My hobbyhorse - diet & depression & drinking -
I had to start a thread to explain my current way of thinking.. As I feel like I am getting somewhere with it and it might help others. Instead of rambling on and endlessly repeating myself.. I thought I?d put my theories in one spot for anyone who?s interested. (sorry, I do tend to ramble).
Just want to say to Roberta.. Thank you so much for this wonderful website and your wonderful book!! Everything!! At last we have a place to discuss the unspeakable without all the judgement, shame, blame and degradation. I feel so positive & powerful now to have so many wonderful, strong and intelligent people on my team.. I feel sure that together we can find solutions and MWO has set me on the path to a sooooooo much better life. And I don?t have to struggle along alone any more with something that Nobody Understands!! At last!!
In this post I retype part of an article from a magazine which helped me. If there is a copyright problem or anything else you don?t like about my post, please don?t hesitate to contact me.. I was not sure what to do about copywright Roberta and I?m sure nobody wants to get sued!!
So my train of thought goes something like this:
I read an Aussie newspaper article around Christmas time warning people not to drink to excess on New Years Eve and explaining that the type of acid made by the body when processing alcohol (forget the name of the acid) is exactly the same as ?ant-sting? which is why it is so painful for the body to process.. Thus the hang-over and the all-too-common desire to put off the pain with a hair-of-the-dog remedy the next day. Nasty eh! It also explained that at the office party the fastest person to get drunk will be the short plump female having a glass of bubbly NOT the thinner one doing vodka shots.. Because we drink sugary bubbly drinks which enter the bloodstream immediately.. (Whereas shots send the stomach into poison panic & shut it down.. So you don?t feel it at all until later when you wake up & can?t remember what happened or when it hit you.) So I understood suddenly how alcohol can create blood sugar problems!! (Duh!)
I found your wonderful website in late January 2006 and raced off to see my Doctor to ask if he?d heard of the program and would he help me by prescribing Topirimate. He?s not sure it?s legal in Australia for anything but epilepsy yet, but he?s looking into it for me. I?m fortunate in that he has a relative who suffers from alcoholism and so he is not judgmental. A rare thing! And he?s very willing to help me. I have no parents, partner or family nearby to mind my 3 children so he?s aware it?s very difficult for me to get treatment in the usual way.. And of course I?m too embarrassed to talk to my friends about it. And in the past my family & friends have only reacted by denying that I have any sort of problem, offering me a drink & telling me to pull myself together. I tried AA years ago but found the same problems there with people being judgemental and cruel if there was any sort of failure/relapse. In my experience it was the opposite of supportive and instead was invasive and degrading in the extreme.
Women with children with alcohol difficulties are in an extremely hard place in our society - very little help and a whole heap of judgements, expectations & condemnations. This only causes tremendous pressure, shame & isolation. The end result is that there are thousands of children being brought up by mothers leading quiet lives of desperation. Dr Garcia?s introduction really brought home to me how long this problem has been going on. We all, especially our children, deserve better.. And condemnation is no cure for anything.
Your site offers us new hope.. To take ourselves and our health seriously in order to find solutions. Not reasons to hate ourselves and drive ourselves deeper into illness & dispair.
So, back to my train of thought..
I first heard about leaky gut when reading under research on this site.. Did google search & read leaky gut causes symptoms like depression (& all kinds of other emotional & cognitive problems), ageing, deterioration of immune system, insulin imbalance, arthritis, Then did a google search on healing leaky gut.. Got the following information
HEALING LEAKY GUT
So to fix leaky gut we need to address a lot of the causes. We need to -
1 Increase stomach acid by taking lemon juice, apple cider vinegar or hydrochloric acid tablets immediately before a meal.
2 Avoid processed foods esp grains & sugars (includes flours, breads, pasta cereals, rice)
3 Take glutamine and Vit A to help repair the damaged villi (gut mucosa absorption sites) and reduce gut hyper-permeability (inappropriate absorption)
4 Increase bile and pancreatic enymes production - take taurine, Vit E & C, B3, chromium, zinc, manganese
5 Restore Gut Flora with acidophilus, biodynamic yoghurt, or probiotics on an empty stomach
6 Eat organic fruit and veg
7 Use blood group diet
8 Drink more water - spring or filtered
9 Avoid constipation - take magnesium and Vit C to bowel tolerance (twice a day on empty stomach)
10 Boost the immune system - get more sleep, gentle exercise, laughter & fun
To BOOST Th1 CELLS (and balance Th2)
* take glutamine, Vit A, C, E, zinc, B Vitamins, essential fatty acids - according to blood group * boost friendly gut flora
* improve digestion - stomach acid, digestive enzymes, bile, insulin
* detox any heavy metals eg copper, mercury, lead
* reduce stress - relax, sleep, massage, meditation, gentle exercise, laugh, have fun
So we keep coming up with the same things still.
Diet tips
- The diet should eliminate foods that are harsh to the intestinal lining. These include sugar, white flour products, milk and dairy products, high fat foods, caffeine, alcohol and other foods known to trigger adverse reactions.
- Highly spiced foods should be excluded from the diet. These include chillies, curries, vinegar, pepper and mustard.
- Food should be chewed more thoroughly.
- Frequent small meals should be eaten rather than three large meals per day
- Increase intake of fish, cod, tuna, salmon and their oils.
- Reduce or eliminate red meat and animal fat, other than fish and fish oil.
- Increase intake of foods high in 'soft' fibre such as carrots, beetroot, broccoli, bananas, paw paw, cherries and mangoes.
- Drink filtered or bottled water rather than tap water.
Vits/mins/herbs
- Reinoculate the bowel with 'good' bacteria using Lactobacillus acidophilus supplements.
- Glucosamine and Glutamine improve the health of the intestinal lining and reduce the 'leakiness' of the gut wall.
- Natural Digestive Enzymes such as bromelain, papain and aloe vera juice can assist digestive function.
- Essential Fatty Acids that occur in flaxseed oil, evening primrose oil, borage oil, fish oil, black current seed oil, apple and citrus pectin and gamma oryzanol are good for digestive function and intestinal health.
- Antioxidant Supplements such as carotenoids, vitamin B complex, vitamin C, vitamin E, zinc, selenium, germanium, coenzyme Q10 and bioflavonoids can help to detoxify the body.
- Plant extracts help repair the intestinal lining. These include kudzu, burdock, slippery elm, Turkish rhubarb, sheep sorrel, liquorice root, ginger root, golden seal, bismuth and bentonite.
I also read a magazine article which I have retyped for you here..
?In 1992 I was working as a conservation officer and had just got married when I started to get pains in my lower back. I thought I had pulled a muscle, so I took pain-killers and anti-inflammatory drugs, but nothing seemed to work.
?It got worse and worse, until I couldn?t even walk 100 metres. By June 1993, I had taken so much time off work that I had to resign. I didn?t know what was wrong with me and it was quite frightening. Over the next two years, I developed more symptoms: swelling in my toe and finger joints, and inflammation in the back of my eye.
?I consulted my Gps and specialists, but all they ever seemed to give me were more anti-inflammatory and pain-killers. These seemed like short-term solutions, and I didn?t want to be on medication forever.
?In the end, I was diagnosed with Reiter?s Syndrome - an auto-immune condition that causes inflammation of the body - and I needed to have injections in the back of my eye. Then, in June 1999, I was also diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS), which is arthritis of the spine, and can make older people double over. I found out later that arthritis sufferers often have Reiter?s Syndrome as well. The specialist told me that I?d be in a wheelchair in a few years. I was devastated - I was pregnant with my second son, Luke, now three, and I already had Kaya, now six.
?I started to read up on AS. As well as exercising with a mini-trampoline, which is recommended for sufferers, I changed my diet dramatically, cutting out all the bad stuff - cakes, sweets, alcohol (most of the time anyway) - and I started drinking 2 litres of water a day, which was a real turning point.
?I took a nutrition course, and learnt all about fatty acids. Found in foods like oily fish, they are essential for overall health, and help people with chronic illnesses. They?re also in seed oil, - a mix of flax, hemp, evening primrose, pumpkin and sesame oils. This was good for me, because I can?t take too much oily fish.
?The seed oil was definitely the missing link in the chain. Within six weeks, the flare-ups in my joints eased - and my skin and hair looked fantastic. I haven?t had a bad attack since. My Reiter?s Syndrome is also much better - in the last three years, I?ve only had to go to hospital for injections once. It was like a miracle - the transformation was amazing.
?Before, I would never have dreamt of running my own business, but I told my husband, Guy, we should market our own seed oil. Although he?s normally a bit of a cynic, he thought it was a good idea, so we put our house up for collateral, and in November 2002, started the Groovy Food Company. We produce Cool Oil, a blend of Omega-3, -6 and -9 fatty acids, and now it sells all over the world.
?My diet changed my body shape too. I?d never paid much attention to it, but I now realise it was full of saturated fat. I went from 60 kilos, size 12-14 to 51 kilos and a size 10 (I?m 160cm). Now, I try to eat vegetables, fish and chicken most of the time, although I?m no saint.?
Excerpt from ?The Diet That Saved My Life? article Marieclaire Australia Feb 2006
By Rosie Hayward, 39, businesswoman
So to cut a long story short, I ordered the book & CD?s and started changing my diet by cutting out red meat, wheat and. I looked into the Cool Oil but it was too expensive & far away for me so I bought a bunch of bottles of oils from my health food shop and started drinking spoonfulls a couple of times a day. It was pretty yuck but I noticed huge improvement in my mood, digestion, bowel function, and my painful arthritis even went away within the first week. Since then I?ve slipped a bit and noticed the bad foods produced troubles again. Am determined to make permanent changes in my life and heal all my bodily ills just like Rosie if I can!!
The MWO program is going to be a very important part of the process. I feel sure that drinking has caused almost all my health problems indirectly via destroying the functioning of my gut over time & messing with my blood sugar.
Learning all of the above also helped show me why MWO works better than any other program.. because of the nutrition component.. at least that's my opinion.
Sure hope this is helpful for someone.
I'm still waiting for supps to arrive & to see my doc again about my blood tests before I get started.. but at least I'm a whole lot more positive. Plus I'm hoping my digestion is working well enough to get maximum benefit from the supps. I've even started Yoga! So if you are depressed, read, read, read and post and talk.. it really, really helps.
Love & Blessings to All
MFM
I had to start a thread to explain my current way of thinking.. As I feel like I am getting somewhere with it and it might help others. Instead of rambling on and endlessly repeating myself.. I thought I?d put my theories in one spot for anyone who?s interested. (sorry, I do tend to ramble).
Just want to say to Roberta.. Thank you so much for this wonderful website and your wonderful book!! Everything!! At last we have a place to discuss the unspeakable without all the judgement, shame, blame and degradation. I feel so positive & powerful now to have so many wonderful, strong and intelligent people on my team.. I feel sure that together we can find solutions and MWO has set me on the path to a sooooooo much better life. And I don?t have to struggle along alone any more with something that Nobody Understands!! At last!!
In this post I retype part of an article from a magazine which helped me. If there is a copyright problem or anything else you don?t like about my post, please don?t hesitate to contact me.. I was not sure what to do about copywright Roberta and I?m sure nobody wants to get sued!!
So my train of thought goes something like this:
I read an Aussie newspaper article around Christmas time warning people not to drink to excess on New Years Eve and explaining that the type of acid made by the body when processing alcohol (forget the name of the acid) is exactly the same as ?ant-sting? which is why it is so painful for the body to process.. Thus the hang-over and the all-too-common desire to put off the pain with a hair-of-the-dog remedy the next day. Nasty eh! It also explained that at the office party the fastest person to get drunk will be the short plump female having a glass of bubbly NOT the thinner one doing vodka shots.. Because we drink sugary bubbly drinks which enter the bloodstream immediately.. (Whereas shots send the stomach into poison panic & shut it down.. So you don?t feel it at all until later when you wake up & can?t remember what happened or when it hit you.) So I understood suddenly how alcohol can create blood sugar problems!! (Duh!)
I found your wonderful website in late January 2006 and raced off to see my Doctor to ask if he?d heard of the program and would he help me by prescribing Topirimate. He?s not sure it?s legal in Australia for anything but epilepsy yet, but he?s looking into it for me. I?m fortunate in that he has a relative who suffers from alcoholism and so he is not judgmental. A rare thing! And he?s very willing to help me. I have no parents, partner or family nearby to mind my 3 children so he?s aware it?s very difficult for me to get treatment in the usual way.. And of course I?m too embarrassed to talk to my friends about it. And in the past my family & friends have only reacted by denying that I have any sort of problem, offering me a drink & telling me to pull myself together. I tried AA years ago but found the same problems there with people being judgemental and cruel if there was any sort of failure/relapse. In my experience it was the opposite of supportive and instead was invasive and degrading in the extreme.
Women with children with alcohol difficulties are in an extremely hard place in our society - very little help and a whole heap of judgements, expectations & condemnations. This only causes tremendous pressure, shame & isolation. The end result is that there are thousands of children being brought up by mothers leading quiet lives of desperation. Dr Garcia?s introduction really brought home to me how long this problem has been going on. We all, especially our children, deserve better.. And condemnation is no cure for anything.
Your site offers us new hope.. To take ourselves and our health seriously in order to find solutions. Not reasons to hate ourselves and drive ourselves deeper into illness & dispair.
So, back to my train of thought..
I first heard about leaky gut when reading under research on this site.. Did google search & read leaky gut causes symptoms like depression (& all kinds of other emotional & cognitive problems), ageing, deterioration of immune system, insulin imbalance, arthritis, Then did a google search on healing leaky gut.. Got the following information
HEALING LEAKY GUT
So to fix leaky gut we need to address a lot of the causes. We need to -
1 Increase stomach acid by taking lemon juice, apple cider vinegar or hydrochloric acid tablets immediately before a meal.
2 Avoid processed foods esp grains & sugars (includes flours, breads, pasta cereals, rice)
3 Take glutamine and Vit A to help repair the damaged villi (gut mucosa absorption sites) and reduce gut hyper-permeability (inappropriate absorption)
4 Increase bile and pancreatic enymes production - take taurine, Vit E & C, B3, chromium, zinc, manganese
5 Restore Gut Flora with acidophilus, biodynamic yoghurt, or probiotics on an empty stomach
6 Eat organic fruit and veg
7 Use blood group diet
8 Drink more water - spring or filtered
9 Avoid constipation - take magnesium and Vit C to bowel tolerance (twice a day on empty stomach)
10 Boost the immune system - get more sleep, gentle exercise, laughter & fun
To BOOST Th1 CELLS (and balance Th2)
* take glutamine, Vit A, C, E, zinc, B Vitamins, essential fatty acids - according to blood group * boost friendly gut flora
* improve digestion - stomach acid, digestive enzymes, bile, insulin
* detox any heavy metals eg copper, mercury, lead
* reduce stress - relax, sleep, massage, meditation, gentle exercise, laugh, have fun
So we keep coming up with the same things still.
Diet tips
- The diet should eliminate foods that are harsh to the intestinal lining. These include sugar, white flour products, milk and dairy products, high fat foods, caffeine, alcohol and other foods known to trigger adverse reactions.
- Highly spiced foods should be excluded from the diet. These include chillies, curries, vinegar, pepper and mustard.
- Food should be chewed more thoroughly.
- Frequent small meals should be eaten rather than three large meals per day
- Increase intake of fish, cod, tuna, salmon and their oils.
- Reduce or eliminate red meat and animal fat, other than fish and fish oil.
- Increase intake of foods high in 'soft' fibre such as carrots, beetroot, broccoli, bananas, paw paw, cherries and mangoes.
- Drink filtered or bottled water rather than tap water.
Vits/mins/herbs
- Reinoculate the bowel with 'good' bacteria using Lactobacillus acidophilus supplements.
- Glucosamine and Glutamine improve the health of the intestinal lining and reduce the 'leakiness' of the gut wall.
- Natural Digestive Enzymes such as bromelain, papain and aloe vera juice can assist digestive function.
- Essential Fatty Acids that occur in flaxseed oil, evening primrose oil, borage oil, fish oil, black current seed oil, apple and citrus pectin and gamma oryzanol are good for digestive function and intestinal health.
- Antioxidant Supplements such as carotenoids, vitamin B complex, vitamin C, vitamin E, zinc, selenium, germanium, coenzyme Q10 and bioflavonoids can help to detoxify the body.
- Plant extracts help repair the intestinal lining. These include kudzu, burdock, slippery elm, Turkish rhubarb, sheep sorrel, liquorice root, ginger root, golden seal, bismuth and bentonite.
I also read a magazine article which I have retyped for you here..
?In 1992 I was working as a conservation officer and had just got married when I started to get pains in my lower back. I thought I had pulled a muscle, so I took pain-killers and anti-inflammatory drugs, but nothing seemed to work.
?It got worse and worse, until I couldn?t even walk 100 metres. By June 1993, I had taken so much time off work that I had to resign. I didn?t know what was wrong with me and it was quite frightening. Over the next two years, I developed more symptoms: swelling in my toe and finger joints, and inflammation in the back of my eye.
?I consulted my Gps and specialists, but all they ever seemed to give me were more anti-inflammatory and pain-killers. These seemed like short-term solutions, and I didn?t want to be on medication forever.
?In the end, I was diagnosed with Reiter?s Syndrome - an auto-immune condition that causes inflammation of the body - and I needed to have injections in the back of my eye. Then, in June 1999, I was also diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS), which is arthritis of the spine, and can make older people double over. I found out later that arthritis sufferers often have Reiter?s Syndrome as well. The specialist told me that I?d be in a wheelchair in a few years. I was devastated - I was pregnant with my second son, Luke, now three, and I already had Kaya, now six.
?I started to read up on AS. As well as exercising with a mini-trampoline, which is recommended for sufferers, I changed my diet dramatically, cutting out all the bad stuff - cakes, sweets, alcohol (most of the time anyway) - and I started drinking 2 litres of water a day, which was a real turning point.
?I took a nutrition course, and learnt all about fatty acids. Found in foods like oily fish, they are essential for overall health, and help people with chronic illnesses. They?re also in seed oil, - a mix of flax, hemp, evening primrose, pumpkin and sesame oils. This was good for me, because I can?t take too much oily fish.
?The seed oil was definitely the missing link in the chain. Within six weeks, the flare-ups in my joints eased - and my skin and hair looked fantastic. I haven?t had a bad attack since. My Reiter?s Syndrome is also much better - in the last three years, I?ve only had to go to hospital for injections once. It was like a miracle - the transformation was amazing.
?Before, I would never have dreamt of running my own business, but I told my husband, Guy, we should market our own seed oil. Although he?s normally a bit of a cynic, he thought it was a good idea, so we put our house up for collateral, and in November 2002, started the Groovy Food Company. We produce Cool Oil, a blend of Omega-3, -6 and -9 fatty acids, and now it sells all over the world.
?My diet changed my body shape too. I?d never paid much attention to it, but I now realise it was full of saturated fat. I went from 60 kilos, size 12-14 to 51 kilos and a size 10 (I?m 160cm). Now, I try to eat vegetables, fish and chicken most of the time, although I?m no saint.?
Excerpt from ?The Diet That Saved My Life? article Marieclaire Australia Feb 2006
By Rosie Hayward, 39, businesswoman
So to cut a long story short, I ordered the book & CD?s and started changing my diet by cutting out red meat, wheat and. I looked into the Cool Oil but it was too expensive & far away for me so I bought a bunch of bottles of oils from my health food shop and started drinking spoonfulls a couple of times a day. It was pretty yuck but I noticed huge improvement in my mood, digestion, bowel function, and my painful arthritis even went away within the first week. Since then I?ve slipped a bit and noticed the bad foods produced troubles again. Am determined to make permanent changes in my life and heal all my bodily ills just like Rosie if I can!!
The MWO program is going to be a very important part of the process. I feel sure that drinking has caused almost all my health problems indirectly via destroying the functioning of my gut over time & messing with my blood sugar.
Learning all of the above also helped show me why MWO works better than any other program.. because of the nutrition component.. at least that's my opinion.
Sure hope this is helpful for someone.
I'm still waiting for supps to arrive & to see my doc again about my blood tests before I get started.. but at least I'm a whole lot more positive. Plus I'm hoping my digestion is working well enough to get maximum benefit from the supps. I've even started Yoga! So if you are depressed, read, read, read and post and talk.. it really, really helps.
Love & Blessings to All
MFM
Comment