Despite having had the negative allergy testing, I'm still having reactions occasionally to some foods. I didn't elaborate much on my allergy testing before, but I was highly disappointed by it. When I told the doctor the reactions I had been having, he told me it wasn't possible. He told me it wasn't possible to have hives for two weeks, even though I said I had. He told me it wasn't possible that I had a swollen throat, swollen enough for others to tell me I looked like I had the mumps, for a couple weeks. He told me normal reactions only last for a few hours or days.
I totally understand it not being the typical reaction, but when a doctor tells me it isn't even possible, it's very clear to me that I've been labeled a hypochondriac at best or a liar at worst and that there will be no working relationship between us. So then what? At least I found out that I wasn't having an IgE mediated response to certain foods, so I no longer was worried about anaphylaxis, that gave me some level of peace, so I just dropped it ... forgot about it.
Then ..... at Oktoberfest in downtown Cincinnati I had another issue. We were there for at least five hours. I had two beers. I was careful to eat foods that I knew were safe for me. I had fried fish ... at an outdoor event ... who knows if food handling there was perfect? In the middle of the night, I woke up with heart palpitations and GI issues. My husband said I probably had a hangover .... from TWO beers? I told him I only had two beers, that it felt like an allergy (if you have allergies, you know what I mean by that, the feeling of too much adrenaline or something). I was sick for four days.
One day last fall we bought some peaches at a local farm. They were so good I ate five. The inside of my mouth burned like I had swished around acid in it. The same thing has happened with pineapple.
I took two bites of my husband's lobster bisque at a restaurant. I had two glasses of red wine with my dinner. I was sick the whole next day with intense fatigue.
I had champagne on my anniversary a couple days after the lobster bisque. Maybe a little more than my usual two glasses, but certainly not enough to be hammered ..... or sick for five days afterward ... two of those days not even leaving bed. This time headache, body aches (severe), severe tightness in the chest, cough, and fatigue.
It was then that I started researching. Obviously SOMETHING was causing these reactions. So I started looking at common denominators and came up with histamine. All the foods I've mentioned are high in histamine. To compound that affect, alcohol lowers the chemicals in the body that process histamine. The reason these reactions look like allergies, if I'm right, is that histamine is usually a reposnse to an allergen. Yet it's also present in foods.
When I think back, this isn't a problem that started after Lyme Disease. I remember reactions like I've described above happening as far back as college.
The way to diagnose a histamine intolerance is to go on a low histamine diet for a month, then to challenge it. So, I'm starting a low histamine diet to the best of my ability. It also means no alcohol, which shouldn't be too hard, though I'll miss having a glass of wine once in a while.
I'll let you know how it goes. I feel like I might finally have an answer.
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
October update
Hi Everyone! Still doing well. I'm teaching pilates, taking care of my family with good food and spending time with them, and in general, doing great!
I have found that one drop of iodine is plenty. I muscle test every day for my Armour Thyroid and need a half one day, a whole the next. So I'm alternating between a half and whole grain. Maybe my thyroid will eventually heal completely.
I still take iron and my gyno thinks I'll have to until menopause. I've been taking it since puberty. I added blackstrap molasses because it's a natural source of iron and other minerals. I prefer to go with food sources when I can, but I still take one Blood Builder per day most days.
I still take 5HTP for sleep.
I juice off and on. Recently, I have been juicing. I eat healthy with no grains. I do pilates three days per week and one day do sprints on the Spinning bike for 20 min. and a shorter pilates session of 25 min.
So, I'm healthy and busy and live day to day without even thinking of Lyme Disease. I tell people "I used to have Lyme." It's not like remission where you have to do something to stay there, I'm just healthy. And I do things to stay healthy ... but in a normal, I'm almost 50 way. I hope all of you are doing well and getting better every day!
I have found that one drop of iodine is plenty. I muscle test every day for my Armour Thyroid and need a half one day, a whole the next. So I'm alternating between a half and whole grain. Maybe my thyroid will eventually heal completely.
I still take iron and my gyno thinks I'll have to until menopause. I've been taking it since puberty. I added blackstrap molasses because it's a natural source of iron and other minerals. I prefer to go with food sources when I can, but I still take one Blood Builder per day most days.
I still take 5HTP for sleep.
I juice off and on. Recently, I have been juicing. I eat healthy with no grains. I do pilates three days per week and one day do sprints on the Spinning bike for 20 min. and a shorter pilates session of 25 min.
So, I'm healthy and busy and live day to day without even thinking of Lyme Disease. I tell people "I used to have Lyme." It's not like remission where you have to do something to stay there, I'm just healthy. And I do things to stay healthy ... but in a normal, I'm almost 50 way. I hope all of you are doing well and getting better every day!
Saturday, March 3, 2012
March update - allergy testing
Sorry I haven't written .... well not really ... I haven't written because I'm just feeling good and there's nothing to add.
Oh, I got allergy testing done. Remember how I ate at Bonefish Grill and had a crusted trout, so thought that since it was Bang Bang shrimp night that I got sick from shrimp contamination? Uh, surprise surprise. It wasn't the shrimp ...... it was the pecan crust on the trout! I'm allergic to pecans, peanuts (I knew), and sunflower seeds, but not shellfish.
I got a blood test done to confirm and don't have those results yet.
Still taking:
1 drop Lugol's iodine
Blood Builder, 1 tablet
magnesium
5HTP at bedtime
Armour Thyroid
Vitamin D3
Sometimes take:
Vitamin C
other antioxidants (resveratrol, or something else)
Update: My blood test came back as mildly allergic to clams, oysters, squid, and scallops.
Oh, I got allergy testing done. Remember how I ate at Bonefish Grill and had a crusted trout, so thought that since it was Bang Bang shrimp night that I got sick from shrimp contamination? Uh, surprise surprise. It wasn't the shrimp ...... it was the pecan crust on the trout! I'm allergic to pecans, peanuts (I knew), and sunflower seeds, but not shellfish.
I got a blood test done to confirm and don't have those results yet.
Still taking:
1 drop Lugol's iodine
Blood Builder, 1 tablet
magnesium
5HTP at bedtime
Armour Thyroid
Vitamin D3
Sometimes take:
Vitamin C
other antioxidants (resveratrol, or something else)
Update: My blood test came back as mildly allergic to clams, oysters, squid, and scallops.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Raw Food: Ignored advice to go slow!!!
Prior to becoming ill, I ate a TON of raw food! I tried to shoot for 50% or more. I juiced often. Then, when I got sick, I couldn't digest raw food at all. :( I could only eat vegetables if they were overcooked, so soups became a favorite because who likes overcooked side dishes?
Recently, I FINALLY can eat as much raw food as I want, so as I usually do, I went overboard. I read Norman Walker's book on Weight Control .... I didn't buy it, it came with my Norwalk Juicer .... but it has good information in it about eating raw. He warns, GO SLOW, don't change over all at once. Did I listen? Of course not!!! I'm too healthy for it to have been more than a little issue!
WRONG!!!
A day in, as usual, I had a little headache. Nothing big. Hardly noticeable. Three days in, my hips started hurting so badly that the pain woke me up in the middle of the night. The pain in the morning was severe. I did okay, but not great that day. That night, the pain reminded me of when I broke my leg!! OUCH! Two and a half hours after I went to bed and couldn't sleep because I was crying over the pain, I finally got up and ate an Udi's gluten-free bagel with butter and raw almond butter on it. I took a Vicodin, and went back to bed. I played on my iPhone until the Vicodin kicked in then went to sleep.
The next morning, they hurt again, but not so bad. After my evening juice, YOWEE!!! I wasn't messing around with it a second night, so took two Advil and a Norco. I ate some organic blue corn chips and had some wild rice with my dinner salad.
Today I got up and ate my new normal raw breakfast (a glass of fresh apple juice and a couple celery stalks with raw almond butter). I had leftover salad with wild rice for lunch. Multiple raw snacks. I feel much better today, no pain.
I was worried about not having enough food, not about an intense healing reaction. I've been eating raw seed bars, raw soaked almonds, avocados, and nut butters to be sure I'm getting enough fat and calories with all the pilates I've been doing. But I hadn't taken into account that going to fast might cause a healing reaction. Wow. I learned my lesson.
Here's a good site that talks about going raw and what can happen if you go too fast -link
I don't plan on eating all raw all the time, but I am happy to get back to eating a significant amount of raw fruits and veggies full of enzymes. Interestingly, last time I started juicing, a friend who only sees me once a week was so surprised how much younger I looked after only a week of it that she went out and bought a juicer that day. This time, hubby was out of town for four days, and when he got home he said the same thing. Why do I ever stop juicing?!?! LOL
"You're eating a raw food dinner? You better not, it will make you feel like $#!T!!! Yup, my body is weird. There is really no way to know why the detox reaction is in the hips. It started soon after starting raw food, and ended soon after adding cooked back in, so it was clearly related.
Being able to eat this way again tells me that I'm significantly healed. I've been finished with treatment of infection for a couple years now, but as you know I've been working on total healing since then. I want to change my body so that it's not the same as the body that got so gravely ill. I think I'm close to the last layer .... though you never know how many there are .... but this step is significant.
My plans are to eat raw all the way until dinner .... except for today, of course.
Recently, I FINALLY can eat as much raw food as I want, so as I usually do, I went overboard. I read Norman Walker's book on Weight Control .... I didn't buy it, it came with my Norwalk Juicer .... but it has good information in it about eating raw. He warns, GO SLOW, don't change over all at once. Did I listen? Of course not!!! I'm too healthy for it to have been more than a little issue!
WRONG!!!
A day in, as usual, I had a little headache. Nothing big. Hardly noticeable. Three days in, my hips started hurting so badly that the pain woke me up in the middle of the night. The pain in the morning was severe. I did okay, but not great that day. That night, the pain reminded me of when I broke my leg!! OUCH! Two and a half hours after I went to bed and couldn't sleep because I was crying over the pain, I finally got up and ate an Udi's gluten-free bagel with butter and raw almond butter on it. I took a Vicodin, and went back to bed. I played on my iPhone until the Vicodin kicked in then went to sleep.
The next morning, they hurt again, but not so bad. After my evening juice, YOWEE!!! I wasn't messing around with it a second night, so took two Advil and a Norco. I ate some organic blue corn chips and had some wild rice with my dinner salad.
Today I got up and ate my new normal raw breakfast (a glass of fresh apple juice and a couple celery stalks with raw almond butter). I had leftover salad with wild rice for lunch. Multiple raw snacks. I feel much better today, no pain.
I was worried about not having enough food, not about an intense healing reaction. I've been eating raw seed bars, raw soaked almonds, avocados, and nut butters to be sure I'm getting enough fat and calories with all the pilates I've been doing. But I hadn't taken into account that going to fast might cause a healing reaction. Wow. I learned my lesson.
Here's a good site that talks about going raw and what can happen if you go too fast -link
I don't plan on eating all raw all the time, but I am happy to get back to eating a significant amount of raw fruits and veggies full of enzymes. Interestingly, last time I started juicing, a friend who only sees me once a week was so surprised how much younger I looked after only a week of it that she went out and bought a juicer that day. This time, hubby was out of town for four days, and when he got home he said the same thing. Why do I ever stop juicing?!?! LOL
"You're eating a raw food dinner? You better not, it will make you feel like $#!T!!! Yup, my body is weird. There is really no way to know why the detox reaction is in the hips. It started soon after starting raw food, and ended soon after adding cooked back in, so it was clearly related.
Being able to eat this way again tells me that I'm significantly healed. I've been finished with treatment of infection for a couple years now, but as you know I've been working on total healing since then. I want to change my body so that it's not the same as the body that got so gravely ill. I think I'm close to the last layer .... though you never know how many there are .... but this step is significant.
My plans are to eat raw all the way until dinner .... except for today, of course.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Iodine
I've been reading a lot about iodine supplementation lately and it's fascinating. Apparently, most of the population is iodine deficient. There is less iodine in salt and over 50% of people don't use iodized salt. Junk food that is loaded with salt, is loaded with plain salt, not iodized. People in trying to be healthy, cut out salt, which, by the way, is a macronutrient and important to our health.
Recent studies show that perhaps a much higher than RDA amount of iodine is needed. This is big in cancer prevention, specifically breast and prostate cancers.
It's also big in fighting everything from fungus, candida, bacteria, parasites, heavy metals, etc. It's needed for health.
So, I did the test, that has debatable accuracy, but I did it anyway. I painted a patch of my skin with iodine. It dissappeared in less than an hour. I bought Lugol's, the iodine used for many years by doctors.
Do you know anything about bromine? Yes, the stuff used in hot tubs instead of chlorine, that's what I'm talking about. Well, do you know you eat A LOT of bromine? Bread makers used to use iodine in bread. At some point they decided to switch to bromine. it's also in brominated vegetable oil. You say you don't eat brominated vegetable oil? Well, it's in Mountain Dew, Gatorade, Fresca, and other soft drinks. Yuck.
What's the big deal about bromine? It's in the same family of elements as iodine. Your body will use it as iodine, but it can't do all the things for you that iodine does, it just takes up iodine's place in your body. Could this be why we have an epidemic of low thyroid (and even obesity?)? Could this be my answer in getting off thryoid meds once and for all?
I started supplementing a few weeks ago. In the beginning, I did salt loading (I'll provide links so you can read more about the details of this). The salt provides chloride for the kidneys so the bromide doesn't get stuck there. You guessed it. Chloride is also in the iodine family of elements. So is flouride. How can flouridation and chlorination of our water be a good idea?
Many people have bromide detoxification reactions. My husband did. He felt like he had a bad cold and fatigue for the first couple weeks. I had a worse reaction, with over half of the symptoms they say you can have. My hips ached soooo bad. I also had the "cold" and fatigue. Now my left kidney is aching, so I started back with the salt. I'm taking a couple days off the iodine to give my kidneys a rest. I've also bought supplements that are supposed to give kidney support.
Here are some links -
Bromide and salt loading
Bromide dominance
Iodine deficiency
Recent studies show that perhaps a much higher than RDA amount of iodine is needed. This is big in cancer prevention, specifically breast and prostate cancers.
It's also big in fighting everything from fungus, candida, bacteria, parasites, heavy metals, etc. It's needed for health.
So, I did the test, that has debatable accuracy, but I did it anyway. I painted a patch of my skin with iodine. It dissappeared in less than an hour. I bought Lugol's, the iodine used for many years by doctors.
Do you know anything about bromine? Yes, the stuff used in hot tubs instead of chlorine, that's what I'm talking about. Well, do you know you eat A LOT of bromine? Bread makers used to use iodine in bread. At some point they decided to switch to bromine. it's also in brominated vegetable oil. You say you don't eat brominated vegetable oil? Well, it's in Mountain Dew, Gatorade, Fresca, and other soft drinks. Yuck.
What's the big deal about bromine? It's in the same family of elements as iodine. Your body will use it as iodine, but it can't do all the things for you that iodine does, it just takes up iodine's place in your body. Could this be why we have an epidemic of low thyroid (and even obesity?)? Could this be my answer in getting off thryoid meds once and for all?
I started supplementing a few weeks ago. In the beginning, I did salt loading (I'll provide links so you can read more about the details of this). The salt provides chloride for the kidneys so the bromide doesn't get stuck there. You guessed it. Chloride is also in the iodine family of elements. So is flouride. How can flouridation and chlorination of our water be a good idea?
Many people have bromide detoxification reactions. My husband did. He felt like he had a bad cold and fatigue for the first couple weeks. I had a worse reaction, with over half of the symptoms they say you can have. My hips ached soooo bad. I also had the "cold" and fatigue. Now my left kidney is aching, so I started back with the salt. I'm taking a couple days off the iodine to give my kidneys a rest. I've also bought supplements that are supposed to give kidney support.
Here are some links -
Bromide and salt loading
Bromide dominance
Iodine deficiency
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Update and shameless advertising
Well, since I'm doing so well, I really have no HEALTH updates for you at this point. YAY!!! Nice to have nothing to say about my health, right? :)
But, I finished my first 100 hours of pilates training with my new certification program (I'm already "certified", just adding to it). It was 25 hours per week, as I told you in my last post. I took the test, both written and teaching a client, and passed!! Onto the next stage!! The next stage starts this weekend with 18 hours of training over 3 days .... over half that will be doing pilates, so I'll be exhausted by Monday when I have a 90 minute massage scheduled!
I also wanted to tell you that my daughter started blogging. It's a more fun read than this one because it's all about fun topics and has pictures. Please check it out and let me know what you think! Her Halloween post has pictures of me with the goofy husband and goofy kids.
http://luvvleighb.wordpress.com/
But, I finished my first 100 hours of pilates training with my new certification program (I'm already "certified", just adding to it). It was 25 hours per week, as I told you in my last post. I took the test, both written and teaching a client, and passed!! Onto the next stage!! The next stage starts this weekend with 18 hours of training over 3 days .... over half that will be doing pilates, so I'll be exhausted by Monday when I have a 90 minute massage scheduled!
I also wanted to tell you that my daughter started blogging. It's a more fun read than this one because it's all about fun topics and has pictures. Please check it out and let me know what you think! Her Halloween post has pictures of me with the goofy husband and goofy kids.
http://luvvleighb.wordpress.com/
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Update- new bloodwork
I hadn't been to a gyno since my previous one ridiculed me right out of his office. That *could* be the subject of this post, but if you have Lyme, you can imagine the story and you'd be right ... and it included saying anyone who specializes in Lyme is probably a scam ... and he was speechless when I said I had all the symptoms, a positive test, and was doing better with treatment.
Anyway, this time I went to a female gyno for the first time. It wasn't weird, LOL. She specializes in women my age (not having babies). She did a lot of blood tests and I was impressed. She actually tested for vitamin D! I asked her for a ferritin test since mine was only 24 last spring, and she did one for me. Five vials of blood.
Seems I'm NORMAL!!! Not a big accomplishment for most people, but you know what I've been through.
My ferritin is up to 66. She mentioned it was still on the low side, but that low was pretty normal for someone with periods like mine. No wonder I have more energy!!! That's a BIG jump!!! I am still taking double Blood Builder. I muscle test every day, and around my period I can test for two or three twice per day, but normal days, two only once per day.
My vitamin D is up to 64 from 35 last spring. She mentioned that I must supplement because no one is ever in range. I told her I did. She asked how much .... it's 4000-8000 IU daily.
Since I'm taking so much vitamin D and so much iron, both of which "they" say you can take too much of, I was glad to get the confirmation that my body is doing well on it. And I like this new doc. The only thing I don't like is the AIR FRESHENER!!! I could hardly breath in the waiting room. I found it odd a doctor who knows this much about health would have such toxic poison in the waiting room. I would think maybe essential oils .... but not this toxic stuff. I was wheezing at night when I lied down to go to sleep. I couldn't figure out why because that is not normal for me .... then I remembered ... had to be the air freshener. I haven't had that problem since.
I'm feeling great! I'm in a pilates training program that is 25 hours per week. I'm having to memorize tons of stuff and doing fine with it. My brain has come a long way. I'm also on average doing about two hours of pilates a day five days a week, and that's going well, too.
I am photoning monthly again for about the last four months or so. I like to use blood this time of year because so many bugs are going around. I had taken a few months off and did fine.
So, there's your update. Right now I'm taking very little:
Vitamin D
Vitamin C
Iron
Armour Thyroid (one grain)
5HTP at night
Turmeric (with all this pilates, LOL)
Anyway, this time I went to a female gyno for the first time. It wasn't weird, LOL. She specializes in women my age (not having babies). She did a lot of blood tests and I was impressed. She actually tested for vitamin D! I asked her for a ferritin test since mine was only 24 last spring, and she did one for me. Five vials of blood.
Seems I'm NORMAL!!! Not a big accomplishment for most people, but you know what I've been through.
My ferritin is up to 66. She mentioned it was still on the low side, but that low was pretty normal for someone with periods like mine. No wonder I have more energy!!! That's a BIG jump!!! I am still taking double Blood Builder. I muscle test every day, and around my period I can test for two or three twice per day, but normal days, two only once per day.
My vitamin D is up to 64 from 35 last spring. She mentioned that I must supplement because no one is ever in range. I told her I did. She asked how much .... it's 4000-8000 IU daily.
Since I'm taking so much vitamin D and so much iron, both of which "they" say you can take too much of, I was glad to get the confirmation that my body is doing well on it. And I like this new doc. The only thing I don't like is the AIR FRESHENER!!! I could hardly breath in the waiting room. I found it odd a doctor who knows this much about health would have such toxic poison in the waiting room. I would think maybe essential oils .... but not this toxic stuff. I was wheezing at night when I lied down to go to sleep. I couldn't figure out why because that is not normal for me .... then I remembered ... had to be the air freshener. I haven't had that problem since.
I'm feeling great! I'm in a pilates training program that is 25 hours per week. I'm having to memorize tons of stuff and doing fine with it. My brain has come a long way. I'm also on average doing about two hours of pilates a day five days a week, and that's going well, too.
I am photoning monthly again for about the last four months or so. I like to use blood this time of year because so many bugs are going around. I had taken a few months off and did fine.
So, there's your update. Right now I'm taking very little:
Vitamin D
Vitamin C
Iron
Armour Thyroid (one grain)
5HTP at night
Turmeric (with all this pilates, LOL)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)