Swfowkes (Cupertino, California) on 03/11/2017

The most common underlying cause of edema is hypometabolism, or low basal metabolic rate. The reason that it plagues young women more than young men is that young men have a higher metabolic rate. Women have a higher estrogen influence earlier in life, which down-regulates metabolic rate (and raises maximum lifespan). But when men get old, they often have higher estrogen than their post-menopausal wives--and develop edema.

Most of the treatments for edema mentioned here raise metabolic rate, and most things that raise metabolic rate ease edema. Lipoic acid is a mitochondrial nutrient that stimulates metabolic rate inside your body's power plants. So can coQ10, carnitine, B1, B2, B3, NADH, coconut oil, MCT oil, ketosis (fat-burning metabolism), exercise (aerobic only), breathing, and negative ions (from a shower, waterfall or surf). These are bottom-up effects, enhancing metabolism from the ground up.

Your body's metabolic rate is also influenced by top-down mechanisms. Thinking positive thoughts, cultivating happiness, sleeping soundly, having a great sex life, relaxing, escaping traps (toxic jobs or relationships), and looking forward to waking up each morning can also raise metabolic rate. And the specific mechanisms of neuroendocrine regulation include steroids (progesterone and testosterone are up-regulators, and estradiol and estrone are down-regulators), corticosteroids (low cortisol is an edema trigger), and thyroid hormone. Most people with edema will read the symptoms of hypothyroidism and go, "yep, yep, maybe, yep, OMG yes, yep, maybe, yep" as they read them. See the thyroid one-pager on the Steve page at Project Wellbeing (dot com) if you don't want to track them down on one of a hundred pages on the internet.

Since insulin resistance is so common in our society and since it causes low metabolism when eating a carb-replete diet, ketosis can relieve edema in a sustained way. After being in ketosis for many days, the insulin-resistance threshold begins to lower and carb-based energy pathways begin to increase.

Two last things to mention in this brief intro: one is body temperature as a sign of hypometabolism and the other is nutritional deficiencies related to hypometabolism. Most people with hypometabolism have a low body temperature and low pulse rate. This is something you can monitor, and track over time, to see if the remedies that work (and do not work) are associated with subtle increases (or not) in body temperature. Lastly, some of the most prevalent nutritional deficiencies in modern society are directly associated with hypometabolism. Magnesium deficiency, vitamin D deficiency and B-complex vitamin deficiencies are three that first come to mind.

To reliably track your body temperature requires a good thermometer (electronic ones are unreliable), and the right timing. Early morning body temperature just before getting out of bed is the best indicator of basal metabolic rate, because it minimizes muscle contributions, digestive contributions and adrenal contributions. If you are not fortunate enough to still have a mercury thermometer in your possession now that they are illegal to sell retail, use a gallium thermometer or import a mercury thermometer to act as your temperature reference standards. Electronic thermometers can work OK if you know how to interpret their results by periodic comparison to a mercury or gallium thermometer--or a fertility thermometer.

If you do not want to be bothered with verifying the connection between your metabolic rate and your edema, you can simply correlate the easing of your edema symptoms with your subjective feelings of your energy levels, strength, stamina and mental clarity.