I know what you mean about
the fatigue. I'm struggling to have energy to get anything done.
I'm convinced it's the high levels of ammonia that not only make me very fatigued but cause the brain fog, lethargy and confusion. That's what high ammonia does to the brain. I could drive two hours and pay $33 for a lab to check my blood urine but that's not practical. No one has been able to find ammonia test strips for normal human ranges. Even when taking something to reduce blood ammonia they just have to go by the amount of fatigue and lethargy the person feels to adjust the amount of medication.
The second problem is that urine ammonia is much higher than blood urine because the kidneys produce a lot of ammonia. But brain ammonia is also higher than blood ammonia... but who knows how all three levels in the body relate?
To do any kind of blood serum test would require drawing blood and centrifuging to separate the serum. Not that easy to do at home.
I have since purchased an industrial ammonia strip test that measures from 0 to 400 and will try that although the scale has such a wide variation it will probably be difficult to distinguish small incremental drops in levels should my liver begin to function better at breaking down the ammonia.
The next step is to start taking lactulose. It's a laxative that rids the body of ammonia but it's not available w/o rx unless you buy it from the UK or Australia... and then the shipping cost alone is $20.
I'm wondering if other types of laxatives like mineral oil would also work but getting the dosage of either would be an experiment that could be most unpleasant if taken in excess. It all has an unpleasant taste but I have read that people put it in their coffee and hardly notice the yucky taste.
Foods seem to be MOST CRITICAL in lowering ammonia. Wheat, soy, gluten, powdered milk, cheese, oatmeal and everything with protein adds massive amounts of ammonia to the body. You can easily google a list of foods high in ammonia. I would post the link but most sites will kick out anyone (or tamper with their intellectual property) who shares website links so I'll leave that research up to anyone who needs to bring their ammonia levels down. Some sites also show the foods with lowest amounts of ammonia. I find that helpful.
I'll conclude by saying that high ammonia is very serious. It makes hep c patients pass out and if liver functions decline enough they will go into a comma. I was reading a long report on laboratory test of animals exposed to high levels of ammonia gas. Rats on treadmills were exposed to only slightly elevated levels reduced their efforts by 61% almost immediately. Cats tested had serious permanent damage to their lungs if exposed to elevated levels everyday for a couple weeks.
Ammonia is very soluble in water and that's probably why everyone on every hep c discussion board keeps saying... drink water, drink fluids, drink something and you won't feel as bad.
The best news for me is that after testing 5 friends whom I've had contact with during the past 10 years, ALL were NEGATIVE. Also, I qualified for free Ribavirin. That will save $340 per month.
Post Edited By Moderator (themiz) : 11/7/2015 6:13:44 PM (GMT-7)