Home » Discussion Forums » Blog Post Discussion » Hanging onto your health with both hands
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| Re: Hanging onto your health with both hands [message #46108 is a reply to message #46102 ] |
Tue, 08 November 2011 22:08   |
 skating librarian
Messages: 570
Registered: October 2008
Location: Vermont |
Senior Member |
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I have been investigating the differences between depression and cfs/me and recently came across this website which has me amazed.
http://www.drmyhill.co.uk/
I see that there has been controversy in the past about some of her recommendations, but it also appears that "charges have been dropped". What Dr. Myhill has to say about CFS and diet, health, etc. makes a heck of a lot of sense to me and I am ready to to start reorganizing my eating habits accordingly. What I really like is the science she brings to bear ...
And I see her work quoted/ referred to by other researchers.
It sounds as if many readers of the blog may want to check it out if you haven't already.
All the best to everyone.
"Winning a war is like winning an earthquake" Jeanette Rankin
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| Re: Hanging onto your health with both hands [message #46109 is a reply to message #46102 ] |
Tue, 08 November 2011 22:59 |
EMoon
Messages: 664
Registered: March 2009 |
Senior Member |
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I think our bodies are so different--both from inherited characteristics and from life experience/exposure to environmental stressors--that we pretty much have to find out for ourselves what works and what doesn't. I absolutely believe that individuals have sensitivities and/or allergies, and that diet affects mood, cognition, alertness, etc.
But there's no panacea. There's no one diet (however much the diet gurus tout it) that's right for everyone. (Just like there's no "perfect weight" applicable to everyone!) And no diet that makes everything perfect forever. Because our kid is autistic ("kid" is now 28) we were flooded with lots of theories about diet and autism when he was little, including some that made absolutely no biological sense. What did make sense was feeling our way with him, noticing what affected him and what he got along with. He can eat foods I can't. I can eat foods he won't (and probably there's something that tells him "no way" besides just taste.) I can't eat some things I ate as a kid, and can eat some things I couldn't back then. It's trial and error.
I suspect (but don't know) that modern large-scale agriculture and food processing has a lot to do with modern problems, but there's also this: I have a book that belonged to my great-grandmother, The Perfect Woman (yes, it's to gag in places) with a lot of the then-theories about nutrition and health. (The Perfect Woman was of course in charge of the family's health, and had to be able to nurse most diseases.) In those days, there wasn't a lot of processed food. But there was already sensitivity to some of the same foods that cause problems today. There were mysterious conditions (which were derided at the time, but may have been CFS/ME and others.) There were so many infectious diseases, so many killers, that the focus was on them. Kids just died.
I'm a strong proponent of organic gardening/farming (if we had a reliable water source our garden would be larger--right now we have a short growing season because we can't count on being able to water it.) I'm a strong proponent of feeding livestock only their natural diet. And I'm a strong proponent of finding out what makes each individual healthy and feeling good, and doing that, whatever it is. What suits one won't suit another. (Very clear in our small family. Everyone else can eat various melons. Not me.) I do find some people (NOT HERE!) like one woman in choir rather annoying. Pushy people who try to tell me that they're sure I need X-diet or Y-supplement when I don't think they look all that healthy themselves...they're like the people who, when I have a genuine rotten cold start telling me I need allergy shots. Remember, I said NOT HERE. Hasn't happened here.
I'm listening to the talk about supplements because, with the extreme heat this summer, I know I didn't get the sun-time I try to get in summer for additional vitamin D (carefully calculated t
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| Re: Hanging onto your health with both hands [message #46110 is a reply to message #46105 ] |
Wed, 09 November 2011 04:13 |
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Diane in MN
Messages: 2730
Registered: October 2008
Location: Twin Cities, MN, USA |
Senior Member |
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| Black Bear wrote on Tue, 08 November 2011 18:48 |
It’s now: No cheese? No ice cream?
Yes, life without cheese would be much darker than life without ice cream--though I love ice cream, cheese is.... vital. When my best friend worked at a creamery, the best part was not just that I could goad her into letting me in for free cheese now and then, but that I could always talk her into ordering (and splitting) the cheese plate appetizers at restaurants "just to see what the competition is doing."
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Dairy products were on my food allergy list for a year or so. (My ratbag allergist did not specify cow's milk and it took me months to think of asking about it, so no goat or sheep cheese either at first.) It was not a pleasant time. If I had to name just one favorite food, it would be really good cheese. I deeply sympathize with people who care about cheese and can't have it.
"The point of books is to have way too many but to always feel you never have enough . . . " Louise Erdrich
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| Re: Hanging onto your health with both hands [message #46111 is a reply to message #46102 ] |
Wed, 09 November 2011 04:25 |
lorelibrarian
Messages: 22
Registered: December 2010
Location: London |
Junior Member |
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Home baked bread is good. And making it is fun- you can channel a good deal of rage into kneading the unsuspecting dough viciously.
If you can't tolerate gluten well, I reccomend a spelt wheat flour. Spelt is an old grain; apparently the Romans brought it into Britain, and it has far less gluten etc than modern wheat.
And you can buy it in sainsburys. I make mine using honey and olive oil, and it rises easily and tastes delish
Only in silence the word,
only in dark the light,
only in dying life:
bright the hawk's flight
on the empty sky.
—The Creation of Éa,
Ursula K LeGuin
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| Re: Hanging onto your health with both hands [message #46117 is a reply to message #46102 ] |
Wed, 09 November 2011 11:41 |
CateK
Messages: 9
Registered: August 2011
Location: upstate New York |
Junior Member |
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YES to the whole thing about figuring out your own sensitivities, and trying to eat the food your body was designed for. I've seriously reduced sugar, grains, chemicals, i.e. everything that makes industrial food taste good, and am eating tons of veggies, fish and organic meats. And I'm losing weight for the 1st time since coming down w/ ME/CFS - my body is happier.
Unfortunately, that means using my scarce money to buy this food, and my scarce energy to cook it before it rots - grump!
What has really helped me *live* with ME/CFS is finding ways to engage in my passions. No, I can no longer do day-long hikes up and down mountains, but I can drag a folding chair into the woods, prop my binoculars up and watch birds. And I can no longer play recorder (too aerobically demanding), but I am learning to play the viola da gamba while leaning in my recliner. ( Even if I have to pound it into my mush-for-brains by serious repetition, it gets in there eventually.)
Robin, thank you for showing the way by example.
Cate
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| Re: Hanging onto your health with both hands [message #46140 is a reply to message #46117 ] |
Fri, 11 November 2011 07:03 |
CathyR
Messages: 575
Registered: July 2009
Location: NW England |
Senior Member |
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| CateK wrote on Wed, 09 November 2011 16:41 |
I am learning to play the viola da gamba while leaning in my recliner. ( Even if I have to pound it into my mush-for-brains by serious repetition, it gets in there eventually.
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Thought you might find this interesting.
Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.
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| Re: Hanging onto your health with both hands [message #46153 is a reply to message #46109 ] |
Fri, 11 November 2011 15:53 |
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Blogmom
Messages: 1270
Registered: September 2008 |
Senior Member
[Administrator] |
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| EMoon wrote on Tue, 08 November 2011 21:59 |
I suspect (but don't know) that modern large-scale agriculture and food processing has a lot to do with modern problems, but there's also this: I have a book that belonged to my great-grandmother, The Perfect Woman (yes, it's to gag in places) with a lot of the then-theories about nutrition and health. (The Perfect Woman was of course in charge of the family's health, and had to be able to nurse most diseases.) In those days, there wasn't a lot of processed food.
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Old books like that offer such a fascinating glimpse into other lives. Back in the <mumble>ties when I was an undergrad, I spent many long hours browsing the stacks and ran across a fascinating book by a globe-trotting dentist who documented what he found at a time (1930s) when many populations were shifting from their traditional diets to a "modern Western" diet, most notably adding easily transported and stored refined wheat flour and refined cane sugar. He documented changes for the worse during this transition in photographs of children *in the same families*. Deterioration in skeletal structure, especially dental arches, was striking.
Many years on I finally remembered the dentist's name, browsed around online and discovered that there is now a foundation in his name - the Weston Price Foundation [http://www.westonaprice.org/], and his book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration is available for purchase from Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Nutrition-Physical-Degeneration-Weston -Andrew/dp/0879838167 and also for free online at http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library/price/pricetoc.html
I don't know when the phrase "diseases of civilization" came into use, certainly before our politically correct time, but it was seen to be clearly associated with the change from traditional diets to the 'Western' diet.
| EMoon wrote on Tue, 08 November 2011 21:59 |
But there was already sensitivity to some of the same foods that cause problems today. There were mysterious conditions (which were derided at the time, but may have been CFS/ME and others.) There were so many infectious diseases, so many killers, that the focus was on them. Kids just died.
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In our area you see "summer sickness" on children's headstones from the 1800s and early 1900s. Fly-borne diseases affecting milk and food.
| EMoon wrote on Tue, 08 November 2011 21:59 |
I'm listening to the talk about supplements because, with the extreme heat this summer, I know I didn't get the sun-time I try to get in summer for additional vitamin D (carefully calculated to be early morning sun) and even though I'm taking a vitamin mix, I kinda feel like it's not "holding" these days. Age affects absorption; I may have crossed another line in the past year or two. And there was a lot of stress this year.
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Vitamin D is one of the easy ones since there is an easy and definitive blood test for it. If you start supplementing
If you have a garden and a library [and cats], you have everything you need. -- Marcus Tullius Cicero
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| Re: Hanging onto your health with both hands [message #46206 is a reply to message #46102 ] |
Mon, 14 November 2011 16:51 |
claning
Messages: 266
Registered: February 2010
Location: California |
Senior Member |
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Amen on the Vitamin D. I'm currently taking 5,000 IU per day -- a high level but not enough to make my doctor worry -- and it has made a significant difference (I have fibromyalgia and chronic depression).
Meat and poultry are what do it for me -- I've been a vegetarian for 30+ years and if I get something with meat or meat broth in it by accident, I have a flare-up the next day. (Fish seems to be fine.)
I agree that if there are triggers they are different for different people -- I tried going off dairy once but could only detect a slight effect if any, and had no problems when I started eating it again.
O Chris Laning <claning@igc.org> - Davis, California
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| Re: Hanging onto your health with both hands [message #46207 is a reply to message #46102 ] |
Mon, 14 November 2011 16:57 |
claning
Messages: 266
Registered: February 2010
Location: California |
Senior Member |
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I should also add, the tendency to develop fibromyalgia runs in families (though not all will have it) and I suspect I get it through my grandfather. He had something physically traumatic happen to him in his 60s, I think, and was essentially bedridden till the end of his life with something that could not be diagnosed by the medicine of the day (1930s). I suspect it was fibro. My dad has some problems with depression but none of the other parts of the fibro package as far as I know. (There's a whole suite of things that may follow along if someone has fibro, including insomnia, fatigue, depression, migraines, irritable bowel, and lightheadedness if you're on your feet too long. Most people don't have all of them.)
I am very blessed in having a light enough case of fibro that I can hold down a full-time job. I know a number of people who are totally disabled by it. The good news is that it's not fatal and doesn't usually get worse if you're reasonably careful; the bad news is that no one knows what causes it and there's no cure :/
O Chris Laning <claning@igc.org> - Davis, California
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It's not an easy apples-to-apples comparison to make--do the dangers of chemicals in processed food balance out against our general advances in food handling safety, bacteria control, etc? Not to mention the year-round availability of fresh fruits and vegetables in all climates, these days. Obviously there's a happy medium that we haven't reached yet--but I think it's complicated.
