Category Archives: diet

The susceptibility to disease

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I was thinking about my post here over the weekend, and thought I should expand on it.  I write what I know (which is what they tell you), but perhaps I was being myopic.

I did a search on susceptibility and African Americans, but had very few articles to choose from.  I found this. 

Here are some of the issues I have with this article–

One is that pollution stays in one place, so it affects just the nearest geographical area.   It spreads all over.  Articles on it here and here and here.

Air pollution in FW is particularly bad–there were many, many ozone days last summer where I could not go outside for any length of time.  I thought I could at least jog in the morning of an ozone day, but was sadly mistaken when I started wheezing as I climbed the stairs to my apartment afterward.

The lung disease thing I am confused about because in my building, the only folks with oxygen tanks are whites–several of them.  And nearly all the ones in wheelchairs are white.  At one time, there have been seven whites in wheelchairs, several more using walkers  but only one black gentleman in a wheelchair.  Just my own little world….

I suspect that heavy metals are affecting African Americans, but like whites, are not being noticed or investigated.  The information may be out there, but I didn’t see it in my research.  I would love to explore this more.

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And no, I don’t think that nuclear energy is the answer (if one wants to reduce coal production to lessen the impact of lead, arsenic and mercury in the environment).  Nuclear has many, many problems, one of which is thyroid cancer levels go up around nuclear power plants.  I think one of the first things that has to occur is for Americans to stop wasting so much energy and going off grid would be the first step–one has to be more conscious of the energy they use if they are responsible for that energy. Another step would be to build sustainable housing, like earth ships. Gotta love that name.  And I love the design on this page—Isn’t that cool? Who would think such an artsy design is also sustainable?

A paper here by Joseph Mangano on the rising thyroid cancer rates and nuclear energy. (PDF)

A map on disease clusters here.

Yep, the evidence is out there that we are killing ourselves with the toxic environment.  I’d rather sacrifice a little and be able to breathe than have the conveniences of modern life that are killing us, slowly.

More adventures in Gluten free cooking

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(PERSONAL BLOG)

I haven’t had pancakes in a long while–mainly because I had to watch the carbs because of the mercury’s interference with maintaining sugar levels.  That is, I would react strongly to any carb or high glycemic food, possibly bringing on a migraine.

With the admonition from the Celiac.com members stating that I couldn’t cheat, I had to have something akin to a treat, and decided to try gluten free mixes.  One I tried is by Gluten Free Pantry.  I bought their pancake mix, which has some dairy, but I seem to be able to tolerate small amounts.  I made it using one-half of the recipe amounts, with the exception of using two small eggs (that I needed to use up because they somehow got forgotten in the frig and were almost expired…ahem.)– this made them even more fluffy.

Anyway, I tried it the past couple of mornings….and it’s w-o-n-d-e-r-f-u-l!  A big red flag for anyone who thinks they may be gluten intolerant–when I ate wheat pancakes, they would just lay there in my stomach…for days.  Okay, I’m exaggerating, but yeah, that should be a clue that perhaps my body couldn’t digest it if it feels like a rock.  (They always felt like a rock.  This was “normal” for me–nothing to compare it to until now.)

Of course, Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride is against mixes (processed food).

This page also decries the mixes. Oy.  I guess I’ll have to see how it affects me.  I can tell pretty quickly by my face whether something I ate doesn’t agree with me–my skin looks blotchy and loses its glow when I’ve eaten something I shouldn’t.   It’s amazing how our bodies “tell” us when something is wrong…albeit very subtly.

I didn’t have a migraine this month (woot!)…and feel pretty darn good right now…so I know that I’m on the right track.  It seems the migraines are going to be every other month, for now. Hopefully, they’ll eventually disappear altogether.   🙂

 

 

The Flu scare is on….

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(sigh) Once again the scare tactics are on for the flu vaccine.

News reports have been blasting on every news station I’ve listened to: radio, TV and newspapers.  Local coverage here:  http://www.fortwayne.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130109/NEWS/320139235?mytabsmenu=

On the rightwing radio station here, the head of the health dept. was pushing for everyone to get the vaccine, using a coercive technique of saying that “you may be healthy, and survive the flu, but you may expose someone else to the flu…” (if you don’t get the vaccine).  Of course, the talk show host did not question this line of thinking nor if there were repercussions to getting the vaccine itself.  This is one of the issues I had with the health dept–they don’t tell both sides of the story and reveal the downsides of vaccine to allow people to make their own decisions of whether they want to get the vaccine.

Here’s a blog disputing the numbers the CDC is using to scare the public into getting a vaccine that is not safe nor necessarily effective.  (Keep in mind, folks, that the CDC is now being run by the Dept. of Hysterical Security.)

People have such short memories on the swine flu “pandemic”...and all the hysteria that involved.  The key sentence in this report is this:

Most reports coming from the Southern Hemisphere in late August (the end of winter there) suggested that the swine flu is highly infectious, but not particularly lethal.

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The swine flu was contagious, but not particularly lethal–so the hysteria was just that–being terrorized over something that was not likely to cause severe health problems.

The story does say that whooping cough has been contained by vaccines, but from everything I’ve read, that is not true.  They have been saying that whooping cough is increasing in numbers, even though people have been vaccinated!

Another telling sentence in the above report is this:

Education, lifestyle, income, and many other “confounding” factors can come into play, and as a result, cohort studies are notoriously prone to bias.

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Bias. Bias. Bias.  Scientists have inserted their biases into research to obtain a certain result or support their own prejudices.  This has been demonstrated over and over and over again….and yet reporters and the public don’t question scientists or their research.

For instance, those who don’t see doctors and don’t get the flu (such as myself) are not going to be counted.  I should be getting the flu because of my compromised immune system and exposure to all sorts of germs at the library and my building…so where is the science in that??

(A side note ~ I heard or read somewhere that keyboards were filthier than toilet seats, so I began using the sanitized wipes on the keyboard before I type a letter. And in relation to that, you men need to wash your hands after using the toilet!  I did my own little “survey” when I worked (Gah, I once worked…)–the company’s break room was situated near the bathrooms, and I’d listen for the water to run after someone used the toilet.  All the women washed their hands…half of the men did. Blech.)

Link to the vaccine injury page.  Good info here.  Be sure to click on the link of the unvaccinated children.  There’s a particular statement by a speech pathologist who notes that children have seizures and their development is arrested after receiving the vaccines.  This makes sense to me because of all I know about the immune system (the gut) and the interference with brain function (migraines, seizures, ADD, clumsiness) when one has leaky gut (Celiac).  But you won’t hear this on the radio or TV or newspapers…

Also on the page is a link to the state of health of vaccinated children.  Two-thirds of the parents who had their children vaccinated would not continue.  Link here to the health effects after vaccination.

A good website here on the 1986 law effectively putting the burden of vaccine injury onto the taxpayers and allowing the pharmaceutical industry and doctors to avoid responsibility and accountability for the harm that vaccines cause.  (Note that this is during the Reagan administration.)

From the webpage:

There is a long list of things that are wrong with the VICP. First and foremost, while it is referred to as a court, it simply is not a court. There is no judge, no jury, no right to require the adversary to provide information, and no formal rules of evidence and civil procedure.

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This illustrates the lack of justice for the victims of vaccine injury.  A pharmaceutical company does not have to show their face in a court of law, to a jury, and most importantly, to the victim whose life has been altered due to their product, as the page states.  The hidden data of the Vaccine Safety Datalink was allowed to be viewed by the Justice Dept, but not the attorneys for the victims.

The page states that they only have a three year statute of limitations to file the case.  They feel, and I agree, that this is too short a time period.  For one, you have so many so-called professionals who will dispute the vaccine injury.  This is parallel  to my mercury injury from the amalgams–even though my migraines started one year after placement, it wasn’t until nearly ten years later that I discovered the link between them and the symptoms I was having.  All the professionals I had seen never considered amalgams as a source of health issues.  They still don’t.

And the biggest empty hole missing from this conversation is: DIET.  Not a word about how diet affects us and our immune systems and how a healthy immune system will successfully fight the flu bug and any other nasty stuff that comes our way.  Folks don’t die from the flu–they die from pneumonia, because of a compromised immune system that can’t fight it off.  Not a word about gluten intolerance and how that can lead to the gut’s inability to effectively kill the flu virus or the pneumonia bacteria.

The next biggest empty hole is: ENVIRONMENTAL TOXINS.  This being another devastating effect on the immune system.

But that would actually take using more than a myopic view, and we just can’t have that. /snark

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Link in criminal behavior and heavy metals

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One of the members of the support group posted this link to a timely article on the link between lead and criminal behavior–not just here, but around the world.  Pretty impressive.  Unfortunately, the article’s focus is solely on lead, and not other heavy metals like mercury, which also affect brain and body function, and is everywhere in the atmosphere.

Anybody wanna bet that this will not be looked at in the case of Adam Lanza or any of the mass killers?

More on celiac…

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Having support of one’s family and spouse after diagnosis would seem to be a no-brainer, but no, as this post illustrates. Such ignorance and indifference–encouraging someone to sabotage themselves…and as one poster said, they really don’t want to hear about it. <sigh>

I forgot to mention the other day about the confirmation of my suspicions that I had become even more sensitive to wheat and other foods that set off the immune system allergic response–others on the forum remarked that it is a phenomenon that the system, while trying to heal itself, suddenly kicks into overdrive at the offending substance and the reaction is more severe.  Just thought I’d throw that out there for anyone else struggling with this.

 

Celiac

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I can’t remember if I’ve blogged on this website or not, so forgive the repeat if I did~

Celiac.com is a wonderful resource for those with gluten intolerance/celiac.

I was reading the forums from others and it really helps especially during the holidays.  One of the posters has family that don’t understand how serious the condition is and that they can’t eat the normal foods associated with the holidays.  The family member took offense that she would want to fix food for her family (husband and child are affected) separately.

In another post, it really struck home for me–a new member asked if she could cheat a little, as long as she was eating right most of the time.  I have to admit that I’ve cheated, too, and was thinking that as long as I was eating the right foods 90% of the time, that a little bit of cheating wouldn’t hurt.

Wrong.

The other members were quick to tell her in no uncertain terms not to do it.  For one, even if you’re diligent about eating the right foods, you never know when you’ll be exposed to cross contamination (eating food prepared in a facility that also prepares wheat products or even breathing the wheat dust while someone else is baking can affect one, as well).  One member related that she got fed up with the gluten-free diet and for a year or so ate whatever she wanted….she was at a pizzeria when she doubled over in pain and had to be taken to the hospital.  They rushed her into emergency surgery and removed part of her bowel that had literally exploded.  She now has a colostomy and hopes to heal enough to get it removed in the near future.

And on the support group (GAPS), a member posted about her child that had been given crackers by the teacher.  When the parent raised alarm at this, and how this was not allowed, the teacher made some comment that it was *only* six crackers (or something like that).

Incredible!

If the child had a peanut allergy, and this teacher had given him/her peanuts, it would be considered a serious breach of duty.

Even a doctors have told their Celiac patients that they can cheat *a little*.  Wow.

And trying to tell my family about this disease and warning them that it’s inherited and pointing out signs of it has fallen on deaf ears….some even get a little perturbed at me….<sigh>

Progress

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(PERSONAL BLOG)

I haven’t posted on my progress for awhile, so I thought I’d put this up–

I am finally able to eat a little garlic. This is wonderful for me because I love it in butter sauce over spaghetti pasta.  Only now I have to use spaghetti squash.  It’s still delicious, though, and garlic is a wonder food.  It was actually used in WWII for the soldiers’ ailments (before penicillin was discovered).  It’s a natural antibacterial, antifungal and is just an all-around superfood for the immune system.  So, yeah, it’s good that I can eat it…as long as it’s not too often–still have issues if I eat too much of a good thing.

I can eat green leafy lettuce now, too, which is w-o-n-d-e-r-f-u-l.  I discovered a simple but delicious recipe in the book How to Cook without a Book.   I’ve discovered that most gluten-free books are written by people who don’t know how to cook.  This book, although not aimed at the gluten-free crowd, nevertheless has wonderful recipes that I’ve adapted.  She gives a basic ingredient list and then gives one different go-togethers.  A favorite of mine is a basic leafy green salad with olive oil and vinegar dressing.  (personally, I prefer it without the vinegar) and she adds bacon, avocado, and tomato.  It’s the closest thing to a BLT, and I love BLT’s, but of course can’t have the bread anymore.  This is a great alternative and nutritious, to boot. 🙂

My skin looks so much better just since March, when starting this diet.  I figure if it looks better on the outside, the inside is hopefully making the same progress.

Other progress I’ve noticed is that I’m able to handle stress a lot better.  This is crucial because the adrenals take such a beating with heavy metal poisoning that they can’t put out the cortisone to calm you down when you’re in a stressful situation.  In other words, you don’t freak out over stupid stuff.

Another crucial recovery is with my sense of humor —it is more frequently there than not…because I can tell you that my sense of humor has always been a part of my personality and with mercury’s affects on my brain’s creativity and linear thinking and constant exhaustion– that precious gift had disappeared.  It’s a cruelty that at the time when I needed my sense of humor the most, with the sense of connectedness, it wasn’t there for me–I had lost “myself”.  I cannot begin to describe how it feels to lose oneself–you know you’re still *there*  but you can’t bring *her* out.  Even more cruel is that every now and then, I’d get a glimpse of *me*, but as I tried to grab hold, she slipped back *underwater* and out of my grasp.

I’m sleeping better, which probably helps all of the above.  Not great, but much better.

There are still days, though, when I want to withdraw and not talk to anyone (autistic symptoms).  And the memory stuff comes and goes…and of course, the dreaded migraines.  I do have hope, however, as others on the GAPS diet have testified that they had suffered, too, but are now headache-free (keeping fingers and toes crossed).

So…yeah…I’m…Feelin’ Stronger Every Day (James Pankow, Chicago)

Blessed.

 

 

Dental decay reversed?

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Members of the GAPS diet group posted this link to a theory that teeth can remineralize following the basic GAPS diet and staying away from processed food.  Wouldn’t that just blow you away?  Put the dental profession out of business, eh?  Shhh…we don’t want them to get wind of this…you know, that whole profits against morality thing…and we know that profits usually wins…

…what I didn’t see in the bottom of the article when it listed what one needed for the teeth to remineralize was an absence of toxins…because the immune system cannot function properly while the body’s cells are malfunctioning due to chemical interference.

Feed the soil…

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…and the rest will follow. (hat tip to organic farmers’ group)

Here we are, 2012, and still rediscovering what wisdom has been known forever…nature can do a bang up job when we cooperate with her instead of fighting against her…

The cover crops angle is the missing link that nourishes the soil while preventing erosion.  As the article states, it puts back nutrients that create that rich compost responsible for holding the soil together, holding water when droughts hit, and feeding the worms, which add their own version of rich casings (fertilizer).  (A side story–someone told me of a woman who detested worms and requested a chemical fertilizer be applied to kill all the worms in her yard.  I kid you not.)  Also, the article doesn’t mention the beneficial microbes that eat e.coli –which helps keep it in check.