Dissolution's Solution

[JohnLarson]

So what are you eating instead of oatmeal?

I am glad this is getting better. I bet you are freaking out. Good catch on the shoes also. Many people do not realize how important good shoes are.

[Lesliec1]

Did you notice the comment in his article about nickel being released from stainless steel pans? After reading Dr. Barnard's most recent book, I got rid of my cast iron skillet due to the iron released when cooking with it. (He says links to Alzheimer's from iron.) And ... I replaced it with a stainless steel skillet. Sigh. Now what do I do?!

Me too! Just threw out my iron pan. I've been confused by other posts on what to cook on, safety-wise.

[nicoles]

Wow, Dis, so happy (and impressed) that you found a "skin solution" through diet/vitamin C so fast!

(I have a friend with U.C. who has to go on high dose steroids about once a year to control a flare-up. She ALWAYS gains about 20-30 pounds over the course of 3-6 months. She says she cannot stop eating when she is on them.)

[Melinda]

Very interesting - who would ever suspect that? Glad that your treatment is working, Dis, and glad to see you back here posting!

[Dissolution]

Lesliec1 The nickel allergy seems to present as hand eczema as it's primary symptom, but also causes chronic fatigue and joint/muscle pain. There's not a huge amount of research out there. One paper even called it a phenomenon. My guess is if only .15% of the population have a dietary nickel allergy, AND you have to eat a high nickel diet (plant based with oatmeal?), it just doesn't happen enough that it's well know.

I've read a little about about Burgess, he's on a low sulfur diet I think? How do you find the content of sulfur in foods? That's part of the problem with nickel. It depends on where the food is grown, to some degree.

The shoe thing might have been partially due to the nickel thing.

I do consider myself to be pretty good at troubleshooting, but detective might be fun.

Chile I mostly use aluminum cookware, but makes me think I should switch to enameled or something.

JohnLarson Right now I'm eating frosted mini wheats, but once that's gone (tomorrow), I'll probably switch to grits or cream of wheat. Once I'm fully healed, maybe I'll just start rotating breakfast and reintroduce oatmeal back in, with the vitamin-c added.

nicoles Coincidentally, there maybe some tie in with nickel and U.C./Crohns/IBS. Found this thread in my research.

http://www.crohnsforum.com/showthread.php?t=49731

Melinda I knew there had to be a reason. I accused the electric blanket (which honestly is still not off the hook, I mean nickel is a metal and could have been affected by an EM field, just saying), that new mouthwash. Diet seemed to be the next most likely cause, but what was I supposed to change? Go back to SAD? I even ate nuts a bit for a couple of weeks thinking I might be too low in fat consumption. Ironically all nuts are high in nickel, so it sure didn't get any better.

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We had our friends from out of town staying with us this past weekend. Then we held a cookout for 30 people total on Sunday. The wife made a vegetable couscous, and I made gluten italian sausage and a dairy/fat free mushroom risotto. The last time I made it, I thought the lemon juice took away from the dish, so I took some out to the wife for her to taste, she said, "I'm not sure this could be improved on. I might have to start hating you."

Anyways, here's the recipe (I leave out the margarine and the oil. I also left out the spinach this last time because I didn't want to scare away the SAD eaters); http://dairyfreecooking.about.com/od/vegetarianentreessides/r/vegrisotto.htm

[Chile]

I've read a little about about Burgess, he's on a low sulfur diet I think? How do you find the content of sulfur in foods? That's part of the problem with nickel. It depends on where the food is grown, to some degree.

Chile I mostly use aluminum cookware, but makes me think I should switch to enameled or something.

On Burgess's website, he does link to sites with the sulfur content of foods listed. (His website is listed at the bottom of all his posts.)

Now, Dis, by "aluminum cookware" I am hoping you mean the pans that are aluminum base but coated with something else. Otherwise, you need to change to other cookware sooner than later! See Dr. McDougall's comment on aluminum in his Alzheimer's article.

In fact, I'll share one quote from it re: cookware:

Your choice of cookware is important. Glass and porcelain are relatively nonreactive with foods. Metal cookware does react with the acids in foods and the metal ions thereby released gain access to your body. In the case of copper, iron, and stainless steel cookware the metals are actually essential trace elements, and therefore make a valuable nutritional contribution if they are not absorbed in excess. Aluminum, on the other hand, not only has no recognized function in the body, but is toxic.

Of course, now Dr. Barnard's come along and disagreed with Dr. McDougall about the copper and iron. This may be due to new and emerging research since Dr. McDougall wrote the article above.

[yarnpetter]

Dis- the risotto recipe sounds wonderful. Is there a reason it says to discard the mushrooms after soaking them instead of adding those to the dish also? Seems a waste to discard them and just use the water they soaked in.

[carollynne]

Dear Dis!! Such cool news! I am thrilled that you are doing so well!
thanks for sharing about the nickel allergy and the easy fix of taking a low dosage of Vitamin C. My youngest son and sister both have a need to cure their rashes and for my sons he does have eczema on his hands the worse. So I sent them both the article and your advice too.
Glad to hear that you and the wife are doing so well too.
many blessings to you too!

[mickeyaaaa]

re: dyshidrosis blisters on hands:

See my post here:

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=36251

I have suffered from this for over 30 years and have it mostly under control. pm me with any questions you might have.

LONG BATHS/SHOWERS HELP MOST FOR ME - FREQUENT HAND WASHING, AVOID TOUCHING RUBBER & LEATHER FOR EXTENDED PERIODS.

[spudkin]

Hi Dissolution,

I just finished reading your journal today-- all 67 pages, wow! I've been reading a handful of pages at a time over the past week and I found that as I was driving home from work, looking forward to the next segment, I had to keep reminding myself that you and your wife are real people and not fictional characters! Teehee.

I admire your stick-to-it-iveness. As you said, you just plain feel good when you're eating on plan. That's awesome!

After all the recommendations in your journal, I watched earthlings last night. Pretty disturbing. The root of my biggest downfall is dairy... I don't think there is a single fast food item I would eat, and very few candies, without dairy. So I copied down your expressions "poison cow juice," "cows' breast milk" and "frozen congealed bovine mammary gland excretion." Put in that light, it sounds pretty disgusting; I just have to keep remembering where it comes from and what it does to our bodies, per the China Study.

Keep on keeping on, Diss. I'm looking forward to the next installation!

[dlee]

Hi Dissolution,

I just finished reading your journal today-- all 67 pages, wow!

......So I copied down your expressions "poison cow juice," "cows' breast milk" and "frozen congealed bovine mammary gland excretion."
Put in that light, it sounds pretty disgusting; I just have to keep remembering where it comes from and what it does to our bodies, per the China Study.

Keep on keeping on, Diss. I'm looking forward to the next installation!

Yah great expressions, Dis you're a great writer, you've got to give us another post And sincerely hoping you're doing well. Dlee

[happyleo1000]

Hi Diss, I have to say that you are truly inspirational, I joined nearly a year ago and have been faffing around being about 90% compliant, definitely NO dairy and 99.999 nothing with a face, I have hardly lost any weight, (my brother and SiL have lost 10 and 19kg respectively in about 3 months since xmas since they went vegan cold turkey!!)
BUT I have been unable to give up the sweets and the red wine, and I have a very social life, lol,
Since I got hooked into your journey last week I have not strayed once, and I have to say that I am already down 2.5kgs and I think that if you can do it with all the negativity that you have to contend with then I am being incredibly selfish to my family, friends and myself not to put more effort in and lose those jet planes for good. Once again thanks for sharing your amazing journey with all of us.
Janice
PS if she doesn't want you, come to New Zealand and I'll take real good care of you, LOL

[Dissolution]

Chile I knew there was a problem with aluminum cookware, but honestly avoided that information, because that's what almost all of the wife's pots and pans are made of. She's very proud of her cookware, and buys almost exclusively from restaurant supply stores.

FYI 90% of the pots and pans for sale at restaurant supply stores are bare aluminum.

But now I've read the article...

yarnpetter I'm not sure what the reason is for throwing them out. I also would imagine you could skip that step completely if you could find mushroom broth. Which I have bought from one grocery store in the next city over.

carollynne Not so sure about the low dosage vitamin C. I'll keep you informed.

mickeyaaaa Thanks for the link and tips. I've never had a problem with latex though.

spudkin Thank you so much! I tend to get mired down in my current problems sometimes and forget how far the journey has been, and where I'm at now.

dlee I've heard some good ones for eggs. Chicken Ovulations, which quickly got translated into Chicken Periods. I'm not allowed to use that one around the house, it upsets people. lol

happyleo1000 I'm so glad you're seeing success now. It's unfair for women, guys seem to lose so much easier, and we don't get "chocolate week".
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I haven't updated my weight tracker, cause I think it's "bad luck". I'm not under 200 yet, but I am lighter than #2 son. I think that upsets him more than he let on.

Mad had eczema came back with a vengeance the first week of June. I ordered a medical textbook called Nickel and the Skin: Immunology and Toxicology. and the earliest dermatologist appointment I could get was for the 17th.

I switched to a low nickel diet, broccoli, white rice, potatoes, and a few other things, but no beans, or peas, or legumes, no green leafy vegetables, no whole grains. My hands kept getting worse and to be honest, the low nickel diet did not feel sustainable to me. I don't know what my alternatives are, cause I sure as hell don't consider meat and dairy to be an alternative.

In the mean time, sons #2 and #3 were to head out to a golf/bowling weekend. I bought a second golf glove for my right hand, as to try and not abrade ALL the skin off. We left last friday for Norfolk, VA. We played 18 holes on Friday, walked 2 miles to dinner. On Saturday we bowled 3 games, played another 18 holes, and then played 54 holes of mini-golf (yes we brought our own putters). Sunday we bowled another 6 games in a row and then played 18 more holes of golf. I'll admit I was jogging to and from the golf cart as much on Sunday as earlier, but the boys seemed to be dragging a little bit too.

Monday night #2 son and I went to ride 50mph go karts with a bunch of people from one of my clients (about 30). #2 left a little early cause he was tired. People from the client were complained about their arms being sore the next couple of days (most of the guys were in the 20's) I did not notice such discomfort, I accredit that to super vegan powers.

I did not receive my Nickel book until Monday morning. I read as much as I could and highlighted stuff and took it to my dermatologist appointment. I guess I expected her to say, "oh, yeah that could be causing your problem." Instead what I got was "It's eczema", "It's an autoimmune disease". I guess I'm not used to somebody passive aggressive arguing facts with me, cause she wasn't disagreeing with me (that I noticed at the time). I hadn't been able to read enough of my book, by that time to come up with a treatment plan. The dermatologist attitude seemed to be, well you have this disease and there's nothing we can really do about it, here use this cream.

I explained to her that the cream she had prescribed seemed to have no effect whatsoever. She explained that she was going to prescribe an ointment this time (shrug). I asked for the steroid shot, she relented, but said I couldn't have another one for 3 months. She prescribed another cream, oh sorry ointment. I didn't realize until I got it filled that it was the exact one the other doctor's office had prescribed that had no effect either. I called them on Tuesday and complained that she had prescribed a medicine that I had already told them (they wrote it down) didn't work. She prescribed something else, but was very snippy about it. I don't think I'll be going back.

A few things I've learned since being able to spend some more time with my book.

-Nickel is absorbed at a greater rate after an 8 to 12 hour fast than if consumed on a fuller stomach

-Oatmeal, in addition to being very high in nickel, also has another compound called phytin that could increase nickel absorption.

-Cocoa is also very high in nickel (I used to eat 1 tsp in my morning oatmeal)

-A zinc supplement may aid in the blocking of nickel absorption.

-My hands are probably going to break out again, due to the presence T-cells.

-Chelation therapy might be possible with a drug called Disulfiram (Antabuse).

-I need to find a different Dermatologist.

The other bad thing is this book is $225-$250 new. I got mine for $25. Mine is the 1989 edition. It looks like it may have been updated in 2002. Does anyone know if there are medical libraries that the public can go into and just look at the books?

I hope everybody has a good weekend!

[Chile]

Dis, I hear you on wanting to avoid information that you know will mean you have to change up something else! Luckily I never owned much aluminum, although it took me years to decide to ditch the Donvier ice cream maker. I still miss it as I had come up with some killer vegan ice cream recipes, but the container is aluminum and I never could get an answer (from Dr. McDougall or Jeff Novick) about whether cold food in contact with aluminum was a problem so I decided to go with the safest route. I keep forgetting that I also need to replace the steamer rack for my old-style pressure cooker.

Anyway, after hearing Dr. Barnard's talk about Alzheimer's, I realized I'd also have to give up my beloved cast iron skillet. I haven't entirely but I now cook 95% of oil-free stir-fried foods in my new stainless steel one. I only use the cast iron for something I'm afraid would stick really badly to the steel, like homemade pancakes or vegan French toast. 'Course stainless steel can release nickel while cooking so that's a concern.

Your dermatologist's attitude about the medicine is annoying but sounds pretty typical. I think many doctors really find self-educated patients irritating because, after all, they racked up thousands of dollars of debt and many sleepless nights earning their medical degrees. And we have the audacity to come in armed with information and opinions as to what's wrong with us and how to treat it?!

Sorry for taking up so much space in your journal. I do have one other point to make, or rather bit of information to share. Far-infared saunas - not the old-fashioned plain old high heat ones - are reputed to be very effective in helping the body rid itself of toxins, including heavy metals ... including nickel. I did a lot of reading/research on this last year as they are also a way to reduce excess estrogen which I'm dealing with regarding a fibroid. (I'd rather sit in a sauna than schedule surgery!) Please PM me if you would like more information about the saunas and "detox" regimen. Some spas and gyms have these so you don't necessarily have to purchase your own, although they do show up on craigslist occasionally. We got one for a great price last year, but prior to that, I booked one in a gym every weekday.

[didi]

Lehigh Valley Health Network here in the Allentown area has a medical library and it looks like anyone can go in and read the books just as courthouses have law libraries which anyone can use. Try your local hospital.

didi