has anyone ever experienced calcium d-glucarate sensitivity (is there such a thing)? (i apologize in advance for the length here -- lots of details.)
intro: my SHBG is high. per 23andme/promethease, i'm the lucky winner of 15% elevated SHBG levels. lately, E is elevated as well; doctor and i are exploring supplements to lower E before going to arimidex. general symptoms are lack of libido, poor erection quality, lack of energy.
labcorp sample collected april 11th. relevant details:
estradiol 30.1pg/mL (7.6 - 42.6)
shbg 48.7 nmol/L (16.5 - 55.9)
testosterone 805 ng/dL (348 - 1197)
so, estradiol is a bit high, SHBG is high, testosterone is fine. aiming to get estradiol down to around 20-22 pg/mL.
april 23rd: 500mg CDG 2x (1000mg total).
april 24th: 500mg CDG 3x (1500mg total). libido returns. feels like i'm in my early 20s.
april 25th: 500mg CDG 2x (1000mg total). libido overwhelming. 'anything that moves'.
april 26th: ZRT blood spot test for estradiol. 500mg CDG 2x (1000mg total). libido gone. no energy. erectile dysfunction.
the ZRT test came back with estradiol at 345 pg/mL; range is 12-56. this is through the roof high. my wife is on BHRT, so there's a possibility that there was contamination of the sample, but it's pretty unlikely. my guess is the CDG drove E down to nothing, and i rebounded.
april 27th, 28th, 29th, 30th: take nothing. slowly feel more like i did previously.
may 1st: 250mg CDG. water retention. infrequent urination. gain 2 lbs.
may 2nd: 250mg CDG. genitals retracted. nipple sensitivity. brain fog. assume 250mg is still too high.
may 3rd, 4th: take nothing.
may 5th: ZRT blood spot test for estradiol, 125mg CDG. libido returns.
may 6th: 125mg CDG. nipple sensitivity. genitals retracted. no libido. water retention. gain 2 lbs.
may 7th: 125mg CDG. same as previous day. gain 3 lbs.
may 8th: ZRT blood spot test for estradiol; discontinue CDG.
blood spot test from the 5th just came in; this one is 66 pg/mL (range 12-56) -- so slightly elevated, as expected. it will be a couple of days for the results from the last test to come in.
for me, CDG appears to work, but i'm apparently very sensitive to it. after taking a tablet, i can feel it 'come on' in ~45 minutes. the effects build, initially a burst of energy that feels like i've had too much coffee. heart palpitations (hormone change?). at ~5 hours, effects taper off. my best guess is that it forces me onto an E roller coaster, where i keep bouncing around between nothing and too high. my doctor agrees that the symptoms are high E related, but i've not done a blood test to confirm -- my suspicion is that the final test from the 8th will come back too high.
most of the research i've seen is about whether CDG will actually do anything; most anecdotal reports i've seen indicate no effect. if it does work, the dose seems to be 1000mg/daily, or more, and it takes a week or two to be noticeable.
250mg is the smallest amount i could find locally. it was a compressed tablet; i got to 125mg by cutting these in half. my last experiment with this will be with the 'life extension' 200mg capsules; i intend to open these, divide up the powder into 4x 50mg piles, and stuff it back into empty capsules. this is a pain, and i doubt it will be worth the effort. the goal, ultimately, is to chop 8-10 points off of total E -- i'm not sure what 50mg would do, and even if it did do anything appreciable, the effect would last ~5 hours before my body starts aromatizing additional E to get back to where it wants to be. in my estimation, the half-life of CDG is just too small to be useful.
(for reference, the 500mg tablets were 'thorne research'. the 250mg was 'vitamin shoppe'.)
i went back to 23andme/promethease, CDG research & wikipedia. as i understand it, cruciferous vegetables stimulate the liver to produce CYP1A2 enzyme, which metabolizes caffeine, estradiol, paracetemol (and other things, but not testosterone). so, i'm guessing CDG stimulates the same -- i can't find any direct reference between the two, but it seems plausible, considering CDG is marketed for 'detox' effects and estradiol elimination. back in promethease, i'm flagged as a 'fast metabolizer' -- meaning i process caffeine and other CYP1A2 items more quickly than normal. so, it seems logical to me: taking CDG on top of the genetic 'fast metabolizer' is like throwing gasoline on a fire -- i burn through the estradiol rapidly on a small dose of CDG, and i go into estrogen rebound.
so, my ultimate question is: does this sound plausible? has anyone ever experienced extreme sensitivity to CDG? has anyone seen reports/studies/anything to that effect?