EiR Blog

http://thehealthvoyage.com Well, after the excitement of finding a local raw dairy supplier and enjoying the process of learning and creating ghee, dairy in all forms (from cow’s milk at least) will be put on hold once again. I really crave the stuff, and seemingly no amount of purity, or the type, whether it’s milk, butter or yogurt can I eat regularly without some side effects. Like my trouble with eggs and a few other foods, for the most part my reaction manifests as cravings and wacky brain fog. Regardless of how healthy it may and ‘should’ be, when your sat there trying desperately not to spoon a whole jar of ghee into your mouth, you know the food has crossed that line between simply tasting good and feeding an addiction. Attempting tiny doses unfortunately doesn’t really help either. It has been a little tough to rationalise, but perhaps a useful...

http://thehealthvoyage.com/ If anyone knows where the sleep fairy is be sure to send him/her my way. At least I have the Australian Open tennis to peacefully whittle away those early morning hours. Our man Andy looking strong so far. Had a cool day today, mainly due to popping to the Norfolk/Suffolk border and having a browse round a local farmers market. I decided to pick up some raw dairy while I was there and also had a quick chat with a lady who recovered from Crohn’s disease in the past. I wouldn’t say I learned anything new, as she pretty much touted the ‘heal the gut and the rest will come’ type philosophy, as well as mentioning the importance of probiotics etc. Throw liver issues in the mixer and unfortunately good advice gets a little tricky. However she was really nice, and gave me a good run down on the...

http://thehealthvoyage.com/ Man-o-man my days have become about survival at the moment. A quick glance in the mirror in the morning prior to hopping in the shower reveals some nice racoon style dark circles under my eyes. After reading his excellent book ‘The Fourfold Path to Healing’ I have decided to approach Dr Cowan. With his wide range of knowledge I’m hoping his expertise might be able to help me understand what’s going on with my rather annoying body. I opted for the ‘community support’ option as I have a habit of being a little jumpy when it comes to treatments, so I’m hoping this will put me on the straight and narrow with ongoing support and discussion. Unloading my symptom set and sharing my dietary woes will be fun for him! Although perhaps to keep the consultation fee a little cheaper I could perhaps try a quick summary along the...

http://thehealthvoyage.com/ Well, what a year, and one which I can probably say has ended slightly on the positive side. I wouldn’t say that I’ve picked up a huge amount of forward momentum, but more stopped the rot and stabilised. Also coming across GAPs towards the latter part of the year has filled me with a deep confidence that recovery is possible, despite how complicated it seems at the moment. Despite knowing allot about my health and what I thought I needed to do to try and get better, this year did see some moments that further plunged me into illness and toxicity. If I remember correctly there were at least 3 occasions where I binged on food. These weren’t your average binges either, they were huge, jolting my body from a generally low carb diet to massive amounts of sweets, breads, junk food, drinks etc for days at a time....

My health journey has taken some interesting twists and turns of late, the new area of interest being the liver. For the majority of my poor health I have had a gnawing ache under my rib cage on the right side. Twice my liver enzymes registered as normal and I dismissed it as a consequence of generally being fatigued and secondary to other health concerns. I'm now starting to give the liver a little more thought, interested by the traditional chinese medicine view of 'liver qi ('chi')' and it's impact on general health. After getting nowhere using adrenal supplementation I decided to trace back my steps starting with digestion. Perhaps I'm not absorbing nutrients effectively? After all most nutrients will pass through the body if the liver is weak - were my thoughts. Trying to boost the adrenals when your digestion is so poor must be akin to skating uphill..on...

Some personal thoughts I felt compelled to share. Highlights the complexity of emotions and feelings when one has multiple body wide symptoms. Broadly speaking physically and mentally it kind of feels like the culmination of almost a lifetime of not being 'free', instead being overly sensitive and stimulated by my surroundings that has culminated in a body that simply can't keep up, ahearing to ideologies and unhealthy traits outside of myself that have caused a disharmony that I'm battling to balance. The reliance on sugar and a manifestation of these feelings have left me where I am today, constantly looking for solutions. I've always looked to others to tell me what to do, and feel frustrated that I can't conjure up my own feelings of love, courage, commitment, creativity and joy. I'm stagnent in my ability to experience true happiness. One quick signal from the body, whether it's a sleepless...

Trying not to let me anger and frustration overflow too much, however I was given a stark reminder into the orthodox view of sub clinical chronic illnesses by my GP. As I have been experiencing more digestive related symptoms of late, including abdominal/stomach ache, pop bellied feeling, occasional nausea, flatulence, gas, bloating, loose stools, stomach burning and constipation, I decided to approach my GP for a general rendezvous, and perhaps the option of doing a H Pylori breath test.  Almost immediately I was ‘diagnosed’ as having IBS, then told my physical symptoms were a manifestation of my mental state, then told to take up yoga, rounded off nicely with the comment ‘M.E is a disease of despair’. So not only was I denied a simple test, but I was hit hard with some ignorant orthodox views. I left mildly flustered to say the least.  I’m trying to look at this...

I've always viewed meditation as something I would like to do, but thus far have struggled to get motivated to do it. It's odd, and difficult to rationalise, but for some reason it doesn't come easy wanting to learn to relax. Perhaps this is a hangup of western culture in general, and the need to always be 'switched on'. Delving into the world of meditation can be daunting. There's mindfullness, transcendental, vibrational, zen etc and within that further deviations in technique and style. Involvement can range from a quick 4 point 5 minute breathing exercise to lifelong practise and teachings of all aspects of the meditation and culture. Naturally I didn't want to delve too deep into anything, particularly as my foggy brain would struggle with anything moderately weighty. After browsing amazon for all of 15 minutes, I settled on 'The Relaxation Response'. The book is slim, akin to myself,...

Going through a particularly tough time at the moment which could be due to a number of things. I unfortunately ended up binging on Christmas day, feasting on fruits, starches, stuffing, turkey glazed in who knows what, a bit of chocolate and lots of cashews. I was also constipated on the day itself, which wasn’t very pleasant and have had trouble with regular BM’s for a while now. I’m once again struggling with sleep, often only getting a few hours when I’m most backed up. This tends to ramp up the brain fog and anxiety. I suspect this could all be a prolonged hangover from indulging in too many treats at Christmas. Not much else has changed in my routine. I’ve also picked up what I believe to be a stomach ulcer, as it aches most when I don’t have food in the stomach. To address this I’ve decided to...

  I've stumbled across a few gems that I'd thought I would share. Supersize me Probably one of the more well known films about the fast food industry and it's impact on health. The premise I think is somewhat flawed, as not many people get close to eating fast food for every single meal. The results are bound to be bad. However as poor nutrition often degrades health over a long period of time, watching this accelerated experiment unfold gives us a very useful insight into what can happen with a high refined carb and fat diet. The highlights of the film for me are not the focus of the main character, Kevin Spurlock, but in broader areas of food such as school meals and the profiteering of the grocery industry. Overall: 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0390521/   All Jacked Up This was an independent film I stumbled across quite recently that focuses...

As another year draws to a close I’m strangely looking forward to the year ahead.   Last year for me was mainly spent acquiring knowledge and bumbling a little bit as I got to grips with my health problems. I laid allot of foundations, but at times had a hard time executing them, whether it’s a dietary and supplement plan, regular meditation or sticking to Spanish revision. That said I’ve learned allot about myself, about the deception of food and pharmaceutical companies and good all round green living. I feel empowered to use natural, raw, organic foods and products that are closer to what nature intended and of more benefit to the suppliers. Whilst never being a ‘crusader’, my own experience has left me eventually wanting to help others when in a fit and able state to do so. The success stories of people within these communities acts as inspiration...

There are quite a few terms to describe how one reacts to food. It's such a common symptom of environmental illness yet the causes and manifestation of symptoms vary greatly from person to person. I've had many fun experiences with food over the years I have been ill. Sugar and refined carb addiction was the first to strike and an upbringing of processed flavours from sauces, marinades and dressings. I rarely was able to eat any sort of food, whether it was salad, vegetables, or meat without ketchup, salad cream, brown sauce or similar. These two dietary faux pa's I believe blunted my natural repsonse to flavour from food. When I became ill, dairy was very high in my diet. As a source of protein and fat it served a purpose to smooth out my blood sugar response in the early stages of hypoglycemia, and is still widely promoted as...

With my ASI test results imminant, I've narrowed down who I'm likely to approach as a practitioner to 2 options. Chronicfatigue.org is a non profit CFS center based purely on the approach that treating the adrenals will help with CFS. They have a couple of books I would love to get hold of as and the shipping looks reasonable. Had a brief email exchange with the N.D there, and I was impressed with there knowledge of interpreting and treating the different stages to the ASI. He also seemed aware of the potential paradoxical and stimulatory problems that can crop up as a result of ones individual response to treatment, making me feel like I wouldn't simply get a shotgun of nutrients that will only go towards making me feel worse. The cost is likely to be low as well, charging per minute. The UK practitioner Dr Peatman is my second...

Continuing the theme of a fairly rocky few weeks, last night culminated in an extremely distressing situation.  Cocoa is an interesting food. Some people sware by its antioxidant and magnesium rich properties whereas others report shot adrenals,  stimulation and a general worsening of energy levels and symptoms. Broadly speaking its a significant step in the right direction when compared to your average western chocolate bar, which is mainly made up sugar, fat and cheap fillers. Proper chocolate is predominantly cocoa mass and cocoa butter, and some sugar depending on the percentage. It's simple logic regarding healthier foods - The fewer, purer ingredients it contains, the better it generally is for your body. So I decided to experiment with a reasonable amount of cocoa, making sure to balance the intake with other protein and veg. The good news initially was it didn't taste addictive, or seem to swing my blood sugar........

Thought I'd post this, to provide some shock value.   Pretty much my complete diet from when I was a child to 2 years ago (roughly age 5-22) consisted of the foods below. I've gone in and colour coded items, red for very bad, orange for bad and green for good.   Instant noodles, coco pops, corn flakes, rice crispies, sugar puffs, cheerios, golden grahams, weetabix, shreddies, wheetos, special K, milk, cheese, eggs, dolmio, white pasta, pastries, chicken pies, chicken kievs, mushy peas, crisps, tortillas, snack a jacks, golden syrup, chocolate, powerade, lucozade, red bull, Ribena, Vimto, Blackcurrant, instant coffee, tea, frozen vegetables, smoothies, baked potatoes, tinned beans, tinned chilli con carnie, pre packed sandwiches, mayonnaise, ketchup, salad cream, ham, cooked chicken breast (prepacked), turkey breast (prepacked), salad, crusty bread, porked pies, scotch eggs, salami, Cornish pasties, corned beef, takeaways - McDonalds, Burger King, kebabs, Indian, Chinese, subway, pizza, ready...

Unfortunately continuing the negative trend of blog entries. So about half an hour ago, I ate the equiverlant of a whopping 200 grams of sugar. Short of putting a bullet in my brain, this is quite possibly the worst thing for someone with my health troubles to do. It was fuelled by an insatiable craving, and what were christmas presents for friends soon became presents for the evils populating my gut. Naturally I'm fuming about it. I've not fallen off the wagon this much for over a year. I stared longingly at the packet for a good few seconds and reminded myself 'you have a choice' but still couldn't control the urge. This is the second time in as many months that I've succumed to eating gifts I'd plan to give to others. The first occasion wasn't quite so severe, gorging 2 agave nector based cocao bars from a health...

It looks like I have more food allergies going on, to accompany a slowly declining state of health. I'm certain chronically high insuling levels are really causing me some problems, along with the intolerances. So, I'm stood at a crossroads with about 5 routes to choose from! - I've done all that I can to control hypogylcemia over the past year yet still feel insulin is high and blood sugar continues to drop regardless what i eat. - I've been taking all the nutrients and lifestyle tip suggestions for adrenal fatigue, and not noticed the slightest bit of improvement over the past few months. I still think this is a factor as occasionally when my blood sugar is low and I wait it out a bit, it begins to stabilise, suggesting an adrenalin response. If I had the money to, I would approach Dr Lam with my case. - Liver...

 I've started to notice a shift in some of my symptoms which may be good or may be bad. The first is I'm waking up less in the night and able to sleep in longer. Waking up in less in the night must be a good thing, and naturally sleeping in longer I guess could work both ways.  I'm still yet to get tired before 12 which is the main aim and will need to think about ways to achieve this. The other symtpom which actually changed a few months ago is the food, stomach, potential blood sugar problem. To sum it up, after I eat my stomach has that emptiness feeling soon after, from 1 hour onwards. I don't feel hungry in the sense I want to eat and I don't think my blood sugar is at fault. Even the most severe hypoglycemics I doubt would drop after 1...

The good news this week was I managed to shake off a virus which had troubled me for almost a week. It's possible it was swine flu, however whilst I felt like garbage, I could still function relatively well. I managed to get into work but they were a few of the worst days I've ever experienced. I'd had about 3 hours sleep between 2 nights.  It's the first time I've experienced flu since becoming noticeably sick just over a year ago, and it took some determination not to reach for the ibuprofen or paracetamol. Instead I opted to increase my vitamin C intake and take colloidal silver. I was noticeably better after a couple of days however I can't be sure whether it was my bodies natural defences or the supplements. Perhaps a bit of both.   A good weekend with my friends and a lazy day in front of...

Well it was to be expected really. There is so much going round at the moment that all it probably takes is walking into air that has been freshly coughed into. So I picked up a virus. Couldve been swine flu or something more generic, I can't tell. In anycase the past week has been horrible. I'm about 60% better after feeling my worst around tuesday/wednesday time. I've kept on my supplements, increasing the vitamin C by 2g to 8g daily, and I've felt this has helped significantly. I'm also trialling some 10ppm colloidal silver, 3 tablespoons daily for a couple of days to see what happens. Alot of people claim this can clear up viruses fast. When I'm feeling a little better and get round to it, the original plan for the silver was as a nasal rinse for my post nasal drip. I plan to mix it with...