Pain, Pain, Go Away!

Sometime soon, I'm going to post on the germ-fighting properties of coconut oil. (In a nutshell, your body converts the oil into a microbe killing machine--as long as the microbes are lipid coated. If you have staph or H. pylori, among other things, it could help. Cold sufferers, you're on your own.) It might even help HIV. FWIW, it helped my recent ear ache. Meantime, I've been taking another approach to help medical science: a video game called Fold.it. Computers aren't very good at determining how proteins are folded. Some humans are good at spatial problems, but most of us don't know much about molecular biology and aren't inclined to read a book on the subject. So a group at the University of Washington created Fold.it. I'm a bit puffed up about placing 8th out of 298 players in my first competition, and being first and third in two others in progress. Want to try it? Go to fold.it and download the game (for free), go through the beginner

A few years ago, I had what I thought was the bright idea to take megadoses of zinc for my nosebleeds. It did help--but I found out that zinc is a copper inhibitor. Copper is important for your immune system. Could be the reason I had a persistent sinus infection last year. Without the big doses of zinc, my nosebleeds slowly returned, but a book called The Paleo Solution had the solution: zinc oxide, an ointment you can buy at the grocery or drug store. The author, paleolithic researcher Loren Cordain, lives in the arid Colorado climate, as I do, and recommended this. It started working on day one: I started dabbing some inside my nose once a day, and my nosebleeds are gone. Why didn't I think of that? The zinc oxide worked its wonders on the little cuts on my fingers that came from cleaning out the garage. (Aside: I poured some old paint into a big cardboard box; you can't throw away cans of paint around here. I left the box in the alley, and never saw it again--someone

Ice cream that's good for you? Yes--when there's good fats (MCTs), eggs, and no added sugar. What a shame I couldn't persuade a vegetarian acquaintance that this is a perfectly good food! Hat tip to Mark Sisson's Primal Blueprint Cookbook for the basic recipe and Nick Stellino's Mediterranean Flavors for the flavor inspiration. 2 cans coconut milk (13.5 oz each) (full fat, not light) 2 eggs 1/2 c Splenda 6 T lemon juice 1 t vanilla extract (required) Chopped pistachios (optional) Whisk the eggs in a bowl for a minute or two until they're fluffy. Whisk in the coconut milk, Splenda, lemon juice and vanilla extract until it's well blended. Churn it in an ice cream maker for 30 minutes Add pistachios if desired and enjoy. This ice cream becomes very solid when it's been in the freezer for several hours. If it's completely frozen, take it out and let it sit at room temperature for 30 minutes before serving. Fat fast info: 1/8 batch has 193

Relative: What are you doing? My mother: I'm throwing out everything with carrageenan in it. It's really bad. Scientists use it to make [research] animals sick. That's what made Lori so sick the other night with a migraine headache. Relative: I'll take the salad dressing. It doesn't bother us. My mother: Doesn't your daughter get migraine headaches? This conversation sounds absurd, but knowing the people involved, I'm sure it happened as my mother described it. In the relative's household, there's obesity, diabetes, migraines, hypoglycemia, fatigue, acne, and no doubt some other ailments I'm not privy to. Is this the new normal? Does illness seem so inevitable that some people aren't willing to think about what's causing it? Or do anything with an answer when it's handed to them? Let me tell you how I've felt since I've been free of carrageenan poisoning for the past week. My stomach doesn't hurt, I can eat low car

Jennifer McLagan's recipe in The Odd Bits inspired this recipe. Since I can't get blood off the shelf in the U.S., I pour the blood from liver packages into a tightly sealed container in the freezer. The cinnamon keeps the sanguinaccio from tasting like liver. 3/4 cup Splenda 1/3 c Dutch processed cocoa 2 big pinches xanthan gum Pinch of sea salt 1 c coconut milk (full fat, not light) 1/2 c blood 1-1/2 t cinnamon Place the Splenda, cocoa, salt and xanthan gum in a bowl and mix will. Stir in the coconut milk until the mixture is smooth. Pour in the blood through a mesh filter and stir well. Pour the mixture into a saucepan over medium heat and cook, stirring constantly, until it thickens and begins to bubble. Remove from heat. Refrigerate, serve cold. Optional: churn the mixture in an ice cream maker once it's cold. ETA: This may be the most filling food I've ever had. One cup of it for dinner--after no lunch today--and I'm full.

My Uncle Gene on salt in response to his dietician: Now wait just a minute. I'm a cattle man. I buy undernourished calves at the stock yard and put a big block of salt out for them. For three days, they stand and lick the salt. Cattle know what they need. If the calves need it, so do people. I don't agree that calves and people need the same nutrients, but he's absolutely right that people need salt, too. If you're starting a low-carb diet, you especially need salt--your body dumps a lot of fluids at the beginning--along with salt and potassium. Nowadays, we "know" too much salt is bad for us. But time was, Humans did not need to know chemistry to understand the value of salt. Salt deprivation leads to lightheadedness, fatigue, headache, and malaise....Inland hunters followed their prey to salt licks and salt springs. These waters were prized for cooking, and some cultures learned to dry these waters to make dry salt.(1) For further reading: http:

Certain things should be left in the aquarium. Readers may recall my ordeal last Saturday with a migraine headache and a trip by ambulance back to my parents' house. Thanks to one of the paramedics jogging my memory, I researched the almond milk I'd started drinking around the time I quit dairy. One of the ingredients was carrageenan, a substance used to induce inflammation, sensitivity to pain and other problems in laboratory animals. Supposedly, the "undegraded" form is safe for human consumption, but undegraded carrageenan has been found to be contaminated with degraded carrageenan, and there are ways that the digestive system could degrade carrageenan itself. For the past few months, I've felt a little bloated, and was starting to have some mild pain in my lower stomach. I thought it might have been the effects of the antibiotics, oral steroids or decongestant (which gave me an allergic reaction) from back in February. I didn't connect it to the sev

A proposed movie plot: a patient with a serious but treatable medical condition goes to a rehab center, where his condition isn't treated, he's given drugs that make him worse, and so he has to stay and pay for his board. Problem: something similar has already been done, both in the movies and real life . This was the danger my father was in. Almost a month ago, he had a stroke and went to a rehab center, where he made some progress but stalled. Under Medicare rules, he had to leave or pay full freight for continuing to stay there. The discharge coordinator offered no help to our family. What's worse, the pain in his side was never diagnosed, just treated with a pain patch, and he was given a statin drug without his consent. Statin drugs can cause muscle weakness, fatigue and foggy thinking--some of the reasons my father couldn't go home right away. And according to what I've read, there's no evidence they do any good for people over age 65. Dad is 82. He tr

A few years ago when I started a low carb diet and started eating sausage again, I found some sausages gave me a headache, but others didn't. At first, eating them was a crap shoot, but I soon found some I couldn't eat (Applegate Farms Organic & Natural Meats) and some I could (McDonald's Restaurants and Ranch Foods Direct, a local pastured meat company). Some of Applegate Farms' products contain carrageenan (a highly processed, seaweed-based food additive used to induce pain and inflammation in research animals). McDonald's and Ranch Foods Direct sausage doesn't contain it. Why put carrageenan in sausage? According to Applegate Farms' website , Carrageenan, which is derived from red seaweed (Chondrus Crispus), activates extracted protein in the meat to help it bind together when formed. As the meat cooks, the heat forms a gel network, increasing moisture retention and improving the sliceability of the product. Without the addition of carrageenan

Let me tell you about my ride in an ambulance last night. I woke up at six o'clock from a nap with a mild headache. I ate dinner and took my vitamins, along with a couple of extra magnesium pills. Since magnesium helps my TMJ flare-ups, I thought it might help my headache. Then I went to see my mother. A few hours later, I had a severe headache, sinus pain and nausea. During a brief respite from the pain, I left for home, but less than a mile later, I got out of my car and threw up. A cop, Officer Fisher, pulled up behind me and asked if I was okay. He believed me when he said I hadn't been drinking, but he said I seemed lethargic and he wanted the paramedics to see me. (Later he mentioned that a man he'd recently stopped was having a stroke.) Thinking I had a migraine headache, the paramedics wanted to take me to the hospital. But since I knew that doctors don't know what causes migraine headaches, and I didn't know what effect their medicine would have on m

Recently, my father had a stroke. From the hospital, he went to a rehab center and, having made no further progress for some time, has to leave or pay full freight for his continued stay there. He can't go home: he can't take care of himself and my mother can't take care of him (she's in a wheelchair), and they can't afford round-the-clock care. The nursing home staff didn't have any helpful hints. However, Deb Flentje, whom I buy pasture-raised meat and eggs from, was kind enough to take the time and effort to write out a map through the Medicare maze. Deb used to work in the nursing home field, in a management capacity, as I recall. Here's her description of how Medicare works, and how to choose a nursing home for a loved one.  *****  Medicare and What it Covers First ask for a meeting with the social worker in the hospital. Ask for that person to explain what Part A Medicare and Part B Medicare covers in the nursing facility and assisted living

Readers interested in the raw paleo+supplement diet that I've proposed for fibromyalgia might be wondering how to put this into practice. There's a lot to read--you can skip parts if you want to--but the better you understand how this works, and the more lousy conventional wisdom you dispense with, the more likely you are to stick with it and fine-tune it to your needs. The basic ideas: Fix any leaks in the gut. A strict paleo diet eliminates foods like grains, potatoes and legumes that can cause this problem, allowing the gut to heal. (UPDATE 6/27/2012: Avoid an additive called carrageenan . It's a neolithic food and an inflammatory.) This may also help with autoimmune diseases. Stop ingesting antinutrients that interfere with magnesium absorption. Grains and legumes have antinutrients (search for "phytate" at Google Scholar if you're interested). Antacids keep you from absorbing magnesium (and calcium, zinc and iron) and interfere with protein digest

The past few days at the office have seen boxes of pizza, pastries, cupcakes, Chinese food, and wraps for meetings. Temptation? No--except for the wraps made of turkey and spinach, which I ate without the wrapper, of course. This wasn't any great feat of willpower: after over two years of eating little or no wheat, pizza or Chinese, these didn't even look like food to me. The Chinese food was overcooked (broccoli is supposed to be bright green, not dull chartreuse) and the pizza smelled like a wet dog. I think I understand why the French avoid junk food much more than Americans: they just don't like the stuff because they eat real food. Here's the problem with a frequent cheat day: it keeps your taste for junk food alive. If a friend were trying to quit smoking, would you recommend a weekly smoking day?

This post is for a friend of mine who is suffering so badly from fibromyalgia that she's unable to work. Comments, suggestions and corrections are welcome. I care more about helping her than being right. What is fibromyalgia (FM)? Literally, the word means fiber (fibro) and muscle (my) pain (algia). The American Fibromyalgia Syndrome Association lists symptoms that include pain, fatigue, memory and concentration problems, sleep disorders, exercise difficulties, irritable bowel syndrome, chronic headaches and jaw pain. Sufferers have tender points on the neck, back, hips, shoulders, arms and legs . Thyroid disorders are common, but they're not necessarily a cause or effect. Stress and accidents or injuries can set off painful episodes. The vast majority of sufferers are women. Nobody is sure what causes it, but different people suspect nutritional deficiencies, autoimmune disorders or infection. Since it's a syndrome, different things might cause be the cause in differen

Regular readers may know that I have dessert for breakfast (and sometimes dip for dinner). But the past few weeks saw me working long hours at ramming speed. Something had to give: it was my almond meal chocolate cookies and Dr. William Davis's low-carb brownies, both made with nut flour. This had a happy result (besides the good paychecks): the five pounds I put on a few months ago when I discovered these is leaving my midriff. It isn't the lack of sweetness at breakfast, since I've been having low carb, dairy-free chocolate custard for breakfast instead--two big pieces of it, along with coffee with coconut oil. I haven't completely given up nuts, I just don't have them every day, and when I do, I eat a handful of pistachios. With all due respect to Dr. Davis, I can't eat unlimited nuts and keep a flat belly. Dr. Richard Bernstein is on to nuts raising blood sugar,(1) and therefore, for some of us, causing weight gain: Nuts Although all nuts contain c

I've been researching fibromyalgia for the past few weeks and have come to a couple of conclusions. I'll give my reasoning and cite clinical research in a future post. Step 1. Go on a strict paleo diet (no grains, no dairy, no legumes, no soy, no artificial sweeteners, no seed oils, period). Eat plenty of non-starchy veg, as long as it doesn't interfere with any thyroid or digestive problems. What is a paleo diet? See this . What's left to eat? See this . Step 2. Avoid large doses of calcium supplements--they interfere with magnesium absorption. Step 3 . If you're on acid blockers, get off of them. They interfere with magnesium absorption, they can lead to other health problems, and they were never meant to be taken indefinitely . See this post to learn how I cured my GERD. Basically, I went on a low carb diet and it cleared up within a few days. Step 4. Take magnesium supplements. A supplement ending in -ate will be better absorbed than Mg oxide. How much

This just arrived in my email: Today the Institute for Justice will file a First Amendment case in North Carolina, where our client, Steve Cooksey, is being threatened with criminal charges for sharing through his website dietary tips and advice that saved his life. State officials are demanding that Steve acquire a government-issued dietician’s license in order to offer insights through a Dear Abby-style column. To learn more, please watch this short video about the case: www.ij.org/paleospeechvideo . Thank you for making this and all our work possible. Chip

Clear skin. When I ate some cheese last week, though, I had a crop of pimples that night. (They weren't hormonal.) Less frequent appetite. I spent an uncomfortable week adjusting to bigger, less frequent meals. It was nothing I tried to do--I just went by my appetite.I've been skipping lunch half the time, which I rarely did before. (I've been extremely busy at work, though, so this might have something to do with it.) Fewer and lighter nosebleeds.  I need less sleep. (My stress level from work and everything else might have something to do with that, again.)

Question for readers: Have any of you cured or treated fibromyalgia with diet, supplements, etc.? What worked? What didn't? This is not a rhetorical question--I have an idea for a fibromyalgia diet, and the research I've done so far is encouraging, but I'd like a reality check. A friend of mine is suffering terribly and I'd like to help her.

The Japanese and other Asians are often held up as models of carb-eating skinnies. Should we adopt a traditional Japanese diet, then? Naomi Moriyama, author of Japanese Women Don't Get Old or Fat (1) thinks so. "There is a land...where forty-year-old women look like they are twenty. It is a land where women enjoy some of the world's most delicious food, yet they have obesity rates of only three percent ...The country is Japan." Moriyama goes on to describe her mother's cooking, which she says helped her and her husband slim down. If you've tried to lose weight on healthy whole grains, good carbs, exercise, and following standard nutritional advice, a traditional Japanese diet won't work for you--because that's what it's all about. In fact, the book specifically says that the diet is similar to USDA guidelines. (And in an unintentionally ironic passage, Moriyama complains that she couldn't exercise off even "an ounce" of the 25 poun

Long ago, nobody messed with Mother Nature (much). Mostly, nobody knew how, and the traditional ways were common sense. Along came the chemical age, and then the backlash. Some say anything from a lab is harmful; others say Mother Nature alone is not enough. Of course, I'm talking about gardening. In general, gardeners seem to be on one side or the other: chemicals should be avoided entirely, or the only good bug is a dead bug. (Conversion is possible, though: a friend of mine was fervently anti-chemical until her apartment got a bedbug infestation.) Jeff Gillman, a professor of horticulture at the University of Minnesota has chosen a different side: looking at the evidence. His book The Truth About Organic Gardening tips over some of the sacred cows of both camps: For instance, natural pesticides aren't necessarily safer than synthetic ones (good to know if you eat organic fruit, since natural pesticides are used on organically grown fruit). And bug sprays can make an inf

A few months ago, after suddenly gaining a pound a day, and by sheer coincidence, reading The Paleo Answer by Loren Cordain describing the insulin-spiking effects of dairy, I changed my diet. I gave away my custard and low-carb ice cream and cut way back on the half and half. I've kept eating cheese--it doesn't have much insulin-spiking effect, according to Cordain. I stopped gaining weight and dropped three pounds, but I'm still up five pounds from my weight before my sinus infection. Nevertheless, all my clothes still fit (albeit a little tighter). (I had just taken a gigantic dose of vitamin D. I like to imagine my weight gain being mostly bone mass.) Other effects ensued. Since I'm not sure how to put this delicately, I'll just say it: I smell better. Before, when I went for a leisurely walk in warm weather, my Right Guard took a left turn. I had to soak a lot of my shirts in Biz to make them smell fresh. But last weekend, for example,when I was putting i

Can you be too thin? Certainly--but in a day when the average American man and woman weigh 191 and 164 pounds(1), and some athletes have bulked up with steroids, some people have lost perspective of what "too thin" is. Maybe somebody should tell these civic-minded Russians in miniskirts to let a tractor shovel the snow, lest they faint on the sidewalk. Better drop that log!   And those clay water jars!   That paleo diet is going to kill you!  Better take up dainty activity of gardening instead-- er, wait ... The pictures show that people can be thin, strong and energetic. Yet my best friend worries about me and my diet because she thinks I'm too thin (even though we both have about the same energy level--and she has health problems that I don't). My mom thinks I'm too thin, too, but she grew up in the thirties and forties, when thinness was associated with malnutrition. "Of the first million men screened by draft boards in 1940," says the article &q

You've probably heard about the blogger Diabetes Warrior, a type 1 diabetic who's in hot water with the state of North Carolina for talking up the paleo diet that has restored his health. Officially, he's in trouble for giving medical advice, but come on: what are the chances he'd be in trouble if he had recommended a low-fat diet and healthy whole grains? There but for the good sense of the Colorado legislature go I. A few month ago, Rep. Massey introduced a bill to require licensing of dietitians , and defined dietetics as  THE INTEGRATION, APPLICATION, AND COMMUNICATION OF PRINCIPLES DERIVED FROM FOOD, NUTRITION, SOCIAL, BUSINESS, AND BASIC SCIENCES, TO ACHIEVE AND MAINTAIN OPTIMAL NUTRITION STATUS OF INDIVIDUALS THROUGH THE DEVELOPMENT, PROVISION, AND MANAGEMENT OF EFFECTIVE FOOD AND NUTRITION SERVICES IN A VARIETY OF SETTINGS. Sounds like what goes on here and on a lot of other blogs. The bill continued, A PERSON WHO WISHES TO PRACTICE DIETETICS IN THI

As our friends on the East Coast dry off and dig out from under a foot of snow, it's a beautiful 80-degree evening here in Denver, Colorado. Truth to tell, though, I wish it were snowing here too: it would stop my hay fever in its tracks. If you have pain in your upper teeth, in your face, and behind your eyes, a runny nose, and itchy eyes, you may have allergies, too. Some say that this has been one of the worst years for allergy sufferers. I've had allergies most of my life and I've tried a number of different things for relief. Here's what has and has not worked for me: Allergy shots. They worked--but they're inconvenient and expensive. Antihistamines. They work, but they make you drowsy. Avoiding dairy. This doesn't necessarily prevent allergies, but it may keep you from getting even more congested. (Milk, whey and certain brands of cream bother me.) For alternatives, try coconut milk or almond milk, or even another brand of cream. Avoiding wheat. H

It's been a year since I started the cavity healing diet. Last week, I went back to the dentist for a routine cleaning and exam. Results: Dr. Michelangelo (not his real name) still wanted to fill the small cavities he found last year. I had this done today. I don't think the fillings will hurt anything, and having them should prevent crud from finding a place to settle for the day. And I don't think he's given to drilling and filling for the sake of it: he never gave my best friend a filling while he was her dentist, and back in February when one of my wisdom teeth hurt, he said the tooth was fine and diagnosed a sinus infection. (Infection can raise your blood sugar, which probably didn't help my teeth over the last six months.) After he was finished, Dr. Michelangelo said the cavity had probably been forming for years.I know the groove on my lower tooth was there for years. He remarked that how white my teeth were, down to the roots (he used A2 colored fillin

Liver is Mother Nature's multi-vitamin, and at two dollars and change a pound, it's an inexpensive meal. The challenge is eating it if you don't like it. How about giving yourself a reward while you eat it: gravy! Chicken Fried Liver 1/4 pound chicken livers 3 T coconut flour 1 egg, beaten 3 T almond meal Pinch salt Few dashes of savory spice mix (herbes fines, jerk spice, Mrs. Dash, etc.) 2 T lard or coconut oil Heat the lard or coconut oil over a medium-low flame. In a small bowl, mix the salt and spices with the almond meal. Roll the liver in coconut flour, then egg, then the almond meal mix and put on a separate plate. When all the livers are ready, put them in the pan, using tongs and an oven mitt for safety's sake. Gently turn them after one minute. Let them cook for five to ten minutes until they're no longer bloody. Place them on a clean plate. Gravy Pan drippings from the liver 2 large chopped button mushrooms 1/2 c chicken or other m