healthyself

R-Lipoic Acid - A Panacea For Health & Anti-Aging?

2018-09-28T05:42:00.002-07:00

R-Lipoic Acid: A Panacea For Health & Anti-Aging?

R-Lipoic Acid is a form of Lipoic Acid. Lipoic Acid has three forms that you can buy:

R-lipoiC (the form the body produces and is found in nature)
S-Lipoic (the form created in manufacturing Lipoic Acid)
Racemic Lipoic Acid (a combination of R & S).

R Lipoic is also referred to as the "natural form," while S is considered the "Unnatural form."

While these two forms are "mirror" images of each other if you look at their molecules. They actually have different effects inside the body. Both forms are anti-oxidants. However, R-Lipoic Acid is apparently the form that possesses all the magic that alpha lipoic acid has.

S-lipoic acid has some of the beneficial properties. It is an anti-oxidant and when mixed with R-Lipoic Acid seems to increase R-lipoic's bio-availability. But, S-lipoic Acid does not activate many of the enzymes that R-Lipoic Acid does AND it also blocks the effects of R-lipoic Acid.

We've been using alpha lipoic acid on and off for asthma and food allergies. In fact, we consider it to be one of our go to supplements for lowering IgE for asthma and food allergies. That being said we have not seen the results that we've anticipated. But after discovering that we were taking the wrong form of Alpha Lipoic Acid, we're now going to switch to R-lipoic.

Before you go out and order just any R-lipoic acid, please read and view my thinking process and reasons as to why R-lipoic is the best form of alpha lipoic acid. In addition to that, R-lipoic has one central problem - it is not very bio-available when you take it on its own. So in my article I walk you through my decision process and which brands are the most bio-available and deliver the biggest bang for your buck.

Read which is the best brand of r-lipoic acid here.

Read my article on the Best Wedge Pillow for Acid Reflux.

2016-11-16T12:26:00.000-08:00

This article is a copy of the article that I published on my website www.healinghacker.com
I don't post often. It's a tug of war between limited time along with self-doubts as to what I offer that is different than the rest of the web and a compulsion to keep searching and sharing. So here it goes, the result of months of spinning my wheels. In fact, this research will help me construct a protocol for our allergies and asthma. If you've read any of my other posts, you know that I obsess over allergies (with good reason, we have multiple life threatening food allergies and asthma). The obsession with allergies has lead me to a deeper understanding, appreciation, and awe of the immune system.

My Quest For the Best Vitamins for Asthma and Allergies

In my research for supplements, I looked for a couple things that are associated with reducing Th2 skewing, aka asthma and allergies. I searched out vitamins and supplements that were shown to reduce IgE, increase IFN-y, increase IL-12, increase NK cell activity (natural killer cells), and/or reduce IL-10 (IL-10 tends to be associated with the Th2 arm of the immune system). And just a brief note, if you don't already know this, Th1 is humoral immunity known to "fight viruses and other intracellular pathogens, eliminate cancerous cells, and stimulate delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) skin reactions" while Th2 is adaptive immunity via production of antibodies. Being skewed too heavily in either direction can result in diseases. Allergic problems and asthma tend to be invoked by an immune system that is Th2 skewed. I spent several months laboring over this list, but here are supplements that have been found to reduce allergies - along with some supplements you'll want to avoid because they increase allergies.

1. Aged Black Garlic Extracts

It has been found to Increase Interferon Gamma (IFN-y). In a mouse model it reduced IgE associated skin inflammation. Source Articles: "Immunomodulation and Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Garlic Compounds." "The Antioxidant Mechanisms Underlying the Aged Garlic Extract- and S-Allylcysteine-Induced Protection"

Buy Aged Black Garlic, Aged Garlic with Mushroom Extracts

2. Active Hexose Correlated Compound (AHCC)

This is a propreitary extract produced from specially cultivated and hybridized mushrooms. It has been found to skew towards Th17, enhance NK cells, increase IL-6 and IFN-γ. Source Articles: "Active Hexose Correlated Compound promotes T helper (Th) 17 and 1 cell responses via inducing IL-1β production from monocytes in humans"

Buy Active Hexose Correlated Compound (AHCC)

3. Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA)

Alpha Lipoic Acid is becoming a sung hero in the world of anti-oxidants. It has been found to chelate heavy metals, restore blood glutathione levels, act as a free radical scavenger... The key here to me is that it can enhance blood glutathione levels. Additionally, in mouse model of asthma it was found to lower lung hyper responsiveness, eosinophils, and IgE. Source Articles:

"Alpha-lipoic acid as a dietary supplement: Molecular mechanisms and therapeutic potential"

"Alpha-Lipoic acid inhibits airway inflammation and hyperresponsiveness in a mouse model of asthma"

Buy Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA)

4. Apigenin

Apigenin is flavone found in many fruits and vegetables. The highest sources include parsley, celery, celeriac and chamomile. It was found to reduce IgE, suppress Th2 cytokines. Source Articles: "Dietary apigenin suppresses IgE and inflammatory cytokines production in C57BL/6N mice"

Buy Apigenin

5. D-pinitol

According to Wikipedia, pinitol is a cyclitol, a cyclic polyol. It is a known anti-diabetic agent isolated from Sutherlandia frutescens leaves.^[1]^[2] Gall plant tannins can be differentiated by their content of pinitol.^[3] It was first identified in the sugar pine (Pinus lambertiana). It's also apparently in leafy greens - and a component of inositol. In one mouse model study d-pinitol inhibited allergic asthma in sensitized mice. In another it impaired Th1 polarization. Source Articles: "d-pinitol regulates Th1/Th2 balance via suppressing Th2 immune response in ovalbumin-induced asthma" "D-pinitol inhibits Th1 polarization via the suppression of dendritic cells"

Buy D-pinitol

6. Drumming

Obviously this isn't a supplement. I contacted the person associated with this study about further details about the type of drumming that was done. He was unavailable for further questions. There was apparently an increase in NK cell activity post drumming. Source Articles: "Composite Effects of Group Drumming Music Therapy on Modulation of Neuroendocrine-Immune Parameters in Normal Subjects."

7. Magnesium

Magnesium is sometimes delivered intravenously in the hospital for acute asthma attacks. It can "can induce bronchial smooth muscle relaxation..." I've heard from others who suffer from asthma, as well as read, that oral supplementation can also help reduce asthma symptoms as well as the amounts of emergency meds needed. Here is study done in children with asthma and oral magnesium supplementation. You'd need to purchase the study to see dosages, but another study that I read (which of course I cannot find now) had dosages of 340mg (given 2x day at 170 mg) for adults. What they found in the group of children was that the magnesium acted as an antioxidant and increase glutathione levels. Whether or not magnesium will help with allergic conditions is unclear to me. Although it has been found to decrease histamine levels, and would therefore be a valid supplement to experiment with. Source Articles:

"Effects of magnesium supplementation on the glutathione redox system in atopic asthmatic children"

Buy magnesium

8. Magnolia Flower and Gypsum Combination (Shin'iseihaito)

This is a mouse model. As several people have been quick to remind me, what works in mice doesn't necessarily work in humans. At any rate they found that this Kampo (Japanese) or TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) herbal extract was able to reduce the eosinophil, serum IgE and interleukin (IL)-4 levels, while increased the interferon (IFN)-γ levels in allergic mice. Source Articles: "Effect of Shin'iseihaito on murine allergic reaction induced by nasal sensitization." As far as buying this herbal remedy goes, I would recommend going to a reputable herbalist. You can find different sources on the internet, but for this one I personally would like to meet and see the person making/recommending this combination. There aren't any reputable supplement companies that I can find that make this.

9. Melatonin

Melatonin is acts as an antioxidant, immune stimulant and sleep regulator. As a supplement, it's a hormone that is either synthesized in a lab or derived from pig and cow brains (I of course steer clear of the later version). Melatonin is a mixed bag, so it demands some research and experimentation. Melatonin has been found in atopic dermatitis and allergic asthma to be associated with reduced IgE and IL-4. However, there was a study that found elevated blood melatonin levels associated with worsening nocturnal symptoms in people with asthma. So if asthma is part of the package, it seems to make sense to tread slowly with melatonin. Source articles:

Melatonin and Atopy: Role in Atopic Dermatitis and Asthma

Elevated serum melatonin is associated with the nocturnal worsening of asthma

Buy Melatonin (synthesized in lab - not animal brain derived).

10. Plant sterols, stanols, and sterolins

Naturally occurring substances in and produced by plants. Found in fuits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and seeds. However the amounts you'd get when you consume plants is lower than if you take supplements containing sterols, stanols, and sterolins. Plant sterols, stanols, and sterolins are known to lower cholesterol and modulate the immune system. One study in particular tracked asthma sufferers and vaccine titres vs a control group. Both groups consumed a soy based yogurt. The study group had added plant sterols, while the control group ate the yogurt without added sterols. And while the differences between the groups was not notable, the study group during the study time experienced decreased IgE and IL-13 indicating a shift from Th2 type immunity to Th1. Interesting bonus on this supplement is that it supposedly has been found to increase hair health. Source articles:

Plant Sterols and Sterolins: A Review of Their Immune-Modulating Properties

This articles is a review that was done by scientists working for Thorne supplements. However, that doesn't mean that it's not valid.

Dietary plant stanol ester consumption improves immune function in asthma patients: results of a randomized, double-blind clinical trial.

Beneficial Effects of Sitostanol on the Attenuated Immune Function in Asthma Patients: Results of an In Vitro Approach

All about Plant Sterols - Review article - Plant sterols: factors affecting their efficacy and safety as functional food ingredients

Buy Plant Sterol and Sterolin Supplement

Buy Beta-sitosterol

11. Probiotic: HKLP-137 (Heat Killed Lactobacillus Plantarum 137) aka Immuno-LP 20

You'll find lots of studies on pubmed.org citing it's ability to stimulate Th1 type immunity in healthy subjects and mice via increased IFN-y and IL-12. We tried this supplement for awhile, I can't say that it worked for us. We were, however, trying a bunch of stuff at once so it's hard to tell. It's also difficult to determine if we were taking a high enough dose. The other thing is that most of the studies done on HKLP-137 seem to be on non-atopic individuals and mice. Reading these articles makes me want to give this supplement a try again. Source Articles: "Daily intake of heat-killed Lactobacillus plantarum L-137 enhances type I interferon production in healthy humans and pigs" "Daily intake of heat-killed Lactobacillus plantarum L-137 augments acquired immunity in healthy adults"

Buy Immuno-LP 20

12. Probiotic: Lactobacillus Casei Shirota (in the states only found in Yakult)

Yakult is a dairy drink that is made from powdered milk and sugar. It's available in stores around the US. Apparently, in Japan you can just buy the bacteria as a probiotic without the dairy and sugar that accompany the drink. At any rate, it has been found in an HIV infected population to lower IL-10, IL-12, IgE but raise IL-4. Source Articles: "Effect of Probiotic Supplement on Cytokine Levels in HIV-Infected Individuals: A Preliminary Study."

13. Probiotic: Bifidobacterium Lactis HN019

I am somewhat on the fence on probiotics. I think that they, of all supplements demand massive organized experimentation. What do I mean by that? Well firstly, probiotics are extremely specific. If you read about a probiotic lactobacillus acidophilus 123 and desire similar effects, you must find that exact strain down to the 123. Also, for those suffering allergies and asthma, the probiotics could have a different effect than in non-allergic individuals AND heat killed probiotics may be more effective than live (again from memory of a study that I now cannot find). However, we still use probiotics. Although, we are not as organized as I would like to be. Ideally, we'd use single strains and track blood before and after. We don't. So our approach is very hodge podge. Also, I personally tend to steer clear of most bifidobacteria probiotics. From what I've read and retained, it seems that bifidobacteria are usually associated with increasing IL-10 levels. IL-10, while not totally Th2 skewing, is nonetheless a Th2 cytokine. However, this Bifidobacterium Lactis HN019 is associated with increasing NK (natural killer) cell activity. So, it's on my list. And, we've taken these strains. I can't say that we saw an improvement, we did not do blood tests, but we also didn't see a worsening of any symptoms. Also, you cannot find either this strain or the L. Rhamnosus HN001 as single strains. Therefore, you can't really see the effect of the single strain. Source Articles: Enhancement of immunity in the elderly by dietary supplementation with the probiotic Bifidobacterium lactis HN019

Buy B. Lactis HN019 mixed with L. Rhamnosus HN001

14. Probiotic: Lactobacillus Rhamnosus HN001

Increased NK cell activity in non-allergic individuals. Source Articles: Systemic Immunity-Enhancing Effects in Healthy Subjects Following Dietary Consumption of the Lactic Acid Bacterium Lactobacillus rhamnosus HN001

Buy B. Lactis HN019 mixed with L. Rhamnosus HN001

15. Rice Bran Exo-biopolymer, RBEP - known to contain arabinoxylan

In vivo study in humans, found to raise IFN-y levels. Interestingly, it did not effect any other cytokine levels. I've included "known to contain arabinoxylan" because I could not find this exact product. I've found other products that claim to activate NK-cell activity. Source Articles: Dietary supplementation with rice bran fermented with Lentinus edodes increases interferon-γ activity without causing adverse effects: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group study.

Buy Enzymatically Modified Rice Bran

Buy Rice Bran Arabinoxylan Compound (We've taken this one. Again, we did not take blood work. So it's hard to tell if it had an effect. We are considering returning to this supplement.)

16. Selenium

Selenium is a potent anti-oxidant. It's been found to enhance the Th1 side of the immune system: with increased viral immunity, NK activity and IFN-y. We regularly take it along with other trace minerals. Source Articles:

The influence of selenium on immune responses

Selenium and asthma

Buy Selenium

Buy the Selenium we take in trace minerals

17. Sodium Ascorbate (a form of Vitamin C)

I have written about vitamin C, especially in sodium ascorbate form, several times. It is a tent pole supplement in our routines. This study which followed three siblings over two years is the original study that turned me onto vitamin C. The study tracked a reduction in IgE using sodium ascorbate at 1000mg daily for two years. In our experience, we've found a similar IgE reducing effect. In fact, of all the supplements we've tried, sodium ascorbate made a huge and obvious impact that preceded confirmation via blood test. Basically my son's asthma and seasonal allergy symptoms pretty much disappeared. We stopped using it daily for several months. When we returned to vitamin C, we were not using sodium ascorbate because he hates the taste and texture. We have not had as amazing results using ascorbic acid. We do get some effect, but nothing as drastic as the 30% drop in IgE and essentially no asthma and seasonal allergy symptoms. Also, a second issue with the sodium ascorbate that we were taking, I'm not in love with the nano-particle facet of it. I feel that that is something that has not been researched enough. So while we took it for about two years, we now take it much less. Source Article:

Assessment of oral ascorbate in three children with chronic granulomatous disease and defective neutrophil motility over a 2-year period.

Buy Sodium Ascorbate as lypo-spheric

Read about our experience using vitamin C for asthma and allergies. Currently, we're not using sodium ascorbate, but are in the process of trying yet another vitamin C. It's a fine balance between efficacy and taste/texture.

18. Sulforaphane

Sulforaphane is "a compound within the isothiocyanate group of organosulfur compounds. It is obtained from cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts or cabbages. It is produced when the enzyme myrosinase transforms glucoraphanin, a glucosinolate, into sulforaphane upon damage to the plant (such as from chewing), which allows the two compounds to mix and react. " Wikipedia It's been found that the highest levels of sulforaphane can be obtained from 3 day old broccoli sprouts. You can either buy sulphoraphane as a broccoli sprout extract supplement or grow your own sprouts. The key with sulphoraphane is that it's created when glucoraphanin and myrosinase come together, as in chewing. So I prefer to eat the sprouts myself, because I doubt supplement efficacy for this compound for some reason. Although, keep in mind they are very strong tasting. Source Article: Sulforaphane inhibits the Th2 immune response in ovalbumin-induced asthma.

Buy broccoli sprout extract

Buy seeds to sprout

19. Vitamin D

Vitamin D is one of the most widely discussed vitamins. Most recently a study found that it reduces asthma attack severity. But I have a hard time completely getting on the Vitamin D bandwagon. It's not to say that it's not valuable. Clearly it is, however there appears to be a sweet spot for Vitamin D. Levels above and below a certain threshold are linked to elevating IgE, while the sweet spot is in the middle. Another study found, that serum vitamin D was positively associated with logarithmic transformed total IgE with base of 10 (LogTIgE) (coefficient (B), 0.011; 95% confidence interval, 0.001-0.021). I think the best approach with Vitamin D is to do a blood test and see the level. Then if you supplement track symptoms, and/or retest IgE levels along with Vitamin D level.

20. Whey

Whey supplementation is known to increase glutathione. What interests me the most though is the study that found that a month long whey supplementation protocol was able to reduce total IgE levels by 30%. For anyone who tracks IgE levels for allergies, you realize how amazing this is. We managed to reduce IgE levels by 30% over several months with daily sodium ascorbate - but that was several months vs one month. Source Articles: Effect of whey protein to modulate immune response in children with atopic asthma. Oral supplementation with whey proteins increases plasma glutathione levels of HIV-infected patients. Buy the whey from the study (Immunocal)

Chinese Herbs: Asthma & Food Allergies (Q&A with Dr Xiu-Min Li)

2015-05-21T11:30:00.000-07:00

This interview was conducted with the world renowned immunologist and Chinese Herbalist Dr. Xiu-Min Li via phone and email discussing the latest in her proprietary Chinese Herbal Formulas for asthma and food allergies. Dr Li is the originator of FAHF-2 (food allergy herbal formula) and ASHMI (anti-asthma herbal medicine intervention).

If you have questions - or want to contact me - please go to my site (healinghacker.com).

This is a relatively in depth article and takes about 20 minutes to read (longer if you want to really digest). If you don't have time (or patience), here are the distilled takeaways:

Herbs work, but there's a high level of commitment necessary - time (several years) & dosage (prepare to swallow more than one pill a day). If you can't bring it (commitment that is), herbs may not be for you.
IgE is not necessarily be-all/end-all of allergic reaction - on herbal protocol IgE may remain constant or not, and yet tolerance can occur. Basophil activation measured via blood draw is strongly correlated with tolerance/reactivity. Dr Li discusses this blood test as a safe prelude to food challenge. We've made inroads in reducing our IgE levels, but I am now even more aware that this as a singular strategy isn't a "cure." Other immune cells need to be addressed as well. I think Chinese herbs can really shine in addressing a spectrum of immune cells - quieting reactions.
Herbs switch the immune system from allergic to non-allergic by rebalancing the immune system. As mentioned above, the IgE levels may or may not change, but previously reactive individual may be able to tolerate foods/pollens..., because other parts of immune system are mediating.
Results are totally individual. Some people can do treatment and then be off completely; others will need to pulse on and off (6 months on, 6 months off).

If you want the full-on details from which the above has been distilled, pull up a chair, grab a snack, and READ ON!

Healing Hacker: Can you discuss the results of the human efficacy trials with Food Allergy Herbal Formula-2 (FAHF-2)? Does it work if compliance is good? How do you know it works? Can you talk about the clinical trials of FAHF-2? What results are forthcoming?

Dr. Li: I can only discuss the published studies. We published a study in annals of Allergy Asthma and Immunology that showed FAHF-2 is a very safe treatment that modulates the immune system. We found it had immune-modulating effects on Th1, and T- regulatory cells that inhibit allergic immune response as well as Th-2 cells, which are associated with allergies. We actually saw the immune system response switch from allergic to non-allergic. This is promising. If you can modulate the T-cells so that they don’t produce IgE, the allergic antibody, you will eventually see a clinical improvement.

We did a 6-month open-label study (not a control study) but much shorter than the mouse study, which required two years to produce results. Our second six-month trial found similar high safety profile; and this time we had an opportunity to look at the immunological response of the basophils, which produce histamine. We were able to suppress the histamine production of these cells, which produced a favorable clinical effect. So that was the second trial.

The third trial we finished in 2014. The results were mixed. We did see consistent safety data and some immunomodulatory effects. However, we have not demonstrated efficacy yet with the protocol used. The compliance level was a big issue. You know this as well as everyone else. (HH: my son took herbs with Dr. Li for about a year and compliance was difficult for us - swallowing between 30-40 pills a day because I was crushing them and putting into small capsules for him to swallow.)

There are still a lot of things to learn from this trial. We think the product itself needs to be improved - if we can reduce the number of pills we can increase compliance and optimize the product.

This is an obstacle for traditional herbal medicine - we know it’s safe, it has potential benefits, but it’s very difficult to conduct a trial because the amount of pills is an issue. And also the protocol design is not where after a couple weeks you see the effect. This protocol requires quite a long time and much effort. In private practice when we treat things like eczema and asthma, patients can see and feel improvements, which gives them an incentive to continue treatment for the “invisible” problem, food allergies.

Interestingly, the preliminary data showed that if the individual had high enough blood concentration of the bioactive compound marker, they had positive clinical outcomes. This supports our in vitro study data that showed that human immune cells directly exposed to FAHF-2 extract experienced beneficial immunomodulatory effects. There are gaps of knowledge between TCM human use experience, in vivo animal model study, human in vitro study, and then finally to human in vivo study trials. Our continued work will help us fill in the gaps.

The good news is that we have developed a purified product which requires just 1/5 of the previous dosage that has successfully combatted peanut allergy in mice.

HH: This is B-FAHF-2?

Dr. Li: Yes, B for butanol, a form of alcohol. We’ve achieved FDA approval and received funds for the clinical trials but we haven’t started yet. We’re updating the protocol and preparing the refined version of B-FAHF-2 that will be used for the trial.

The design of this trial is different than the previous trials. Treatment time will be 26 months – closer to a real timeframe where you can see strong results. Previous study times were too short to allow the full immunological changes to occur. Persistent allergy is associated with abnormal memory immune cells--T cells, B cells and mast cells/basophils--which are very stubborn. Taking IgE production as an example - as you’ve seen in your life, you’ve been avoiding peanut, but still the peanut specific IgE is more than 100.

HH: It’s more than 100 still, yes.

Dr. Li: Why is that? It’s because of the memory B cells. Once those cells form, they have longevity and continue to reproduce. Knocking them out takes a long time.

“We actually saw the immune system response switch from allergic to non-allergic. This is promising.”

HH: How do the herbs operate? What are the herbs doing that are affecting the immunological markers?

Dr. Li: We started to look at which herb compounds affect IgE. We just published in 2014 but the work has been done over many years. We demonstrated that human memory B-cell lines that produce IgE could remain very high, even if they are not stimulated. You just put them in a good nutrition medium and they will grow and produce IgE.

In that study we compared effects of FAHF-2 and B-FAHF-2 on IgE production. Both significantly reduced IgE, but B-FAHF-2 requires nearly 9 times less concentration.

We screened nine herbs from B-FAHF-2 and found three of them directly suppressed IgE. Other herbs have no direct effect on IgE, but some of them suppress inflammation and histamine release while others enhance protective immune responses such as IgG. But this study only focused on identifying the constituents in vitro (in a test tube, Petri dish, outside the body - as opposed to in vivo, which means given to a living animal or human).

We focused on one of the IgE inhibitory herbs, identified and isolated the active compounds, and published. The mechanism operates thusly: memory cells do not need a strong stimulus, sometimes none at all. They settle in the bone marrow where they wait until they’re ready to produce IgE. We discovered the compound that regulates IgE does so through the modulation of one of the critical transcription factors that control IgE synthesis from memory cells.

HH: It suppresses that transcription factor?

Dr. Li: Yes, that’s the key - antibody production – that’s where we use the term ‘switch.’ The antibody producing B-cells can be switched in a different direction. The same cells can produce IgG or IgE, controlled by these transcription factors. They tell this cell what to produce. And so therefore, you don’t have to kill the cells; you just have to initiate the signals to control what they produce.

HH: So you’re not killing those cells, you are switching what they are producing.

Dr. Li: Right. That is a unique finding for a natural product. They are not killing the cells. The cells can still be there, but just not produce the IgE. Also, sometimes with immunomodulation, the IgE levels are still there, only they’re dormant. Then when the body needs them, they can reactivate, when you encounter an intestinal parasite, for example.

Normally the immune system can distinguish between the different proteins - food protein is very different from bacteria. Bacteria pathogens are very different from other microbes. The cells can tell. So therefore when you get a bacterial infection, your B-cells automatically start to produce IgG. Most of the time probiotics stimulate your immune system to produce IgG. Once your immune system encounters this type of stimulus, it has the capability to produce IgG to protect the individual. But with allergies, the allergen stimulates production of IgE by B cells.

HH: Why do allergic individuals have this? Are they missing some key windows of immune education? Are they missing nutrients? Is there toxicity? I understand that the herbs are working on the cellular level, but why - why does it exist at all? I don’t know if you know the answer to this…

Dr. Li: (Laughs) - Some kids have asked me why do we need allergy. We are not absolutely certain yet. But you can summarize it as several things - perhaps it’s a single factor or combination but it has to do with exposure to microbials. There is a short window when the fetus is in the mom’s uterus when the immune system is skewed towards Th2 - but then after birth they need to gain quickly and switch to Th1 dominance through exposure to the microbials. So microbials or a type of microbial exposure is a major factor. Another theory holds that the mother or the post-natal infant is exposed to food too early or too late. This was the prevailing theory for 10 - 15 years, but has been recently rejected. See we avoided the peanut early and the prevalence of peanut allergy has doubled. So that has not been the peanut. So now there is no peanut restriction on mothers- but now the peanut prevalence allergy has tripled. We still have no consensus.

Another thing is the allergic march from when children are very little - they have a little eczema or allergy but as they grow they develop asthma or persistent food allergy. We are just beginning epigenetic studies. The genes are switched on and off by certain triggers such as chemicals in the environment. The environment is important, food is important, microbials and pathogens are important, antibiotics are important because they wipe out good microbes as well as bad.

So we are studying epigenetics - the genes are all normal and present. It’s how they are regulated that may cause a baby to be born with a pre-existing, allergy-prone condition. We just had a publication in a very important journal using the mouse model. We induced an allergy in some of the mothers and their babies had a very strong tendency to develop allergies, an allergy bias. But conditions still must be favorable for allergies to develop. So both factors play a role: susceptibility (active allergen genes) and environment.

With this epigenetic mechanism - the good thing is that it’s dynamic. So, you can modify it.

That’s why we are working hard to develop a treatment. We believe that this epigenetic mechanism not only underlies why it’s easier for some people to develop allergies, but it also provides an opportunity for treatment and dietary modification. For example, taking vitamin C and other things - may reprogram these genes from allergy to non-allergy. But these epigenetic changes in vivo (in body) take quite a long time. In vitro studies, through exposing the cells, provide good information about product efficacy. When working in vivo it’s crucial to have a sufficient dose – the more bioactive ingredients the better the treatment at the expected concentration range.

HH: In vitro is the herb exposed to the cells - but in vivo the herbs have been processed and digested - can you talk about that?

Dr. Li: That is why I now tell the patients, if you want to start the herbal protocol, you need to use a good dose over a long period of time. Otherwise I don’t think it will work.

HH: It sounds like what you’re talking about is achieving a certain level of cellular saturation.

Dr. Li: Yes, you’re right. This all has science behind it.

“…sometimes with immunomodulation, the IgE levels are still there, only they’re dormant.”

HH: And so, let me go back to - you’re talking about this next round of trials that will be 26 months and the mouse models - and in a perfect world if what you’ve seen in the mouse models translates to humans - what does someone’s path to reprogramming their genes from allergic to tolerogenic look like? What does the path to heal through B-FAHF-2 look like - how long does it take? Are we on it for our entire lives? What is the dosage?

Dr. Li: It still depends on the individual. So that’s why parents are very supportive of us. We’re moving in a more practical direction, but with minimum expenditures, as opposed to the millions spent on the earlier trial. This new study will require $2-3 million but it can only take 17 patients in active and 17 patients in placebo. Why? Because when you want to do a double blind placebo trial with the challenges, it’s extremely expensive – medicines, nurses, doctors, tests, managing reactions.

But then another new study we are setting up will be a small practice-based study. That is, it will be done through day-to day practice under “real world” conditions instead of intensely controlled clinical trial conditions. I want to use biomarkers - IgE as well as basophils—to see if we can measure progress without challenges.

In mice, basophils activation shows a very strong correlation with clinical reaction. And then I’ll use epigenetics to look at the T-cells and determine whether they are switched or not switched, and how long they take to make the transition (Additional information: The epigenetic biomarker becomes more important now. For example, some of my patients passed a peanut or treenut challenges. If their tolerogenic epigenetic biomarker maintains even after reduction and discontinuation of treatment, plus normalized basophil activity, their tolerance will highly likely be sustained.)

I cannot stress strongly enough - these trials - no one has done them but us. We are pioneers. It’s not perfect yet. There are several knowledge gaps. In addition to continuing double blind placebo controlled trials, we will also conduct the practice based-study, which is more cost effective, so that we can design an even better trial in the near future. (Additional Information: Although randomized controlled trials (RCT) are the gold standard in assessing treatment efficacy and safety of newly developed drugs, their results can be limited when applied to real-world clinical settings. Practice based evidence (PBE) studies are an alternative to RCT, and well suited to determine what works best for specific patient types in day-to-day clinical practice. They provide a holistic picture of patients, treatments, and outcomes seen in real-world clinical settings. PBE studies can uncover better practices more quickly than randomized controlled trials, while achieving many of the same advantages. TCM is inherently an individualized approach to Chinese herbal medicines as well as acupuncture and acupressure; PBE studies are well suited for the preliminary TCM therapy to define what TCM therapies will be the best for the specific group of patients with food allergies.

There are three requirements for the individuals in the study. They have to have a history of reactions and their peanut specific IgE has to be over 100. Or, if the peanut IgE is not over one hundred, but the two-year IgE figures are very high and increasing, those patients can also qualify. The third group will be made up of people who have a history and very frequent reactions. You know sometimes children are so sensitive they don’t even have to eat the offending food, they just smell it or touch it and they have a reaction. They will also qualify. This is a patient friendly protocol.

You know I’ve really learned a lot from mothers. I started to work on my case reports because a mother said, “You know you have so many good results, why don’t you publish them? Do a small study not a big trial study and publish it.” I’ve got medical students helping me organize the data. One case report was just accepted for publication that shows positive effects of an herbal treatment combination. We don’t know which one is essential. I think that each one made some contribution – therefore making the combination better. I used cream and internal tea and it really quieted the patient’s reactions and lowered the IgE.

But back to this practice-based study, which will answer your question. We’ll do three courses of treatment; one course of treatment is one year. I believe we’ll see changes in biomarkers in the first year for some such as reduction of basophil activity. But for others it may take two or three years. Maybe someone after one year will see effects. If the IgE is more than 100, in one or two years you’ll start to see it drop - but it may not drop to the level where it’s so low that they can go for a challenge. Other biomarkers will help to monitor progress. You have to separate when the effects are first visible and there is tolerance from the child “outgrowing” the allergy – which may take longer.

HH: That makes sense. It’s about adjusting expectations to the time frames you’re talking about. Even though, when we took the herbs, you told us to have a vision spread out over 3 years - it was still a lot to wrap my mind around. I think now I have a little bit more time stamina.

Dr. Li: I know. I sometimes tell the patients if you are seeking an immediate cure, I cannot help you. But if you have a long-term effort really concentrating - you will see, given time, gradually it will help your son’s or daughter’s immune system. But some respond sooner. That’s why I said it depends on the individual. We give a choice - you can do one course and then two or three courses. After one course of treatment we can also combine with other therapies. I am collaborating with other allergists to combine the therapies such as SLIT provided by Dr. Mary Morris.

“From this we know that tolerance has increased.”

HH: For that practice-based study are you doing it multi-center or only out of New York?

Dr. Li: First we will just start in New York collaborating with a mainstream allergy practice. Since it’s practice based, the regulation level is different than for a placebo-controlled trial. It’s not called a trial - it’s a study. Everyone gets treated. We will use the individuals that come to the clinic and get an annual check up but they don’t want to get treated as controls (sometimes this is also called community study). We’ll just collect their blood samples. Since they are checking their blood levels anyway we just use that as a control, but they don’t take a placebo. And then no one will get a challenge. I have a team working with two other allergists that are helping me evaluate. I’ll provide the treatment and then they will evaluate. This will make it more objective not just my opinion.

And then after two or three years we will most likely see the epigenetics change - the basophils reduced, and/or the IgE changed. However, even if the IgE remains high - but we may be able to predict that they have built up a new level of tolerance. Sometimes people will still have a high IgE, it cannot be reduced to the baseline normal, but they can tolerate the foods to which they used to have reactions.

For example, we’ve taken blood and mixed it with peanut protein - two nanograms – a very low dosage. Before treatment the cells produce 60-90% activation, meaning 60-90% of the cells released histamine. This shows that the patient is very sensitive. Then after treatment, we’ve done the same blood sample mixed with two nanograms of peanut protein, and seen 20% of the basophil cells release histamine. From this we know that tolerance has increased (non-allergic people also have basophil activation, about 10-20%). So that gives us a quantitative measurement, but the individual does not have to go for a challenge. We use the cell level to predict the individual’s sensitivity If patients’ biomarkers are dramatically improved compared to baseline, and if the family is interested in introducing certain foods, allergists will determine clinical tolerability by oral challenge based on the clinical practice standard for assessing food allergy outgrowth.

All these methods for biomarkers are being used in my lab. We don’t require a food challenge at baseline for this highly sensitive group of patients. But if you don’t do a challenge sometimes people think that you don’t have an allergy. So we want to use biomarkers to predict sensitivity. As I’ve said before, there is a strong correlation between the biomarkers and clinical reactivity. If you look at the cells, instead of the clinical endpoints, you can get critical information about allergic vs. tolerogenic status. But many times we separate the clinical symptoms and the immunological basis. We see the clinical symptoms and forget that everything has an immunological and physiological foundation. What we observe in clinic originates in the cells. And so predictive information, not necessarily diagnostic information, can be drawn without the dangers of challenges.

HH: Challenges can be traumatic. I think that clinicians see a reaction from the outside. But our children experience these reactions – and so while challenges can be life changing if you get a new food – they can also be extremely terrifying for the children especially if they’ve failed challenges in the past.

Dr. Li: Yes. That’s why many kids are very, very careful. And some kids can still be careful, but avoidance is not enough for them. There’s about 10-14% of the allergic children who react to inhaled allergens and/or skin contact. In fact, my recent publication of three cases in one instance focuses on skin contact and inhalation causing severe reactions.

HH: Skin contact causing systemic anaphylactic reactions?

Dr. Li: Yes. Well skin contact-induced reactions don’t happen with everyone, only a small portion of allergic individuals.

HH: With the mouse model - the mice were 100% compliant - so how many of the mice were successfully protected from anaphylaxis? Did it protect all the mice that took it?

Dr. Li: Yes. That’s what was so impressive. Since I started working on the food allergy research we tested many novel therapies that we thought would be effective against food allergies. The first time we used the herbal treatment we saw that the mice were protected. They were all protected. It was beautiful. If we can reach the dose and duration of the mice (100%), we have a good chance. It’s just that persuading our patients to use a full dose over an extended period of time is a big job. We are hoping that the refined product will make our and their efforts easier. In my practice-based study we are going to use the refined product that I’m working on.

HH: I understand that you’re preparing to publish the data of the most recent FAHF-2 study - and with the practice-based study you’re hoping to perfect the protocol and process - and so talking about what things look like is difficult. But if you look at the mouse model and translate to the human model, what kind of projections can you make? Do we take the herbs at a full dose for three years? … And then what happens?

Dr. Li: Then you’ll get protection, even if your IgE may not be at a normal level. That is my prediction. Reactions don’t only involve IgE, but also additional types of cells such as mast cells and basophils. The protection is not only due to reduction of IgE, but also induction of other antibodies such as IgA and IgG.

In the animal study, before treatment, the mice had a similar IgE level as post treatment. But in the middle, before treatment with the herbs commenced, we gave a boosting dose to drive their IgE levels very high. In mice, we don’t do “More than 100” we do a real level - for example, 2500 or 2000 - to ensure at that time of the challenge they have a reaction. Following the boosting, their IgE levels can reach 5000 or more. But after the herbal treatment, the IgE level of 5000 can drop to around 2000. And even with that level at the time of the challenge… they don’t have any reactions. So, after treatment the IgE level is lower than the post-boost level. But it never gets as low as normal, sometimes not even to the level before we boosted them.

With very high IgE levels, if you are able to drop it to a certain level, I think you do not need it to be normal. After treatment, you may build up a new level of tolerance. In Chinese medicine, they talk about balance - so I think - the treatment just brings a new level of balance. You cannot go back to baseline, like a new baby before they’ve been exposed to the allergens. But, you can affect a switch that starts to build up a good protective immune response and bring new balance… The children are still healthy. They don’t have reactions. But their IgE level is not zero.

HH: IgE becomes less an indicator at that point, because the whole system has realigned itself.

Dr. Li: Right. You can still have IgE. But you also have lots of IgG, IgA, and many other protective antibodies. That is very good. These antibodies circulate. And for example, if you have peanut protein that gets in, they grab the protein and don’t give it a chance to bind to IgE. These other antibodies are also specific so they can do that. This protects the individual from having a reaction. The protection happens in many ways, not just dropping the IgE.

HH: And then after the three years - there is protection - there is a new balance. How do the next 10 years look? Are there periods of time where we’re back on herbs for a month, a year? Is it half the year? Not at all?

Dr. Li: That is a very good question. Many allergists who do research don’t believe that food allergies, particularly persistent food allergies, can be cured. That’s because they see how stubborn the cells are. Everything involves cellular memory - memory basophils cells, memory B-cells, memory T-cells…

That’s why the new study is around the effect of polysensitization (sensitization to more than one allergen family). You can lower this sensitization. You can build up a higher level of tolerance. You can bring a new balance. This is an epigenetic concept (relating to or arising from nongenetic influences on gene expression) - you can reprogram. You still have the potential to have good protection.

Many children have multiple food allergies: 30-50% of them. Another part that is so scary, from the literature, is the growing number of children with multiple food allergies and multiple allergic diseases. In my patient population, almost 100% have many things - food allergies, asthma, and eczema. Many of them had been on daily anti-histamine for many years for their allergies in addition to other medications. They have several foods with IgE levels that are over 100. Other people have come to me and they don’t write down how many foods they are allergic to – as one mother told me, “Let me tell you how many foods we can eat. Maybe that’s simpler.” (Additional information: I just had a phone consultation last week with this mother, this child started to add back some foods already. We added the foods back to his diet first from the foods that he lost the latest).

So what does life look like after 3 years of treatment? It depends on how severe the individual’s food allergies were to start. For the most severe, with many IgE counts more than 100 - maybe we can help introduce some new foods. With treatment, plus lifestyle changes, plus other dietary modifications - when the IgE level is low - they get a chance to introduce new foods. And many patients are cured. But for others we still need to work. In these groups of children who have multiple allergic conditions, their asthma and eczema will be improved first and environmental allergy can also be improved so some of them can wean off the steroids and daily anti-histamine. They are healthier as individuals (including both physical and mental health). But their IgE sensitization improvement may be seen later. That is why the clinical phenotype and IgE levels are not always correlated. However, it is not easy to establish this concept/practice because these are no other in vitro immunological measures available yet at routine practice, most of the new biomarker measures are still in research status.

"This is an epigenetic concept (relating to or arising from non-genetic influences on gene expression) - you can reprogram."

I helped several mothers; they started to introduce one food after another after another…. I don’t claim this is all my success, because the patients are children. Children have a strong natural capacity to outgrow…. The treatment just helps them to develop that capacity. If they have 20 or 30 or 10 even (food allergies) to outgrow, that may take a longer time. And it seems that after they outgrow certain foods, it’s quite stable, the allergies don’t return. I’m not saying 20-30 foods all of a sudden are all cured. It’s different levels. Some are more stubborn. Some are easier. But once you can introduce more foods, the idea is to improve this individual’s quality of life.

HH: Now going back to the mouse model - for some people they might need to do intermittent periods of herbs and for others they just go off and they are done.

Dr. Li: You’re right. In the mouse model, we stopped treatment after six months. But in human time, that is a quarter of their life (HH NOTE: because mice live an average 2 years). If ten mice are used, you stop once they build up full protection. Then about two or three mice will start to show some symptoms after you stop treatment for six months. Then we give another course of treatment and they are fully protected again. But the other seven or eight mice continue to be fully protected even without further herb courses.

I think it is still a good protocol even if the individual passes the challenge - maybe each year or every two years they do the herbal treatment for three months or six months. I use this protocol for asthma patients.

I have asthma patients who were chronically steroid dependent. When they were on steroids they still had symptoms. They got better on the herbs and eventually they were off all inhaled steroids. In these cases they stop the herbs for six months and go back on herbs for six months – that’s the protocol (Most of time I start with a one-month alternating protocol). Maybe eventually they will only need three months per year treatment. I’m happy when they’re able to wean off the steroids; I’m also very happy that they can stop TCM as well, AND their conditions are still very well controlled.

HH: And what percentage of the patients were able to do that?

Dr. Li: Asthma patients?

HH: Yes

Dr. Li: Asthma patients are very interesting. When they come to me, most of the time, they are very chronic. They are the extremely tough asthma cases. I have quite a few, but I don’t have a percentage. Computing percentages doesn’t mean as much in one practice as it does with a bigger study base. Since this work involves clinical practice, not a study population, I would be very reluctant to use percentages routinely.

HH: The one thing we didn’t cover, which I’m curious about. You noticed similarity between parasite infection and allergy at the start of your research. How do Chinese medicine principles enter into the herbal tinctures that you are working with?

Dr. Li: It would take a while to connect the TCM principles to the research. You know TCM to the U.S. is a new concept. Many people don’t know about it. For many years I haven’t used TCM interpretation or language to connect to our medicine because it’s very difficult to have a common language. It’s very hard to talk about that.

When I started my off-site clinic, I didn’t start with people with food allergies. I started with patients with eczema. They were so bad - and the standard therapy couldn’t help them. They were dubbed “give up patients” by the referring physicians. These doctors sent their patients to me, and I helped their eczema. And then when the eczema was better they wanted me to help their food allergies.

Additionally, patients with asthma also began to come to me for help. I had many who couldn’t continue the steroids because they developed terrible adverse effects from having been on them so many years. This led me to present the idea of establishing an alternative medicine or integrative medicine center to Mount Sinai in order to help the patients. That way if the patients wanted to use the alternative medicine at least they would have reliable sources. I’m not saying that other TCM practitioners are not reliable. But we focus on food allergies, allergies, asthma… We started to build. We’re half way. There are a lot of things that need to be worked on that are difficult.

Seeing the patients with the multiple food allergies spurred me to understand this more using the TCM concept. I read and researched intensively. The symptoms described in the formula for parasites are very much like a food allergy reaction.

Now in my practice, I do incorporate the TCM concept. For example, a particular group of patients, children who when they were little, only had a few allergies; but, as they grow, they acquire more and more food allergies. They develop environmental allergies as well. For them, I see that the digestive system is not functioning properly - in addition to the immune system and IgE. For these patients, I’ve begun to deepen the treatment with great TCM principles – not simply using a formula that matches the symptoms.

Sometimes we forget the physiological function of digestion. So that’s why I developed a treatment called digestive tea. To help the kids rebuild their GI system. That’s really a TCM concept. They have this concept that they focus for children on enhancing the GI system.

Normally I don’t want to interpret anything with TCM terminology. It’s not necessary to use the same language and terminology. Some mothers read the TCM books. Some don’t. And if you say, “you have a spleen Qi deficiency,” they get very scared.

HH: Yes, I’ve read about TCM and if I heard that, I’d get scared.

Dr. Li: Right. If you say, you have a kidney Qi deficiency. They say, “What’s that?”

That’s why I don’t use that terminology. Patients and families rarely ask about the TCM terminology/mechanisms and I don’t offer them. Interestingly, some of allergists and clinical fellows who work with me began to use TCM terminology even in their presentations. I think in the future, more people will be willing or interested in the TCM terminologies.

HH: Yes. And I have a bare bones understanding - yes it can be frightening to hear that.

Is there anything that I’ve missed?

Dr. Li: Yes. I feel that the conditions of food allergies, asthma, eczema, environmental allergies that can occur in one individual make the situation very difficult. They are different conditions, but they can and do occur together in one individual.

So the vision of the treatment should be different depending on the individual. And herbal medicines give us a promising, safe starting point, to retrain the immune system either before it goes wrong, or after. If we expose the memory B cells to the bioactive compounds at sufficient concentrations…we can basically shut down the memory cells from producing IgE. That means you have to expose as many memory cells to these ingredients as possible through many routes.

Now since memory cells, as I said, usually settle in the bone marrow, it is a real challenge to reach them in vivo. Which will be most effective? Through the skin or through ingestion? Probably a combination. We understand which molecules may be the key for IgE, key for basophils, key for good T-cells.... The active compounds can switch the epigenetics from allergic to tolerogenic - so we’ll use this knowledge to also help us to advance the TCM products. That is my immediate goal.

The clinical trial is a long way off. There is a huge effort needed. It requires a good design for the patients and the investigators - and then the funding is an issue. You can have great ideas, but if you don’t have solid funding, you won’t reach your goal. That’s the difference when you are a pharmaceutical company. We have to struggle. This is a critical factor that you can’t ignore in the success of clinical trials.

Then in line with that the practice-based biomarker study of TCM… that is the beginning of new methodology to help TCM clinical studies move forwards. If we gain more information, it will help us to advance the science before spending millions of dollars, and design bigger studies with more precision.

Susan Weisman and another mother, Selena Bluntzer, worked through the Icahn Medical School at Mount Sinai school to set up a crowd funding website. That site discusses the practice-based biomarker study. This is not a substitute for government or big institutional funding—the heavy lifting—but it allows concerned parents and patients to contribute to science on behalf of their own children’s future. I would also like to thank Winston Wolkoff Integrative Medicine for Allergies and Wellness, and our supporters, the Winston, Wolkoff, Sherbakova, and Pichugov families for their contributions.

To read and donate to “Chinese Medicine for Food Allergy” go HERE.

Thank you to Henry Ehrlich author of Asthma Allergies Children: A Parent's Guide and "Food Allergies: Traditional Chinese Medicine, Western Science, and the Search for a Cure." Henry also runs asthmaallergieschildren.com, a site devoted to ideas that are within the guidelines set by accredited medical authorities for treatment of asthma and allergies.

If you have questions - or want to contact me - please go to my site (healinghacker.com).

Traditional Chinese Medicine For Food Allergies: Kicking Allergy's Ass With Ancient Herbs

2014-10-30T12:50:00.000-07:00

FAHF-2 could be the closest thing to a cure for food allergies out there.

What is a cure?

In my opinion: tolerance.

Being able to savor what was once a mouthful of death. I recently read "Food Allergies: Traditional Chinese Medicine." The book chronicles the work of Dr. Xiu-Min Li – known by anyone who is anyone in food allergy circles as the originator of FAHF and FAHF-2 (Food Allergy Herbal Formulas 1 &2), as well as ASHMI (Anti-Asthma Simplified Herbal Medicine Intervention). I can safely say that anyone with food allergies would benefit from reading "Food Allergies: Traditional Chinese Medicine." While I've read many an article and infographic on the immune process behind an allergic reaction, Henry Ehrlich (the author) goes through it more comprehensibly.... introducing concepts such as IgG and IgE competing for room on mast cells. He also covers things I've found in other readings (it was nice to have it reaffirmed) that IFN-gamma and IgE seems to be inversely coorelated.

If you are seeing Dr. Li, you should definitely read it. Understanding the dynamics of the process and the studies will enable you to keep your eyes on the prize when day, after day, after day, you are coaxing your child into swallowing 20-40 pills before school, then another 20-40 in the evening. Luckily my son has learned to swallow larger capsules, bringing his pill number down to 1/3 or 1/4 that number. But, you get my point. In this book, Henry Ehrlich covers Dr Li's arc from interest in immunology to where she is today - on the cusp of releasing the multi-location phase 2 efficacy studies in humans. He also dives into the results of the studies, even discussing the process for inducing allergies in the lab mice. Overall - if you're in the food allergy, allergy, and/or asthma sphere - this book is a must read. I've already returned to it several times to reference things that have lingered in my mind.

Food Allergies: Traditional Chinese Medicine is short - but dense with info.

This book took me longer to read than I expected, for two reasons. First, I couldn't see through the tears and had to put it down. We've been so worn and ground down by our allergy and asthma regimen, that to just ponder life without it... well it made me cry. He also speaks with some other food allergy parents and, for me, there was a sense of comaraderie. Additionally, I was re-inspired in the belief that my crazed quest would actually beget a cure. OUR cure. The second reason for my unusually long reading time was Henry Ehrlich's incisive explanations of the allergic immune response function – Greek letters and all. Though I consider myself relatively knowledgeable about a wide range of cytokines, I still had to ratchet my brain to the max and search the net before I could fully grasp all his invaluable information.

Our Time on Chinese Herbs

I've always known, and continue to spread the word, that one of the greatest medical systems in the world is the Traditional Chinese Medical System. I'm not speaking about the structure of the system - but the herbal remedies, the understanding and defining of the body systems, and the holistic approach which targets the cause of the illness (or imbalance.) This is a fundamentally different approach than allopathic medicine, which provides phenomenal emergency care, but appears to address and alleviate symptoms only, and views each organ or system as a discreet silo'd piece unto itself....

I was first introduced to Traditional Chinese Medicine back when my son was about 2 years old. At the time I had been having abnormal pap smears for the past 5 or so years. I also had tested positive for the HPV virus. The diagnosis, after a sampling, was atypical cervial desplasia. My gyne recommended cryo-therapy to freeze off the part that was abnormal, and that my body was not clearing on its own. The thing was that the sampling was so intensely painful I was terrified of the potential pain the cryotherapy would cause, and decided to try something else first. A friend of my mother's told me about her TCM in Chinatown. I felt like I had nothing to lose - if it worked , great, if not, I knew what to do next.

The TCM doctor practiced in the back of what looked like a gift shop. The walls were wrapped in tiny drawers with Chinese figures scribbled on them. She sat with me for about 15 minutes, felt my pulse, checked my tongue, and then said "You drink my tea for 2 months, you go back to doctor and it will be gone." That was it. I left with a two week supply of tea (a bag of twigs, leaves, rocks, unidentifiable plant and mineral matter) and was told to return for a follow up and refills. And so I did. Now the taste of the tea was indescribably awful. Bitter, sour, muddy... thick and lasting. But I slugged it down as told. And when I returned to the gyne for a follow up months later - it was gone! I would say that prior to this experience, I was much more of a pill popping, medicine- loving traditional patient. But this experience really shifted my perspective. It gave me an alternative treatment option when the MD had no answers to offer. Then it hit me: what about...

Herbs for food allergies and asthma

I tried Chinatown herbalists' herbs with my son shortly thereafter. He was about 2 or so at the time. We drank the herbs very briefly, but then stopped because I read articles and such that warned of potential contamination with the herbs - heavy metals, pesticides, etc... My son was so young and I really believed, and still do, that your first rule should be: do no harm. I wasn't convinced the herbs were safe. And while I felt OK taking a risk with myself, I didn't feel OK doing the same with my two-year-old. We then sought to find herbal practitioners that tested the quality of their herbs. We ran through a number of different practitioners - TCM and Ayurvedic - before totally stopping again because nothing seemed to shift my son's immune system. We didn't experience a reduction of symptoms, an increase in tolerated foods, or drop in IgE. But I still believed the answer lay in the world of herbs - and specifically TCM herbs. In 2010 we discovered Dr Li through an Accupuncture Today article. I googled and emailed her directly after reading. In the winter of 2010, we had our first consultation with her. Our goal - to diminish the food allergies - was complicated and delayed by my son's eczema and asthma. We were on and off topical steroids to control the eczema; inhalers to help with the asthma. During our first 6 months we were able to clear the eczema and discontinue topical steroids. Next, we tackled his immune system with Dr. Li's herbs. The goal was to prevent colds and thereby, cold-exacerbated asthma attacks. We achieved this as well. As we moved on to food allergies, we were continually in flux, taking different herbs depending on whether or not he had a cold or asthma issue. In hindsight, I realize that my expectations were too high (I wanted faster results), the protocol was difficult to swallow (around 40-50 pills for my six-year-old daily), and I didn't quite understand the end goal. Thinking through it now I realize that we accomplished a lot, only we weren't progressing at the pace I expected, not driving the IgE down fast enough for this anxious mother.

What is so great about Food Allergies: Traditional Chinese Medicine is that it's helped me reset my expectations by walking me through the mice studies. The initial mice studies of FAHF-1&2 kept the mice on the herbs for 7 weeks. The human equivalent of the two year mouse life span comes out to about 4.8 years. So when Dr. Li advised me to expect a three year time line, she wasn't kidding. (Of course she wasn't, but if I'm famous for anything, it's for missing the obvious and needing to hear information multiple times before allowing my mind to assimilate it.) And so, our herb regimen for food allergies – following the successful regimens for eczema, asthma and colds – was too brief. I now understand that. I've always had a passion for the Eastern way. I've ingested herbal concoctions from my local TCM herbalist for all ailments that have plagued me. Still, to my Western-raised mind, three years seemed so long to be on the same herbs. This book delivered more than a lesson on food allergy, it reminded me that curing food allergies and asthma is about patience and perseverance. I'm convinced we should return to Dr. Li for round two. There's no doubt that she is the best game in town for food allergy.

The real eye openers for me out about FAHF-2 & food allergies were:

That IgG and IgE battle for room on mast cells. Fascinating. I've read that desensitization increases the IgG levels for the specific foods.

That when inducing food allergy in mice, the smaller amount of food administered initially, the stronger the allergy – ie. mice given 5mg of peanut had stronger food allergy than mice given 25mg. Seems counter intuitive – a smaller dose creating a stronger allergic reaction in the long run.

FAHF-2 works on two elements that appear to contribute to food allergy: gut permeability and the immune system. Although it is difficult to separate the gut and the immune system, given that the gut rolls in the immune system. Gut permeability sounds to me very much like "leaky gut." This too is fascinating. Gut permeability definitely plays a role in food allergy. This has always resonated with me. Not sure doctors would agree, but just a few years ago a chiropractor who heard about my son's food allergies said "Oh, he's got leaky gut." She then gave us the supplement glutamine. I don't recall how long we took it. Something to reconsider...

Dr. Li's three year timeline makes much more sense now. Mr. Erhlich cites FAHF-2 studies in which mice took the herbs for 7 weeks. Since mice life spans are about two years, 7 weeks in human time could be about three or more years. I wonder if the time off herbs during which the benefits persisted can also be translated into human years. The mice had protection for several months (sometimes they received a boosting dose of herbs - I'll have to reread) - this could potentially translate to human protection requiring several years. Which would mean one would not necessarily have to take herbs every day for life, one could potentially take them for a solid chunk of time (months/years), then take a break for a solid chunk of time (months/years) and maintain tolerance.

The immune system could be called a zero sum game. IFN-gamma goes up then IgE goes down. IFN-gamma is Th1 - IgE is Th2 - it's a seesaw. This is something that I've known for awhile. And I've used this to skim and drive the particular probiotic strains that I've selected. Not sure how the recently talked about Th17 arm factors into this - will need further reading.

How we started lypospheric vitamin C

2013-12-31T05:51:00.001-08:00

Vitamin C

I posted some here about our use of lypospheric vitamin C here and here. But this post is about how we landed on lypospheric vitamin C to begin with. We wove our way to the lypospheric vitamin c.

Vitamin C and Seasonal Allergies

In the spring of last year (2012) I believe, my son started what had become usual for us each spring - intense nasal congestion. It was spring allergies. He would get so congested that he could not even breath through his nose at night - I spent weeks at a time sleeping with him the previous years and holding him up so that the congestion would drain and he could sleep peacefully. We'd finally succumb to nasal steroids - adding to our steroid burden.

And in 2012 - that is where we were headed. Bear in mind, we'd use the netti daily, zyrtec, stay indoors - but still he would spend about 3 months battling intense nasal congestion that could only be tamed with flonase. So here we were March-ish 2012 and my son was beginning the seasonal stuffies. I let it go for as long as I could and then ordered the nasal steroids. In the meantime, he caught a flu or something that was going around school - so he was out for a week. I decided to start the steroids once he was well again. Towards the end of the week, when I thought he was getting better - he spiked a fever and a really rich cough. This was Saturday night - I decided that we'd last out the weekend and then go into doc on Monday. He had pneumonia when he was 2 - and then some other quasi lung infection thing at 3 (all before asthma diagnosis) - so I was totally afraid he had gotten pneumonia. The cough was intense and the fever relatively high (hovering around 101.9 to 102.5 if I recall). Around 11ish at night, I spooned as much lypospheric c mixed with apple juice as my son would take. I would wake him periodically and give it to him. In the morning, I gave him a gram - and then throughout the day - I think it was every 4 hours or so I'd give him 1 gram.

Needless to say by Monday morning he was fine - fever had broken the day before never to return. The other thing that didn't return was the nasal congestion. So I continued giving my son 1 gram, sometimes 2 grams, daily of lypospheric vitamin C. About 5 months ago, I stopped giving my son a daily gram. He now only takes it when he is sick or sniffly. We'll see how the spring goes - whether or not we need to pulse back on, and what effect, if any, that has.

Vitamin C and IgE

Over the next year and a half we experienced an IgE reduction of 30% (the first 4-6 months) followed by a slow rise again, despite our daily dose. Our IgE experience seems similar to the findings of this article:

Assessment of oral ascorbate in three children with chronic granulomatous disease and defective neutrophil motility over a 2-year period.

This is a fascinating article. The children, all three of whom had elevated IgE levels, experienced an initial drop of IgE in first 6 months - followed by a gradual rise over the next year and a half that they were tracked.

Why does vitamin C (sodium ascorbate in particular) initially reduce IgE? Why does it stop doing that after about 6 months? What organ does it initially effect, that grows tolerant to it?

More food for thought:

The Analysis of Vitamin C Concentration in Organs of Gulo^-/- Mice Upon Vitamin C Withdrawal

An interesting study, keeping in mind that it is mice model. The mice are bred not to produce vitamin C (like humans). But it's interesting read - if only to get a clue to which organs it effects:

According to the report by Harrison et al. (14), vitamin C is preferentially deposited in brain (4~10 mM), adrenal gland (2~10 mM), liver (0.8~1 mM) and cerebrospinal fluids (CSF; 0.2~0.4 mM). However, the reason why such organs contain the high concentration of vitamin C is still largely unknown. Moreover, in vivo kinetics of vitamin C in organs under vitamin C insufficient condition has not been investigated yet.

Baked Milk Muffin 4 Months Out, Probiotics, & Chelation

2013-11-13T11:07:00.000-08:00

Our daily muffin

So it's been a nearly 4 months since our baked milk challenge and up until about 3 weeks ago, getting my son to finish the muffin was a chore. Mainly, he complained that his stomach hurt or his lips itched. I backed all the way down to 1/4 muffin a day, then I would slowly build it back up. Presently, he's at 1 muffin a day. In all fairness I started giving him digestive enzymes with the muffin about 3 weeks ago, which seems to have been the reason I could escalate it back up to 1 whole muffin. I give him the muffin first thing in the morning with breakfast. But just before, I break open a digestive enzyme cap and pour enough out to fill 2 empty vegetarian capsules size number 3 (one of the smallest). He no longer complains of a stomach ache. In fact, he asks for seconds.

The other thing I've been doing lately is giving him a probiotic. I was experimenting with a lactobacillus mix, but stopped because he got eczema flare on inner elbows and backs of knees. I'm not sure if it was coincidence, since pollen was high as well. However, I temporarily stopped. Although, I have been giving him Gerber Soothe Colic Drops which contain l. reuteri. This is the same probiotic as the BioGai, but licensed to Gerber. (Side note, I have purchased online & via pharmacy - and even in pharmacy, they kept it on shelf, not in refrigerator). At any rate, you can read about the BioGaia research here. My son is not an infant, but a 7 year old - soon to be 8. I give him around 10-11 drops a day. The nutritionist at Gerber, with whom I spoke, said that 100 million would be the dosage for both infants and older. However, I've doubled the dose. We'll see because most of the studies are on infants - but I remain hopeful. And it seems to me completely benign.

Our hair test

A couple weeks back, I did a hair test on my son (the results posted here). I dropped the results with our nutritionist, who said she'd look them over and we'd discuss. Although, her first response - was what do these numbers mean? What do the hair results of the general population look like? Isn't everyone exposed and so wouldn't we all have elevated levels. This is something that I don't know the answer to - and if I get a chance, I'll do a follow up call to the lab.

But, the 2 things I've done & decided are - I've stopped getting our camel milk in plastic and instead been getting it in glass. The cost of the milk has gone up with the added shipping weight - but I feel better about it. Also, in preparation for doing the lose dose Andy Cutler low dose chelation, I've started introducing my son to DMSA. The dose has been approx 6mg that I give 1x a day. We are on 4th day today. While I understand this isn't the recommended process, I want to make sure he can tolerate before delivering around the clock. So far, so good. I'll do it 5 days, then this weekend probably start with DMSA.

What turned me onto chelation is 2 things - 1. there are some similarities in the immune issues in kids with autism and allergy - 2. I read a study that linked arsenic to elevated IgE and asthma. This was a study that was done in India or China - and they found with alpha lipoic acid chelation of arsenic, IgE levels dropped as did severity of asthma symptoms. I'll have to look for this abstract again and post link.

Bone Broth Stew

2013-11-02T20:03:00.001-07:00

The hair test results got me thinking about our nutritional status. And while I've been doing some research on mineral supplements, I decided to add foods that boost nutrition as a form of 'food supplementation.' And bone broths are a wonderful way to do that. But as we've crapped up our world and our food it's become more difficult to find clean nutrient dense foods. I've even wondered about organics because if you look at what organics regulate and test for - it's mainly pesticides, herbicides, and gmo - but not things like heavy metal contamination. Hence, the whole aresenic in the rice crap. This isn't something that is normally tested for - and if you look at or think about your water - well I could go on and on. At any rate, my son's hair test inspired me to order a mass of organic bones and meats (fyi, sometimes order can take up to a week, but it is soooooo worth it). And here is our first

Bone Broth with Oxtail and Veggies

bone broth soup. bone broth stew with oxtail and veggies[/caption]

Recipe for bone broth:

3-4 organic beef oxtail
1 med size beef bone
3 quarts of filtered water
splash of organic apple cider vinegar I

put in an Le Creuset pot. I brought just to a boil, then simmered for about 10 hours. Just so that you know the smell is not all that pleasant. You can cook for anywhere from 8-10-48 hours. It really depends on your stamina and cooking set up. My friend did hers for 48 hours in a Slow Cooker The process of handling the bones too - not all that appealing. But it is so worth it, especially when it is cold outside. Strain chum. Then once it's cooled, but before gelled, take out bones and meat. I freeze just the broth and use the meat on oxtail for first soup or stew.

Recipe for soup/stew:

(use organic where available)
1 leek
1 onion
swigs of fresh basil and dill
coconut oil
2 portobella mushrooms
1 cup corn
3-4 small red potatoes
1 cup already cooked basmati rice
salt
pepper

Finely chop leak & onion. Chop mushrooms and potatoes in small cubes. Saute the leak, onion, mushrooms, and potatoes until brown in coconut oil. If you can use butter, that's awesome - but we can't. Once it starts to brown, I added salt and pepper couple shakes. I also used scissors to cut up 2 heads of 5 or so leaves of basil off our plant. Saute all these together until potato starts to soften... about 20 or so minutes. Then add about 2 cups of stock along with 1/2-3/4 cup of filtered water. The stock is so robust, the flavor will fill out. Chop dill and add. Let it simmer about 15 minutes - or so until potatoes are soft. Add rice and oxtail meat. Make sure is all warm and serve. Yum! My son, who is not lover of soup, gobbled it up. He loved it. And he got some great minerals: calcium, magnesium, potassium....

The Baked Milk Challenge

2013-07-16T19:52:00.004-07:00

I substituted light olive oil for the canola oil.

So we passed the baked milk challenge. Yay! I am elated, almost to the point of being numb. I tried tweeting from the hospital - to take myself out of the emotions of it - but alas my cell phone signal was kerplunked. My son had coughed in his sleep the night before, so I was concerned he may have been having an asthma issue. He hadn't had the steroid inhaler for a couple days either. At any rate, they checked pulmonary function and it was fine. We also did not do a skin test, but just jumped in. Our time went somewhat like this.

1:30 at first dose of 10% of 2 muffin full dose (recipe makes 12)
1:50 ish - nurse checked skin, mouth, tongue, lungs, and blood pressure. Second dose - 20%.
2:15 ish - nurse checked vitals again, skin.... good to go for third dose - 30%.
2:35 ish - vital check again... and the final 40% of the 2 muffins.

My son finished about 2:55. Then we sat and waiting for 2 hours. All clear. And without a valium drip for me. The doctor's recommendation is now to eat the full 2 muffin dose 2-3 times a week. My son of course begged me to have a muffin today, so I gave him one. He is fine, thankfully. The follow up to the baked milk challenge, according to my doc is -

First we do the 2 muffin dose at least a couple times a week.
After couple weeks work up to everyday.
After couple weeks/month of that we can do a couple times a day.
Then we can try another recipe but with same dose of milks (powdered & liquid).
After a couple weeks/month then we can try other milk products in baking: sour cream, butter, yogurt, buttermilk... but with the same dose of milk protein.
Then we can consider, if all is tolerated well, trying something like cheese - but it must not be gooey - more like the bubbled/charred cheese on the edge of pizza crust. Couple weeks/months...
Then you move to gooey. If all this is going well, then the next step would be coming in for a liquid milk challenge.

Well at this point, we are happy to have an additional food. But it must be at this point, and all points until gooey - cooked at 375 for at least 20 minutes. From what I've read, the studies about baked milk - under-cooking can be a problematic thing. I think we'll be sticking with the baked milk muffin recipe as is - with it's 20 minutes at 400. I don't love this - well because from what I've read, the browned part of food can be a big contributor of AGE's. But we went through with the challenge, so for now - we're dealing with eating it.

Hercules, Food Allergy, and the Baked Milk Challenge

2013-07-14T21:02:00.002-07:00

BAKED MILK CHALLENGE MUFFINS

My son is learning about the Greek and Roman Gods and myths. And Hercules is one of them. When I thought of Hercules it was - 'super strong muscular dude who slayed mythical dragons, animals, and warriors." Like Yanni on steroids in a loin cloth or something. Boy did I underestimate his journey. Well, and I did not know this until my son introduced me to it. But, Hercules wasn't just some swoony cat living his life randomly encountering adventures, slaying dragons, taming wild lions... He sought these 'beasts' out. He was compelled to carry out his nine labors because he was trying to make amends for having killed his wife and children while under a spell. He was driven, beyond reason, fatigue, fear... to confront and slay these wild creatures.

Ok, but what does he have in common with food allergies?

Well, that's how I feel. All my friends and family are always telling me how I shouldn't/couldn't possibly blame myself for the allergies and asthma that my son battles. But somehow I do. I have running list of 'sins' I committed while pregnant - before I was pregnant - and in my darkest moments I visit this list in my mind. I cannot explain our somewhat 'outlier' status any other way... the number of allergies. The eczema. The asthma. The whole ball of it. I mean, of course there are more and more kids with allergies and asthma, but I feel sometimes so singled out with the sheer number - that surely I must have done something. And it's been this feeling that drives me on - like Hercules - beyond reason, fatigue, fear... beyond my check book... to find some answer to heal my son.... or at least gain new foods, freedoms, hope and ease.

Sigh. Sigh. Deep breath.

As you can tell it's been a bit of a dark feeling time around here. And tensions are high as we near our baked milk challenge scheduled for tomorrow. I was disappointed to find out that my son's IgE level for milk is up to 22 now on the RAST. Total IgE is up to 1400 or so now. We are about 6 weeks off the herbs - and eczema has been plaguing us again. We are up and down on the steroid inhaler - based on whether or not he coughs. Given the new RAST, I was concerned that we were beyond the challenge window now, however the doc says we are still on. After reading this study "Tolerance to extensively heated milk in children with cow's milk allergy" I am also feeling as if our number is still within range. However, I may request a skin prick test. It seems that the size of the wheal would give us a better sense of whether or not he'll pass. Although, part of me feels that even if he fails - there is an upside - my son would know what a reaction feels like. He hasn't had a reaction, thankfully, in a long time. We've had some itchy tongue, itchy lip things, some hives - but our last challenge - soy, was our last reaction. He remembers this reaction. It involved him vomitting and getting pale and somewhat limp. While the doc present at the challenge said it was FPIES, another doc to whom I conveyed the story ipso facto - said it sounded like anaphylaxis. Whichever, that was our second soy challenge. The first one - a year prior - was deemed successful. We left the hospital overjoyed to get a new food. And then midway between the hospital and home, the vomitting and screaming started. Needless to say, we pulled into the ER.

But milk. Milk has been verbotten all along. So we'll see how tomorrow goes. I definitely think that when your child does a challenge, you should be offered an optional valium drip for yourself. I'll take mine straight up please.

On another front on the allergy front - I'll be ordering TSO this week. I have to wait for a check to clear before dinking my account. But I am now solidly convinced that this is worth a go. I'll enter in the quasi paper I sent the allergist - who is on board to treat my son - and issue blood test/skin prick test to help us determine what effect, if any, the TSO is having. Although she would not let us introduce them in the clinic because of liability issues. Not sure yet, how I'll introduce the 15ml vial of 1000 ova (our recommended starting & hopefully maintenance dose). I guess like Herecules, I'll slay that bitch when I get to it.

Also, and for good measure because I tend to be somewhat pessimistic, I have a vision of my son healthfully eating the baked milk muffins. We drive home happy that we have a new food. And I try not to drink each time I feed him this food moving forwards.

Food Allergy Recipes

2013-07-07T13:32:00.002-07:00

Food Allergy Recipes

Camel Milk & Berry Smoothie

Ingredients:

1/2 to 1 pint of camel milk

4-6 frozen organic strawberries

1/4-1/2 cup frozen organic raspberries

1/2-1 tblsp raw honey

1/2 cap full organic vanilla

Put all ingredients into blender or mixer of choice. Blend until smooth.

camel milk smoothie finished

Enjoy!

Pros of this plate:

Camel milk, honey and berries all in one calorie packed smoothie
Looks like a shake - I've traveled with this and blended on location - and given to my son when everyone pulled out the ice cream. In fact, we've gotten many comments that it looks and tastes better than the other ice creams (standard super market stuff) served
Way less sugar than normal ice cream

Cons of this plate:

The one con for us is that my son will cough if it is too cold. Then if it warms too much, he doesn't want to eat it. Oyy! The challenges of striking a balance.

Camel Milk (further reading):

Food allergy herb, lypo C, camel milk and the allergist

Camel milk nutrition

Camel milk for food allergies in children. (While we did not see an effect in food allergy from camel milk, we have seen wonderful wait gain and, I assume, improved nutritional status).

Green Charged Chicken Salad Meal

2 organic chicken breasts (from a whole chicken brined for 24 hours in Himalayan Salt)

1 bunch organic parsley

juice 1 organic lemon

juice 1 organic lime

organic olive oil to taste (I use probably 1/4 - 1/2 cup)

10-14 organic pitted kalamata olives

Finely chop parsley. Chop chicken breast. Thinly slice organic olives. Add in bowl along with juice of lemon and lime, olive oil, and olives. Mix and serve. Makes between 4-6 servings.

As pictured - served with organic crackers and couple kettle chips with organic carrot sticks on a bed of hydroponic romaine & green leaf picked just moments earlier.

Pros of this plate:

Travels well - so it can be eaten for lunch. And it doesn't call too much attention to itself.
Has parsley which is rich in many antioxidants and components that have been found to reduce IgE (not sure about what is critical amount needed) and to act against advanced glycation endproducts or AGEs (can make problems in all sorts of diseases - like asthma, diabetes, kidney disease...).
The obvious other veggies & lemon juice.
Also the parsley is thinly chopped - so if you have a picky eater, the pieces are too small for them to pick them all out.

Cons of this plate:

The chips contain AGE's - by the sheer nature of their production (frying), as do the crackers (baked). Advanced glycation endproducts are a product of high temperature cooking. If it's been crisped or browned - you bet there are AGEs created in it. Sometimes I've used this to make a pasta salad - a better option in avoiding AGEs.

Advanced Glycation Endproducts and Asthma (further reading):

Implication of receptor for advanced glycation end product (RAGE) in pulmonary health and pathophysiology

Advanced Glycation and Lipoxidation End Products–Amplifiers of Inflammation: The Role of Food

Advanced glycation end products and its receptor (RAGE) are increased in patients with COPD

TSO and Food Allergy & Asthma

2013-06-23T20:40:00.001-07:00

We stopped the herbs about 6 weeks ago. And in all fairness, the last months before stopping, our adherence to the protocol was hovering in the 70% approximately. So I really can’t be all that surprised that my son ended up with an asthma issue despite having been on herbs. I think that what happened was that the pollen (being sky-high) along with a cold – gave him a cough that lasted nearly 3 weeks. We upped the inhalers – both emergency & steroid – according to our action plan. We did hydrotherapy. And we started acupuncture & cupping each week. At this point, off herbs, I’ve observed:

the return of eczema (it was creeping back in with our lax herb taking)
a more frequent cough
episodes of hives – to things we’ve “tolerated in past” – such as a vitamin c drink
his skin is more dry (he is constantly licking around his lips, and so he’s got chapped edges below his bottom lip)

And so we are at a turning point. After my most recent conversation with the TCM doc – she suggested we expand the asthma protocol. While I don’t know what the number of pills would be per day, it would add to our already average 30-40 daily pill regimen. While I have the utmost respect and admiration for our practitioner, this plan is daunting. I know because we’ve already had a hard time sticking to it. So adding will make it even more challenging. And I know what it gets us – daily pill swallowing with a parachute. Don’t get me wrong – the parachute is awesome, but I want more for all the effort that goes in it. I want new foods. I want total freedom from inhalers for my son. And so, this approach has moved into second place.

First place is now occupied by helminths. As I’ve mentioned previously, The Epidemic of Absence, was mind blowing. And I think it should be required reading for any practitioner who sees pregnant women or children. I have been fortunate in the last several weeks to have conversations about some of the topics discussed in the book. And this has lead me to TSO or Trichuris Suis Ova or Pig Whipworm.
While I continue to keep necator americanus in my sights – or human hookworm. I am moving forwards with TSO for a variety of reasons – the biggest of which is that you dose every 2 weeks. Therefore there is no guessing if the worms have matured, are still in the intestines, have been somehow eliminated…. you know if you drank the vial you have them in your body. And so, if they work for you (and that is an IF), once you’ve taken your dose you are good to go until your next dose.
While I’ll briefly list some of the positives of hookworm – TSO is where we are most likely headed for now.

Cheaper
No need to redose so frequently
At a certain point, you can probably manage your own re-infection so you are not tied to any provider
The worms take up residence for 12-18 months
There seem to be more studies linking hookworm to allergy symptom relief

I have been working on a “paper” to get my son’s allergist on board. My thinking is that – maybe I’d like to give him the doses in the hospital until I’m sure he can tolerate it. And, I would like to possibly do more challenges. I mean, if the goal is to get more foods – let’s get more foods. But unless his IgE levels drop, that would have to be something done in the hospital as a food challenge. And I’m not sure allergen specific levels will drop – especially given that helminths, as far as I can tell, in general elevate IgE even further. And so if the levels don’t drop – how will I know it is working? Well, we tried out a kung fu place this past week – and my son left the session coughing. In fact, I think it took us about 2 days to fully recover. They have carpet in this place – since they do a lot of throwing, weapon banging, jumping…. and it must be infested with dust mites. This is definitely something we will try on TSO. And if he doesn’t cough – that would be a huge indication that we are getting benefit.

I’ve been thinking about helminths for my son – and I am able to partially wrap my head around the idea that he needs something he doesn’t have. It’s like having a car without coolant or radiator fluid in it and it keeps over heating. The one area that I am still not totally convinced that this is the complete reason – is why are his levels of IgE elevated to begin with? Is it that he came into this world expecting to host? Or is it still something like toxins that are setting his immune system off in the wrong way?

So what is the plan? If we move forwards (which I am deciding now) we will start on 1000 ova/2 weeks. We will know if it is working after the 10th week. That seems to be the sweet spot. And so, we’ll test IgE & do things like go back to the Kung Fu place. If we are not getting a benefit, we will up the dose to 2500 ova/2 weeks. The repeat the same testing after about 10-12 weeks on this protocol.

The obstacle in my decision process is – what does this buy us long term? From what I can tell, you need to stay on this protocol indefinitely in order to experience whatever benefits you get. If you stop, the benefits stop. I’m not sure what this does for us long term – since my son is still relatively young – before puberty – is it possible this will re-educate his immune system? Will this be a gateway for us to detox better with things like alpha lipoic acid (which I think triggers asthma for us right now so I’ve stopped). Will this get us used to a more free life and ultimately we’ll end up exploring the more long term helminths – like necator americanus? Or will it not work at all, and we’ll be back where we are now? What will his IgE levels look like on this therapy – or post if we discontinue? What will his reactivity look like? If we move forwards with this – I will post on these issues/results.

TSO Safety

Now, I won’t dive too deep into the science – but here are the studies and anecdotal reports that give me hope. “Evidence of the safety of TSO is now available for more than 200 subjects enrolled in clinical trials….Overall, the evidence of safety of TSO is strong. The side effects have been absent or mild and spontaneously resolving. TSO has been administered to subjects at risk, such as patients with IBDs receiving immunosuppressants concomitantly with TSO, without any adverse effects. Also, it should be noted that given the frequent presence of T suis in farms and the long history of pig farming all over the world, the absence of report in the medical literature of cases of farmers found to be infected with T suis represents a substantial, although indirect, evidence of safety.”

*1 Trichuris suis ova: Testing a helminth-based therapy as an extension of the hygiene hypothesis Corresponding author: Marie-Hélène Jouvin, MD, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, 330 Brookline Ave, Boston, MA 02215. Jean-Pierre Kinet, MD Division of Allergy and Immunology, Department of Pathology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass. “Conclusions: This new therapy may offer a unique, safe, and efficacious alternative for Crohn’s disease management. These findings also support the premise that natural exposure to helminths such as T suis affords protection from immunological diseases like Crohn’s disease.”

*2 Trichuris suis therapy in Crohn’s disease Gut. 2005 January; 54(1): 87–90. doi: 10.1136/gut.2004.041749 PMCID: PMC1774382 R W Summers,1 D E Elliott,1 J F Urban, Jr,2 R Thompson,1 and J V Weinstock1

TSO Efficacy in food allergy

Bear in mind, there have been no official studies with TSO and food allergy. The one study done with allergic rhinitis dosed the patients every 3 weeks (and the sweet spot seems to be 2), and so it’s lack of findings of efficacy could be a problem of how the dosing was timed. But here are some anecdotal reports that give me hope:

“In our study in adults with peanut or tree nut allergy, the only end point was safety. We assessed some standard allergy markers without knowing whether they would be predictors of TSO efficacy. We observed no significant change in allergen-specific serum IgE levels. There was no change in skin prick test reactivity, except in 1 subject who had a general decrease in reactivity and lost reactivity to peanut, which was the clinically dominant allergen for this subject. Four subjects reported a decrease in seasonal allergies while receiving TSO.”*2

“The story of a boy with autism has raised much interest among parents of autistic children or children with food allergy. This boy had severe autism characterized by self-abuse, agitation, aggression, anxiety, obsessive/compulsive behavior, behavioral rigidity, impulsivity, “stimming” behavior, and extreme sensitivity to external stimuli. He was also allergic to pecan nuts and presented with seasonal allergic rhinitis. At the age of 15 years, he was started on TSO at a dose of 1000 ova every 3 weeks for 26 weeks. No clear effect was observed. The dose was increased to 2500 ova every 2 weeks. After 10 weeks at the higher dose, most of his autism symptoms had improved substantially. His seasonal and food allergies were gone, and he was able to eat pecan cookies without having any reaction. After 2 years, the dose of TSO was reduced to 1600 ova every 2 weeks, and the autism symptoms reappeared. The dose was increased back to 2500 ova every 2 weeks, and the autism symptoms improved again.

He is now 21 years old. He has been on TSO continuously since 2008 and has not experienced any AEs. He is free of repetitive and disruptive behavior and cured of his allergies.” *2

Here is the same story from above – as told by the father of the boy on his website:

“Many people taking TSO for Crohn’s Disease reported losing all their allergies while taking the medication. My son has had seasonal allergies and a life-threatening tree nut allergy his entire life. He has carried an Epi-pen since he was 4 years old and we found out (the hard way) that he had nut allergies. We had him tested and his scores for tree nuts on the blood tests for allergies were off the charts. The few times he has come into contact with nuts the reaction has been swift and severe. These would often be caused not by actually eating a nut, but simply by touching something that was at one time stored next to something with nuts. He once touched an m&m candy that had been in a bag with nuts, then touched his face; his face blew up like a balloon and he almost went into anaphylaxis. Several months into the TSO therapy, my son, for the first time in his life, accidently ate a pecan cookie. Pecans are the nuts that he is most allergic to, both by blood test score and by our experience with him. He had absolutely no reaction of any kind. He has also had no seasonal allergies since he started TSO, something he was always plagued with in previous years. Evidently, the TSO therapy has eliminated my son’s allergies, consistent with the accounts of the Crohn’s patients.” http://autismtso.com/about/allergies/

Alternative Health Documentary

2013-05-01T07:25:00.000-07:00

So my family has been on a healing journey for the past several years. As we have explored, tried, tested, met with, paid for, traveled to... various practitioners, it dawned on me that there are so many stories of success that I had never heard about. So, I decided to start documenting these stories. Here is the trailer for my documentary. Please stay tuned for more to come.

How Did Arsenic Get in My Organic Rice

2013-03-19T20:31:00.000-07:00

I just spent an obscene amount of time sifting through material to purchase a water filter. I wrote about it here, in my post 5 Steps to Find a Water Filter. One of the contaminants that we are looking to remove is arsenic.

There are 2 forms of arsenic
Pentavalent and Trivalent - Pentavalent arsenic is listed as being taken out by most RO filters. Trivalent needs a special filter or free chlorine to convert to the 'easier to filter' pentavalent.

Now what does this have to do with aresenic in rice. Or your organic leafy greens. Or your kid's organic apple juice. WTF. How did this happen?

Well let's think about this a second. I buy a water filter, and so many people do, to filter out arsenic. And it is expensive. But are the farmers growing our food filtering their water for the crops? Probably not. So the food we eat drinks the water we filter - unfiltered. Then we eat the food.

Huh. What's one to do?

We need to go back. We've become so accustomed to this idea of just taking out the things we don't like or don't need - because we can have it 'our way.' That we've forgotten sometimes the best thing to do is not do it to begin with.

There is this looming threat that making industry clean up its filthy act is somehow going to cause an economic meltdown. We'll be out of jobs, have no access to credit, less food, or God forbid - no television. We walk around ignoring, shrugging our shoulders.... 'oh well, I gotta go to work now.... nothing I can do about it.... hey did you see the new iphone...' Not a care in the world. We'll just filter it out of our water.

But there's a huge flaw here. There's a kind of fantastical denial of reality here. It's like the revelry in the city at carnival, in the small, yet hugely populated, city - while the vast land that supports the city is raped to the point of death - where a handful of years later - even those in the city will feel it's suffering. When the poisons of industry have been so thoroughly spread across the Earth that there will be no pristine corner left.

I don't know, I'm on a rant. I go to work too. I work for a man on a quest to get rich at all costs. He doesn't care who he screws - as long as his sports car is shined, his wife quaffed, his kids equiped with the latest gadget. He's a nice guy - you know - he'd buy you a beer and chat you up with jokes. But he will not tolerate anyone playing with his road to riches. He is an industry man. He's the kind of man whose sold us a vision to suit his purpose.

It's sad, but we've been hypnotized into believing that we need all this crap... so much so that we've allowed a handful of pied pipers to lead us like sheep to slaughter. We've handed over the keys to our homes, our children, ourselves - for tech gadgets, sexy handbags, and martini bars.

Health is politics. And until all of us pursuing health, stop looking for ways to undo the damage - and start looking and engaging in ways to stop the damage to begin with - our health will teeter in perpetual turmoil.

So how did arsenic get into your rice? rice milk? rice formula? potatoes? leafy greens? you?

We let them put it there. We sat back, we are sitting back - as we all contribute to our own demise. We're creating a world where future generations may not live longer, or even as long, as past generations. But 'hell,' we say 'at least they lived fast.' Yes, fast, cheap, and out of control. Trading our health and life for cheap disposable shit.

5 Steps to Finding a Water Filter

2013-03-13T09:13:00.001-07:00

First off let me say that this is the beauty of our system. We allow industry and such to pollute our air, water, food - and enable a few to get rich beyond comprehension - while we all then pay to remove what the profiteers put in.... namely poisons. I will try not to get political, but I find that more and more health, food, clean air and water are all political. And sadly, I observe oblivion until faced with the cliff. Meaning, I see so many people just brush it off as 'oh well,' until they have cancer and are getting dropped from their insurance, or blocked from treatments that their insurance won't cover. Then suddenly, they're interested. At any rate, I could go on and on.

The Best Water Filters

Is this even possible. And if it is - where does one begin?

5 Steps to finding a water filter:

1. Review your city or municipality report. Now bear in mind,they only report on chemicals that are mandated by the EPA (politics & health). So you can look at the EPA water regulations here. Here's where when Congress gets together and talks about cutting funding for regulations - to save a handful of jobs and really just a couple fat profiteers - it affects our lives. You will see - and these are just regulated chemicals (here's a list of unregulated chemicals that show up in our water everyday) - a list of effects from exposure include: increased risk of cancer, kidney & liver damage, increased cholesterol, increased blood sugar... Hey do any of these effects sound like the landscape of current chronic and exploding illnesses. But hey, it's the sacrifice we give for 10 jobs and a CEO/owner/shareholder who makes a 6-10 figure salary - untaxed. Seems like a good trade.

2. After you've looked at your city report, I'd also recommend looking at the Environmental Working Group's site - they simplify it visually. They're research is a couple years old - but we all know things are getting worse on that front - not better. So it at least will give you a sense of what the numbers were. Also, I think it's hard when you look at your city report - to take 3ppb (3 parts per billion) as a serious threat until you see that the health limit is 0 or 1 ppb. Bear in mind, if you are anything like me, fix yourself a cocktail before looking, because you will be ANGRY. The one hugely insane aspect is that health limits are usually about 1/10th the legal limit. So you'll probably see a lot of exceeded health limits tests - but no legal ones. 'How can that be?' you ask. What a-hole established a legal limit that is 10x beyond the health limit. Oh, yes all the a-holes we supposedly elected to establish laws that protect our lives. I've pulled an example from Environmental Working Group's site - EWG.org. This chemical is awesome - because the health limit is 0ppb, but the legal limit is 80ppb. Ok, what ass made this regulation!?!?!? Let's hope he's getting his full dose of the crap daily and then some.

The first column is chemical, the second column is average levels found 2/maximum level found underneath, the 3rd column is has the health limit been exceeded (yes/no) and the health limit (here is 0ppb), the 4th column is has the legal limit been exceeded (yes/no) and what is legal limit, last column is test dates (yellow means health limit violation).

Bromodichloromethane

7.38 ppb
12 ppb

Yes
MCLG: 0 ppb

No
80 ppb

3. Now comes the hard part. Figuring out which filters actually take stuff out. Again, this is partly regulatory because thanks to lax legislation there are legal limits of poison. Go figure. But I eventually ended up here, at the NSF site. This is not the National Science Foundation - this foundation is separate. At any rate, they have a searchable, if clumsy and eye-crossingly designed database. You can compare then contaminants and water filter systems.

4. Prepare for mass confusion and more anger. Most of these chemicals are not pronounceable - let alone removable. I was recently disturbed to find that there were health limit violations in our water system for halocetic acids. Which according to the super helpful woman at the NSF International place - some are removed as VOCs and others - well they haven't found a way to effectively remove them. So, you can wipe some of these puppies down, but not all.

5. Prepare to bust your budget. Now, I will not necessarily list which filter I'm going to use - but I can say it's not a 3M or GE product. These are the same cats putting the chemicals in the water. It's genius really, make stuff, pour chems in the water, sell that stuff, fight regulation, and then make & sell filters to take some of the stuff you put in the water back out so people don't fall over and die too soon.

I now understand why Gerson recommends that cancer patients not drink water. Although, I think it's mainly since they are drinking so many juices on his protocol. And he was working nearly 60years ago. But still, it makes sense even more nowadays. Although, lest we forget that same poisonous water is used to water our crops that absorb the contaminants. For me, best solution - don't let industry dump shit into the water in the first place.

I also think that - this does remind me of the Epidemic of Absence book again. Some of the contaminants are biproducts of disinfection. Not that I want antibiotic resistant bacteria in my water, but I'm still less concerned about some bacteria than chemicals.

Anyways, hope this helps. Post your healing adventures.

The Vaccine Debate

2013-03-02T16:26:00.001-08:00

To Vaccinate or Not To Vaccinate? That is the question.

I recently got embroiled in a bit of a vaccine debate. A blog I peruse occassionally posited to debunk the idea that "vaccines cause food allergies." I pointed out that while there aren't any direct cause studies linking vaccines to food allergy - there is enough circumstantial evidence that one must ask questions.
Let me just say that my son, unfortunately, is completely vaccinated. I obediently followed the doctor's recommendations and schedule shooting up my son every month to two months throughout his first year of life and we concurrently strode along the atopic march. I thoroughly regret the decision to, at the very least delay and spread out shots, if not pass the whole thing off altogether. And while I cannot "prove" that the vaccines caused him to have food allergies and asthma, my maternal intuition tells me that it was a signficant contributing factor.

But why? I'm posting below our banter feedback. I've kept it anonymous for a variety of reasons. Most importantly, I feel like "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink." Also, I wanted you to be able to read links and discern for yourself. It's important to examine both sides because for some people it is possible that the current vaccine schedule does work. For our family, I believe, it did more harm than good. We are potentially the outliers and I would suggest that all medicine would be better if things were handled on an individual basis.

Me: If this is second post - disregard. I hit publish and nothing happened. At any rate - here is link
Delay in diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus vaccination is associated with a reduced risk of childhood asthma.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18207561Plus vaccines go into the body without going in through a mucus membrane - there is study that discussed children encountering food first through skin (especially eczematic skin) generating allergic sensitization versus first encountering said food through mouth, throat, stomach route... It is in book Epidemic of Absence (must read in my mind for anyone in allergy circles)I would ask the same of you - can you provide links to peer-reviewed, well constructed study that's been validated by others that proves that skipping vaccines can (probably better word is does) lead to death.I am always open to learning. I am not doctor or med professional - only arm chair scientist. Are you a medical professional? How do you discern whether or not the study is well constructed and valid? I am curious.This is a complicated discussion that polarizes people on both sides. I am always open to learning. In my opinion, vaccines should be evaluated on an individual basis.
Thanks
Denise

Blog I occasionally peruse: Nope. Not getting lured into the vaccine debate. I read four years of vaccine research when my kids were little. The only thing I will say is that I thought of you today when I read this Slate article:http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/02/will_computers_eventually_make_scientific_discoveries_we_can_t_comprehend.html“[W]hen people thought the Earth was flat, they were wrong. When people thought the Earth was spherical, they were wrong. But if you think that thinking the Earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the Earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together.P.S. This is a cohort study that was done a year later than the one you cited. Far more comprehensive; totally different conclusion:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19255024
Me: Not into a debate, just food for thought.There were also doctors recommending smoking in the mid 1900s, and I'm sure opponents of that were hit with "the earth was flat."At any rate, all I'm saying is that it is more complex. And the areas with low vaccination rates have low to no allergies & asthma. Just makes you wonder. I'm sure it's part of a spectrum of modern things that add up into askew immunity.Also, look at infant mortality rates across the globe - significant portion of them are not from the things we vaccinate for. I did.Food for thought.
Another mother poster: I personally do not think that we need to have a new study that shows that skipping vaccines leads to death. We need only look at our history and the many, many people who did die of diseases for which we now have vaccines (and a lower death toll) and look into the world to areas with lower vaccination rates (and higher death tolls).
Anonymous poster: to each their own.
Blog I occasionally peruse: I don't agree with that when there's potential for harm to others. We don't just shrug and say "to each their own" when we're talking about drunk drivers...or smokers...or guns in public places...Texas excluded, of course. ;)

This debate got me thinking. I really do not like talking in generalizations - or regurgitations. I also can't stand with others do it with the conviction that marketers refer to as "drinking the kool-aid." So I briefly read some other resources to look at vaccine rates and infant mortality rates (IMR). I think that it is quite possible, if not probable, that most, if not all, the decrease in IMRs that we credit vaccines for isn't really due to other factors, such as: improved nutrition, sanitation, and access to healthcare when it is needed.
Here is information that I feel supports this argument:
"Infant morality rates regressed against number of vaccine doses routinely given: Is there a biochemical or synergistic toxicity?" This study or retrospective used data through 2009, but it is still signficant. I cannot vouch for its validity - but it is food for thought. I also think it's fascinating

"For example, Gambia requires its infants to receive 22 vaccine
doses during infancy and has a 91%–97% national
vaccine coverage rate, yet its IMR is 68.8. Mongolia
requires 22 vaccine doses during infancy, has a
95%–98% coverage rate, and an IMR of 39.9."

An Epidemic of Absence Part 2

2013-02-05T08:10:00.000-08:00

Ok, so last nights reading kept me up until about 2am. Not just the reading, but the section talking about maternal contributions to children being born allergic. I ruminated to the point of neausea. In a perfect world, where I have powers to see into the future, I would have done:
1 – eaten way more omega-3s
2 – not remodeled, painted, laid new carpet… beautified my home with scents of disease
3 – most importantly, hauled my ass to a small farm and shoveled shit, milked cows, cleaned after pigs & chickens, and frollicked in bacteria and pollen proteins at least every weekend – for the mix of bacteria to hopefully educate, through the placenta, my son’s immune system.
Wow, it would be interesting to see if all this would have helped my son be born less allergic, or dare I even say it, not allergic at all!?!?!?!
So now what?
I’m not finished with the book – so I continue to hold out hopefully for some clue as to my next steps. I am rather hung up on the m.vaccae – and have already hatched a plan to redecorate my home with buckets of various animal dung and slop. Seriously. The plan is to go out to some Amish or organic farms and purchase their animal excrement. Not sure after that. Do I look for microscopic images on the internet to try and identify and hopefully harvest some beneficial fecal animal bacteria? Do I just let us breath it in? Will this help, not help, or make things worse? In the book, Mr Manoff mentions that for some the bacterial exposure after the allergen sensitization has happened, can make things worse – creating an onslaught of defensive alarms. How & what should I do?
I know it sounds crazy – and not to go into too much detail – but it is a bitter pill to swallow that I need to stand idly by and not try anything.
My hatching plan in progress is evolving to include:
low dose chelation & supplementation to support such detox
exposure to educating bacterial (probiotics yes – but most strains I can find with studies backing them are not available on the market. Plus this very laser targeted exposure… not so sure it’s effective). Green acres is the place for me… Farm living is the life I need. Well OK an urban farm mashup focused on poop and mud. If you read the book you’ll see just how significant orofecal infections can be in generating a healthy, robust, and tolerant immune system.
fecal transplant (this is on the radar – not on action plan). We are awaiting our kits from the human gut project – just informational at this point. But definitely something to think on further.
helminths (this too on radar – but not action plan). I’m not sure if this isn’t something that my son would need to decide for himself. Plus if this did graduate to action plan – it is something I’d try for myself first – having raynaud’s and joint issues – both of which point to a whacked out immune system.

An Epidemic of Absence

2013-02-03T21:14:00.001-08:00

So I am reading “An Epidemic of Absence: A New Way of Understanding Allergies and Autoimmune Diseases,” penned by Moises Velasquez-Manoff. At this point, I’m about a third of the way through. The book is truly amazing in its take on the evolution of much of the human immune system. It has, for a brief moment, spun my perspective on the allergies that my son has. It’s as if my son’s body has evolved to negotiate a world that suddenly shifted over the last 50-100 years. As if allergies and asthma were not a disease but a trait developed over millions of years of co-existence with micro-organisms, parasites, bacteria, fungi… and now suddenly they’ve been removed: through hygiene, vaccination, modernity…. What’s briefly refreshing about this perspective is the idea that these things that we have been told are disease, are really beautiful biological partners in maneuvers that have found themselves on the dance floor alone. A sort of “it takes two to tango,” that is now clumsily performed by one. So it’s been nice to have a different glimpse of this stuff that has been my obsession since the diagnosis – as not disease. It’s painted a vision for me that if we lived in the world our bodies have honed themselves over the millenia to expect, one where we were rife with an onslaught of ‘old friends’ as it were… parasites, bacteria and viruses that span TB to polio, it’s completely possible that my son would be the shining example of robust strength & health – as opposed to the kid with the inhaler, benedryl, and epi slung over his shoulder in a carry bag gauging whether or not the pollen level is too high to play outside, or if the person about to shake his hand was recently eating peanuts… Oh the joy this brief glimpse of what could be brings.

The depressing, or disheartening side of things, is that Mr Velasquez-Manoff talks about a window of opportunity for molding or shifting the immune system is most open (he claims only open) during childhood. So the bacterial & parasite partners can only prevent allergy/asthma if they make an appearance in childhood before, or within a tiny time-frame of exposure to, say ragweed or peanuts. And that once we reach adulthood, our immune systems are pretty much set in their ways. Miss this window of youthful malleability and your basically left with managing a skewed immune system.

Now not to go back on my depressing paragraph above, but he then goes on to talk about a bacteria, M. vaccae. This soil & cow dung dwelling inhabitant brought to brief fame by the Stanfords in the early 1970′s supposedly corrected Mrs Stanford’s Raynaud’s syndrome. Better than that though, apparently

“M. Vacae injections helped their daughter’s asthma…”

This is interesting. This affirms, to me, that maybe the immune system is more malleable in adulthood than we think. I mean it cleared up the wife’s autoimmune issue. The other thing that is interesting to me, is that a couple years back I had brought mud from an organic pig farm home for my son to put his hands and feet in – and – well play in. I ended up not doing it for whatever reason. But maybe I was onto something. Maybe I should revisit that idea this summer. At any rate, I’m excited to continue my read and recommend this for anyone interested in asthma, allergies, or autoimmune issues of any kind.

Apple Cider Vinegar Kills Plantar Warts - SERIOUSLY.

2013-01-23T09:55:00.002-08:00

Take it from a woman who spent months - SIX - and money - $800 in copays - and pain - LOTS AND LOTS OF IT - trying to remove plantar warts using the dermatologist.
I seem to subconsciously subscribe to the do everything wrong before I get it right. So I had what I thought was a callous that had been on my foot (the pad below my big toe) for years. Even my mother thought it was a callous (the apple doesn't fall from from the tree). And one day she blurted out "Good grief! Will you buff that thing down already!"
So I did. But then it spread.
I thought wow, that's interesting... I must need to buff harder and longer.
So I did. I buffed so much that it hurt... I thought well no pain no gain.
And within days it grew more and spread to my finger. At this point the bell finally went off.
THIS CAN'T BE A CALLOUS!
At my doctor's appointment I showed it to him.
"That's a plantar wart."
Cut to: the podiatrist who he referred me to.
"Yep that's a plantar wart alright and a big one. What'd you do buff it?"
"No of course not, do you think I'm an idiot?!"
So he cut, scrapped, froze. I requested he do my finger.
"I can't touch your finger, I'm a foot guy. You'll need to see the derm."
Cut to the derm. He could do it ALL.
Cutting. Scraping. Burning. Salcylic acid between cuttings, burnings, scrapings....
And AGONIZING PAIN.
Now I have a high tolerance for pain, but this shit was ridiculous throbbing pain. I hobbled for weeks before needing to return for subsequent floggings.

After 6 months, he barely made a dent in what had become after my buffing escapades a plantar wart that covered the entire ball of my left foot. He did that sighing moaning thing that doctors learn in medschool - the thing that lets you know that you are pushing the bounds of their day to day practice and their mental hard drives are spinning back to med school. And then he stepped out of the room and returned with some syringes.
"Read this."
"What's this?"
"Well clearly what we're doing isn't working. So we'll need to try the next step up. #*%*&(*$&# (that's me forgetting the name of the injections). Read this. I'll be back in a couple minutes and we can just load you up and you can go home. This should do it."
The sheet listed contra-indications and potential side effects of this chemotherapeutic injection.
CHEMOTHERAPY!@!@!@
I now realize that even antibiotics can be considered chemotherapy (chemical therapy - get it), but at that time it seemed to be way to foreboding for my neurotic female woody allen brain.
When he returned I told him I don't want to do this. I need some time to think before committing to those injections in my body.
He assured me it was localized, so not systemic. And the gist of it was - irritate the cells there enough that they wake up and basically assist in annihilating this pesky hpv thing on my foot.
I left the office, thinking well I'll be covered in a callousy plantar wart before I go that chemo injection route.
I went online.

Here's what I tried that didn't work for me:
banana peels
potato slices
duct tape
wiping or soaking in apple cider vinegar

Here's what finally worked for me:
I soaked a piece of cotton, big enough only to cover the warted area in apple cider vinegar, then covered it with bandaid (super large on the foot, medium on the finger) and changed it only 1x every 24 hours. I did not get the area wet... and the cotton could not be so soaking that the bandage would fall off. So there's a bit of a balancing act there.
Needless to say - Day 1 - not much going on. Day 2-7 - intense throbbing pain on my foot up to my knee...and radiating up my finger to my wrist. This pain was so INTENSE and constant that I could not sleep at night and needed to take ibuprofen just to stop from writhing. In about 2 weeks everything was gone - not to return - even now about 3-4 years later.
$8.00 bottle of Braggs Apple Cider Vinegar and $20 for bandages - intense perpetual pain for about 7 days. But totally resolved in 2 weeks.
OR
$800 in copays, hours spent in doctors office, intermittent pain when cutting/burning with residual throbbing for couple hours - only to be progressed up to chem injections with untold side effects, timelines, and more copays.
You decide.

One reco: go for the Braggs - I cannot vouch for any other brand or filtered/pasteurized versions.Curad Extreme Hold Bandages, Assorted Sizes, 30/Box First Aid Knuckle & Fingertip Bandages, Sterilized, 5 of Each, 10 First Aid Patch Bandages, 1-1/2" x 1-1/2", SmartCompliance Refill, 10

How I healed from endometriosis

2013-01-18T14:35:00.001-08:00

I'd like to share about my experience with endometriosis. Since January of 2012, I had been getting pain on my right side. Sometimes it would wake me at night. Over the course of about 7-8 months it cycled up and down growing progressively more present and more painful - to the point of my white knuckling it through varying points of the month.
Of course like any good neurotic with high speed internet, I self-diagnosed - which lead me to worry something fierce, do a half-ass attempt at Gerson, and just become downright miserable. Finally, my friend convinced me to seek medical care. Not having health insurance, I went to the doctor I had seen prior to being uninsured.

She did a pelvic exam and told me, "there's nothing wrong with you. Don't drink milk."
"I don't drink milk."
"Good."
"I mean my son drinks camel milk and occassionally, I take a sip."
"What! Why? Don't drink that. It' is probably bothering your intestines."
"Shouldn't you do an ultrasound to make sure it's not my ovaries."
"No. First stop milk. Then come back if you still have the pain. Then we'll discuss an ultrasound."
Yikes.

Back to pain - day in and day out.
I went to my herbalist and she gave me a mix. It would make the pain go away, but then return again. So basically if I stopped, blamo - back to pain.

I felt like I was getting nowhere. So I went to the government hospital and got an ultrasound. They told me there was an enlarged follicle. One doctor called it a cyst - another - not a cyst.
Come back in 4-6 months to check again.
In the meantime, obsessed with this pain, worried... it felt like I had a lemon in my abdomen when I would sit down. I was convinced of the worst.
In my obsessive reading, I came across studies about ginger having cancer-killing properties - especially with ovarian cancer. It was also shown to work to assist chemo for patients doing both. In desperation, I blended a thumb size piece of ginger in some apple juice and slugged it down. This is going to sound unbelievable, but within about 20-30 minutes, my pelvis felt warm... and then the pain subsided... better than an ibuprofen. I did it several days and then stopped. At the first sign of pain, I would ginger again for a day or two. I would say it took about 2-3 weeks for the pain to completely go away.
Upon returning for my second ultrasound my ovaries were clear. The doctor I met with this time, said that given the pain, and the enlarged follicle at the beginning - she would say I had endometriosis. She gave me a script for birth control pills and sent me on my way.
I have not had the ginger drink in about 2 months. I have a tinge of pain returning, so I'll be blending up the powerful concoction this weekend.

Again, I'm not a doc - just someone looking for ways to take control of my own healing. I'll take a couple ginger shakes over birth control pills for now.

Articles that inspired my regimen
Ginger kills ovarian cancer cells
Cytotoxic effects of dried ginger in mouse model
Ginger inhibits cell growth of cancer
Ginger's anti-inflammatory effects

Reducing IGE levels for food allergy and asthma

2012-12-27T05:00:00.001-08:00

This posting is from 2012 - to read the most recent update (May 2015) read my article "Reducing IGE Levels for Food Allergies and Asthma Update" We've made much progress (knock on wood) and had much learning since this original posting!

So we had a 6 month follow up with the allergist after my other post on lowering IGE levels. I'll open with what I think is the core of her, and all the other allergists I've seen, approach... "...Well I don't think there's any use in tracking that with my asthma patients. I just don't see how that could be of any value in my management of their asthma." Now I'm paraphrasing, but in a nutshell that is what she said to my question regarding the connection between elevated cholesterol and liver function and asthma and the studies that show a link between the two... and how people with liver disease (not saying we have it) can have elevated IGE levels because b-cells can be differentiated into IGE antibodies in the LIVER and taking steps to detox the liver and improve its function can lower IGE levels....

Silence.

(I should add that years back my son had a cholesterol test - standard blood draw panel from the chiropractor that we went to see - and it was slightly elevated - at the time he was in the 25% for weight).

Look, I'll be the first to admit it. I did not go to medical school. I read and think about lowering my son's IGE levels and healing him... maybe a bit too much. And, I've turned my life upside down on this quest. But it doesn't mean that I'm not onto something.

Then she followed up the earlier statement with a chuckle and a "It's not like I'm a hepatologist. Why don't you talk to your pediatrician about that." Not too go off on a total rant, but it's amazing to me how we can discuss in the corporate world the idea that "silos" are bad - that is the disconnect between departments in a structure or group that is trying to achieve a common goal. It makes for redundant and sometimes counter-effective efforts, major opportunities for screw ups, and it just sucks resources out when smaller efforts would be equally if not more effective - if there was just productive cross communication between departments. So why have we allowed our health care to be silo'ed - oh sorry, I just woke up - profits.

Ok enough of a rant. I think I made my point. And this experience further affirms for me the need to really see most doctors as tools. Not that they are stupid or bad - but ultimately you as a patient on the pursuit of health need to recognize that you must consult the professionals and then go off and do your own due diligence before just taking their word for what is best. Doctors ultimately, the majority of them at least, are, as my allergist above so eloquently put it, in the the field of disease and illness "management." Do not expect them to heal you.

But back to our IGE update. So status as of this visit (and I'm working on a graph):
IGE back up to 1165 from 1072 in June
Asthma issue not so good - could be from cold but also tells me I'm not doing my best - back to flovent 1 puff 2 times a day, and when he has a cold - 2 puffs 2 times a day.
Boo.

Skin test for avocado negative - so we are super slowly - in an effort to manage my anxiety with the process - going to introduce over the next couple weeks. My son, who is nursing cold, was so excited at the prospect of a new food that he begged me to give him some when we got home. I, of course in total neurotic me fashion, gave him a small dot of a smidge on the tip of one fork prong.

We can focus less on weight gain - my son is in the 60% (this time last year 25-50%) for his age and weight. Now I can pull back on the carbs and push more veggies (which I have always done - but before I've let him eat more carbs just for calories). I think this weight gain is about the camel milk. He has gained nearly 10 pounds over the last 12 months - in comparison to a 2-3 pound weight gain in years prior.

Now what does the above mean moving forwards?

Well I am scheduled to speak with herbalist in the next 2 weeks. I want to discuss modifying our protocol - I really don't feel like I am getting a payoff for the efforts it takes to get him to swallow the 28 or so (not counting vitamins) capsules a day. I feel like after 1.5 years, we'd see more improvement - even with our not so great compliance these last couple months. I've read about some other herbs that have been shown to be much more potently IGE decreasing.

I feel like we've experienced the IGE curve they discussed in the study where they used 1 gram of sodium ascorbate with some children who had elevated IGE levels and other issues as well - but basically within the first 6 months, IGE levels dropped only to slowly rise back up to they began over the following 1.5 years.

I am examining some probiotic options - of course the strains that I can find that are linked to reducing IGE levels - are currently in mixtures grown on and containing traces of dairy - still verbotten.

This next year will be about the liver - I have a theory about my son. My theory is this - he got completely thrown out of whack with the antibiotics in the first moments of his life - so his flora got totally set off in the wrong direction. Then, and this is before that, I believe that in the womb or somewhere after, his liver became loaded with toxins. I don't want to go into too much self beating here - but I just was not the most thoughtful pregnant woman - dietwise, home remodeling-wise... just not thoughtful. Also, I do believe that all the vaccines added fuel to this combo and that coupled with a possible propensity for IGE production (his father has allergies to cats and possibly eggs) made for a perfect storm. And now it's my job to make it right.

So back to the liver - 2013 - the year of liver detox. The only thing is slow - because as Dr. Levy said in a speech I saw - "Detoxification can be retoxification." So I'm not sure yet how to approach this - beyond I've read about some supplements and vitamins I'm exploring.

Bring back the veggie juice campaign. I'm going to reinstate the veggie juice efforts with my son to get his antioxidant capacity boosted. Important all around - especially for asthma. I may break out the blender or other modern day device to overcome the obstacle of cleaning my juicer after each use. Another 2013 push - something is better than nothing perfect. IE, blender usage for juicing or smaller juicer - for me better than not doing it because I don't have time or energy to haul out my big juicer.

Bring back kung fu - we stopped going to kung fu in the summer because the teacher we were studying under kind of went over the deep end. I've found another school I'm happy with - but it involves a drive and $150/month. I think though now, that part of what made his pft test better in June was all the nutritional efforts, the first 6 month boost of vit C, and kung fu.

Links to articles that inspired above:

Sodium ascorbate and IGE
Cholesterol and asthma
Liver and IGE
Liver X receptors control IGE expression in B cells
Increase antioxidant capacity with fruit and vegetable consumption
Antioxidant capacity and pulmonary function

MRSA boil topical approach

2012-12-10T19:51:00.004-08:00

I recently met someone who had also battled MRSA. It never ceases to amaze me how all over it is. In fact, I am more convinced that the majority of people (if they've ever been in a hospital) are carriers. I remember the nurse at the infectious disease doc telling me that she believed the majority of health care workers are carriers as well.

It's interesting because while we were traveling, I had to take my son to the urgent care facilities due to a spiking fever (101 - 103.6) and rich cough for - well - the entire duration of the trip. When I finally took him in - the doctor there gave us 3 antibiotics - oral, for my son's eye (because I mentioned that he had some eye crust the day before), and ear (because the doc thought his ear was looking like it may be starting an infection).

When I asked what these were for - he said bronchitis. I asked - "What if it's viral?" He responded "If it was my son, I'd give him the antibiotics," with an air that seemed to scream "DUH LADY - Just do what I say OK!" We also had an issue with the asthma - so he recommended upping the flovent (which we did). Upping the flovent was all we did - for several reasons. But it struck me - that in this day and age - I wonder if antibiotics should be given at all without doing some sort of sputum testing or something. I mean - how can you know whether or not the medicine will work for whatever particular bacteria it is you think you're fighting. I think this guy was really just old school - but having the MRSA experience really gave me a weariness for antibiotics. Of course, they need to be in the arsenal - but as a last - last - last resort - and once susceptibility testing has been done.

For my son, I upped vitamin C, gave him extra zinc (about 10 mgs), magnesium, cod liver oil, a concoction of honey, acv, and water (which he hated but drank), AND our Qigong teacher gave him an intense massage for about 45 minutes. After that, he fell asleep for a couple hours. (I must disclose that he had taken a dose of benedryl an hour earlier, which makes him sleepy) - but after he awoke a couple hours later, the fever did not return and the cough died down.

Upon our return home, we did a session of hydrotherapy - and all was once again good in the world.

But back to the woman I met. Apparently, she had MRSA on her leg - done the oral antibiotic thing - and it kept returning. She told me that she had recently gotten a small boil on her leg again - and she took this topical gel called tecnu first aid gel (formerly known as Staphseptic - but re-branded because the FDA was after them for marketing that it killed MRSA - which according to my acquaintance it actually did do) put a glob onto the boil - then with a needle she scrapped the boil until it started to bleed. Using cotton swabs, she squeezed out all the pus - constantly reapplying the gel to make sure that it was always covered. Until, she had basically bled it out. Yet more gel and She claimed that by the next day - it was well on its way to healing. Amazing. According to her, the tecnu gel must get into the wound - she couldn't just put it on the boil and it would make it go away - that is why she bled it.

Now I am not recommending you do this - just sharing someone's experience.

I mentioned vitamin C additionally to her. From my experience, I needed the battle won internally - but maybe as a 1-2 - tecnu gel and vitamin C could work together.

Update

Tecnu contains benzethonium chloride - not so in love with this chemical. See safety sheet here.
Just something to be aware of.

Guo Lin Qi Gong for Cancer and Chronic Illness

2012-11-30T14:39:00.002-08:00

It's taken me about a week to recover from the trip to meet the Guo Lin Qigong master and learn the practice. It was a rather intense trip.

There is so much to discuss here - this post will briefly cover a little about the people who we met and some of the general principals and ideas of the practice. I got to do some interviews and am working to have those up at some point.

What is Qigong?

A many thousand year old Chinese practice that involves coordinated and relaxed breath and movements. Qigong is about building Qi - or life force - or prana - or vital energy.
Guo Lin Qigong is the only form of Qigong that involves a walking exercise... in fact, a large part of the practice is walking.
Guo Lin Qigong (and I would imagine other forms as well) are about gathering and building energy, as opposed to exercise which expels and uses energy. I feel more energized after practice, not in the same way as the initial buzz after regular exercise, it's more gentle and long lasting.

Guo Lin Qigong is a specific practice that was created by Master Guo Lin to cure herself of terminal cancer. The inheritress of Taoist texts and lineage, she practiced Qigong but did not find that it helped her as her cancer progressed. However, she was convinced that there were Qigong exercises that would, and so she went back to ancient texts and created what is known as Guo Lin Qigong.   Master Guo Lin went on to live another 30 plus years, ultimately dying of a stroke.   She worked up to the end.

Cut to our Master Sun.   Master Sun too was diagnosed with breast cancer in her mid-forties. She had her breasts removed and did chemo and radiation. I am not sure how much later, but the cancer returned and had metastisized into her lungs.   The surgeons opened her up and then immediately closed her, telling her there was nothing they could do. She was given a death sentence and sent home. She and her husband found Guo Lin Qigong through an article they read. And immediately Master Sun began to practice. I am not sure what herbs or diets she also took on, but I do know that Master Sun frowns upon sugar and too many carbs or meats.

From there Master Sun joined a group and began to practice, I believe 3 hours a day. Six or so years later, she sought out Master Guo Lin to learn directly from her.   Master Sun continues to this day, 30 plus years later to practice at least an hour a day and is, and has been for more than 2 decades, cancer free.

To be able to personally be taught by someone of Master Sun's history and lineage was an honor.

I met several other members of Master Sun's group. Some starting out on their journey like a stage 4 kidney cancer patient who experienced a 40% reduction in the size of his tumor after practicing for about a couple months (but also he is taking a drug designed to halt the growth of the tumor - I say that because although the drug was not known to shrink tumors I just feel it's fair to share this info), a young esophageal cancer patient (he did surgery, chemo and radiation and was about four months into his journey), a man who had cancer of the tracea about 10 years prior (he did chemo and surgery as well, but said his practice helped him speed recover and gather more energy) .... other members I did not meet - like a woman who had sixteen years prior been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer who was beyond the bounds of medicine and so did not do chemo, radiation, or surgery (it took her nearly 8 years, as the tumors shrunk and then calcified, to be completely cancer free).

Master Sun taught us the level one exercises for the health issues I mention in a previous post.
Guo Lin Qigong Lesson.

Our practice schedules are intensive - and it is recommended that we practice an hour a day outdoors in fresh air under the sun. This so far, has not been possible. However, I do know that when I practiced with Master Sun, I felt better. So now my mission is to integrate that into our daily lives - a challenge that I will patiently and persistently work on.

Beyond Food Allergies, Allergies, and Asthma - or Why I can't stop thinking about giving my son worms

2012-11-30T11:54:00.002-08:00

Anyone who lives with food allergies and/or asthma knows - it can really make life, regular life, school life, travel life, social life... challenging. Depending on the severity and the number of food allergies, for example, it can make eating out frightening, if not impossible. Doing things spontaneously, or longer than planned, can be problematic if you have to get home to prepare food that is safe. You just can stay later and then catch a bite on the way home. Distances traveled, and the amount of time you can be somewhere, are dictated by the proximity and access to safe foods and emergency medical care if needed.

This has been our life for the past 7 years. My son has yet to eat the food in a restaurant (not that most food is something so palatable that I bemoan it's absence, but...). I've flown with him once, when he was about 5 months old and "food allergies" wasn't yet part of our vocabulary. We've missed parties, playdates, events, trips.... all because of food. Well, food, fear of food, and then my own fatigue at somehow coordinating these things safely and prepping something that he'd actually eat - which sometimes just becomes too much for me - so I cheap out and we avoid. I'm not proud of this - but I am doing the best that I can.

Enter: an article of interest

There is a health group that I belong to from whom I get frequent emails. Always interesting, sometimes impressively informative, and just persistently present. One day I got an email "Article of Interest." These are the emails I wait for. They are usually relevant publications with scientific backing that add to my arsenal of information.

And so I opened it, and clicked Men's Health: The New, Ancient Cure for Immune Disorders.
The article is a tear jerking (for me and others living with food allergy) and fantasy provoking story about two separate individuals, who for health reasons (one life threatening food allergies and asphyxiating asthma, the other for debilitating Crohns), allow themselves to be infected with helminths... worms... parasites.

"Yuk," my mother gagged as I read this to her in between my son's music classes. "Why would anyone want to do that?"

Good question. So I thought about it. Why would anyone want to do that? Why would we maybe want to do that?

Let's go back to the article for a moment. In it, a man, Bear C he is called, the one with the food allergies and asthma, the one who previously would be thrust into anaphylaxis if he ate a peanut... that one - mistakenly eats half a bag of potato chips fried in peanut oil. Upon realizing this - what do you think he does - of course, I must reveal at this point that he is hosting a tapeworm - does he panic and call 911? Inject himself? Die?

None of the above. He finishes said bag.

That's where I wanted to cry. Not that I'd necessarily feel comfortable enough, even if my son was hosting a tapeworm, to give him peanut products - but the fact that he lived. That his immune system was quiet while he enjoyed, and after he enjoyed, these chips.... that's where the joy is.

Why would anyone want to host worms? Why would we want to host worms?

I can imagine eating out. I can imagine traveling. Not even traveling, I can imagine going to a party with my son, and not having to huddle and hide from the food table... not have to ask everyone before we shake their hand, they touch him... What did you eat? Can you go wash your hands? Take flack from disgruntled parents who just don't get why they can't send their kid on the field trip with a peanut butter sandwich. Worry about spilled milk. Buy bread baked at a bakery without worrying about sesames or eggs. Eat grapes and melon in the spring without itchy lips and mouth. Work more since I could send my son to school with a safe lunch that he would actually eat. Be a part of more things. Travel and stay in hotels and areas without worrying about an asthma attack, or where the ER is, or why he just coughed.

I know that we are currently committed to our protocol - but I can't get those worms out of my mind. It's like being in a serious relationship and just wanting the guy in the next cube so badly, you can't even focus on your work. Well - a bit like that.

It's actually better. Freeing my son of food allergies and asthma, would be the best thing I could even imagine. Nay, it will be amazing and I can't wait.

Guo Lin QiGong Lessons and Traveling with Food Allergies and Asthma

2012-11-15T19:28:00.001-08:00

So we are preparing to travel to see the Master and learn the Guo Lin QiGong. While the fundamentals of each of our exercises will be the same (myself, my son, and my mother), the Master has prescribed some different exercises for each of our ailments.

Our goals for learning are:

My Mother
Normalize her high blood pressure
Get rid of chronic cough that plagues her
Stop and possibly reverse the progression of rheumatoid arthritis
Address her hypothyroidism

Mine
prevent cancer
heal the painful ovarian cysts that I have been having in the last several months
improve my digestion and reflux
gain more energy
and also - I'd like to strengthen my kidneys

My Son's
Heal the food allergies and asthma
Address the issue that makes him sweat most nights (it is not uncommon for me to change his shirt in the middle of the night because he's wet with sweat - not soaking, but wet). His father had a sweat during sleep issue, but according to Chinese Medicine, this causes him to lose much energy - so we will be addressing.
Heal the food allergies and asthma

Of course in total pre-trip chaos, my son woke, after nighttime coughing, this morning with a red pussy eye, cough, and now he's got a little fever. Lovely. Trying to break through this before we set out on our journey. Giving 3-4 grams vit C every 24 hours, along with quercenase (quercetin and bromelain), an additional supp with zinc, magnesium, cod liver oil - sheesh.

Another issue - or stress rather - is food. Of course, we are driving about 12 hours - so I will be feeding my son on the road because we cannot eat any of the food on route. But then we will need to either consume or dump and fruits and vegetables before we hit the border, since they will not be allowed to cross with us. So our target, before even the hotel, will be the nearest organic stocked market so that we can stock up on what we could not bring. We will, as I've been instructed by Canadian Border Department, be able to cross with our dried packaged goods, possibly some of our meat, and hopefully some bottled things like tomato sauce... little things that I am not sure I'd be able to get at another store.

We have a suite with kitchen - thankfully - this trip will not entail cooking on my electric double burner. I sprang for the extra money because I felt like there's already so much to deal with - having to worry about getting kicked out of the hotel because of our vagabond cooking - would put me over the edge. Especially since I'll be baking bread in the slow cooker (which I'm bringing).

One of our trips to New York city was somewhat awful because we got trapped in a fancy hotel in Manhattan, that basically said I could not cook in the room because they not only had smoke detectors but heat sensors directly wired to the fire department. So we were stuck with only a microwave - needless to say my son lived practically on our only safe bagels for about 24 hours - until we could high tail it out of town.

Here is our usual food allergy travel set-up - usually the less expensive motels are best for this set-up - but those hotels can also suck for asthma issues. So now we're kind of middle-brow - hoping that the room is not too dustmite infested. At any rate, some images from one of our trips - our cooking for food allergy set up.

Traveling with Food Allergy pots, pans, dishes

Traveling with Food Allergy - cooking on the double electric burners.

Traveling with Food Allergy - nothing worse than washing your veggies in tiny motel sink.

Traveling with Food Allergy - open the windows so we don't set off alarm

Traveling with Food Allergy - cramming tiny fridge with food.


Traveling with Food Allergy - I once roasted a lamb shank in a motel bathroom just like this.

Ginger and my Ovaries

2012-11-11T20:22:00.002-08:00

The pain started back in January of 2012. And honestly at first I thought it was a gas issue. Nothing pretty to discuss there - but it was what I thought. At the time also I was beginning Bu Zhong Yi Qi Tang - which according to my herbalist can cause some intestinal distress. So I shrugged it off.

Well months moved forward until the pain was totally taking me over. I could not sleep on my right side because the weight of my own body on that side hurt. It was a constant pain that woke me from sleep and followed me everywhere. There were many instances where I would white knuckle it through until it subsided. I didn't have insurance. But in desperation, I went to the doctor, a primary care physician, who took my money and then sent me home telling me to avoid dairy (which I told her I did). Needless to say, I ended up in the ER in August.

An ultra sound reported an enlarged follicle and ovary on my right side. Crap that hurts.

I have drank apple cider vinegar, been taking Chinese herbs on and off, taking magnesium... The pain has gone down significantly, but not all the way. After my period ends the pain starts again. Less, but still there. Of course the obsessive worrier and researcher that I am, I found some interesting research with iodine and ginger.

Currently, I take (about 3 days a week) 5 drops of lugols and I've been blending about an inch of ginger root with some apple/carrot juice. This is an intense combo. I did that 3 times this week and it brought the pain down further. I took 3 days off, and I'll start again tomorrow. The pain is still there, but greatly diminished - plus I'm just so damn sensitive to that area now - it makes me aware of every little ache.

I'll see how this week goes. Ginger is a powerful herb and not something that I will take daily - there are many studies that show it has anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, anti-bacterial, anti-viral properties - but side effects can also be things like it thins the blood, has in mouse studies been linked to bone loss and reduced testicle size (not that I am concerned about that)... But I am taking a log. Bottom line it has helped change something inside my body to quell the ovarian pain. I guess I'll see what that means when I return for an ultrasound at the end of this month. Until then I plan on doing the intense ginger and iodine regime 2-3 days a week until all the pain is gone.

healthyself

R-Lipoic Acid - A Panacea For Health & Anti-Aging?

R-Lipoic Acid: A Panacea For Health & Anti-Aging?

My Quest For the Best Vitamins for Asthma and Allergies

1. Aged Black Garlic Extracts

Buy Aged Black Garlic, Aged Garlic with Mushroom Extracts

2. Active Hexose Correlated Compound (AHCC)

Buy Active Hexose Correlated Compound (AHCC)

3. Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA)

"Alpha-Lipoic acid inhibits airway inflammation and hyperresponsiveness in a mouse model of asthma"

Buy Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA)

4. Apigenin

Buy Apigenin

5. D-pinitol

Buy D-pinitol

6. Drumming

7. Magnesium

Buy magnesium

8. Magnolia Flower and Gypsum Combination (Shin'iseihaito)

9. Melatonin

Buy Melatonin (synthesized in lab - not animal brain derived).

10. Plant sterols, stanols, and sterolins

Buy Plant Sterol and Sterolin Supplement

Buy Beta-sitosterol

11. Probiotic: HKLP-137 (Heat Killed Lactobacillus Plantarum 137) aka Immuno-LP 20

Buy Immuno-LP 20

12. Probiotic: Lactobacillus Casei Shirota (in the states only found in Yakult)

13. Probiotic: Bifidobacterium Lactis HN019

Buy B. Lactis HN019 mixed with L. Rhamnosus HN001

14. Probiotic: Lactobacillus Rhamnosus HN001

Buy B. Lactis HN019 mixed with L. Rhamnosus HN001

15. Rice Bran Exo-biopolymer, RBEP - known to contain arabinoxylan

Buy Enzymatically Modified Rice Bran

Buy Rice Bran Arabinoxylan Compound (We've taken this one. Again, we did not take blood work. So it's hard to tell if it had an effect. We are considering returning to this supplement.)

16. Selenium

Buy Selenium

Buy the Selenium we take in trace minerals

17. Sodium Ascorbate (a form of Vitamin C)

Buy Sodium Ascorbate as lypo-spheric

18. Sulforaphane

Buy broccoli sprout extract

Buy seeds to sprout

19. Vitamin D

20. Whey

Further reading for the interested

Chinese Herbs: Asthma & Food Allergies (Q&A with Dr Xiu-Min Li)

Traditional Chinese Medicine For Food Allergies: Kicking Allergy's Ass With Ancient Herbs

FAHF-2 could be the closest thing to a cure for food allergies out there.

What is a cure?

In my opinion: tolerance.

Food Allergies: Traditional Chinese Medicine is short - but dense with info.

Our Time on Chinese Herbs

Herbs for food allergies and asthma

The real eye openers for me out about FAHF-2 & food allergies were:

How we started lypospheric vitamin C

Vitamin C

Vitamin C and Seasonal Allergies

Vitamin C and IgE

Assessment of oral ascorbate in three children with chronic granulomatous disease and defective neutrophil motility over a 2-year period.

The Analysis of Vitamin C Concentration in Organs of Gulo-/- Mice Upon Vitamin C Withdrawal

Baked Milk Muffin 4 Months Out, Probiotics, & Chelation

Our daily muffin

Our hair test

Bone Broth Stew

Recipe for bone broth:

Recipe for soup/stew:

The Baked Milk Challenge

Hercules, Food Allergy, and the Baked Milk Challenge

Ok, but what does he have in common with food allergies?

Sigh. Sigh. Deep breath.

Food Allergy Recipes

Food Allergy Recipes

Camel Milk & Berry Smoothie

Pros of this plate:

Cons of this plate:

Camel Milk (further reading):

Green Charged Chicken Salad Meal

Pros of this plate:

Cons of this plate:

Advanced Glycation Endproducts and Asthma (further reading):

The Analysis of Vitamin C Concentration in Organs of Gulo^-/- Mice Upon Vitamin C Withdrawal