Discussion Board

...with Dogtor J.

Remember, he is a vet, studied this in dogs mostly...some related stuff more in cats, I think, from what I gather. But the combination of his dietary work to treat his dog/cat & other various animal patients, his research, and his own health experiences are what have shaped his thinking.

As I told him on the show, his ideas might drop like a bombshell on vegetarians/vegans...but to me, if someone is having any health issues, food intolerances, or other unexplanable health problems, it seems there might really be some good answers to be found here.

http://www.healthyplanetradio.com/Archived%20Shows.html

ya have to right click and save to hear the whole show...don't laugh too hard at goofy groundhogg, please ...but I hope there are some helpful ideas to consider here. He's coming back on our show in December, for Part II!!!!

Thanks My internet is running really slow tonight but I hope to check it out this weekend

Autumn

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this made me literally laugh out loud! I havent heard it yet but that statement is so true! I had been told for years I had IBS without a scope or any testing done. Now I call it I B#@L S&*T you!

I've heard IBS called : "I'm basically stupid," comiing from a doctor, of course.

Seems to me what modern medicine has mostly done is give every ache and pain you can imagine a name, and then make an infinite number of drugs to go with all those aches and pains, which, in turn cause a cascade of other symptoms, themselves having fancy names and then requiring more drugs, etc., etc., etc. That circle will be unbroken...in my mind, as long as the money keeps flowing...the fancy names (which actually do seem to placate people...just to have your pain validated by a name...which is much better than being viewed as crazy or just a hypochondriac...but very profitable...because there's never a REASON for the pain or disorder...jsut a name and a pill...or yer CHOICE among dozens of special pills just for the pain with that particular name, etc.) and the fancy pills....but nobody ever really gets well.

Funny...but very sad, isn't it?

I've read some pretty disturbing accounts of this on celiac boards:

People self-diagnosed, after years of knowing something was wrong, daily struggles of one kind or degree or another, yet either never getting answers from doctors, being dismissed as hypochondriac or whatever, and still go along suffering...on top of that feeling cheaply sloughed off by the medical establishment for not being a good patient, etc., etc., and then through a lot of thinking, reading (thank goodness for the internet!!!), and finally a gluten-free trial...they finally found the solution to their problem...then, later on, at some point in consultation with a doctor over something, bring up the fact that they are celiac/gluten intolerant or whatever...the doctor smirks a "How'd ya figure that one out?" The person tells by studying/thinking/reading...mostly net and just trial and error with diet on his/her own...and knows by the time they are explaining that that the doctor is chalking THIS one up as a hypochondriac fruitcake who imagined an illness by spending too much time on the net, and is now entertaining an eating disorder because of all of this wild imagination these nutty hypochondriacs have...hence...being dismissed, not being taken seriously, and whatever they went to the doctor for that time isn't treated very serioulsy either, since their reputation as a valid, sensible human being just flew out the window with the confession of self-diagnosis of the trendy celiac kick, etc. Some of those people then had their families treat them badly too, as a result of the doctors' opinions of them as human beings.

Something similar happened to me when I was 13...I was sick...the doctors thought it was appendicitis (I knew it wasn't...don't ask me how I knew, but I believe I have always had a keen observational skill at diagnosing...I really do...I was and still am qwuite sure I never had appendicitis), took out my appendix (I inquired as to how much inflammation there was...by their answer, even at 13, I knew they were bigtime side-stepping...I did not have appendicitis, but that's not the point of my story anyway...so...what the heck...they made their money!), and made me deathly ill in the process with their horrid anesthesia...ugh...I can still remember. Then after that surgery I was never the same...I began having phobias and panic attacks at school, or in any other situtaion with crowds and flourescent lights. I had trouble articulating exactly my panic, but since my stomach was always involved in that, I just thought it was easier to tell the teachers/my parents, that I had an upset stomach. Well, since this was a daily occurrence...my parents took me back to the brilliant, money-hungry surgeon that had taken my appendix out...at the age of 13...you know, when you are extremely embarrassed to have your clothes off...the guy insisted I have all my clothes off and then told me to look him in the eye and say my stomach hurt everyday...I couldn't look him in the eye, and so he was convinced at that moment that I was lying to get out of school and other responsibilities...what an insult...that I would be that stupid if I'd really just wanted a free ride and no responsibilities to live up to...how ridiculous, that being a really goal-oriented child, that I wouls suddenly change overnight and decide I didn't care about anything anymore and would start making up idiotic lies to cover for myself...and how humiliating and insulting of him to conduct his "medicine," (he must have imagined himself to be a psychiatrist or lawyer/judge or something...rather than a surgeon) in this way, with these power tactics...and how betrayed I felt that my parents went along with his new, second incorrect diagnosis, that I'd become a liar, not to be trusted, and so several years of absolute misery, being forced by rule of the surgeon and my parents for the teachers/principals to force me to sit through constant, daily horribly difficult panic attacks...I flunked the eighth grade because of all that difficulty and never did very well at school until I went away to college and learned in very small private school, very informal, SMALL classes, extremely friendly, down-to-earth faculty and students, and just a better atmosphere to regain my confidence and work through my phobias. Anyway...I totally sympathize with some of the awful stuff I've seen on celaic boards.

I don't go to docotrs at this point in my life...but if I ever do get into it with a doctor about my own self-diagnosis of celiac...it could get very, very ugly, I'm afraid.

One of my friends says she is very concerned about me because I refuse to eat so many things. There is nothing left for me to eat and it's not good for me. She wants me to stop being so obsessive about my food.

This is out of concern for the decisions I'm making. I can't get her to see the point that if I eat foods that make me sick, I'm worse off than if I limit myself to the foods I eat that make me feel good.

My coworker actually said that I should just eat big macs because by messing with my diet so much, I've brought all this on myself and I need to straighten it all out by eating normally.

And then I have to deal with my mother

Yeah...an eating disorder!

I'm just embarrassed to tell lots of people I know that I'm now gluten & soy free...I just don't feel like explaining all of it, plus the fact that I was so outspoken before about diet, etc., and I jumped through hoops to hide my sypmtoms for years, and it's just embarrassing to have to try to explain it all. This makes me feel ingenuine, I guess, for leaving things out, acting secretively and strangely (keeping reasons for suddenly not eating stuff I use to eat to myself) and even somewhat hypocritical, I feel, since I have taken up wild fish and free range eggs...because I get too hungry and haven't had the chance/time, or just haven't been able to get it together to figure out big enough meals minus the gluten and soy. So...I suspect there are some who might wonder if either I've developed an eating disorder or just gone wacko, or what...but I don't feel like explaining. It's very involved, especially since I can't stand to be sick, and can get into a state of denial of it, and then do all sorts of stuff to hide it from those around me...so...even groundhubby didn't know what was going on until I had passed beyond the point of thinking I might be dying of some awful thing. Once I had enough improvement to feel I was on the healing track (though still had quite a ways to go), I finally told him of my struggles I'd been through, increasingly, for the past decade...when I explained various stituations that had occurred because of this, he could look back and see how I had been hiding / denying a LOT of stuff, every day, really. The only reason I was able to keep my job during all of this was because my office is situated next door to the restroom...I could get there quickly...and often made sure I heard others leave and the place was empty so I could run in there and explode by myself..without audience, etc. Lots of things worked out that way...I don't even know if I could've held down a job without having been right next door to the restroom, to tell you the truth! My coworkers were aware of my stomach's howling sounds, though...because meetings were often interrupted by my stomach sounds...followed by laughter...I laughed too, but it hurt really bad, but I denied that pain, and a lot of other stuff.

And the gastroenterolgist thing...that's just scary. When the doctors act schizophrenic, it gets pretty disturbing...I mean...it's as if it's okay to be celiac if THEY say so...otherwise, there are just entirely too many people abstaining from gluten...okay, whatever. The estimates made by gastro researchers are now too high because gastros don't believe what other gastros are finding...uh-huh...and, WHO'S NUTS????????

I feel extremely fortunate in that my immediate family feels empathy with my situation and they are all very sensitive and thoughtful...they have altered their diets in a big way so that we can all easily enjoy meals together without difficulty. I've seen lots of people on celiac boards who couldn't even get their families' support! Maybe the same with some here too...anyway...it's a crazy thing right now...then you have people like Dr. Fine and Dogtor J, who say almost everybody (including dogs and cats) would probably see better health without gluten! It's a crazy thing, and it should be interesting to watch which way research goes and what happens in the future. I've got a feeling there's as much money in some wheat council as there is in the dairy council and meat organizations, etc.

For now...those of us who got relief from daily struggles associated with gluten should consider ourselves very lucky that at least we found it out and have some course of action to take to feel well...without NEEDING approval of any doctors or anyone else, really. Still...I am pretty embarrassed to mention it to people I know...very few know about it.

Fern...I haven't told my mother...works out so much better that way !