Thursday, May 12

I was dragging so bad yesterday, yawning all day long even after getting in bed at 10 and getting up at 7:30. This is what I felt like pre-chromium. I don't think the GTF chromium is doing what I need, even at 400mcg/day. I took my regular Chromax last night before bed and am feeling much better today. I think I'm going to try to split the difference and do part Chromax and part GTF, because I know whole foods are better, but for some reason my body and brain are seeming to react better to the picolinate/histidinate chromium combo in Chromax than the whole food version. I know one or the other is a fast release chromium and the other is a slow release chromium but I can't remember which is which. The Chromax formulation from Iceland Health has been extensively tested specifically for my type of depression (atypical depression, which oddly enough is actually the most typical kind of depression - weird). According to Dr. McLeod's body weight formula for chromium dosing (he's the doc who discovered the chromium/depression treatment), I could actually take a good bit more chromium than I'm currently on, so I'll add 100 mcg of GTF chromium to it and see how it goes.

I have noticed that the delayed phase sleep disorder that's always been associated with my atypical depression now seems to be gone. My sleep cycle was always screwy as heck, and my natural cycle would be to go to bed about 3-4 am and get up about noonish. I've had to use sun lamps in my bedroom to trick my body into letting me wake up when I want to. Now I'm dead on my butt and ready for bed by 10 PM (and out as soon as my head hits the pillow) and getting out of bed much easier in the mornings. I guess cleaning out the candida monsters has somehow fixed my serotonin/melatonin cycle. I'm still using my sun lamp in my office at work (no windows) and in my bedroom, but the whole thing just seems so much easier now, although I am still definitely NOT a morning person.

Just started my cycle after lunch and am actually cramping a bit. I normally take aleve but want to try something else. It is tolerable if I have to suffer through it but more crampy than usual. Perhaps because I stopped my birth control pills mid cycle, but when I found out the candida could be related to them I just wanted off them as fast as possible. I only need the for acne control and now that the candida monsters are on the downward slide my skin has cleared up. Ugh, going to Google some homeopathic cramp relief.

Well King Bio has done it again. Got the PMS Relief at the Vitamin Shoppe and stated feeling better about 30 minutes or so later. Intestines are a bit gurgly but that's typical when my cycle starts.

Considering the PMS, I'm going to try restarting the switch to the GTF Chromium after my cycle is over. It's possible that this is just the PMS and not the difference in the chromium that was making me tired.