I have promised a new year update to quite a few of you. I promise I will update soon. But right now, I want to introduce you to a wonderful friend of mine. I don't know if I've ever posted about all my efforts with acupuncture back in 1998 through 2001. The very brief version of the story goes like this:
I was sick ALL the time. I would use all vacation & sick time due to bladder, bronchial and/or sinus infections. I caught every cold, flu or whatever that floated around. I thought it was just my lot.
In 1998, a coworker pointed me to a doctor that had cure chronic bladder infections for his wife. But it was an acupuncturist. Back in 1998, I liked to think I was open minded. Well, like most people, I was open to anything that fit in my small life parameters. Acupuncture was snake oil to me. Fake. A waste of time and/or money. I poo poo'd my friend's information.
A few months later, after one or more bladder infections every month, I asked this guy, "So...what was that doctor's name again?"
Ok, I'm not being brief. I went to Doctor Joe. I was expecting a short Asian dude. I got a tall white guy. I thought it wouldn't work because I didn't believe in it. Thankfully, I was wrong. Joe educated me about the natural electrical currents that run through our bodies. They are supposed to run in certain pathways. When something whacks one or more out of alignment, it can affect the flow of others. So if these electrical currents get out of whack, they can cause any kind of problem. That sounded less hokey pokey to me than I had expected. So, the needles are used to realign the currents into their necessary pathways. That's my take on it. That's "Acupuncture As Explained By A Moron" take on it.
Joe also changed my nutritional intake. Everything you put in your body should be thought of just like any drug you'd take. Everything affects your body in different ways. Even foods. And some things should be cut out for certain illnesses and other things increased. And this changes as your body changes.
So with hard-core nutritional changes (which were the hardest thing I've ever done) and hard-core acupuncture treatments for two years, my body began to get fixed. Not only did my bladder infections disappear (along with all my other recurring infections), my reproductive issues were addressed (I wasn't supposed to be able to have kids), some debilitating head pains disappeared, and I got crazy healthy. I lost 25 lbs in 8 months without changing my exercise. I had energy. I was off antibiotics (which I had taken daily for almost 30 yrs).
Two children I wasn't supposed to be able to have later, I was in great shape.
In 2004 or 2005, I slowly rolled off the wagon and returned to my American diet. Not horribly so. But slowly adding things back in that would undo all the hard work. Here in 2010, I have started experiencing a resurgence of various bacterial infections that I haven't had since 1999. I'm also overweight again. I know why. I know what I need to do.
But anyway, the person that helped me take this journey into a healthy lifestyle was my friend Doctor Joe. He also treated Pokemon Boy as a newborn due to his renal reflux. Pokemon Boy amazed his doctors during those first 4 years because he grew (kidney problems can stunt growth) and his kidneys didn't show damage until he was 3 (which is amazing). Even then, the damage was so minimal, we could have left it alone for a long time and have been fine.
I haven't found another acupuncturist here in Texas. I doubt I could find anyone I'd trust like Doctor Joe. He wasn't just a two-year graduate of some acupuncture school. He studied in Oregon - where this practice really took off in the U.S. He studied in China. He had YEARS of schooling under his belt. And years of amazing successes.
Doctor Joe is an awesome guy. I had referred quite a few people to him when I was in Boston. A few were brave enough to try something new and found healthy lives where they had never had success before.
Doctor Joe recently retired from practice because of his own life events which include his own battle with cancer. I keep in touch with him but he's a very very busy single dad since his wife passed away in recent years.
I love Doctor Joe and pray for him regularly. He helped me so much in my physical life, I keep asking God to somehow repay him for me since all I can do is say "thank you." And that seems so inadequate for the friendship, encouragement and physical healing Doctor Joe gave me.
If you want to read more about my amazing friend, I've just put a link in my left-hand column, just under my little-girl picture. Feel free to go read about my friend. And if you're the praying sort, he sure could use some prayers.
Showing posts with label candida. Show all posts
Showing posts with label candida. Show all posts
Saturday, January 09, 2010
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Today's Tourette's Tidbit
I've been interested in the apparent connection between Tourette's tics and candida. Candida is the yeast that occurs naturally in our bodies. When it gets out of control due to antibiotics, bad American diets or any other cause, it can wreak havoc. I had a problem with it back in the late 90's because of a 30 year regimen of maintenance antibiotics to fight bladder infections (I have 1 kidney so they were trying to avoid infections). When candida becomes out of control, it can actually cause bacterial infections. So in the late 90's, I basically lived with a bladder infection about once a month. I got every bronchial infection that blew through town. I got ever sinus infection, as well. I was sick so often that most of my vacation time was used as sick days.
In 1999, I got help in the form of a great acupuncturist and his staff. They radically changed my nutritional intake (ie - bagged the American sugar-based diet) and gave me 2 to 3 acupuncture treatments a week for about 2 years. It took a while but I lost 25 lbs without changing my exercise habits, I was able to stay antibiotic-free for quite a few years. I stopped getting bladder infections, bronchial infections, sinus infections, stomach bugs, flu, colds. I mean, I would get maybe one malady a year.
When I first started trying to read everything there is on the web about Tourette's, one of the first things I noticed was quite a few articles on how many doctors feel that high levels of candida in the body can increase the severity of tics.
Dr. Bruce Semon has a short article (http://www.candidafree.net/resource_36.htm) that explains how the yeast may affect the chemicals in the brain. One could see how that might exacerbate the tics.
Another nutritional website (http://www.nutrition4health.org/nohanews/NNF06TicsAnd%20Tourettes.htm) mentions how some people have dealt with their family member's Tourette's with alternatives to mainstream western medicine. It mentions candida specifically.
There is one article I can't find that I read last year when The Boy was first diagnosed. It was by a doctor who documented a young man's case of Tourette's. His tics had gotten so severe that it made day to day living and social interaction near impossible. The doctor put him on an anti-candida diet and oral doses of nystatin. I remember reading that his tics were incredibly diminished. If I find that article, I'll put a link here later.
As part of my treatment back in 1999 & 2000, I was put on an anti-candida diet. It was the hardest thing I've ever done - I mean to really do it. You can find it out on the web in many forms but most are pretty similar. It's no processed sugar, no white flour, no fermented products (so there goes alcohol & vinegar - try finding foods without vinegar!), no yeast, no fungus (ie - mushrooms and be wary of foods that naturally have mold). They also took me off any carbonated beverages - no soda, no sparkling water. There's more to it. They put me on a very balanced diet, as well. I can tell you I have never felt healthier than those years I did that diet hard core. But it's hard to do in America.
The Boy was raised on an organic, anti-candida diet pretty hard-core until he was two. After that, he had very little processed sugar. Once he was off antibiotics - around the age of 4, we let him eat what he wanted. But since he was raised on very little sugar and lots of veggies and fruits as treats, he still eats amazingly well to this day. I am wondering if we unwittingly helped keep his Tourette's at bay or kept it less severe. I'd like to hope so.
I'll post more a little later. The boys just got home so I need to go be mommy.
I've been interested in the apparent connection between Tourette's tics and candida. Candida is the yeast that occurs naturally in our bodies. When it gets out of control due to antibiotics, bad American diets or any other cause, it can wreak havoc. I had a problem with it back in the late 90's because of a 30 year regimen of maintenance antibiotics to fight bladder infections (I have 1 kidney so they were trying to avoid infections). When candida becomes out of control, it can actually cause bacterial infections. So in the late 90's, I basically lived with a bladder infection about once a month. I got every bronchial infection that blew through town. I got ever sinus infection, as well. I was sick so often that most of my vacation time was used as sick days.
In 1999, I got help in the form of a great acupuncturist and his staff. They radically changed my nutritional intake (ie - bagged the American sugar-based diet) and gave me 2 to 3 acupuncture treatments a week for about 2 years. It took a while but I lost 25 lbs without changing my exercise habits, I was able to stay antibiotic-free for quite a few years. I stopped getting bladder infections, bronchial infections, sinus infections, stomach bugs, flu, colds. I mean, I would get maybe one malady a year.
When I first started trying to read everything there is on the web about Tourette's, one of the first things I noticed was quite a few articles on how many doctors feel that high levels of candida in the body can increase the severity of tics.
Dr. Bruce Semon has a short article (http://www.candidafree.net/resource_36.htm) that explains how the yeast may affect the chemicals in the brain. One could see how that might exacerbate the tics.
Another nutritional website (http://www.nutrition4health.org/nohanews/NNF06TicsAnd%20Tourettes.htm) mentions how some people have dealt with their family member's Tourette's with alternatives to mainstream western medicine. It mentions candida specifically.
There is one article I can't find that I read last year when The Boy was first diagnosed. It was by a doctor who documented a young man's case of Tourette's. His tics had gotten so severe that it made day to day living and social interaction near impossible. The doctor put him on an anti-candida diet and oral doses of nystatin. I remember reading that his tics were incredibly diminished. If I find that article, I'll put a link here later.
As part of my treatment back in 1999 & 2000, I was put on an anti-candida diet. It was the hardest thing I've ever done - I mean to really do it. You can find it out on the web in many forms but most are pretty similar. It's no processed sugar, no white flour, no fermented products (so there goes alcohol & vinegar - try finding foods without vinegar!), no yeast, no fungus (ie - mushrooms and be wary of foods that naturally have mold). They also took me off any carbonated beverages - no soda, no sparkling water. There's more to it. They put me on a very balanced diet, as well. I can tell you I have never felt healthier than those years I did that diet hard core. But it's hard to do in America.
The Boy was raised on an organic, anti-candida diet pretty hard-core until he was two. After that, he had very little processed sugar. Once he was off antibiotics - around the age of 4, we let him eat what he wanted. But since he was raised on very little sugar and lots of veggies and fruits as treats, he still eats amazingly well to this day. I am wondering if we unwittingly helped keep his Tourette's at bay or kept it less severe. I'd like to hope so.
I'll post more a little later. The boys just got home so I need to go be mommy.
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