Walking to the Oldies

This week felt like a set back week one me. I guess it's good to be humbled this way (only once in awhile please) in order to remind myself of all the many little blessings I have, and how far I have come. My right hip started to hurt 2 weeks ago. It was a gradual pain. This past Monday and Tuesday though I was dreading any type of walking. We aren't sure if I was reacting to some food, if it was a detox, or I did something physically to my lower back. In the past I would have hip pain on my left side, and this seemed to go away when I took out the food culprit. So the right side was a new one for me.

I had my friend give me acupuncture two Fridays ago that seemed to take the edge off of the pain and allow me to semi walk that weekend. I seemed to get worse though Monday morning. Tuesday night I remembered that I had castor oil and so poured that onto a clean cloth then onto my back with my heating pad on top of that. I slept that way all night. The next morning I was able to walk without my cane. I kept putting castor oil packs on Wednesday morning and the pain continued to get better. I called my mom Tuesday night and asked her to send me some Frankincense oil and others to see if that could help as well. By Friday I was able to make it to clinic and sit. I told me friend how today I felt like I was 70 years old, much better than the age 85 I felt at the beginning of the week. During clinic, my friend offered to give me a Tui Na massage to help relax it. Unfortunately as she was doing one stretch, she aggravated it and I ended up limping pretty badly. After another friend offered to do ear acupuncture on me. She needled the hip point on the ear as well as others. I could not believe how after 10 minutes with the needles in, my hip wasn't bothering me as much. I had the strength to get home. A great blessing to me. Today the hip is barely noticeable. I am very grateful for that. Something (or a combination of everything) within that all those treatment modalities is working! Perhaps now I can clean and do the dishes that have been neglected for the past two weeks. Grateful to have learned about all these resources and how I was able to calm this down a lot sooner than my past experiences.  

My latest pet

I got a new pet this week. I'm calling him Henri. He more or less found me. Came in one rainy day and seems to enjoy his new home. It's been working out so far. He is small and doesn't really require much food or attention. He let's me continue to do my work, while he explores every nook and cranny of my home. Sometimes we play tag. He's really good at this game. I can never seem to catch him. I'm not sure how long we will be companions, but it's been fun adventure.

Hair Test Results #3

I did my 3rd Hair Test Analysis this month and received the results this past week. Thought I would post them, so that I can remind myself in the future of where I was. For those interested, on my analysis below, the top number is my current reading. The bottom number is what my test results were 3 months ago.

It's been interesting to see where I am at. I have been feeling a bit better since December. I was surprised though to see the results. My already high calcium and magnesium levels were much higher. I found out though that this means that my tissue is starting to dump the excess magnesium and calcium. There are 4 layers of tissue and my body is starting to push out the stuff that was in the inner layer out. So this is good news. Causes me to be more tired, but I will take that if it's only for a little season. On another good note, my sodium levels have risen since last time. This means my adrenals are getting a bit stronger.

My copper levels are still low. I found out that copper will help move out calcium, so I am definitely using what I am giving to my body. My manganese levels are a bit higher, which means that I am starting to metabolize glucose. Yea! My digestion is slowly starting to work on it's own.

I still show signs of having a chronic bacterial infection, but it has improved since the last test.

I am also FINALLY starting to dump mercury. The past 2 tests showed that I had no toxic elements. I didn't feel this was right. It looks like my body wasn't strong enough to deal with toxic metals. Now it finally has the ability to address them. My consultant told me that my body will only move one toxic element at a time. Which I found interesting. I think those were the most significant changes I found with this retest. Been happy with the progress I have been having since starting at beginning of August. It's a slow process - but I am just happy to see progress!

 

  

12 Random Things You May or May Not Know About Me

I posted this on facebook awhile ago, but wanted to place it somewhere I knew I could find easier (I still can't figure facebook out at times). 

1. My dad informed me that if I wanted to learn how to drive, I needed to go with him Sunday mornings on the paper route he had. So every Sunday at 1am, I would wake up and go drive his paper route for him until about 7am. This was great experience. There was hardly anyone on the freeways and his route was in Apache Junction where there were mostly mobile home parks and a random golf cart.

2. My first car was a 1982 New Yorker. I got it when I was 17 years old. It was an automatic, but the transmission didn’t work well. I had to manually shift it when driving. It didn’t like to drive in “reverse,” and seemed to always stall when I made a left turn. That car taught me what to do when the brakes go out while driving, stalling in the middle of an intersection, how to park so you don’t need to go in reverse and how to change a flat tire.

3. My high school graduation was in the back of the school in the alley.

4. I went with several other students to Washington DC to talk to AZ Congressmen about financial aid for community colleges.

5. I have been in 2 commercials

6. When I was around 8 years old (I think), our family took an airplane trip to Tennessee. The flight attendant let me pass out the peanuts to the other passengers on that flight.

7. I am certified to be a Drum Circle facilitator.

8. For lunch my Senior year of high school, sometimes my friend and I would go to the grocery store, Bashas’ and split a loaf of French bread ($1), then take a handful of mustard packets from the deli counter to spread on the bread. If we had extra money we would order $.50 worth of mashed potatoes at the deli counter, and take several ketchup packets to mix in. At the time it tasted like fries with ketchup.

9. I like to make up different percussive rhythms on my steering wheel when my blinker is on in my car.

10. I like to watch foreign movies.  

11. I do this weird thing, where I try to see how I can "lessen" the amount of garbage I can take out each week. I think I've been living in California too long. 

12. I know all the words to the ABC song!

Alfalfa

Since September I have been doing Hair Mineral Analysis to help get my health back on track. To do this, you are to cut about 1Tbsp worth of hair and send it into the lab about every 3-4months. The last analysis I did in November I had this idea that it would be good to get samples from all over my head. I had "thought" I had cut samples from the bottom layers. Now 8 weeks later, I am seeing that 'nope' I actually managed to cut the top layer right on top of my head and at the top back.

This isn't too bad though. I have something to laugh at for the next couple of weeks, or until it grows out a little more. I guess some of us still have that 3 year old inside of us just wanting to 'cut' our hair with the scissors mom hides in the bathroom.

Living Legends

Saturday, I actually took a night off from studying and went with some friends to see BYU Living Legends perform. They came to Oakland for a one night performance. They perform songs and dances from Native America, Polynesia, and Latin America. A friend who came along stated that she would have been willing to pay $50 to see that performance. Luckily for her, I try to find the best, "most economical," way of experiencing these events and was able to get a group big enough to get the group discount. That's a perk you get when you are associated with someone on a college budget.

Here is an excerpt of what I was able to see. If you ever get the chance to see this, I recommend it!

A New View on Life

The past few years I have learned that computer (especially screens) and fluorescent lights are at times too strong for me to be around. It's hard to describe what happens to me when I am around them. With computers, smart phones and ipads I can literally feel the energy that they emit and it doesn't feel good. Also nausea and low blood sugar symptoms will follow. Around fluorescent lights I will also start to feel flu like symptoms. It took me awhile to figure out what was going on. I finally connected the dots when I left a store after starting to feel sick and realized I started to feel better being outside. My latest theory on why this is occurring is because I am blood deficient. So I don't have that extra barrier of blood to protect me from the energy they put off as others do. I am always in awe to see someone being able to hold a smart phone and not being in pain from it.

This week I decided to try something new in hopes that I could be in fluorescent rooms and on the computer longer without having to deal with side effects. I had been hearing about computer glasses, especially the brand "Gunner" and how they help. The glasses have an amber coating on them that block the harmful blue lights that affect our bodies. I found some off-brand glasses on Amazon. I got them Wednesday and cannot believe how much better I have felt. I don't feel as drained after being in buildings and my eyes aren't so tired after being on the computer. They have a yellow tint on them, but I think it helps me see the world in a better way!

Same Thing I Do Every Night...

Do you remember the show Animaniacs? Do you remember Pinky and the Brain?

Every time someone asks me what I am going to have for dinner tonight I begin to think of the Brain saying "same thing we do every night..." I really wish I could say it the same way he does.

So if I start to laugh when you ask me that question, I am not laughing at you. I'm just thinking of "Pinky & the Brain" and really wishing I could answer you the same way he answers Pinky :)

Thoughts...

It's been a long time since I have posted anything on my blog. A lot of that is because I have been dealing with a lot of health issues, and realizing through them that I wasn't thinking as well as I would like to. I was afraid I might write something I would regret later. But I realize things are getting better, perhaps I should share something I am learning or observing right now in life. One thing that has been interesting is observing 'thoughts.' It's something I don't hear talked about much, and although I don't understand it all, I will try to explain the things that I have learned through my experiences and others I have observed.

For me, thoughts are not always who we are. They are a piece of us, and can let us know more about what is going on, but they aren't the whole picture. My thoughts can change very easily through lack of sleep, eating something that doesn't work for my body, types of music, songs or books I read, etc. I remember the first time I had my first 'ah-ha' experience with this. It was several years ago. I was feeling great and had gone to get an ice cream cone at McDonald's. While eating it I realized that my thoughts had suddenly turned from being happy to depressed. I was starting to think my life was horrible and there was nothing good about it. I took 'a step back' in a sense and just observed the thoughts going through my head. I couldn't believe how quickly they had changed. That was the last McDonald's ice cream cone I have eaten - actually any ice cream. I started to see that my body doesn't do well with it. But back to thoughts... from then I started to realize that I shouldn't take my thoughts as seriously as I do at times. Sometimes I misinterpret my thoughts. Thoughts I take literally may just be another way for my body to try to communicate to me about what is going on inside. An example of this is from a friend I have who is currently dealing with a lot of anxiety, fear and paranoia. Watching her go through these and trying to convince her that what she is seeing and feeling is not really happening is hard. She couldn't understand how they could not be real - because it feels real to her. She is starting to understand more of what is going on with her body and why she is all of a sudden experiencing these issues. But it is still hard for her to not believe all her thoughts.

Right now I am starting to learn more about when I need to NOT take my my thoughts seriously. Starting to see when I am having a not too good health day, and to perhaps not to take too many emails or telephone calls seriously. I'm learning it's better better for me to not respond right away, but to wait perhaps a day to see if I feel the same on the subject. It's definitely a been learning process.

So thoughts are an interesting subject and I can see I really only see a small piece of it. I feel like I have been pondering on this subject though more frequently. Have you noticed any thing about your thoughts? When do you know you can trust them, and when to just let them go? hmmm... something to think about....

SF Weekend Fun

Last weekend, my sister Sarah flew up for the weekend. She flew up for a doctor's appointment, and to HAVE FUN!!! The doctor's appointment was Saturday morning, and the fun was Saturday afternoon. My other sister, Lindsay and her family met us up in San Francisco. I realized that although I live so much closer to San Francisco, I don't really get to this city much. The last time I came was December, and that was just to play at a gig in a hotel. Driving there I kinda remembered why I don't go there often.... traffic, crazy streets and HILLS!

(***note, this was my first time driving through San Francisco was a GPS.... so much better. It was also better when your, sister has an iPhone and can look up alternate routes so you can avoid the REALLY, REALLY STEEP ROADS - imagine scene from Princess Diaries movie of driving up SF hill in a stick shift car***)

Walking on Golden Gate Bridge... observe the fog (aka mist of darkness)... it's completely gone when you get to the other side of the bridge

Our first item on the agenda was to WALK THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE. We wanted to do something that none of us had done. Sarah and I were really excited to have found a FREE parking spot near the Golden Gate Bridge. (this is a rare occurrence in this city). The weather was deadfully cold and windy. I was grateful I brought my sweater, but wished I had brought a warmer hoodie with scarf and hat. We ended up putting the hoods on our jackets on our heads to protect it from the wind. The walk was a of fun, and being with 2 younger kids helps you to see the bridge differently. The bridge is 220 feet high from the water and 1.7 miles one way. (so we pretty much did a 5k)

Afterwards we went to the Palace of Fine Arts. I read about this while googling SF. It was built for the World's Fair in 1915. It's a beautiful outdoor palace that you could see may have been influenced by Greek or Roman cultures. .... oh did I mention I found FREE parking for this as well.... had to walk a few blocks, but it was FREE!

Palace of Fine Arts

We were all exhausted from the walking and being outside. We decided to go down south and see Stanford University campus. This is a beautiful campus. Lot's of trees, and amazing architectural buildings. Unfortunately we couldn't go into the church due to a ceremony. 

My nephew telling me to take a picture of his hand.

At the really cool water fountain at Stanford University.

...and now the curly hair pics

The Hair Story

In January, while I was in the hospital, I was put on some harsh medications. One of them being prednisone (scary music playing...). Not only did they put me on this drug, but they put me on a very high dosage for a lot longer than I wanted them to. I was on the med for about 4 months. Luckily no relapse when getting off of it (yea!). 

I haven't been on Prednisone since I was first diagnosed with Crohn's disease (about 12 years ago). The first time I was on it, I experienced a LOT of the side effects with it... weight gain, mood swings, excessively hungry, pimples, hair loss, etc. Not an enjoyable memory. 

This time around, I was a bit more learned and wiser. I experienced really no side effects from this, except.... HAIR LOSS!!! Now I must admit. I don't know if this is due to the medication or deficiency in vitamin/ mineral (I'm guessing both).

I've never experienced hair loss like this before though. I would be washing my hair and patches of hair would be in my hand. I am fortunate to have a lot of hair. But after 6 months, I am starting to really notice a change with the amount and texture. I am also noticing how much hair is all over my house. It drives me crazy. After I clean it all up, it just appears again!

So to create a win-win situation, I decided to get it cut. 

Today I went to Paul Mitchell's School after some errands and asked if they had any openings. They just had a cancellation, and fit me right in. It was great. She was even a phase 2 student (which means more experience, and technique). I explained my situation to her, and we talked about what "short" meant. I told her I had a few ideas of what I wanted but wasn't sure. She told me she had some ideas of what would look good on me. I told her that she could do whatever she wanted to with my hair, have fun with it. She was so excited to hear this (I guess not many people tell her this). 

So I have no before pictures, but my hair was curly, and about down to my shoulders. I really like the new look she gave me. It will be easy to do. Less hair to clean up. And I can style it straight of curly. 

 It's going to be a fun change. I can't wait to try out different curly techniques this weekend!

LDS Scripture Rock

It's been awhile since my last post. Many things have been going on in my life that have kept me busy...getting very sick, spending time in the hospital and ER, recouping, and trying to convince medical doctors that I don't need to see them anymore... at one point I had 4 doctors - makes it very busy with all those appointments - now I'm down to 3!... one day... oh, and school and constant research regarding understanding what happened...

But that story will be for another day and another post...

Right now I wanted to share a new routine that I have started that has been fun and good for me. I discovered a CD called "LDS Scripture Rock" about 7 years ago. Right now I have Doctrine and Covenants and Old Testament. Each CD has the 25 scripture mastery compiled into a "rock song". As I get ready for the day, I have been listening to a CD. I am starting to notice that I am now remembering the words more, and also having scriptures in my head more throughout the day. This really helps at times when I am just needing a "spiritual" pick me up. I found some "music videos" on you tube. Here is one of them so you can get some idea of what this fun music is like.

Sorry, my Chinese is not so good...

I finished my finals yesterday! I am excited for a mental break now. I just found this song, and thought that this is what I wanted to be able to convey to my poor Chinese teacher, who tried so hard to teach us how to say anything in Chinese this semester.

Title of this song in English is "Sorry, my Chinese in not so good". It is a story about the mistakes the band members (Transition, British Band) made when they first started to learn Mandarin Chinese. Enjoy!

(you can download the song for free here http://www.transition.com.tw/Transition/Dui_Bu_Qi_mp3/Dui_Bu_Qi_mp3.html)

A walk down Main Street

Here are some pictures of a walk I take at times down Main Street from the town I live. There are trees everywhere. I tried to capture the leaves changing colors. The phone camera didn't do it's justice I feel. 

 I looked out my window one day and saw this deer. They just looked at me, then continued to find food to eat. I've only seen this deer a few times with their young ones. I mostly have squirrels to watch. They can be funny at times on the trees. The squirrels can't stay still too long for pictures though. 

Die-Off vs. Food Intolerance

This has become one of the BIGGEST questions I have asked myself, and tried to answer for others. When you are trying to heal your gut lining through GAPS, they say be prepared for die-off reactions. In addition, you are also coming to know your body more and recognizing which foods your body can't tolerate at this moment. This is one thing that Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride says about the difference:

How can you tell the difference between die-off and food intolerance?  For example, how do you know if flatulence is caused by the meal you just ate or from the meal prior to that one?

The die-off symptoms can be new symptoms or can be your usual symptoms getting worse, when you introduce new diet, probiotics or anti-parasitic, anti-fungal/anti-bacterial remedies.  Food intolerance symptoms appear when you introduce new foods into your diet.  If you have been eating a particular food routinely, which you suspect as causing food intolerances, remove it for 3-4 weeks, then try to eat it again.  Your body will let you know if you are intolerant to it.  Production of gas takes time; it is the pathogens in the gut (usually fungi) that convert food into gas.  So, it is your previous meals that produced the gas.  Every meal sends a propulsion reflex down the digestive system, so that gas in the bowel may be released when you are eating your next meal.

So from my previous post you can see that I had been going through some not so fun arthritic pain for the past two weeks. I thought it was die-off. I have come to learn, that nope, it was a food intolerance manifesting itself BIG TIME! Once I figured it out, and took it out, the arthritic pain went away! So I think right now I will have to cross off beef, pork and possibly chicken from my list. I am experimenting with turkey. So far so good. Luckily there is a Sprout's an hour away from me, near my sister, where they sell also some wild game (Elk, deer, bison....). I will have to check that out, and see if I can alternate. I heard this can be resolved, just need to have it out for a bit. I also tried adding cauliflower back in my diet, and it seemed to cause brain fog. I am LOVING not having brain fog right now. I wish I knew this during mid-terms!

So you may be asking, are these new food intolerances, or did I just not recognize them? This is what Dr. Natasha said in her FAQ:

I am mostly doing GAPS because of multiple food intolerances in my kids and a history of the same for myself. It seems that it really is only getting worse. I need to understand the ‘science’ of why that is.There is a so-called masking phenomenon in food allergies. When the person keeps eating offending foods, reactions to them overlap with each other and it is impossible to know what exactly the person is reacting to. When you start removing foods hidden allergies get unmasked, which is often a nasty surprise. In GAPS people their gut is damaged and porous, so they may react to most foods, if not all of them. As we cannot starve ourselves, we need to ignore those reactions and get on with healing the gut lining. If a particular food is causing an unacceptably severe reaction, then keep it out for a while. But if the reactions are not too drastic, just live with them, while working on your GAPS Introduction diet. In the meantime bio-resonance therapy, medical neutralisation, homeopathy, NES and other vibrational forms of medicine can help you to reduce the severity of reactions.

Some things I am noticing now with my food intolerances are change of thoughts (sometimes emotions as well), increase heart rate, fatigue, joint pain, headaches, foggy thinking, abdominal discomfort, acid reflux, problems sleeping, craving that food, not feeling satisfied after eating, etc. So what do I do? I try to decide which symptoms I can deal with, and which one's I don't want (no joint pain!). I'll due my best to limit the one's I know I react to, and then try them back in, after some time and see if I am stronger. I have seen so many testimonials that people's food intolerances have been fixed through this. Need to keep having hope!

GAPS Diet - First few weeks experiences

I started the GAPS diet a few months ago, and noticed a difference right away. Then I started to get prideful (in a sense), and went through the stages a lot faster than my body was able to. I think my thinking was "I have been eating something similar to this for many moons, so I shouldn't need to be on the beginning stages for too long..." Boy was I wrong!

I began to get sick again, and experience bad symptoms all over about 3 weeks ago. I didn't know what to do. I talked with my doctor and decided to start GAPS all over again. This time just go down to the bare minimum - broth and meat, then slowly add a vegetable in one at a time. (I'm still at broth and meat - but it's ok). My body really needed to heal, and I needed to allow it time to heal. I had a short "honeymoon" period of one day :) Wow! did I love it!!! My brain fog completely cleared, my mind calmed down - no more racing, I could concentrate, my anxiety was gone (especially after eating) and the crazy, depressive thoughts that were becoming increasingly present had stopped.

Then the "detoxing" began. This has been one of the hardest and longest detoxes I have ever experienced. I can see now that one of the problems with the SCD diet is that when  you go on the full version, you then start to eat A LOT of high oxalate type foods - nuts, spinach, quinoa etc. A lot of the substitutions used for baking are high in these. I have been consuming almonds, quinoa etc for a long time now. I can see that they were almost like an opiate for me. Would be my "calming" food. This isn't good, but hard to see when you are in the thick of it. It was REALLY hard to stop eating these things. I noticed I would crave them, even though I wasn't hungry. I finally was able to just stop them 2 weeks ago. What I didn't know was what would happen if you had been consuming high oxalate foods for awhile, and then stop it. The first few days, my large joints were badly inflamed, and it was hard to move. I noticed that it was mostly on parts of my body that I had been having trouble with previously. The inflammation would move as well, almost moving downward. I joined a yahoo support group for Low Oxalate Diet, and discovered that the vitamin Biotin can help with the pain. So I bought some and was surprised at how fast it worked. If you take the right dosage, then within 5 minutes the pain would be gone. I LOVE BIOTIN!!!

I am still feeling the effects of detoxing after 2 weeks, but they are not as severe as when I first started. I am also noticing that I am calming down inside even more than before. It's a great feeling! I went and got acupuncture done yesterday, and have noticed even less inflammation today with my joints.  Tai Ji and some QiGong movements have also been helping.

So what have I learned during this time:

• GAPS has been working for me so far. My digestion problems are much better, as well as the brain fog, and calmer thinking.
• I NEED to go much SLOWER than I originally thought, and have more patience with myself. Luckily my body is really loving the added fat to my diet. I noticed that I feel so much better after eating it, and calmer.
• Fermented foods, and probiotics are beneficial, but also can be strong. These need to be added in slowly to not detox too fast.
• You don't need to just "suffer" through detoxing reactions. There are some great tools to helping reduce or eliminate the symptoms - enemas (the BEST really fast fix), epsom salt baths, activated charcoal, Biotin, magnesium. 
• When I go to full GAPS to watch my oxalate intake, and not get too carried away with all the almond flour, etc. in order to to eat eat baked goods. 
• That I love learning how to cook all these old traditional meals - bone soup/ meat stock, sauerkraut. And am looking forward to learning how to make Yogurt in a crockpot, Kefir, etc. 
• Knowledge is so important. Reading the book has helped as well as finding additional information online, and other people's experiences. Also talking to others, so you can hear yourself as to what is going on, or getting insights from others. Sometimes I don't notice reactions, or things I am doing to hurt myself. I am grateful that my two others sisters are doing intro with me - it does help. 

Fat Myths

(excepts have been taken from the Gut and Psychology Syndrome and Nourishing Traditions book)

When you go on the GAPS diet, a lot of paradigm thinking needs to be shifted towards back to our ancestors time. One is that you are asked to eat A LOT of fat in your diet. Consuming the fats are one of the biggest healing mechanisms we can give to our bodies. What does the body need fat for:

• Out brain is about 60% fat (dry weight)
• 25% of all body cholesterol is taken from the brain
• Myelin is 20 % cholesterol. This is a structure in the brain and nervous system, is a fatty substance. It coats every nerve cell, and nerve fiber like an insulating cover around electric wires. In addition, it provides nourishment and protection for every tiny structure in our brain and the rest of the nervous system. Those who tend to lose myelin start to develop Multiple Sclerosis.   
• Every membrane of every cell and every organelle inside of the cells are made of fats.
• Many hormones, neurotransmitters and other active substances in the body are made of fats.
• Almost 1/2 of the cell wall is made of cholesterol
• After the brain, the endocrine glands are the next big organs that need cholesterol - adrenal and sex glands - produce steroid hormones (testosterone, progesterone, pregnenolone, androsterone, estrone, estradiol, corticosterone, aldosterone and others.  - regulate our bodies metabolism, energy production, mineral assimilation, brain, muscle, and bone formation, and assist with behavior, emotions and reproduction. - Lack of this causes ADRENAL FATIGUE!!!
• Immune cells rely on cholesterol in fighting infections and repairing themselves. 

Foods give our bodies the ability to not have to work so hard to produce cholesterol. In a healthy person, the body produces cholesterol as needed. If we consume cholesterol, then our body does not make as much. When we don't consume any, then it will produce what is needed. However, they are finding if you take lower cholesterol drugs, than this is different. The stop the body from producing their own cholesterol, thus breaking our wonderful natural balancing body. 

So why do those who need to follow GAPS then required to increase their fat consumption? GAPSters have a lot of toxicity  and nutritional deficiencies in their bodies, that they are unable to produce enough cholesterol on their own. Research is showing that those who are not able to produce enough cholesterol on their own are prone to emotional instability and behavioral problems.  Low blood cholesterol has been routinely recorded in criminals who have committed murder and other violent crimes, people with aggressive and violent personalities, people prone to suicide, and people with aggressive social behaviors and low self-control. In a sense, it is worse to have a low cholesterol blood level, than a high cholesterol blood level. 

So when did our minds shift towards the REPULSION of eating any kind of fat, and going on Low-Fat, No-Fat diets? 

• The theory - "the lipid hypothesis" - was proposed y Ancel Keys in the late 1950s. He stated that there was a direct relationship between the amount of cholesterol and saturated fat in the diet and the incidence of coronary heart disease. A lot of research after this has proven this theory to be wrong. Unfortunately the media pushed Keys ideas more, and the vegetable oil and food processing agencies promotes more research to support this research as well.
• Nathan Pritkin, was also known as a strong advocate for lowfat diets. His original diet consisted of elimination of sugar, white flour, and all processed foods from the diet and recommended fresh raw foods, whole grains, and an exercise program. The media though, picked up on the lowfat aspect of it. Those who followed it found their weight and cholesterol level declined. Pritkin soon found though that the fat free diet had problems. First, it was hard to stay on it. Second, those who did stay on it, developed a variety of health problems: low energy, difficulty concentrating, depression, weight gain and mineral deficiencies. Soon, Pritkin stated that you needed a small amount of fat from vegetable sources (about 10%). 

So what have we been finding, that our great grandmother's already knew....

• Before 1920 coronary heart disease was rare in America. When Paul Dudley White introduced the German electrocardiograph, he had to seek out patients to use this on, and Harvard University advised him to put his energies into a more profitable branch of medicine. 
• The Farmingham Heart Study is often cited as proof of the "lipid hypothesis. The study began in 1948 and involved about 6,000 people from the town of Farmingham, MA. Two groups were compared at 5-year intervals - those who consumed little cholesterol adn saturated fat, and those who consumed large amounts. After 40 years, the director of the study had to admit: "In Farmingham, MA, the more saturated fat one ate, the more cholesterol one ate, the more calories one ate, the lower the person's serum cholesterol... we found that the people who ate the most cholesterol, ate the most saturated fat, ate the most calories, weighed the least and were the most physically active." The study did show that those who weighed more and had abnormally high blood cholesterol levels were slightly more at risk for future heart disease, but weight gain and cholesterol levels had an inverse correlation with fat and cholesterol intake in the diet. (Cholesterol & Your Health by Christopher Mudd, MS, JS, Copyright 1990)
• In a multi-year British study involving several thousand men, half were asked to reduce saturated fat and cholesterol in their diets, to stop smoking and to increase consumption of unsaturated oils (margarine and vegetable oils). After one year, those on the "good stuff - unsaturated oils" had 100% more deaths than those on the "bad - smoking" diets, in spite of the fact that those on the "bad" diets continued to smoke. (Cholesterol Myths by Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD, Copyright 1999)
• Mother's milk provides a higher proportion of cholesterol than almost any other food. It also contains over 50% of it's calories as fat - mostly saturated fat. Both cholesterol and saturated fat are essential for growth in babies and children, especially the development of the brain. A recent study has linked lowfat diets with failure to thrive in children. (Enzyme Nutrition by Edward Howell, MD, COpyright 1985)

So what kind of fats and oils are best for us:

• Animal fats (fats in fresh meat, fats rendered in meats, dairy fats - butter, cream, ghee - and fats in egg yolks. These contain largely saturated and monosaturated fatty acids. 
• Fermented cod liver oil
• Good seed/nut oil blends
• Olive Oil (when not used for heating, or on hot foods)
• Coconut oil

Natural fats in their natural state is the best thing we can do for our bodies right now. It's a hard paradigm shift, as we have been indoctrinated so well by the media. I am finding that by increasing my fat consumption, I am not as hungry as before, and feel more satisfied after eating. If anything, try it out for a month and see if you notice any difference....

If you would like more information on this you can go to The Weston A. Price Foundation or Gut & Psychology Syndrome website or book

Sauerkruat

Sandor Kratz has become is the the Prince of Fermentation. He has a great book on how to ferment almost anything. Here is a YouTube video he made on how to make Sauerkraut. From this, I have been able to make my own Sauerkraut successfully :) It tastes really good, and is great to add the juice to the dinner to increase stomach acidity, as well as probiotics.

GAPS Protocol

Much has been occurring in my life the past 3 months. I have made a complete life change in a sense. I let go of my music therapy practice in AZ and moved to Northern Cali to study Oriental Medicine. This seemed crazy the entire time I was making this change, yet I had so much peace that this is the direction my life needed to go at this time.

In addition, my health had started to really decline before the move. I was becoming intolerant to more and more foods. It was down to pretty much nothing. Not knowing what step to take next, my cousin, introduced me to the GAPS diet (Gut and Psychology Syndrome). My doctor had recently talked about it as well, so I started to look into it. It followed the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) in many ways. I knew the benefits of this, as I had followed this when first diagnosed with Crohn's disease 11 years ago. I believe that by doing this, I avoided a lot of harsher medications, and surgeries. It wasn't until I started to eat away from the SCD diet that my health really started to go down.

What I like about the GAPS though is that it has strengthened the SCD, where looking back, I see did not work for me. I can also see where the GAPS is needs strengthening as well in some areas, but we are all different, and have individual needs. The GAPS diet though is more flexible and helps you to see what to do for your individual case more.

With the GAPS diet, it is not a life long diet, nor a way to help you deal with the issues at the time. It is a way to permanently heal the digestive system, the leaky gut, the autoimmune disease, etc so that  you will in the future be able to eat those healthy foods you find you can't at this moment.

The GAPS diet was initiated by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride. A neurosurgeon in the UK, she began to see a connection between the Gut and Brain after her first son was diagnosed with severe autism. She wouldn't accept that there was no cure for it, so she went back to school and received additional doctoral degree's in nutrition. She found the SCD diet and began to apply it to her son and family, with the modifications she observed. From doing this, her son shows no signs of autism now. He is completely mainstreamed in school. She now focuses her practice on helping other children as well, but found that this helps with anyone, as all disease begin in the gut. As she began to have more people requesting her services, she found that she could not treat everyone, so she wrote the book on how to follow the protocol, so that anyone can do this without her assistance.

The GAPS diet follows different phases. You have the Full GAPS (which is similar to SCD), and then you have the 6 Introduction Phases (which is where the healing of the digestive system takes place).

I started GAPS right before I moved to CA. May not have been the best time to do this, but I needed to do something. I think it helped me get through all the transitions taking place in my life. I see now though that I was adding things in faster than my body was ready, and not following it as well.

Last week, I started to have digestive problems again, and so after talking with my doctor, decided to restart the GAPS diet with the Introduction 1 phase. This time though, just really eliminate everything, and eat only meat and broths to allow my body to rest and heal. Wow! if I did not know what would happen by doing this. I have been experiencing the worst die-off effects I have ever had before. I could barely move the first day. The exhaustion and severe joint pain was unreal. It is getting better though, and I becoming much more wiser with how to handle die-offs. I think for me experiencing is the only motivation to do research and to know if something does work or not. But I have been experiencing some incredible benefits as well since doing this. My anxiety has REALLY decreased. It makes me sad, because I finally got an herb to help with this, and now I really don't need it. Also, my mind is much more calmer and at peace more (except when die-off's become really bad).

I'm can't say that the GAPS diet will completely heal me, but I have faith it will strengthen me more. From what I have experienced so far, I think it can benefit a great many people. From those experiencing autism, ADD/ADHD, eczema, leaky gut, candida, celiac, autoimmune disease, diabetes, adrenal fatigue, chronic fatigue syndrome, etc.

I'll keep you updated on my progress and the things I am learning through this new adventure.