Back at Last with much to tell…
September 18th, 2007Almost a month ago now my husband and I flew back to the states so that I could have some blood work done and see a doctor there. It was an incredible trip – very helpful and informative and I’ve been wanting to fill you all in about it but to be honest I have been a little nervous to do so…some of the things I have decided to do in the last month will go against what some of you have recommended though others will be in line with what you recommended…and overall I have decided to take a different approach to chemical sensitivities then what I have myself advised in the past…So, here’s what we found out from the blood tests and other tests done and here’s the new regime I’m on…
Well, maybe first I should start by telling you about the doctor that I went to see. About six years ago my mom got really sick – she couldn’t keep anything down (literally not even water), she lost tons of weight, she was in the hospital on an IV for a while, they ran all sorts of tests on her and everything but no one could figure out what was wrong with her. All of her tests came back “regular”/”within range”, some of them were a little border line but not out of range so eventually the doctors told her they couldn’t figure out what’s wrong with her and sent her home. Then my mom went to see Dr. Mike – he is a chiropractor, kinesiologist, nutritionist, homeopathic type doctor who is also a Christian and believes in treating the body as a whole and connected entity. He does a lot with muscle testing (which is, as far as I know, the only form of testing that even claims to be able to test for sensitivities). There are some who don’t agree that muscle testing can work, but personally I saw it work for my mom and though I am sure there are doctors out there who fake muscle testing results to get you to buy this or that produce I do believe that when used correctly and by someone trustworthy and intuitive it can work and be very accurate. He is the only one who was finally able to help my mom and for me that was proof enough that there was something to all this that worked. I had been to see him in the past, before I moved to Seattle, when I lived in AZ, and I always felt better when I went to him but I never felt like he really got to the heart of all my “issues”. When my mom suggested that my husband and I fly back to the states to see him I was, to be honest, skeptical – hadn’t I already tried going to him? Hadn’t I had blood tests done in the past that showed no conclusive results? Would this trip really be any different? But, I was feeling so lost trying to figure everything out on my own and felt like it couldn’t hurt to try again so we went.
The very first day we got into the states I went and got blood tests and had them rushed so that we could get the results quickly. A few hours later after recovering from the blood tests (my blood pressure always drops a lot and I get really faint when I get blood drawn) I had an appointment with Dr. Mike. He already had the results from my blood tests and low and behold there was indeed something to be learned from them. It turns out I was right I do have light hypothyroidism. I don’t have the results right in front of me so I can’t give you actual numbers but oddly enough it was encouraging to me to have the results for my T3 and T4 be out of range even by medical standards. So, that first day he tested me on a bunch of nutrients for my thyroid and put me on some natural stuff for that (the normal route for thyroid problems is medication but I am going to try and deal with it naturally first and then if there is no change by the time we go back to the states in November maybe we will start considering medication). The blood work also showed some gut inflammation which can be a sign of yeast overgrowth and/or infection so he tested me for a yeast overgrowth and sure enough I had one. So, he put me on something to kill the yeast and told me that it usually takes about 30 days for the yeast to clear up and then after that he would have me take some stuff to repair my gut – miracle of miracles though my body responded really quickly and by the time he tested me again on the yeast right before I left it was gone and so he put me on some stuff to repair my gut right then – including probiotics. The other big thing that the blood test showed was that my pH balance was off (no surprise there, right?) – I was running too acidic. He said that this can often be caused by the stomach being to alkaline (not acidic enough) and put me on something to increase my stomachs acidity so that the rest of my body doesn’t need to be so acidic. The other big thing we found out was that my adrenals were not working properly either so he did some work on them and put me on some things to help them function better. He also put me on some other vitamins – something for my stuffy nose (to help dry it up naturally), something for my asthma, a basic multivitamin, a protein powder (I don’t get enough protein in my diet usually), some magnesium, a B vitamin, a calcium, and an iron supplement as well.
One of the biggest or at least most life changing things that was accomplished through this trip though was testing me on a number of different foods (he did this through muscle testing not traditional allergy tests). According to this doctor muscle testing can detect sensitivities, so each time I went to see him (every day I was in the states) I took anywhere from 1 to 5 bags of groceries with me. He tested me on a number of different foods and the results were somewhat surprising. I have decided to believe these results (even though they don’t exactly match up with foods containing salicylate and those not containing salicylate and that sort of thing). I feel as if I have tried eliminating salicylate, I’ve tried eliminating amines, I’ve tried eliminating sulfites and such all on my own and I haven’t had much luck. So, I want to try eliminating just the things I tested negatively to with him and not avoiding the things that I didn’t test negatively to. So, for the last, well, month about I have been eating much more variety (though there are still a lot of things that I need to avoid) and so far at least I am feeling much better. I think that my body had become majorly malnourished and the combination of taking some vitamins/nutrients to help fix some of the deeper problems (pH balance, gut flora, thyroid) and getting more nutrients from more varied foods has been helpful for me. I don’t know if it’s the way to go for everyone and I’m sure there are some of you who would disagree with my choice to go this way but for me, for now, it has been working. So, for those of you who are interested here are the things that I reacted to in the muscle testing and am now avoiding: wheat, allspice, apples, apple cider vinegar, avocados, cheddar cheese, all yellow cheeses, cinnamon, cloves, corn, curry, ginger, pepper (white and black), roasted cashews, tarragon, tea (all kinds), thyme, wine (both red and white), all dried fruits, the laundry detergent I was using, a number of different soaps and shampoos, pesticides, latex, Dye-free Benadryl, Sudafed, and my birth control pills. I am still on the birth control pills because I wanted to finish off the month that I had already started but I should start my period today or tomorrow and the plan is to not start another pack after that. So, in the next few days I should be off my birth control as well, which I think will make a big difference for me in regards to my health. Here are the things that I tested that I didn’t react to and am now eating: acorn squash, vodka, fresh artichoke, asparagus, baking powder, baking soda, balsamic vinegar, banana, basil, bay leaf, beans, bell pepper (red, yellow and green), blueberries, broccoli, butter, cabbage, carrots, raw cashews, celery, shallot, chicken, Starbucks coffee (decaf and regular), cucumber, cumin, coriander, Edom cheese, eggplant, eggs, fish (organic), flax seed, garlic, gin, goat cheese, grapefruit, green beans, herbs de province, honey, hot paprika, jalapenos, leek, lemon, lettuce, lime, raw macadamia nuts, mango, pure maple syrup, meat (organic), whole milk (organic), molasses, mozzarella, mushroom, nutmeg, oats, olive oil, orange, oregano, parmesan, peanuts, pear, peas, pecan, pine nuts, pineapple, poppy seeds, potato, pure cocoa, red wine vinegar, rice, rice vinegar, rosemary, safflower oil, salt, sesame seeds, soy sauce, spinach, strawberries, sunflower oil, sunflower seeds, sweet potato, tomato, tonic water, turmeric, vanilla, walnut, watermelon, white vinegar, white wine vinegar, yam, yellow onion, zucchini, pure castile soap, Avalon Organics Nourishing Shampoo, Planet dish soap and Planet laundry detergent. Things not on either of these lists are things that he hasn’t tested yet and so I avoid them because I am unsure about them. But, wow, talk about a lot more things I can eat. It has been so enjoyable to make meals and cook now with so many more options and it really has made it so much easier to go out to eat with people or go over to someone’s house which has made me really happy.
One of the other things I did while I was in the states was I sent in a urine test and four saliva tests to NeuroScience Inc., a company that tests neurotransmitters and hormones and (from what I understand) then sends back a list of health suggestions based on the results of your tests (for example they might recommend certain nutrients you should take or certain activities or foods you should avoid or include, etc). I still have not gotten the results of those tests back but I am expecting them sometime in the next week and am very curious to see what they say and how they relate to everything else.
Anyway, for me the trip was really encouraging and helpful and I really have been feeling remarkably better the last few weeks since starting this new treatment. I am hopeful that I will continue to feel better and better especially after I stop the birth control this next week and add to my new regime any suggestions that the NuroScience lab recommends. I hope that you are all doing well. I feel bad that I have been so out of the loop lately – I seriously haven’t checked the forum in almost a month – I am looking forward to catching up on all of your progress as soon as I get all caught up at work and have time to devote to the forum. I miss hearing about all of your lives and miss your input in my life as well.
Health to you and yours -
Beth