bluejeangirl

What can I do to make him understand the importance of zero tolerance about gluten? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

I don't think you CAN reason with a guy who was told as you said explicitly what it means to avoid getting gluttened and yet he still scraped the top off pizza. My Gosh how can you do this to your child. I think what you have to do is to be very bold and tell him yourself YOU will not tolerant this. You have to become your sons advocate. Make sure he knows how angry you are. I wouldn't go the understanding route I'd go , listen to me , YOU will not do this anymore.

Now if he doesn't change then he isn't respecting you. A good marriage has to have this two way respect. He has to know he's not only hurting his son but hurting you. Please get the support of your mom, sister, friends on this. I don't think you should let him off lightly on this.

I'm sorry if this sounds harsh but I just see a red flag here. But you can nip it in the bud hopefully.

Gail

Once something aggravates my bloating into high gear, no matter what I eat, I bloat. By the end of the day I am really bloated. It seems like each thing bloats me a little more. I have read other say it is an IBS symptom. I was wondering if it is also a Celiac symptom. If bloating is from eating gluten, then not eating gluten should stop the bloating, no? Or does it take awhile to calm down. Surely you don't have to completely heal to get rid of the massive bloating? I hope not.

If you take away the offending food your bloating will go away. It'll take more then a day however I'd give it two and up to a week at the most depending on how severe your reaction is. It could be gluten, dairy, nuts, anything.

I remember when I first joined this board their was a girl who could not get rid of bloating no matter what she ate.

She finally had a scope done and she had stomach ulcers and I believe ulcers going right into her small intestines.

So it can be something other then food. Your best bet is to jot down all the food you eat and then follow it with how you feel after you eat. I've kept a food diary for years now.

Good luck,

Gail

Today I did the silliest thing. I missed eating lunch because a friend was here and we got talking for quite some time. I was so hungry I wanted food immediately.

Joss

I have a couple of foods that I always have on hand in case I'm too hungry to wait. I don't know what your favorites are but I almost always have some type of corn tortilla chips or rice chips. I also have gluten free muffins all the time in the freezer. I bake every saturday. We can be so vulnerable when we're hungry. We just have to do alittle planning ahead then most people.

I also think those times you are so hungry and you need food fast its most important to choose the foods that agree with you because you digest them so fast. Like I can have alittle bit of dairy if my stomach is full from eating a meal. Like a spoonful of whipped cream on pie. But if I have dairy on an empty stomach ....... Ouch. I'll cramp up.

There is something I'm curious about and wonder if I could get some feedback. Whenever someone in my household brings home regular bakery or homemade cookies I get very reminisant of the taste and I always pick it up and smell them. They still smell so wonderful to me.

This time of year my husband will get cookies as gifts. People will bring in their homemade favorites. I'll take in a big whiff trying to smell what they probably taste like. Its pretty pathetic standing there smelling cookies

My question is, is this safe to do. ? Does anyone else do this ? I usually wash my hands after. I understand why they make candles that smell like sugar cookies.

Thanks, Gail

Diarrhea doesn't have to involve any cramping at all. Loose stools is anything that isn't formed. It can just be mushy, or it can be like water. It can be like an explosion, making a real mess, or just be.... well....... loose.

And your dictionary is wrong when it talks about 'excessive frequency', as it can just be a one-time thing. That is my experience, anyway.

I always wondered about what was meant by diarrhea. I also thought it involved cramping and watery stools. According to this I did have diarrhea or unformed stools before I went G.F. Interesting.

Thank you Centra for taking the time to reply. I post will help alot of people I'm sure. I'm around the same age and have been through a lot of the same stuff.

I just want to add a couple of other things to look for. I've found it helped to not eat all the rice breads and G.F. mixes and other high carb. foods. I felt great going gluten free for the first month. I was however eating mainly protein, vegetable, some fruit and brown rice. Then I went crazy with all the foods I could have just because they were "gluten free".

I started to feel terrible again. Achy joints, insomnia, anxiety, crabby, etc. I got very moody and figured out it was hypoglycemia. I feel best if I can keep those carbs low.

Also it helps me to limit foods high in lectins if you want to do a google on that subject. Those are grains and beans. It became more clear to me why I was feeling like I was eating the gluten free alternatives.

I don't know if you have acid reflux problems but those problems resolved after giving up tomato sauces especially and potatoes. These are nightshades and they also include peppers. You can find out more if you read under the "other intolerances" part of this forum. Night shades and oxalates is a good gone.

So gluten was just the beginning to a long road of tweaking my diet to finding out how I feel the best. I don't know if you want to hear that, but take your time and read, read, read. It always helps.

Gail

After I eat some meals, the food just sits in my stomach for about 4 hours. It is not being digested and I constantly taste it when I burp. What causes this and what can I do? I take Reglan (metaclopramide) before every meal and at bedtime to speed up digestion, but it is not working. Help!

DrMom

Have you experimented with your diet. The first thing that comes to my mind is very low fat and no raw veggies. Then hard to digest veggies like cabbage and broccoli, legumes?

What has been your experiences with these, do you have a food diary?

Gail

i put my onions in the freezer for about 5 minutes before choppin' em, but that doesn't seem to help much. how do they do it on the cooking shows, without getting all blotchy and teary? lol!

You probably have to put them in the freezer longer. I won't have problems if I keep the onions in the refridgerator but if I cut a room tempeture onion I'll have tears running down my cheeks. If I do have to cut an onion that way I'll get a small fan and aim it so it blows the gasses away from me.

Gail

Rye flour has gluten but it's low in gluten. Not nearly as much as wheat. Most rye breads in the store will have wheat flour in them to get a better rise. They are selling a sour dough german rye bread in our local health food store right now. It does look good so I bought it for my husband. He loves it. The other thing I know about rye is that its a hearty grain and can grow under the toughest conditions. And for some reason its suseptable to mold.

Gail

On the LOD yahoo group, in the files, is a list of physical issues that have been "fixed" for many by the LOD. I had many, many of the problems. Kidney issues, either with you or your family, are a flag that oxalates might be a problem. Urinary issues are a big flag--getting up in the night to urinate is a biggie. IC symptoms and restless leg come up a lot, too. It seems that many women have had life-long problems with bladder infections that they attributed to yeast, and that these were not yeast infections at all, but oxalate complications.

I'm glad you mentioned restless leg because I've wanted to call it that right away. This is a big symptom of mine. Also the bladder pain. It'll also affect my joints or what seems like the ligaments in and around joints. Especially up around the skull and jaw area. I know that's because I have a mouth full of metal. Still have my fillings. It might be that I feel stress in my neck and shoulders and those muscles tighten pulling on the ligaments. I don't know. I know this area has improved so much since being on this diet. It really amazes me.

The bottom line is probably that if your gut is damaged, there are probably oxalates sneaking through. And oxalates have probably attached to the damaged tissue. So you probably would benefit from the LOD.

This seems to make sense to me. I've been looking all my life for a diet to heal a damaged gut and this is the first time a diet for healing it makes sense to me.

Now I'd like to give a personal opinion on the chemical sensitivity part, because I have that too. But this is just my own observations. I seem to get the neck and shoulder pain from exposure to molds and dust. THat is not an oxalate reaction with me. I have a friend who is also being treated by a good doctor for Candida/metals and her doctor says the shoulder pain is a toxic reaction, and shows that the liver is not able to detoxify the body correctly. I absolutely get neck and shoulder pain when I eat moldy food or clean a dusty room.

Amanda

All of this is mind blowing for me. I've know for years I have the candida problem and went on candida diets and nystatin for years also paying expensive doctor fees for weekly tests and food sensitivites etc. That was many years ago and they know so much more now. I still have the mold problem and this is the worse time of year for me with all the decay of plants and leaves in the air. We also live in the woods and mushrooms are all around our house.

Thank you so much Amanda with all your help. I'm still learning so many new things and it helps to hear from someone who has been through it. Thats what we really needed in this thread. I have to learn to lower my load alittle more. I was worried about eating white rice and having the white rice/tapioca bread as my only grain being that its high glycemic and that causing candida syptoms. You said mention that its ok and that's a relief. I will be getting that book by dr. semon. and I'm going to break down and by the vp foundation.

My biggest battle is what to eat. I just want to know "what".

Gail

I'm late but still want to wish you a happy birthday, Lisa. How was your cake?

Gail

The other day I was making a buffalo patty for lunch and was really hungry for a big salad to go with it. I made a salad using dark green romaine lettuce and made a dressing with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. I had put on black olives on the salad too. Then figuring I blew it for the day I had green beans, roasted potatoes and carrots for supper. Funny how that's considered blowing one's diet.

Anyway I had a reaction that I think is related to oxalates. All over the very surface of my skin or just underneath it actually I had a burning, icy, prickly feeling that was very sensitive to touch. Expecially on my legs. The fact that it was irritable made me think it was oxalate crystals. I know my legs are the first to hurt when I was dumping the oxaltes early in the program.

So I had my little experiment and now I'm back on tract. I was reading how its important to not to eat sugar on this diet. I guess I forgot that.

When you have inflamed gut, Crohn's for example, very few oxalates are absorbed. So since autistic kids often have inflamed gut, it made sense to have a low-oxalate diet. We did a pilot study with 7 kids. All 7 were high in oxalates, and started the diet. They had problems with frequent urination, GI pain, etc. within a couple hours of eating. They had changes in behavior following eating. Things started changing with the diet. A lot of the things we've been calling yeasty behaviors go away with a low-oxalate diet. A lot of these kids had trouble taking DMG and TMG, glycine in general. We saw problems with constipation/diarrhea in these kids before the diet, even after being treated by GI docs. A lot of these children had trouble when introducing nuts, legumes, soy. A lot of these kids craved high-oxalate foods.

[...] Some of the food preferences of these kids are changing on the diet. Rice/corn caused one child to break out

That's helpful about the grass-fed beef -- I wondered if it would avoid the fungus problem.

What do you do naturally for yeast? I was wondering whether grapefruit seed extract was low or high oxalate. Any idea?

Any of you do aloe vera juice?

I was taking Cat's Claw which is pretty powerful and it's also good for leaky gut, ulcers, diverticulosis, improves the immune system and more if you want to google it. But its high is antioxidants and pytochemicals so I figured its a given that its also high in oxalates. So I stopped taking it.

I'll get yeast to die off just by eating low carb. I've got to just fight one battle at a time and I'm going to try and heal with this oxalate diet first. I'll worry later about what to do next. I am eating alot of onions and garlic and those are good at killing parisites and candida also.

I get sick on aloe vera juice. Just thinking about it makes me sick. I'm taking a probiotic that you have to refrigerate. Made in madison Wisconsin sold by chiropractors called T9 to L1 SmI by Chiro-Zyme. So I"m doing alittle to help with the candida. Now to stop eating cookies.

Gail

One mom over there doing LOD said they also follow Dr. Semon's yeast-free diet and that going LOD also caused them to increase sugar intake. I know now my yeast problems have increased and that I have to deal with that next. Have any of you done Nystatin? Who else here has yeast problems and what do you do for it?

Side note on this: Dr. Semon apparently discourages a lot of meat eating because the feed for animals is often aspergillus-contaminated...which contributes to yeast problems. Rachel -- maybe you know more about this?

I have a new oxalate dumping symptom -- vulvar pain! I had no idea what it was and have never had it before. I went to VP Foundation website which has more useful LOD info if you all haven't been over there. Anyway, Susan confirmed it's likely a dumping symptom.

It does seem that the same symptoms that were making us sick eating high oxalates can also be dumping symptoms simply because not eating oxalates forces the oxalates that have built up in our cells to come out and cause trouble just like they did when we were eating them. My experience has been though that the dumping symptoms are less GI whereas the eating oxalate symptoms were more GI -- which makes sense given that oxalate dumping means it's coming out of cells elsewhere in the body rather than coming in through the GI tract.

Gail,

I used to take calcium lactate, as it was recommended to me by a Kinesiologist. At the time, I researched it and found that it was the most readily absorbed (as you said). The problem with it for me was that it (Standard Process) contained the magnesium. Any time I take magnesium alone, or combined with other things, I get worsening D.

This is what I'm taking Standard Process calcium lactate with the magniesm and I'm almost done with the bottle. It's expensive and I didn't want to throw it out. Interesting about the calcium carbonate helping D and I agree. If I take it, it'll cause constipation.

I didn't get my suppliments delivered yet but when I do I'll go one at a time for maybe a week at a time before I start with a new one. I'm alittle anxious about taking these. I've had bad experiences with taking vitamins. I still can't get a B complex that agrees with me and I've bought many. I used to eat the model diet because I couldn't take vitamins. Little did a know the blueberries for breakfast and spinach salads for lunch were also making me worse.

I remember reading small red beans had the highest antioxidant and trying to eat them as much as I could while feeling like I was dying. I was eating berries, drinking a glass of wine every night and taking a baby aspirin daily. My blood got so thin I had 7 bruises on my legs. It felt like my stomach was bleeding because I could taste blood. Crazy. I don't know how to do anything halfway, I go full force.

I had pea soup last night and it didn't agree with me this morning. I guess its in the moderate column but I had more then a half a cup. I'd say a cup and a half. I might try it again because it was soooo goood, but only having the half cup. I'm starting to lose some of my resolve I had in the beginning.

take care,

Gail

I've noticed an interesting thing with the calcium...

But.....I noticed that when I don't break them in half, they seem to sit in my stomach and it's very uncomfortable. Gail, that high gas we talked about came back when I did this--all I know it that now that I've gone back to breaking them up, they sit better and no more stomach upset. I've tried it both ways several times.

I've been thinking about this calcium thing but I haven't had time to google it yet. These are my thoughts on it. I'm taking calcuim with every meal and I've never done that before. Its actually a calcium/magnesium tablet in the form of calcium lactate and magnesium citrate. I take this because its the most absorbable of all the cals. out there whereas calcium carbonate is the worse. I have calcium citrate coming in the mail and I'll start taking that next.

So I'm taking three tablets every meal and the recommendation is two. I already have little to no stomach acid and digestion is poor. Thats is why I can't consume cabbage cauliflower and broccoli. This is common as we grow older but because I've taken so many acid reducers in the past I've made the problem worse.

The food in my stomach is delayed because of this (again common) because it has to wait for a certain ph for it to pass on the the small intestine and move on down the line. I'm taking the cal. suppliments and being calcium it's neutrilizing what little acid I have. So even longer time is required to get the ph more acid to work on digesting process.

So I'm going to start to take my calcium inbetween meals. I think they recommend before which would be worse in my case. But I think alot of this research is for young people with autism then for older people which is why its hard for me to even read the boards talked about in the beginning of this thread. Its mostly mothers talking about their kids.

So other then that I'm in less pain muscle and joint wise then I've been in a long time. I would have to say the worse I felt was the second week of this diet. I think I did the most dumping then. It was a week long of very sore leg and joint pain. Along with being very tired and flu like. Then is cleared and I've been good ever since with the exception of the stomach/digestive troubles.

But I feel like I'm getting to the bottom of this and hopefully I'lll get the improvement needed for the lining of my gut and stomach that I've had for most of my life. What a miracle that would be. Don't know if that will happen but I'm giving this a fair chance even though I've wanted to quit several times.

I'm eating more then required for the med. ox. vegetables because there are to few for me to eat in the all you can eat kind. Other then that I've stayed away from all highs. I eat brown rice instead of white because I'll get to blood sugar issues with white. In fact if I keep the carbs on the low side when possible.

So that's my weeks progress report. Next week maybe I'll have something to say about taking the other suppliments that they suggested for all those following the diet. They should be here today since I've ordered them online. They are calcium citrate, Arginine, Taurine, Lipoic Acid, NAC (N-acetyl cysteine). I forget why I'll have to review and I'll probably add just a few at a time. I'm already taking the A, E, B6, Biotin, and zinc.

Judy and Florence, its so nice to hear your doing good as well. I'm glad we can all collaberate and knock around ideas and silly notions (speaking for myself of course) You all make this fun coming here. I love your humor Judy and I'll be so estatic if you get better on this.

Gail

Gail,

I had that same stomach gas for most of last week. I don't believe that I was CC or ate anything I was intolerant to. (I was CC'd over this past weekend, but this gas feeling was last week)

It bordered on nausea, but I had a sense that it was gas and that if it would just move, I'd feel better. Since it was a different thing than I usually get--and it happened after the achiness began to subside, I think it may have been more dumping of oxalates. Hard to be sure, though.

I didn't think too much of it at the time, but now that I see that you had something similar, maybe it is connected....

That could be Patti, mine bordered on nausea also. Today I decided to lay off the cauliflower, broccoli and apples. Try that for a week. I've been having them because they are low ox. but normally I know they give me gas problems. I need to heal the gut alittle more before I can properly digest some fo these foods. I was just reading that an inadaquate digestive system will steal enzymes from the immune sysgtem to operate , therefore weakening the immune function even more. I don't want to increase the toxic load with my inability to digest these vegetable.

You can't win, I try to eat vegetables for the nutrition but poor digestion leaves the body and the immune sysem in the same predicament that poor nutrition does. So I guess I'll try this and see what happens. I read what you said about thinking nightshades were more of a problem and now your thinking is changing. Mine to,...tomatoes aren't as bad as I once thought to. I just can't eat alot of them or a load of spaghetti sauce on my tinkyada. With tomato sauces I get the problem with acid staying in my stomach because it relaxes the that valve. As does coffee and chocolate. I also read where calcium suppliments can relax that valve also so if anyone notices this happening it could be the extra calcium were taking.

RACHEL!!! That is wonderful! This is such great news. Saying prayers it continues to agree with you.

Great day everyone,

Gail

I came across this bit of info about calcium carbonate and oxalates. It's not much, but it reinforces my opinion that the carbonate binds with the oxalates as well as the citrate

This is nice to know since I still haven't changed my calcium. I wanted to wait until I was done with what I'm taking. Its made up of calcium lactate and carbonate.

Anyway, I went from reducing my carbs to eating alot of them. I broke out my rice flours and started baking away. I mixed tapioca flour in there too because I don't that has oxalates in it, gosh that flour is void of everything but I used it for texture more than anything. I think I needed a seritonin boost. Slept pretty good ever since. Oh I made corn bread too. For some reason I just craved the taste some sort of grain thing that I could spread butter on.

So I was hitting the med. oxalates more than I should but I haven't went over to the highs yet. I know the high ones bother me without even wondering about that. Although those chocolate chips Rachel's talking about sounds pretty good. Did anyone watch Oprah yesterday? Jessica Seinfeld makes puree's out of all her veggies and then hids them in foods like maybe spinach in brownies in order for her kids to eat them. Hows that for a high ox food. Spinach brownies. I can feel the crystals forming.

I've been feeling just O.K. Pain still in knees and elbows and I'm pretty slow in the mornings. I got real gassy over the weekend not colon gas but right in my stomach and pushing up kind. I don't know what that was about other then the night before we went out to eat at a mexican resturant and I could of been c.c.'d. I'm realizing now I had a couple scoops of refried beans. That could of been it....just think that little amount.

Gail

Open Original Shared Link

See if this works, it had the small chart of foods and the oxalate levels.

Gail

Hello everyone. I've been LOD'ing for over a week and pretty much felt better then I have in a long time. I didn't have the dumping symptons or see evidence of giving off crystals or anything so I wondered if my body, having the candida just wasn't allowing the blood levels of oxalates to get low enough. So I went low carb. about 20 grams of carbs per meal. Mainly protein and low carb. low ox. vegetables. I took Cats Claw to further the assult on candida.

I ended up feeling horrible. Flu like symptoms, achy, carbby, emotional, tired but couldn't get a good sleep feeling. It was too unbearable so I have to adjust this again and add more carbs. I was losing weight anyway and I can't afford to do that since Im underweight already. Even right now its hard for me to think or be motivated to do anything. So getting the candida under control is going to priority for me. I'm sure I'm dumping oxalates along with candida when I'm feeling this way.

Another thing I found out is lentils isn't that low in oxalates. I found that it was 7.8 for a 1/2 c. I was eating them last week thinking they were much lower then that. Brown rice and oatmeal are lower then that and I much rather be eating those. I'll see if I can find that chart and post it. It was just a small chart of random foods. I do wish we had an actual chart of just how much everything is. I hate not knowing.

I added biotin. An under the tongue lozen. 1,000 mcg.s. Maybe it'll help my hair grow in thicker. It's nice to see the group expanding. Welcome Donna,.. your story is alot like mine with the dental stuff. Mercury has to be one of the biggest cover-ups in history. Someday we'll know.

On a positive note, I haven't had any stomach related pain since on this diet. I must be getting rid of the food that cause my problems with digestion. Thats a relief to know. So many people are on acid reducers and I think they are only making problems worse for people. Of course I know its hard for people to give up foods.

Anyway, off I go to learn more. I only have so much time on this thing before other things start calling me. Hugs to everyone.

Gail

I was able to read more today, still doing my best to understand all this. Thanks Catesfolly for posting the research paper on CFS. It does make alittle sense to about Methylation being blocked and must be cleared because this holds down the glutathion levels. It all sounds complicated to me. If I don't get better I'll have to copy that and try and find a doctor who can do all the tests. I can understand how you can't do this on your own.

Rachel, lactose has been found to increase the amount of oxalates? "Aspergellas produced a large output of oxalates when given lactose." I think I'll be going lactose free. Rachel, I hope you can find if you have a problem with this. I was very disappointed in the doctor reaction to your conscern about having and finding out if you do. I don't think she knows as much as you do about this.

I want to get some biotin. I'll find out what everyelse is getting first. Also intested in Ip6 with inositol. Please try to explain more and where did you get it.

Good nite all.

Gail

I'm learning so much about myself in this thread, its just amazing. I still have so much to learn and will do that this week, kinda hard on weekends. I can tell just three days on the diet I feel so much better. No dumping yet so I must be in sort of a grace period before stuff starts to happen. I sleep better, my head is clearer and I don't get the head rushes I freguently get. Less burping and gas. My pain in my joints went from an 8 down to a 4. So this is working for me.

The difficulties are finding enough to eat. Today I made some muffins from the SCD book recipe section. It calls for almond flour but I used coconut flour and they turned out great. I'm eating alittle dairy like cottage cheese on my necturines but I seem to have just a low threshold with dairy....I only seem to get mucousy if I eat more then 1/2 c. of it.

I do eat alot of protein but I always have. Carbs are my enemy and veggies just don't fill me up. Yellow Rose I ate like that for the past 2 years and I didn't feel any better. We spent well over $250 on food a week, for 3 people. My husband pushed it to, nothing but the best. Still sick, tired and achy. Arachidonic acid is mostly in red meat and mainly marbalized steaks. I wouldn't worry about it in other leaner meats.

Wine is good but haven't been drinking it lately I think if I find one with no sulfites I'll try it to see if it works for me. But it hurts my bladder more then anything. Thats improved TOO I haven't had bladder pain in two days.

Rachel, amazing stuff I'm learning from you. So if mercury is taking out the neccessary sulfur could you just take it in suppliments like MSM or are you messing with the mercury by doing that? I love all foods that contain sulfurs like onions and garlics should I eat more? I do take a glutathione suppliment called reduced glutathione. It says 100 mgs of l-glutathione (reduced) (free-form) what ever that means.

I took l-glutamine and Sam-e about a year ago when I had to stop because it was making me so hyper. I wouldn't even sleep...I would just stare up at the ceiling. I then read it does that to some people. I was in a manic state and not coming off it. I stopped taking it and got better so I guess not for me. I think Sam-e has alot of sulfur in it too....hmmm maybe I don't handle sulfers to good.

Interesting what was said about the slow bowel and how that isn't good because of reabsorbtion of toxins. Another thing I worry about but with this low oxalate diet I know to make it work I have to have three to four servings of fruit. I mostly have apples, pears or necturines. I've been peeling the apples, chop it up and cooking it and having it warm with alittle fage (greek yogurt) on it. Its the only yogurt I tolerate. I'm eating about 4 to 6 servings of vegetables mostly cooked, and I don't see any problems with bowels. In fact I always to better without grains. Grains slow things down.

Its easy to see why I'm so toxic. Another thing that happened to me is I lost 40 lbs of weight in a short period of time which is what lead me to discovering my gluten intolerence. Alot of toxins are stored in fat tissues and I think I did my liver in with tying to toxify my body. It probably wasn't working that good in the first place and it was just pushed over the edge.

Well I want to say more but this is getting to long I have to try and understand this alittle better and read all the good links everyone has been sending.

Judy, I'm glad your doing better today...do you have an I-pod? I have this song I'm listening to alot and it really helps me. If you have one let me know.

Gail

From what I have learned, oxalates are normally digested by a good bacterium in our intestines called oxac. formigenes, and this good bacteria can be destroyed by antibiotics, perhaps vaccines, or long term intestinal illness. Once the bacteria is gone, you cannot digest oxalates normally and they cause a condition called enteric hyperoxalosis, which is a known condition by urologists and some of the more learned gastroenterologists. The oxalates form crystals which are attracted to tissue that has been damaged by injury or illness. Organs, muscles, even bone. Bacteria, such as lyme, or candida and metals bind with the oxalates

I'm very interested in trying this diet. The more I'm reading about and all your posts makes me believe this could help me. Like many of you going gluten free helped but I know there's along road ahead to get to where I feel good. To summarize my problems I could say it started with candida yeast shortly after the birth of my second son in 84. But I think it started way before that with mercury poisoning, just as you Rachel. I have alot of fillings and wanted to get them removed but never did. Twice I've had a filled tooth crack and them had them crowned. Which I don't think was done proper.

Anyway yeah the candida was real hard to get rid of took a year of strict dieting and lots of nistatin. I did ok for the next 15 years but I could tell I was getting sicker and sicker. I have alot of jaw and upper neck pain. Joint pain expecially on rainy days along with the brain fog and forgetfullness. The pain seems to be more in the ligements.

Also CFS which makes it hard to get a job. I haven't worked for 8 years.

Anyway I want to thank Patti for starting this thread and Rachel for your input with your research, you always help me out. I'm going to eat more then I should of the vegetables on the limited list because I won't be eating white rice or kellogs corn flakes. I can't eat cabbage or cucumbers either ..... to hard on my system. I get constipatied if I don't eat enough vegetable so I think its wise.

I'm going to just go grainless so I'm alittle worried about losing weight which I don't want to do. I might experiment wih coconut flour. If anyone has made things with it I would love recipes and tips. Also it says acorn squash is good so Im wondering about other squashes like butternut and hubbard squash. I looked on one list and it says zucchinni is bad and the list posted here says zucchinni is good, but summer squash is bad which is what I thought zucchinni was or was a part of that class? Any thouchts? How about patty pan squash?

Anyway I have to run but wanted to introduce myself and hopefully I'll be making some progress reports.

Gail

I know exactly how you feel! I am bloated all the time even though totally gluten-free, so I'm in the process of figuring it out with my doctor. On my really bad days I will be really faint and will start to black out EVERY single time I get up from a chair. When I'm having days like these I also feel a lot of pressure in my head and a horrible headache. Do you have any other symptoms that go along with the bloating and light-headedness?

Sounds like your blood pressure might be low. I've had this many of times. I also have a theory on the dizziness. If there is alot of gas in our stomachs and intestines it must somehow get absorbed in our bloodstream. That has got to be why we feel so spacey and lightheaded. I guess the question would be what is this gas made up of? and can there be anything we can do to rid our bodies of it. Wouldn't it be the opposite of what happens when your deep sea diving and what happens when you get too deep into the waters and get what's called the bends.(sp?)

I guess I should google it and do some researching. Good question though cause I hate that feeling. I wonder if others feel this as much as we do. Doubt if I'll find anything on the subject.

Gail

I would eat enough fiber and ate whole grains for years and could never figure out why I was constipated. It got to the point where there was little movement and my appetite would go away. I knew it was bad to have my gut full and sitting that way for days. I was nauseated, head felt stuffed with cotton, sinues full, joints hurt. Then at night I would have bad dreams. I also lost 30 lbs.

All this led me to reading dangerous grains and a few other books and then here. I found out my cousin had celiac from birth and my grandma had stomach cancer etc, etc. Things just added up. Went gluten free and started to eliminate other foods that caused allergies.

When I get cc'd I'll get naucous, my lower bowel will spasm and make noise but I sit on the toilet and nothing. Its so frustrating. I'll also get heartburn and sooo much gas.

So no your not alone

Gail