One of the hardest things about taking control of your own health is that it often requires that you eat much differently than the way most Americans eat. It can be extremely isolating, especially when it comes to family traditions, gluten intolerant family members, and celebrating the holidays.
Sharing a meal together is one of the primary ways we celebrate community. So I have favored ditching old family favorite foods and replacing them with something that everyone can eat and enjoy.
For example, my family, both nuclear and extended, always expected to have a Buttermilk Pound Cake at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Unfortunately, it requires white flour to make it. This ingredient has been stricken from our kitchen since we learned six years ago this month that Emma is allergic to it. A couple of months later we learned that she had to strictly avoid corn and rice as well.
Now, the Lighter Than Air Chocolate Cake has replaced the Buttermilk Pound Cake as our go-to celebratory cake. Everyone loves it, and it is completely flourless.
Just so you know, I have tried baking with white flour for other family members, but the stuff goes everywhere. You open the container and scoop, and a cloud rises up and dissipates on countertops and appliances. Trying to clean everything perfectly afterwards to prevent cross-contamination is time consuming and stressful. And you are expending more precious energy cooking twice. I finally decided it just was not worth it. Family members who want to eat white flour have endless opportunities to do so when they are not at home, whereas Emma can eat at very few places away from home with peace of mind.
If there is one place where a person with food allergies should feel safe and supported, it is in their own kitchen.
Believe me, the support is incredibly important, because many folks think that gluten-intolerant people are just selfish troublemakers who want attention. And they let you know it by their expressions. The nay-sayers fail to realize that gluten-intolerant people would like nothing more than to be able to eat the white flour with no concern for the consequences! Giving it up is hard, but being able to function normally on a day-to-day basis makes it worth it.
I believe that a lot of people who are gluten-intolerant don't even know it. My neighbor down the road stopped in yesterday with his wife to tell me that he had found enormous relief for his interstitial cystitis since I recommended to him that he do a Whole 30 elimination diet. He had struggled with it for years under the care of urologists, had undergone surgery seeking relief, and had to take early retirement because of it. I gave him the original Whole 30 book and a companion recipe volume last month, and he told me yesterday, "I absolutely did not believe that this would work, but I was so desperate for pain relief that I started it the day you gave me the books." He took out his phone and showed me his log of taking serious prescription pain medications and how over the course of the 30 days it diminished to none. He also explained that his energy has returned. He is able to work on building his house again, and is now going to drive to his daughter's house in San Antonio for Christmas, a trip he could not make prior to the Whole 30. His wife is amazed at the change in him. She is going to do a Whole 30 herself starting in January.
So I encourage you to adapt your celebratory foods to ones that everybody can enjoy together. Make new traditions. The family celebrating together is more important than the individual menu items.
Showing posts with label Hashimoto's. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hashimoto's. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 14, 2016
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Carrie Vitt is One Smart Cookie
She created this grain-free chocolate chip cookie recipe.
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| Carrie Vitt's cookies look perfect. I think I can see the influence of her military husband in her orderly rows and consistent shapes. |
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| My cookies are a mess, but they taste good, so I am happy. |
And it is my all-time favorite, bar none. I got it from her "Deliciously Organic" site.
Yes, I am saying I like them better than white flour chocolate chip cookies.
You start with two cups of almond flour plus two tablespoons of coconut flour. That's pretty basic for grain-free. I think what makes the difference is a half teaspoon of gelatin. I've never come across that in any of the grain-free cookie recipes that I have tried. Hmmm. Maybe I should qualify that with, "at least not that I can remember."
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Be Part of the Healthcare Revolution: Patients Healing Patients
Every now and then I get an email from someone who is battling Hashimoto's. They have read my posts on the subject and are looking for guidance.
I dutifully answer by telling them what has worked for us.
But why are they writing to me, a total layperson?
Because the medical profession is not meeting the needs of patients.
That is why patients are taking matters into their own hands. You can see this best in the Yahoo groups and/or Facebook pages. If you have a difficult illness, search for one of these patient groups to join. There you will have a much better chance of finding people who will listen and who have experience dealing with the issues with which you are dealing. They won't tell you that your symptoms are all in your head; they will tell you what has worked for them and support you while you figure out your course.
If there is not one, then start a group yourself.
Once you find like-minded individuals and get the support you need, you may be able to change the course of standard medical treatment. Two ladies with thyroid problems are doing that with a petition they created. See it HERE. Two other thyroid patients wrote books and started websites: Janie Bowthorpe, author of Stop the Thyroid Madness, and Paul Robinson, author of Recovering with T3: My Journey from Hypothyroidism to Good Health Using the T3 Thyroid Hormone.
Healthcare without loving care just doesn't work.
Be part of the solution. Share the love.
Friday, April 27, 2012
Adrenal Fatigue vs. Hypothyroidism
Dr. Rind has an amazingly helpful chart that compares adrenal fatigue symptoms with hypothyroid symptoms. It also includes comparison of some helpful lab work results. Make sure you read the footnotes! The chart answered several lingering questions I had about Emma's symptoms/labwork that did not fit her primary diagnosis of Hashimoto's thyroiditis. For instance, her joints/ligaments are overly flexible, and they have been like that since she was very young. Her MCV (Mean Corpuscular Volume) is high, and her cholesterol is extremely low, 110. I highly recommend perusing this information; if you don't need it, you probably know someone who does.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Beer with No Fear
BARD'S. It's made from malted sorghum, and it was thoroughly tested by my dear husband, who loves quality beer. He said that he could not tell that it was gluten-free, it just tasted good.
Now you can grab an Amy's gluten-free pizza from the freezer at your grocery store and a six-pack of Bard's and not feel deprived one bit. Except maybe of some dollars. All this gluten-free stuff costs more, of course. I think the beer was $9-$10. We bought it at Spec's, a family-owned, Texas chain of liquor stores. When I visited their site to get the link for this post, I discovered that they have a wedding/event gift registry! O Happy Day! Goodbye, Amazon! Hello, Spec's!
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Pod'n Me: the Ramblings of a Paleo? Catholic
In my struggle to understand how to best help my daughter get well, I have become addicted to alternative health podcasts.
I eagerly await each new show from "The Healthy Skeptic" by Chris Kresser. He is far and away my favorite podcaster because of the depth of his knowledge but also because he doesn't have an agenda: He's open minded. I also find excellent information on several others like "Paleo Body, Paleo Mind" and Jimmy Moore's "Livin' La Vida Low-Carb". (Chris Kresser discusses the variations in the "paleo" classification here.) I have learned lots of things that have helped me with the choices I am confronted with in dealing with Emma's Hashimoto's/gluten intolerance/depression. Sometimes it is helpful details. On a "Healthy Skeptic" podcast I learned about the influence selenium has on the body's ability to handle iodine supplementation. On a "Primal Body, Primal Mind" interview with Dr. Janet Lang, I learned about using minuscule amounts of iodine for Hashimoto's once the patient is stable--their immune system is no longer attacking the thyroid gland. It reaffirmed my decision not to give Emma iodine in the beginning of her treatment. I think I understand now why she crashed and burned when she took the prescription cortisol and bioidentical thyroid in December. Her adrenals were just too weak for her body to handle it. I shudder to think what might have happened if I had given her the prescribed iodine then.
I hear all the time about people with Hashimoto's who just take thyroid medication and are "fine" without changing their diet or doing anything hard, the implication being that Emma is suffering needlessly by going medication-free. It discourages me horribly. To all those people, we tried medication. Emma not only didn't improve, she got dramatically worse. Listening to podcasts gives me the support I desperately need to stick with what we are doing. She is dependent on me to help her to stay motivated as well. She chose the path we are on when I gave her the options six months ago. She decided that she wanted to go off the medication, and she decided that going gluten-free only wasn't enough. She wanted to do the GAPS diet because it offers the best chance at healing the gut, thereby calming the immune system, which is the critical issue with an autoimmune disease. GAPS, being grain-free and sugar-free, fits the paleo ideal.
As far as the big picture goes, Chris Kresser's podcast on the Gut-Brain Connection is incredible. I think it is basic knowledge that everyone needs but especially young women who plan to marry. They are going to be responsible for their children's health and their husband's, and this information is foundational. I had already read a lot about this subject, but this podcast deepened and broadened my understanding. Plus, a lot of these topics are complicated, so the more times I hear/read about them, the more I "get it".
I have found that my Catholic faith dovetails perfectly with my better understanding of nutrition and how the body works. It's pretty funny, as most of the podcasters I listen to are evolutionists and/or feminists. I have learned from them that the birth control pill is a hormone disaster, rendering a woman estrogen dominant, which is the underlying cause of many serious health problems. And the hormone imbalance doesn't necessarily correct itself when the woman stops taking "the pill". To eat a diet that produces health, someone needs to stay home and make everything from scratch. You can't buy anything prepackaged or eat fast food if you want to avoid industrial seed oils, high fructose corn syrup, genetically modified food, preservatives, MSG, gluten, and sugar. And when you do take these foods out of your diet, and eat good fats, grassfed meat, and organic vegetables, you get pregnant! Chris Kresser and Robb Wolf (of the Paleo Solution) have both talked about this phenomenon. Their clients are discovering fabulously increased fertility. Robb Wolf talked about a woman who followed his diet and exercise recommendations and got pregnant for the first time when she was 48! She had been through all kinds of fertility treatments without success. I found support for traditional femininity in an interview with a fertility specialist who prescribes this way of eating (nutrient dense/low-carb/paleo) for his patients. He said that fertility doctors are seeing the first wave of women who grew up playing competitive sports. They are experiencing infertility because their hard training (stress, low body fat) caused their Hypothalamus/Pituitary/Adrenal (HPA) to become dysfunctional. Here is an explanation of the HPA axis from the National Institutes of Health:
The Stress Circuit
The HPA axis is a feedback loop by which signals from the brain trigger the release of hormones needed to respond to stress. Because of its function, the HPA axis is also sometimes called the "stress circuit." Briefly, in response to a stress, the brain region known as the hypothalamus releases corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH). In turn, CRH acts on the pituitary gland, just beneath the brain, triggering the release of another hormone, adrenocorticotropin (ACTH) into the bloodstream. Next, ACTH signals the adrenal glands, which sit atop the kidneys, to release a number of hormonal compounds.
I once read that ideally, a woman needs about 28% body fat to be able to conceive, maintain a healthy pregnancy, and nurse the baby. I don't know what the recommendation is now, but the point is that women need stored fat to be able to do well what they are designed to do. Low body fat and constant stress can contribute to amenorreah. It's interesting that the fascination with women being skinny came about at the same time as the introduction of the birth control pill.
A couple of these "paleo" podcasters even promote prayer/meditation as essential to overall health. For all these reasons, I feel like I have found the companion diet for John Senior's The Restoration of Christian Culture. This approach to health/lifestyle is also a ringing endorsement for Fr. Vincent McNabb's The Church and The Land, as the easiest way to eat the way you should while having babies is to live in the country and raise your own meat and vegetables.
I eagerly await each new show from "The Healthy Skeptic" by Chris Kresser. He is far and away my favorite podcaster because of the depth of his knowledge but also because he doesn't have an agenda: He's open minded. I also find excellent information on several others like "Paleo Body, Paleo Mind" and Jimmy Moore's "Livin' La Vida Low-Carb". (Chris Kresser discusses the variations in the "paleo" classification here.) I have learned lots of things that have helped me with the choices I am confronted with in dealing with Emma's Hashimoto's/gluten intolerance/depression. Sometimes it is helpful details. On a "Healthy Skeptic" podcast I learned about the influence selenium has on the body's ability to handle iodine supplementation. On a "Primal Body, Primal Mind" interview with Dr. Janet Lang, I learned about using minuscule amounts of iodine for Hashimoto's once the patient is stable--their immune system is no longer attacking the thyroid gland. It reaffirmed my decision not to give Emma iodine in the beginning of her treatment. I think I understand now why she crashed and burned when she took the prescription cortisol and bioidentical thyroid in December. Her adrenals were just too weak for her body to handle it. I shudder to think what might have happened if I had given her the prescribed iodine then.
I hear all the time about people with Hashimoto's who just take thyroid medication and are "fine" without changing their diet or doing anything hard, the implication being that Emma is suffering needlessly by going medication-free. It discourages me horribly. To all those people, we tried medication. Emma not only didn't improve, she got dramatically worse. Listening to podcasts gives me the support I desperately need to stick with what we are doing. She is dependent on me to help her to stay motivated as well. She chose the path we are on when I gave her the options six months ago. She decided that she wanted to go off the medication, and she decided that going gluten-free only wasn't enough. She wanted to do the GAPS diet because it offers the best chance at healing the gut, thereby calming the immune system, which is the critical issue with an autoimmune disease. GAPS, being grain-free and sugar-free, fits the paleo ideal.
As far as the big picture goes, Chris Kresser's podcast on the Gut-Brain Connection is incredible. I think it is basic knowledge that everyone needs but especially young women who plan to marry. They are going to be responsible for their children's health and their husband's, and this information is foundational. I had already read a lot about this subject, but this podcast deepened and broadened my understanding. Plus, a lot of these topics are complicated, so the more times I hear/read about them, the more I "get it".
I have found that my Catholic faith dovetails perfectly with my better understanding of nutrition and how the body works. It's pretty funny, as most of the podcasters I listen to are evolutionists and/or feminists. I have learned from them that the birth control pill is a hormone disaster, rendering a woman estrogen dominant, which is the underlying cause of many serious health problems. And the hormone imbalance doesn't necessarily correct itself when the woman stops taking "the pill". To eat a diet that produces health, someone needs to stay home and make everything from scratch. You can't buy anything prepackaged or eat fast food if you want to avoid industrial seed oils, high fructose corn syrup, genetically modified food, preservatives, MSG, gluten, and sugar. And when you do take these foods out of your diet, and eat good fats, grassfed meat, and organic vegetables, you get pregnant! Chris Kresser and Robb Wolf (of the Paleo Solution) have both talked about this phenomenon. Their clients are discovering fabulously increased fertility. Robb Wolf talked about a woman who followed his diet and exercise recommendations and got pregnant for the first time when she was 48! She had been through all kinds of fertility treatments without success. I found support for traditional femininity in an interview with a fertility specialist who prescribes this way of eating (nutrient dense/low-carb/paleo) for his patients. He said that fertility doctors are seeing the first wave of women who grew up playing competitive sports. They are experiencing infertility because their hard training (stress, low body fat) caused their Hypothalamus/Pituitary/Adrenal (HPA) to become dysfunctional. Here is an explanation of the HPA axis from the National Institutes of Health:
The Stress Circuit
The HPA axis is a feedback loop by which signals from the brain trigger the release of hormones needed to respond to stress. Because of its function, the HPA axis is also sometimes called the "stress circuit." Briefly, in response to a stress, the brain region known as the hypothalamus releases corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH). In turn, CRH acts on the pituitary gland, just beneath the brain, triggering the release of another hormone, adrenocorticotropin (ACTH) into the bloodstream. Next, ACTH signals the adrenal glands, which sit atop the kidneys, to release a number of hormonal compounds.
I once read that ideally, a woman needs about 28% body fat to be able to conceive, maintain a healthy pregnancy, and nurse the baby. I don't know what the recommendation is now, but the point is that women need stored fat to be able to do well what they are designed to do. Low body fat and constant stress can contribute to amenorreah. It's interesting that the fascination with women being skinny came about at the same time as the introduction of the birth control pill.
A couple of these "paleo" podcasters even promote prayer/meditation as essential to overall health. For all these reasons, I feel like I have found the companion diet for John Senior's The Restoration of Christian Culture. This approach to health/lifestyle is also a ringing endorsement for Fr. Vincent McNabb's The Church and The Land, as the easiest way to eat the way you should while having babies is to live in the country and raise your own meat and vegetables.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Health Begins in the Gut
"I hate your guts!" That corrosive taunt enjoyed most-favored status in my repertoire of childhood "fightin' words".
Now I wonder why. I never saw anyone's guts or interacted with them in any way. How could I hate them? Maybe it was just instinctual knowledge. I'm learning that the gut is the center of health, both mental and physical. So hating someone's guts could actually make sense.
I continue to see changes in Emma since we eliminated gluten from her diet. Gluten sensitivity is a gut problem and is the underlying cause for approximately 50 diseases, depending on where it manifests its attack--the brain, the liver, the heart, the skin, etc. The other night Herb used our electric knife sharpener, which makes an annoying noise, and Emma said, "That's the first time I've heard that noise without feeling like I wanted to run away." If I hadn't just learned the day before that sensitivity to noise can be a symptom of food allergy, I wouldn't have known what to make of it. She is also sensitive to garlic, which makes her cough. This past week she has been waking up with congestion and swollen eyelids. We think it may be the raspberries I put in our detox shakes.
The gut plays a huge role in immunity and hormone balance. Frankly, I do not understand where one issue ends and the next one begins. Everything is so inter-related. That's why going to a doctor who wants to treat symptoms is a really dangerous idea. Emma's doctor prescribed cortisol and thyroid medication with no concern whatever for whether she was gluten intolerant or had an autoimmune disease. I know now that healing must begin in the gut for all autoimmunity. You must have the right balance of gut flora to enjoy true health. Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, MD, a neurologist, nutritionist, and author of Gut and Psychology Syndrome, (GAPS) is helping me understand this. She says,
We live in a world of unfolding epidemics: Autism, ADHD, asthma, allergies, anxiety, depression, epilepsy, diabetes, celiac these conditions overlap with each other and are related by similar underlying causes.
That "similar underlying cause" is an unhealthy gut. Dr. Campbell-McBride says that our gut health has been destroyed by refined carbohydrates, antibiotics, environmental toxins, contraceptives, and formula-feeding our babies. I was shocked to learn that a baby gets his supply of gut flora from his mother as he passes through the birth canal. So if the mother does not have healthy gut flora, neither will the baby. If she then formula feeds the baby, his gut health is further compromised. In fact, Dr. Campbell-McBride maintains that a formula-fed baby has totally different gut flora from a breastfed baby. The damage increases with each generation if gut health is not restored. It is both depressing and fascinating to contemplate the implications. The good news is that gut health can be restored by diet. The GAPS diet is based on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet that was developed primarily for Crohn's Disease, Ulcerative Colitis, Diverticulitis, etc.
I have learned this information from listening to Dr. Campbell-McBride's videos on YouTube. I have ordered the latest edition of her book, Gut and Psychology Syndrome, from The GAPS Diet site, but this new printing is just becoming available, so I have not received it yet. I can't wait for her to finish the book she is working on now, Gut and Physiology Syndrome. I recommend watching any video with Dr. Campbell-McBride. There are several really good ones on minddfoundation's youtube channel. Please watch them and share them with everyone you know. This one is an excellent start:
Since I have begun talking about Emma's health issues, I am overwhelmed by the number of my friends and acquaintances who need this information. Just on the hypothyroidism issue alone I have talked to six women in my parish who are struggling with symptoms despite receiving medical treatment. Hashimoto's, an autoimmune disease, is the underlying cause of the majority of hypothyroidism cases, and people with Hashimoto's are nearly always gluten intolerant. If you are gluten intolerant then you have a 50% chance of being dairy intolerant. The thing that most people don't realize is that so-called "gluten sensitivity" is extremely complex. We are on a waiting list to have Emma tested by Cyrex Labs. This is the first lab that will be able to test for sensitivity to many of the other wheat proteins that people are sensitive to besides alpha gliaden. It will also reveal if the two arms of your immune system, TH-1 and TH-2, are out of balance, and if so, which one is the dominant one so that the other can be supported in order to bring your immune system back into balance. The dangerous thing about wheat/grain sensitivity is that many people are completely asymptomatic, yet the damage is being done to their cells anyway. I wish everyone would get tested, but at the very least, families with autoimmune disease definitely should. Read all about the test here.
Since I have begun talking about Emma's health issues, I am overwhelmed by the number of my friends and acquaintances who need this information. Just on the hypothyroidism issue alone I have talked to six women in my parish who are struggling with symptoms despite receiving medical treatment. Hashimoto's, an autoimmune disease, is the underlying cause of the majority of hypothyroidism cases, and people with Hashimoto's are nearly always gluten intolerant. If you are gluten intolerant then you have a 50% chance of being dairy intolerant. The thing that most people don't realize is that so-called "gluten sensitivity" is extremely complex. We are on a waiting list to have Emma tested by Cyrex Labs. This is the first lab that will be able to test for sensitivity to many of the other wheat proteins that people are sensitive to besides alpha gliaden. It will also reveal if the two arms of your immune system, TH-1 and TH-2, are out of balance, and if so, which one is the dominant one so that the other can be supported in order to bring your immune system back into balance. The dangerous thing about wheat/grain sensitivity is that many people are completely asymptomatic, yet the damage is being done to their cells anyway. I wish everyone would get tested, but at the very least, families with autoimmune disease definitely should. Read all about the test here.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Building Butter Babies
OK. This is the last thing that I am going to post about butter for a while. Or maybe I should just say something positive like, "Here is the final installment on my important series on butter." (snort.)
It's funny, but what Emma has missed on our detox/elimination diet is not gluten-containing grains but whole fat dairy products, especially cheese. Last year when we had raw milk, she consumed vast quantities of whole milk and cream. And she always drank from the jar of milk that had the most cream on top, often three or four inches thick in a quart. Now that I know she is gluten-intolerant and has a variety of problems associated with thyroid malfunction, including low stomach acid and malabsorption of Vitamin D, I wonder if that was because her body needed the readily-absorbable vitamins in the milk fat, not to mention all the enzymes that would have been aiding her digestion. She basically crashed and burned in physical health in December. (I'm working on a post about that, but there are so many strange details to work in, I don't know when I'll finish it.) She and I both noticed that her health took a nose dive immediately after she quit drinking raw milk in November. However, our big fear now is that she is dairy intolerant. People who are gluten intolerant have a 50% percent chance of being dairy intolerant as well. I guess we'll know when we she starts eating dairy again during the provocation phase of this detox.
I know you're probably wondering what all this has to do with butter. Well, I realize that we are going to have to work extra hard on her nutrition to restore her health but also to prepare her body for pregnancy, childbirth, and nursing. Women with Hashimoto's/gluten intolerance who don't address their nutritional deficiencies have a higher risk of infertility, miscarriage, and having babies with birth defects. Chris Kresser at The Healthy Skeptic announced the other day that he is going to teach a seminar next month on nutrition for pre-conception, pregnancy, and breastfeeding. Naturally butter from grass fed cows can play an important role in this. Then he will offer an online class and also a DVD option for those who can't attend the seminar. I plan to enroll Emma in the class. In the meantime, she and I will be studying this article by Chris Masterjohn, "Vitamins for Fetal Development: Conception to Birth". It was published in Wise Traditions, the journal of the Weston A. Price Foundation.
Finally, here's today's butter nugget from which the title of this post is directed:
From The Nourished Kitchen, via The Healthy Skeptic:
Butter and cream produced from cows grazing on rapidly growing green grasses were considered a fertility booster among traditional societies and held sacred. While modern diet gurus encourage women to eschew these nutrient-dense foods in favor of margarines, vegetable oils and dairy substitutes, such butter and cream are potent sources of fat soluble vitamins A and K2. Preformed vitamin A, also found in abundance in liver and fermented cod liver oil, helps to improve reproductive health and reduce risk of birth defects. Vitamin K2, a nutrient critical to reproductive health and growing babies, is of particular importance and those suffering from gluten-intolerance are more likely to suffer from inadequate levels of this vitamin as well as many other micronutrients critical for fertility. Indeed, inadequate vitamin levels adversely effect the fertility of celiac sprue sufferers28. A recent study of over 18,000 women found that consumption of low-fat and skim milk products resulted in decreased fertility while consumption of full-fat dairy products saw increased fertility making good quality butter, heavy cream and whole milk good choices for women planning to conceive29.
It's funny, but what Emma has missed on our detox/elimination diet is not gluten-containing grains but whole fat dairy products, especially cheese. Last year when we had raw milk, she consumed vast quantities of whole milk and cream. And she always drank from the jar of milk that had the most cream on top, often three or four inches thick in a quart. Now that I know she is gluten-intolerant and has a variety of problems associated with thyroid malfunction, including low stomach acid and malabsorption of Vitamin D, I wonder if that was because her body needed the readily-absorbable vitamins in the milk fat, not to mention all the enzymes that would have been aiding her digestion. She basically crashed and burned in physical health in December. (I'm working on a post about that, but there are so many strange details to work in, I don't know when I'll finish it.) She and I both noticed that her health took a nose dive immediately after she quit drinking raw milk in November. However, our big fear now is that she is dairy intolerant. People who are gluten intolerant have a 50% percent chance of being dairy intolerant as well. I guess we'll know when we she starts eating dairy again during the provocation phase of this detox.
I know you're probably wondering what all this has to do with butter. Well, I realize that we are going to have to work extra hard on her nutrition to restore her health but also to prepare her body for pregnancy, childbirth, and nursing. Women with Hashimoto's/gluten intolerance who don't address their nutritional deficiencies have a higher risk of infertility, miscarriage, and having babies with birth defects. Chris Kresser at The Healthy Skeptic announced the other day that he is going to teach a seminar next month on nutrition for pre-conception, pregnancy, and breastfeeding. Naturally butter from grass fed cows can play an important role in this. Then he will offer an online class and also a DVD option for those who can't attend the seminar. I plan to enroll Emma in the class. In the meantime, she and I will be studying this article by Chris Masterjohn, "Vitamins for Fetal Development: Conception to Birth". It was published in Wise Traditions, the journal of the Weston A. Price Foundation.
Finally, here's today's butter nugget from which the title of this post is directed:
From The Nourished Kitchen, via The Healthy Skeptic:
Butter and cream produced from cows grazing on rapidly growing green grasses were considered a fertility booster among traditional societies and held sacred. While modern diet gurus encourage women to eschew these nutrient-dense foods in favor of margarines, vegetable oils and dairy substitutes, such butter and cream are potent sources of fat soluble vitamins A and K2. Preformed vitamin A, also found in abundance in liver and fermented cod liver oil, helps to improve reproductive health and reduce risk of birth defects. Vitamin K2, a nutrient critical to reproductive health and growing babies, is of particular importance and those suffering from gluten-intolerance are more likely to suffer from inadequate levels of this vitamin as well as many other micronutrients critical for fertility. Indeed, inadequate vitamin levels adversely effect the fertility of celiac sprue sufferers28. A recent study of over 18,000 women found that consumption of low-fat and skim milk products resulted in decreased fertility while consumption of full-fat dairy products saw increased fertility making good quality butter, heavy cream and whole milk good choices for women planning to conceive29.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Detox Fun and Hashi's Update
Our refrigerator is bursting with full egg cartons. Good thing Fiona is dried up so that we don't have gallons of milk to deal with as well. Emma and I are on Day 7 of the Detox/Elimination/Provocation diet. Elimination means no eggs, no dairy, no beef, no pork, no gluten-containing grains, no corn, no tomatoes, no soy, no peanuts. We have a nutrient-rich shake we drink before meals which are supposed to be fish, fruit, leafy vegetables and a little turkey or chicken. . .
But we've discovered brown rice cakes. After the fourth day on the diet, I bit into one, and it tasted fabulous. "I LOVE brown rice cakes!" I enthused to Emma. "Oh, me too!" she affirmed. They're the best food we have in the house!"
You can see how we've regressed. And tomorrow it can only get worse. Tomorrow we start the dreaded subtraction of Phase 3: no fish or poultry either.
Thank goodness we'll still have rice cakes!
Emma's symptoms change regularly, but the depression and the hypoglycemia have not reared their ugly heads in two weeks. That is a great blessing. The gluten-free diet seems to be working. Her brain fog is much improved. The strangest improvement of all happened the other night. She discovered that she can now play hymns that have chords simultaneously in both hands. I never knew that she couldn't play hymns like this. I thought she just chose to play the right hand only because she just wanted the melody to sing along with. She plays all kinds of other music with both hands. It never occurred to me that she couldn't play the hymns as written. Her piano teachers never required her to play hymns, so the issue never came up. Anyway, she was shocked and happily surprised to find that she can now play them. The brain is an amazing thing. The impact of food on the brain is even more so.
Emma is not on any medication at this point. For now, her treatment plan is to do the de-tox, avoid stress, restore her vitamin D level, eliminate gluten, and apply an antioxidant cream, glutathione, to her feet and throat. We are both happy with her progress so far.
But we've discovered brown rice cakes. After the fourth day on the diet, I bit into one, and it tasted fabulous. "I LOVE brown rice cakes!" I enthused to Emma. "Oh, me too!" she affirmed. They're the best food we have in the house!"
You can see how we've regressed. And tomorrow it can only get worse. Tomorrow we start the dreaded subtraction of Phase 3: no fish or poultry either.
Thank goodness we'll still have rice cakes!
Emma's symptoms change regularly, but the depression and the hypoglycemia have not reared their ugly heads in two weeks. That is a great blessing. The gluten-free diet seems to be working. Her brain fog is much improved. The strangest improvement of all happened the other night. She discovered that she can now play hymns that have chords simultaneously in both hands. I never knew that she couldn't play hymns like this. I thought she just chose to play the right hand only because she just wanted the melody to sing along with. She plays all kinds of other music with both hands. It never occurred to me that she couldn't play the hymns as written. Her piano teachers never required her to play hymns, so the issue never came up. Anyway, she was shocked and happily surprised to find that she can now play them. The brain is an amazing thing. The impact of food on the brain is even more so.
Emma is not on any medication at this point. For now, her treatment plan is to do the de-tox, avoid stress, restore her vitamin D level, eliminate gluten, and apply an antioxidant cream, glutathione, to her feet and throat. We are both happy with her progress so far.
Monday, January 10, 2011
One Day at at a Time: Ain't it Funny How Time Slips Away?
Well hello there,
It's been a long long time
How am I doing?
Oh well, I guess I'm doing fine
It's been so long now and it seems that
It was only yesterday
Ain't it funny how time slips away?
--Willie Nelson
It's been a month since my last post. I pretty much forgot that I have this blog. All my computer time lately has been devoted to researching Hashimoto's, an autoimmune disease that attacks the thyroid. Emma has it. She was unable to complete her finals last semester because of brain fog, hypoglycemia, short-term memory loss, and anxiety attacks. Apparently the Hashimoto's was triggered by the stress of school, although she has had some mild symptoms for a long time. I'm sure now that her navigational problems must have something to do with the brain fog. We are addressing the disorder with Dr. Kharrazian's protocol as described in his book, Why Do I Still Have Thyroid Symptoms When My Lab Tests Are Normal. The first step was going gluten-free and addressing her severe vitamin D deficiency with emulsified Vitamin D. Now we are in Phase II, which is a 3-week detox/elimination/provocation diet. The goal is to find out which foods she is sensitive to and eliminate them permanently so that she is not constantly firing up her immune system.
The interesting thing about Hashimoto's is that one goes back and forth between being hypo and hyper-thyroid. Emma says that hyper is definitely more fun as she has lots of energy then, as opposed to hypo when she is severely fatigued and often depressed. The down side of hyper is that it also makes her heart race, keeps her awake all night, and makes her feel light-headed.
The Healthy Skeptic has an excellent series on thyroid disorders.
So that's the highlights for today.
It's been a long long time
How am I doing?
Oh well, I guess I'm doing fine
It's been so long now and it seems that
It was only yesterday
Ain't it funny how time slips away?
--Willie Nelson
It's been a month since my last post. I pretty much forgot that I have this blog. All my computer time lately has been devoted to researching Hashimoto's, an autoimmune disease that attacks the thyroid. Emma has it. She was unable to complete her finals last semester because of brain fog, hypoglycemia, short-term memory loss, and anxiety attacks. Apparently the Hashimoto's was triggered by the stress of school, although she has had some mild symptoms for a long time. I'm sure now that her navigational problems must have something to do with the brain fog. We are addressing the disorder with Dr. Kharrazian's protocol as described in his book, Why Do I Still Have Thyroid Symptoms When My Lab Tests Are Normal. The first step was going gluten-free and addressing her severe vitamin D deficiency with emulsified Vitamin D. Now we are in Phase II, which is a 3-week detox/elimination/provocation diet. The goal is to find out which foods she is sensitive to and eliminate them permanently so that she is not constantly firing up her immune system.
The interesting thing about Hashimoto's is that one goes back and forth between being hypo and hyper-thyroid. Emma says that hyper is definitely more fun as she has lots of energy then, as opposed to hypo when she is severely fatigued and often depressed. The down side of hyper is that it also makes her heart race, keeps her awake all night, and makes her feel light-headed.
The Healthy Skeptic has an excellent series on thyroid disorders.
So that's the highlights for today.
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