@Ioanna Polymenea This was Module 5 (Lesson 1 -> Supplements) it is listed under -> Classroom -> Weekly Live Classes. https://www.skool.com/mauricedaher/classroom/850ad8ae?md=44e4bccd17d84acf829e42a11d70c122

@Rachel Rose , thank you for sending the actual thyroid results and the magnesium label. That helps a lot, because now I can be much more specific. Your **TSH is 1.13 mIU/L**, which is comfortably within the NHS reference range of 0.27–4.2. Your **free T4 is 22.4 pmol/L**, which is only mildly above the upper reference of 21.6. So at this point, this does **not** look like a straightforward hypothyroid pattern, even though your cold intolerance is real and still needs to be explained. That is important because I do not want us forcing all of your symptoms into one box just because you are feeling cold. Your magnesium label also clears something up. One level teaspoon provides **450 mg elemental magnesium**, so if you were using around **¼ teaspoon**, that is only roughly **110–115 mg elemental magnesium**, not 1 gram of magnesium itself. So the dose you were taking was actually fairly modest. Now, looking at the whole picture, the symptoms that matter most to me are: - waking around 1 AM and often not getting back to sleep - feeling severely unrefreshed - increasing weakness when you are exhausted - feeling shaky - cognitive effects from the sleep loss - unusually strong cold intolerance - tingling throughout the body - menstrual changes over the last 6 months - morning throat irritation/reflux symptoms - and the fact that your usual magnesium/theanine routine is no longer enough That tells me this is **not just “I need a better sleep supplement.”** I would want to investigate several things in parallel. First, I would repeat the thyroid testing properly: - TSH - Free T4 - Free T3 - TPO antibodies - Thyroglobulin antibodies Because your free T4 is mildly elevated while TSH is normal, I want to see whether that pattern persists or whether this was a temporary lab variation. Also, if you take **biotin** in any supplement, including hair/skin/nail products or some B-complex formulas, tell the lab and your doctor before the next test because biotin can interfere with some thyroid assays.

@Rachel Rose thank you — this gives me a much clearer picture, and the photos of the products are helpful. The first thing I want to correct is the idea that because you have not been eating nose to tail, you must automatically be nutrient deficient. You may have a deficiency, but we need the bloodwork to tell us which one. Your symptoms are enough for me to investigate nutrients, but I do not want you replacing one large supplement stack with another one before we know what is actually low. A few things stand out from what you're currently taking. The “Zero In” product is the first thing I would stop for now. It is not simply a cognitive supplement. Each capsule contains 100 mg of caffeine, plus a 575 mg proprietary blend containing N acetyl L tyrosine, L theanine, mucuna pruriens, pine bark and turmeric. So if you take 2 capsules, that is already 200 mg caffeine, in addition to unknown amounts of tyrosine and mucuna. Mucuna naturally contains L DOPA, so this is a fairly stimulatory dopaminergic formula, not something I want muddying the picture while you are dealing with severe sleep disruption, shakiness, weakness and tingling. It could potentially make some of those symptoms harder to interpret. It also contains 25 mcg vitamin D per capsule, so 2 capsules gives you another 50 mcg, or about 2,000 IU, of vitamin D without us intentionally choosing that dose. Your “Lion's Mane” formula is also not actually just lion's mane. At the 2 capsule serving it contains 266 mg each of lion's mane, cordyceps, reishi and shiitake, plus a proprietary blend of several additional mushrooms including maitake, turkey tail, chaga, agaricus, white button and black fungus. I don't necessarily see something alarming there, but right now I would rather simplify than have 8 or 9 mushroom extracts in the background while we're trying to understand neurological and sleep symptoms. If you want to use lion's mane later, I would prefer a simple lion's mane product with a clearly stated dose rather than a large mushroom blend.

@Marek Data , in this case I would not recommend a carnivore diet. PKU is very different from the situations we usually talk about here. The problem is that the body cannot properly break down phenylalanine, an amino acid found in natural protein. Meat, eggs, fish, and dairy are all rich in phenylalanine, so a carnivore diet would usually push phenylalanine intake in exactly the wrong direction. The 60 grams of protein you mentioned is also important. If most of that is coming from a medical protein substitute, that is not the same as 60 grams of normal meat protein. Those medical formulas are designed specifically to provide amino acids while keeping phenylalanine very low or absent. So for a 16-year-old with PKU, I would keep him under the care of a metabolic specialist and PKU dietitian and follow his prescribed phenylalanine target closely. The amount of natural protein he can tolerate is very individual and depends on his blood phenylalanine levels and treatment plan. A simple example: 100 g of steak may fit perfectly into a normal high-protein diet, but for someone with PKU it can deliver far more phenylalanine than their daily allowance permits. So this is one situation where “more animal protein” is not better. His diet has to be built around the PKU physiology first.

@Mariam Als. this is a strong food rotation already. You are getting a lot from the ribeye, goat, heart, marrow, yolks, and butter. The two areas I would watch most from what you listed are iodine and calcium. Because your salt is non iodized, iodine becomes something I would pay attention to unless you are getting it somewhere else. Calcium can also become lower when dairy, small fish with bones, or other calcium rich foods are limited. Sardines with the bones would be one of the easiest additions because they give you calcium, omega 3s, selenium, and other minerals at the same time. If you really do not enjoy seafood, we can still build around other foods, but I would not ignore iodine and calcium. Thiamin was a good one to notice too. Carnivore does not automatically mean every nutrient is covered simply because the food is nutrient dense. Variety still matters. @Yann Leonidopoulos , your rotation is actually quite broad. Eggs, duck, lamb, white fish, beef heart, yogurt, kefir, and aged cheeses give you much better nutrient coverage than muscle meat alone. The magnesium point surprises a lot of people. Nuts and seeds do contain a lot of magnesium on paper, but bioavailability is not the whole story. They also contain compounds such as phytates that reduce mineral absorption to some degree. Animal foods generally contain less magnesium per serving, which is one reason magnesium can become one of the nutrients worth watching on a strict carnivore diet. Your dairy is helping significantly with calcium. The white fish helps with selenium and iodine depending on the species. My main question with all of those salts is whether any are iodized. Most specialty salts are not, so iodine is still something I would keep an eye on. This is exactly why I teach food rotation rather than simply saying, “I eat carnivore.” @Beth Switzer , looking at all three of your comments together, your base is good, but you identified the exact areas I would improve.