Psoriatic Arthritis Journal - 2.5 year Update Page 63

[blue]

Nicole
I am in a similar situation with my own friend who is chronically ill with several AI conditions, on disability, in and out of the hospital, and on boatload of meds. Horrible diet. She just laughs when I suggest the changes I have made could help her. It saddens me.

We've really been blessed, Nicole, to have found this WOE.

[nicoles]

We've really been blessed, Nicole, to have found this WOE.

Yes, I agree, Blue, we really have.

Still working on my fasting word draft, but a couple of other things are also going on.

First, New Star McDougaller Caroline Duke's Video came out and it really gave me some new inspiration and hope.

I wrote about it in the Lounge AND in the Comments on a New Star McDougaller/ Newsletters sections, but I am going to repost here what I wrote there because I am just so impacted by it:

This is the new Star McDougaller, Caroline Duke

She had psoriasis,a common skin disorder that is also an autoimmune disease.

What is very important about this video is that she got rid of her psoriasis, but it took her a few years.

At minute 3:17 she says, "... within a year, I saw progressive change, and now that I've been on (the) McDougall Diet since 2007, I have absolutely no indication that I ever had an autoimmune disease process."

That is 4 years of "McDougalling", and she only just now felt OK to become a Star McDougaller.

This is very important - IT WAS NOT AN OVERNIGHT" CURE" - IT TOOK YEARS....but it still worked.


I point this out to anyone who, like me, who has one of those inflammatory disease processes, which do not respond rapidly or dramatically to this WOE. I have been experiencing progressive change over the last year, but I am not better.

I am not giving up, and, in my opinion, neither should you.

(I also posted the same thing in the Comments on the Latest Newsletter or Star McDougaller as well)

Healing takes time.

Our bodies want to heal.

These two concepts are so very reassuring to me.

=======================================
Water Fasting

Well, before I even had a chance to write more about fasting, and I am fasting again, starting today, March 16th. So I thought I'd spend the next few days of the fast journalling about it, adding information as is relevant, and working on the draft so maybe I can get that up here toot-sweet.

BAsically, water fasting as per Dr Fuhrman and others' advice, requires that you spend a few months prior to the fast eating very-high-nutrient-dense-foods, so that you have adequate nutrient reserves to draw from during the time you abstain from food.

What I did wrong the first time was to not really boost up those reserves - I eliminated a lot of bad stuff for months beforehand, and did not add enough of the other stuff (namely salads and greens.)

Well, I eat A LOT of salads and greens now, and I think that is partially why the fasting, and everything else, has been going so well.

Dr Fuhrman has people on his Autoimmune Protocol (which I will call the AIP from on because I am a lazy typer) consume 4-8 ounces of organic fresh vegetable juice (kale, parsley, cabbage plus carrot or beets or apples as sweeteners to taste) and also eat a blended salad (greens+fruit+water+some fat, like flax seeds) and also eat veggie-rich (emphasis on greens and cruciferous veggies in the soup) blended ( in the blender, to increase nutrient absorption) soup daily for the first three months on the AIP - to build up nutrient levels.

This is in addition to eating 2-3 regular giant salads each day, some fruit (not for all, some are sensitive to fruit) and a lightly steamed cruciferous vegetable, plus another steamed green veggie, like asparagus or artichoke. and also regular food, like sweet potatoes, beans etc.

He says a lot about why, much of it technical, but the gist is that you are getting as broad a range of nutrients and phytochemicals as possible, absorbing it more quickly because of the juicing and the blending,and that this helps your cells metabolize waste and toxins more efficiently. One could even call it "detox," I suppose.

He does regard this somewhat as a medicine - he thinks the most natural way to eat food is to chew it, not juice or blend it, but in the cases of some diseases, more action can be taken without harm. IN fact, he thinks the juicing is totally optional for AIP peeps after three months or so, and if you are having problems with the disease, he wants people to stop juicing.

So, I actually think Dr. McDougall has people do the same thing - you eat really well, you get more nutrients, and slowly your body metabolizes all the extra "junk" out of your system at a apace that does not cause further trauma to the body - but that Dr F's way might be sort of a shortcut, a jump start, a boost - something I am fine with because being in pain is NO FUN and getting out of it quicker is better, from my perspective.

I think the most recent Star McDougaller is an example of that - she kept at it, it wan't lightning-fast, but it happened.


Now, looking back, and armed with this information, I can see a few mistakes I made.

Why I Think I got the Big Flare Last September

I did not eat enough nutrient-dense food before my first fast.

After I got off that first fast, I went on an extended elimination diet, following Dr MCD's advice here at the bottom, and eating only cooked food - no salads! for months. And really, not eating a ton of greens or cruciferous veggies.

Now after about three months of that, I started to get a wee bit lazy. I was definitely feeling much better and I had it in my head that I had more leeway than I had been practicing.

Fortunately, my dear husband, lover-of-all-things-spreadsheet, made me a detailed daily checklist I could rattle off each night to record what I ate, what I did, exercise, sleep, and symptoms when I first went on the Elimination Diet (referred to as ED from here on out - lazy, lazy, lazy me ) and I would just check them off each night and hand them over to him.

He recently processed all that information - even made me a graph and evarrthang! - and I see clearly now that I forgot that in the weeks leading up to my big flare/illness in September I:

- Had house guests for a week and I ate veggie sushi out almost daily for that week (white rice, not brown, salt and some oil=not very good for Nicky!)

- I drank a Starbucks decaf green tea soy latte a total of 4x in the house guest week - not a lot for a regular McD-er, but not ED-appropriate!

- Went to Vegas 2 weeks after the house guests and did basically the same thing - veggie sushi out, decaf green tea soy lattes, and loads of Dole Pineapple juice (I am sensitive to too much sweets and to preservatives) while out with others at bars in The City of Sin. (BTW -Las Vegas is not much fun if you a) don't like to gamble (I am cheap!) b) aren't inebriated and c) don't like cigarette smoke assaulting you everywhere. I am fine to never go agin. My husband is devastated )

- Three days before the flare, I got yet another Starbucks green tea decaf latte - but I think they used the chemical-y powdered stuff instead of the teabag, and maybe they used dairy milk - I know it tasted way wrong, but I was with a group, and it was crowded and I did not want to make a fuss.

What I learned from this is that:

1) I have a terrible and selective memory. I have to keep myself honest with the daily log, and review the info monthly.

2) I was a very bad girl for a month before I got a very bad flare. ( A friend I made who has AI disease says it like this: when you start to feel better, that is when you feel like you can "cheat," but really that is the most dangerous time to cheat at all) Shall we call it hubris?

3) I don't care for Las Vegas. Seriously, though, I learned that I need to be stricter and less "accommodating" about my food choices, which is not me being so altruistic as I phrased it, but really a way for me to rationalize bad choices, which are not in my best interests.

Alright, if you have read this far, I am impressed.

Water Fast Day 1

Not much to report yet, it has only been 16.5 hours since I had any food, and much of that time was spent asleep. I feel totally normal. Not hungry, but that is also normal for me. I'll update as things happen or daily, whichever applies.

Thanks for visiting!

[WeeSpeck]

Hi Nicole,

I am reading your journal with avid interest! I am so glad that you are documenting this with such detail.

2) I was a very bad girl for a month before I got a very bad flare. ( A friend I made who has AI disease says it like this: when you start to feel better, that is when you feel like you can "cheat," but really that is the most dangerous time to cheat at all) Shall we call it hubris?

Isn't that the truth!? As soon as I see progress in my efforts, I jump into this entitlement mentality. I earned a reward. But, really, the reward is in the results of this effort. The long term benefits far exceed the short term cheats.

I too was very inspired by Star McDougaller Caroline Duke's story. There is hope out there for those who suffer from auto-immune issues. Time and adherence is key!

Thank you for your sharing your journey and progress. It helps so much.

[nicoles]

HI Nancy! Thanks for visiting, and I am very glad that you appreciate what I am writing; it helps me, too, to organize all my thoughts and experiences in one place.

Yep, when I start to get that feeling of "entitlement" it is easy to forget that the reward is freedom from pain. I guess that just takes time ot get used to.


Water Fast Day 2

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I won't be having anything to eat or drink except regular water, of course, but still...I am Irish!

My husband is making his non-vegan, health-problem-plagued parents Vegan Colcannon from fatfreevegan, but I'll be at home.


I find it so interesting that this thread came up in the Lounge today - I was thinking of talking about the Natural Hygiene Society(NHS from now on) yesterday, but I wasn't sure exactly how to put what I wanted to say in a coherent context.

I guess my main point would be that Dr Furhman's ideas about toxic hunger/true hunger and his promotion of fasting aren't "his" exactly, the concepts were already out there and promoted by the NHS decades ago.

So, from all I have learned about water fasting, you are really supposed to take it very easy - no stress, no work, not too much effort - both to facilitate the cellular processes that water fasting promotes and to reduce the muscle loss, since some muscle is lost during a fast, although not as much as you might think.

Interestingly enough, one of the dangers of really prolonged fasting is that all the skeletal muscle will be consumes, in which case you will likely die. this can even happen to a very obese person, if they do not have sufficient muscle and fast too long. But this is for fasts of over 40 days - nothing like the 2-3 days I am doing.

Another danger is potassium loss, which is rare, but is also why it is advisable to undertake long fasts under supervision, like at TruehNorth.

So in the spirit of doing this right, I am not doing anything much today - may watch some health-related videos, i have several audiobooks on my ipod, and I am a really big fan of sleeping, especially when it is gray, dark and rainy like it is today. I am glad the weather here decided to help me out with my fast - usually it is so bright and sunny!

Not particularly hungry, but very tired on this fast - I went to bed last night around 7pm, and fell asleep fairly quickly, then did not wake up until 8 am.

Occasionally I will think of eating, but if I think of something else or sip a little water, the hunger goes away.

Oh yes - another thing. Water fasting is dehydrating, so you need to drink water throughout the day, at least 4 pints. However, you can overwhelm your kidneys if you chug it down, so it is better to just sip it all day.

Have a great day!

[blue]

Nicole
Very interesting! Maybe I missed it, but how long will you be water fasting and what is the next step?

I do think we pain patients have special nutritional needs and I'm in agreement that the addition of juicing and/or blending can provide what is necesssary to kickstart the healing process and help mitigate what is often a lifetime of abuse to our bodies (ie, dairy!)

This may be exactly what you need to get faster relief! I've found that drinking green smoothies daily since September has been a super easy and tasty way to increase my phytonutrients. Personally, I find them very filling and tide me over longer than a starchy breakfast like oatmeal. For a 32 oz smoothie, I use only about 1 cup of fruit, and the rest greens, sweet potato, ginger, and 1 T flax.

I got rid of my Jack LaLanne juicer a while back, too many parts to clean and keep track of! What kind of juicer do you have and are you happy with it?

Happy St Patrick's Day!

[nicoles]

Hey Blue!

I am going for 2.5-3 days, depending on how I feel.

The next step, which I will talk about more in the next couple of days, is to eat really well after the fast - apparently, a lot of healing takes place then, and it is as important to move with care as it is with water fasting itself.

Yes, I love green smoothies, too, especially since I don;t love raw kale or spinach. Weight gain is not a problem for me anymore, soi feel OK eating them.

I had a cheap-ish Breville Juicer from, like, 10 years ago that I use - it does have a lot of parts and is really loud but it does the job!

[nicoles]

Completed the water fast yesterday, March 18th, but my husband had hijacked the pc so... here I am today...

Anyway, I wanted to talk a little about why I think I came down with this autoimmune disease in the first place.

My Psoriasis

I have had psoriasis since I was a baby, according to my parents. As I have said before, it was never very bad or out of control, just unsightly, although it was getting worse when the arthritis symptoms started showing up.

It was definitely something I had come to accept long ago as art of me, like the color of my eyes, or my height.

It went away rather quickly when I started McDougalling a little more than a year ago, and although I have a had a couple of times where it came back a little, it has never come to stay, nor has it ever been as bad as it was before.


My thoughts are that my psoriasis was caused primarily by a food allergy or sensitivity that I was unaware of. I stopped eating all dairy, meat, nightshades, wheat, citrus and corn all at once, so I suspect one or more of those items is a culprit. Since I had been a vegetarian for long periods (5 years from late teens -early 20s) before doing the McD diet, I don't think it is meat, because my psorisis never went away then. I am fully convinced that meat is otherwise terrible, however.

Of the foods I listed above, I know for a fact that I have consumed large amounts of wheat, citrus, nightshades and dairy products my whole life, and I know for sure my mother was eating those things when she was breastfeeding me (while smoking, I might add. She also smoked while she was pregnant with me, which cannot have helped me.)

So anyway, I think one or more of those four foods are definitely not for me. I have not tested wheat, nightshades or citrus yet, because I am afraid. I am pretty much over wheat and dairy, so I don't really care about them, but I do hope that ultimately I find that I can have nightshades, or citrus, or both!

My Psoriatic Arthriris

There are a few thing I know I did dietarily (is that a word?) that were not good choices and that very well may have impacted me physically enough to cause the arthritis to come up.

1) I Drank a ton of Coffee, with a ton of Cream and Sugar I was a coffee addict, and I always knew it did not do me any good, although it seemed harmless enough at the time.

When on coffee, I always had a white coated tongue, which was mistaken as a yeast infection more than once by doctors. When I did not drink coffee, the tongue was pink. So something about it was toxic to my body and needed to be eliminated, which probably caused an overall stress to the entire cellular process of waste and toxic by-products-of-digestion removal.

Plus, I was consuming large amounts of cream daily, and high fat diets slow down the removal of "bad stuff" in the tissues. And cream is dairy!

Plus I really added obscene mounts of sugar to the coffee - and sugar is one of the things listed as contributing to a leaky gut and destroying gut flora/suppressing immune function.

2) I drank way too much alcohol. For a short time around 10 years ago I worked part-time as a bartender, while I was in post-graduate school. I had never been a drinker until then, as I did not like beer or wine (wheat allergy perhaps?), because they always made me feel crappy immediately, not the day after.

But then I discovered high-end scotch (I worked in a fancy-pants country club.) Single malt whiskey. Fine bourbon. These things did not disagree with me so quickly (although they sure did the day after) and tasted very nice, to me at least.

I got a little too much in the habit of consuming them regularly, until I was drinking every day. Looking back, I was well on the road to becoming an alcoholic, if not already there, and that I stopped drinking is one of the many reasons I am very grateful to have found this diet.

Alcohol is another thing that is supposed to create intestinal permeability, and in the stressful months leading up to my arthritis coming out, I was drinking daily, enough to have a mild to significant hangover 2-3 times a week. Definitely excessive!

Alcohol is also extremely toxic, adding to the overload my cells were probably already dealing with from the 5-6 large cups of coffee (Dunkin' Donuts or Starbucks, both very strong coffees) and the ibuprofen I was using to manage my hangovers/fatigue.

3) I was doing the Shangri-LA Diet (SLD from here on out)


I was desperate to lose weight, and a friend lent me Seth Roberts' book about the diet. It is a really simple and effective diet - you consume a large amount of refined sugar and extra virgin olive oil or some other fairly bland oil on an empty stomach, within a two hour window before you taste another food, and your appetite is suppressed.

It does work for appetite suppression, I can guarantee you that, but those two things, especially on an empty stomach ALSO create increased intestinal permeability, damage healthy gut flora and suppressed immune function, so it more likely that cellular waste products will not be cleared out enough by the immune system.

Circulation is also decreased with a very-high-fat diet, which the SLD most certainly is, and that means circulation to the joints is much more decreased, while increasing the cellular waste load in these areas specifically. And then our bodies like to develop antibodies against ourselves, because the cell markers on the cell walls look "foreign" or "damaged." ( I learned this in the chapter on autoimmune disease and fasting in Dr. Fuhrman's book,"Fasting and Eating for Health", which I got out of my local library.)

An interesting side note: the friend who lent me the book was also on the SLD, and after many months developed a related autoimmune disease - ankylosing spondylitis - and terrible kidney stones. She is now on the paleo diet in combination with the HCG diet.

I think both are a terrible idea, but after this revealing and embarrassing journal post, I am sure it is obvious that I was just as misguided not too long ago, so who am I to judge?


4) I popped NSAIDS like there was no tomorrow.

Specifically generic ibuprofen, from Trader Joe's. Between the hangovers, the joint pain and the headaches from too much coffee, I was gobbling 2-8 pills a day. And these babies most definitely are linked to stomach and intestinal wall damage, causing occult bleeding and increased intestinal permeability.

5) I ate a lot of cheese, butter and yogurt - all full-fat.

Obviously, these three are big baddies. 'Nuff said.


I don't do any of these things now. Hopefully my gut can heal eventually.


Anyway, these are my thoughts for the day as to how I might have contributed unwittingly to the development of my AI Disease. I like to think about these things because it helps me to think there was a cause, not that it was just random. I feel like I am more in the driver's seat, ya know?

[nicoles]

Well, it is a GORGEOUS day here in La-La-Land, and I am feeling spring fever. So, I am doing what I always do when I am distracted at work - hanging out here and on my email online.

Anyway, I said I would talk a little about what to do post-fasting, so I guess I'll say a bit about it now.

Immediately after a fast, Dr. F and others advise eating very lightly for the first day or two - some say start with fresh veggie juices or veggie-mixed with fruit juices, others say to eat watery fruit like watermelon or orange to promote peristalsis.

In either case, for the first day after, you should not have a lot, despite the fact you may be clamoring to stuff your face with food, because it could do some damage to the digestive system and basically reverse any good the fast did for you.

Something like a half-orange every two hours, chewed verrrry well, or 6 oz juice every two hours.

People, like me, who can't eat a lot of fruit, can do the same with steamed zucchini or broccoli instead of fruit, or veggie juice. I went with lightly steamed cauliflower, which I was craving.

The second day, you can add in regular food, but nothing spicy, like garlic or cayenne, no beans and no nuts, if you eat them. However, you should make your meals about half the size you'd normally eat, and chew really well.

After the second day, you can add back pretty much anything you regularly eat, but continue to really chew well, err on the side of smaller portions, and observe carefully if any food or meal seems to bug you.

For short fasts, your metabolism only slows down a little, but it still does, so between that and the chance of damaging your digestive system from overeating, it is best to eat pretty lightly for a week or so, even though you might really want to stuff your face.

I don't particulary feel like face stuffing, and eating becomes much more meditative after a fast, and I really appreciate the food I have.

You know, it's funny - we have so much tasty, hearty food of all sorts - good and bad - available to us that we are always trying to cut back to stay healthy and thin, yet it seems like people rarely really appreciate how lucky we are to have such abundance, myself definitely included.

After a fast, I REALLY APPRECIATE the food, I feel it in my heart and soul, and I fully feel my good fortune.

It's a nice feeling. Like saying grace and really meaning it, not just going through the motions.

[nicoles]

Well, a week after my fast, and my meditative reverence surrounding eating has been replaced with by a binge-demon that stuffs food in my face, doesn't chew well and generally overeats.

Seriously, it is TIME. Time to confront my poor eating habits - the ones that extend beyond the types of foods I choose and enter into the murky waters of why I eat, how I eat, and how much I eat.

Regardless of the quality of the food, overeating is not healthy and I need to reign it in for the benefit of my autoimmune disease.

Katydid posted this article by Emily Boller in her Journal and I found it to be exactly what I needed this week:

"...For me, being 100% compliant to eating for health means following Dr. Fuhrman’s high-nutrient food plan (“GOMBBS” - greens, onions, mushrooms, beans, berries, nuts/seeds), stopping before full and eating only when truly hungry.

Following the food plan isn’t the hard part for me; the "stopping before full and eating only when truly hungry" is the hard part. The stopping before full habit has taken me the longest to retrain and develop. I actually feel about as miserable now when I'm full as I would if I ate processed fake foods; but it took much repetitive training, and many failures, over three years' worth, to get to this point...."


How am I planning to retrain my eating habits?

I am glad I asked myself that!

Goal 1 - Stop eating BEFORE full (full=stuffed for me, and that takes a heavy toll on the digestive system)

How I plan to do that:

1) Chew very well - until each bite is liquid.

2) Check in with my tummy when I am 1/3rd of the way done with my serving. If still hungry, check in again when 2/3rds of the way done. I know I am eating too much, so somewhere in there I should find out that I am really done,but that I am just eating for fun or habit or another reason, like comfort or boredom.

3) Wait the magic 20 minutes after finishing before serving more.

Goal 2: Eat only when hungry.

This one is harder; according to Dr F, most of what we normally think of as hunger (grumbling tummy, empty feeling, fatigue, headaches, weakness) is not real hunger but toxic hunger.

Apparently, real hunger is felt in the throat and mouth, like thirst. I have not exactly experienced this, but I have experienced the symptoms of what I always thought was hunger diminish when I am eating well, so I am open to the idea.

For now, I am just keeping an eye out for the subtler sensations, and I will be exercising my willpower and the power of distraction when "toxic" hunger comes up.

We'll see what happens.

[nicoles]

Update: later in the day of previous post.

Note to self: Do not eat while online. Conscious eating is not possible then.

[nicoles]

First day of not overeating was not entirely successful, but what is the first day?

Instead of overeating, I underate, since I entered all my food in the CRON-O-METER and it only came out to just barely 600 calories.

So then I ate more food, but I really had no idea of when I was full or not full.

Hunger signals are subtle and hard to find.

[nicoles]

Been doing very well pain-wise after my fast, and am now continuing to explore the subtleties of how overeating can trigger an overactive autoimmune response.



My first real week of keeping track of eating was very interesting - I certainly have not figured out exactly what is overeating and what is under eating for me! Seems like one day I will eat way too much, then the next way too little. Hopefully I will soon find the right balance.

The most fascinating thing has been observing my emotional/habitual overeating tendencies. Mostly I eat excessively out of habit, but there have been a couple of times in the last week when I knew full well I was eating to cope with stress.

I think that is progress, for sure!


I would not have gotten anywhere close to thinking about my eating habits this much if not for the autoimmune issue; my weight is OK with me and in a healthy range, my blood pressure and cholesterol levels are excellent.

But what I appreciate about having to explore this is that it clearly IS an issue of mine. Maybe not to the extent that it never was something I exactly noticed, but I lost 47 pounds this past year and a quarter, so I clearly overate.

[Herbivore]

Nicole you are unstintingly courageous in the way you are examining your habits and health with brutal honesty and then sharing your experience with us all.
We're lucky to have such a brave and generous friend to learn from.
Thankyou!

[nicoles]

Wow, Herbivore, thanks! You are very kind and your post made my morning!

[working at it]

Hi Nicoles - Thanks for the link to your Journal here, and the form you use to document your day. Your story is compelling and impressive.

Am learning alot of your experience. Thanks for sharing!