I'm doing okay. Some days I feel really run down, some days I feel fine. I am trying to eat well, but I do so like sugary things. But I try to balance out my cookie addiction with flax meal and chia seeds. :) I have been taking pro-biotics every day, multiple times a day. I started taking fish oil, Vitamin D, and some other vites just to make (extra) sure I'm getting what I need.
I'm still a little pissed that things like carrots and celery turned up on my Inflammation Scale. ?! They are harder to avoid than I thought because, um, they're healthful vegetables.
Poo Update--My husband's professional opinion is that it is "solid, not formed" which is a VAST improvement over "What the hell is that in the toilet!?"
Emotionally I am getting closer to giving up on this Chinese medicine thing and just taking the fake thyroid hormone from the pharmacy. DH pointed out that were I to give up now, just as I've been armed with a list of offending foods, I might regret not giving it a 100% chance. So, I am going to make an appointment with the Chinese Herbalist Dude (or, as we endearingly know him, C.A.G.) and voice my frustrations to him.
I think I will take the Thyroxal for awhile longer and try to avoid any foods that are on my 'list'. The idea is still to get to a place where I feel well enough that I can start reducing the Thyroxal and see if my thyroid picks up the slack.
Today I had more muscle tightness and arthritis and that was annoying. :( I haven't gained any weight (well, maybe a pound) BUT I haven't lost any either, which is great!
Puzzle Piece #3
Food intolerance can lead to a leaky gut (see some other Puzzle Piece). Summary: When you eat something your body is intolerant to, it causes gut inflammation and can make your intestinal wall porous or permeable. (Gross, right?)
Then bits of the food you eat can leak into your body and blood stream, causing all sorts of problems because your body identifies it as a foreign body and tries to attack it. Then, whenever you eat that food again, your body tries to attack it (i.e. your body's natural inflammatory response).
Therefore, a leaky gut leads to inflammation. Double inflammation, since your gut was inflamed and then food leaked into your body....anyway. Chronic inflammation leads to BAD things happening.
Normally, inflammation is for temporary bacteria or viruses that your body needs to eliminate. With allergies and autoimmune processes, the inflammatory process gets a little out of control.
I have thyroiditis (or inflammation of the thyroid) and most likely an inflamed intestine. I have written already about how gluten looks like thyroid cells to your body, so once gluten is in your blood stream your body might mistakenly attack the thyroid. Further, if you have any other intolerances or food allergies, the problem is made more complex.
Recently a friend expressed incredulity that chronic inflammation could eventually lead to more complex problems (like mine or worse). Well, I have done did the research about inflammation (which could come from anything, stress, eating poorly, eating things you're allergic to, you get the idea) and I present it to you.
This is a link to part of a textbook, but what the preview they show illustrates just what I'm talking about: *"...recent evidence supports that inflammatory mediators per se, even if they are generated by chronic disease states, go on to have a potent biological impact on the exacerbation of chronic diseases and contribute to the development of new disease states." It then goes on to state that certain types of chronic inflammation leads to cancer.
Here is a published work called Chronic inflammation, the tumor microenvironment, and carcinogenesis.This is the first sentence of it: "Chronic inflammation often precedes or accompanies a
substantial number of cancers." The very next sentence is about how anti-inflammatory stuff helps prevent cancer. Hmm.
The study "Chronic Inflammation and Oxidative Stress as a Major Cause of Age- Related Diseases and Cancer" only looks at inflammation in terms of age, but I think it's still valuable information: "Chronic inflammation is a pathological condition characterized by continued active inflammation response and tissue destruction...there is a general concept that chronic inflammation can be a major cause of cancers and express aging processes [such as] diabetes, cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases. Inflammatory process induces oxidative stress and reduces cellular antioxidant capacity. Overproduced free radicals react with cell membrane fatty acids and proteins impairing their function permanently. In addition, free radicals can lead to mutation and DNA damage that can be a predisposing factor for cancer and age-related disorders." It doesn't look like the folks who published this one spoke English as a first language, so cut them a break...
Other studies I found (just on good ol' Google Scholar) mentioned links between inflammation and all types of cancer, poly-cystic ovarian syndrome, insulin resistance in Type II diabetics, chronic heart failure, etc. It even looks like having recurrent infections can lead to chronic inflammation.
For a personal anecdote, I offer up my DH and Dear Dad. Recently my Daddy-O and my husband have started eating better, largely because I pitched a hissy fit about much I love them and don't want them to die anytime soon. I digress. Since both these men have stopped eating a great many things that aren't great for them (fast food, soda, lots of red meat, greasy, fried things, you get the idea) they have noticed a) they feel better and b) whenever they DO eat those things again, there is an increase in sinus mucous production (um, snot, I guess), breathing issues, and generally how GOOD they feel. Sounds like bad food increases inflammation to me. The doc Forks Over Knives talks specifically about how animal products are inflammatory...and lead to cancer.
It's also important that you understand this sub-puzzle-piece--if I just took whatever drugs the good doctors offer to alleviate my diarrhea, my arthritis, and maybe even replace my thyroid hormone, then I would just be covering up symptoms. If I keep eating things or doing things to my body that cause inflammation, the inflammation will only get worse and I will need ever more drugs. Make sense? The idea is to STOP the inflammation, hopefully by eating and living well.
There was a dude in the aforementioned documentary who chose to eat poorly and spend his money on all the diabetes (Type 2), blood pressure, and cholesterol drugs he needed. His family was tight for money and couldn't afford both veggies/fruits AND their personal pharmacy. But if you think about this, it doesn't make much sense. If he keeps eating fast food, his diabetes, blood pressure, and cholesterol will get worse. He'll need more drugs. And eventually he'll end up in the hospital, maybe from a heart attack, with a giant hospital bill. Then the system will pay for his poor health. So....I'm saying I think that eating well is worth a little bit extra up front, because it might save you money at the end anyway.
If eating milk is supposedly causing inflammation in my gut and an autoimmune attack on my thyroid, then I'll give not drinking milk a try. I like this option better than the standard "We no idea why your body would do that at all! Here's a drug", thank you very much.
I was assuming that not eating wheat or gluten would be the big deal for me, but the IgG blood test showed that milk in all sorts of forms (whey, casein, cheese, even goat's milk) was an even bigger problem for me. I know that IgG tests are controversial, but for my purposes right now (seeing as I'm a Guinea Pig) I am still avoiding the foods that showed up as highly inflammatory. If it still doesn't make sense why I want to curb inflammation, go back and start at the beginning. ;)
Some other bloggers have written on this issue:
My Disability Blog
A Life of Sugar & Spice
*Note: I put in elipses when I edit words out of quotes, but I try not to change the meaning of the quote. I include links so you can double check me. Here, I took out the word "however". Often times I think the medical community tends to be long-winded and ultimately confusing in their word choice so I try to cut out the words that I think add to the confusion. Just FYI.
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