10 replies to this topic

[Shooze]

So, Stu asked me to start talking about the connection of chronic inflammation to food chioces. At the Milwaukee conference, Dr. Rubin Naiman spoke on complimantary and alternative medicine approaches to helping narcolepsy. A core theme of his talk was the connection between auto-immune diseases and inflammation.

For a totally different reason, I went on a very strict diet three weeks ago. I had four surgeries in 2006 and have suffered from a severe Candida overgrowth which was making me sick. The diet that I am on is almost exactly the diet that Rubin described for stopping inflammation. I have been extremely successful with healing my colon, AND have noticed that my narcolpesy is so much better.

The diet is pretty strict; but here are a few basics.

Rules of thumb:
1. Read all labels before buying any "prepacked", prepared or processed foods.
2. If you can't pronounce something on the list of ingredients, don't eat it.
3. Most prepared foods have preservatives that cause inflammation.
4. Eat whole foods, natural foods...mostly vegetables, non-wheat based grains, legumes, fish, moderate amounts of meat, and avoid dairy. Soy milk is very good.

See Dr. Andrew Weil's website for the new food pyramid for alternative approaches to health and healing (as opposed to drugs).

Here are some specifics that I'm doing:
No sugar...of any kind...not even the fake stuff.
No alcohol
No Caffeine
No soda
Drink lots of water!!!
No yeast. This means no bread or anything with yeast in it. Carbohydrates turn into sugar.
Only low-sugar fruits (read about glycemic index of foods)
Eat lots of fresh veggies - leafy greens are best
Eat fish and chicken - bake or broil
Nothing with preservatives or MSG (margarine, packaged food, codiments etc.)
Nothing aged or cured (bacon, most cheese)

I have found that sugar and caffeine were creating "swings" in my blood sugar levels. Now that I'm off these things, I don't crave food, and my insulin is stable. I don't have diabetes, but produce normal amounts of insulin to process the sugars in my diet. Without the swings in sugar, I don't get abnormally hungry or have cravings.

I have also found that I get sleepy at around 10:30 p.m. and WANT to go to bed. I have always struggeled with feeling sleepy at night and have relied on drugs to MAKE me sleepy. Without all the caffeine and sugar, I feel sleep coming on at the right time! And...I sleep through the night! I rarely have the "slump" after lunch as I don't have the spike in my sugar and insulin balances.

I know that this is affecting inflammation because the first week on this eating plan, I lost 5 pounds. Rings that I couldn't get on in the past were slipping onto my fingers and my shoes were a bit loose. I am of normal weight and didn't have body fat to loose. So, I suspect that the loss has something to do with chronic inflammation of my tissues.

I will post a cookie recipe in a few days to give you an idea of how sugar and yeast can be avoided. There are many other kinds of flours on the market!

If anything, I strongly encourage you to begin eliminating sugars, caffeine, preservatives and alcohol from your diet...and then see if it affects your narcolepsy. Other things that I am restricitng may be more targeted towards the candida issue. If interested, you can find several books on getting rid of a candida overgrowth. Most people have some candida in their bodies and yeast is considered "natural flora. An illness or other system imbalance can cause an overgrowth of candida causing "yeast" infections, thrush, mouth sores, nail fungus, joint pain, and other lovely symptoms. (and I look so normal on the outside) See your local library for books on the topic!

[Marcianna]

After seeing your slide show at the conference, the Then and Now comparison is absolutely astounding! I really applaud your efforts and am so glad that you have been able to make such positve changes in your life it really is an inspiration!
Thanks for sharing this with us! I'm thinking of looking into this.... uh.... maybe after Christmas...
give the cookies a proper send off and all that...

[Chuck Z.]

Over the years, I had always complained to my docs that if I drank milk or ate hard cheeses, that I would get "drunk". They just looked at me for a moment and then moved on, LOL. Now I see the correlation of inflammation to the dairy and how it causes me to become clumsy, wobbly, confused and tired to the point of crashing! Now, I avoid dairy almost completely, less the occasional chocolate milk treat

But I find it difficult to go to extremes and radically change diets all together. The body needs carbs, protein and everything in between. I have found that maintaining the balance, but most importantly keeping things in moderation are best. I try to snack during the day, eg instead of a traditional three meals a day, eat when hungry, but with balance, not just soda and cookies, but salad, fruit, eggs, baked potatoes, and so on...

[Shooze]

After seeing your slide show at the conference, the Then and Now comparison is absolutely astounding! I really applaud your efforts and am so glad that you have been able to make such positve changes in your life it really is an inspiration!
Thanks for sharing this with us! I'm thinking of looking into this.... uh.... maybe after Christmas...
give the cookies a proper send off and all that...

First, thanks for your wonderful words and applause. It's taken me five years to make the transformation...baby steps are the key.

In regards to the anti-inflammation eating plan, some of what I described is to rid the candida. I plan to eventually have an occassional sweet and want to eventually get back to fruits. Right now, I just can't "feed" the candida so am being very strict. I'm looking forward to being able to eat the "Dr. Weil food pyramid" way! I recall that there was a daily allowance of high cocoa content chocolate .

Good luck to you!

[Shooze]

Over the years, I had always complained to my docs that if I drank milk or ate hard cheeses, that I would get "drunk". They just looked at me for a moment and then moved on, LOL. Now I see the correlation of inflammation to the dairy and how it causes me to become clumsy, wobbly, confused and tired to the point of crashing! Now, I avoid dairy almost completely, less the occasional chocolate milk treat

But I find it difficult to go to extremes and radically change diets all together. The body needs carbs, protein and everything in between. I have found that maintaining the balance, but most importantly keeping things in moderation are best. I try to snack during the day, eg instead of a traditional three meals a day, eat when hungry, but with balance, not just soda and cookies, but salad, fruit, eggs, baked potatoes, and so on...

I agree with a well-balance diet. In regards to the anti-inflammation eating plan, some of what I described is to rid the candida. I plan to eventually have an occassional sweet and want to eventually get back to fruits. Right now, I just can't "feed" the candida so am being very strict. I'm looking forward to being able to eat the "Dr. Weil food pyramid" way! I recall that there was a daily allowance of high cocoa content chocolate .

Thanks for your comments.

Shooze

[greatbig47]

Ann is a pure treasure, and it is truly a blessing to see her around here.

[Chuck Z.]

I agree! I trust that my debating bantor is not taken as being too negative. It's my nature to question, to analyze, but I have been thinking about this a lot more again lately. Many periods of my life have been almost symptom free, and others have been hell and I always go back to diet as a key factor. I only wish I knew what was in the diet (or NOT in the diet for that matter) that made the difference!

[dogdreams]

I'm sorry I missed the talk...I sure hope they have more talks like this at future conferences if I ever get to travel again. I think it's wonderful that he was invited to talk. Hooray NN.

I discovered this diet by accident 6 years ago and just got back on it after 3 years of 'cheating'. It works wonders for me. I'm still kinda sleepy but I do have more energy and I don't fall down anymore. A major plus. I also don't have myoclonus attacks. Super cool.

I am currenlty med free and have been so since 2002. I see a Naturopathic Doctor now for my N and she is extremely helpful and supportive. I've gotton more help for my N from her than from any MD I've seen. I've confirmed my food allergies and find they actually fit into neat categories. The wheat is a big one and, as my family has a history of Celiac, this is no surprise. However I actually have to avoid ALL grains because they all aggrivate my N pretty severely. I also avoid certain fruits I've found to be a problem, and all processed sugars. I do eat Splenda in my sugar-free Dove chocolate, but there is no way in hell I'm going to give that up since it doesn't seem to affect my N any.

I highly recommend this type of treatment to anyone interested. It really does work.

[Kimberly]

I agree! I trust that my debating bantor is not taken as being too negative. It's my nature to question, to analyze, but I have been thinking about this a lot more again lately. Many periods of my life have been almost symptom free, and others have been hell and I always go back to diet as a key factor. I only wish I knew what was in the diet (or NOT in the diet for that matter) that made the difference!

Hi Chuck, there are a few things you can do to find out.

1) Keep a food diary. Write down what you eat and when, and then write down how you feel after each meal. If you start to see the same foods listed immediately prior to "bad" times, then you might want to experiment with giving those foods up to see what happens to your symptoms.

2) Go on an "elimination" or "rotation" diet. This is pretty hardcore and requires research, planning, willpower, and patience. It's often used by naturopathic docs and others to try to find food sensitivies/allergies. You basically eliminate most all "allergenic" food types and eat a very simple, very safe diet of foods that have a low likelihood of sensitivies for at least a week. Then, you slowly introduce new food types, one at a time. If bad symptoms occur, chances are you have sensitivies to that type of food (like soy foods, or corn, etc).

I have found that stress makes my symptoms worse. During periods of stress (at least in the past), my diet was more likely to consist of eating out, and poor food choices at that. Now that we are trying to do more home cooking, with more fresh ingredients, and I'm on the right medication regimen, my symptoms seem to be better controlled.

K

[sleepless sleeper]

The wheat is a big one and, as my family has a history of Celiac, this is no surprise.

A link from Heidi's website is the Gluten File, and from there I found a link to help understand Celiac disease. I was blown away by so many similarites. Even the associated problems that were listed were amazing. I was absolutely floored. I've had ulcers in my mouth since I was two years old. Seeing that connection was literally mind blowing because out of every doctor that I've seen since I was a child, none, and I mean not one, has ever even tried to tie any of this together. The only one that ever helped me was seven years ago, and she treated the symptom with Famvir for a year, which helped somewhat, but the root cause has never been explored. I always assumed that it was a herpes virus passed on by most likely drinking after someone else that had the disease (my mom, her mom). One doctor led me to believe that most likely my mother got it from oral sex, which I DID NOT NEED TO HEAR, and I got it from her, again, most likely from drinking after her. I made a post earlier today regarding "electric jolts" and discussed genetic predisposition. In there, and here, I am amazed at how so many diseases must be linked.

Years ago, allergies seemed so benign to me except for causing some considerable hayfever. Now, I have learned that food allergies aren't rare and am convinced that they cause so many health problems. I am having a terrible time changing my diet, though. My husband is the epitome of health. He gets sick one day a year, although there have been a few years that he hasn't gotten sick at all. He never feels bad except, of course, for doing double duty as both parents.

I have a terrible habit of eating whatever. I assume that I have a very high metabolism rate though because I pretty much maintain my weight no matter what I eat. My diet has actually gotten better than even 10 - 15 years ago, but I feel worse now than I did back then. Practically all of our meat is better than any organic you can buy on the market. In warm months, we regularly have huge well stocked salads for supper. Cold months I LOVE to make soups from scratch with plenty of veggies. Not all of our veggies are organic, though, so that may be a culprit, but where we live, it's virtually impossible to get, and we drive an hour and a half to go grocery shopping. We try to teach our kids to eat fruit and some raw veggies before eating junk, but once they've hit their daily servings, we allow them to eat cookies or whatever. Peanut Butter is big around here, though, and my husband and I both eat it. I love it. The boys are pretty much forbidden from soda, although the oldest is allowed about half a soda a week, and the youngest about 3 oz. every other week. He only gets some because big brother does, and big brother only does because grandma spoiled him too much. We mostly drink water, the kids some milk. My husband no soda, plenty of water, and hot tea every morning and we have cold tea with supper most nights. None of us have weight issues, which surprises me in regards to myself. I will regularly buy bags of chocolate and hide them from my kids and can eat half a bag a night. I alternate every month or so with regular Lay's potato chips and can eat a huge bag by myself in two days. (and ice cream - lately it's been schwan's chocolate brownie frozen yogurt) It is rare that I miss a night of this. But I've only been doing this the past year or so. My health is not worse than before. I did do this off and on all my life, I used to could eat a whole bag of vanilla cremes or choc chip cookies in one sitting (when I say bag, I'm not talking about one serving), but it was not every day. I have no eating disorders. I wonder how much of this is related to hypocretin. Anyway, I haven't noticed a huge difference in how I feel though, AS LONG AS I eat good food the rest of the day. When I was pregnant with my 2nd child, I did gain about 70 pounds, though, and my N did get WAY much worse, permanently, although the weight went away relatively quickly. I assumed that it was the stress of being pregnant and all the other issues that I had from pregnancy, but now I wonder if eating a pound of M&Ms a day had a permanent affect on my N eventhough the weight was lost.


I just realized that when I wrote the above I was a bit drunk with sleep. I wanted to express that it bothers me that I want to eat all the time to the point that I eat so much junk. I really want to taper down to a more gluten free diet in hopes of 1. relief of symptoms, and 2. to not be so hungry all the time. I eat extremely healthy meat, which is really my food of choice, the only problem is getting it (or any food) prepared because I'm always so tired. Anyway, the diet adjustment does seem the way to go. I apologize to all for getting off on a sleep drunk tangent.

[Marcianna]

My doc has told me about certain foods that will make you sleepy. I didnt believe him so I experimented and decided he was right.
Some things you my want to avoid are:

Apples
Peanuts, peanut butter...etc.
Onions
Turkey, we knew that one though!
Sugar, honey, molasses, any of the natural sweeteners basically.
caffeine
Chocolate

uh, I think there were a few others, I will have to look them up.