Soooo, I've been on hrt for a couple of years & my endo upped my dosages a few months ago. Spiro first, then E. Every time we've done so, my body has gone through the same adjustments, such as really dry eyes, odd flutters in my chest (confirmed *not* my heart!), need for sleep down to 2 or 3 hours a night, estrogen euphoria, digestion, allergies/immune/autoimmune...basically anything that's regulated by serotonin (which is in turn in a feedback loop with *either* E or T...my body apparently needed E as none of those things ever worked right on T). So, I wasn't too surprised when things went all wonky again. What did surprise me was that I hit some threshold and suddenly needed to urinate far more than I expected, which would of course dehydrate me so I'd have to drink copious amounts of water, which would lead to a full bladder...lather, rinse, repeat 24/7. Hourly would've been tolerable, I've done that before; this felt constant. Blood work turned out fine, so I wasn't worried but I could not keep my eyes from drying out & it was annoying, & we were about to hop into the car for an eight hour drive & then back again.
I'd read up on the relationship between potassium and T, as well as that between K and sodium and realized that I'd habitually been on a low sodium diet due to a long family history of hbp. Might more sodium help? I gave it a try. High-sodium, low-cal broth instead of tea, lots of pickled olives, pretzels and the like, all that day. It worked very nicely and our only stops were for the dogs and kids (though I did take advantage of the restrooms, too). The water I drank stayed in me instead of turning me into a human Brita. This of course made the whole trip quite a bit more enjoyable, and I didn't even feel bloated, my rings fit just fine for the whole trip. After our return drive I went back to a somewhat lower sodium diet, my body also seems to be acclimating somewhat to the new doses, but the dryness in my eyes is returning. My question is, has anyone else noticed this effect and if hydration and urination needs are returned almost to 'normal' with more sodium, does it also negate the anti-T effect? In other words, I understand that T and K co-regulate each other, but is it the raw high level of potassium inhibiting T production or the (im)balance between K and Na that shuts down T? (Btw, I did not try this little experiment long enough to keep track of my blood pressure, might have been interesting.)
No... You don't understand how spiro works.
Spiro binds to TWO receptors in your body Aldosterone Receptor and Androgen Receptors these two actions are independant of one another.
Aldosterone is a regulatory hormone used in the kidneys increased levels results in sodium retention and potassium loss. It unfortunatly makes you Aldosterone insensitive (Or at least resistent) aswell as Androgen insensitive.
Low sodium diets come in two forms (One whitch lowers sodium and potassium harmless) And one whitch lowers sodium in favor of potassium whitch can be lethal to you. so things to avoid.
Low sodium salt (It's full of potassium seriously youd be better off eating cyanide salts)
Avacados
Bannas
Potatoes
Soya
Eating more sodium dosen't impair the Androgen blocking potential.
I dunno if eating salt would help... it might I've not noticed any difference really.
The sensitiveity to the diuretic effect lowers slightly over time. I myself have been talking spiro for 18 months... I still need to go ALOT like every 1.5-3 hours whitch is a pain in my 3 hour exams. But yeah I know what you mean when I started I needed to pee every 30 minutes it got pretty gross when I started smelling of piss because I had to go so much.
Dispite me needing to pee alot my mum needs to go more for some reason... I often mock her for it EVEN WITH DIRUETICS I HAVE BETTER BLADDER CONTROL!
she pits it on me begin born.
^^^^ That... Also sodium and potassium compete with each other. So lowering your potassium intake will have the same effect as raising sodium.