Human (not dog) related detox

For smokers, I read that most smokers are hyper-glycemic.
Due to the nicotine that effects pancreas function. Most smokers have a high blood-glucose level.
I found this intersting, my ailment that I, "we", have been attempting to figure out, mainly symptoms of what a western medicine doctor says are, 'panic attacks'.
It is seeming now that it is nutritional, and perhaps, an adrenal, thyroid, parasympathic system issue.
After all this nutritional upheaval, it may very well be smoking nicotine. I still can't quit that entirely, when I do, it may turn out to be panic attacks.
Go figure. I also think this is the best thread in the last century. :P :o

For smokers, I read that most smokers are hyper-glycemic.
Due to the nicotine that effects pancreas function. Most smokers have a high blood-glucose level.
I found this intersting, my ailment that I, "we", have been attempting to figure out, mainly symptoms of what a western medicine doctor says are, 'panic attacks'.
It is seeming now that it is nutritional, and perhaps, an adrenal, thyroid, parasympathic system issue.
After all this nutritional upheaval, it may very well be smoking nicotine. I still can't quit that entirely, when I do, it may turn out to be panic attacks.
Go figure. I also think this is the best thread in the last century. :P :o

Pete wrote:All I can say is.....Yahoo for "menopause"!!!! :cheers:

Lee LOL! That's about the only thing with aging I'm looking forward to - no more Kotex! lol...

Di, your willpower is inspiring! The next thing on my list is tea - I've never been a coffee drinker, but lap tea like a slap-happy Brit lol.. Remember that crazy power-outage we had 6 some-odd years ago? Well, my power was out for 24 hours - couldn't boil water for a morning tea, nothing.. just like the rest of the Eastern seaboard.. By about 2 p.m. the next day I was violently ill - dry heaving, severe migraine, sweats, fainting spells, you name it.. If I don't drink a tea before 12 noon, I get severely ill as the day rolls on.. It's like a darn heroin withdrawal! Goes to show how addictive caffeine is... I would love to be able to cut out caffeine altogether. Hubby quit drinking coffee when he quit smoking last November, since he never had one without the other - he tried a coffee for fun a year ago or so - took a couple sips and it made him feel sick so threw it out lol... :shock:

That's interesting, Ann.. I wonder if the compromised oxygen levels amongst other things contribute.. And a 'LOL' on your last comment lol...

I love this thread and I can't believe how many of us are struggling with similar issues. Frickitty frack, I say! Hang in there all of you waiting for test results and information.

Two hour interview with the homeopath today and she was stunned at my list of symptoms. She is taking the weekend to study it all. Then I guess I either take a leap of faith and try what she offers or I go get the IUD and hope it works out. I'm thinking leap of faith for a while, but like someone else said, waiting months to see if it works could mean a hellish existance in the meantime ...

Instead of hysterectomies and invasive surgery, I heard a doc aquaintance tell a good friend of mine two summers ago that they can now go in and simply sear the blood vessels to cysts and fibroids so they shrivel up and quit bothering you. I've heard info lately that hysterectomy can wreck your sexual health and ability to orgasm ... That male surgeons for eons have just been going in and hacking out womens' uteruses without understanding how the nerves connect etc ... WHY aren't female surgeons and OBGYNs researching this more and more so that we don't suffer in multiple ways if we have to have surgery?

This is all pretty wild anyway. What did women do 100 years ago? Did they have these issues and just suffer in silence or get addicted to laudum?

They died 100 years ago...life expectancy wasn't all that great!! lol

Lee...what's kotex??? hahaha It will be two year's this August since I've had my "period". Other than the "HOT flashes & mood disorder, it's been heaven!!!! I have to give alot of credit to my hubby for putting up with me, though. He has been a real saint!!! Even living through the winter month's with the fan (on high) in the bedroom, through the winter month's -26, even!!

I'm pretty sure I'm through it, although my husband just said to me today "Oh! You're talking to me today"!!!!! :shock:

small story, back in 90 I had a hernia, twice, the second time they operated they cut me too close to my "bits" and I couldn't stand to be touched for over 2 years. No joy of sex in my household for me..I did land up divorced shortly thereafter but not because of the sex..today the DR told me that they now go through your your vagina now to remove it all, hopefully they leave my ovaries.

wen

For those of you thinking menopause is some sort of heaven I am
afraid to be the bearer of bad news... you ain't seen nothing yet. I
was one of the fortunate who never had PMS or any problems from puberty on. I think I had cramps twice in my life. The only time I went a little nuts was when I going on or off the pill and that was basically a month of having no idea why there were tears running down my face because as far as I was concerned I was not in the mood for crying and there was just a bunch of water coming out of my eyes for no reason at all. When I decided to get my tubes done I was warned it could make things miserable but it never bothered me a bit. It was more of an inconvenience having the monthlies, but never a big deal and I didn't have the problems others seemed to have. My mother who had gone through hell couldn't believe I was escaping unscathed at all.

Then I found myself saying "why is it so hot in here?" a few times too
often. That made me realize I must have aged somewhere along the line and looked up the symptoms for perimenopause. Holy crap. I had most of them and had no idea. My doctor put me on a natural hormone and I was stunned. I didn't have the early stages of alzhimers at all (I had no short term memory at all by then). All the cream in the world wasn't going to help my dry itchy skin etc. and so on. It was all a loss of hormones. So within days of taking them my brain returned, I could sleep again without wanting to just go roll in the snow and basically was back to my old self. I hadn't realized it is a process longer than puberty and can hit as early as 35 and just keeps progressing until you are 50 or more. I had no idea how things had just sort of slowly changed over 5 or 6 years until I got my old self back.

Now I know why older people are often cranky. I have always been pretty laid back but boy oh boy, tell me I have to wait for my bioidenticals and someone is apt to lose an eye and think they just met someone possessed by a demon much worse than shown in the exorcist. If I miss them because some doctor doesn't think women need such things so let's see how it goes, or sometimes the dose is off as your body changes so you have to keep getting them checked, neat things like a dark thick hair starts growing out your face, right on front, and it appears out of no where. Take too much or the wrong combo and you gain weight without even trying or can't sleep or can't wake up or get zits. We don't even want to go into all the moods, heart palpitations, anxiety attacks, etc. and so on. I swear I'd take having my periods any time over this nice little change. Year after year as I have gone through this (and I think I am into year 10 now) the changes aren't half as nice as they were during puberty. These ones are all 'oh yuck! when and how did that happen and how do I make it go away?' It's not a fair trade at all IMO.

TheDogHouse wrote:For smokers, I read that most smokers are hyper-glycemic.
Due to the nicotine that effects pancreas function. Most smokers have a high blood-glucose level.

I don't know about that one but you never know since stranger things have happened. I have smoked for a lot of years and until last summer I was hypoglycemic which is the opposite. Again all related to the foods. Now I've swung the other way which was totally expected given that usually happens with hypo after a while and I had gained a lot of weight thanks to a major hormonal imbalance (and one stupid dr who it turns out had me on 3 things that all have weight gain as a side effect and never told me even when I was saying there was no way on earth I had eaten enough to gain 100 lbs and something must be wrong).

What I have found interesting as well as totally frustrating is between all the various hormones that cruise through us, they each seem to be effected by various things from sleep to exercise to food to stress to age to substansances like nicotine, caffeine, alcohol, etc. When one goes out of balance from any or some or all of those, it throws the rest and like a series of dominoes things start to go wonky. Your whole endocrine system can get nuts.

Meanwhile, try and find a doctor who gets it. There are a few gems around who are up on it and trying to get it figured out but between all the new and old thinking they all have their own little theories and I am still looking for one who understands it or can get it working. Half of them think it's just all in your head dear, pat pat pat, just live with it while others know full well it's a very real issue. Some others go so far in the other direction they really blow things which is what happened to me and I'm still trying to find a way to sort that one.

I can tell you that things like panic attacks can be from your hormones so if your doctor can figure that out you'll feel probably get sorted. You do have to watch though. I had a normal doctor who assured me she knew what she was doing but things weren't gettting better. I went to a holistic doctor who assured me he knew what he was doing and things went okay in some respects and much worse in others. On to a homeopath who freaked at what the last doctor had given me and explained why I was worse and even more imbalanced but I didn't find a lot of improvement with those changes either. Onto a walk in clinic (since I am no longer up for paying to see a doctor and there are not GP's accepting patients) and found a fairly reasonable one who sorted a few things out but refuses to deal with my HRT because woman should just learn to live with it. I pretty much twist his arm and I think he knows I will change pretty quickly from very reasonable to having to come up with a bail fund if he messes with me. He also refuses to send me to an endo who could sort this all out since he's a head patter and so the search continues.

You have to keep looking until you find the answers because our health care system really doesn't fully support woman's health but it is changing. If you watch Oprah she did a whole week on HRT and bioidenticals and other hormones and they came right out and basically said we are going to have to figure this out ourselves unless we can hit the gem doctors out there. Given the size of the boomer population and the age they are now I am sure many doctors are fearing for their lives as the women are changing from happy go lucky-peace-love-dove to fix this or you are dead meat buddy. The
ones who do know what they are doing are really busy unfortunately so it takes a while sometimes to find them and be able to get in.

You can bet if men were walking into offices with the type of changes to their bodies women get they would have this figured out a long time ago.

Sorry, long and a bit of rant. Must be time for more progesterone.

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but there is also a huge problem with plastics, which have high estrogen content.
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wen wrote:small story, back in 90 I had a hernia, twice, the second time they operated they cut me too close to my "bits" and I couldn't stand to be touched for over 2 years. No joy of sex in my household for me..I did land up divorced shortly thereafter but not because of the sex..today the DR told me that they now go through your your vagina now to remove it all, hopefully they leave my ovaries.

wen

The leave the Ovaries if yours are fine. They now only remove them if there are issues I had several friends have this surgery done due to severe bleeding and this was only way to stop it for them. They all told me it was the best thing that could of happened to them and they were not exhausted all the time and a had a sex life and normal life again. :)

I am cold all the time so I'm hoping I'll be warm for once when menopause hits.

Someone mentioned about Plastic bottles I refuse to drink from plastic bottles because of hearing there is something their make that is pseudo-estrogens. I only drink from glass bottles now, glass glasses at home.

If you are cold all the time you may want to look up the symptoms to underactive thryroid (yet again, something that can be thrown if other hormones in the endocrine system are off). Being cold is a big one. Also know that in 30% of all people the blood tests show normal so many doctors prefer to use the list of symptoms when diagnosing over the tests (even my vet does that with Eb because the tests have about the same accuracy for dogs).

If you are really cold (the type where you just can't get warm no matter how many sweaters you put on) and want a blast of heat (or want to know what a hot flash feels like) take a Niacin (not the non flush variety since it's the flush you want). Not only do you get the B vitamin, you get warm from the inside out and it lasts a couple of hours. No one warned me the first time I took it and I was sure I must be about to spontainiously combust. After that I knew what to expect and used to take it when I was having a chill and it helped every time. It's also helpful to give them to any guys who don't understand what a hot flash is like because they are a very close experience.

Plastics are really becoming something I guess. I am having my house cleared so I can move and hired some people who help sort things and both companies who came to estimate told me to forget trying to give plastic bowls or anything to charity and not to bother to take them when I move. They said there are warnings out on pretty much any older plastics and that charity shops etc. won't sell them anymore because no one wants them in preference of glass or metal now.

The naturalpath feels the adrenal glands are off and the supplements for that work like a charm, I have an overgrowth of Candida Yeast in my body hence why I have the nice little bug in my colon having a hay day in there. When I work out go for walks, stick to my special diet from the naturalpath I feel warmer. When I go off my diet even by a bit my feet get cold so I have to wear slippers sometimes sock and slippers, my hands are warmer finally they used to be an issue too.

My blood test came back normal for thyroid each time they do them. Today I'm crampy so bad again from the Ultrasound from yesterday. I ended up throwing up the water I had to drink so I had to drink some more and force my body to keep it down for the test. Lets just say my back teeth were floating.

Hey Lee - have you tried green tea? It does have caffeine in it, but apparently it's different than in black tea, as I can drink as much as I want! I usually have one cup a day, then have other herbal teas.

JeanJean - your "quest" sounds so frustrating! It really is hard to believe that they haven't found ways to solve the female problems.

I find it fascinating the number of people who are seeing naturopaths and homeopaths. Isn't that a sign that traditional medicine isn't giving us all we need?

I know I mentioned this before, but if any of you have a holistic nutritionist in your area, I really think it's worth a try. A holistic nutritionist is schooled in nutrition, from a natural and traditional standpoint, but also homeopathy. If you do search one out, they should have an RHN designation.

What impressed me most is how thorough she is. Before I had my first appointment, I had to fill in an extensive questionnaire. My first appointment was basically her explaining all of the testing and monitoring I was going to do for the next week - logging all of my eating, energy levels, bathroom habits , PH testing, taking my temperature. After a week I faxed her my information and I set up an appointment for one week following. This gave her time to analyze my questionnaire and results and provide a personalized 10 page plan for me! My next appointment was 2 hours as she went through all of the information. But to me, the best thing she did was to prioritize the areas to focus on so I didn't get overwhelmed. There were things I did right away, and other things that we tackled later. She also would try things for a month (the gentlest version) and if it worked, great, if not would increase to see if that helped.

It was amazing - everything she told me to do had an impact! The biggest issues I had were digestion (heartburn almost every day), my hormones, and sleeping. Even a simple thing like taking magnesium in water helped my sleep to an amazing degree!

I know that she is in Toronto (and on maternity leave right now), but I think that she does phone consultations as well. If anyone is interested in her info, let me know and I can post her website.

Again this is all very facinating.
Since sleep has come up, I have to rave about this wonderful solution I have. Probably with most things, may not work so great for everyone.
Valerian tea!!! And for an extra boost, throw in a bag of Scullcap! I have a cup before bed every night and I finally sleep. Sleep is so important and when you can't, I'd rather die.

I can talk all day about Herbal Teas. :) Sorry to go off topic but for your info you might be interested in this.

LeeLee Rooibos tea is awesome. I have a bunch of Teas that are awesome. If you want a great mail order tea company. There is one I deal with in Courtenay from when I lived there. Their prices are reasonable too. :)

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My friend Suzanne and her husband's store in Courtenay, AWESOME Loose tea, highly recommend them and they do mail orders.

From their website below.
*At the TEA CENTRE we are dedicated to introducing you to some of the finest loose leaf teas
available. We have personally chosen some of our tea leaves directly from the tea farmer and
hope that you will enjoy their flavours as much as we do. Please do not hesitate to ask any
questions about tea - we will do our best to answer them or find the answer for you.*

Totally agree about roiboos! There's a tea store right near my house, and they have all flavours of loose tea - green, black, herbal and roiboos. So amazing!

Hmmm...may have to walk over there this afternoon! :D

I looked up some teas I like on the internet and buy the ingredients fresh, and Organic. Like Chai tea, It makes the whole house smell nice and I find the ginger gives me an energy boost.
It takes a bit more time making it from loose and from scratch so to speak but I think it's worth it.
I'm going to check out that tea site..

wen

I highly recommend the Vanilla Chai and Masala Chai 2. Royal Spice Rooibos, White Vanilla Coconut Bai-Mu-Dan(white tea),coconut pieces, pink rose petals,blue malva flowers, flavour, Jewel Green tea is a favorite as well

di wrote:
I know I mentioned this before, but if any of you have a holistic nutritionist in your area, I really think it's worth a try. A holistic nutritionist is schooled in nutrition, from a natural and traditional standpoint, but also homeopathy. If you do search one out, they should have an RHN designation.

What impressed me most is how thorough she is.

That's a really good option to use. Nutritionists (not dietitians) are very good at spotting specific needs and seem to have a very good knowledge of foods, supplements, you name it as your body uses them. I went through something similar to what you are mentioning when I went to the holistic doctor and found trying the different things was almost like peeling an onion in that as each little improvent happens you are free of a layer and pretty soon feel so much better but it was removing each layer one by one vs a major change just doing it all. Try this and something improved, add the next step and some more things improved, and you begin to see how one problem may have a few causes/solutions and how dependent one thing can be on another or how just changing one thing can make a huge impact (as I found with eliminating all sugars).

If you want to get into more holistic approaches I found this [Only admins are allowed to see this link] which is a woman in BC who is researching various things on her own. She also puts out a newsletter that lets you know what she is finding and it's all pretty interesting. She is very open minded so will give both sides where they exsit as she looks for studies or info on things. She also goes for full body approaches that include looking at lifestyle, emotional health, and how they tie into physical well being.

Hey, with regards to coffee and tea, I'm a firm believer that if it tasted like crap, we'd still be paying for it in supplement form from the health food store! Black tea, White tea, Green tea, Coffee, they all contain various antioxidants, and even caffeine has many health benefits!! (Sorry, herbal teas are a distant 24th or more when it comes to health benefits)

Coffee is a mild laxative, and promotes better digestion of the bowel and liver, helping prevent colon cancer, and other cancers! YES! It is antidepressant, and a mild stimulant so it keeps your mind alert, great for lowering driving fatalities, and may help curb depression.

Coffee helps asthma sufferers regulate their breathing, helps diabetics regulate their insulin and there's evidence it helps with Lou Gehrig's and various dementias.

Tea also has these benefits, but has different antioxidants, which are also important in preventing cancers, and it also is linked with healthier weight! So drink BOTH!

Just drink them black, and within fifteen minutes of them being made, or they lose all their benefit.

And stay away from decaf, it's really bad for you, and really bad for the environment. And the petroleum based coffee whiteners and cheese products? might as well drink gasoline! yuck! Black is best, but if you must, at least use the real stuff. I drank mine regular until I was pregnant, then couldn't stand sugar in it, so just took cream. Then I worked somewhere that most of the people were black drinkers, and we always ran out of cream, so I switched. I still drink latte's and the occassional Timmys english toffee mixed half with coffee (else too sweet) but that's not my daily do. Plus easy to lose the extra calories in coffee and tea by going black.

Guess what else is good news? Chocolate in moderation has the same health benefits I've been mentioning here. Gotta be the good stuff though, at least 70% and not mixed with crap. Green and Black is my personal fave, but there's lots of good ones out there. An excuse to go drink a cup of coffee and eat a square of chocolate, and say you are doing something good for yourself! (and have you ever smelt valerian root? Gawd the stuff reeks! don't know how you can drink it! I sometimes use melatonin supplements, I do like those, but have tried valerian root teas and supplements, just can't do it I'm afraid.)

The nutritionist told me that the problem with coffee is that they genetically modify it so it is more "addicting". So, if you have to drink coffee, drink organic coffee!

I'm an asthmatic (Yep I'm falling apart) and I was told have 1 cup of coffee a day to help my body get rid of the mucous we get built up in our systems. I am avoiding sugar like the plague and if anyone want me to send them a little tea sampler from the store I was talking about Just Pm me and I'll send you some tea I have on hand. :)

Valerian Root tea and Valerian root supplements gave me nightmares when I took it. There was another supplement the recommended for sleep that let me sleep solid for 4 hours then woke me up, and I couldn't sleep again.

It is great we are all sharing and helping with other because it sure sucks when you feel alone with these issues and feel like the medical community has let you down, personal friends don't understand because they don't have these problems. If you know what I'm trying to say. My friend Nadine has a whole list of problems but refuses to get help for them or to try and help herself she just complains it drives me up the wall.

She recently found out those suffering from Fibro have a Vitamin D deficiency. A friend who's partner was suffering from Fibro and nasty chronic fatigue went to some place in Kamloops, B.C. and did Yoga, ate natural foods and cured herself of the Fibro and and fatigue I'm not sure the whole details but that is what I was told. She looks awesome and feels great.

On the other end of the spectrum weather you believe or not my sister had Parasites she picked up from water in Ontario called "Blood Flukes" they were in her hands causing what they thought was carpel tunnel syndrome, it wasn't that is was the parasites. She saw a homeopathic and took some supplements and dropped weight from a size 16 to a size 10 in 6 months because of the parasite build up in her system.

I am 5'2 and I used to weigh 95 pounds in 1998, after moving to Winnipeg I became sick and ballooned up to 120, I was very sickly when we lived there. Last summer I was bloated in my middle and I my weight was 139 the largest I have ever been. After been so tired of being sick, feeling like my feet were crawling on the soles of my feet, chronic stomach and bowel problems I said to myself enough I need to get healthy. We are finally on the right path to me getting healthy and treating my bug but it has been a long road for myself. It looks like it has a been a long road for some of you as well.

Thank goodness we have our dogs we lift us up, get out to be active and meet others, our families and friends.

Was that to around and around?

No - definitely got the point mistqueen! Agreed!

Jean - thanks for that link! There's some great information on her site, and I signed up for the newsletter. I'm especially interested in adrenal fatigue - it's something my nutritionist was working on, and the more I read the symptoms, the more I think that may be my problem. I've had the hardest time getting up in the mornings for quite a while yet after 6 I'm wide awake and find it hard to go to bed, and my head has definitely been in a fog.

I may have to go back to the naturopath and discuss!

Ack, don't read the page about tea on that website!!! Quick, Mistqueen, find out if your friend's tea is fluoride safe! I'll take two boxes!

Maybe Lee should read it to kick the tea habit!