Nutritional Deficiencies

Just curious what we know about any nutritional deficiencies that could cause lower EQ.

I know there are lots of supplements that can help and even prescriptions to help. But when I searched for it on this forum, I didn’t find much, except some pretty good in general articles.

I feel like I am vitamin D deficient. I haven’t been tested, but I live in the high north where it’s dark most of the year. We get tons of sunlight in the summer.

Some of my symptoms are achy joints, bones, low energy, fat gain around my stomach,

I’ve been trying to get back into basketball and I can’t play for long before my lower legs get achy and painful. It doesn’t feel like muscle aches, more like deeper in the bones. Too much stress. I try to ease into it as well because I’ve done this a few times already. Having to stop and heal and then try to resume. My energy is horrible. I still go to work, to the gym and also necessary tasks and errands, but other then that, I prefer to lay down and scroll on my phone or watch tv. At work, I need energy drinks to make it through the day. I have cut back a lot on caffeine and improved my diet, but still get the lack of energy.

I only recently started looking into vitamin D. I take all else. I take multivitamins, diet is good. I take testosterone oral medication (I notice this helps) I also started another supplement that I was hoping would fill the gaps in anything that can help with circulation, mood and libido. I think this supplement helps, but I still feel like I’m 80% EQ. I can get moments of 90% but one thing that I struggle with is maintaining an erection. Sometimes I almost lose it when switching positions. Anytime I lose stimulation. I can get it back, but it’s still annoying and frustrating.

I ordered some D3 with K2 supplements. I plan on taking at least 10,000 IU daily. I am going to start and see if I notice any improvements. I guess I am writing this to see if any others have experienced this, as well as documenting my own experience with the symptoms I have and if supplementation will help. I’m not sure if it relates to EQ, but if my EQ improves, maybe a lack of vitamin D can cause forms of ED.

I don’t get the shipment until Wednesday. I have some temporary cheap gummies I am going to be eating like candy until then. I will report back.

Playing basketball is getting thinner Look how many of those basketball players are strong

Anaerobic exercise with barbells and dumbbells is recommended

Your symptoms are non-specific. If you are able I’d go to a doctor and get a check up and routine labs, including your vitamin D levels. Vitamin B, thyroid levels, test levels and routine blood chemistries and blood counts are also a good idea. Your symptoms could be any of these, or something else altogether, like anemia or low potassium or any of a million other things. So it might make sense to know what is going on before you begin treating something.

Many people don’t realize that fat-soluble vitamins, like vitamin D, build up in the body and at higher doses can become toxic. The fat solubility also means they can take a long time to return to non-toxic levels. So while it makes sense to take a reasonable daily dose of vitamin D, especially if you live in a more northern area with long stretches of low sun exposure, or even a short-term loading dose of vitamin D if your levels are proven low by a blood test, taking high levels without knowing where you are is generally not a good idea.

If you can’t or aren’t interested in getting your serum levels checked and want to supplement vitamin D, I suggest you start with a regular reasonable dose of something like 500-1,000 IUs and just take it every day. If your levels are low they will normalize in a few months and you won’t risk overdosing.

Think I read that nearly 80% of the people living in the northern states have low vitamin D levels, so a supplement can be beneficial. However, proceed with caution. TenaciousD has offered you some really good advice that would be wise to follow.

I take vitamin D3 in the winter and after several months was tested at 43 ng/ml, which is in the normal range (100 is considered toxic). That was when I was taking 5000 IU a day. This winter I am taking 10,000 IU a day, with K2.

Regarding the loss of energy you mention, I would have your thyroid levels checked.

Wow. Good info, thanks

Last summer, I started getting low energy. Lack of motivation to even go to the gym. Really tired at work. Very unusual for me. I’ve been going to the gym for years routinely and to suddenly just start to feel like not even going was weird.

That’s when I started the testosterone oral meds. I initially went in and had blood work done. I probably had about 5 blood tests done in the span of 5 months. Two tests were done specifically for test and related hormones, alrhough it was comprehensive with a lot more checks done. Three were with my regular provider and we were checking thyroid, vitamin D and anything else we could to try and figure this out. I was also having an eye issue at the time. They thought it could be caused by my thyroid, but all tests showed good. It was weird because it seems to come and go during the summer. I cleaned my house really well, got air purifiers. Did a mold test. In the fall, my eye issue went away. My energy seemed to normalize. I was still tired so I did a sleep test and they said I was waking up about 6 times per hour during sleep. So I got on a cpap. They said it was mild. I didn’t notice a lot of change with the cpap. Maybe some, it was more annoying trying to adjust to it. I have been inconsistent with it the last few months. But am trying to get regular again. My urologist did mention that during sleep, a lot of hormones get released that help with sexual function and if I am minimally hitting those sleep ranges then maybe that could be an issue.

I don’t mind getting blood work done. I am due here soon since I am on the test medication. I am stronger, fat loss is easier for me since being on it.

We get told often that 10000 UI is normal for people to take daily up here by health professionals. I currently have some cheap 2000 UI gummies. I was thinking I would just take maybe 2 morning, 2 at lunch and maybe another 1 at dinner. But now I may look into this a bit more. And maybe get bloodwork done at my next provider visit. Thanks for that info.

I am an avid gym goer. My current program is a lot of squats, Olympic clean and snatches. I would say I am pretty lean except for my stomach. While on enclomiphene (oral test pill) I have noticed strength increase and i also dropped 15lbs. I was 220 but now hover around 205. I’ve seen 200 some mornings before eating for the day.

Regardless of all that, I still have a fat pad that is about 1 1/4” - I guess it doesn’t look abnormal. Not like a beer belly or fupa. Haha. But I do wish I could get rid of that.

Currently I am also incorporating more movement into my routines. Like lateral and light sprints. To try to acclimate better to basketball conditions. Max jumping exercises. I can get my palm over the rim now. Can’t dunk but getting closer. I set a new goal to squat 400lbs, snatch 205lbs and clean and jerk 250lbs in one year. I am at 300lbs squat currently. I have muscle memory strength that I’m working back to that I think will be easy before I start into new PR territory.

Good to have goals.

The Olympic lift and snatch are not designed for humans so
You can keep spraining your wrist if you want
Sprained back and wrist
Suggestion
Barbells and dumbbells Hard Pull
Bench press
Standing barbell curls

I have never sprained my wrist or back. But I understand the risks. I like how it is technical. You have to have good technique. For me the challenge is more fun. I never push more than 90% of my max. I am not young anymore so my goals aren’t complete max strength. The numbers I gave earlier are pretty modest ratios to the squat number. There is a ratio of about how much your max is compared to back squat. I chose numbers that are about 5-10% less than what the ratio says. And even then, that’s one rep max, i usually do sets of 3. If i feel that third one is too taxing, that’s when I know to stop.

Olympic lifts translate well into sports. I’m not a body builder. Maybe one day I will transition into it. For now, I’m trying to keep up with my 16 year old son. We still play one on one and we have some close games sometimes. My advantage is I have more strength, weight and can jump higher. That won’t last long though.

zinc!!!

magnesium for sure

A good full spectrum B vitamin that covers all the Bs

biotin

boron

make sure you take a multivitamin with a lot of stuff in it, but just the essential vitamins minerals like A, B, C, maybe E, calcium, folate, stuff like that

Yes, thank you. I got to check what my multivitamin has. I am also in the process of getting blood work done. Zinc and magnesium have been on top of my list for while now. Different forms of magnesium including Epson salt baths at least once a week. When I played in a basketball tournament a few weeks ago, I had to soak daily for 4 days just to ease the aches and pains, it really worked well.

Are you getting enough protein? I never get sore from the gym now that I eat meat. I’m 49 btw.

The other thing I would recommend against is scrolling. All that social media stuff is dopamine fueled and you can end up lower than baseline after a scrolling this will decrease your motivation among other things. In another post I recommended Mucuna Pruriens. Dopamine will reinforce habits, so anything you do after taking Mucuna Pruriens will become an increased habit. It will both suck you into social media and make it a stronger habit. There are other ways to increase dopamine, like having sex. Compared to social media, which takes very low effort to get the dopamine, sex will seem like a lot of work for that dopamine. So, in that hour when mucuna pruriens is kicking in, you must avoid social media for it to be an aphrodisiac. Dopamine is part of the "Desire" equation, choose to spend it how you wish.

Oh yeah. I have looked into that and I think I will order soon. Payday coming up this Friday.

For my protein intake, yes. I get enough protein, I track it. I’m not as good as tracking calories, carbs and fats, but protein I try to make sure I’m getting at least 150grams daily. Scrolling is hard not to do because of my job. It’s the slowest job I ever had, but also the highest paying permanent full-time Monday-Friday job I’ve ever had. I can typically get done with all my work by lunch and then just kinda hang out until we go home.

I do feel like the D3 supplement is already helping. I started Sunday and notice more energy and less fatigue. The reason I looked into primarily is because my bones and joints ached so much after playing basketball so much. I tried calcium, but it’s hard to tell if that is helping. I didn’t realize D3 had a lot to do with it as well.

Lots of good advice here. The first step should always be to sort out your food.

You say you get enough protein but you don’t mention meat. Meat is a complete protein - it can be broken down into all the amino acids we need. Plant based protein is always deficient in many amino acids. The type of protein you are taking in is very important. I’d recommend beef. Avoiding monogastric farmed animals because they are fed low quality diets full of seed oils, so their fat is largely built from that. You need more than birds or deer because they are low fat animals - look up rabbit starvation to get an idea of why. It’s worth eating liver, kidney - all the sweetmeats. Make your own food rather than buying pre-prepped so you know whats in it and cook in butter or animal fat.

As long as you eat enough fatty meat everything else is either optional or bad for you.

There should be enough vitamin D in liver and fat to get you through a winter but it is the one supplement I take. As Tenacious D pointed not good to take too much - you won’t just piss out the excess. Sunlight allows our bodies to manufacture vitamin D but it also gives us NO. You can take a mega dose of vitamin D over the really short term (it’s good to take maybe 20,000 IU if you feel a cold coming on and add zinc if you have a crappy diet) but you should probably ease back a lot afterwards. Probably 1000 IU daily is an upper limit when you get little sun.

Good stuff. Yes, I like a good steak weekly. I am trying to look into buying a cow from a popular farm in a nearby town. People really recommend it. We also get salmon in the summers. Enough for the whole winter. I get moose too but unfortunately haven’t been able to make it out the last two years. We still get some from family.