corinne

I recently moved to central california and just had my first encounter with poison oak. I was at a friend's house on Friday night and petted her cat. From what I can figure out, the cat had been through a patch of poison oak. I must have touched my face and gotten the oil on it. When I washed my face that night, I must have spread the oil over my face. I woke up with a burning face on Sat. morning. My entire face was bright red, my right eye was swollen shut and blisters were starting to come up. I went to the walk in clinic before both eyes swelled shut and they gave me a shot of steroids. Today things have calmed down but I'm sure my students will have a few comments tomorrow about my lovely complexion. I even have blisters on my right eyelid. No more cats or leaves of three for a while.

Another thing is that reactions to gluten can cause diseases other than celiac. I have tested negative for celiac (blood test, biopsy). I do have, however, collagenous colitis. It's symptoms are similar to celiac disease (diarrhea, vomiting) and I, like many other people with the disease, respond to a gluten free diet. At this point in time, there is very little research, but with time, other genes may be discovered that correlate certain diseases or perhaps other digestive difficulties with gluten.

Participating -rockclimbing, mountaineering (is that a sport??), trail running, skiing (downhill, cross-country, randonee, tele). Why did I move to California 3 hours from the nearest snow?

Watching - hockey (Flames), figure skating, gymnastics, diving.

For me, the arguments on posts is very valuable. I am able to see different points of views and the reasons for why those views are held. Part of being an adult IS being able to passionately hold a point of view, being able to defend it and to not take offense when somewhen holds a different opinion. If the post descends into childish behaviours such as name-calling or offensive language, then I would say it's time to pull it. Otherwise, I'd prefer that everyone feels free to openly express themselves.

She definitely needs to get checked for gallbladder, pancreatic or other problems. Malabsorption of fat can occur with celiac damage and it may take quite a while for her gut to heal. She will have a harder time gaining weight without fat (fat has more than double the calories of carbs/protein for the same weight). Also, a number of vitamins are only soluble in fat so she should be under the care of a dietitian if she is eating absolutely no fat.

I guess part of it is that the course is for seniors/graduate students which seems to be a bit too much for a newbie, but it's a really fun course and something I've always wanted to teach (environmental chemistry). I'm sure the students will be fairly forgiving knowing that I'm new and I'm fortunate to get such a course right away.

Monday will be my first day teaching college. I have prepared (and over-prepared) and I'm still nervous. It's surprising to make it through grad school, comprehensive exams, research fellowships, brutal job interviews and still have a class of college students scare you.

Ursula,

A number of us on the board are following the spec. carb. diet. You can pick up the threads with the search engine. I'm doing the SCD minus dairy. The SCD doesn't cure celiac disease in that you can eat gluten again. It is a gluten free diet and cures the symptoms of celiac.

Almond flour is more finely ground than the ground almonds you buy in the store. You can grind the ground almonds further in your blender.

I use it for baking (I can't eat any grains) and buy it at:

www.nutsforu.com

They sell a variety of other nut flours. The pecan flour makes incredible baked stuff.

It's a common running/hiking/skiing injury. As has been said, make sure your toenails are short enough - it's almost impossible to cut them too short as a runner. Going downhill can definitely cause it. I get it almost everytime I hike downhill more than 2000 vertical feet from toes hitting the front of my boots.

Don't worry about losing your toenails. They usually grow back in fine. Just make sure that you keep the nail as clean as possible, trim off bits that will catch on socks and keep in an eye out to make sure that you're not getting a fungal infection in the nail bed.

Bloodblisters under the nail are very painful. If you have the guts to do it (it's not nearly as bad as it seems) heat up a nail or needle to red hot and push it through the nail (the nail melts and it goes through easily) until you get to the bloodblister so it can drain. It's completely painless to do (although make sure you go slow enough not to hit the nail bed) and it's a huge relief once the blood drains out from under the nail and will often save the nail.

Casein (a protein in dairy) intolerance can cause very similar symptoms to gluten - GI/brain fog etc. Might be worthwhile looking into.

Don't worry. I'm not going to take it. But if I wasn't allergic to sterling silver, you'd have a little more convincing to do because degrees don't scare me. You'd understand if you had my bozo doctors;)

I'm not trying to scare you with degrees. I've been through a number of bozo doctors as well. A degree doesn't guarantee competence. It does indicate a probability of competence. I'm just trying to say that if I have spent a large amount of time studying and doing experiments on arsenic, mercury and silver, I might know something about it and could possibly point you in the right direction.

If you want to see the effects of silver ions on the skin, drop some 1 M silver chloride on you hands. They will be black from 7-10 days until the upper layer of skin peels off (I accidentally spilled some on my hands a few years ago). Silver (mercury and arsenic too) are excellent natural antibiotics. Silver is safe externally ie in the eyes of newborns or for burn victims. It can deposit under the skin when taken internally.

First a little background. I'm a professor of environmental chemistry. I specialize in how microbes interact with metals such as arsenic and mercury.

Please do NOT try the silver treatment. This is one of the few treatments that can have serious consequences. Silver ions can deposit as silver oxide underneath the skin. This will turn the skin somewhere between grey and blue depending on the amount deposited. There is no way to remove the silver (except for extremely aggressive and painful dermabrasion). The amount of silver you can ingest before having an effect on the skin color will vary from person to person and the silver in your system can continue to deposit and darken the skin long after you quit taking the medication. You have no way of knowing if you are the person that easily absorbs silver.

I do a very modified version of the SCD. In addition to the SCD - no legumes, dairy and only peanut butter (can't seem to tolerate any nuts). So I don't make yoghurt. I made it a few times and my system reacted violently. I did make jello a few times with gelatine and fruit juice (instructions are on the gelatine box), but I didn't really like it, too rubbery. For the intro diet, I ate carrot + chicken soup for breakfast+lunch and beef+wellcooked carrots for dinner. For dessert, I had diluted (1/2 water) juice. After 1 week, the D. slowed down and I started adding foods in. After 4 months, I was off all anti-diarrheal drugs.

It is tough, but it will get better.

I'm on a really strict diet for now - just meat, canned peaches+pears, avocados, bananas, beets, carrots and eggs. At first it was hard, but as I started to feel better, that was really motivating. I've learned to look through cookbooks (I borrow them from the library) for interesting combinations and that helps too.

You can probably make some good comfort food - maybe pudding made from coconut or rice milk, pork chops with apple. Finding a few things that satisfy cravings really help.

Raw foods is a very healthy way of eating. The enzymes and vitamins in the food are preserved. However, if you still have digestive issues, you may have troubles with raw foods. The more a food is cooked, the less likely it is to cause diarrhea ie apple sauce is easier to digest than cooked and peeled apples which are easier than raw.

It's hard to find the SCD on the search engine because you have to search at least 4 letters. Try looking under my name and the threads should come up. I've posted in most of them.

I've been on a variation of the SCD (no dairy or lentils at all) for 8 months and I feel great. I run/hike/rockclimb and have no problem with energy. To keep my weight up, I eat a lot of avocados, olive oil and other healthy fats.

Right now, I can't eat gluten, corn, rice, potatos, soy, beans, cruciferous veggies or dairy, but I have found that I can make it work it terms of calories. I don't run more than 5 miles or hike more than 15 because my weight is still low, but I am training and I set a personal best for a 5k in June. I eat about 1/2 a cup of peanut butter (natural) and two bananas for breakfast. I snack on avocados and add lots of olive oil to my foods. Fats are 9 calories per gram whereas carbs and protein are 4 so I focus on lots of healthy fats.

Jestgar - I don't want to lead this discussion off-topic, but thanks SO MUCH for your reference article. I have been searching a long time for an article like this. (even tried pubmed and biosis)

"Because there are epidemiological and histopathological similarities between celiac sprue and microscopic colitis"

I have microscopic colitis and my mother has celiac. My gasteroenterologist has said that there is no connection between the two and that diet has no effect on MC. For 1.5 years I was on anti-diarrheal drugs and when those quit working he wanted to put me on anti-inflamatory or steroid drugs. At that point, I decided to give gluten free a try. After eliminating a number of other foods, I have been symptom and drug free for 6 months.

Proof yet again that diagnostic tests don't always show gluten sensitivity.

I've been on the specific carbohydrate diet for 6 months now. I have collagenous colitis not celiac disease. My mom is celiac and many people with collagenous colitis have a first degree relative with celiac and improve on the gluten free diet.

Initially, I was on medication, but that didn't work any more and the next step was to try steroids. I did not want to go that route so I decided to try gluten free. I got much sicker the more rice and corn I ate. So I decided to give the SCD a try. Symptoms (diarrhea, vomiting, cramps etc) started improving within 2 weeks and now I'm off all medication and have no symptoms at all. I eat more restricted than in the book; I can't tolerate dairy, cruciferous veggies, any beans or uncooked fruit + veggies.

It is a very restrictive diet, but a number of us who do not improve on a gluten free diet are helped by the SCD. I would recommend first going gluten free for several months and see if there is any improvement. If that doesn't work, try eliminating other common problems such as dairy, soy or corn.

The SCD is more of a last resort if nothing else works.

I eat cashew or almond butter with bananas. The nut butters are both high protein and high fibre.

I love spaghetti made with spaghetti squash. Pork chops baked with apples are good. Stirfries are another quick favourite for me. You can make almost anything you used to eat (except for the baked stuff) with a few substitutions.

An interesting read is "The introvert advantage". Some of us are just wired to be introverted and find that spending time with other people takes a lot of energy. We may not be out there as charismatic leaders, but can often contribute significantly through creativity and imagination.

I've had to do that. Right now I'm just eating cooked + peeled fruits + veggies, meat and fish. I've been doing this for about 6 months and feel good. I'm now slowly adding in some fresh fruits and veggies. You may not have to cut as much out, but it's worth a try. Go easy on the fruit too - too much can give you D etc. You can make some good dishes even they're simple. I love sliced apples cooked over pork chops or spaghetti made with spaghetti squash.

I'm A-. I'm really lucky and never get bitten by mosquitoes, but black flies (horrible nasty evil insects) love me. I got about 200 bites on my feet once when I was hiking in BC in Tevas. and had to call in sick the next day for work because my feet swelled so much I couldn't get my shoes on.