General diet/Supplements

[Luc]

I was (am) one of those persons who are very sensitive to gluten (it appeared in WD). I have no doubt that cutting down on certain products helped. Very good article on it.


December 1, 2012

Natural News

Six signs you might have gluten sensitivity and not know it


Recognition of gluten sensitivity and the consequence of Celiac Disease if that sensitivity is ignored is not so easy to determine early. Medical tests fail often enough, turning up negative while people who are gluten intolerant continue to suffer a plethora of symptoms.

Those people are often told it's all in their heads after testing shows up negative. But traditional gluten intolerance blood testing looks for only one of six polypeptides in wheat, gliadin.

There are five others: wheat germ agglutinin, glteomorphin, gltueinin, prodynorphin, and omega gliadin. Any one or a combination of these five can cause anyone to have reactions to wheat.

Symptoms alone can be attributed to several other issues. Even gluten intolerant or Celiac Disease sufferers will manifest a variety of different symptoms. It's rather complex.

This article will list six common symptoms and then advise on how to make sure you are or are not glucose intolerant after spotting symptoms that are all too familiar to you.

Sometimes these symptoms appear right after meals and don't last long. In other cases, the symptoms can last for weeks or even chronically, which then often leads to a diagnoses of an autoimmune disease instead of gluten intolerance.

Six common symptoms of gluten intolerance

(1) Obviously, there are gastrointestinal (GI), stomach, and digestive problems. These can include one or some of the following: Gas, bloating, queasiness, abdominal cramping, constipation, diarrhea, or an alternating combination of both - IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome).

(2) Headaches and/or migraines.

(3) Fibromyalgia is not a disease, it's a syndrome. Getting a medical diagnoses is bogus. You don't need to be told you have muscular and connecting tissue aches and pains. That's what fibromyalgia means. Fibro= Connective Tissue; Myo= Muscle; Algia= Pain. Thus fibromyalgia.

(4) Emotional issues involving chronic irritability and sudden, irrational mood shifts.

(5) Neurological issues, including dizziness, difficulty balancing, and peripheral neuropathy affecting nerves outside the central nervous system and resulting in pain, weakness, tingling or numbness in the extremities.

(6) Fatigue, whether chronic or almost after every meal. Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is, like fibromyalgia, a syndrome, not a disease. If that's what you're diagnosed with, it means your doctor can't locate the cause of your fatigue.

Yes, all of these symptoms are common to other health issues and diseases. That's why symptoms alone as a diagnoses is perplexing.

More at: http://www.naturalnews.com/038170_gl...tolerance.html

[Chris]

I got a degree in humanities and avoided science all thru school--had no affinity for it. Now I'm trying to understand neurochem!! to say I'm underprepared is an uber understatement. Not to mention that I'm trying to understand something that has been mischaracterized (lied about) due to big pharma's disinformation campaign re. SSRIs. very hard to sort out.
My impression is that understanding (even by the Eggsperts) of how SSRIs "work" (and by that I mean destroy) is largely theoretical.

Sheila-- I really appreciate this comment:
"The problem with taking a very serotonergic substance like 5HTP is that it might possibly send the message to decommision serotonin receptors again, and we wouldn’t want that."
Would you say the same applies to tryptophan?
Based on trial and error, I am coming to the conclusion that amino acids aren't too good for w/d (I tried gaba to sleep but next day was a zombie so no longer take).
same problem with phosphatidylserine (Seriphos).

Now, with the disclaimer that I haven't taken any neurochem classes, my current understanding is that there is a reduction in serotonin receptors as result of long term use of SSRIs, but that SSRIs don't directly affect/act on the receptors; they affect the transport system. I wish a PhD in neurochem would pop up without any drug biases and give us the low down on transmitters vs receptors. Sigh. Again, this is highly speculative, but the SSRI seems to be so overengineered (i think maybe reverse engineered) to achieve a certain result on the transport of serotonin (agonist or antagonist -- not sure--again: please Neuroscientist clarify). SSRIs action is this highly specialized human engineered effect on the transport and 5-HT and tryptophan can't do that. In other words, the down-regulation of receptors is a secondary effect: it is due to the flooding of the receptors with excess serotonin. The initial action on the transport system that creates the flooding (prevents the reuptake) seems to be less well understood.
Again, I'm ignorant on this subject and don't wish to start an argument as I am whistling in the dark.

[Sheila]

Yeah, I *think* you've summarized it accurately.....Similar to you, I am a social scientist who finds myself having to grok natural sciences....But, yes, the SSRI's flood the synapses with serotonin. And *that* causes the body to decomisison serotonin receptors.

Caveat -- the body is so complex, that I always think it's more accurate to say "this is one of the things we know is going on; there could be many, many others."

Re: tryptophan, I'm no expert. Personally, I feel safer taking basic building block supplements that are not too targeted, and letting the body figure out what it needs. See, you had the reaction I would expect from the GABA supp. I have been curious about the phosphatidylserine but not wanting to experiment with it.

Are you a vegetarian? If you're eating animal protein, you should be OK for amino acids. If you felt the desire to experiment, I would probably choose a supp that was a balanced mix of amino acids, and not just one. If you do experiment, please let us know what you discover.

Eggsperts << ha ha!

[Luc]

One important piece of info. Quite often, when we are sensitive to some type of foods/ingredients/vitamins, it takes time to figure this out for the simple reason of our bodies reacting to those sometimes even 48-72 hours later on. That is why it is so difficult to draw any correlation (and causation) between the food *and* the impact it has on our bodies.

[Barbara]

Huf Post
12/12/12

Eating junk food can actually change the brain, spurring symptoms of anxiety and depression if you stop consuming it, according to a new study in mice.

Researchers from the University of Montreal found that mice fed diets high in sugar and fat had different chemical activity in their brains and exhibited more signs of withdrawal if they stopped eating it, compared with those fed more healthy foods.

"The chemicals changed by the diet are associated with depression," study researcher Dr. Stephanie Fulton said in a statement. "A change of diet then causes withdrawal symptoms and a greater sensitivity to stressful situations, launching a vicious cycle of poor eating."

The study, published in the International Journal of Obesity, included mice that were fed a diet low in fat for six weeks (where fat comprised 11 percent of calories in the food), and mice that were fed a diet high in fat for six weeks (where fat comprised 58 percent of calories in the food).

By the end of the study, those fed the high-fat diet experienced an 11 percent increase in waist size (but in mouse terms, this was still not enough to actually cause obesity in the mice). Researchers then analyzed the brains of the mice, as well as their emotions and behaviors, after having been on the diet.

They found that the mice fed the high-fat diet were more anxious at the end of the study, and also had higher levels of the CREB molecule, which is known to play a role in dopamine production (dopamine helps promote feelings of reward).

"CREB is much more activated in the brains of higher-fat diet mice and these mice also have higher levels of corticosterone, a hormone that is associated with stress. This explains both the depression and the negative behaviour cycle," Fulton said in the statement.

"It's interesting that these changes occur before obesity. These findings challenge our understanding of the relationship between diet, the body and the mind," Fulton added.

This is certainly not the first time junk food has been linked to negative effects in the brain. A Neurology study published last year showed a relationship between having high blood amounts of trans fats and decreased performance on brain functioning tests, as well as decreased brain volume.

"It's clear that trans fats are bad -- both for your heart and now, we see, for your brain," the researcher of that study, Dr. Gene Bowman, of Oregon Health & Science University, told HuffPost Food. "So I would recommend that people stay away from all trans fats. If you aren't sure whether something has them, just look at the ingredients; if there's vegetable shortening, partially hydrogenated anything... just put it down. That's the big message here."


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/1...6pLid%3D245278

[Luc]

A tip on how to alleviate symptoms by changing our eating habits;

- eating too much may aggravate the symptoms. Thus it's good to stop eating the meal when you feel that you might be still a bit hungry. The thing is that the signal from the stomach to the brain "I'm full" is always delayed, sometimes even 15 mins, so the point at which you may still feel "a bit hungry", is, in fact, "I'm full already". It's worth trying out!

[Iggy131313]

has anyone here tried medicinal MJ? if you are in a country that its legal in? or has anyone tried the illegal stuff?

[Chris]

well I just cannot resist responding since the Great state of Washington where I live just legalized MJ. This has to be one of those it "may work for you but could also be very counter productive. Here I go again speculating all over the place. First, this is one of those greatly misrepresented drugs. For instance, IMHO cigarettes are way way more addictive and harmful than MJ. That doesn't make MJ a good drug (2 wrongs don't make a right), but it does highlight the hypocritical drug policies/laws. I posted elsewhere on IAWP about Melissa Ethridge and her positive experience with cancer and MJ.
and to that post was the reply that cancer and AD w/d are very different, especially bec. of the mind trips that can result from mixing psychotropics. I actually think it might help with anxiety and we know it helps with (chemo caused) nausea. The problem is that MJ is such a crap shoot--causes paranoia in some people --and the stuff availablenow is way stronger then the 70s. I couldn't recommend it. Would be interested in what others think about it.

[Luc]

It can definitely be helpful in many medical cases in a "non-AD/non-WD" person, but in WD I'd stay away from it. Honestly, through all those years, I can't remember anyone who would say it helped them much with the symptoms. Though there have been some whose dysautonomia got much worse because of it. *Any* change in anything we do, eat, ad infinitum may trigger this worsening.

[Sheila]

Congratulations, annie, on your State's new legislation. We've been following it with enthusiasm.

Iggy -- I have wondered if pot used in moderation might be helpful in w/d, but I've been too scared to experiment with my vulnerable brain.

If you research it, times have really changed since the 1970s. There is now a whole menu of different hybrids that have very precise effects. You can stay away from the ones that cause paranoia. And, just like with anything in w/d, you would want to start with a tiny dose and wait and see the effects for awhile after.