Long time, no see - my progress

Discussion in 'Your Living Room' started by Papajoe, Mar 23, 2014.

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  1. Intrepid

    Intrepid New Member

    True. I just prefer to get my sugar from things like yams or carrots. I'd rather just eat the food, y'know? :D
     
  2. bluespurs

    bluespurs New Member

    How long have you been eating this way and how did you know it will help your md. Trial and error?
     
  3. So Cal Cyclist

    So Cal Cyclist View Askew

    Good job Papa Joe. Congratulations on finding the missing pieces to your puzzle.
     
  4. redwing1951

    redwing1951 New Member

    Joe the bread is located in the freezers isle. You can find it in health food stores. Also how about frozen yogurt instead of sorbet?
     
  5. bulldogs

    bulldogs New Member

    Ok,
    Thanks so much. I was wondering about frozen yogurt and I also saw a low sugar ice cream was available as well. I love frozen yogurt TCBY

    I will go after the kids go to bed. I like the grocery store, relaxing to me.
     
  6. Papajoe

    Papajoe Myco-dental Freak of Nature

    I want to add that it was So Cal's suggestion that I eliminate wheat that started this whole journey for me. So Cal's got a special place in my heart.
     
  7. Intrepid

    Intrepid New Member

    Close to two years and yes it has helped my symptoms overall. I know this because if I introduce any of my trigger foods back, the ringing goes up, I have unsteady gait, the room tilts when I am lying down etc. It is a threshold thing with me. I can eat gluten in moderation but all the planets must be aligned for it to not have an effect on me i.e. no weather changes, no hormonal changes, enough sleep, etc. I do not have Celiac disease nor do I have a gluten allergy. I am sensitive and/or intolerant toward the foods I listed.

    For me it was easy. I decided I was going to cut out certain food groups and I did. I don't miss any of it.

    I also do not eat any kind of chocolate, I cut out caffeine (but I drink tea) and I don't eat dried fruits.

    I also have MAV so eating this way helps the migraine component. Of course, I will never know if this is remission or good management of symptoms. It's always a shot in the dark with these disease.

    I also stay very active physically and that helps very much.
     
  8. Juz

    Juz New Member

    Great discussion.

    I am on a very similar eating plan to Intrepid, and started around 6 weeks ago.

    I have noticed a clear difference in frequency and severity of vertigo since giving up gluten and dairy in particular. Eating this way has also improved the gastrointestinal problems I've had for several years. Docs had tested my blood, performed ultrasounds and even an MRI and CT but, astonishingly in hindsight, no one ever thought to to just eliminate potential irritants to see what would happen. So I did it myself!

    Two days ago I gave myself a helluva lightbulb moment. I had satay chicken, Thai red curry, a piece of apple pie with custard and an Oreo. Man, did I PAY for that mistake. I woke up to a horrid day of reflux and upset intestines (use your imagination). By that night I was done... vertigo was in full swing.

    I don't know that how I eat is the "cause" of my MM symptoms. But I do know that my body functions infinitely better when I eat the way I "should".

    To be honest it's been hard to get to this point. I absolutely sympathise with you Bulldogs. I have a 2 year old boy and a 3 month old girl. And I absolutely live for food. Living in the wondrous food paradise that is Melbourne last year led to me regularly eating pretty much the opposite of what I should. We had access to virtually every cuisine on Earth and I'm sure it contributed to my crappy health.

    But I reached my breaking point. Unable to work and so sick that it was impacting on my state of mind, I started giving up a number of indulgences. Then six weeks ago, after several weeks of research, I took the plunge.

    I still have bloody Meniere's. I still get vertigo. My ear still rings like a bell. But it's all more... under control, I guess you could say.

    As Intrepid says, you just have to be motivated enough to do it, and then you suddenly realise that it's becoming your new normal. When and where that motivation comes from is down to each person. : )
     
  9. Papajoe

    Papajoe Myco-dental Freak of Nature

    My own Opinion, humble as it is, is that if you have clear trigger foods, especially like you both describe (Intrepid & Juz), that sounds to me like leaky gut. Have either of you seen a doctor about leaky gut? Note that most doctors don't "recognize" it, but there are an increasing number of doctors who do.

    That's exactly what happened to me (especially Juz's comment about breaking point). I was a food junkie, especially anything sweet. My non-doctor recommendation would be to find a knowledgeable doctor who knows how to deal with leaky gut.

    It's also my humble, non-medical opinion that you are classic cases where the abx/anti-fungal/probiotic treatment might make a difference (with you doctor's guidance of course).

    BTW - I love, love, love Thai food, but some restaurants use MSG. That's a big trigger. During my detox I've had to give up eating at my favorite Thai restaurant and go to another that doesn't use MSG. I also fix Thai food at home because you can make it low carb. Fish sauce might be a bit of a trigger if your pitcher is full (following the Heal Your Headache paradigm)
     
  10. Papajoe

    Papajoe Myco-dental Freak of Nature

    BTW - I'm still planning (probably this weekend) to post some research links on body fat and the role in mediation of inflammation.
     
  11. Intrepid

    Intrepid New Member

    I don't have leaky gut. I have seen an allergist about it. It was years ago and she first suggested it but also recommended NAET treatment which I do not believe in. Some swear by it.

    My guide was my inflammation markers over time. I made a spreadsheet and took note of every blood test result over the past 10 years and compared them. Things got bad with inflammation markers about 3 years ago but all my otehr results were normal i.e. no indication of metabolic syndrome. Everything was great yet I didn't feel well and my migraines and dizziness and tinnitus (plus mini vertigo spells) were almost a daily occurrence.

    I turned to my environment to look for answers. I knew chemicals and scents set me off instantly. I knew I had allergic reactions to whatever was in the air but repeated allergy tests came back negative (as did tests for food, both skin and blood). There were a lot of things that were "wrong" but no test could actually narrow it down to something.

    My story is a long one and I don't want to get into the details but, like Juz, I turned to the things I could control and what I was eating was one of them. I didn't eat badly before. I didn't eat junk food, didn't drink soda, hardly ate out, etc. So I had to painstakingly weed out every single thing I ate and test it all.

    Leaky gut is a syndrome not a disease so like MM, it is difficult to say what exactly is going on. It takes a lot of motivation and focus to make changes but it can be done.
     
  12. redwing1951

    redwing1951 New Member

    Intrepid you are such an asset to this forum! Your discipline in how you control your symtoms is commendable. I know how much strength it takes in the beginning to do what you have done. Eventually it becomes a way of life. You inspire me.
     
  13. Intrepid

    Intrepid New Member

    Thank you! We're all here to help one another in whichever way we can :)
     
  14. Juz

    Juz New Member

    I'm still very much in the early stages of this little experiment, so I'm really not even sure if I have clear, identifiable triggers as such. I do know that the combination of dairy and gluten causes me to have problems, but I'm wary of attributing them directly to mm symptoms yet (although it sure seemed that way after my little venture into flavour town). If what I've experienced in the last six weeks continues for some time, and therefore I see a direct correlation between my mm symptoms and how I'm now eating, I'll be much more convinced. In the meantime I know I'm doing my general health a world of good by cutting out so much of what I once thought was "normal" food.

    Thanks for the tips, Joe. I will talk to my doc about leaky gut on my next visit.
     
  15. Papajoe

    Papajoe Myco-dental Freak of Nature

    Sorry, didn't mean to be gone so long ;D

    Thanks Intrepid, I didn't remember if we had ever talked about leaky gut before or not.

    The subject of body fat is changing in the medical community. Most research refers to body fat, especially visceral fat, as being an "inflammatory mediator". Many people (on the internet, and with conversations I've had with doctors) say that means that it causes inflammation.

    However, there is increasing evidence that body fat is used by the body to reduce inflammation, at least temporarily. The idea is that when you have a substance that causes inflammation, that the body (mainly through the liver) can reduce that inflammation by "hiding" the substance in a fat cell. However, if that fat cell is ever burned, the substance is released back into the blood stream when it can cause inflammation again.

    This is the basis for my diet & detox. Most inflammatory substances are metabolized through the liver. The liver stores these in bile, which is then added to the gut, where it can be eliminated. However the bile (and associated toxins) can be re-absorbed. My doctor is treating me by having me take bile binders, which prevent the bile and toxins from being reabsorbed. The weight loss is increasing my inflammation (especially the neuropathy), but the whole process should be easier and shorter than it would be without the bile binders.

    But it would all be somewhat moot if I still had an active source of inflammation.



    For the purposes of this post, I'll use the term "inflammatory compound" (IC) to mean anything that can cause the immune system to ramp up inflammation. It could be an allergen, it could be a toxin created by an infection, or a toxin from chemical exposure, or even just a foreign substance which the body recognizes as not "self".

    Duk-Hee Lee, of Kyoungpook National University in Korea, has studied the effects and behavior of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) in the human body and their interactions with body fat. POPs are things like DDT and PCBs. These make good compounds to study because they don't occur naturally in the body, they are easy to measure, and they are so wide spread in the environment that almost everybody has a certain amount of them in their bodies.

    The most telling study is one where they measured the serum concentration of POPs (the amount free in the blood stream) of people when they were losing weight and when they were gaining weight. This study showed that when the test subjects were losing weight, the amount of POPs in the blood increased. When the subjects gained weight, the amount of POPs in the blood went down. Bolded text was bolded by me.

    http://www.researchgate.net/publication/46158592_Inverse_associations_between_long-term_weight_change_and_serum_concentrations_of_persistent_organic_pollutants
    "There is emerging evidence that persistent organic pollutants (POPs) can increase the risk of various chronic diseases. As POPs mainly bioaccumulate in adipose tissue, weight change can affect serum concentrations of POPs. However, there are few population-based studies on effects of long-term weight change on serum concentrations of POPs."
    ...
    "Although both beneficial health effects after weight loss and harmful health effects after weight gain are generally expected, changes in serum concentrations of POPs in relation to weight change may act on health in directions opposite to what we expect with weight change."

    Here is a story on the study in lay terms: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/200384.php

    Here is another study: http://www.nature.com/ijo/journal/v24/n10/full/0801380a.html
    "While there appears to be a consensus among scientists and clinicians that body weight loss reduces the risk of several chronic diseases, these apparently favourable effects should be balanced against any potentially harmful side effect of weight loss. In this regard, weight loss has been shown to produce an increase in blood concentration of potentially toxic organochlorine pollutants in animals that can cause prejudice to health, but human data are lacking."



    In addition, you would think that people who are obese would die sooner, but there is an "obesity paradox" among people who suffer from inflammatory diseases. Often the lean people die sooner than the obese people. The implication is that the obesity lowers overall inflammation thereby allowing the obese people to live longer.

    http://www.researchgate.net/publication/51673787_The_association_between_obesity_and_mortality_in_the_elderly_differs_by_serum_concentrations_of_persistent_organic_pollutants_a_possible_explanation_for_the_obesity_paradox
    "Objective:Numerous studies have documented an obesity paradox in which the overweight and obese elderly have a better prognosis than those with ideal body weight. Good prognosis among the overweight or obese elderly may reflect the relative safety of storing the harmful lipophilic chemicals, known as persistent organic pollutants (POPs), in adipose tissue rather than in other critical organs. "

    "These findings are consistent with our hypothesis that adipose tissue provides relatively safe storage of toxic lipophilic chemicals, a phenomenon that could explain the obesity paradox. Although weight loss may be beneficial among the obese elderly with low POP concentrations, weight loss in the obese elderly with higher serum concentrations of POPs may carry some risk."

    Here is an article about the paradox by a different set of doctors
    http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/36/Supplement_2/S276.full
    "Adipose tissue has been shown to be a pivotal organ in the aging process and in the determination of life span. Owing to the rising prevalence of obesity, especially at younger ages, a potential decline in life expectancy is expected in the U.S. in the 21st century. Obesity, and mainly its abdominal form, is considered a major risk factor not only for type 2 diabetes, lipid disorders, and hypertension but also for coronary heart disease and certain cancers. In epidemiological studies, BMI, an indicator of relative weight for height (weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in meters) is frequently used as a surrogate for assessment of excess body fat."
    ...
    "During the past decade, there is increasing evidence that patients, especially elderly, with several chronic diseases and elevated BMI may demonstrate lower all-cause and cardiovascular mortality compared with patients of normal weight. This article summarizes some of these paradoxical findings known as the “obesity paradox” and discusses potential causes of its manifestation."



    Duk-Hee Lee has a series of interesting studies along these lines: http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Duk-Hee_Lee/publications/
     
  16. dizzybee

    dizzybee New Member

    I agree Bubbagump....makes me angry as well :)

    I'm a newbie.....I'm glad you're figuring your issue out with this! Very promising to all :)
     
  17. June-

    June- New Member

    Nice to see you PapaJoe! Glad you are doing well.
     
  18. Papajoe

    Papajoe Myco-dental Freak of Nature

    Hi June, good to see you again too!
     
  19. Papajoe

    Papajoe Myco-dental Freak of Nature

    Hi Dizzybee,
    Sorry you're here! I found doctor to be of little help, but hang in there!

    -PapaJoe
     
  20. dizzybee

    dizzybee New Member

    I'm sorry to be here too...lol! But you guys are so great!! Thing is, 3 months after being diagnosed I was retested by a neurotologist who said that "whatever I had was gone or in remission". Hmmmm...is that really possible? So, I remain confused and anxious ;) I really do enjoy eating better and drinking lots of water. I've lost a lot of weight and for the most part feel better. Now, if I could just get through the anxiety part..... I truly think I've read too much about this :) Do you find that taking anxiety medication helps? And if so, physically or just mentally?
     

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