Meditation – Terra cleanse

This is an extract adapted from “Inuaki, the Reptilian in me” by Aryana Havah.

Let’s say people of Earth decide that every first Friday of the first month of the year, they will meditate and pray together for water. To ask that water be purifying and healing, that all the beings that live in it to be healthy and peaceful … Then in the in the first Friday of the second month, we all pray for Earth’s health and healing, for the seeds to be fruitful, healthy, nutritious … and so on.

CDED (Crohn’s Disease Exclusion Diet) Phase 2 – foods for hiking

Today we finally ventured out since the March 2020 lockdown. We went to hiking. Of course I couldn’t even think of buying foods for my IBD son so I made some things at home:

 

As we are in stage 2 CDED, the foods are stage 2 CDED and marshmallows are SCD and CDED.

I cooked: chicken breast  nuggets/schnitzel (ingredients: chicken breast, rice flour, almond flour, paprika, black pepper and salt plus 3 eggs), bread sticks (ingredients: wholemeal spelt, almond flour, egg, baking soda and water), banana milk (ingredients: rice milk and banana), marshmallow (ingredients: water, gelatin and honey/ vanilla) plus veggies and some fruits that are not pictured. Everyone was happy for the day. We had plenty of sunshine and laughs. It was a good day.

Journey with a Crohn’s child – new diagnosis

This year was a bit of a full on for myself and my family. We live in Australia where the year started with bush fires and severe air pollution. So January was mostly dedicated to worries about firers and pollution.

Then mid February 2020, my son had a colonoscopy to follow up his Ulcerative Colitis (I admit I was a coward and avoided another colonoscopy after the traumatic experience we had 5 years ago). He had some symptoms that pointed to a bit of inflammation (5-8 trips to toilet, some nausea, low appetite, hair falling easy, tiredness) but he had no bleeding or mucus which used to be the red flags for his condition.

Right after the colonoscopy came the shock, the GI took us aside and told us it is pretty bad as he now has a stricture and couldn’t do the colonoscopy. Story for short we ended up in hospital for the next week on IV steroids to try calm down the inflammation. The experience was miserable for me as a parent as I didn’t want to look so concern for my son’s sake while at the same time I was boiling with guilt, grief, fear and lots of tears.

Then fast forward a few weeks, we found ourselves in the GI’s office where we found out my son has Crohn’s Colitis and there is so much inflammation in his colon that the GI strongly suggested we see a surgeon for a temporary stoma. I still feel like crying when I think about this possibility.

Instead we started Remicade with Methotrexate (exactly what I was trying to avoid for the last 10 years for him – but I guess I’ve done well so far keeping him with mild symptoms and medication free for so many years).

Given the severity of the problem I’ve started everything else at once: acupuncture, TCM herbs, Colloidal minerals, Vitamin D, Zinc, Folic Acid, Oregano oil alternated with Arthemisia and Arctic Cod liver oil. Of course we also started an elimination diet called CDED (Crohn’s Disease Elimination Diet) together with Fortisip medical formula.

In the meantime world was taken by surprise with a new virus and lockdown everywhere. The stress is still very high given the situation around and our personal journey but I learnt I can cope as I know I’m here for a reason and if a receive a challenge it means I can handle it (even if it feels at time that I can’t).

Now, 3 months later he seems to be much better (I still have to see blood test results and calpro) and put on about 9-10 kgs since February. I try an take every day as it comes and go with the flow.

As a wise one said once, “there are no problems, just solutions we didn’t find yet”.

Stay in good health!

Elena

 

 

First week on IBD-Aid diet

New year, new resolutions … this year we are going to try IBD-AID for my son’s Ulcerative Colitis.

IBD Aid is based on Specific Carbohydrates Diet but adds more of the good foods like: oats, chia, flaxseed, etc. It is based on medical research and it looks pretty promising.

So, here we are, my family of 5 starting the diet this week.

We jumped into the full diet as it is easier to manage the endless cooking and hunger that follows you everywhere.

So far the detox symptoms we had were: headaches, fatigue, nausea and don’t forget the constant hunger. My kids search the pantry and the fridge all the time.

I bake a paleo flat bread every other day and today I tried and IBD AID version of it, that means I added oats to the mix, It came out very tasty … yumm.

I’ll come back with more.

 

Raw food lifestyle

Three exercises for Clearing and Balancing Chakras

Source: Three exercises for Clearing and Balancing Chakras

The Best Way to Cook Zucchini and Carrots

Sounds good to me.

voracious veggie

One of my greatest joys in life is making vegetables taste good to other people. When someone is especially excited about a tasty piece of zucchini I made, I am a happy girl.

You’re already rolling your eyes I know, but stay with me.

Zucchini and carrot “fries” are my quiet specialty. They make a great snack or side to burgers and sandwiches. Where you would normally throw a side of fries/chips or a side salad, why not throw the best vegetables you’ve ever tasted instead? Zucchini and carrot fries are an excellent addition to a plate in both color and flavor. And I’m not even going to talk about the healthy part – we’re all smart people here.

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SCD Buttermilk Gravy & Biscuits

Visit to GI at Royal Children Hospital

I feel so frustrated today. The visit to the Royal Children’s Hospital takes us 6 hours because of the trip involved. We’ve seen the “specialist” and he was good to nothing! I asked about the heavy metal toxicity from the hair tests and he said he doesn’t know what to do with that information. I also asked about the possibility of using Boswellia instead of the standard medication because of 2 reasons:

1. my IBD son doesn’t tolerate any kind of medication. His body treats it as chemical poisoning and his liver /kidney get affected fast (after a few doses).
2. In trial studies done on Boswellia (there are a couple of small studies done) the efficacy of Boswellia compared with Sulfasalazine  is superior with far side effects.

The only problem I have is that the studies were done on adults therefore the dosage was adult one. My child is only 9 and I am not comfortable giving him adult dose and I tried to work with the doctor to find a suitable alternative for him. Again the “specialist” was worthless.

Then I investigated the possibility/probability of using the diet (SCD/PALEO or GAPS) to control his symptoms (again went in documented with the research from Rush University). The doctor’s argument against it was “you realize that is not a cure” it might control the symptoms for a month or maybe 6 months but is not a cure. I’m not sure what was the medical “cure” he was proposing there.

All in all he wasn’t against the diet but didn’t want to monitor me to do it.

Last thing, I investigated about the possibility of delivery nutrients through the skin because of the GI tract being impaired (the diagnostic for my son is inconclusive somewhere in between Ulcerative Colitis/ Chron’s). Therefore, in my view it makes sense that he won’t absorb properly vitamins/ minerals from oral supplementation. To sum up I had no success with this approach too (despite of existing evidence for epsom salts baths being good for magnesium absorption through the skin).

I don’t even know why I asked about the link between low Molybdenum and sulfite allergy. He wouldn’t even try to find out if the pathology can test Molybdenum levels.

Bottom line, it is disappointing  to go to the best of the best in children’s health and to hit a wall. I don’t know where to look for an answer because I’m sure there is one.

I wish you all health and happiness.

Elena

Getting rid of LEAD

There is no one easy answer for lead detox (or for any heavy metal detox for that matter). The majority of people will look for a quick fix, like taking a pill for a week or two and bang! Perfect health. As much as we’d like that to happen that’s never the case. The symptoms of lead poisoning (and heavy metal poisoning in general) appear because of the chronic lead exposure. Therefore, what we see/feel is almost always the compounded effect of the exposure to poisons and chemicals, lifestyle, stress and nutrition.

This is the reason why I’m not a huge fan of chelation protocols to get rid of lead and other heavy metals. The process is fairly fast but it can be quite dangerous if it is not done properly. And when you do it properly it actually becomes very slow because you start the chelating agent (DMSA, ALA, Gluthatione, Chlorella, coriander – very dangerous in large quantities if you don’t take a binding agent, Zeolite, etc) at very low doses and alternate the times you take it with rest times when you replete lost minerals.

The only way to do this is through a body chemistry balancing program including:

• Sauna (sweating appears to be the fastest way to take any toxins out because the skin is the largest excretory organ of the body)
• sun light (Vit D is invaluable in any recovery program as it helps a huge number of processes in the body and most of us are Vit D chronically depleted) + Vit D supplements (D3 – 1000 to 4000 a day, consult your health care specialist for that)
• exercising every day hard enough to sweat deeply but gentle enough to keep your body from becoming overwhelmed (for detoxing is probably best to do physiological exercising like walking or working in the garden)
• diet – That’s a subject for a full article. For short, when your body is poisoned with lead or other heavy metals (because one poisoning almost never comes by itself. It is rather the process of compounding a few toxins) you get food sensitivities. The food sensitivities differ from one to another therefore is your detective job to pinpoint them and avoid these foods for the time being until the body recovers. As a general rule, a paleo-ish diet is best as it avoids all major irritants and all the processed food. My advice on the matter is to find a few restaurant foods and/or processed foods that are border line but not to bad and stick with these  in times when you cannot take “paleo” anymore or the frustration of not being able to sustain it. A full discussion on the diet/nutrition and frustration that comes with specific diets will follow in another post.
• proper rest – I don’t know why we take sleep and fun activities for granted (as optional I mean). The body is a wise machine that has the ability to repair itself given a few things are in place: good nutritious food as fuel, exercising to maintain muscles and enough quality rest. I’m not going to talk now about how to rest or get good quality sleep because there are hundreds of books and articles on this. I would suggest you start paying more attention to the needs of your body even if that sounds crazy (like sleeping 9-10 hours a night to feel rested enough).
• Nutritional supplements- Here you can play with some of the chelators and definitely you’ll need to supplement a good multi-mineral. At minimum you’l need to take: zinc (as many of the heavy metals compete with it therefore displacing it from the tissues), magnesium (a stressed body – as the heavy metal poisoned one is- eliminate magnesium very fast), selenium, Vit C and Vit E  because the antioxidants work in teams.
• a separate nutrition side I was looking at it is adding sulfur  group foods into the diet. The sulfur in the body supports gluthatione production (guthatione being the main natural body detoxifier). These foods are: garlic/onion and leek + cabbage/kale/broccoli/cauliflower + free range meat and eggs.

An interesting thing: when I’ve done my son’s hair mineral analysis it came back not only with various high heavy metals but also with low sulfur/zinc/selenium and phosphorus despite of our clean diet and supplementation. That drove me to look for an answer about absorption of nutrients (because he was getting all the goodies already). And unfortunately for my feelings of being “snowed under with responsibilities”, the answer seems to be SOUPS (organic bones soups and broths and vegetable cream soups for increasing vegetables intake). That translates into GAPS or SCD (Specific Carbohydrates Diet) which I was trying to avoid (purely because is so restrictive and time consuming … and at times frustrating to be on this diet).

That’s about all for today.

I wish you all great health and prosperity.

Elena