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The info on the link I posted previously does not specifically discuss norepinephrine or other similar substances. The point it makes, though, is that the ratio of chemicals is what drives the rest of the body to act in certain ways. Sorry - my mental fatigue has been strong lately, making me completely unable to research and then piece things together. But I know that chemical balance comes into play with the muscles, whether it be deconditioning or wasting. If the body chemistry can be restored to proper balance for an extended period of time, many (maybe all) of our symptoms can be taken care of.

I get that same feeling. Many times for me it's a huge crash in blood sugar. My goodness - if I ate that yummy ice cream, I'd be on the floor, unable to move, within about 30 minutes of eating it! Perhaps if you cut out all sugar (giving a couple of weeks for your body to adjust), you will see a big difference. But there are other times when I know I've not eaten anything "wrong" when I'll get that immediate and profound fatigue/sleepiness. Who knows . . . Hope you slept well last night!

Ditto Gena's advice. The only thing I can think to add to that list is wheat, and maybe even go completely gluten free. Grains can exacerbate ADD symptoms. I became ADD when my health worsened (in my early 20s), but I am less ADD when I'm feeling physically better. Whatever is going on in the body is mirrored in the brain - so if your body chemistry is out of whack, your brain will be unable to process signals properly. I understand the incredible frustration of this. I know that it's not the "real me" - but it makes me feel (and appear) very stupid so much of the time.

I just posted some info under the Night Sweats topic. The link there may give a little more insight into some possibilities, as the muscle wasting may be related to chemical ratios more than an individual hormone. Both ideas certainly seem plausible to me, though.

Diet affects EVERYTHING in your body. That is where it gets its fuel. If you put regular gasoline in a vehicle that requires diesel fuel, you are going to have compromised operation and maybe eventually a complete breakdown. Yes, they are both forms of gasoline and very useful in their correct environments, but different vehicles have different requirements based on their components. Our bodies are the same way. What may be an ideal food for one can create unpleasant to catastrophic consequences for another. I unfortunately had this happen just yesterday - my first truly bad day in many months. Thinking how nice it would be to start my day with a different breakfast than usual, I had prepared a small bowl of cooked amaranth and oatmeal. Within 20 minutes I began to feel bad and it got worse over the next hour - nausea, trembling, sweating, chills, dizziness, extreme weakness, slightly short of breath, mild anxiety. It wasn't until the evening that I finally felt like it had worked its way through and out of my system. I looked on the amaranth package and found that it had a high amount of potassium compared to most of the other items listed. And I know that I must be careful because I already sit too high on potassium, but never thought to check that on the amaranth. Only 5 days prior to this I had maybe 2 teaspoons of amaranth (my first time eating it in more than a year) and couldn't figure out why that day was spent not feeling quite as well or energetic as I had been. After yesterday's situation, it became very clear that the amaranth was the trigger. Gosh, who would think such a tiny amount would create such an effect? Needless to say, that package is going in the garbage!

Found this while looking for potassium info (this is just an excerpt). Night sweat info is in the 4th paragraph below. This is a VERY interesting web page that has info about zinc, calcium, potassium and more, and talks about the meaning of one-sided symptoms, which a number of people have mentioned in various posts. It sounds very similar to the work I've been experiencing through the Metabolic Typing Program - looking at chemical ratios rather than just the individual levels out of context. Please check out the full info at http://www.acu-cell.com/znk.html - - - - - - - In addition to medical situations that can lead to hyperkalemia, cellular potassium covers aspects of bladder functions, as well as right-sided ovarian and testicular properties. Cellular zinc covers aspects of prostate / uterine functions, and left-sided ovarian and testicular properties. Elevated potassium is invariably found with acute or chronic cystitis (bladder infections) or right-sided ovarian cysts (but not dermoid or chocolate cysts), whereby right-sided ovarian and/or testicular cancer will always result in excessively high potassium levels, which can also serve as a high risk indicator to be suggestive of a pelvic scan. Lowering potassium with any of several antagonists will resolve most bladder infections or (right-sided) ovarian cysts without any other intervention. In contrast, left-sided ovarian and/or testicular cancer is always associated with excessively high zinc levels. (see also Acu-Cell Disorders "Cancer"). Low potassium - particularly in the elderly - frequently results in weak bladder muscles and subsequent incontinence when coughing or laughing. Under those circumstances, bladder infection-like symptoms can also be experienced (including cloudy, or smelly urine), however they are somewhat different from a conventional bacterial cystitis that goes hand in hand with high potassium levels, in that symptoms readily improve by raising potassium to normal levels, provided there are no structural causes such as bladder prolapse. Interstitial cystitis frequently falls into this same low-potassium category. Prostatitis is invariably found with zinc levels that range from above-normal, to excessively high. Many nutritional or alternative practitioners include zinc as part of their therapy trying to treat prostatitis, however only benign prostatic hypertrophy (enlarged prostate) is sometimes related to below-normal levels of zinc. At higher amounts, zinc becomes pro-inflammatory, being a main reason why most practitioners are unable to help prostatitis or make it worse. Instead, any approach that lowers zinc will resolve the condition. (see also Acu-Cell Disorders: "Prostatitis"). Some menopausal females find progesterone cream helpful for night sweats, however it is not the hormonal action of progesterone, but its subsequent zinc and potassium-raising effect through which the night sweats are improved - particularly when high sodium retention is involved. Taking zinc and/or potassium supplements instead provides the same benefits. Likewise, many weight loss formulations contain rather large amounts of potassium to take advantage of its diuretic properties. Some people benefit from additional potassium and will lose water weight, however those with a tendency for hypoglycemic (low blood sugar) episodes may end up worse as a result of that extra potassium reducing manganese and chromium levels, which help stabilize blood sugar, and also as a result of potassium reducing sodium, which is an insulin antagonist. In addition, lowering chromium too much following long-term high potassium intake can contribute to osteoporosis of trabecular bone (end-part of a bone or spine).

Good idea to post these! Seabiscuit is terrific! And we just rented Terminal, which was very good. We recently enjoyed our first trip to the theater in a year. We really liked Meet the Fockers (thought it was better than Meet the Parents - not as far-fetched). Cold Mountain, Double Jeopardy, Miss Congeniality . . . we've enjoyed many but my memory isn't allowing me to come up with them. Will add more later if I can think of titles.

Wow. The human body is soooo incredibly complicated, isn't it? What may appear to be the same situation for a handful of people can be a different reality for each person - different reasons for the same symptoms. What a mess! Do you suppose anybody will ever really understand the millions of processes that do and can occur in each of us? Many thanks for the information. Being on this site is such an education!

Wow - such a positive experience, Goldicedance! Thanks for sharing it! What was it like to get a shot right in your eye? Did you have any trouble with heart rate or anxiety during the procedure? It sounds like you did both eyes at the same time. Is that typically the way it's done?

I'm the opposite. I NEVER get a cold or flu anymore - it's been years. I've learned that my flu-like symptoms (like I'm starting to get the flu, but not a full-blown case) are likely dysautonomic symptoms. Since I never actually come down with a bug, it must be the dys stuff going on. I do often take probiotics and I eat almost no processed foods. Much of my meat is organic (no hormones, no antibiotics, grass-fed) as is most of our veggies. I don't eat junk food or anything with sugar or sweetener, and only drink water. I know that all of this has made a huge difference in my body's ability to fend for itself against germs, viruses, etc. I had begun using the Clenzology System (until the hurricane knocked me out of my routine) and it seemed to be slowly helping in small ways. Perhaps an even bigger/faster improvement from this system would be noticed by someone who is challenged with continual immune attacks. I will start back on that soon. Especially if you have been on antibiotics, the probiotics are very important to replenish the good bacteria that the antibiotics kill.

Congrats, Persephone! I know exactly what you mean - it is exciting to finally be able to say to the world, "See - I TOLD you there was something wrong with my BODY, not my mind!" I'd love to go back and throw that in the face of many doctors from my past! Now you can move forward with a focus. How wonderful! Hope this leads you to many improved days!

I'm gonna sound really dumb here, but I'll ask it anyway. When you say muscle wasting, are you saying you have marked deconditioning and are therefore weak, or is muscle wasting actually something that can be pinpointed, diagnosed, viewed in tests or documented in some way other than just saying "I feel weak"? I have always referred to my situation as deconditioning or loss of muscle tone. I used to be very fit and quite strong for my size (worked out 5 or 6 days/week), but now I'm probably closer to a typical 90-year-old in strength and fitness. Is this the same thing you are talking about? And is there more to it than just being too sick to get any exercise, therefore the muscles gradually lose their tone?

Jill, Many thanks for going the extra mile to look into this!!! Needless to say, I'm disappointed. But it's better to know now than to find out too late. Maybe they will find another way to do a similar procedure that wouldn't be a problem for us. I'll keep hoping . . .

There have been pieces of research that attempt to make a connection with autoimmune problems and also with connective tissue diseases. But so far as I know, nobody has been able to establish that link with either of those possibilities. Until science can improve its understanding of the human body, we won't have any real answers.

I haven't actually reached that point of kleenex on the table, but the bathroom is so close that I can usually run there - or just grab a napkin instead. I always have tissues in my pocket or purse (pocketless clothes make me nervous, especially if I'm in public without my purse!). I also keep a box of them on the floor by the leg of my piano, by the TV, in the bedroom, in my car and in my husband's car. I should own stock in Scott and Kleenex and a couple of others! I did try the lotioned tissues but I couldn't tell when using them if I "got it all" or not. They are so smooth that it always felt like there was still stuff needing to be wiped. The physical discomfort seems better than the psychological worry of something dripping (or worse) that you didn't know was there. I guess I could use those at home, though, where it wouldn't matter if I missed a drop or two. (My poor hubby has to put up with so much . . . eeeeeewwwwww!). :-)

My nose runs every time I eat or chew gum, or just for no reason at all. Sometimes it gets really sore either from the burning discharge or from the continual wiping. And sometimes the sinus drip and such related things are really horrible. I have had terrible night sweats but they are pretty rare now. I have vaginal discharge that comes and goes but is there more than not. My eyes are usually dry but sometimes will be teary and sometimes gummy. And my mouth can get really dry and tacky (the physical mouth, not what comes out when I speak - although sometimes that fits there as well!). Another thing I used to have lots of trouble with was sweating, but that now seems to be back to normal. Unfortunately the hair on my legs grows at a normal pace but the hair on my head has thinned greatly over the past 15 years. I wish I could switch those 2 things!

Hey, Jill! Thanks for the good info! Didn't know we had an eye expert on the board! The only thing I could/would take before the procedure would be a beta-blocker - don't know how I would react to a Valium. But I used to wear contacts and never had any trouble putting the lenses in, so I don't think I'd be too freaked out by the procedure. (Hope not, anyway.) Besides, just about anything has to be better than the dentist, right? Your advice on questions to ask is great - I very much appreciate those suggestions. Can you recall from your work with patients if there were any people who had complications and/or regretted having the procedure done?

Wishing a happy and healthy 2005 and beyond to everyone here!!!!

Aw, Morgan, I remember your earlier post and made a mental note to wish you happy birthday then, but that note must have floated out of my brain (sigh). So sorry I missed your big day, but it sounds like you were pretty wrapped up. Hope all is better now and the time yesterday with your family will be strong memories always. May many more birthdays follow!

Hey, Jill! Great timing on the house sale! My goodness, what a lucky thing! Hope you fared well throughout the storm and the move. I fully understand what you mean about things being especially hard when you don't have the energy. I truly believe that if I hadn't been working with the Metabolic Typing Program before Ivan ripped things apart, I wouldn't have been able to do even a tiny fraction of what I did these past 3+ months. (I just sent you a private note. Hope you get it!) - - - - - Everyone, I'm still cleaning and decluttering, but certainly making progress. (I really wish I was better at domestic stuff, especially decorating. My new window scarves look like a kindergartener put them up!) The siding installation began last week and the under-house storage/workroom should be done in a couple of weeks. Then we should finally be done. We are so lucky - we talked to 2 different couples last week who both said it would be July before they would get to return to their condos! The construction traffic and noise has taken this quiet little corner of the world and turned it into day after day of commotion. I'm not complaining by any means, but it has changed our day-to-day experience in a big way. Like anything in life, you get used to it and adapt. But between moving & cleaning duties and a stint of bad weather, we haven't yet had a chance to escape the noise (well, as much as possible) by walking on the beach. That's just plain cruel - it's like being teased constantly - ha!

Woohoo! Big thanks!!! Lots of great info, and I wanted to contact him. I really appreciate your help!

OK, I must have missed it. Just a couple of days ago somebody posted a very interesting article written by someone who is struggling with dysautonomia. It was from his own perspective and his own formal and informal research. Now I can't find it. Do I keep missing it or was it deleted for some reason? If somebody can locate it, I'd appreciate knowing which post it's in!

Welcome back! Our first trip to Cancun we also took a shot of an iguana (or whatever it is) sitting on a rock at Tulum! Our second trip I swam with the dolphins on Cozumel. Seeing your photos of the horseback activities makes me know that if we ever go back I'd like to do that. And you stayed at a nicer place than we did either time - I'd love to stay somewhere a little more upscale next visit. So glad you had a good time and fared well most of the trip. Thanks for sharing your photos with us!

Thanks to both of you gals! It's always good to hear both sides. I was afraid of the procedure a few years ago, but I feel that now enough people have had it by area doctors that I could do some checking. I do intend to see my regular ophthalmologist to ask about it before I do anything else. (She was - surprise - aware of dysautonomia, and asked if I had dry mouth too!) I won't be doing anything right away. I'm just starting to think seriously about it for sometime down the road. Would love to hear anybody else's feedback!

I don't believe I've ever had a negative reaction to homeopathics. Herbs, however, can be horrible for me. Homeopathic remedies are extremely efficient and free of side effects IF you have the proper product and dosage for your situation. It's a good idea to work with someone trained in homeopathy to help you, but I'm sure your pharmacy had the best intentions and had probably never seen an undesirable reaction. Sorry you had to go through that!