Friday, September 26, 2008

A bit on heath philosophy

I wrote to my second ILD, with the same result-- no response. This really upsets me and I wanted to follow up with a letter expressing such. While writing it dawned on me that like all things, my original contact was non-traditional for the expected response-- some response. So who's to blame? They are! But, really I am too. I toned down my email a notch. Then I did so again about 3 more times. In the end, none of the original whining was there, simply a statement of the facts. But I still got all my points across, just not in a obviously-reactive way.

What did come out on my final reading was that my concern is for the health of me, my family, and others. It's a philosophy. And when health is a vital concern, shouldn't all discussions keep in mind that point? Did I add something to the table to improve health and interest in health? Did I learn something from it to improve health? Philosophy isn't as easy to grasp as it should be for best benefit.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Combatting an AutoImmune attack

While shopping this guy drenched in marijuana smell, masked with rank cigarette smell, asks if I could move away from the shelf. I already had my mask on because the store smelled bad, but really very stupidly removed it at that moment. One whiff of this guy and I was lost. My lungs filled immediately with smoke, as if I were smoking!!! Then instead of constricting, they filled with water. Then came the bitchiness and do I mean bitchy. Everything was wrong, this was a day-ender. But, from wheat poisoning experience, I wasn't so clueless as I used to be.

First I started with B12. I took it before my body knew it needed it. And that was that-- no more bitchiness. Good attitude restored. But still not well. I don't know the specifics of other vitamin requirements, having lucked onto B12, so I took EVERYTHING: cod liver oil, selenium, magnesium + B6, anti-stress vitamins w/ vit C, and kelp. THEN, I put a niacin in my mouth. One way to tell you desperately need some nutrient is to put it in your mouth. If it dissolves long before you get the chance to swallow it, that's your clue. Niacin then creates a need for vitamin C, since C help keep the flushing down. If the body doesn't flush, you haven't taken enough niacin.

The first thing that happened on taking the niacin was that my eyeballs stung, just as a niacin flush on the skin. This makes sense to me because cigarette smoke iritates the eyes and this guy smelled SO bad he might have well been smoking.

I took magnesium because I started to have ???, not seeing things clearly. That's the sign for magnesium deficiency.

And now I'm much better. Not perfect, something is out of my grasp. Maybe I didn't take enough of something. This proves that all allergy attacks, from different sources, have the same symptoms. And those symptoms are immediate vitamin deficiencies!!! Damn, tho, that I'm not perfect.

[all told niacin (200mg), B12 (2000mcg++)]

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Thought (for the day / a lifetime)

There's a Sandra Bullock sobriety-recovery movie playing, where the rehab patients try to lift the leg of a horse in order to inspect the hoof. The horses never lift their hooves, when the patients try pulling up on the knee. The teacher exclaims as they try pulling at the knee over and over, that the true definition of insanity is repeating the same behaviors, but expecting a different outcome.

This is pretty funny, on the movie and in life. But when it comes to health care, it can be painfully un-obvious. Are you trying the same treatments to remedy your health concerns? And persisting even though you haven't had the result intended? I exercised for years, never losing weight. I wasted all those years thinking I was doing the right thing, but not succeeding. Turns out I had an underlying disease--hypothyroidism--causing the overweight and interfering with its removal.

How is your health care treatment going? Give each treatment the appropriate amount of time. Know what you expect of it, how long it should take. If you don't get the expected result in a reasonable amount of time, it's probably time to regroup; get a different treatment or figure out what might be preventing your success. Being a scientist, I've seriously fallen down on the job here.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

More Iodine

Increasingly the amount of iodine I take isn't enough. I crave more all the time. Cooking beans with seaweed-- supposed to help reduce gas -- sounds really good to me. I keep craving Japanese too. So, I was surfing around when the idea hit me-- take more iodine in the form
of seaweed. Adding seaweed gives all the nutrients too that should help increase iodine uptake. Adding to cooking beans, then, is a win - win situation. Unfortunately, I don't have a life now and no beans. But when I do... But I've started taking kelp pills, homemade of straight kelp, with each meal.

I love the way it makes my stomach warm. I took two kelp pills last night and woke up with the warm feeling still there. Had one pill this morning accompanied by the same warm feeling. Very nice!

I didn't expect to need to add more iodine! And I wonder now, how much it's going to take. Adding more Lugol's makes me sick, despite iodine cravings, and also doesn't sound right. But taking seaweed, not only makes sense, but feels great. And my cravings are about to get requited with dulse flakes on salads, kelp pills with meals, and somehow nori. When is lunch already?

One thing I'm doing also is taking the stress formula every two hours. Nothing to do with the above, but I hope it brings my adrenal glands back to functioning. I suffer terribly from adrenal exhaustion and expect help from this new protocol. --And as I write this I feel help, likely in a stress formula + kelp combination that is currently winning somewhat over my candida overgrowth. I'll take it!

Candida is back

They say that having candida in your intestinal tract is normal. It's the percentage of candida to other bacteria that you want to control. I've had a running battle with candida for forever. And what's causing it? Anti-candida diets go on and on with rules, non of which are followed by people that have never had candida overrun. Following the rules may help, but that doesn't cure the problem. Is the problem metals toxicity? Diverticulitis? Trapped undigested food? If it were any of those, would eating by the rules help? Candida definitely likes sugar. Do those existing conditions provide hiding places for the candida until sugar comes? But, they aren't even necessary. So, do they even matter? Probably not.

So, what does matter? What keeps candida from invading a person's entire system? A strong immune system? Because the rules, tho they say otherwise, aren't going to help with that. They are a panacea. Metals toxicity may cause immune breakdown allowing candida overthrow. My candida feeds off of progesterone. That's it's favorite eticket to the entire body. How is this connected to iodine receptor sites?

From my current Google search:
"We are suggesting that candida is a side-effect of an endocrine disorder (hormonal imbalance). It is a continuum with thrush at one end and the APICH syndrome at the other - most severe - end. The primary mechanism may be the blocking of oestrogen receptors, although there will be others too. This hypothesis provides an explanation for the male-female imbalance. Blocked oestrogen receptors can lead to a relative dominance of progesterone, a hormone candida loves. Once candida has taken hold, it can further disrupt the endocrine system by inactivating circulating hormones. The immune system attacks the candida and the candida retaliates weakening it, but the disruption is primarily in the endocrine system."
http://www.candida-society.org/ncs/digestv1i3.htm

The above says some intregueing? things, by doesn't fit me where progesterone is NEVER dominant.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Soft, soft skin

Two months (three) into iodine supplementation, I am able to gauge iodine absorption by the moistness of my skin, especially my feet; which are currently too dry for my liking, but much improved. Overall my skin is softer and softer with each day. Having seen XMen, p.II?, where the senator finds his mutation is the ability to turn into water, my mind drifts back to his end and I worry I might meet the same fate--my skin will become so moist it will simply start dripping off. ;-)

Somewhat sadly I find my hands glued, now, to my face as in the last few days it has become amazingly soft. It used to be my arms that my hands ran up and down all day. You have to understand the background, which is that I have spent an entire life with dry and drier skin. There was no shower without after lotion. No winter without constant lotioning. No hand washing- the lotion used to be in a bottle beside the soap bottle.

The only thing I lack now is a way to sweat easily. Since exercise has made me endothermic--cold, not warm-- for the last way too many years, the answer is a spa. But I'm not in a spa situation. So, I'm stuck, since taking a shower causes an allergic reaction.

Cortisone, ACTH (pituitary hormone, as STH)

Part of the recommendations in Overcoming Thyroid Disorders is to supplement with "physiologic" amounts of hydrocortisone. So, when I ran across this topic in Let's Get Well, I thought not only here is a way to let the body make the hormones, but here is the definitive information for getting vitamins. Dr. Brownstein, like other ILDs, is helping lots of people (not me, he's chosen to ignore me) with his good advice and research, but he's no nutritionist and his recommendations while helping will eventually hurt too. Adelle Davis OTOH IS a nutritionalist (was). So, here is her anti-stress program.

"To meet the demands of stress ... obtain all nutrients necessary for the production of the pituitary and adrenal hormones." Protein, vitamins C, B5, and B2. "Vitamin B2 is essential for the synthesis of adrenal hormones." "...pantothenic acid ... the same benefit from taking the vitamin as from being given ACTH or cortisone with no toxic effects."

During illness, take every two hours w/ fortified milk for protein. C 500mg, B5 100mg, B2 and B6 each 2-5mg.

Nutrition, not diet restriction

Can celiac, and other diseases, be cured by correct nutrition? That
is, by getting enough nutrients in the diet each day, can you then eat
whatever you want without symptoms? Adelle Davis believed you could.
And you could certainly make a case for the usefulness and sanity of
that stand point. While you'd need to get one of her books to find out
the complete diet recommendations, I'm going to give an excerpt from
Let's Get Well, Adelle Davis saying just that.

While I firmly believe we should follow a natural, enzyme-full diet,
instead of shoving lots of supplements at ourselves and then eating
whatever, certainly adding nutrients from supplements and food can
help tremendously. But, if we DO go off our diets, it certainly would
be tremendous help to know how to supplement to correct mistakes, yes?
Making the diet nutritionally healthy is doable, by daily regime
rather than a haphazard application.

"A diet can be made adequate without gluten, but it is a nuisance. The
finding that celiac patients are severely deficient in vitamin B6--the
lack of which causes vomiting, eczema, much gas, diarrhea ...

Through the years I have seen a number of children with celiac disease
who, according to the physicians who referred them to me, later made
spectacular recoveries; yet in no diet were grains restricted. In fact
I particularly specified that wheat germ as well as liver and yeast be
taken daily. In every case the diet was unusually high in each
nutrient; and powdered digestive enzymes were mixed with all foods
before they were eaten. I am, therefore, convinced that correction may
be attained without the prolonged use of gluten-free diets provided
the B vitamins are generously supplied."

So, what amount of B6, wheat germ, liver, yeast, digestive enzymes are required?

B6--At the time of the writing of the above, she didn't have enough info to know, but thought 5mg for infants daily and 30mg+ for adults. Magnesium is also needed to use the B6 and may be the cause.

Wheat germ--

Liver--

Yeast--

Digestive enzymes--

Magnesium--

Monday, September 8, 2008

Toothpowder

In changing out toxic products for less toxic, hopefully non-toxic, ones, I've made up my own toothpowder. Once I tried it, I felt like I had found reality. Toothpowder isn't just free from common toxins found in even the most well-meaning toothpastes. It's wonderful. Originally I tried baking soda - works ok, but so salty it can cause increased blood pressure. Then I got smart and tried 50-50 baking soda with peppermint leaves. Much smarter, gives pain relief and keeps cleaning of baking soda. But my teeth stained, so I add dolomite, contains calcium carbonate. It's in toothpastes, but in my toothpowder at a lower concentration.

Take this simple recipe whirred in a coffee grinder and go wild. Instead of peppermint leaves, use spearming - good for bacteria fighting. Use white tea, rose petals, vanilla seeds, lavendar petals. It's up to you to make your toothpowder your own! Fun and rewarding!

PCOS resolution - absolutely obsessed

Not sure what to do with this quote, so I'll post it here. I don't have PCOS, not that I know of! But here is a Russian study showing simply iodide resolved PCOS in 3 months at the low dose of 12.5mg / day. Pretty astounding!!

"Our preliminary experience with I supplementation at 12.5 mg/day, confirmed the findings of Ghent et al (19), regarding subjective and objective improvements of FDB, following I supplementation. Our findings in 3 patients with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) confirmed the positive response observed following supplementation with 10 to 20 mg of potassium iodide by Russian investigators 40 years ago (62). Prior to I supplementation, those PCOS patients were olygomenorrheic, menstruating one or twice a year. Following I supplementation for 3 months, they resumed normal monthly cycles. In 2 patients with subclinical hypothyroidism and elevated TSH levels, I supplementation suppressed TSH levels markedly in both cases. In one patient, serum TSH level was 7.8 mIU/L pre-supplementation and 1.7 mIU/L 3 months post I supplementation. In the other patient, TSH level was 21.5 mIU/L before and 11.9 mIU/L after 3 months of I supplementation."

http://cypress.he.net/~bigmacnc/drflechas/IOD-02.html


Feeling better now that I've traded my carb cravings for protein and fat. Blood glucose is evening out and I'm feeling warmer. Carbs only make you feel cold, goitrogenic, when high load and / or glycemic index.

Chopsticks

I complained at lunch the other day that we had no substitute for stainless flatware. Using our hands seemed the only healthy alternative to avoiding toxic stainless alloys leaching into the food. The solution came to me all of a sudden - chopsticks. Chopsticks come in all materials, and one of those is non-laminated wood, usually these days, bamboo. This should be an acceptable and preferable substitution. It isn't perfect, you can't eat yogurt with chopsticks or spoon matcha into a glass with them, but any improvement in environment is an improvement in health. And it really adds up.

One of the unseen things that experienced cooks do is to match their food preparation with their circumstances. So, when changing over to chopsticks food can either be in liquid form or usable by chopsticks.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

WAPF diet - To get healthy

We are taking the next few months to concentrate on health. The main preparation from here on out will be the WAPF diet recommendations. After all, it has worked for indigenous peoples thruout time. I've had terrible health problems and could really use any additional help.

One thing that must happen is my losing lots of weight gained from almost dying from iodine deficiency and having hypothroidism. I can't maintain health at this high weight. Unfortunately, while I lost a lot of weight yesterday, I failed to eat appropriately. I get soooooo hungry. My brain shuts off and the calories and inappropriate eating go on. I can stay on SCD, but WAPF is a bit of a challenge. Don't really know the requirements yet. I'm going to make up health signs to keep the goal in mind.

One thing that shouldn't be a problem is level of iodine. That should be 100% soon, if all goes well. Not expected to go well, entirely. I need to make up a vitamin chart too. But since WAPF guidelines are fairly simple, that should be limited to cod liver oil. :-)

Wish me luck!

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Trashed myself last night - New Diet

The hypothyroidism, and maybe another miscarriage?, caused another large weight gain. Today is the beginning of a new diet and last night was a "celebration" of that fact. I had HagenDazs chocolate and rum raisin and unfortunately barley chocolate chip cookies. After causing all kinds of gastric distress, I realized too late what food I really wanted: caramel corn. :-) I crave popcorn all the time, but since I'm allergic to corn that isn't something I should be eating. But, what I realized also is that I can eat that on my new diet!

Of course, I'm on the SCD diet and starting to follow Nourishing Traditions eating, but the new diet is to lose weight and type of food is not restricted. You know, I didn't realize it till just now, that's very freeing! So, if I go off one diet, I just need to stick to my weight-loss diet. Oh, what is the new diet you ask?

The new diet. The new diet is the lose 1lb a week diet as introduced by Dr. Morehouse in his book 30min to Fitness. I've started his exercise program again too! He calls it the "wide variety diet" as you eat whatever you want, you simply make sure you lose 1lb a week. It seems like too little to lose, but, in fact, it's exactly how to do a diet right. You think losing a pound of fat is easy? NO, it's not!

We all know better when starting a fitness program than to find the steepest hill and start running up and down it till we drop, right? Fitness takes a reasonable plan, an easy start, and continuing to build strength and endurance. Similarly the lose-a-pound-a-week diet fits within the realm of the body's capabilities. Losing 1lb /wk allows a Ph balance and ensures a pound of 60% fat lost, not 60% muscle. It also puts weight loss into the hands of even the most hypothyroid of individuals. Of course, for me this means lower carb eating, since carbs go straight to fat, w/o providing any nourishment.

I find that my greatest joy this morning is in realizing that going off my diet can mean taking vitamins! Usually I worry about taking vitamins because the fillers are SCD-illegal. But when you set up an unhealthy system from eating sugar and gluten, vitamin fillers are the least of your worries. Honestly, I feel that I would forgo the bad eating just to get the vitamins! I needed the vitamin C so much that it dissolved in my mouth before I could swallow it. Perhaps I could have considered the niacin flush before up and taking 500mg! :-(

Monday, September 1, 2008

Protocol for taking Iodine

I read some people have difficulties getting iodine even though they take plenty, 50mg+. There is a secret to increasing absorbed iodine that current iodine-loving docs either aren't telling or don't know. Iodine binds with most foods, especially the vitamin C that helps to absorb it. You need vitamin C in your system to improve iodine uptake. But taking these together will cause the vitamin C to bind with the iodine and take it out of the body without you getting it all!!!

So, here is the protocol to get the most of the iodine taken, which really isn't a secret. Per the bottle of Lugol's: Take iodine alone on an empty stomach with raw apple cider vinegar [2tsp] in water and don't eat or drink anything but water for at least 20min. 20min is the amount of time required to absorb iodine. The raw ACV likely creates an alkaline environment in the body that helps the iodine absorb. When taking Iodoral, it likely takes more than 20min, since the pill needs time to break down.

It's better to take your iodine from Lugol's as you don't have to wait for the Iodoral to break down. But perhaps there is something in the recipe of the pill to help absorb iodine? For me, with intestinal absorption problems, I need to avoid fillers, since they can REDUCE my ability to absorb the needed nutrients.

More Deadly Metals - Letter to Wise Traditions newsletter

The excellent and informative Deadly Metals solidified my recent concern that my health problems arise from toxic levels of metals. The recommendation to limit wearing jewelry to special occasions for sensitive individuals, concerned me, since there is something far more insidious in my home. What are good replacements for stainless steel utensils, flatware, and cutlery? These are all used multiple times a day and for the most part are all stainless steel and mostly of low quality stainless.

I did a search to determine if our Revereware and Farberware cookware were type 316 stainless. And found, with very limited results, that most, if not all, stainless cookware is likely type 316. That likely isn't true, though, for most utensils, flatware, or cutlery, or as the article pointed out, stainless food storage containers. I can avoid salting cooking food to avoid the stainless leaching combination of acid and salt, but I definitely salt before eating the same hot food with a fork. And to make matters worse, I have been using that same fork to stir in the pans, which likely causes a breakdown of both the fork and the pan into the food.

I've been trying to figure out good substitutes for the things I use regularly. No problem changing the stainless mixing bowl over to a glass one. And I enjoyed the increased dietary iron from changing the fry pan over to cast iron. But from there trying to get possible toxins out of the kitchen gets more difficult and expensive.One of the recommendations for cookware was titanium, but it is unlikely unalloyed. And from my limited research titanium oxidizes into titanium dioxide, the known carcinogen from personal products. Of course, the source of those oxides may make all the difference. But I found titanium jewelry costly, so unalloyed cookware should prove out of reach.

It seems there is no currently-known health concern from silicone spatulas and cookware, so that replaces the fork used to stir food. But replacing the fork isn't so easy. The only readily available flatware other than stainless is plastic, specifically Lexan and polystyrene. Both those plastics are thought to cause health problems, hormone disruption from Lexan and possible cancer from styrene leaching into hot foods. That leaves no good choices, and yet we need to have utensils. Although I have eaten with cultures that use their hands! There's alloyed titanium or Chinese laminated bamboo flatware, but these have their problems too. I don't know the good solution here.

Since trying to replace these items, new metallic ones have come to my attention. I use standard Bell or Kerr canning jars for everything, including beet kvass. The metal of the lids breaks down with each batch and gets ingested. I've since replaced the lids with plastic, of unknown composition, due to concerns over the alloys used. The only information I could find on the alloys came from a book of manufacturing on Google indicating that canning jars are "wrought" and may be of three types of alloys: zinc-copper, zinc-titanium, or zinc-lead-cadmium. And yesterday when filtering some mold out of aloe vera, my steel, stainless?, filter leached badly. This will need replacing, with nylon?, as well as my colander. Then there's cookie sheets, etc. The list goes on.

What are the good substitutions here? And how effective can we be? But, of course, the less we use, the less toxins we absorb.