving - then yes try the glandulars in small amounts, try it and then try to back away from it within few weeks (1-2 months). Keep trying to back away until you are successful. The key is to somehow let adrenals recover.

Getting more energy endogenously is the ultimate goal - and a working adrenal will give you that, try not to push it using last resort items first. Usually Thyroids are comprised for ppl with Adrenal issues as well. Thyroids are your fuel store houses, adrenals make it shuttle into the cells. So even if you recover adrenals, you will then need to address Thyroid (if you continue to stay hypo there). How many of us have tried iodine w/o any difference in symptoms? count me one - and I am sure the reason is not that Iodine is not working, but my insufficient adrenals were the culprit.

I have a integrative doc apt today, I will see what he says - I have no problem taking a minute amount of Isocort as long as other items are there for me as well (adaptogens, licorice, vitmamins).

So you took glandulars and then what happened?

Lund--At the time IH advised me of this, I had just gotten tests done from an endocrinologist who told me I had Metabolic Syndrome X and gave me a fistful of prescriptions. I didn't fill any of them.

Since then, following IH's advice, I dropped 80 pounds and have been feeling better.

I've now been off the Raw Thyroid for 6 months and haven't noticed one difference in the way I have felt.

The only thing I have noticed was the appearance of varicose veins & the retaining of the water that was coming and going with me.

Even with the water retention, I feel great and don't have any pains or problems I had way back when.

My energy levels are off the charts. I go to the gym and run circles around people. I don't fall asleep during the day anymore. I don't have any trouble falling asleep at night.

Prior to finding IH I would stay up until 3-4 am every night because I couldn't sleep.

Now, I am exhausted if I don't go to bed before 12:30am and I get a great night's sleep.

I've seen a big rebound in my health following his advice.

I just didn't understand the water retention around my belly and ankle which it seems cleared up quickly with taking in 2 gallons of water a day the past few days.

I went off the Raw Thyroid mostly to see if I noticed any difference and I didn't. I still felt great off of it, so you're right to question my possibly using it again.

That said, at the time I was taking it I went through a physical transformation that has benefited me greatly.

It is good to hear your +ve experience, that's all what matters at the end of the day. As you have gotten off of it and are still holding off to your increased well being, that is a very good sign - perhaps you have your adrenals recovered using the glandulars.

From what I understand - AF has stages and depending on which stage you are in, you need to adapt your protocol. In some cases you need to increase cortisol, in some you need to reduce cortisol - in some cases you need to take hydrocortisone. Sometime you need to manage diffrerenly in the morning than what you do in the evening. All depending on how your cortisol output is related to the cicardian cycle.

I tend to think they did recover but I got scared by the water retention episode.

The good news is the increased fluids have appeared to knock it out. I still worry that it could be gout since I have a family history and I was gobbling HFCS candy before the episode. The other thing I did last week was eat a lot of red meat since we bought filet mignon at Costco and had it several nights. Apparently, red meat also aggravates gout.

The good news is if it were gout I had very mild symptoms. I didn't have any of the pain I've heard associated with it.

I'm gonna keep my fluid intake high and be strict with my diet and see if the swelling returns.