Food Matters

[MBombardier]

I watched this documentary last night, and it raised some questions. Basically what I got out of it was that the medical community in general does a superb job treating trauma but is deficient in treating illness and therefore we should all take charge of our own health. Since "everyone knows" that we are what we eat, we should use food as medicine. I am going to watch it again because it was very late and since I had had a couple glasses of wine earlier, my brain was not exhibiting its usual "steel trap" qualities. It is difficult to thoroughly discuss anything in an hour-and-a-half, so it seemed that there were some pretty sweeping generalities (like there is no reason whatsoever for there to be chronic illnesses) but as I said, I need to watch it again. Has anyone else watched this?

It seems to me that I have had a pretty helter-skelter approach to learning about my newly-diagnosed CC. This disease, as well as my hypothyroidism, are the most life-changing of the autoimmune diseases that I have. For CC, my doctor just basically said take Apriso and come see me in January. Until recently, I just blindly took the synthetic T4 replacement for my low thyroid, not knowing that the way my thyroid behaves is indicative of Hashimoto's disease. I realize that there is some evidence that autoimmune functions are not necessarily "diseases", but for the sake of brevity...

Here are my questions:

If you were newly-diagnosed with a chronic disease, what is the first thing you would do to educate yourself about it?

Would you look at your vitamin levels? If so, what specific resources would you use to do that?

Would you consider changing your diet? If so, how would you educate yourself about that?

What else would you do?

Thank you in advance...

Would you change your diet? If so, how would you find out what to do to change it?

[Bifcus16]

OK Marliss, I'll have a go at your questions.

Here are my questions:

If you were newly-diagnosed with a chronic disease, what is the first thing you would do to educate yourself about it?

Google like mad - especially including words like 'forum' to look for support groups. And keep refining my searches based on what I had learnt so far. emedicine.com is a great info source about specific conditions.

Would you look at your vitamin levels? If so, what specific resources would you use to do that?

Not just vitamin levels, but minerals as well. Big fan of hair analysis for checking mineral levels - especially nasty ones like lead. I would do this through a naturopath. Use that to supplement whatever basic vitamins testing I could talk the doc into.

Would you consider changing your diet? If so, how would you educate yourself about that?

Following up the leads from the earlier google searches. User forums would be a key place for condition specific information. Use a naturopath for help in working out what to do about the vitamin and mineral imbalances. You can never go too wrong if you reduce manufactured food and eat more basic foods.

What else would you do?

Consider what impact this condition would have on my overall lifestyle. Is it likely to get worse or better? How quickly? Based on that I would then look at what lifestyle changes are best for the specific condition. It may mean easing off for a while, or it may mean doing things now before my condition deteriorated.

Look for the type of exercise that is most likely to be beneficial. eg, aerobic, or strength building exercise, or a focus on flexibility. Yoga is good for strength and flexibility.

Be kind to myself. Adding stress by worrying I am not perfect at doing all the options for recovery is not going to help. Increase use of meditation and creative visualisation. Visualise the good energy coming in and easing the problem.


Lyn

[MBombardier]

Thank you, Lyn! I really appreciate this, especially the suggestion to go to a naturopath.

And encouragement to exercise. I keep meaning to be more disciplined in this area. I read a quote by some doctor that if he could bottle the effects of exercise, he would revolutionize medicine.

Be kind to myself. Adding stress by worrying I am not perfect at doing all the options for recovery is not going to help.

My, my... Have you been spending time in my head? I tend to have high expectations for myself, and if I meet them, immediately setting higher ones. I've been trying to do better, and guess what? The world has not rocked on its axis.

Thanks again!