[FireWithin]

I'm finally going to start one for myself. It feels a bit overwhelming.

Before kid history:

I have always struggled with my weight, at my highest I was quite obese. Nothing seemed to help me lose.
I struggled with asthma through out my teenage and adult life - usually it is no longer a problem.
I noticed in my teen years that I had a allergy problem to melons - itchy throat.
I struggled with bulimia for seven years of my teenage life.
I am the only one in my family who does not medicate oneself with depression/anxiety drugs (mother and brothers) or alcohol (father). My older brother's and mother's depression/anxiety is quite severe. My mother struggles with paranoia. (will talk about my recent success against my own depression/anxiety later.
I was on birth control pills for ten years - partially because I reacted to all barrier contraceptives - which I thought was a latex problem and now believe was a reaction to the corn products.
For most of my teen years and 20s, I suffered from what I believed were tension headaches (possible allergies instead?). I took A LOT of nsaids.
For a long time I ate a low fat high carb diet thinking it was the healthy way.
I have one amalgam filling (very large).
I have always struggled with sleep. (I believe a big part has to do with caffeine).
My gut was/is a mess from the combination of poor diet, nsaids, bc pills, and I'm sure other things.

Pregnancies - i lost my first baby from a blighted ovum.
My second pregnancy I had severe morning sickness - easily vomiting 10-15 times a day, but stopped at 20 weeks. Never had a desire to eat for either pregnancy (low zinc?) I had extreme stretch marks, quite astonishing to me.
With my second son I started to have what felt like blood sugar issues, only pure protein made me not shake. I really worried about diabetes. All bloodwork during and after pregnancy came back fine. (I am doing 85% better now.)

I had ppd/psychosis with my first - panic attacks, and hearing voices to hurt my baby. For my second I prepared myself for ppd by taking Bs, walking outside in the sunshine. I suspect it was the B-complex that helped. but also, my second slept somewhat normally, whereas my first never slept.

Will write more later about my babies, current issues and connections I have made.

 

[lil_miss_understood]

Just letting you know you're on the chat links thread and I'll be back later (probably tomorrow) to actually read.

 

[FireWithin]

My oldest son (age 6 now), slept very poorly. He was happy but needed constant stimulation, social interaction. I see now that when he is on an allergen he has sensory intergration issues. He nursed constantly. I suspect it was discomfort. I had a major milk supply drop at 3 months. Only pumping brought it back up.
He had undiagnosed milk allergy. It is very clear now, but didn't understand then. I don't believe he has a tt, but he has other midline issues.

My youngest has multiple allergies from birth, midline issues. I had supply issues, he clicks when nursing, and he has a v shape in his lower teeth. He was a breach, c-section, jaunice because of blood type. Projectile vomiting, gerd, including throwing up bloody mucus.
He is allergic to 25 plus things.
I lost 60 lbs from my pregnancy with him (only gained 8 during preg), until 10 months pp. I have gained 13 back, and haven't been able to lose more.
I had oversupply, and oald with my second, and a dip in supply at 3 months.

My oldest's bottom adult teeth are coming in crooked. Both boys have narrow lower 3rd of their faces.

 

[FireWithin]

ok the above messages were the easy parts - here it gets more complicated.

reading Calm's thread about c-sections was enlightening for me. I understood I had midline issues, gut issues, thrush issues (oh forgot to add that in the above message). Then SB really helped confuse and then clarify things more about my own health.

I don't know if I have metal issues, but I do know I have detox issues (I think that is a major cause of my high weight).

My zinc is crazy low (bc pill, stretch marks, and my pendulum recommends 200 iu a day - but that scares me I only do 100.)

I had a hard time for a long time taking mag. Very low doses put me over the edge for bowel tolerance. The past couple of months have changed, and when I remember to take it

, I am able to take a much higher dose. I am not taking higher calcium, so I am wondering if it is my higher level of Mo? or something else.

will add more later. bedtime for little boys

 

[neveryoumindthere]

subbing

my first never slept either, and was constantly latched. Gah, even now it gives me the shivers thinking about it. It was an absolutely awful time for both of us.

I'm still learning more than contributing so I'm just here for support and interest

 

[FireWithin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by neveryoumindthere subbing my first never slept either, and was constantly latched. Gah, even now it gives me the shivers thinking about it. It was an absolutely awful time for both of us. I'm still learning more than contributing so I'm just here for support and interest

thanks never, the support is appreciated. I wish I could contribute more to others also.

 

[kjbrown92]

I'm subbing so I can come back and read when I'm not so tired!

 

[FireWithin]

I am fine on the beet test, did not pass the asparagus test tonight

When I am drinking water kefir and eating fermented veggies, I feel like that pathway is working well (do not feel drunk anymore when drinking kefir, kombucha) need to get back to it.

Methylation pathways - (copied from Heal Thyself)
I'm sure my vit D is poor. My cholesterol tested at 119.
Dopamine - I have a family history of anxiety and depression, my mother struggles with paranoia. I'm the only one in my family that doesn't take anxiety/depression meds. I struggle with anxiety and depression that includes fear of reaching outside of my family when depressed (precursor to paranoia?) - high dopamine
My father has been an alcoholic since his early twenties, and I believe still going strong forty years later.
dopamine inhibits prolactin - i have always struggled with milk supply. I think there are multiple reasons, but wonder if this is one of them.
homocysteine - both my boys and I have midline issues. Other members in my family have midline issues. I thought it was normal for tongues to look like my family's (posterior tongue tie)
I was on birth control pills for ten years. I got pregnant one month after stopping. I am assuming my folate was really low. So, it might not be the mthfr gene, maybe just results of birth control, and SAD diet.

Transulfuration - I have a sensitivity to sulfites added to foods. It first started with dried fruits. An extreme reaction to another food caused me to carry around an epipen for years. I used to bruise easily, not so much recently. I am still reacting to added sulfites (problem with a dried peach a couple of months ago). I become flush with wines. I struggled with asthma for years - hasn't been a problem since embarking on increased health this fall.
I frequently suffer from plantar fasciitis - had no idea that was a sulfur issue
with Mo, epsom salt baths, my son and I were doing great, we were able to eat egg yolks (12 at one sitting, which required a little bit extra Mo - boy were they delicious), the other day we each had one. While eating, he broke out in a rash and I got itchy. Great information. What we were doing was working. I am waiting for my supply of Mo in the mail.

 

[Theloose]

It sounds like you're well on your way to figuring things out!

I wouldn't assume you don't have the MTHFR polymorphism based on diet - folic acid is supplemented all over the place, so if you were eating SAD, chances are you were getting the RDA. It's in cereals, bread products... Can't think of what else since it's so off my radar now

Would you be willing to take a picture of your posterior tongue ties and post it at heal thyself?

And I'm so excited for you, that you're figuring out the sulfur thing

: I get a little giddy seeing the theory of this stuff actually work for people!

 

[FireWithin]

We are on our way, and it feels great.

: although he have gone quite a bit backwards recently. I do know what to do to get back.

I do have some info I want to add and some detox issues I want to solve.

So I know how to solve our transulfuration issues.
We also are doing well with food folate and B12, and with B6 and Mo.
I used Mo to help solve the intense depression I was experiencing. I am extremely proud of myself for connecting those dots.

What are some of the other pathways we should be considering?
Even with those two biggies for us, we were only able to have small amounts of corn derivitives (which was huge) and egg yolks. I would love to add more foods. My goal for the end of the summer is to not restrict our fruits and vegetables, basically to restrict dairy, gluten, corn (except small amounts), soy (although I would love a safe soy sauce - Pat's comments about Bragg's have made me a bit nervous.)

Also, I am not doing my B vitamins well. With only a small amount of B6, I got a hairy, scalloped tongue. My guess is that I am not balancing my Bs well. I am doing food folate, B 12 and B6. My pendulum often says I don't need B6 and B12 - but I think there are complications preventing my body from absorbing more (like my magnesium issue, that seems to have magically resolved.)
How is everyone balancing their Bs? Do you think that is the problem I am having with hairy tongue, or is there another factor I'm not considering?
I would love to find a B complex that has a safe folate, or without a folate. I know Tanya referred to that before. Any ideas? I will look into that also myself.

Calcium - everything I take makes me nauseous. I am trying to use bone broth as my source, but for days that I don't drink it, I would like to use something else. Does anyone else have this problem? solutions? I have a bottle of calcium lactate that I could try.
Any herbal infusions that are especially good?

 

[kjbrown92]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mammo2Sammo Calcium - everything I take makes me nauseous. I am trying to use bone broth as my source, but for days that I don't drink it, I would like to use something else. Does anyone else have this problem? solutions? I have a bottle of calcium lactate that I could try. Any herbal infusions that are especially good?

That's me too. The only one I can tolerate is the Cal/Mag from Vital Nutrients and it's only 200mg/100mg, and I can't take more than 1 or still get that nauseous feeling and I'm supposed to be having 800mg a day. Not happening with me except on bone broth days.

What's the asparagus test? My DH researched that last year (when he's on night shift, they talk about weird things to pass the time) and everything just said that some people's pee smells and some don't and some people can smell it and some can't so you have to be a person who's pee smells and who can smell it. What is it supposed to be showing? My DH can have 3 stalks and it will make his pee smell the very next time he pees. For me, I have to have a bunch of it, and it doesn't make my pee smell until the next morning...

 

[mtn.mama]

We depend on nettle infusions for our calcium. Our nutrient tea is seriously a staple around here. When I lay off it for a day, the crystal makes me take handfuls of vitamins... the red clover blossoms have Mo too. Glad to hear you're doing well.

What is this about Pat's Braggs analysis? We're off all soy right now but I'd like to hear about this- as I too want a little soy back. We're subbing with a ton of sea salt and blackstrap molasses right now.

 

[FireWithin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kjbrown92 That's me too. The only one I can tolerate is the Cal/Mag from Vital Nutrients and it's only 200mg/100mg, and I can't take more than 1 or still get that nauseous feeling and I'm supposed to be having 800mg a day. Not happening with me except on bone broth days. What's the asparagus test? My DH researched that last year (when he's on night shift, they talk about weird things to pass the time) and everything just said that some people's pee smells and some don't and some people can smell it and some can't so you have to be a person who's pee smells and who can smell it. What is it supposed to be showing? My DH can have 3 stalks and it will make his pee smell the very next time he pees. For me, I have to have a bunch of it, and it doesn't make my pee smell until the next morning...

I seem to remember that it is a sulfur issue. When we were on top of our game in the beginning of March, I think I passed the asparagus pee test, but it was one of those remembering back tests. Oh yeah I ate asparagus two nights ago, and I don't remember smelling the smell. I can have a very small amount in a food and the next time I pee, it is strong.

 

[FireWithin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mtn.mama We depend on nettle infusions for our calcium. Our nutrient tea is seriously a staple around here. When I lay off it for a day, the crystal makes me take handfuls of vitamins... the red clover blossoms have Mo too. Glad to hear you're doing well. What is this about Pat's Braggs analysis? We're off all soy right now but I'd like to hear about this- as I too want a little soy back. We're subbing with a ton of sea salt and blackstrap molasses right now.

what is your ratio of nettles or other herbs to water? is it strong tasting? when I make it, it tastes like green tea - easy to go down, but I don't know if I am taking enough.

The Bragg's comment is on this thread - http://www.mothering.com/discussions...701&highlight=

I am not sure if I agree with all of it, considering the sources (raw vegan). One of the issues is that Bragg's is high in glutamate - a natural source of MSG? so maybe we should stop because of that BUT so is bone broth and I haven't heard anyone here say to stop that. I am not sure if there is another reason to stop it.
I sometimes wonder if I see a pattern of my 6 year old's behavior a day after eating Bragg's, as if it is truly an exitotoxin. I'm not sure.

 

[kjbrown92]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mammo2Sammo I seem to remember that it is a sulfur issue. When we were on top of our game in the beginning of March, I think I passed the asparagus pee test, but it was one of those remembering back tests. Oh yeah I ate asparagus two nights ago, and I don't remember smelling the smell. I can have a very small amount in a food and the next time I pee, it is strong.

High sulfur? Low sulfur? detox pathway?

 

[mtn.mama]

PMing you about the tea...

 

[Theloose]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mammo2Sammo I used Mo to help solve the intense depression I was experiencing. I am extremely proud of myself for connecting those dots. What are some of the other pathways we should be considering? Even with those two biggies for us, we were only able to have small amounts of corn derivitives (which was huge) and egg yolks. I would love to add more foods. My goal for the end of the summer is to not restrict our fruits and vegetables, basically to restrict dairy, gluten, corn (except small amounts), soy (although I would love a safe soy sauce - Pat's comments about Bragg's have made me a bit nervous.) Also, I am not doing my B vitamins well. With only a small amount of B6, I got a hairy, scalloped tongue. My guess is that I am not balancing my Bs well. I am doing food folate, B 12 and B6. My pendulum often says I don't need B6 and B12 - but I think there are complications preventing my body from absorbing more (like my magnesium issue, that seems to have magically resolved.) How is everyone balancing their Bs? Do you think that is the problem I am having with hairy tongue, or is there another factor I'm not considering? I would love to find a B complex that has a safe folate, or without a folate. I know Tanya referred to that before. Any ideas? I will look into that also myself. Calcium - everything I take makes me nauseous. I am trying to use bone broth as my source, but for days that I don't drink it, I would like to use something else. Does anyone else have this problem? solutions? I have a bottle of calcium lactate that I could try. Any herbal infusions that are especially good?

I'm curious about the Mo/depression connection. Care to elaborate?

Corn derivatives might be a sulfite thing. Have you looked at that angle?

I'm not sure about the scalloped tongue - mine's like that all the time now, and my best guess is that it's a thyroid thing. I'm not convinced though. The hairy tongue for me, I think was a keratin thing - that would fit for you too, I think. Keratin is a protein with a ton of cysteine in it. Supping cysteine made it come back for me (it had disappeared for months/years but I used to have it all the time) so I'm thinking cysteine must be the limiting factor. Cysteine is made from homocysteine using mag and B6. Calcium entering cells through calcium channels acts as a regulator of a ton of processes. The calcium thread has more details on that and my theories of what's going on with us.

What's interesting and we might be able to piece something together here is that in the past few weeks, I've been feeling completely different. It seems to correlate with high vit d and bone broth days, and then for the next few days I have this low level nausea. I'm wondering if it's a hypercalcemia sort of thing, or what. I've also reduced a bunch of my B's in that time (still well above the RDA, but no longer in the 100mg range), so I'm not sure if that's muddling the picture as well. I keep meaning to bring it up, cause it's turning me into a not very hungry, carb craver. Which totally isn't me normally, but sounds very much like a lot of picky food sensitive toddlers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mammo2Sammo I seem to remember that it is a sulfur issue. When we were on top of our game in the beginning of March, I think I passed the asparagus pee test, but it was one of those remembering back tests. Oh yeah I ate asparagus two nights ago, and I don't remember smelling the smell. I can have a very small amount in a food and the next time I pee, it is strong.

The smell has to do with how well you process sulfur compounds. I've never noticed a smell over here, and we do really well with high sulfur foods. That's really interesting to me that you've actually noticed a change in the intensity of the smell - that means it might actually be a useful indicator of something beyond genetics!

 

[mtn.mama]

According to my ND, a scalloped tongue is "splenective" according to Chinese medicine- and means that you have digestive problems. Heh.

 

[FireWithin]

Looking back I can see that I started seeing an emotional decline this summer. By this fall I started isolating myself and feeling more blah. By November it started getting more pronounced, but I couldn't always identify it, plus I kept myself busy with the holidays and adjusting to the idea of taking out corn. Removing corn, on top of all of our other restrictions, was really devastating. For the months of Nov, Dec and half of Jan, we played around with how much corn we could handle (ie citric acid, xanthan gum, etc.) My emotions were all over the place, including a lot of fears leaning towards paranoia but not that bad. I wouldn't change my clothing for daysm especially my shirts. The only thing I could really do was focus on parenting and healing us. I spent hours everyday studying. At that point I really started isolating myself. I just couldn't do it at all. By mid January I had decided to call all corn off. I was done testing and throwing my son's body into upheaval. Also, by then I wasn't doing much baking anyway. Four days after removing it all I started feeling better - much clearer, more able to talk to people. I think that totally removing corn relieved my nutrient stores and helped me quite a bit. I wronglybelieved that corn was the starter of all of the depression, but I do think it was part of it. Life was really stressful at that time. A relationship that I cherished was destroyed and I was trying to keep together another friendship. A lot of emotional stuff. So I knew that those emotions were taking a toll on my body also.
Around that time I also started juicing. I followed SB's method of romaine lettuce, celery, cucumbers as a base. There were days that I felt good, other days that started off good and then went bad by afternoon, some days it was hard to get out of bed. I hadn't made a connection to my juicing/non-juicing days.
By the end of Feb, DH was talking about me getting to a doc, or doing something to help me. I couldn't stop crying and my heart actually ached all the time. Tears were the only way I could get relief. Hugs from my oldest son really helped also. But, at that point I had been learning enough about nutrition and seen my emotional patterns to really believe that it was nutritional. I just couldn't figure it out until. . .
All around the same time I saw some connections that added together started making a good picture.
It must have been Whome that mentioned B6 and molybdenum helped with serotonin. (but I don't remember and I'm not sure about any of that anymore. I might have came across it in my research) Oh I remember Whome taught that B6 and Mo were a detox pathway pair.
It was CS who pointed out that they had very high levels of Mo and they ate buckwheat all the time.
Also I knew that the juicing was helping my emotions, but not enough. Whome gave me a list of nutrients in that I was drinking and Mo came up.
I am unable to eat most sources of Mo, so I knew I was low. What I hadn't realized was how low it got.
Except for buckwheat, we used to use it a lot in baking. BUT in November when we took out corn, I hugely reduced out consumption of buckwheat because baking without corn or guar gum really sucks. In Dec, we tried to eat it as a breakfast cereal just to expand our diet, but I gave up because I didn't like the texture. So by Jan my consumption was close to non-existant.
I also started suspecting that my copper was high because of my past history of bc pills and other things. Also my zinc is crazy low. I knew that copper was a pair with Mo also (right?)
Right before this I got Mo anyway because I needed it for my detox pathway with B6.
I started taking it with my pendulum as my guide (along with b6) I was taking 30 droppers a day rather than 6-7. Within hours I started feeling relief, within days started feeling myself.
Also we quickly started being able to eat egg yolks and eat corn derivatives (which Whome mentioned could be a sulfur issue, which I don't understand why

)
So I was naturally raising my serotonin levels. I have been riding high on this knowledge for the past month. It means everything to me to have figured this out. My brothers and mother are all on something. I have always known that taking meds would be a possibility for me, so to figure this out med free is awesome.
I have been out of Mo for the past 2 weeks and have started struggling again, but I think my Mo stores helped me through it. I also have been juicing like mad.
I also just learned that sunflower seeds are high in copper and I have really increased our consumption of it in the past 6 months. I wonder if there is a connection there.
Figuring this out is really empowering.

 

[Theloose]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mammo2Sammo Also we quickly started being able to eat egg yolks and eat corn derivatives (which Whome mentioned could be a sulfur issue, which I don't understand why ) So I was naturally raising my serotonin levels. I have been riding high on this knowledge for the past month. It means everything to me to have figured this out.

Fascinating story! I'm honored that I was able to be helpful for some of it

The corn/sulfur connection is that corn can be soaked in sulfites(?) before it's processed into stuff. So even though the proteins/cornness may be gone, it could still be chock full of sulfites. It seems like there's got to be more to it than that, but that's what I could find.