WaveHunter

It's actually not that expensive, and easy to find if you go to the right pharmacy. For me, Anastrozole (6 MONTH SUPPLY) - 45 pills - THB 3000 (1/4 pill twice per week), so that is 115 THB per week or $3.25 USD per week). Keep in mind that Anastrozole for TRT is "off-label" usage, and the brand I use (Alpha-Pharma) is not a recognized brand BUT my doctor recommended it as a low cost alternative to what a hospital pharmacy would provide and she was confident it was safe and effective, which my blood tests subsequently bore out. My blood tests for estradiol always came back in range at a little bit under 39 pg/mL which is considered optimal. Of course, everyone reacts differently to TRT and to Anastrozole so dosage and timing are for me ONLY and not a suggestion to others, but < 39pg/mL is considered the benchmark. While, as you say, a great deal of information needed to self-medicate is online, that is really not a wise thing to do since it's hard to judge the veracity of the source of information, and I have seen some pretty stupid things asserted by so-called "experts" onlines that could be pretty dangerous if they were accepted at face value. Just like the saying goes about trying to be your own lawyer means having a fool for a client, the same can be said for someone trying to be their own doctor and self-medicate with TRT! Very bad idea! I post a lot on topics like this that I am familiar with BUT it is only with the intention that somebody reading my words will be aware of what I know AND THEN ASK THEIR DOCTOR ABOUT IT...NOT USE THAT INFORMATION TO SELF-MEDICATE! You should really know that self medication with TRT can lead to complications you will not be aware of until it becomes life-threatening or irreversible, and only an experienced physician can look for signs of such complications before they become an issue. Being aware of the actual science behind TRT is a good thing so you can have intelligent, well informed discussions with your doctor but using it to be your own doctor is just plain stupid IMO.

One other cool thing about setting up a cloud-based virtual computer is if your present computer is getting old and you need more RAM to run present programs, or more storage space than your present computer has. I am in that position right now since my aging MacBook Pro. Newer, more processor intensive programs are getting harder to use, or simply not compatible with my old machine. If you do the math, the cost of buying a new MacBook Pro that will run these new programs, give me more storage space, etc is quite expensive compared to setting up a Cloud Computer that you can spec with the precise RAM, Storage, and processing power you need. Ulike a new computer (especially from Apple) I can configure a cloud computer for EXACTLY what I need without paying for what I do not need. And even better, if my needs (More RAM, more storage, faster processing speed) change over time, it only takes a minute to reconfigure the cloud computer to meet those needs with a corresponding (and reasonable) change in cost. What's more, I can make those changes to just be temporary (i.e.: for a one time task) and then revert back to my basic configuration. For instance, a few times a year I have the desire for "super-computing" power to perform certain tasks that would require something like Mac's new Mac Studio at around $8,000, or formerly a Mac Pro properly configured at around $25,000! OMG!!! With a Virtual Cloud computer, I would simply do an online reconfigure for the number of hours or days I needed that capability very cheaply by comparison, and then just re-configure back down to what I normally need when I'm done with that task. Pay only for what you need, when you need it, and nothing more, and have the flexibility to change your configuration whenever you want to. Makes a lot of sense to me!

A couple of things I think you are missing re VPN. First of all, my main reason for solving this authentication issue is that I have an Amazon MERCHANT account. As a merchant if you try to connect with Seller Central (where you log in to Amazon to manage your merchant account) if their server detects your IP is through a VPN, it will automatically lock your account. Their terms of service prohibit use of a VPN, and their servers can indeed detect whether you are using a VPN to connect to their Seller Account servers. The key point here is that it is vital to have a STATIC IP address that is unique and associated only with your computer. If the IP address changes (i.e.) like when you travel, or even if you are in the same location but it is a dynamic address, red flags will result if you are logging into an existing account of yours that shows a record of a previous IP address, especially if you regularly clear your browser cache of previous cookies from that site. Of course if you are only connecting to your buyers account, or bank, or whatever by VPN you will only face ID verification by email / SMS Text, or authenticator app....BUT WIlt a seller's account on Amazon or even eBay, it can be a whole lot more involved. Amazon, eBay, and other online SELLER platform have a much higher level of identity verification protocols for obvious reasons, and they have taken draconian steps in their battle against "black-hat" hackers who try to set up multiple selling accounts and fictitious ones from outside of the United States to commit fraud (most notably from China). So, trying to connect to Amazon Seller Central via an VPN will result in your account being instantly locked, and then requiring a lengthy procedure to get it reinstated. Keep in mind that reaching a live person at Amazon for help by phone is VERY problematic, so you could have your account locked for weeks and unable to sell any merchandise which would have a major impact on your bottom line, not to mention your page ranking. For most, such a simple issue could become a business catastrophe! Really the only way around this whole mess is to use a virtual cloud computer. There is nothing that violates the terms of service at Amazon for using one (at least presently), and there are a number of economical and simple to set up options for getting noe up and running in literally only minutes! And we're talking about reputable services like Google Cloud Services! Since you are only charged for the amount of time you use it, it is remarkably cheap. I mean, 90 percent of my online time can be done through my Thai IP address, so the amount of time I must connect through a US IP is really only for a few minutes a day at most. I figure perhaps a couple of hours of use er month and that amounts to only about $10 USD per month. As for the VOIP issue with identity verification, more and more company websites like banks and credit cards companies are starting to offer the option of using of authenticator apps. Surprisingly, even Amazon is now doing this, thus eliminating the need to receive text messages for verification. I now have authenticator apps for 3 of my bank/credit card accounts, and for Amazon. Ebay is willing to accept foreign phone numbers for SMS Texting, so once I have the Cloud computer running I should be sitting pretty no matter where in the world I am ???? For those who want to explore this for themselves, there is an unassuming and remarkably informative YouTube video that explains it more coherently than I can. I ran across it by chance when I did a Google search for the keyword phrase "how to connect to Amazon Seller Central from overseas". This video is what got me thinking about Cloud servers in the first place, and it explains better than I can why VPN are not a good idea for Amazon sellers. Oh and one more thing for fellow Apple/Mac users. Even though all virtual cloud computers are set up as Windows or Linux server.s, this will work no matter what physical computer you use, if your only intention is to use a Cloud computer for web browsing since you use the web browser on your physical computer, once you are connected to your cloud computer.

Still hoping to find Rotex Medica 20-amp boxes. It is now "next month" (june). I asked my pharmacist and she says she hasn't heard anything yet. How about you...any updates? The price for Bayer right now is 250 THB per vial (only available as 1-vial packs) which seems VERY expensive compared to the 20 vial packs from Rotex Medica that cost only 165 THB per vial (3,300 THB for the 20-pack)

I'm afraid you are correct. I used to only deal with the "parents" and they were so knowledgeable I felt like I was talking to a doctor! One of the younger ones was always pretty good too, but on my last visit, one of the others sounded like he didn;t know what he was talking about at all. His advice made me so uncomfortable, I decided not to buy from them that day. FYI, I ended up buying from another pharmacy right around the corner from where I live in Jomtien called Ocean Pharmacy. Not nearly as much stock as Tim's but I was only looking to purchase Testosterone, and they carried Bayer. I like Tim's and will try again...hoping they get their act together!

Not true at all. TRT is not like an on/off switch. My serum levels were incredibly low when my doctor suggested TRT therapy. They were below 300 ng/dL (TT). It took over three months of injections before I noticed any discernible difference at all, and even then they were very subtle. My doctor was smart enough to tell me at the outset, that far more important to resolving my issues was to improve my lifestyle in terms of nutrition and exercise, and I followed that advice in a big way. Sorry but there is just too much hyped up misinformation about TRT out there right now. It's put out there by self-serving doctors looking to profit from it, and from new TRT patients with such unrealistic expectations that they delude themselves into believing that TRT is magically transforming them, when in fact, it is not. TRT is not going to make you Superman overnight, and what I have found after being on TRT for over 6 years now is that it's a good thing to keep your serum levels on the high end of normal, but there are a lot of other things you should be doing to improve your lifestyle, like nutrition and proper exercise that will benefit you to a greater extent than just relying on drugs.

I'm not exactly sure what points you are trying to make. You are missing my point entirely about foregoing the goal of losing fat. I am saying it is entirely wrong to diet in order to lose fat because that should not be the goal. Dieting to lose fat is like putting a band-aid on an infected wound. It's not going to fix the problem. People are fat because they have let the metabolic machinery of their body fall into disrepair. It happens naturally as we age. It also happens if we make bad decisions about our nutrition and eat heavily processed foods and over-indulge in carbohydrates. Caloric restriction diets are not the answer. They are just a temporary stop-gap (like a band-aid on an infected wound). How many people go on weight loss diets only to find themselves regaining all the weight they lost and then some, and having to repeat the process over and over and over again? Diets designed only to reduce calories only benefit the marketers who promote them. The only thing that works in the long-term is to take nutrition seriously and cut out heavily processed foods and too many carbohydrates, and then just eat to reach satiety, and GO NO FURTHER. That all by itself, combined with moderate daily exercise will reduce body fat to proper levels. That is really as far as your dieting strategy should go. When you restrict calories in a typical diet, the body responds by reducing your basal metabolic rate. So, even though you are consuming less calories, your bodies reacts to this by slowing you down to burn less calories. No net loss will occur. Worse, when you finally return to your old habits and eat again, in your reduced metabolic state, you will pile on more fat then you started with! It is this classic "yo-yo" syndrome that is common in all calorie-restricted diets. DIeting is NOT the answer. You need to address the underlying reason WHY you are fat in the first place, and the reason that many people don't consider is that their basic metabolic machinery has been damaged, either by natural aging, or by very poor nutritional lifestyle! The absolute best way to fix the metabolic damage that's been done from natural aging and form a poor lifestyle is periodic fasting. I base this comment on sound scientific research, not health guru mumboo-jumbo or pseudoscience! First of all, when you enter into a fasted state, your body can actually make the essential glucose it needs to function in the short term through gluconeogenesis, and then once ketone bodies began to be produced, ketones will take over to provide an alternate fuel source to glucose, so the lack of exogenous macronutrients is not a real concern during the duration of a typical self-imposed fast. Remember that, unlike a typical diet, the purpose of a fast is NOT to lose fat, but to fix your damaged metabolic pathways that will enable your body to maintain proper body fat levels and optimal metabolic health WITHOUT THE NEED OF DIETING That can typically require a fast that last as little as 72 hours for most people, and perhaps as long as 7 days for others with more serious issues. Everybody is different. Assuming you have more than say 10% body fat, and no pre-existing medical conditions this duration of fasting is entirely safe as long as you have consulted with a doctor, have had your blood tests done, and monitor electrolytes, all of which are very easy to do. The only macro lacking during an extended fast is protein, and contrary to what most believe, short term lack of exogenous protein is NOT a bad thing. If you conduct a fast properly, there will be negligible muscle protein breakdown. Yes, protein will be catabolized during the initial 72 hours of a fast until sufficient ketone bodies are produced BUT that does not mean that those proteins will be those associated with muscle mass The human body is smart enough to spare essential proteins that are necessary for survival, and focus on compromised proteins such as those within the mitochondria of every cell in the body that have become damaged through advanced age, disease, OR A POOR NUTRITIONAL LIFESTYLE. YES!!!! A poor nutritional lifestyle based on habitual consumption of heavily processed foods and an over-abundance of carbohydrates will completely screw up the essential metabolic pathways and result in damaged proteins WITHIN THE CELLS in the form of misfolded proteins and glycated proteins. The human body has a natural mechanism to deal with this that goes on 24/7 within our bodies and it's called "autophagy". A lot of health gurus have latched onto this claiming all sorts of fantastical things about it, most of which is just plain BS designed for self-serving purposes, but this is a very real process nonetheless. Unfortunately, the natural rate of autophagy sometimes can not deal with the extreme damage done, especially if that damage is self-induced through an extremely poor nutritional lifestyle. Fasting comes into the picture because of the work of the Japanese scientist who was awarded a Nobel prize for his discoveries and documentation that fasting significantly ramps up the rate of autophagy. Google Yoshinori Ohsumi in the link of my original post to learn more. Positive and clinically proven improvements in metabolic health can occur within as little as 72 hours of being in a fasted state. The only "diet" that makes any scientific sense at all is fasting, and the purpose is NOT to lose fat, but instead to repair metabolic pathways that have been damaged and cause fat accumulation to occur. Again, the typical caloric restriction diet does nothing to repair the damage. It is only a band-aid on an infected wound. In simple terms, the purpose of autophagy is to sequester damaged proteins within our cells, and break them down into basic amino acids that can then be recycled into new fully functioning, healthy proteins. Conducting such a fast every 90 days is an excellent and clinically proven way to maintain metabolic health. Think of it as seasonal house-cleaning for you body! If your metabolic machinery is in good condition with the aid of a periodic fast to induce ramped-up autophagy and you eat and exercise sensibly, you will NEVER have a need to go on a fat-loss diet...EVER, regardless of how old you are.

This whole debate really boils down to nothing more than personal preferences. There is no "right" answer of whether protein or carbs are more important at breakfast time, or whether breakfast is even important or not. Everything you eat gets converted to macronutrients and the timing of when you ingest your food really has no significant bearing on that. What is important is that the metabolic machinery of your body is capable of efficiently using those nutrients. As you age, that machinery becomes less efficient at this task. Molecular proteins (as opposed to nutritional proteins) like rNA and dNA become altered and often mal-adapted. Such proteins can become structurally altered (protein folding). Protein structure is crucial to metabolic health and when it is not optimal, serious health problems result. You guys are missing the bigger picture.. The human body is nothing more than a machine. Quite literally, you exist because of molecular machinery within every cell in your body. When I say "machine" I mean that quite literally. Mitochondria within every one of your cells is what powers your body. Within mitochondria is ATP Synthase, and this is quite literally nano-scale rotary engines just like you would find in a car! They produce power in an entirely mechanical way by spinning like little propellers! As incredible as that sounds it is absolutely true. See this animation to see how it works: What's my point in all of this? My point is simply that "nutrition" is like fuel in the gas tank that runs this engine. Regardless of what you eat or when you eat, this engine will degrade as you age. Whether you are on a high carb diet or a high protein diet makes no difference. Beyond avoiding highly processed carbohydrates, what you eat or when you eat it makes little difference to your metabolic health. Of course that's just my opinion, but I have been on all sorts of nutritional regimens over the years. Growing up in the 1970's my nutritions was based on the classic food pyramid that included a lot of newly emerging processed foods, which of course was bad and so I started exploring alternatives. I was a whole food Vegan for a time, then i went the other direction exploring low carb / keto, then Paleo. And in the final analysis, there were pros and cons to each, but really there was no single regime that was ideal. In the end, it really didn't matter! What does matter to me now is doing what I can to keep the metabolic machinery running well. All of those maladapted molecular proteins that arise simply from aging are the real threat to metabolic health, and the body actually has a way of dealing with this! Simply put, the natural mechanism for dealing with this is called autophagy. This is a natural process that goes on in your body 24/7 to sequester these maladapted proteins and then break them down into basic amino acids that can be recycled to build new, and fully functional proteins. Sometimes though, the damage is too great for the body to deal with them though, and that is where periodic fasting comes to play. I know there's been a lot of BS from health "gurus" about the virtues of periodic fasting, but there is an element of truth to it, and that element of truth comes from the groundbreaking research of one man, a Japanese scientists.His name is Yoshinori Ohsumi. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for discovering and documenting the precise way autophagy can be markedly ramped up when one is in the fasted state. In simple terms, in as little as 72 hours of being in the fasted state, a significant amount of damaged proteins can be broken down and replaced with new proteins. Without going into lots of detail, my metabolic strategy these days is just to eat sensibly whenever I am truly hungry...and that is it! Periodically (usually every 3 months, just so I can mark it on a calendar), I do a 72 hours water fast along with electrolyte supplementation for induced autophagy. I'm not claiming a miraculous difference is a result of this, but I do feel healthier as a result, and I no longer fuss about dietary protocols other than just staying away from highly processed foods and excessive carbs. Anyway, I just find the actual science behind how our bodies really work to be a fascinating subject. There are just too many unfounded myths and misinformation out there to lead people astray, but if you just stick to ACTUAL science that has gold-standard research to back it up and has been peer-reviewed, rather than "bro-science" you pick up on YouTube or at the gym, you'll be a better person for it. Oh, and one last thing...I know the jist of most thread like this is really about losing fat. I think too much emphasis is placed on dieting these days! Dieting with the goal being only to lose fat is short sighted and usually is doomed to fail! The only nutritional strategy that works is to eat in order to be healthy...PERIOD! If you eat for satiety rather than for pleasure, simply avoid heavily processed carbohydrates, and get some reasonable exercise every day, you should have no need to count calories or macros, or religiously stand on your bathroom scale every day! All of these crazy diets and complicated protocols to shed fat are just a waste of time and of no benefit except to the marketers and health gurus promoting them IMO.

I need advice from those of you who use e-sim cards in their smartphones to receive text messages from the USA while here in Thailand. I have been going crazy lately with my banks and credit card companies, as well as Amazon and eBay with their plethora of identity verifications they are now doing exclusively through text messaging. Since my US cell number does not work in Thailand, and most banks and credit card companies will not send txt messages to foreign phone numbers, it's becoming a really frustrating and annoying issue. I spoke with Apple and they said all I needed to do was use an iPhone 10 or more recent, and set up an e-sim account with my US carrier (in my case ATT), and I was told this would solve my problem. I want to hear from people who are using these cards for that purpose. Does it work reliably for ID verification? And most importantly, how expensive is it on a monthly basis if all you are using it for is getting these ID verification codes?

Looking for a pharmacy that still carries Rotex Medica 20-amp boxes. Bayer is back in stock But only sold as single amps at 250 THB Which is pretty expensive compared to 20 amp boxes of RotexMedica at 3300 THB per box. anybody know anything?

I want to know if there are any Customs issues I should know about concerning mailing dried herbs and spices in sealed plastic packaging from Thailand to the USA. I plan to send by FedEx. Well vetted information (not guesses or off-topic advice) would be appreciated. And yes, I already tried getting this information from US Customs and it was only vague and seemed to be about "live" vegetation only . I want to be as sure as possible because I will be sending relatively large quantities of each item (10 packages of each item) Items consist of: Lemon grass dried Dried Kaffir Lime leaves Dried Galangal Root Thai Whole Chilies They are all in sealed plastic packages like this: