A story was circulating the internet yesterday about a woman who lost 112 pounds after only making one significant change to her diet: She stopped drinking Coca Cola. I believe that is entirely possible, especially since she admits to having been addicted to Coke, previously drinking 424 grams of sugar per day. (The recommended daily intake from the American Heart Association for added sugar is 25-38 grams; I would say that is still too high for the average day.) The book Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Michael Moss does a great job describing how addictive sugar is and how dangerous it is for our bodies. Moss also details how the soft drink companies know but choose to ignore these dangers.

I believe this kind of weight loss is entirely possible based on my own history. I experienced similar results when I cut regular soda out of my diet in high school. I didn’t drink that much soda, probably only 2-4 a week, but when I stopped drinking it, I dropped from a size 16 to a size 12, probably losing 20 pounds. However, I unfortunately made a poor decision when I stopped drinking regular sodas: I started drinking diet sodas. NutraSweet, the brand name for aspartame at that time, gave me headaches. Yet despite that, I drank the diet cola anyway. I discovered that if I drank Diet Coke or Diet Doctor Pepper often enough, I could build up a tolerance to the aspartame that prevented the headaches from happening most of the time. In retrospect, I ponder at my rather stupid decision to intentionally drink something I knew my body didn’t like. However, after the weight loss when I switched to diet from regular, I didn’t want to go back to regular.

I then became a diet soda addict. All the way through college and grad school, I drank 2-4 diet sodas per day. I would periodically see forwarded emails about the dangers of aspartame and how it converts to formaldehyde, but I chose to ignore them as the paranoid rantings of conspiracy theorists. After I had my kids, though, my health fell apart. I became intolerant to most synthetic chemicals. Very quickly, I figured out that diet soda was not something my body was going to be ok with.

The more I learned, the more I realized that those forwarded emails about the dangers of aspartame weren’t paranoid delusions. They were reality. Medical studies have since shown that aspartame does convert to formaldehyde and binds with organ tissues. As I worked on healing from Lyme disease, part of the journey included my body doing a lot of intnse and spontaneous detoxification. At one point, I spent about a month detoxifying from what applied kinesiology showed was formaldehyde. While all of us are exposed to formaldehyde in our lives because it is used in paper, pressed wood, wallboard, furniture and much more, I suspect the amount of detoxing I was doing was related to my previous diet soda addiction.

Water now makes up the vast majority of my liquid intake with caffeine free herbal teas being my other beverage of choice. My body is much better off this way. I don’t miss the aspartame headaches, and I know my body appreciates me not polluting it with unnecessary chemicals and sugar.

© 2015 Elizabeth Galen, Ph.D., Green Heart Guidance, LLC

I shop at Whole Foods regularly, and at the location I visit most often, I have noticed that recently Instacart has taken over the first checkout lane near the door. I didn’t really consider using their services because I assumed they would be outrageously expensive, plus, I *love* grocery shopping. It’s a luxury to me. For the six years I was homebound, I missed shopping. I would occasionally make it to the Boggy Creek Farm stand when my health was returning, but for the most part, I couldn’t shop for myself due my severe chemical sensitivities. I was dependent on others, mostly my then-husband, for ensuring I had food to survive.

I used a local produce delivery service for a while many years ago, but the produce quality was declining, and the company was substituting local products for organic but continuing to charge organic prices. They also were substituting for items that I very specifically had said NO SUBSTITUTIONS on my standing order form. I had a phone conversation with the company owner; I found him to be arrogant and ignorant. He didn’t really seem to care about anything I was upset about, but he tried to convince me that local and organic were equivalent in the big picture. At that point, I canceled my subscription. I still cringe when I see that company’s delivery trucks on the streets of Austin because it was such a bad experience by the end.

In recent weeks, my body has been weak because of the intensity of the medical treatment I have been undergoing. A friend suggested that I really should save my energy and use Instacart instead. Because of that bad experience with the produce delivery company, I was hesitant to try another delivery company’s services, but I decided that since the fridge was echoing, I needed to find some food before my kids rebelled. I didn’t want to tax a friend’s generosity again by having her take my teens shopping, so I plugged myself into Instacart while curled up on the couch. It took me quite a while to get my order together, but my preferences are now saved and ordering in the future will be very quick and easy in comparison to the first major trip (which was about 2 weeks of groceries for my family).

Instacart offers the first delivery free, but it is courteous to tip the shoppers/drivers for their services despite the free delivery. I am a very generous tipper, yet it was less than if I’d paid a personal shopper to do the shopping for me. In addition, the company did the best job I’ve ever had when a friend or stranger bought me groceries. The programming allows one to indicate a substitution or not; the user can also add notes about any given item. If they don’t have an item listed but you know that the store carries it, you can request it and upload a picture to help the shopper find it. I had six items, five of which were fairly common, that I requested that weren’t in the database. The shopper was able to find them all for me.  The only thing that I think needs some major improvement on the Instacart pages is that the produce selection shows what might possibly be available throughout the year, not what is actually in the store at this time of year. For example, Instacart had many organic stone fruits (peaches, plums, etc.) listed, but they are not yet in season or available in stores yet. 

When you check out online, you are able to indicate a one hour delivery window (or you can pick up at the store). I selected a 6-7 pm delivery time, and my driver texted just before 6:30 that she was on her way and would be there in 5-10 minutes. My kids helped her unload the car (though that was certainly not something she was expecting from her response). The driver was sweet and polite to the kids. She gave me a list of everything that they didn’t have as well as a kind note wishing me well. I was really thrilled with how well the whole process went.

I subsequently logged in to see how much delivery charges would be if I had Instacart bring me groceries again after the “first one free.”  For my local Whole Foods, the grocery prices are the same as the shelf prices at Whole Foods. Depending on the delivery time I selected, the delivery charge was between $2 and $8 total! I was shocked how low it was. Even with the tip for the driver, that still is an incredibly reasonable rate for the service provided. I was thrilled to discover this, and I will be using Instacart again. I regret not doing it sooner now that I’ve had such a great experience. Instacart also does shopping at Costco and another local grocery store which may come in handy for me.

A friend of mine in New York uses FreshDirect for her grocery delivery. She has her health, but she despises grocery shopping. Instacart seems to be targeting most of their marketing toward “busy people” who don’t have time for shopping for groceries. However, I think Instacart missing out on a huge market: The chronically ill, the disabled, those undergoing medical treatment, and new parents. All of these populations have members who can use help with grocery shopping, if not regularly, at least on occasion. In addition, Instacart has gift cards which would be great gifts for someone whom you might want to help but who lives in another city or state. Most parents with a newborn (and especially those with twins or higher order multiples) would be happy to have someone else do the grocery shopping for them far more than they need another pair of baby booties!

Overall, I am pleased to have found this new resource for assistance; I hope they continue to grow and thrive in the Austin area so that I can rely on their services for years to come.

© 2015 Elizabeth Galen, Ph.D., Green Heart Guidance, LLC

(As always, I am not a medical doctor. This information is based on my personal experiences and should not be substituted for medical diagnosis or treatment. Please speak to your health care providers about your personal situation.)

May all who are sick and ill
Quickly be freed from their illness,
And may every disease in the world
Never occur again.
As long as space endures,
As long as there are being to be found,
May I continue likewise to remain
To soothe the sufferings of those who live.
~The Dalai Lama

For many people, pain is pain. They have been blessed never to experience the amazingly wide variety of pain that the human body can endure. In the case of many women, natural childbirth or recovering from a c-section is their gauge of the highest level of pain they can imagine. For men, there isn't quite the same standard of comparison. I have heard many people of different sexes say that passing kidney stones was the worst pain of their life; for others, the pain of shingles is the ultimate misery.  Having endured shingles in my neck and having successfully completed natural childbirth many times, I would say that shingles were worse than my second and third labors for the births of my second thru fourth children. My first labor and birth, however, were far worse than any of them.

Yet when it comes to late disseminated Lyme disease, the levels of pain I have experienced are nowhere near the levels of pain in these other comparisons. In part, that is due to the unrelenting nature of Lyme pain. Childbirth labor will end within 24-48 hours in our modern culture. C-section recovery time is 2-6 weeks in many cases. But for Lyme, there is no definite time table. It just goes on and on. I tell many people that if I were able to put their spirits into my body, they would immediately pass out from the level of constant and unrelenting physical pain I live with. I have built up a tolerance to the pain, and I have learned how to function somewhat well with it. Most people, though, simply don’t have that tolerance. Yet no matter how long I have lived with it, the pain is still miserable. It doesn't make it any better just because you’re used to it. 

Despite the fact that I am a holistic life coach and intuitive energy healer who focuses on helping others heal through natural solutions, I frequently have people tell me how they cured their non-Lyme pain naturally. Based on their limited experience, they feel I should be doing what they did and I will magically be healed. They talk about how turmeric did amazing things for their pain or how other natural anti-inflammatories were miracle workers. However, that level of relief is not appropriate for Lyme pain. A comparable comparison would be like telling someone with a compound bone fracture that s/he/ze should just put a bandage on it, and everything will feel so much better. In that case, the person needs a skilled surgeon or doctor to put his/her/hir bone back into the body, to seal the broken skin, to apply a cast of some sort, and to monitor for infection or complications. The situation is far too complicated to just use a bandage. Likewise, no one in their right minds would tell women who are in labor or just had c-sections that the only methods of pain relief they should use is turmeric. Even if a woman is attempting natural childbirth, she will be using other pain relief techniques such as walking, acupressure, hypnosis, meditation, breathing, massage, and more in order to manage the pain of labor.

That’s not to say that natural pain relief methods aren't helpful. I do take fish oil, a natural anti-inflammatory, and get some relief from it. I’m pretty sure that if one sliced open my veins, they would be dyed the beautiful yellow-orange color of turmeric from how much I have taken it over the years. I use other herbal formulas to help lessen the pain by addressing other issues besides inflammation that cause pain for me. Yet alone, the natural methods are like putting a shovelful of dirt into a grave: It’s nowhere enough to fill the hole. Even in combination, these methods can’t get the pit even half full.

Why is Lyme pain so bad? That’s a million dollar question, and the researcher who is able to understand and cure it will win a special place in heaven if I had anything to do with it!  Lyme creates pain on many different levels: On any given day, I am dealing with muscle, bone, joint, ligament, organ, and neural pain. Each feels very different, and each requires different approaches for relief. But why is there all of this pain, especially when one is going through treatment for Lyme? The best analogy is a comparison to a bee sting.  When a bee stings a human, it releases a toxic venom into the human’s body which makes the human miserable, fatally so in cases of extreme allergy. In other cases, the bee toxin “just” creates severe inflammation, itching and pain. Regardless, it’s a successful evolutionary method of teaching predators like humans to stay away from bees lest they have to face the consequences of a sting.

Likewise, Lyme has evolved into an amazingly sophisticated bacteria, far moreso than most bacteria we are used to dealing with. The way it adapts and impairs the human body is mind-boggling to me.  One of these protective features of the evolved Lyme bacteria is that when it dies, it releases toxins into the body of its human host causing extreme pain. The Lyme doesn't want to die; thus, it tries to make it difficult and undesirable for the human host to kill it.  Survival of the fittest reigns again. Many patients who have fought late disseminated Lyme will tell you that the cure is almost worse than the disease when it comes to Lyme because of the extreme pain that happens during the process of Lyme die off, also known as a Herxheimer reaction or herxing.

So what can one do for Lyme pain? There’s a variety of approaches to take, and many people find they need more than one. Like I mentioned above, fish oil, turmeric, and other anti-inflammatories can be useful in contributing to the overall picture, but they will not be enough on their own for most people.  A strict diet is absolutely necessary: Sugar, refined foods, gluten, and other items can make the pain much, much worse. There are other herbs and natural substances that can also help bind to and absorb some of the toxins that the Lyme releases as it dies including chlorella and l-ornithine.  Because the buildup of these toxins in one’s system can create even more pain, it’s important to make sure that detoxification and elimination processes in the body are working well. This includes taking herbal and vitamin liver and kidney support, having frequent bowel movements, drinking lots of water and sweating such as in a FIR sauna. Massage, manual lymph drainage, chiropractic, and acupuncture as well as other bodywork modalities can also greatly facilitate the detoxification process.

The neuropathic pain I suffer from is also an indirect result of the Lyme die off. When many people are sick, their blood sugar levels will rise as part of the hormonal process that is helping them heal. When blood sugar levels get high enough for long enough, such as during a chronic illness, they can cause neuropathic pain that is hellish in ways that can’t be expressed in words. The burning and tingling sensation of my entire skin surface hurting is unlike any other; it makes me want to peel off all my skin with a potato peeler because that sounds less painful.

The obvious solution to this is to keep one’s blood sugar low through strict diet and herbs.  Despite devout adherence these methods, my body is stubbornly unwilling to lower my blood sugar levels; this is not uncommon among patients with Lyme. Since I am consistently short of being diabetic by lab testing because of a rigorous diet, my doctors cannot prescribe insulin to control my blood sugar; one of the other most popular blood sugar drugs for those who are pre-diabetic sent me into lactic acidosis, an uncommon but known side effect. (I’m not in the high risk group for it happening, either!) While I absolute detest medicating symptoms rather than dealing with the actual cause, the neuropathy I endure is one situation where the only realistic option has come down to medicating the symptom of pain rather than curing the actual problem in order to get through the pain of the battle in order to win the war. It’s a quandary because killing Lyme is raising my blood sugar, but in order to get rid of the Lyme to lower my blood sugar, we have to kill it. There’s no easy solution on this one. So in order to get me through the process of the Lyme dying, we have to mask the miserable side effects with drugs.

For someone who lives a very holistic life and does not partake in alcohol or recreational drugs, I am unbelievably grateful that there are western drugs to provide pain relief when all of the above is not enough. I have only met one person with severe late disseminated Lyme Disease who did not have to take narcotics at some point to get through the pain; it was a matter of principle for him and he chose to be in hellish pain rather than take the drugs. Most who have walked this path, though, will have no judgment of others who turn to high power drugs to help during the most painful parts of the journey.

I think many in the natural healing community, both patients and practitioners, forget that Western medicine does have a place of importance in our lives. While diet is crucial to successful management of diabetes, those who have diabetes, especially those with Type 1, rely on insulin to survive. Up until insulin was understood and used to help those with diabetes in the 1920s (winning a Nobel Prize), being diagnosed with diabetes was a death sentence. Likewise, I had a great aunt who died as a toddler early in the last century from “lockjaw” which we now know as tetanus. It’s a bacterial infection that can now be prevented through vaccination or in milder cases, treated with antibiotics after infection. These are health conditions that require Western intervention; most people don’t deny that.  What most people haven’t accepted is that late disseminated Lyme is a condition that also requires complicated treatments that involve both holistic and Western medicine.

Lyme pain is truly different than most other pain we experience as humans. It’s a pain that I hope that most people never have to endure. I also hope and pray that someday there will be better solutions for killing Lyme without creating so much pain as part of the cure.

© 2015 Elizabeth Galen, Ph.D., Green Heart Guidance, LLC

(As always, I am not a medical doctor.  This information is based on my personal experiences and should not be substituted for medical diagnosis or treatment.  Please speak to your health care providers about your personal situation.)

Sorry, guys.  I know it’s not a topic you find fascinating for the most part.

Like most women, menstrual cramps have been very bothersome for me at various points of my life.  I do not have endometriosis, so my suggestions may not be of use for those with more severe pain.  However, I have found a few things that help make life a little less painful in this regard.

When I was having problems with cramping in college, I was advised to change my diet:  No chocolate and less sugar.  Those are not recommendations that a woman with PMS wants to hear, and at that point, I didn’t have the willpower or desire to follow them.  I wanted an “easy” magic solution.  However, as I’ve aged and I’ve had to make far more severe changes to my diet, I’ve found that it does affect cramping greatly.  The most important thing for me is eating organic.  It really does reduce the cramping. 

What I’ve discovered overall is that the more I’m detoxing, the worse the cramps can get.  Our bodies have to detox all the chemicals we are exposed to, including pesticides on conventional foods.  Menstruation is one of our bodies’ ways of detoxing:  It is a means of elimination just like mucus, sweat, urine, feces, and vomit. Thus, eating organic is helping reduce my cramps by reducing the amount of toxins I’m exposed to.  However, I also find that the more chemical exposures from being out in public in scented places, the more intense and painful my cramps are in a given month.

At some point along the line I read somewhere that orgasm can help relieve menstrual cramps.  I’ve found that sometimes it helps for a very short while, but sex is not usually on the top of one’s list of things to try when cramps are bad.  (However, this is the part of the article that I’m sure many guys would find interesting!)

Cramp bark is an herbal option to help reduce menstrual cramps.  I learned about it during my last pregnancy at the recommendation of my midwife when it really helped with intense Braxton Hicks contractions.  It also can help reduce the cramping pain during menstruation.  In tincture form, it’s pretty strong tasting, but if you follow it with a chaser of a strong tasting beverage (like orange juice), you can get the taste out of your mouth fairly quickly.

One other correlation that I’ve found is that when Lyme is dying off intensely in my body at the same time as my period, the pain from both gets worse.  I’m not sure what the exact mechanism of this is, but I suspect that it has to do with the total load of pain my body is dealing with creating an exponential rather than linear increase in pain.  I’m not alone in dealing with this phenomenon:  Many women end up with menstrual cycles and Lyme cycles happening at the same time, and it can create a great deal of misery.

© 2015 Green Heart Guidance

For Thanksgiving of 2003, my ex-husband and I attended a gathering of his extended family.  It included 11 adults, five children, and our exclusively breastfed baby all crammed into an apartment living room really only meant to hold six or eight comfortably.  The original plans had been for four more to join us, and I’m not sure where they would have sat if they did attend!

At that time, all of my children and I (as a breastfeeding mom) had food sensitivities.  So when the in-laws declared the menu, I was dismayed at best.  All the food was conventional; the idea of eating organic was ridiculous to them.  The family insisted on having a turkey made by the most popular mainstream vendor which is basted in butter… a problem for those who are dairy sensitive.  Also on the menu were rolls (gluten), mashed potatoes (dairy), gravy (gluten), sweet potato casserole (dairy and sugar), corn bread stuffing (dairy and gluten), green bean casserole (dairy and gluten), apple pie (dairy and gluten) and pecan pie (gluten).  There were a few other sundry items that weren’t part of my family’s food traditions, but they too were loaded with either gluten, dairy, or sugar.  There were no other healthy items, and there was absolutely nothing on the menu we could eat.

To solve this problem for us, I offered to bring food to share.  I was politely told, “No, that’s ok.  We already have everything covered.”  Frustrated, I replied that I would like to bring a salad so that I was actually able to eat something at dinner.  I received a less hospitable “fine” response.  So I brought an organic garden salad that was adequate to share with the entire gathering (plus we brought other foods for our toddlers).  Of all the people there, I was the ONLY one who ate any of the salad.

Such is the way most Thanksgiving dinners in America go.  People love to blame the tryptophan in the turkey for that horrible lethargic feeling we endure after Thanksgiving dinner, but the reality is that we gorge ourselves on an amount of carbohydrates that is sufficient for an entire week, not just one or two meals.  Add in alcohol or soda to the menu above, and I would end up in a coma nowadays if I tried to eat as most Americans do.

So how can one go about enjoying Thanksgiving yet making it healthier?  I’m not saying one has to banish all one’s favorites for sure.  I am suggesting that one moderate and adjust what one eats.  There are many ways to do this. 

For starters, consider limiting the menu to a rational number of items.  Do you really need to eat four different starchy sides at one meal in large amounts?  Yes, they are all so delicious, but they can be delicious at several different meals over the holiday weekend.  Make stuffing on Thursday, mashed potatoes on Friday, and sweet potatoes on Saturday.  Serve one type of pie each day.  This will limit the temptation to eat some of everything at every meal.

Another way to help with this overload, especially if you are not the host and therefore not able to limit what is being served, is to restrict yourself to one plate of food.  You don’t need to go back for seconds.  Start by loading the healthiest available items onto your plate, such as salad or roasted veggies.  Then put on meat (if you’re not a vegetarian), and divide the remaining space between small portions of the carbohydrates that are being served.  Don’t try to overstuff your plate.  You are not starving, and you will be grateful not to feel miserable after the meal.  Only have one small piece of your favorite kind of pie, and limit yourself to one glass of alcohol (or none if you don’t drink) coupled with a lot of water.

Switching to serving organic food can also help make Thanksgiving dinner a little less toxic.  The contents of some of the most popular Thanksgiving dishes are really alarming.  Still, it’s entirely possible to make a very unhealthy organic meal that is loaded with carbohydrates and sugars.  Moderation is still necessary!  There are also many websites for making items gluten and dairy free if you are having guests with special needs.  I grew up in a family which used cornstarch, not flour, to make gravy, so some of the adjustments aren’t even that radical!

As for my house, we’ll be having a simple Thanksgiving dinner.  It’s just my kids and me this year.  Since two of us aren’t big fans of turkey, we’ll be eating an all-natural ham without preservatives like nitrates and nitrites.  We’ll have organic dairy free mashed potatoes made from scratch, organic gravy, and some kind of organic green vegetable.  The kids will drink organic sparkling apple cider, and then for dessert for the kids there will be organic pumpkin pie.  We might make stuffing for them at some other point in the weekend, and we’ve also got plans for a lemon cranberry bread.  I’ll probably make a ham, white bean and kale soup out of the leftover ham and bone.  All in all, we’re not going to eat like this is our last meal.  We’re going to be sensible and yet enjoy foods we love.

© 2014 GreenHeartGuidance.com

(As always, I am not a medical doctor.  This information is based on my personal experiences and should not be substituted for medical diagnosis or treatment.  Please speak to your health care providers about your personal situation.)

Recently on a Lyme related list that I read, one of the new members asked what detoxing was.  For me, that’s detoxification is something that is such a part of my vocabulary and life that it’s almost like asking me what breathing is.  I actually had to stop and think about it.

Detoxification is a natural process we do all the time.  It’s our bodies’ way of getting rid of anything we take in that is toxic.  In our modern world, we absorb a lot of synthetic chemicals that our bodies don’t need or want through the food we eat (pesticides, synthetic ingredients, artificial colors and flavoring, and more), the air we breathe (air “fresheners,” paints, cleaners, gas fumes, and more), and the products we wear (shampoos, deodorants, detergents, makeup, and more). 

In a healthy human, detoxification happens naturally through any excreted bodily fluid:  Urine, feces, sweat, tears, mucus, breastmilk, even semen.  Anything that our body puts out has the ability to contain the toxins we have absorbed.  Most commonly our liver and kidneys do this filtering and send the waste products out through our urine and bowel movements.  However, with the high synthetic chemical load in our bodies, we dump unnecessary chemicals through our other fluids as well.  This is how you end up with studies showing high levels of toxic chemicals in breastmilk.

For some of us with impaired detoxification systems due to various issues, detoxing is rough. My Lyme has combined with genetic issues to make my liver my weakest organ in my body, and so I struggle to get toxic chemicals out.  This in turn is part of what creates my multiple chemical sensitivities. I am not alone in this:  Many with autoimmune issues struggle with impaired detoxification.

So then how does one intentionally detox to force more of the chemicals we are exposed to out of our bodies rather than storing them in our body fat?  There are many natural ways to do it.  One of the easiest is sweating.  Exercising, saunas, or anything that makes you sweat will help reduce your toxic chemical load.

Another way is through diet.  Eating an organic whole foods diet of any type assists the body in detoxifying.  First, the less garbage you put in, the less garbage you have to get out.  Second, natural food has many healing properties.  Eating well can help undo previous damage to your body and can assist in detoxing any harsh chemicals your body is storing.

Many people like to try popular cleanses that they find on the internet including the Master Cleanse.  The Master Cleanse involves fasting for a designated amount of time (3-10+ days depending on which plan you follow) and during that time only drinking a mixture of lemon juice, water, cayenne pepper, and maple syrup.  There is some truth to this helping with detoxification:  Lemon juice does assist in liver cleansing.  However, cleanses like this can also be dangerous.  Because you stop eating solids, the body no longer has the means to have abundant bowel movements.  That means many of the toxins you are releasing are getting stuck in your body rather than being sent out through the stools.  Cleanses like this can be made safer by adding in organic low carbohydrate vegetables to assist with the detoxification.  However, all cleanses really should be done under the guidance of an appropriate practitioner.  (See below.)

Cleanses are NOT healthy when one uses them in order to regularly binge.  I know individuals who will fast during weekdays in order to consumer large amounts of sugar, gluten, and alcohol on the weekends.  This is really not good for one’s body.  Many of us will cheat on our healthy diets occasionally to have a piece of wedding cake or such, but treating one’s body with flagrant disrespect by binge eating and fasting is really not a good idea.  A slow but steady diet of healthy organic foods is the far better approach to healthy eating.

There are also many supplements that can cause or support detoxification.  Because of the detoxification impairment I battle, I am constantly on supplements that can support my body’s natural means, though I rarely take supplements to encourage additional detoxification.  These supplements that I take help my liver process the chemicals which it struggles with otherwise.  I can tell when I am taking them and when I stop.

If you are considering doing a cleanse or using supplements to assist with detoxification, I very strongly recommend you use a reputable local practitioner to help you.  In particular, chiropractors and naturopaths have training in this area; some integrative doctors do as well.  If you use an experienced practitioner who uses muscle testing, they can help you in finding what your body actually needs to detox from and what will best assist in this process rather than randomly trying things to see what works.  This increases efficiency and saves time and money in the long run.  These practitioners can also help you when unexpected issues surface.  Detoxification is not always straightforward or easy:  It can sometimes cause miserable flu-like symptoms.  It may also bring up serious emotional reactions as the body purges all that it does not need to store.  Thus, having a practitioner to assist you can ease your misery in the process and keep you from going into a serious state of crisis.  You want your net result to be a healthier body, not just a miserable experience with no lasting positive health benefits.

© 2014 Green Heart Guidance

So much of our society is prejudiced against obesity.  There are many false assumptions about those who are obese:  They are lazy, they are couch potatoes, they have poor diets, they are emotional eaters, they have no interest in health, and more.  Sometimes a mercy judgment of poor genetics also gets thrown in.  The repeating day-to-day encounters I have with this judgment throughout our society amaze me.  As a woman who has been both proportionately slender and fat as an adult, I really can notice a difference in how people treat those who are obese.

This post was partially inspired by an inspirational meme from Facebook. It quotes a Dr. Gould as saying, “Emotional eating triggers are usually based on a need to soothe emotional pain.  Perhaps, then, the next time we see someone overweight, or don’t like what we see in the mirror, instead of saying, ‘There’s a person who eats too much,’ we might say, ‘There’s a person who’s hurting too much.’”  When I first read that, I became livid.  I counted to a lot more than ten before posting a response similar to this:  “Obesity can be caused by a variety of issues, not just emotional pain.  Judging others in any way is not a healthy attitude.  Perhaps instead of focusing on an individual’s weight, we could focus on the beautiful person they are inside and out.”

Even as an obese woman who has herself pretty together emotionally, I’ve still faced many health practitioners who automatically assume that I binge eat or eat for emotional reasons.  For some of them, this is because they have emotional eating issues that they are projecting onto me.  For others, it’s just plain prejudice based on bad assumptions.  Once they discuss diet with me, they realize I eat amazingly well; my weight issues are due to Lyme, not food-based emotional outlets.

Likewise, this attitude against obesity is the pervasive one on dating sites.  One direct quote from a man on a dating site states, “If you are obese, chances are you are unhealthy. I want to be with someone who chooses to be healthy.”  While this statement does leave a little wiggle room, it’s still based in false ideology.  Just because someone is obese doesn’t mean they are mentally or physically unhealthy or that they choose their current body weight.  I have several clients who are obese but can run five miles or bike twenty.  They eat diets that range from moderately good to excellent.  They are healthy, physically or mentally.  But for some reason, their body won’t let go of that extra fat.

Another man on a dating site falsely presumes, “I'm cool with a little extra here and there, but for the most part I'm looking for someone that takes care of themselves--especially if it took them awhile to get into shape like I did.”  Being obese doesn’t mean that one doesn’t take care of one’s self.  It means one has extra body fat that may be there for any number of reasons.  Yet another dating site quote, which I regret not copying directly, generally stated, “If you are obese, we are poorly matched because of `life style differences.’”  This man is right, but for the wrong reasons.  He and I are not well-matched, but it’s because he is prejudiced, not because we have lifestyle differences.

Too few people in our culture are willing to look beyond a person’s physical attributes.  I firmly believe that we are souls with bodies, not bodies with souls.  What is within a person is far more important than what is without, and I’m not talking about gut flora, either!  When discussing good-looking men with female friends, I’m almost always baffled by some of their selections.  Because I am able to read a person’s energy as well as look at their appearance, I find myself far more influenced by their energy.  Men like Mel Gibson, Robert Downey, Jr. or Charlie Sheen who are considered good-looking by some are very unattractive to me.  Their energy is just not healthy.

Western medicine does not help with this judgment.  So many doctors presume that obesity is due to any of the causes listed at the beginning of this post.  However, this TEDex talk by Dr. Peter Attia is right on the money.  He’s realized though his own personal battle with health problems and incredibly rapid weight gain that obesity is often the symptom of the health problems, not the cause.  It would be great if more doctors and the media at large could realize this so that our society’s views on obesity can start to change.  Even though this TEDex talk isn’t short, I highly recommend watching it.  You may end up crying at the end as I and many others in the audience did!

© 2014 Green Heart Guidance

 (As always, I am not a medical doctor.  This information is based on my personal experiences and should not be substituted for medical diagnosis or treatment.  Please speak to your health care providers about your personal situation.)

Food is our common ground, a universal experience. ~James Beard

I follow George Takei’s highly amusing Facebook page which is actually staffed by others besides just him.  I enjoy its humorous take as well as its vocal support of those less privileged in our nation.  However, recently someone on the staff felt it was ok to poke fun of those with food allergies and sensitivities.  They shared a post that was far from funny.  Most open-minded people wouldn’t consider putting up a post that made fun of braille signs or wheelchair ramp signs, but our society is unfortunately still at a point where food intolerances of any kind are seen as a joke, not a potentially life-threatening problem. As the poster on the left states, food allergies are not a punchline.

My children and I have all dealt with food sensitivities; they are fall out from “leaky gut syndrome” and Lyme Disease.  While not true IgE allergies, food sensitivities still have the potential to make someone feel horrendous.  They can cause migraines, reflux, digestive woes, fibromyalgia flares, eczema, rashes, and more; for some people it’s so serious that even skin contact will cause a major reaction (as indicated by the gluten free soap sign).  Yet as my kids and I dealt with these issues, many people including family members chose not to believe that our food sensitivities are real. 

My kids and I observed (and one child and I still observe) strict diets so that none of us would be miserable from the side effects of foods that bothered us, but we would occasionally find people who wanted us to have “just one bite” of whatever was being served.  They were trying to force food on others for reasons that didn’t make sense.  We were not starving.  We were politely opting not to eat what was served, and in many cases we brought our own food so that the host/ess did not have to worry about accommodating our eating needs.  However, many took it personally that we wouldn’t eat their food even if it would have made us sick.  Why?  I think Cesar Chavez had it one of our culture’s notions around food correct when he stated, “If you really want to make a friend, go to someone's house and eat with him... the people who give you their food give you their heart.”  By refusing other people's food, they were taking it personally that we were also refusing them.  Unfortunately, that’s a maligned perspective.  Those who love you unconditionally wouldn’t ask you to cause yourself bodily harm just to feed their egos. 

So why is there so much animosity about food sensitivities?  There are many possible reasons.  Quite a few people believe that IgG food sensitivities don’t exist.  Part of this comes from the fact that Western medicine doesn’t have an approved and statistically reliable test to diagnose them nor are there any treatments for food sensitivities that can be billed to insurance.  Until there is a drug or insurance covered treatment to help with the food sensitivities, most mainstream allergists will see no reason to deal with them.  Money unfortunately drives our health care system more than patient welfare.

Others see food sensitivities as part of the current gluten-free fad diet.  They think people are making a choice not to eat gluten, when for many, it’s not a choice.  For those with celiac disease who can’t even have trace exposures to gluten or for those with anaphylaxis to other allergens, abstaining from certain food items is a hassle and a frequent struggle, but it’s what they must do to live safely.

Some people object to food sensitivities from a very narrow-minded and selfish point of view because they feel the dietary needs of others inconvenience them.  When sensitive friends won’t go to the restaurants they prefer because there are no food options that those with allergies can safely eat, those without allergies can feel put upon.  When sensitive friends don’t eat the food that is provided at social events, the same people may see it as an insult.  Rarely have I heard of those with food sensitivities or allergies who ask their hosts to cater to their needs:  It’s too much work to ask of someone, plus it’s too easy for someone who isn’t familiar with cross-contamination and hidden ingredients to accidentally put something into food that will cause a reaction.  It’s easiest and safest for those with food issues to just bring their own food.  Likewise, many parents bitterly lament nut-free policies in schools or classrooms because they see it as an inconvenience when packing their picky-eating children’s lunch.  However, it’s much more inconvenient for the kids with anaphylaxis to nuts to stop breathing.

Some naysayers see it as attention seeking behavior.  I had some very mean things said to me while my kids were little, and I was accused of Münchausen syndrome by proxy by one family member.  Really, if someone wants attention, food sensitivities and food allergies are not a great way to get it.  They make one’s life much more complicated, and they create a situation in which you are excluded things which you might normally enjoy, such as having a slice of delicious looking birthday cake at a party.

This brings up another major reason for some of the resistance:  Our culture is definitely built on food.  Until you face food sensitivities or food allergies, you don’t truly realize how obsessed our society is with certain foods being served at certain events or how most holidays are centered on food.  Once you have to change how you participate in those events, your view changes as well.  Elsa Schiaparelli has noted that, “Eating is not merely a material pleasure. Eating well gives a spectacular joy to life and contributes immensely to goodwill and happy companionship. It is of great importance to the morale.”  Suddenly, you aren’t participating in that pleasure in the same way others are.

There’s also the possibility that people who are resisting against the concept of food sensitivities and allergies and how they impact others is merely hiding behind their own fear.  To quote William Shakespeare, "The lady doth protest too much, methinks."  These people are afraid of the truth and the reality that foods they love can truly be dangerous for others.  However, their own fear is not a good enough reason to degrade or humiliate others who are limited in their food choices by their sensitivities and allergies.  Perhaps some are also fearing that their own health issues might be caused by food, and they are terrified by the possibility of losing some of their favorite things to eat.

Some people will rudely and dangerously “test” a friend’s food sensitivities or allergies by putting the offending item in the person’s food to see if they notice or if this is all just a psychological problem.  This is not ok.  It can result in violent vomiting, migraines, or even death.  Even if the person doing the “testing” doesn’t see the results, that doesn’t mean that the person with the sensitivities didn’t go home and spend the next two days in agonizing abdominal pain with horrible diarrhea but was too polite or embarrassed to mention it to the host.  Please don’t “test” the allergies and sensitivities of those who have them.  Just trust that they know what is best for their bodies.

Regardless of naysayers' opinions, food allergies, food sensitivities, and other conditions such as celiac disease are true health problems.  They can cause a great deal of misery and even death for those who must deal with them.  These issues are not a lifestyle choice.  They’re not a desire to make everyone’s life a little more confusing or difficult.  They’re not an attempt to be rude. They’re a harsh reality that the sufferers and those they live with must cope with every day whether it’s convenient or not.

© 2014 Green Heart Guidance

(This is an edited cross-post from the archives of my much neglected food blog.)

With my health challenges, it can be really hard to make dinner some days, if not impossible.  Life with a chronic illness is akin to life with small kids, except on steroids.  I won’t even try to describe what life with a chronic illness was like combined with three small children who are less than three years apart in age.  Because of all of these challenges, I’ve developed many strategies to help keep healthy homemade food on our table.

One of the most important things we own is a full size freezer.  It lives in our garage, and it is an amazing help to us.  When its predecessor died a few years ago, there was no question about replacing it.  It was just a matter of seeing which store in town could get us a replacement as quickly as possible.   We keep a good supply of meat, potato products, tortillas, breads, fruits, and vegetables in there so that if getting to the store becomes a problem, we have more than enough frozen goods to keep us going for a while.  We also use it to stock up on sale items to save a little money when possible.

Equally important, we use the garage freezer to store meals that I have prepared and frozen.  When I cook meals like casseroles, soups or stews, I often make a double batch so I can freeze it.  I will freeze things both in family sized containers for full meals and in individual portions so that I have easy lunches for myself.  At times when I’m having a run of good health, our garage freezer gets rather full, but inevitably a bad spell will happen, and we will deplete the frozen food supply temporarily until I start cooking again.

In addition, the crockpot is my friend.  My energy level is at its highest early in the mornings; as the day goes by, I get more exhausted and my body becomes more painful.  Hence, if I can get a dinner started in the morning hours on days when I know I’m going to be fairly useless by dinner time, we still have a healthy meal.  During the summer, the crockpot is also a great way to make a hearty meal without standing over a hot stove or turning on the oven in the Texas heat.

There are still some nights when I just can’t make what I had planned earlier in the day.  I almost always have a Plan B going in the back of my mind so that if my health gives out during the day and I have to hand over meal preparation to someone else, there’s something simple and easy they can make rather than the more elaborate concoction I might have originally had in mind. 

© 2014 Green Heart Guidance

(This is another really long post.  Apologies in advance!  As always, I am not a medical doctor.  This information is based on my personal experiences and should not be substituted for medical diagnosis or treatment.  Please speak to your health care providers about your personal situation.)

I have had lifetime IgE mediated allergies to pretty much any non-food item that I get tested for.  I was first skin prick tested at age four, and then again at age 21.  Trees, grasses, weeds, dander, dust, molds… all of it makes me miserable.  Lyme has increased the severity of my allergies as well due to the impact on my immune system.  Once again, this is one of those areas where my situation is severe enough that natural medicine can help, but it alone is not enough.

The best way to think about allergies is using a glass of water.  Pretend that glass is your immune system.  If you are someone who is genetically prone to allergies as I am, our glass is always half-full.  If you live with pets whom you are allergic to and/or aren’t diligent about dusting, add some more water to the glass.  Then add in a dose of seasonal pollen, and your cup will begin overflowing, as will your sinuses.  Austin is a particularly miserable place for allergens as we don’t have  a single month all year where something isn’t high in the counts.

So what can be done aside from OTC and prescription allergy medicines and nasal sprays?  There are quite a few other things to try that fall under the categories of Western medicine, natural options, lifestyle changes and adaptions, and dietary changes.

Western Medicine

I've found that most over the counter allergy medicines don't have enough oomph in them for me.  Claritin worked for a while, but then stopped.  Benedryl works well for me and doesn't make me drowsy, but it's not very long lasting. I have switched to long acting prescription medications.  I'm on an older prescription medicine that has a generic and which seems to work quite well for my body.

Many years ago I did allergy shots; they too were incredibly helpful until my immune system went completely wonky.  Then they made things much worse, probably because of preservatives.  It is possible to get preservative free allergy shots if you work with an allergist who is aware of chemical sensitivities (which unfortunately, is not most of them).  Allergy shots take a while to kick in so they don't provide immediate relief.

Natural Options

There are various herbal compounds that can help.  Many of them contain nettles which, ironically, I am allergic to.  Most of my practitioners recommend D-Hist.  This supplement requires that one does a higher loading dose for several weeks and then drops down to a regular daily dosage which may then need to be increased again during times of seasonal attack.  

Another herbal remedy I have successfully used is Bi Yan Pian which is for the lung meridian and helps with allergies and asthma.  They are very tiny, easy to swallow pills, and they helped my oak induced asthma quite a bit until I started reacting to them. Check with your acupuncturist or Chinese medical practitioner before taking them, though. 

Body work can help many with allergies, especially acupuncture and chiropractic adjustments.  Unfortunately, they don’t give me much relief. 

The Allergena homeopathic drops that are available locally at People's and Whole Foods are amazing.  They work in the same mechanism as allergy shots.  They helped me greatly for a while, but my immune system also freaked out about those eventually.  These would be easy to give a young child with a health care provider’s supervision and approval.  Because of how they work with the immune system, it is recommended you begin these before seasonal allergies get bad.  That means if you have trouble with cedar fever, now is the time to start the drops before the pollen begins in about six weeks.

One group of local chiropractors will make an energetic homeopathic for allergens. They muscle test using local allergens to figure out what you are allergic to and then create the homeopathic.  Then, you take several drops of the homeopathic daily.  This helped so much when it was working. Then it just flat out stopped working as my immune system figured out how to defeat it, but for the year of relief I got, it was really helpful.  

if your allergies suddenly become much worse, you may want to talk to your alternative health care provider about adrenal fatigue.  Extreme amounts of emotional or physical stress put a great deal of pressure on the adrenal glands which in turn can make allergies worse.  Lyme has done this to my body as well.

I know many who swear by lavender essential oil for allergy, but this is not something I have experienced success with. 

Neti pots are popular with many people who have allergies.  They allow one to use salt water to rinse out the sinuses.  Getting the right angle is crucial to making sure you don't choke on the solution, but once you figure it out, the process is really easy and can be quite soothing.  Keeping eye contact with yourself in the mirror is part of what helps get the angle correct.  I recommend NOT using tap water not because of the very rare risk of bacteria that can kill you but because the chlorine in the water can be very irritating to the nasal passages in someone who is sensitive.  Unfortunately, I'm one of the people who finds that using a neti pot makes things worse for me in the long run:  I hypothesize that the water in my sinuses actually promotes fungal growth which creates additional pain and misery.  As a result, I've given up on using one.  Neti pots are available at Whole Foods and People's Pharmacy locally as well as at many other health stores and online.

Lifestyle Adaptions and Changes

For some people, including me, spontaneous nosebleeds are a side effect of allergies.  It’s not a lot of fun to wake up in the middle of the night with blood dripping out of your nose.  Mine are always caused by mold, but for others, different allergens can be the culprit. Some people find that using a humidifier helps reduce their nosebleeds.  If you take this approach, be sure that you are cleaning the humidifier frequently and well so that it doesn't contribute to the mold and allergy problems.

When it comes to dust, it’s a neverending battle.  Dust allergies are pretty common amongst those with allergies and asthma.  Vacuuming well with a high powered vacuum should happen weekly in any area with carpeting in order to minimize dust.  Getting rid of the carpet is best in the long run if you own your home.  

Line drying laundry is actually not good for those with allergies because it means all your linens and clothes are picking up more pollen. Use a dryer with heat to kill the dust mites.  Bed linens need to be washed weekly if you have dust allergies.  If I don't wash my linens weekly, I pay for it. At my worst of my illness, I had to wash the linens every 3-4 days.  Any stuffed animals that a child with allergies sleeps with also need to be washed on a regular basis.  The dust covers that you can get for pillowcases and mattresses really do help, too.  I avoid the vinyl ones because they off-gas some nasty chemicals which is not good for the immune system or the body in general.

I also find it necessary to wash my hair any time I’ve been outside to minimize pollen on my body and allergic reactions.  Opening the windows, even on gorgeous days, is unfortunately not an option for me as it just makes my allergies much worse.

I am allergic to pet dander.  I love cats, but I cannot be around them without being miserable within 30 minutes even on antihistimines.  I’d love to have a cat as a pet, but as I’ve told my kids, if we get a cat, we’d have to get rid of me.  I am also allergic to dogs, but I can tolerate some breeds better than others.  I had beagles and beagle mixes all my life as they are one breed I do better with; long-haired dogs like golden retrievers are miserable for me.  If you have pets and someone in the household is allergic to them, the pets should stay out of the bedroom of the allergic person.  This can be accomplished in several ways.  We put a baby gate up in our bedroom door to keep the dogs out but to allow us to keep the door open at night; we had to get a taller baby gate after our one beagle rapidly demonstrated his hurdling ability.  If you have cats, a screen door on the bedroom door can help keep them out.

Higher end HEPA filters such as those made by Austin Air and AllerAir can help with dust and pollen.  Some of the lower end brands have formaldehyde in the filters which doesn't help with allergies especially in the chemically sensitive. However, at my worst, I was still reacting to even the high end brand filters. 

Going completely fragrance free can reduce the stress on the immune system and help decrease the impact of allergies, asthma and eczema.  Synthetic fragrances can really mess with the lungs, skin and sinuses.  Be aware that "unscented" actually doesn't mean fragrance free:  It can mean that masking fragrances are added to cover up any odor.  (This is also true with "low odor" paints which are not low VOC paints by definition: They just have something in them to make them stink less.)  For me, I have to use all natural products in addition to using fragrance free products as my body can’t tolerate petroleum based products.  All major brands of conventional detergents, for example, are petroleum based.

Dietary Changes

In order to reduce the overall stress on your immune system, eating organic can help greatly.  When I began eating organic, I was able to drastically reduce the amount of antihistimines I was taking for several years.  The change in diet also stopped the frequent sinus infections I used to battle. 

Removing foods which you are sensitive or allergic to can also help reduce the stress on the immune system and minimize the impact of airborne allergens on your body.  Dairy and gluten are common allergy and asthma triggers for many people.  

There are also foods that can "cross-react."  This essentially means that the immune system sees these foods as close to the pollens that you react to, and thus, eating those foods increases one's reaction to that pollen.  There are many lists of these foods around the internet such as this one and  this one.  You may find that eliminating certain foods while related seasonal allergies are peaking may help your overall health.

© 2014 Green Heart Guidance

(This is a cross-post from the archives of my much neglected food blog.)

When my twins were two, we began trick or treating with them.  However, they had food sensitivities to dairy, soy, and corn at that point.  If you read the labels on most mainstream candy, that pretty much eliminates everything.  Furthermore, neither of them liked chocolate until recently.  That was definitely not from my part of their gene pool.  To  top it all off, I did not want to be loading them up with artificial flavors and colors since one of them did not do well with those ingredients.  So we were left in a quandary about how to do trick or treating when they couldn’t or wouldn’t eat anything they received.

That first year, my solution was to plant “treats” for them at a few neighbors’ houses.  Books, pencils, erasers—that kind of thing.  We went to the houses, did our trick or treating, and then my son announced, “This is fun!  Let’s do more houses.”  Um, well, no.  I didn’t have any more “safe” houses for us to go to.  We lured them home to look at their new goodies instead.

The next year, we let them collect candy, but we had prepped them in advance that they would “get” to trade in their candy for a new and wonderful toy when they got back to our house.  Since they never really ate candy, the trade was an obvious upgrade from their point of view.  They were really happy with their new toys.

And so it continued for many years with their younger brother eventually joining in the fun.  They would collect candy and trade it in for toys.  We would take the candy they collected, put it out in a bowl on our front porch, and let the local teenagers take it away.  One year the teenagers took the bowl which irked me to no end, so now we leave the candy in a paper bag.  Another year the teenagers failed to take the candy at all which utterly surprised me.  I offered it up on the free section of Craigslist, and within 10 minutes of posting, a local homeschooling teenager had collected it off of my front porch.  I know there are other options like taking it to a local dentist who collects the candy for sending to troops abroad.  Some years Mobile Loaves and Fishes has accepted donations to distribute with the meals they provide for those in need.  However, with my illness, I just haven’t had the energy to do more than put it on the porch and let someone else take it away!

In more recent years as the food sensitivities have waned and my kids have gotten older, we’ve also started buying organic candy from the bulk bins at Whole Foods and including that as part of the trade-in deal.  They surrender most of their loot for organic candy and a game.

However you celebrate, be safe.

copyright 2014 Green Heart Guidance

There are plenty of websites out there that will list horror stories about pesticides used on conventional foods as they try to pressure you into eating organic.  You can Google and find them.  I’m not fond of scare tactics even if they are based in truth.  Instead, I am presenting my personal experience with switching to eating organic.

When I first got sick in 2003, we had no idea what was going on with me.  My general practitioner was of no use.  I did some hunting on the internet, and I ended up working with a nutritionist who is in another state (whom I would not recommend).  The first thing she had me do, even before we started working on specific meal planning, was switch to eating organic.  I changed nothing in my diet except to buy organic foods instead of the conventional ones I had been eating. 

My ex-husband and I were both brought up in families where saving was highly valued.  You bought things on sale, you bought generics, and you certainly didn’t spend money on organics when equally good conventional food was available at a much cheaper price.  So our initial plan was that we would buy organic for me but the rest of the family would continue eating conventional.

As a result of that switch to organic eating, I had an almost immediate increase in energy—it easily doubled.  I felt more clear-headed.  I felt better overall.  It was a night and day difference.  It was clear to us that the pesticides on the food were poisoning me.  It was such a shocking difference that my ex-husband and I immediately decided that the entire family would be eating organic from then on.

Since then, eating organic has always been a priority for us.  When money was tight, we never considered cutting organics from our budget.  When we budget, our food spending is high but it comes first.  Other areas such as entertainment, cars, clothing, and cell phones are where we cut corners. Even when we were divorcing and were trying to figure out how to run two households on a budget that previously supported one, conventional eating was never considered as an option.  It’s that important to us.

Over the years, I’ve discovered that organic food just tastes better.  Foods I previously did not like such as raw green peppers I now love.  I figured out that what I hated so much was the bitter taste of pesticide residue on conventional foods, not the foods themselves.

© 2014 Green Heart Guidance