Good Eats: Blood Cleansing Foods

Some of the best Blood Cleansing Whole Foods!

• Aloe - the gelatin absorbs toxins
• Apples - the pectin removes heavy metals
• Avocado - antifungal
• Beets
• Blueberry
• Celery & celery seed
• Cranberry
• Cabbage
• Dandelion Greens
• Flax
• Garlic
• Grapefruit (awesome, but interacts with over 80 medications!)
• Kale
• Lemon - balances Ph
• Seaweed - the gelatin absorbs toxins
• Watercress
• Wheatgrass - oxyginates your blood

Herbs

• Basil - antifungal
• Cilantro - removes heavy metals mercury
• Parsley - removes mercury
• Oregano - antifungal

Top 15 Cleansing Foods:
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/top-15-cleansing-foods.html?page=1

Blood Purification:
http://www.squidoo.com/purifyblood_removetoxins

Follow up: Naturopath

Had my follow with my naturopath the in March.

Blood labs are all decent despite the prednisone. No Lyme, thyroid in check. All pretty good, all normal, except low in vitamin D.

Hair analysis shows interesting statics:
• Slightly high in environmental toxins: antimony, barium and lead. Nothing too alarming, but of note.
• Very low in potassium, selenium, manganese, chromium and lithium.

She recommended I eat specific foods : Bananas, bone broth, mushrooms, garlic. Coincidentally these have been the foods I've been craving and blogging about. (Queue Twillight Zone music here). Am I actually listening to my body??

• Potassium - bananas
• Selenium - mushrooms
• Chromium - bone broth

But the fact that I'm so low in nutrietns means that I'm not digesting properly.

AutoImm Science: not clean eats

Here's a wee bit science on MG, irritants & eating clean and common not-clean foods.
Decaf: Caffeine is a acetychloine-easterase inhibihitor (just like mestion). Caffeine irritates the digestive track. Water process decaf still has a small amount of caffeine. Non- Swiss water process decaf is decaffeinated by chemicals also an irritant to intestinal lining.

Nuts: Some people have actual nut allergies, but most people with auto immune issues have a hard time digesting nuts due to their high phytic acid levels. Phytic acid irritants the digestive track which then lets proteins,bacteria & such leak into you blood. Your immune system doesn't like foreign proteins, etc in your blood (think mad cow) so it attacks. Re triggering your auto-immune response.

So while decaf is a quick jolt to make a muscle talk to your nerves for a brief moment, drinking the decaf just possibly re-scratched your autoimmune response. Once the threshold is hit-BAM relapse!

The theory to eat "clean" is to not irritate the digestive track, not let protein leak into your blood, & finally let your intestinal lining heal. Hopefully eventually putting you into remission.

I am discovering that hot spices (nightshades-paprika, cayenne, chili)) and refined salts are two major irritants for me. Sneaky buggers are in everything-especially refined salts! Can't realistically eat out without getting a heap-full.

Good Eats: eat/drink clean

Well 9 weeks of bad eyes, weird facial expressions. Pretty much blows! Over it.

Have decided to cleanse my blood with food. Figuring the simplest way to purify and change my blood is to purify my food. Started eating clean (only veggies, fruit and poached salmon, no spices) for 3 days and my vision has majorly improved. I'm convinced that I'm on to something.

My thoughts are about a major juice cleanse. Hoping to start on the weekend. Need to get doctor clearance.

Med Alert: CellCept

Laughing & Crying: Started CellCept yesterday and got a 5 day rocket boost of prednisone to help restore the bum eyes. After 12 days of very non-existent vision, I was decent enough to drive to work today.

So I packed my vegan paleo dandelion banana MCT oil coconut oil flaxseed smoothy, popped my handful of meds (pred, mest & CellCept), and jumped into my moto.

Well, yup.... it seams so obvious now!!!

I was seriously luckily to snag a unprecedentedly close parking spot (still 3 blocks from my office in heels) and did the fast two step to the closest office loo. Jacked up on a double dose of prednisone, sweating like a rabid Hunter S Thompson character, wearing unusually large black Gucci yet Ray Charles-esque prescriptive eyewear, dragging a duffle of healthy lunch, fruits, filtered water & briefcase of i'm-back-from-the-vacation-from-hell papers, I MADE IT. Barely!!! Phew!!!!! God damn. That was close. Repeat several times till noon.

Apparently (as per ehow to avoid diarreha from CellCept) when initiating CellCept, it is advisable to start with a meal that is low in fat or oils and avoid high fiber foods!!! Once you adjust you can then follow the label instructions and take on an empty stomach.

I'm always the last to know..... Always the last.

Oddly, the only major comment I received was that I was "wearing those shade again".

Go figure.

AutoPaleo: to egg or not to egg

I've never had issues with eggs, so why are they making me feel worse now? Here is a great article about eggs for those with autoimmune issues:

The WHYs behind the Autoimmune Protocol: Eggs
By ThePaleoMom.com
http://www.thepaleomom.com/2012/06/whys-behind-autoimmune-protocol-eggs.html

The The Autoimmune Protocol
http://www.thepaleomom.com/autoimmunity/the-autoimmune-protocol

MG: March - July

Well end of March, April and May went pretty smooth. Felt great, started to exercise. Work was good, life felt pretty normal. Started eating eggs and rice again. Tapered down to 15mg eod by Mother's Day and started to feel some eye issues. I struggled through it for three weeks but no improvement. I've had little reply or information from my neuro.

It is now my summer vacation July 2. Both my eyes are extremely difficult to open. Left eye is pulling outwards and extreme ptosis while the right eye is straining, moderate ptosis.
Returned to taking 30mg everyday of prednisone despite not hearing from my neurologist. Panick, fear, who knows, wtf?

Curent Meds: (Prednisone & Mestinon, starting CellCept)
• Day 3,4,5 - Lots of fear, crying, self-pity.
Hoping I bounce back as quickly as I did the first time around.
• Day 6 - left eye can flutter open when laying still and taking 120mg mestinon.
• Day 7 - eyes opening, vision blurred double. Lungs feel a bit labored. Walking in a marsh mellow world. Dishes feel heavy. Can't focus enough to actually watch a movie. (We think this flare was maybe triggered by Advantage-ing the dog. Guessing).
• Day 8 - Longest 8 days ever! 3.5yr old & dog bouncing off walls, Can't see, gone rouge with the meds, haven't heard from neuro (nasty superlative here!), vacation total crap (cant drive, cant see tv. no pool, no backyard camping, no county fair, no fire works, no beer while BBQing, no gardening) Worried about not returning to work Monday! Dog ate my hammock. No visual improvement.
• Day 11 - Visit to Neuro. Pred to 60mg for 5 days, then back to 30ng.
• Day 12 - Bad vision in AM. Rested. Starting CellCept. Re-reading my paleo entries, going bad to strict AutoPaleo Protocol. (See CellCept blog).

Survived the 5 days of 60mg of prednisone. Vision is but a wee better. Honestly thought I would feel better.

PREDNISONE TAPER:
• Day 1 tapering back down to 30mg.
• Day 2 tapering - major migraines, sweating, chills, laid out.
• Day 3 tapering - lead weights describe it best. Migraine. Feels like someone took an egg beater to my brain. This is my "this is your brain in drugs" moment. And I'm hating it. It's also a workday. Seriously want to die. Started eating completely clean--only veggies, fruit, poached salmon. No spices.
• Day 4 taper - Vision is getting a bit better. Migraine gone. Got to go to band practice after work, so I had something to look forward to. Feels like MG is in my jaws. Face feels numb in the mornings. Eyes won't totally shut.
• Day 5 taper - Eyes are little better. Double vision comes and goes. Thought I would be better along after all the meds, but it's slowly proving. So i'll take it. Wanting to start a juice fast.