day 15

Day 15
This post includes some very personal data.

Today I begin a serious look at my food addiction ( mainly for me it is fast food, and involves running from my life, feelings, things I don't think I have any control over.) This is a 20 year struggle. I have committed to myself to begin to look at this today.

It is two fold and involves two different "parts" of who I am.

Part 1:
I believe my food addiction is grounded in my "Little Amy"..ages 8-12.
I believe it is she who runs from the things she can't control. I was sexually abused and ritualistically sexually abused from the age of 2 up to a rape by my best friends dad when I was 8. I think I have finally figured out WHY I run...I run because I can..because it is all about control. I couldn't run as a small child, but I can sure get in that car and run from my life today.

I do not eat the food in the house as part of my addiction, I am always RUNNING away from the house and eating fast food. The running away is grounded in my young child, inner child, who couldn't run as a child, away from what was happening to me. I think this is key and for the first time, today, I'm seeing this clearly.

I'm still processing this addiction. And will continue to do so in the days to come I'm sure.

Part 2:
My adult self, when out and running errands and such, makes BAD FOOD CHOICES for herself due to low self-worth and self-esteem.
I learned a long time ago in a college communications class that someone can have HIGH self-confidence and LOW self-worth and self-esteem. This is me today. I am beginning a plan on how to raise my self-worth..and part of that involves making good healthy decisions when it comes to my food choices. :-)

10:00 Thyroid meds ( 90 mg. of an old formulation of armour). I am thinking I am on too much medication for my thyroid condition. I'll post the blood work results. But my TSH is .2 (reference range is .4-4.3)This means I am on the HIGH end of hypothyroid..I feel my best when the number is around 2.5. Thyroid tests are backwards...so a high TSN means low thyroid function and a low TSH means a high thyroid function. I called Dr. Wilbrands office to see if they can change my compounded prescrition because it comes in gelcaps and I can't split the dosages. I see a new ( first ever) Endocrinologist a week from Thursday. I think being on too much medication is making me tired/fatigued in the afternoons.

Protein shake with hemp milk. fresh strawberries, minerals, sun is shining, ground flax seed and walnuts

ambertose, iron, 2 mag. lac. LAY wafer, zymez wafer, zinc liver chelate, 2 CHEWS ( Chews 4 Health for the sea veggies) ( I can't seem to eat those sea veggies so the next best thing is to get them in a supplement that you CHEW, like food), megazyme, Trophons, b-12

1:30
1/4 green pepper, broccoli, 3 leaves romaine lettuce, 2 hard boiled eggs w/sea salt, w/ 1 tbls of ranch dressing.

1 megazyme, 2 wafers, 2 mag., 2 ioderal, 1 superpill, ambertose

5:30 hand ful of mixed nuts

6:30 baked "white" potato with 2 tbls. of butter, sea salt and pepper, 2 bites of mac. and cheese ;-( 2-zinc, 2-ioderal, 1 super pill

At bed time
trophons, pro-biotic, 2 melatonin

This was my first day, in a long time, with no fast food and no soda. YEAH for me. I stayed HOME the whole day. It was not easy...a lot of crying and journaling. Realizing how much of my life has been wasted in DRIVING AWAY from my family and home. I talked briefly to my three kids that were home last night, Caleb 17, Caterina 19, and Tristan 12 and explained to them that I am going to take this thing one day at a time and I needed their help in making sure we eat at the house at night. For example, don't ask me to run by Taco Bell lol. They all agreed and thought it was nice to actually have dinner at home with each other. :-) Things will change one day at a time.

My mother quit drinking in 1976...and was sober until the day she died ( just a few short years ago). I remember her going to AA meetings and working the 12 steps. The first is to admit that you are powerless..that is a HUGE first step for me, because in admitting I am powerless can trigger my abuse as a child. But today i think I turned a corner on my addiction.

KISS- Keep it simple stupid...I like Keep It Simple Sweetie ( better) lol another AA thing.

One day down.

Adrenal Stress Index

edit | delete

Adrenal Stress Index
They received test via mail on 8-25-2009

ASI-Adrenal Stress Index
TAP Free Cortisol Rhythm

6:00-8:00 a.m. 11 ( depressed) ref. range 13-24 nM

11:00-12:00 ( noon) 6 ( normal) � � 5-10 nM

4:00-5:00 PM 6 ( normal) � � 3-8 nM

10:00-Midnight 8 (elevated) 1-4 nM

Remarks:
Depressed morning cortisol, <13 nM, is suggestive of marginal HPA ( Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal) performance. Normal rhythms exhibit highest cortisol value for the day at 7-8 am.

An elevated morning/night free cortisol value may be associated with insomnia, and caused by a stress response to an emotional or mental situation, nocturnal hypoglycemia or chronic pain and overt/hidden inflammation.

What next?
a) consider appropriate dietary modifications and glycemic control that include an insulin friendly carbohydrate-to-protein balance.

b) consider initiating a mild to moderate aerobic exercise program

c) the literature resports ACTH pulse height is attenuated by use of Phosphorylated serine suppliment within 1-2 hours of time(s) of high cortisol.

d) consider the palliative use of natural or pharmaceutical anti-histamine or anti-inflammatory.

e) consider balancing the sympathetic/parasympathetic systems using established techniques, examples: meditation and Tai Chi or heart rate variability coherence ( Freeze Framing).

f) if above changes do not yeild the desired clinical and follow up test results, look for low grade or hidden inflammation and infections. Examples food intolerances, chronic gastrointestinal and other infections.

DHEA
pooled value 8 Normal adults ( M/F): 3-10 ng/ml

ISSN Insulin
Fasting <3 Normal: 3-12 uIU/mL

Post-Prandial <3 depressed Optimal: 5-20 uIU/mL

Depressed Post-prandial insulin within four hours after meal. This may be caused by a small carbohydrate load in the preceeding challenege meal or a reduction in pancreatic insulin release or synthesis. Consider a closer examination of challenege meal composition to rule out pre-diabetic tendencies.

P17-OH 17-OH Progesterone 40 Normal

MB2S Total Salivary SIgA 6 Depressed Normal ranges: 25-60 mg/dl
Borderline: 20-25 mg/dl

A depressed mucosal SIgA may be attributed to one or more of the following reasons:
1-Excessive chronic cortisol output causes a reduction in the number of SIgA producing immunocytes. Appropriate restorative treatments have been shown to produce incremental improvements in SIgA.

2-Excessive sympathic activity causes inhibition of SIgA release from the mucosal immunocytes.

3-Chronic deficits in cortisol and/or DHEA levels.

4-Possible systemic deficit in capacity to produce IgA-an inherited problem. Rule out possibility with a serum IgA test. A normal finding rules out this possibility.

F14 Gliadin Ab, SIgA ( saliva) 6 Negative Borderline: 13-15 U/mL
Posi tive: >15 U/mL
Notes on Gliadin Ab Test:
Gliadins are polypeptides found in wheat,rye,oat,barley,and other grain glutens, and are toxic to the intestinal mucosa in susceptible individuals. Healthy adults and children may have a positive antigliadin test because of subclinical gliadin intolerance. Some of their symptoms include mild enteritis, occasional loose stools, fat intolerance, marginal vitamin and mineral status, fatigue, or accelerated osteoporosis. ( Scan. J. Gastroenterol. 29:248(1994).

***I do not have a gluten sensativity. This is GOOD news.

Sharing Information on Health

I am trying to combine and share on several different sites, my health journey.
So when you see something like days 10,11,12 won't be posted that's coming from my daily blog on my health ;-)

I'm setting up a NEW Autoimmune board in yahoo. A place to present ALL that I have found..I want it to be available to everyone who wants to see it and read it so they can make their own best choices on what their "plan of actions" needs to be.

I'm still posting on my other health board Healing The Body as well.

One day i will probably just be posting in one spot ( when the Cafe is open and running I won't have time to be here as often.)

Anyone reading this post needs to pass the word along to anyone you know who has an autoimmune issue or any health issue as the autoimmune board will be a excellent resource for them in the weeks/months/years to come.

Enjoy your day!

The Eat Right America Foundation

Our mission is to promote
scientific research and
public education to prevent
dietary-caused disease,
the major cause of
chronic illnesses
and premature death
in modern countries



Eat Right America Educational and Research Foundation.
The medical profession and the public at large will not embrace nutritional interventions to prevent and treat disease unless well-documented in the scientific literature. Today almost all research funding is directed to "drug-research".

Results from preliminary medical studies have depicted that headaches, asthma, kidney disease, hypertension, diabetes and heart disease can all be improved, effectively treated and even "cured" via nutritional excellence. Nutrition for many diseases can be more effective than drug treatment.

Finding a "drug-cure" helps the bottom line of medical and pharmaceutical industries it will not help the average business. It is a response to dietary-caused diseases that has failed. Treatment is expensive. The average cost to traditional health insurer for the first 90 days after a heart attack is over $40,000. With the exception of a very few congenital conditions, every heart attack is a preventable and needless tragedy.

According to a study published in the January/February 2005 in Health Affairs more than 15 percent of the nation's gross domestic product (GNP) went to health care in 2003. The 2003 percent increase was greater than the growth in the U.S. economy as a whole. Health spending rose faster than federal revenues. It is eating away at our profitability.

The rising occurrence of obesity compounds these problems. Obesity is a totally preventable and reversible condition.
The sobering facts are that:


•More then 1 out of 3 Americans are obese. 85% of all Americans die from diseases that can be avoided by adopting a healthy diet

•Corporations will bear the brunt of these costs.

•This crisis threatens to undermine the American economy.

The solution is always obvious in retrospect. Yet, in the moment of crisis, we are unable to see it because it is often hidden in plain view. What is needed is the right question.





Skyrocketing health care costs are a radical problem and require a radically different way of thinking. The question is not: "How can we reduce cost of health care?" That question has a never ending list of answers. The questions that we should be asking are:


Can I prevent these costs from being incurred in the first place? If so, what are the impediments to prevention and how can we remove them? If diseases are preventable then how can we induce people to take the necessary steps to prevent them? These questions will lead to a more comprehensive solution.

Dr. Fuhrman and our advisor board of respected physicians and scientists have been studying this problem for several years. This includes studying and identifying the underlying impediments that prevent people from being able change. It starts by understanding our basic psychological wiring and physiologic nature of food addiction.

Wellness is more than just the absence of disease. It is a multi-dimensional indicator of your physical, emotional, and social state. Total wellness is characterized by superior health and is marked by a socially connected, disease free and long life span.

Difficult problems require a new way of thinking. Traditional diets don't work-they fail to consider the complexities of human nature and the workings of the human hunger drive. Traditional approaches to wellness are inadequate and do not address the underlying impediments to wellness. Our approach is based on the latest scientific research and clinical experience and it is based on modeling excellence. We are in desperate need of funding for studies to demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach to disease and to bring the results of the research to the public for implementation.

Raw vs. cooked

Raw vs. Cooked?
Certainly, there are benefits to consuming plenty of raw fruits and vegetables. These foods supply us with high nutrient levels and are generally low in calories too. Eating lots of raw foods is a key feature of an anti-cancer diet style and a long life. But are there advantages to eating a diet of all raw foods and excluding all cooked foods? The answer is a resounding “No”. In fact, eating an exclusively raw-food diet is a disadvantage. Excluding all steamed vegetables and vegetable soups from your diet narrows your nutrient diversity and has a tendency to reduce the percentage of calories from vegetables in favor of nuts and fruits which are lower in nutrients per calorie.

Raw vegetables are dramatically low in calories and we probably only absorb about 50 calories a pound from raw vegetables. Our caloric needs cannot be met on a raw food diet without consuming large amounts of fruits, avocado, nuts and seeds. This may be an adequate diet for some people, but in my 15 years of medical practice catering to the community of natural food enthusiasts, raw foodists and natural hygienists, I have seen many people who weakened their health on such raw food, vegan diets. Frequent fungal skin and nail infections, poor dentition, hair loss and muscular wasting are common on such fruit-based diets.

Unfortunately, sloppy science prevails in the raw-food movement. Raw food advocates mistakenly conclude that since many cooked foods are not healthy for us, then all cooked foods are bad. This is not true.

The idea that stirs the most enthusiasm for this diet is the contention that cooking both destroys about fifty percent of the nutrients in food, and destroys all or most of the life promoting enzymes. It is true that when food is baked at high temperatures—and especially when it is fried or barbecued—toxic compounds are formed and most important nutrients are lost. Many vitamins are water-soluble, and a significant percent can be lost with cooking, especially overcooking. Similarly, many plant enzymes function as phytochemical nutrients in our body and are useful to maximize health. They, too, can be destroyed by overcooking. However, we cannot paint with this brush of negativity over every form of cooking.

Only small amounts of nutrients are lost with conservative cooking like making a soup, but many more nutrients are made more absorbable. These nutrients would have been lost if those vegetables had been consumed raw. When we heat, soften and moisturize the vegetables and beans we dramatically increase the potential digestibility and absorption of many beneficial and nutritious compounds. We also increase the plant proteins in the diet, especially important for those eating a plant-based diet with limited or no animal products.

In many cases, cooking actually destroys some of the harmful anti-nutrients that bind minerals in the gut and interfere with the utilization of nutrients. Destruction of these anti-nutrients increases absorption. Steaming vegetables and making vegetable soups breaks down cellulose and alters the plants’ cell structures so that fewer of your own enzymes are needed to digest the food, not more. On the other hand, the roasting of nuts and the baking of cereals does reduce availability and absorbability of protein.

When food is steamed or made into a soup, the temperature is fixed at 100 degrees Celsius or 212 Fahrenheit—the temperature of boiling water. This moisture-based cooking prevents food from browning and forming toxic compounds. Acrylamides, the most generally recognized of the heat-created toxins, are not formed with boiling or steaming. They are formed only with dry cooking. Most essential nutrients in vegetables are made more absorbable after being cooked in a soup and water-soluble nutrients are not lost because we eat the liquid portion of the soup too.

Recent studies confirm that the body absorbs much more of the beneficial anti-cancer compounds (carotenoids and phytochemicals—especially lutein and lycopene) from cooked vegetables compared with raw. Scientists speculate that the increase in absorption of antioxidants after cooking may be attributed to the destruction of the cell matrix (connective bands) to which the valuable compounds are bound.

Another fallacy promoted in the raw food movement and on the web is that the fragile heat-sensitive enzymes contained in the plants we eat catalyze chemical reactions that occur in humans and aid in digestion of the food. This is not true. Plant foods do not supply enzymes that aid in their digestion when consumed by animals. Our body supplies exactly the precise amount of enzymes needed for digestion; we are not ill equipped to digest normal food. The plant enzymes are broken down into simpler molecules by our own powerful digestive juices and even those that are absorbed as peptide size pieces (or with some biologic function) do not function to catalyze human functions. So it is not true that eating raw food demands less enzyme production by your body. A healthy body produces the precise amount of enzymes needed to digest the ingested food appropriately and the enzymes our body uses for other processes are unique to our human needs and are not present in plants. We make what we need from the proper materials.

In conclusion, eating lots of raw foods is a feature of a healthy diet. I always encourage people to eat more raw food. One of my common statements is—the salad is the main dish. Raw food is necessary for digestive efficiency, proper peristalsis and normal bowel function. Certain foods, especially fruit, avocado and nuts undergo significant change with cooking and are best eaten raw. Baking, frying, barbecuing and other high heat cooking methods that brown and damage food form acrylamides, which are carcinogenic. Browning and other high heat cooking methods should be avoided. Cooking techniques like steaming vegetables, stewing foods in a pressure cooker and soup making, do not have these drawbacks. They do not brown foods or form acrylamides.

Eating raw food is necessary for good health and is an important feature of a healthy diet. But that does not mean that one’s entire diet has to be raw to be in excellent health. It also does not mean eating an all raw diet is the healthiest way to eat. It is healthier to expand your nutrient density, your absorption of plant protein and your nutrient diversity with the inclusion of some conservatively cooked food in your diet.

Link LB ; Potter JD. Raw versus cooked vegetables and cancer risk.
Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2004; 13(9):1422-35.

Ismail A ; Lee WY. Influence of cooking practice on antioxidant properties and phenolic content of selected vegetables. Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2004; 13(Suppl):S162.

Thyroid/Adrenals/Hashimoto's TOP DOC FRESH LOOK

WOW! you have to listen to this information and please send anyone you know who needs it to the link as well.

IF you have a thyroid issue you have an adrenal issue!
Hashimoto's starts in the GUT!
ALL things can be reversed.
Bio identicals need to be used according to the bodies design...nothing will make exactly what your body could no matter how close they are to the body.

This is GREAT information. Please share!

podcast link is:

http://www.modavox.com/voiceamerica/vepisode.aspx?aid=39870

The RAW MOvement is getting ready to explode

Just my personal opinion...my feeling...my intuitive "hit" is saying it is going to explode in the next 2 years. Are you ready?

New movie coming out Nov. 3, 2009 FOOD INC. Can see it now on You Tube..or parts of it.

This will give you the support you need to stay on raw food and super foods. People are TIRED of being sick and tired. And eating raw food is NOT that expensive. IF you're suffering with any kind of illness..food needs to be the first thing you change...raw and organic..that is the best food...and if you can grow it yourself or get it locally that's even better. Do this for 6 months and see what happens to your health.

I'm not telling anyone on BDE anything you don't already know.

I'm excited about what's coming.

I'm positioning myself for the shift. My husband and I are currently making plans to develop a CSA ( community supported agriculture) here on the 5 acres we own and grow enough food for 30-40 families and ourselves. We are also opening a RAW cafe in the MIDWEST next year.

Get inspired to make changes in your life...and when you're ready SHARE all that you know with everyone you know. The movement is getting ready to explode...are you ready?

Eat well, live well, be well.

~Amy~

What I'm Taking the next 3 months

I have taken most of this the last 3 weeks. Have seen improvement in energy, hair growth, focusing my mind, and less pain in my back from the car accident on a daily basis...not gone by any means but less. Will get new blood work done after 3 months and re-group.



Supplements Amy is taking as of April 14th, 2009(will take for three months)
**Armour 120 mg a day (for hypothyroid)
**Super Ionic (Omica Health) 60 drops a day (Supercharged Concentrated Fulvic Acid over 70 ocean and plant derived ionic trace minerals
**Adrena~Pan-C 12 tabs a day ( adrenal support)
**B-12 sublingual 2000 MCG x2 ( Solaray)
**2-Iodoral w/ Omega-3 ( Purity Products-Omega-3, CoQ10 and plant sterols with Vit. D3)
**2-Iron Complex ( Integrative Therapeutics, Inc.) w/ Vita-C 2000 mg, sustained release ( Shaklee brand)
**Vita-E (Shaklee) 2 soft gels 400 i.u.
**B-Complex (Shaklee) 6 a day for stress
**Tumeric (Solaray) 6 a day for inflammation
**Selenium (Nature’s Way) 3 caps for mercury detox ( 4 mercury fillings in my mouth)
**Ambertose (Mannatech) 8 scoops a day for cellular communication
**Candida Support-2 tabs 2x’s a day (get from Dr. Rose)
**MonaVie 3-2oz. shots a day
**Hydrate II in water to open cellular walls for communication
**Bio-Active Homeopathic:
NADH Plus 3 sprays a day, hold in mouth 2 min.
Pituitary Forte 3 sprays a day, hold in mouth 2 min.
Thyrotox 7 drops 3 x’s a day
Lymph III 10 drops 3 x’s a day
Oligo Bio Iodine 7 drops 3 x’s a day
Lapachoplex 10 drops 3 x’s a day
Bio Aspen 10 drops 3 x’s a day
Diathesis I Manganese 10 drops 3 x’s a day
Bio Active Botanical: Karzan
NEW CHAPTER: Stress Support Multi: 3 tabs a day
Holy Basil 2 gel caps (uplifting, calm, balance)


2 Green smoothies a day- mixed greens (always changing this up from day to day), 1 organic apple( everything but the stem), organic frozen banana, ¼ organic lemon ( peel and seeds), flax oil or ground up seeds, David Wolfe’s Sun is Shinning and Vita Mineral Earth. This includes Spirulina and Chlorella
1 SUPER SMOOTHIE: all David Wolfe’s food…cacoa powder, coconut oil, gogi berries, cacoa nibs, cacoa butter, flax oil or seeds, red maca.

AT NIGHT BEFORE BED:
Melatonin 6 MG.
Bio Active Dios Crème: Natural Progesterone and Pregnenolone:2 x’s a day..at night and first thing in the morning~~ 0 the week of my period, ¼ tsp the 2nd and 3rd weeks, ½ tsp the 4th week.
Herb Lax-6
Pro-Biotic Pre-Biotic Shaklee brand for food allergies and or leaky gut syndrome
Liq. Cal/Mag Floradix brand…2 tablespoons before bed

Wow it's been over ayear since I posted here.

Today finds me with a "mess" to heal from as I had a car accident Sept of last year and it has presented me with some issues. Whiplash, lost all my hair now, it's 7 months since the accident, my first ever MRI and some new thoughts from DOCTORS who know nothing about HEALING. Oh I do get tired of all the "dumb" PROFESSIONALS on the planet when it comes to health and wellness.

I have a board in yahoo where I am on a journey to heal my body, as i was when i started this blog, however life has presented me with some NEW information and I'm using that new information...it's called RAW FOOD...

One day I'll post what I'm doing now.

until then,
eat well, live well, be well
~Amy~
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/healingthebody