Maria Rickert Hong received her training as a Certified Health Counselor from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, where she was trained in more than 100 dietary theories. She is also a mom who has recovered her sons from sensory processing disorder, allergies, asthma and acid reflux as well as recovered herself from heavy-metal poisoning, adrenal fatigue, hypothyroidism, pancreatic insufficiency, insomnia, systemic Candida and immune disregulation.
In one of my recent blogs, I touched upon the concept of adrenal fatigue and mostly discussed it in relation to my son’s adrenal issues. In this blog, I’ll tell you about my own adrenal problems.
I mentioned before that I became severely stressed when I began taking care of my two boys without any help because that’s when my older son’s sensory issues and “fight, fright or flight” issues really kicked in. He was crying about everything almost non-stop, and almost nothing I could do could console him. I read an article the other day from SheKnows Parenting called, “How To Talk To Your Pediatrician About Sensory Processing Disorder”. The article summed up Sensory Processing Disorder very well: “The difference between a finicky child and a child with sensory processing disorder (SPD) is that the child with SPD will often react in what you would consider a highly over the top manner, such as prolonged screaming and crying.” That was my older son, and that’s what drove me over the edge.
In another recent blog (“How My Son’s Sensory Processing Disorder Caused My Severe Health Decline”), I wrote about how I developed middle-of-the-night insomnia, extreme irritability, shingles (twice), bronchitis (which I’d never had before), the worst case of poison ivy ever (I took a 6-pack of steroids which made it go away until I stopped taking it, at which point it came back with a vengeance), systemic Candida, chronic sinus infections, suddenly irregular cycles, a uterine fibroid (which caused intra-cycle bleeding) and an ovarian cyst. I had never had “female” issues before, but now I was loaded with them! And all of these things happened within a year and a half’s time.
As I mentioned before, seeing a naturopath, taking the supplements he offered, and following his advice definitely helped. He told me to eliminate all processed foods (I used to live on Lean Cuisine meals, Weight Watcher’s meals, Amy’s Kitchen meals and loads of prepared foods from Trader Joe’s), use only ghee or coconut oil for cooking and stop eating so many carbs. Bowls of cereal and English muffins had been staples for my breakfast and snacks.
All of these things helped, and it also helped that my son began working with a land-based Occupational Therapist and another aquatic OT, both of whose exercises for him increased his core strength and improved the function of his vestibular system, which in turn, improved his muscle tone and balance. He was no longer freaked out about everything and started to come out of his shell and be more social because he was no longer scared to be in his own body.
Shortly after my son began improving was when I developed a uterine fibroid. It was about an inch long and, luckily, was pendulous, making it easily removed with surgery. I remember my gynecologist at the time telling me I had three choices: 1) do nothing; 2) remove it surgically; or, 3) remove it surgically and also perform an ablation to make sure it never, ever came back. This kind of scorched-earth policy on my body freaked me out, so I chose not to do that. I went ahead with the surgery, which was easy enough, because he led me to believe that the fibroid would not likely go away and may, in fact, get bigger. I suppose I could have gone for a second opinion, but the only other gynecologists I knew of, that most of my friends knew of, were his colleagues, and so I assumed I would just get the same answer.
Adrenal Fatigue
Because my son was feeling and doing better, my daily stress-load improved, but I was still bone-tired and needed 2-3 hour naps every day, and even then I woke up tired. I was more tired than I usually had been throughout my life. I remember needing naps as a teenager. Even as a young woman, I remember taking naps on the couch at lunch. In fact, when my brother came to see me recently, the first thing he asked my boys was, “Does your mommy still take naps?” In any case, naps were necessary, but they weren’t making me any less tired.
Other symptoms of adrenal fatigue that I had were low blood pressure, feeling dizzy after rising from lying down, brain fog, poor immunity, craving salty and sugary foods, unexplained hair loss (it used to come out in clumps in the shower – ugh!), insomnia and a tendency to startle easily. As far back as I can remember, I’ve had low blood pressure (which doctors said was never a problem – yeah, right!) and dizziness after rising. I must have had a mild case of adrenal fatigue almost all my life!
The fatigue wasn’t getting any better, and this was no way to live! I had read Dr. Mark Hyman’s, “UltraPrevention: The 6-Week Plan That Will Make You Healthier For Life” and discovered that he was a functional medicine doctor. The Institute of Functional Medicine’s website says that, “Functional medicine is personalized medicine that deals with primary prevention and underlying causes instead of symptoms for serious chronic disease.” Although by now I knew that the underlying sources of my symptoms were severe heavy-metal toxicity, gut dysbiosis and stress, I was still fatigued, so I sought out two functional-medicine doctors in my area. One is a gynecologist; the other is a specialist who deals with chronic conditions. In my experience, functional-medicine doctors are very similar to naturopaths in that both kinds of doctors are holistic, look at the function of bodily systems, and prescribe supplements that include anything from vitamins and minerals to herbs, digestive enzymes and probiotics.
I had decided to switch to a functional-medicine gynecologist because I wasn’t happy with having had surgery to remove my fibroid a year earlier. After surgery, I discovered that diet, lifestyle, herbs and acupuncture could be used to eradicate the fibroid instead of the surgical removal and/or ablation (read “scorched-earth policy”) that he had recommended. My previous gynecologist had mentioned none of these other options. Given that I was suddenly beset with “female problems” of irregular cycles, uterine fibroids and now an ovarian cyst, and I had never before had these kinds of problems, I believed a gynecologist with a holistic viewpoint could help me tease out the causes of these malfunctions in my body.
Given that my fatigue seemed to be related to my thyroid and/or adrenal glands, he ordered two tests from Genova Diagnostics, a lab that tests functions of body symptoms, which is more than a lab like Quest Diagnostics does. He ordered a salivary adrenocortex stress profile to test my adrenal glands and a NutrEval profile that shows levels of antioxidants, B vitamins, metabolic analysis markers, amino acids, essential fatty acids, and minerals.
I was stunned by the results of my adrenocortex stress profile, which measures both salivary cortisol and DHEA. It clearly showed that I had adrenal fatigue because my cortisol levels were too low. Now, I know that’s not something to be happy about, but at least I finally had confirmation and proof that I was tired. I wasn’t just saying it! Cortisol regulates your body’s response to stress, regulates blood sugar, regulates your circadian rhythm, and controls inflammation, and I had had problems with all of these issues throughout my life, only to get worse in recent years.
Bingo. Here is why I was hypoglycemic (although I had been for years), irritable, tired, had middle-of-the-night insomnia and had a multitude of problems caused by my suppressed immune system. As I’ve mentioned before, the book , “Adrenal Fatigue: The 21st Century Stress Syndrome”, by James L. Wilson, is an excellent resource for what causes adrenal fatigue, what its symptoms are, how it suppresses the immune system and leads to other chronic conditions, what your doctor can do to help you, and what diet and lifestyle changes you can make, including eliminating coffee and caffeine from your diet. Yes, it’s true. I no longer drink coffee because it puts too much stress on your adrenals. Drinking coffee is like flogging a tired, old horse. It’ll make it go a little faster right away, but in the long run, it’ll probably make that horse die a lot sooner. I’m wondering how many Starbucks-addicted coffee drinkers out there have adrenal fatigue.
I read an excellent article in the December 2011 issue of “Townsend Letter” magazine titled, “Chronic Fatigue-Fibromyalgia: The Adrenal-Thyroid Connection,” that says, “Everyone who is chronically ill has adrenal dysfunction and generally thyroid dysfunction. This is such a very deep issue and is part of the great divide between strictly allopathic practitioners and integrative, alternative practitioners. Patients can have every sign and symptom of adrenal fatigue and hypothyroidism, but with a single normal blood cortisol and TSH, their symptoms are written off as a deficiency of antidepressants, benzodiazepines, and much worse.” Sounds like me when I first went to the previous gynecologist, and he gave me Zoloft for my irritability and Ambien for insomnia. Did he look into the causes of my irritability and insomnia and check my adrenals and thyroid? To quote John Belushi, “But, nooo!!!”
Adrenal Supplements
Thank God I discovered functional medicine! Woo hoo! So, how did he treat it? He prescribed two adrenal extracts per day: one in the morning, and one at lunch. The brand he uses is Adren-All by Ortho Molecular Products, and you can find it on Amazon. It contains the dried and ground adrenal extracts of cows as well as adaptogenic herbs such as eleuthero (Siberian ginseng), rhodiola, schizandra and licorice root. Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurvedic doctors have used adaptogenic herbs for thousands of years to modulate the effects of stress in their patients. I also discovered another adaptogenic herb complex that I like: Innate Response’s Adrenal Response, which contains ashwagandha, rhodiola, astragalus, American ginseng, holy basil leaf and schizandra; you can also find it on Amazon.
He also prescribed high doses of vitamins B5 and B6 (5000% of RDA) because these vitamins have been shown to support the production of adrenal hormones and energy. The product he prescribed, Cortico-B5B6 by Metagenics, can also be found on Amazon. I take two in the morning and one at lunch.
Bone Broth
The first cooking-for-health class I took at the Natural Gourmet Institute in New York City was one about supporting the adrenal glands taught by Andrea Beaman of “Top Chef” fame, who recovered herself from thyroid disease by eating whole, seasonal foods. She recommends eating whole, organic, seasonal foods, of course, but also eating foods that are rich in minerals such as homemade stock made from animal bones. A properly made broth has a high amount of minerals in it, and minerals are very necessary for the adrenals to function properly.
Many cultures have a proverb saying that, “Good broth will resurrect the dead.” It’s true. One day when my older son was sick with some illness, he was lying on the couch, barely moving for hours. He didn’t want to eat or drink, just sleep. I made him drink a half cup of warm, homemade broth, and he was up and running around in 15 months as if he had never been sick. There’s a reason your grandmother gave you chicken soup when you were sick: it was the real thing packed with minerals!
These days, I buy meat with the bones in them. I then reserve those bones for making bone broth. I make broth once or twice a week, sometimes more. Usually, I roast the bones first with some onions, celery and carrots and then dump them into my crock pot with water for at least 24 hours to extract the minerals. It’s not necessary to roast the bones; you can make a “blonde” stock instead by skipping the roasting. If you’re using chicken or turkey bones, be sure to hack the tubular bones in half to make sure that the marrow is extracted. If you buy beef bones, the ones that are sold for stock are usually leg bones that have already been sliced to get the marrow out easily. Be sure to leave the fat and collagen in the broth, as these are both very healing.
I use my bone broth for lots of things. Sometimes, we’ll just have a little cup of broth to accompany dinner because it stimulates the production of stomach acid, which you need to properly digest your food and extract the nutrients that you’re eating. Other times, I’ll use it for making soups, stews, beans, lentils, split peas, etc. I never buy pre-packaged broth from the store unless it’s from my butcher who sells pasture-raised meats; I know he doesn’t put anything else into the broth. Take a look at the list of ingredients on the broth. It’s likely there are ingredients in there that you don’t want. Besides, I doubt they use reverse-osmosis filtered water or cook for a long time like I do. If you cook it yourself, you know what it’s in it.
Animal Organs
Did you know that when animals kill other animals for food, the first things they eat are the organs? Did you also know that in some cultures animal organs are reserved for pregnant women to ensure the health of the fetus? I do now. Animal organs are a great source of vitamins and minerals, but you’ll want to make sure they are from healthy, pasture-raised animals so that you’re not also getting accumulated amounts of toxins. In this article written for the Weston A. Price Foundation, “The Liver Files”, Lynn Razaitis writes that liver has traditionally been the most prized of culinary delights and that its “as-yet-unidentified anti-fatigue factor makes it a favorite with athletes and bodybuilders”.
I’ve gotten pretty good at making delicious, homemade pate’, and I’m learning how to cook other types of offal that are not awful! Three great cookbooks for this are “Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats” by Sally Fallon and Mary Enig; “Odd Bits: How to Cook the Rest of the Animal” by Jennifer McLagan; and, “The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating” by Fergus Henderson.
Salt
Salt is another excellent source of minerals, especially trace minerals. When I say salt, I don’t mean Morton’s salt, which has been refined to remove all the trace minerals. They also add nasty ingredients like flow agents, anti-caking agents and sugar. Why do they need to put sugar in salt? Because it tastes so bad! I mean sea salt or Himalayan salt or Redmond’s real salt when I’m talking about salt. You want colorful salt, whether it’s pink or gray or red or black because that means there are minerals in there. You do not want white salt, so, yes, white salt (table salt) is bad for you. There’s a really good book by Dr. David Brownstein called, “Salt Your Way to Health.” There are also great articles written for the Weston A. Price Foundation about the necessity of salt, such as this one: “The Salt of the Earth”, in which Sally Fallon Morell says that there is “a reason that foods taste better with salt. The desire for salt is not some cruel joke imposed by a capricious god, but acts to ensure that we eat our food with salt.”
Sea Vegetables (Seaweed)
Sea vegetables are also a great source of minerals, especially iodine, which most people are deficient in despite the use of iodized salt. Personally, I don’t use iodized salt, even if it’s iodized sea salt because there are other ingredients in there that I don’t want. So I make sure to add sea vegetables to my dishes or even serve them separately. It’s so easy to get them into your diet by tossing in a 2” square piece of kombu into whatever soup, stew, beans, grains, etc., that you’re cooking. Another easy thing to do is to sprinkle dulse flakes on your food; they come in a shaker. I haven’t noticed any change in flavor in the dish. Aside from providing minerals, some types of seaweed, such as wakame and kombu, also bind heavy metals because they are high in alginic acids.
I like the Maine Coast brand because of their high level of certification; you can find them at Whole Foods or other health-food stores. Personally, I steer clear of foods from China because of the lack of regulation there and because nasty toxins are always being caught in foods from there. You really need to check the label to see where the product is from. There are plenty of foods labeled “organic” that are listed as coming from China, such as many of the store-brand frozen foods at Whole Foods; I wouldn’t buy these. You just don’t know – why take the risk?
Speaking of food from China, you also need to be careful of food from other countries that are trading partners with China, as many times the food from China gets shipped to France or Brazil or India and then ends up getting labeled as being from France or Brazil or India. There was a piece called “The Trouble with Truffles” on “60 Minutes” about this recently regarding the shipment of cheap, less-flavorful Chinese truffles to France that were then slapped with a “product of France” label and sold for much more. I would also be wary of sea vegetables coming from Japan, as the recent Fukushima nuclear plant has been known to be leaking radioactive waste into the surrounding seawater.
Carbohydrates
I’ve been hypoglycemic since I was at least a teenager. After my dad died when I was 11, my mom didn’t have the energy or time to cook much, as she was working full-time and raising the three children still left at home. So, we ate a lot of bread and cereal and TV dinners and Pepperidge Farm stuffed pockets. I remember for lunch in high school I would eat a Snickers bar and drink a carton of milk. How’s that for quality nutrition? My blood sugar would yo-yo, and, when it would crash, it would crash hard. I would get the shakes; a nasty headache; a feeling of being too hot, too fast; a feeling that I was about to throw up; and, horrible weakness. At some point in my 20’s, I figured out that eating more fat, fiber and protein and less sugars and carbohydrates helped control my blood sugar-swings better.
I enrolled in the Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN) this past fall to learn how to become a holistic health counselor. I was fortunate to see Dr. Andrew Weil speak at one of the IIN events, and I remember him saying to be sure to let people know that the glycemic index from a processed (made into flour) grain is far greater than eating the whole grain itself. You really have to understand that just because a food is “made with whole grains” doesn’t mean it contains whole grains. It usually means that they started with whole grains in the manufacturing process, refined them, and then used them for making the food product.
Craving carbohydrates (breads, cereals, crackers, cookies, bagels, etc.) and sweets is a sign of adrenal fatigue. It can also be a sign of a system Candida or other pathogen infection, too. That’s because a lot of times (or always? I’m curious!), these two issues go hand in hand. The preferred food of Candida and pathogenic bacteria is carbohydrates in the form of sugar, grains and starches. My family and I started the Gut And Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) diet a month ago, and this means no sugar, no grain-based foods, and no starches like corn, rice or potatoes. I’ll be writing about our experience so far and why we’re doing it in an upcoming blog, but for now, just know that because I am eating absolutely zero carbs in these forms that I have absolutely zero cravings for them. If I have even one serving of them in the day, I will crave them something horrible.
Sleep
It’s so critical to break the negative feedback loop from stress in the form of poor lifestyle habits, mental/emotional stress, poor dietary choices, and environmental toxins. I remember staying up late until midnight or 1:00am many times after my dad died when I was 11 and older; I’m not sure why my mom let me do that. I used to think that I was a night owl and not a morning person because I would stay up so late. I think it was because I always caught my second wind and then really couldn’t go to sleep for a while afterwards. I learned a lot about this when my sons were babies. I realized if I didn’t put them to bed when they were yawning or rubbing their eyes, there was a good chance they would catch their second wind, become overtired and not be able to go to sleep.
Making sure that you sleep according to circadian rhythm is an important first step. I try to go to bed by 9:30pm, 10:30pm at the latest, so I can wake up around 6:00am not feeling tired. There’s a saying from Traditional Chinese Medicine: “an hour of sleep before midnight is worth two hours of sleep after midnight”. This is so true. Have you ever noticed how groggy you feel if you stay up late, even if you sleep 10 hours? That’s why. Your circadian rhythm is off. The body generally starts producing melatonin, which regulates this rhythm, around 11:00pm, so you need to be asleep before this happens. FYI, a lack of melatonin is associated with higher levels of cancer, so beware all of you working long hours and the night shift!
Magnesium
Magnesium helps relax the central nervous system, and as I wrote about before, taking it relieved me from middle-of-the-night insomnia, not the Ambien that my previous gynecologist prescribed. I take 300mg of magnesium citramate from Thorne Research three times per day. The type and brand of magnesium does make a difference, and you need to make sure it’s a magnesium-only supplement. I also take melatonin and Glysom before I go to bed. Glysom is a high-glycine product that I get from my naturopath; glycine promotes deep, delta-wave sleep.
Interestingly, high levels of magnesium are needed to process carbohydrates, so the more the carbohydrates you eat, the more magnesium you’ll need to supplement. I’m wondering if it’s possible to treat some forms of insomnia with just reducing or eliminating carbohydrates, given that they require so much magnesium to process and given that magnesium deficiency can lead to some forms of insomnia.
Heavy Metals
A recent study, “Fish consumption, low-level mercury, lipids and inflammatory markers in children”, found that higher mercury levels measured in children’s blood are significantly associated with lower cortisol levels. If you’ll remember from my previous blogs, I have severe heavy-metal toxicity from mercury, lead, cadmium, arsenic and other heavy metals, so this is yet another reason for my fatigue.
What Does Cholesterol Have to Do with It?
Having a constant source of cholesterol to make cortisol and progesterone, as well as other hormones, is critical. Most people don’t realize that most of the cholesterol in their body is made by their liver and doesn’t come from their food. In any case, you’ll want to eat high-quality sources of cholesterol, such as eggs and meat from pasture-raised animals. If you think cholesterol causes heart disease, then you’ve bought into the con started by the diet-heart hypothesis in 1953 that is perpetuated by the pharmaceutical industry, despite the fact that hundreds of studies have proven it wrong. You can read more about the cholesterol con in Dr. Sherry Rogers’ book, “The Cholesterol Hoax” and in this article by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride for the Weston A. Price Foundation, “Cholesterol: Friend or Foe?”.
You need to understand that cholesterol is not the problem; your body can’t live without it! In addition to being the source material to make all your hormones, cholesterol is used by the body as a band-aid to cover up the nicks and scratches on the inside of your blood vessels caused by free radicals, so lowering cholesterol with a statin drug is like shooting the messenger; you’re not addressing the initial problem, which is inflammation. Inflammation can be controlled and reduced by a large part with dietary choices; sugar and processed carbohydrates are the most inflammatory foods around, so eliminating them from your diet will go a long way in helping you reduce your inflammation and reduce your risk of heart disease. It will also take years off your face! Sugar also increases adrenaline production just from consuming it, so that’s another reason to avoid it, especially if you have adrenal problems.
Eating the rainbow of colors of fresh fruits and vegetables is the best way for you to get the antioxidants you need to control the inflammation. Cooking does destroy some or most of these, so eating raw fruits and vegetables or drinking their juices (please, not too much fruit, either, as too much fructose can be damaging as well) is necessary. I also supplement with 4,000mg of ascorbic acid (vitamin C); my naturopath prescribes the Pure brand, which is also sold on Amazon. Did you know that Linus Pauling proposed a theory stating that the cause of cardiovascular disease is a vitamin C deficiency?
I also take other antioxidants such as melatonin and ubiquinol (coenzyme Q10), and I previously wrote about how cruciferous and other sulfur-containing vegetables like garlic and onions help your body produce glutathione, your body’s master antioxidant. Animal products also contain the precursors to glutathione. You can read more about these in my blog, “How I’m Getting the Lead (and Mercury, Arsenic, Cadmium, etc.) Out”.
Another source of inflammation is eating the wrong kinds of fats. Plant oils, as shown in “Gut and Psychology Syndrome” by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, generally contain unnatural harmful fatty acids because of the tremendous heat, pressure and chemicals needed for their extraction. If you do eat plant oils, they should never be heated, and you’ll need to store them in your refrigerator to keep them from going rancid. The same idea applies to processed foods, even foods that don’t outright say “trans fats”. If a processed food like chips, crackers or bread has been prepared with plant oils (corn oil, cottonseed oil, canola oil, soybean oil, etc.), then it has inflammatory fats in it and shouldn’t be eaten.
Do you know McDonald’s used to fry their food in beef tallow a long time ago? That would’ve actually been healthier for us because saturated fats have higher smoke points and thus don’t denature so readily into unhealthful trans fatty acids. Even though McDonald’s and other restaurants now say they don’t use trans fats for frying anymore, the vegetable oils they use contain inflammatory fatty acids and become more so after they’re heated.
These days, I cook only with saturated fats: ghee, butter, coconut oil, and animal fats (tallow, lard, schmaltz, etc.) Shocking, isn’t it? I save all of my pan drippings for using later. They make things taste soooo much better!
I’m fortunate in that a craft butchery that sells only pasture-raised and/or organically fed animals opened up near my house a couple of months ago. Not only do they sell these animal fats separately, but they also sell custom cuts of meat, animal organs and bones. I can’t be the only person around here eating all these different things or else their business wouldn’t be doing so well.
I never cook with extra-virgin olive oil; instead, I use it and flax-seed oil for salad dressings, and I make sure to take fish-liver oil (distilled, of course, to remove mercury and other toxins) to combat inflammation. Again, the Weston A. Price Foundation (can you tell I’m a fan?) has excellent articles about healing fats, such as this one called, “Know Your Fats”.
Update
My new gynecologist retested my adrenals a few months ago, and I am happy to say that my cortisol levels are normal! I assumed they would be, given that I’m not tired anymore. What a relief! That is no way to go through life. In my next blog, I’ll talk about how adrenal fatigue caused my “female problems”.
Maria Rickert Hong can be contacted at maria[at]epidemicanswers[dot]org
Filed under: Functional Medicine, Nutrition | 1 Comment
Tags: adrenal fatigue, Candida, cholesterol, hypoglycemia, magnesium, mercury
Maria Rickert Hong received her training as a Certified Health Counselor from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, where she was trained in more than 100 dietary theories. She is also a mom who has recovered her sons from sensory processing disorder, allergies, asthma and acid reflux as well as recovered herself from heavy-metal poisoning, adrenal fatigue, hypothyroidism, pancreatic insufficiency, insomnia, systemic Candida and immune disregulation.
Having a son with a developmental delay was very hard on me. He didn’t walk until he was 20 months old. This was extremely hard for me because he didn’t walk until 3 weeks before his little brother was born, and I was having to carry him everywhere. I suppose the bright side is that he didn’t weigh a whole lot, given that he was also a failure-to-thrive baby.
His sensory processing disorder turned him into a barnacle. I felt as if he were permanently physically attached to me. It wasn’t so bad when he was younger, but after his brother was born, it was extremely difficult to deal with two small, crying children at the same time, who both wanted to be picked up and held at the same time.
And then when our nanny left to have her own baby when my older son had just turned 3, his sensory processing and anxiety went full tilt. He was used to having someone always there immediately to meet his needs; now he had to share me with his baby brother. And so my older son cried and cried and cried about every little thing. The more he cried, the more it upset me because I realized pretty quickly that nothing I could do or say would make him not cry so much. He would yell, I would yell, nobody was happy. I knew this wasn’t any way to live, but I had no idea how to make him stop.
His over-the-top reactions to his sensory issues were really getting to me. I quickly developed middle-of-the-night insomnia, where I would wake up wide-awake at 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning and not be able to go back to sleep for 2 or 3 hours. This wasn’t helpful at all because the next day I was extremely tired and irritable from the lack of sleep, and the problem was compounding every night despite my taking a nap in the afternoon when the boys were taking their naps. I was constantly fatigued and tired before I had kids; it was so much worse now. I was barely treading water just to get through the day. It was all I could do to make myself go to the grocery store or get meals ready. I could barely pull myself out of bed every morning.
The lack of sleep quickly drove my immune system into the ground. Not only was my older son getting every cold there was at preschool (he’d go to school for a few days, catch a cold, then be out for a week with it; the cycle repeated continuously throughout his first year at preschool), but I was catching every cold, too, and I couldn’t shake them. I would be sick for 2-3 weeks at a time with a cold, then, sure enough, my ears would get infected, so I’d go to the doctor and get some antibiotics.
My menstrual cycles (lovely to have to discuss them here, but you’ll see in another blog how profoundly linked all these issues are) immediately went from an always-consistent 28 days (that’s why I was able to get pregnant so quickly both times at such “advanced maternal ages”) to anywhere from 21 to 27 days. I thought I was going through perimenopause, but I was highly suspicious given that my symptoms coincided exactly with the timing of the stress I was going through immediately after our nanny left.
I went to my gynecologist, and he gave me Ambien for the insomnia and Zoloft for the irritability. I don’t like taking long-term pharmaceuticals, but I knew of no other option. In any case, the Ambien did nothing for my insomnia, so I stopped taking it, and I was back to square one.
Given that I thought I was starting peri-menopause, I read “What Your Doctor Might Not Tell You About Premenopause: Balancing Your Hormones and Your Life”, by John Lee, M.D., Jesse Hanley, M.D., and Viriginia Hopkins. I also read Ann Louise Gittleman’s “Before the Change: Taking Charge of Your Perimenopause”. I highly recommend both books for explaining how estrogen is the problematic, bitchy hormone, while progesterone is the happier female hormone that most women with “female” issues are typically so deficient in, despite what your gynecologist tells you; both books recommend supplementing with bio-identical progesterone cream for “female” problems.
Because the John Lee book is slightly more complicated as it explains how hormones are made and what can disrupt them (toxic chemicals, plastics, fluoride, bromide, etc.), I would recommend the Ann Louise Gittleman book first, as it is simpler and more approachable. In it, she also recommends certain supplements such as zinc (if you don’t have enough zinc, you have too much copper, which can make you irritable), B vitamins, and magnesium. She writes that a magnesium deficiency can lead to irritability, too, and that most people are deficient in magnesium; she recommends 500-1,000 mg of a magnesium-only supplement.
I began supplementing with magnesium, and, lo and behold, my middle-of-the-night insomnia disappeared! I was so excited that when I went in for my next checkup, I told my gynecologist about it. She just shrugged her shoulders and said, “Whatever works for you.” I was thinking, “Are you kidding!! What is wrong with you?” I was extremely put off by her attitude. I wanted to tell everyone I knew about my miracle (and I’m sure I’ve told most of you!). I read “The Magnesium Miracle” by Carolyn Dean, M.D., N.D. (which I highly recommend), and discovered that magnesium calms the central nervous system, so it not only promotes sleep, but it also can help relieve the symptoms of asthma, which my older son later developed. To this day, it is one of the core supplements that my sons and I take.
I was also constantly having Candida infections, to put it somewhat politely. I know this is a gross subject, but Beth Lambert (co-founder of Epidemic Answers and author of “A Compromised Generation”) also said that many women have also told her that this was one of the most significant symptoms they had, where they knew something was wrong and they were getting no help from their doctors. Mine were recurring every month, and none of the medicines the doctor gave me helped. The gynecologist basically told me that I was an unclean person and that I shouldn’t wear tight clothes. You’ll see later on how far-off-the-mark, condescending and ignorant this comment is. You can also guess by now that she wasn’t my favorite person!
I came down with shingles. I had no idea what this pinching, burning pain was. I thought an insect had marched up my leg, taking bites as it went. Shingles is supposed to be a disease of people older than 50 or 60, not someone my age. Turns out that severe stress can make the latent virus from a previous chickenpox episode turn into shingles.
I also had the worse case of poison ivy, ever. I had been gardening in late winter, clearing out weeds and bushes from a part of the yard I wanted to turn into a plant bed. It was a mild winter, so there wasn’t any snow on the ground and the temperature wasn’t too cold. I had taken to gardening in late winter/early spring as I had become extremely intolerant of temperatures above 80 degrees or so. And I used to live in New Orleans where it’s like that most of the year!
Apparently, I had been tearing out poison ivy vines left and right without knowing it; there were no leaves on them yet to let me know what it was. It wasn’t until I went to my internist in early March after having suffered through whatever-it-was for at least a week that she figured out it was poison ivy. “First case of the season”, she said. She gave me a 6-day dose of steroids, but once I had used them all up, the rash came back with a vengeance. It was all over me again. I wasn’t about to go back on steroids, and that was all conventional medicine had to offer me. I began to search for alternative therapies and discovered a homeopathic remedy: rhus toxiconderon. It’s an extremely dilute preparation of poison ivy. The thought behind homeopathy is that “like cures like”; a very small amount can stimulate the body to heal. And it worked! Another miracle! To this day, it’s what I take for poison ivy, and I recommend it to all my friends. You can find it at Whole Foods or health food stores.
You can guess again that I wasn’t too happy with what conventional medicine was offering me. If you’ve been reading my blogs, you know that I was becoming increasingly disenfranchised with allopathic, Western, disease-management medicine and what it failed to offer my sons. It seemed all conventional doctors wanted to do was give me pharmaceuticals or cut something out, and they didn’t understand that different systems in your body are connected. By now, I had had two miraculous relieving of symptoms from things other than what conventional medicine offered. The whole medical system really began to look out of whack to me.
The homeopathic poison ivy remedy got me very interested in what alternative medicine had to offer, so I began seeing a naturopath that some friends had recommended. Seeing him was the beginning of taking charge of my health and understanding what was happening to me. He began working on clearing my channels of elimination and gave me supplements and specific-to-me homeopathic drops that would serve this purpose.
After I began seeing him, I developed a chronic sinus infection in my throat and ears. It had been raining for 5 or 6 weeks straight, and I always had that frog-in-my-throat feeling where I was constantly having to clear my throat. It turned out that I had a systemic Candida infection throughout my body (yuck!), which was not only the source of those lovely monthly infections but also of my sinus infection. The constant warmth and high humidity from the rain made all that yeast inside of me really grow and gave me a mold allergy. This was gross but fascinating all at the same time!
I began researching this subject, and I discovered “The Yeast Connection and Women’s Health” by William G. Crook, M.D., Carolyn Dean, M.D., N.D., and Elizabeth B. Crook, another book that I highly recommend. Some of the major symptoms of yeast overgrowth that I had were fatigue, monthly infections, headaches, cold hands and feet, low body temperature, while some of the other symptoms were drowsiness, irritability, insomnia, a tendency to bruise easily (which my internist was baffled by), and constant sore throat and cough. Candida overgrowth causes a weakening of the immune system and a leaky gut, which can lead to allergies, food allergies, and allergic reactions, like asthma, hives, eczema, cradle cap, and psoriasis.
I learned that sugar, white-flour foods, and alcohol feed the yeast. Other things that can also lead to yeast overgrowth are: antibiotics, birth-control pills, steroids, normal female hormonal fluctuations, and diabetes. You can see how ignorant that gynecologist was! I dug for more information elsewhere and found that even the antibiotics in non-organic meats, dairy and eggs can lead to yeast overgrowth as well as the triclosan that is so common in anti-bacterial soaps and other products. To this day, I refuse to use anti-bacterial soaps. The ubiquitous dispensing of it is one of my new pet peeves. At almost every birthday party my kids go to, there’s someone there with a squirt of it for the kids’ hands after they’ve played and before they eat. It’s probably lost on most other people except for me that using anti-bacterial goo and then eating pizza and cupcakes afterwards compounds the kids’ chances of getting yeast overgrowth.
To get rid of yeast overgrowth, you’ll also want to start by supplementing daily with a good probiotic, the refrigerated kind like you can find at Whole Foods. I found the “Body Ecology Diet” by Donna Gates to be extremely helpful in learning how to overcome yeast overgrowth. This is a hard diet to follow, but it works. The basic premise is to remove yeast-promoting foods and to eat foods that don’t promote yeast. Yeast-promoting foods are not only sugars of all kinds (including honey, maple syrup, etc.), white-flour foods, processed foods, and alcohol but even dairy products, sugar, fruit and most grains except for millet, amaranth, buckwheat, and quinoa. Other foods to avoid are nuts, flour products of any kind, beans and most vinegars. Most land vegetables and all sea vegetables are allowed, as are soaked and sprouted almonds.
One of the key components of the Body Ecology Diet is the consumption of cultured foods, such as sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir, and kombucha. If these are raw and unpasteurized, then they also provide probiotics; you’ll want to make sure that they are organic, as well. You can find them in the refrigerated section at Whole Foods; mine sells them near the refrigerated juices. I like the ones by Rejuvenative Foods, especially their Veggie Delite Zing Salad. Because these are expensive to buy, it’s much cheaper to make your own.
It took a few months of doing the diet (it was hard!), but it was worth it. I no longer have yeast overgrowth, and many, but not all, of my associated symptoms went away. I no longer had monthly infections. I wanted to go back to the gynecologist and tell her, but I’m sure she would’ve just shrugged her shoulders and said, “Whatever works for you.” I also no longer had chronic sinus infections and headaches. I still had horrible fatigue and intolerance to heat. I also had no stamina; I had always had very little stamina, but now it was practically non-existent.
By working with my naturopath and by doing the Body Ecology Diet, I was definitely not getting as sick as often nor as severely as I was before. In fact, a few months after seeing him was the last time I had a cold for sinus infection or a long time. If I did get one, I learned to cut out sugar, etc., and my naturopath told me about supplementing with a goldenseal tincture as well as using a little warm salt water in a neti pot to clear my sinuses. I haven’t needed to take any over-the-counter cold medicine since I began seeing him.
In my next blog, I’ll tell you about the profound discovery my naturopath made that is quite likely the reason for all of these symptoms.
Maria Rickert Hong can be contacted at maria[at]epidemicanswers[dot]org
Filed under: Naturopathic Medicine, Nutrition | 3 Comments
Tags: Body Ecology Diet, Candida, homeopathy, insomnia, magnesium, naturopathy
By Nina Antolino
In life, millions of moments sadly pass unnoticed. We are not awake to our experiences while they are happening. We often walk our path habitually, building deeper grooves in our minds and reinforcing our deeply entrenched, self-limiting beliefs about who we are and what is possible. We are pulled outside ourselves for the answers we seek, rather than trusting our inner guidance. We vacillate between trying desperately to control everything in our life on the one hand, and completely abdicating to some outside authority on the other. We pay attention only to that which supports our thinking and ignore any evidence that stands in contrast.
But every so often there are moments that cannot be ignored. Moments that have the power to wake you up, propel you in a new direction, help you to see your life and your Self in a new light. Moments that challenge what you believe to be true and change you forever: Empowering moments. Transformational moments. Sometimes they are found in a moment of profound kindness or beauty. Often, they are hidden within our most challenging experiences. It is in these moments that we have the potential to discover the deeper messages and lessons of our life.
At the age of 40, I was told by a Reproductive Endocrinologist that it would not be possible for me to conceive, even with assistance. It was one of THE most defining moments of my life. For months while trying to get pregnant, all of my attention was focused on what was wrong with my body, what my body wasn’t doing, why now that I was ready to get pregnant, my body wouldn’t cooperate. My mind was creating so much stress, how could my body cooperate? And my life had gotten so out of balance. All I could focus on was my inability to achieve this goal. I had gotten so caught up in worrying and wanting desperately for something to happen, that I had forgotten everything I had already learned about the mind/body connection. As a yoga instructor and empowerment life coach, I knew about the inherent connection between body, mind, heart and spirit. But now I was being beckoned to trust in it like never before, to really live it, not just to guide others to it. This time, it is I who really had to learn to listen and trust, perhaps for the very first time, the wisdom within. It was a reminder for me: the body, mind and spirit are inseparable and greatly influence each other. To create wellness get back to what you know, find balance and trust your body’s wisdom.
I had sought out two other professional opinions but each reinforced the assertion that with endometriosis, my age, and an FSH of 27, pregnancy would not be possible. In that defining moment, I woke up! I could choose to turn my future over to that limiting belief and the scientific data and authority that supported it, or I could implement everything I had learned in my life and had been teaching my clients about the power of beliefs and our creative potential. Many of our thoughts and beliefs are self-limiting and self-defeating and are reflected in our lives. We live in a culture that teaches women to doubt their body’s wisdom and innate creative abilities (especially if you are over 40!). But interestingly in places like Africa, women have children into their fifties, naturally. (They have never been told that their bodies are too old to conceive). I decided right then: “I am not going to believe that it’s not possible for me. It’s just data!” This experience had a message reminding me: Believe in possibilities rather than just what science tells you. Let go of trying to control the outcome, trust your connection to something greater and recognize your creative ability to influence and shape your life.
And so I began again to practice yoga, meditate, to pray, to set an intention and notice the flashes of intuition that would arise. Within a few weeks through a series of synchronous events, I was led to an acupuncturist who specialized in fertility. I was reminded of power of breathing, releasing emotional stress, nurturing yourself, staying present and knowing we attract into our life what most focus on with our minds.
She helped me to understand that her clients came to her not only as a last resort or an alternative to conventional methods, but also as a way to support one’s body while going through fertility treatments. It was about creating balance. She helped me understand the role that nutrition played and put me on a fertility diet. She used herbs and acupuncture to address my specific imbalances.
It was then that I recognized the importance of choosing someone I trusted for such an important journey. Equally important was that I would be a full partner in this process and no longer abdicate responsibility to anyone else for my health and well being. Although I had been in the holistic field for a decade, this modality was new to me. The more I learned, the more I became an advocate for myself. I was on a new, more empowered path. It reinforced for me: Educate yourself. Knowledge is empowering. Surround yourself with people that help you feel safe but be your own best advocate.
Within a few months, between changes in diet and the acupuncture, yoga and meditation, visualizations and guided imagery, emotional support and finding support and balance in my life, I was really feeling a difference in my energy level and my ability to really tune into my body’s signals. One night, I walked into our bedroom and said to my husband, “I think I’m pregnant”. I hadn’t even missed my cycle but I just felt it in my body, I just “knew”. The next day, my instincts were confirmed. The call came in: “Nina, congratulations, you are pregnant!”
I would remain a patient of the RE through my first trimester. On the day I left the practice, I asked the RE what he thought about my ‘miracle’ since he had told me many months ago it wasn’t possible. He just congratulated me for being tenacious and not giving up. And before I left his office, I simply turned to him and said “I really think it is vital that no woman ever hears ‘It’s not possible’ just because science says so.” I spoke those words with my whole heart, mind and soul. It was in that transformational moment that I knew I wanted to share that message with other women: to help them to know that no matter what anyone tells them, anything is possible! There is always something greater working on their behalf and they have the power to consciously create and shape their experience by changing their beliefs, trusting their inner wisdom and by tapping into the union of their body, mind and spirit!
On July 31, 2008, a healthy 8 lb-13oz boy, Noah Bennett (which means Peaceful, Little Blessed One) was born! Had I believed that it wasn’t possible, my story may have had a very different ending!
Nina Antolino, BE, MBA, RYT, is the Founder and Executive Director of Limitless Potential, a consulting and coaching practice designed to empower clients to achieve their full creative potential. She is a Certified Empowerment Life Coach and has been coaching clients locally and tele-coaching nationally since 2005. She is a Nationally Certified Yoga Instructor since 2000 and a Strategic Learning Consultant. Nina’s passion and personal experience has inspired her to design Women’s Empowerment and Wellness programs to help educate, empower and encourage women to be conscious creators of their life. Through a mind-body-spirit approach and empowerment workshops and empowerment groups, she coaches women to find balance, trust their inner guidance, release fears and limiting beliefs, and empower them to achieve their limitless potential. Whether contemplating/struggling with conception or wanting to create a more inspiring vision for all areas of their life, the empowerment coaching process is a powerful tool for self-transformation.
For more information go to www.limitless-potential.com or email nantolino@aol.com
Filed under: Conception | Leave a Comment
Maria Rickert Hong received her training as a Certified Health Counselor from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, where she was trained in more than 100 dietary theories. She is also a mom who has recovered her sons from sensory processing disorder, allergies, asthma and acid reflux as well as recovered herself from heavy-metal poisoning, adrenal fatigue, hypothyroidism, pancreatic insufficiency, insomnia, systemic Candida and immune disregulation.
Some of the first red flags I had from my older son were his failure to eat solid foods, his projectile vomiting any food or breast milk he did eat, and, later, his failure to thrive. It was so sad to watch my baby dwindle from being born at the 40th percentile for weight down to the 3rd percentile at the age of 18 months. He crossed three percentile curves on the way down; crossing two of them constitutes “failure to thrive”, but he also fit that definition by dropping below the 5th percentile curve.
Where were his doctors in all this? Again and again, different doctors told me, “He’s fine” and “There’s nothing to worry about”. They said this even when I told them that he would throw up after almost every meal and even though his weight percentile was declining. They told me that because his height percentile was growing (for a few months) that there was nothing to worry about. They were wrong.
But I knew this wasn’t right. He had been projectile vomiting since he was a newborn. The doctors told me this was normal, that he was just a fussy baby with colic. It became extremely hard for me to feed him solid foods later on when I introduced them when he was 5 months old. It would take a good, solid hour just to get a few Cheerios and Yo-baby yogurt in him. Then he would turn right around and throw it up. I did anything I could to distract him to get some food in him: sing, dance, have him play with toys and objects, turn on the TV or radio. None of these really worked, but I was desperate. Many times he would outright refuse to eat, but then he would be starved for his next meal. Other times he would eat some, but then he would wake up screaming and/or wake up vomiting.
I was told by the doctor to limit the milk to 20-24 oz. per day in hopes that this would encourage him to eat more solid food. That didn’t work. He just ate less and cried even more, probably because his blood sugar was always tanked and he was starved.
I was told by the doctor that his feeding strike may be because his teeth were coming in. His teeth came in, and many times after that, he still refused to eat.
I was told by the doctor to give my son gas drops, Orajel and Tylenol because maybe he was gassy and maybe his teeth and gums hurt. This didn’t work.
The older he got, the longer his naps got. I suppose that because he wasn’t getting enough calories to remain active, it was easier for his body to just rest when he could, although many times he couldn’t rest because he would wake up cranky and/or vomiting.
I even made a spreadsheet (I used to be an analyst). I tracked his food intake for six weeks from when he was 9 months old to when he was 11 months old. He had stopped nursing when his bottom teeth came in at 9 months of age, so I could quantify exactly how much breast milk he was drinking per day as well as his food. He ate and drank an average of 715 calories per day; he should’ve been getting around 1300 on average. An average of 60% of his calories came from milk, and this didn’t seem right. I received a dismissive, condescending attitude from the doctor when I showed the spreadsheet to him. I was waved off (this was not the first time this was to have happened) as if I were just another neurotic, hypervigilant, first-time, New York City mother.
With no help from a doctor except for a list of fattening foods to give him such as butter, cheese, full-fat yogurt, maple syrup, etc., I desperately tried to up the calories in every bite. Dairy and sugar seemed to be the best choices for calorie loading, but I wasn’t keen on giving him too much sugar. I am hypoglycemic, and I know that sugar can only exacerbate blood sugar issues by temporarily creating a short-term blood-sugar high, only to have it come crashing down quickly afterwards with the shakes, a headache, irritability and excessive body heat. So I gave him quiche, yogurt, cheese pizza, bagels and cream cheese, and any food I could think of that I was supposed to avoid for causing me to pack on pounds.
We moved out to the suburbs when my son was 10 months old, and, in this new town and state, his eating issues and poor weight gain were still not a concern to the new pediatrician, that is, until his 18-month checkup. He had lost weight between his 15th and 18th month checkups, and his percentile had continued to plummet. He was now at the 3rd percentile for weight. This doctor told me to give him Pediasure and put him on a fast-food diet. That was sure to pack on the pounds, right? I dutifully went to the store and bought packs and packs of Pediasure and immediately thereafter took my son to McDonald’s where he proceeded to… eat 4 or 5 French fries. That was it. He wouldn’t even eat fat-laden, sugar-sweetened, chemically-altered-to-make-you-want-more-of-it fast food! He did, however, take quickly to the Pediasure, probably because of all the sugar in it. He practically lived on it.
I asked the pediatrician if maybe my son had acid reflux because doesn’t that cause a lot of throwing up? He dismissed me and said, no, it was just a weak gag reflex and he would grow out of it.
By this time, I was a few months away from giving birth to our second son. Although my son continued to throw up at least half of his meals and Pediasure, he did slowly gain weight, as the pediatrician had also given him a prescription for Periactin, which is an anti-histamine that is also used as an appetite stimulant.
He wasn’t walking yet, which was another huge red flag for me. I kept wondering and researching to find out if these two major issues were related, but I couldn’t find anything that said that they were. The pediatrician seemed to think that they weren’t, but at least he did make a referral for my son to be evaluated by our state’s Birth-to-Three program. Of course, between the time it took for the initial evaluation and the physical therapist’s first visit, he began walking. He was 20 months old, and my second son was 3 weeks away from being born.
When my younger son was born, he, too, was “fussy” and “colicky”. He, however, did have an outright problem with nursing: he refused to. When he would, he would shriek in pain or fill up so much (probably because he was starving) that he would throw it right back up. Again, this wasn’t a little “spitting up”; this was projectile vomiting and, by now, I had become used to having stains on the rug, chairs and clothes that simply wouldn’t come out.
The pediatrician referred a lactation specialist who recommended that I cut out all dairy products from my diet. She said that dairy was the most likely culprit in causing pain to my son. She also recommended that I take a probiotic, “the refrigerated kind, like they sell at Whole Foods” because this kind, unless it’s listed as being “shelf stable”, has more live cultures. She told me that many times during childbirth, women are given antibiotic drips, which I was given because my doctor told me many years ago that I had mitral valve prolapse. Having this condition means that the mitral valve of your heart doesn’t fully close, and, because it doesn’t, there’s a backflow that’s created, sort of like a stagnant pool of blood, in which bacteria can take over and enlarge the heart, causing death. Dentists always made me take a prophylactic dose of antibiotics before having any cleaning work done because the bacteria scraped off the teeth during cleaning could enter my heart, causing death. I was always suspicious of this, even though I went along with it, because if I were to get a cut or scrape, wouldn’t that be just as dangerous?
I took the probiotic and eliminated dairy, but neither worked. My younger son continued to shriek when I fed him, so I quickly gave up nursing him and pumped for a while instead. He seemed to tolerate this better, so I thought maybe it was just a mechanical issue with him not being able to latch on properly.
In the meantime, my older son continued to vomit after almost every meal and Pediasure feeding. Also, by this time, I began to take him to playgroups, now that we had settled into our new house. Our new nanny took care of my younger son so that I could get out of the house, meet other moms, and have my son socialize with other babies his age. I quickly realized how fast germs spread among babies, and it seemed as if my son would catch whatever was going around without fail. Of course, his getting sick made the vomiting worse, as the irritation of coughing made it that much easier for him to throw up. His throat lining was so worn out that even crying too hard, which he did a lot, would make him throw up. He was like an endless vomit machine.
I had horrible guilt for many Christmases after the time I went to my husband’s Christmas party in the city and left the nanny to put my son to bed, something no one else had ever done before. He was a little over 2 years old at the time. When we got home late that night, the nanny told me that he cried so hard over the fact that mommy wasn’t there that he threw up for quite a long time.
When I took my older son in for his 2-1/2-year checkup, I mentioned to the pediatrician that typically when my son was sick, I wouldn’t give him Periactin, as there was no sense in stimulating his appetite if all that coughing was going to make him throw up that much more. One time, however, I continued to give him Periactin, and noticed that he didn’t throw up as much. I asked the doctor if that was perhaps because the medicine relaxed his throat muscles? That’s when a light bulb (finally) went off in the doctor’s head, and he said, “He’s got acid reflux. Here, try this Prevacid.” I was furious that I had asked about acid reflux an entire year ago and had been condescendingly dismissed by this same doctor, and now, because it was his idea, it was acid reflux! I wanted to throttle him and the previous set of doctors in New York City for making me waste my son’s health for all of that time. In any case, the Prevacid worked immediately, and my son’s weight steadily improved.
When my younger son was 10 months old, it dawned on me (I’m a little slow sometimes!) that he probably had acid reflux, too. Knowing the condescending attitude of the pediatrician, I made a list of symptoms to convince him. My son:
- Shrieked so much when he was a newborn that the lactation consultant suggested that reflux could be a cause.
- Cried and shrieked when he was lying down to have his diapers and clothes changed.
- Projectile vomited whole bottles of milk 4 or 5 times.
- Spit up 2 ounces of milk the other day about an hour after he woke up from his morning nap. He hadn’t eaten anything for a few hours and was simply playing on the floor.
- Preferred smooth-textured foods.
- Frequently gagged on pastier and lumpier foods. It became worse with stage 3 foods.
- Refused to eat more frequently. Like feeding his brother before, it became an hour-long song and dance to get him to eat.
- Used to have a constant chest rattle/noise when breathing, even though he wasn’t sick.
- Had poor weight gain as well, although not as bad as his brother’s.
These are all classic symptoms of acid reflux/GERD. Guess what? The pediatrician didn’t think my younger son had acid reflux. He said, “Just because his older brother has it doesn’t mean he has it, too.” Again, I was furious with this doctor! Was it going to take him another year to realize this one had it, too? I made an appointment with the local pediatric gastroenterologist, and he didn’t believe it, either. What did it take to convince these doctors? Many of the moms at the playgroups were saying how their kids had acid reflux with the same symptoms, and their doctors (including the same pediatric GI) were handing out reflux meds like it was candy. Why wasn’t my son getting the help he needed?
Instead, the pediatric GI wanted to do an exploratory endoscopy. Although it was an outpatient procedure, it required that my son be put under anesthesia. I felt as if I had no other choice, so I agreed. Guess what? He had acid reflux. It took all that to confirm what I already knew.
My older son was still getting sick a lot, especially after he started preschool when he was 3. He would go to preschool for a week then be out the whole next week because he was sick; the preschool didn’t want kids coming in who were sneezing and coughing. When he was 4 years old, he had a severe asthmatic episode after we went to Los Angeles to visit my husband’s family. We woke up the first morning after we landed in LA to discover that the whole valley where his parents lived was engulfed in smoke from forest fires in the San Gabriel Mountains. They stayed on fire the entire week we were there, and, although we didn’t go out in the smoke too much, we couldn’t help but breathe in some of it in. When we came back home, he had a severe asthmatic attack, which he had never had before. It was so bad that our new pediatrician called on a Saturday morning to see if he was OK. I didn’t like having him on the nebulizer, Xoponex, Albuterol and prednisolone because I knew that steroids suppress the immune system.
I had begun going to a naturopath, and I brought my older son in to see if the naturopath could help with his asthma. My husband has asthma, and I didn’t want this for my son. The first thing the naturopath said was to cut out the dairy, which, it turns out, is one of the leading contributors to asthma. This was shocking to me because dairy was all I fed my kids in my quest to improve their weight gain! How was I supposed to do this? But do you know what? Within 3 days of taking both of them off of dairy, I was able to stop giving them Prevacid.
It also turns out that Prevacid and other proton-pump inhibitors (PPI) are not doing anyone a favor by turning down the stomach acid. You NEED stomach acid for a couple of reasons:
- The gastrointestinal tract is the first line of defense against viruses, bacteria and parasites. The less stomach acid you have, the less able you’re able to fight off those bugs and the more you get sick.
- Stomach acid aids in the absorption of critical nutrients, such as iron and B12. Without enough stomach acid, you can become anemic. In fact, in the book “Could It Be B12? An Epidemic of Misdiagnoses”, authors Sally Pacholok and Jeffrey Stuart discuss how people who have had gastric bypass surgery (stomach stapling or bands) WILL develop a dangerous B12 deficiency because they no longer have enough stomach acid to help absorb it. Long-term B12 deficiency can lead to severe neurological damage and its symptoms can mimic autism and other illnesses.
I was completely thrilled to have both of my sons off of Prevacid, but, once again, I was furious at these doctors! Why couldn’t they have simply suggested removing dairy from their diets? Why? Because doctors are taught absolutely nothing about nutrition in medical school. What made me even more furious was the fact that my younger son had a completely unnecessary endoscopy. And what made me even more furious than that was when I read “Could It Be B12?”. It turns out that the nitrous oxide that the doctor gave my son to put him under depletes B12 reserves and can also lead to a dangerous B12 deficiency and neurological damage. After learning these things and after being dismissed and condescended to for so long by so many doctors, I really had had enough of allopathic doctors. Conventional, Western-style medicine is allopathic, and these types of doctors look at suppressing symptoms with either pharmaceuticals or surgery instead of trying to find out what is causing the symptom to begin with (such as the dairy, in our case).
The naturopath also told me to take gluten out of my son’s diet. It turns out he had a sensitivity to it as well. Again, I was frustrated and furious at another of my son’s previous doctors. I had taken him to see a pediatric allergist at Mount Sinai in New York City when he was a year old. She did the skin-prick allergen test on him, and he had no allergy to any of the common allergens she tested for, like dairy, soy, corn and gluten. What she didn’t tell me is that there are other types of allergies other than the kind that immediately make you break out in a rash or need an epi-pen because you’re going into anaphylactic shock. There are other types of allergies called sensitivities and intolerances that don’t cause immediately visible reactions but instead work on a subtler level to cause inflammation.
Allergenic foods cause inflammation, and when the body has inflammation, it starts attacking itself and anything it perceives as attacking it, like pollen or cat dander. This is known as an auto-immune attack and can lead to any number of illnesses, but for children, they usually show up as eczema (which both of my sons continue to have), allergies, asthma, ADHD and/or autism. I began to look at my sons’ sensory processing disorder as similar to these illnesses. There was a great deal of overlap among them, especially when I viewed it with the lens of the knowledge I received after reading Kenneth Bock’s “Healing the New Childhood Epidemics: Autism, ADHD, Asthma, and Allergies: The Groundbreaking Program for the 4-A Disorders.” Dr. Bock shows how these illnesses all have the same things in common:
- Immune system dysfunction
- Gastrointestinal system dysfunction (or gut dysbiosis, which I wrote about last time)
- Nervous system dysfunction
Finally, I had an answer to my long-ago question of “Are my son’s constant vomiting and serious developmental delay in walking related?”. The answer is “yes, they are”.
I was completely overwhelmed. How was I supposed to take gluten and dairy out of their diets? That was 90% of their diets, and I’m guessing it is of most kids’, too. My friend, whose autistic son was one of my son’s classmates, told me about “The Kid-Friendly ADHD and Autism Cookbook: The Ultimate Guide to the Gluten-Free, Casein-Free Diet” by Pamela Compart and Dana Laake. I found this to be an enormously helpful resource not only in providing gluten-free, casein-free recipes but also in giving pertinent information about food allergies and their effect. One of the most helpful tips I found in there was the suggestion to supplement with zinc, as it helps open up the senses of smell and taste and thus stimulates the appetite. The authors state that most kids with ADHD and autism (and these other illnesses, too, I’m guessing) are woefully deficient in zinc, which is a mineral that also helps your immune system function properly. Hmmm…
One of the first things I did, with the naturopath’s feedback, was to make a dairy-free “homemade Pediasure”. If Pediasure was the stopgap I used before, then “homemade Pediasure” would be my new stopgap. Here’s the recipe:
“Homemade Pediasure”
- 1 c. organic apple or pear juice
- ½ c. organic coconut milk
- 2 c. organic rice milk
- 4 scoops of Metagenics Ultracare for Kids (low-level vitamin supplement)
- 4 heaping TBSP organic rice protein powder
- 2 TBSP organic vanilla
- ½ c. Udo’s Oil (DHA & EPA)
Mix in a blender. Thin out to desired consistency with organic rice milk.
Given that the naturopath had told me to stop eating processed foods, I began cooking from scratch using recipes in the “ADHD and Autism Cookbook” and from my own ideas. Roasted whole chicken was easy enough to make, and they loved that, so that was a start. I made French fries from potatoes, sweet potatoes, beets, rutabagas, and turnips, and they loved those, so that was one more dish I could feed them. I discovered Tinkyada organic brown rice noodles, and they loved those. I put ghee and garlic salt or homemade basil pesto on the noodles, and they loved that, too. I experimented with millet and quinoa and found that the kids would eat those, too. Plus, with those grains, I added in extra veggies to make a quinoa tabouli or millet polenta with winter squash or sweet potatoes.
I began cooking beans from scratch using my own homemade chicken and beef bone broths. I put lots of garlic, onions and herbs in there, too, for more flavor. Now that I had them eating all kinds of grains and beans, I learned how to cook any kind of green, and they ate those, too! Hint: wilt spinach, dandelion greens and/or swiss chard directly in a saute’ pan; kale and collard greens need to be blanched and shocked first. Squeeze out all juices after wilting, then chop up finely. Add in sautéed garlic and salt, and you’re done.
I was really feeling good about feeding my kids real, homemade, whole, nutritious foods. Now that I knew what problems the SAD (Standard American Diet) creates for them, it’s hard to let them have any kind of non-organic, genetically modified, gluten- and dairy-filled foods.
I received further confirmation that this was the right direction after attending a lecture given by a certified holistic nutritionist who specializes in biomedical/nutritional intervention for sensory integration and autism spectrum disorders. She said that the gluten-free, casein-free diet helps 85% of these children because they are less in the morphine-like fog that is produced when a child with a leaky gut eats gluten or casein.
In my next blog, I’m going to begin discussing my own health problems because you’ll see in a few more blogs how they are related to those of my sons’.
Maria Rickert Hong can be contacted at maria[at]epidemicanswers[dot]org
Filed under: Naturopathic Medicine, Nutrition, Sensory Processing Disorder | 3 Comments
Tags: acid reflux, allergies, failure to thrive, food allergies, GFCF diet, naturopathy, zinc
Maria Rickert Hong received her training as a Certified Health Counselor from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, where she was trained in more than 100 dietary theories. She is also a mom who has recovered her sons from sensory processing disorder, allergies, asthma and acid reflux as well as recovered herself from heavy-metal poisoning, adrenal fatigue, hypothyroidism, pancreatic insufficiency, insomnia, systemic Candida and immune disregulation.
Gut dysbiosis — this topic is the motherlode. It’s one of the two core (in my opinion) reasons for the explosion of chronic childhood illnesses we see today.
First, let’s discuss the numbers behind this epidemic: How many kids did you know when you were growing up that had autism, ADHD, acid reflux, allergies, asthma, developmental delays and/or mental health issues? I knew of only ONE child with any one of these in the whole time I went to school from elementary school to high school. Now that I am a mom, I can tell you that it’s the rare child who does NOT have any chronic illnesses. The statistics for today’s kids are staggering:
- 1 in 6 African-American children has asthma; 1 of every 8 children has it
- 1 in 5 children has allergic eczema
- 2-3 out of every 5 children have hay fever
- 1 in 3 children has a food intolerance; 1 in 12 under the age of 4 has a true food allergy
- 1 in 80 children has celiac disease
- 1 in 10 children is diagnosed with ADHD
- 1 in 57 boys has autism; 1 in every 91 children has it
- 1 in 30 kids has severe mood dysregulation, such as bipolar disorder
- 1 of every 30 kids has depression
- 1 in 100 children has obsessive/compulsive disorder
Having any one of these conditions is “the new normal”, as one of our previous bloggers wrote in her October 2009, “The New Autism Numbers”.
And guess what? All of these illnesses are related. At their core, each and every one of these children with these illnesses has gut dysbiosis. Beth Lambert and Victoria Kobliner, our non-profit’s founders, wrote about it in their recent book, “A Compromised Generation: The Epidemic of Chronic Illnesses in America’s Children”. Dr. Kenneth Bock and Cameron Stauth also wrote about it in their book, “Healing the New Childhood Epidemics: Autism, ADHD, Asthma, and Allergies: The Groundbreaking Program for the 4-A Disorders”. I highly recommend both of these books, and I regularly lend them out to parents of chronically ill children. I find that Beth Lambert’s book is better for explaining why this epidemic is happening while Dr. Bock’s book is better at explaining what to do if your child has a chronic illness.
Here’s a tip: even if your child doesn’t have one of the “4-A disorders” but does have developmental delays, sensory processing disorder, chronic ear infections, digestive problems and/or mental health issues, he or she can still benefit from these books because, as I said, at their root, these kids have gut dysbiosis.
So what is gut dysbiosis? It’s where the balance of flora in the intestine is tipped towards having more “bad” bacteria, yeasts and parasites than “good”. Many things can cause gut dysbiosis, among them:
- Inheriting it from your mother because she had gut dysbiosis when she gave birth to you.
- Inheriting it from your mother because she received antibiotics while she was in labor with you.
- Taking antibiotics.
- Taking birth-control pills.
- Taking cortisone or other anti-inflammatory drugs.
- Drinking chlorinated water.
- Using anti-bacterial soap or sanitizer.
- Eating added sugar or even sweeteners such as honey.
- Eating processed foods such as breads, cereals, crackers, cookies, pastries, cakes and candy because they essentially break down into sugar and/or have high levels of added sugar.
- Eating too many fruits.
- Eating too much high-glycemic fruit such as tropical fruits (bananas, mangos, pineapples, etc.) and dried fruits. Dried fruits, like raisins and dates, have very high concentrations of sugar.
- Eating vinegar and vinegar-brined foods.
- Eating non-organic meats from animals that have been given antibiotics (remember, you eat what they eat).
The simplest way for me to think of gut dysbiosis is that it generally is caused by chronic and/or systemic yeast (usually candida albicans) overgrowth. Yeast loves to eat sugar, so anything that breaks down too easily into sugar feeds the yeast and can cause it to grow to an unhealthy proportion. Also, anything that kills off bacteria (such as antibiotics, chlorinated water and anti-inflammatory drugs) causes collateral damage by killing all the “good” bacteria, too.
Why is gut dysbiosis such a bad thing? It causes immune dysfunction. Did you know that 70% of your immune system is actually in your gut? If your gut isn’t working properly, neither is your immune system. All of those pounds of flora, good and bad, in your gut are communicating with the immune-system cells in your gut and telling them whether or not to turn on certain genetic switches. If you have the wrong kind of flora (bad bacteria, yeast overgrowth or parasitic invasion) telling your genes what to do, you’re going to end up in bad health. It’s like having your kids hang out with the wrong crowd; you know they’re going to end up in trouble. Dysbiosis can lead to a weakened immune system, which can make your body more hospitable to parasites and infectious invasion.
I should mention here that, in its proper proportion, candida albicans is actually a helpful yeast because it aids in digestion and the absorption of nutrients. It’s just that when it grows out of control that it can cause problems such as ear and sinus infections, yeast infections, fatigue, brain fog, and mood swings. It can also cause a leaky gut because the yeast overgrowth props open the walls of the intestine, letting out undigested food. This creates inflammation throughout the body in the form of allergies, arthritis and other autoimmune diseases, fatigue and brain fog. In the case of children (and adults!) with autism and ADHD, the undigested proteins gluten and casein travel through the bloodstream into the brain and cause a morphine-like effect. That’s why when foods containing them (wheat, barley, rye, gluten-contaminated oats, and dairy) are removed from their diets, many children are able to focus and communicate more clearly; it’s almost as if they were on drugs before. People with asthma, allergies, eczema, and other auto-immune diseases might also reduce inflammation throughout their bodies by removing gluten- and casein-containing foods. Some people have allergic reactions to other foods, such as corn, soy and eggs, and do well by trying an elimination/challenge diet to see if symptoms improve.
Gut dysbiosis can also cause mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and obsessive/compulsive disorder. This may not make much sense to you until you understand that a lot of serotonin (the neurotransmitter that makes you feel happy) is produced in the gut. So, again, when the gut’s function is impaired, such as by gut dysbiosis, it’s going to affect whether or not you feel good. Vicki Kobliner, co-author of “A Compromised Generation” and a registered dietitian, recommends a trial period of cutting out gluten completely for those with mental health issues to see if its avoidance helps.
To save you the trouble of looking up the symptoms of gut dysbiosis on our website, “http://www.epidemicanswers.org/“, I’ve swiped the list and pasted it here for your perusal. See if you or your children have any of these symptoms:
Signs of gut dysbiosis:
- One or two red cheeks after eating
- Red or hot ears after eating
- Chronic runny nose or cough
- Chronic mouth breathing
- Recurrent ear infections
- Chronic or recurrent sinus infections
- Chronic or recurrent strep infections
- Periodic Fever Syndrome
- Patches of red, dry, scaly skin (eczema) on face, hands, elbows, knees or other parts of the skin
- Frequent diaper rashes in babies, especially red rings around the anus or redness of the vaginal area
- Cradle cap or excessive scaling and dandruff on the scalp
- Thinning hair or hairloss
- Cavities and excessive tartar, or bad breath despite proper dental hygiene
- Frequent day-time accidents in an already potty-trained child
- Nighttime bedwetting well into the grade school years
- Nocturia, frequent waking to go to the bathroom
- Dark circles or bags surrounding the eyes, “droopy” eyes
- Excessive drooling in children too old to drool
- Colic, excessive crying or irritability in babies
- Frequent temper tantrums (multiple times a day)
- Frequent crying, sadness, anger (multiple times a day)
- Esophageal reflux, babies who chronically ‘spit up’ or regurgitate after eating
- White coating on the tongue
- Chronic thrush infections
- Unusual fingernail or toenail formation
- Frequent loose stools, diarrhea
- Undigested food found routinely in stools
- Constipation, infrequent stooling, (only going once every few days, or straining with a bowel movement)
- Excessive gas, flatulence
- Chronically discolored stools: white, yellow, or black.
- Floating stools, or dry stools (“rabbit pellets”)
- “Tummy aches”
- Distended “pot belly”
- Persistent toe-walking (always walking on tip-toes)
- Delays in crawling, walking, talking
- Large motor delays—difficulties completing age-appropriate physical tasks (e.g., jumping or climbing)
- Sideways glancing—looking out of the sides of the eyes instead of making direct eye contact
- Sensory-defensiveness: covering the ears from everyday sounds like vacuum cleaners or telephone rings; shielding the eyes from bright lights; sensitivity or revulsion to common smells; avoidance of certain textures like sand, wetness, certain fabrics; over sensitivity or emotional reaction to tags in clothing, seams in socks, hairbrushing; avoidance of kisses, hugs, or other forms of affection
- Sensory-seeking behaviors: always looking to “crash” into people, objects
- Pressure-seeking behavior: trying to push the belly against objects, the floor, tables
- Head-banging
- Tongue hanging out of the mouth
- Failure to thrive, growth delays
- Arm flapping
- Low muscle tone
- Extreme or abnormal fatigue
- Difficulty waking
- Excessive sweating (night or daytime) or inability to regulate temperature
- Excessive hyperactivity
- Chronically swollen lymph nodes
- Obsessive or compulsive type behaviors—constant hoarding of toys, possessions
- Lining up toys, or other repetitive behaviors
- Persistent aggressive behavior
- Persistent non-compliant or oppositional behavior
- Tics (verbal or physical)
- Recurrent urinary tract infections
- Chronic vaginal infections
- Chronic athletes foot, ring worm or other fungal skin infections
My older son had a far longer list of these symptoms than my younger one: recurrent ear infections, eczema, cradle cap, allergic shiners, frequent temper tantrums, acid reflux, constipation, a delay in walking (he was TWENTY months old!), large motor delays, sensory defensiveness, failure to thrive, low muscle tone, and extreme fatigue. My younger son had a shorter list: eczema, bloody diaper rashes, acid reflux, and a delay in walking (he was 16 months old).
I didn’t even start to realize until my older son was 4 years old and my younger son was 2 what was going on with them. The person that helped me recover them the most certainly wasn’t any of their pediatricians or allergist or gastroenterologist. It was learning from the naturopath that I had started to see to help me with my own health problems that helped me heal them. I began to understand that the simple things I was doing for myself would help them, too. Taking probiotics helped to restore the balance of the intestinal flora, while taking omega-3 supplements helped ease the inflammation.
And do you know it was the naturopath who cured both of them of their acid reflux? My older son had reflux so bad that he would projectile vomit constantly as a baby (colic, my foot!), would refuse to eat solids, and would only eat food after we sang, danced and distracted him for an hour only to have him throw it up. This went on every day until I took him to my naturopath, who tested him for food sensitivities and then told me to take him off of dairy. I was able to stop giving both of them the Prevacid that they had been taking for years after 3 days. It was only the dairy?! I could have strangled all of those doctors, especially the gastroenterologist because he subjected my younger son at the age of 12 months to a completely unnecessary (in hindsight) endoscopy in which he was put under anesthesia. And it was only the dairy! Couldn’t he at least have suggested just changing their diets? Grrrr. As you might understand by now, I am not very trusting any more of allopathic doctors. It seems as if all they have to offer is antibiotics (look where that got us), pharmaceuticals or surgery.
After subsequent visits to the naturopath, I cut out gluten from my boys’ diets. I began reading books on the subject, and I found “The Kid-Friendly ADHD & Autism Cookbook: The Ultimate Guide to the Gluten-Free, Casein-Free Diet” by Pamela Compart and Dana Laake to be extremely helpful and user-friendly. The kids liked the food from the recipes, too.
The book that I found to be the most helpful at explaining gut dysbiosis and how to treat it is “The Body Ecology Diet: Recovering Your Health and Rebuilding Your Immunity” by Donna Gates. I will warn you that the protocol she offers will put you at odds with the Standard American Diet (SAD), but it works. The SAD contains too many processed, refined, sweetened and antibiotic-laden foods and can lead to gut dysbiosis. In contrast, the Body Ecology Diet (BED) eliminates gluten, dairy, sugars and fruits (although fruit can be added in later) because they all feed the yeast. BED also teaches the principles of acid/alkaline (an alkaline diet is more healthful as it is more vegetable-based whereas the SAD is a very acidic diet, which can leave you open to infectious invasion), 80/20, food combining and eating fermented foods.
On her website, Donna Gates says: “We believe (autism) begins in the womb and that a fungal infection is playing a key role. Weakened immunity, the lack of an inner ecosystem, toxins accumulated over generations and detoxification pathways that don’t eliminate the toxins also are a factor as well. 70% of Americans have fungal infections (candida).”
Think of the kids’ menu at a typical restaurant; it’s loaded with potentially allergenic and yeast-feeding foods: cheese pizza, chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, etc. I found that the easiest way (although it’s a very time-consuming way) to eliminate yeast-feeding foods is to cook from scratch and not to eat out very much. After we’d all been eating more healthfully for a few months, the naturopath told us that once a week we could eat whatever we wanted. That way, if the boys go to a birthday party, they don’t have to feel left out.
Another way to think of these foods, especially gluten and dairy foods, as they are what most kids eat, is that they are like glue in the intestine. They literally clog it up. Remember that gluten has the word “glue” in it and that Elmer’s glue has a picture of a cow on it. It’s made from milk, and that milk becomes glue in your intestine. I’m sure you’ll be grossed out when I tell you that a clogged colon is a putrifying colon and a dysbiotic colon.
Speaking of allergenic foods, have you ever wondered why wheat, dairy, corn, soy and eggs are the top food allergens? Robyn O’Brien and Rachel Kranz explain why in their book, “An Unhealthy Truth: One Mother’s Shocking Investigation into the Dangers of America’s Food Supply—And What Every Family Can Do to Protect Itself”. Robyn used to be a food-industry analyst and was compelled to discover why her daughter had such a violent reaction after eating a typical American breakfast. She found out that the proteins in these foods have been genetically modified, and the American public has eaten these foods for at least the last two decades. Is it a coincidence that food allergies have skyrocketed in the same time frame? She thinks not! One way to protect yourself and your family from these GMO foods is by eating organic foods, which are, by definition, not allowed to be GMO.
Remembering that you eat what the animals you eat ate, anyone with gut dysbiosis (and I’m wondering if this isn’t a large majority of us) wouldn’t want to eat feed-lot animals (including farm-raised fish) because they eat GMO foods such as corn and soy and are given massive doses of antibiotics. Instead, you’d want to eat grass-fed beef, pasture-raised chickens and their eggs, and wild-caught fish. Yes, it’s more expensive in the short run, but I believe the long-term benefits to your health outweigh the upfront costs.
In a nutshell, here are the basic steps to healing gut dysbiosis:
- Eliminating dairy, gluten, sugar and refined foods
- Using food combining principles (see Body Ecology Diet)
- Taking probiotics
- Eating fermented foods, which contain naturally occurring probiotics
- Eating mineral-rich foods because candida eats your minerals: stock made from bones, sea vegetables (seaweed)
- Eating non-gluten grains
- Using anti-microbial herbs and foods: oregano, rosemary, thyme, turmeric, garlic, basil, etc.
- Eating organic, non-GMO foods
As an example, I noticed for myself that I tend to get chronic sinus infections in the spring when it is raining a lot. That’s because yeast, like mold and mildew, loves to grow where it’s wet and warm. I would constantly be making an “ahem” to try to clear the infection out of my throat, until I finally learned that I needed to cut out the sugar and refined carbs for a few weeks at least. My naturopath also told me how to clear out my sinuses by putting a little sea salt in warm water in a neti pot and by taking goldenseal as well. It works!
Maria Rickert Hong can be contacted at maria[at]epidemicanswers[dot]org
Filed under: Gut Dysbiosis, Sensory Processing Disorder | 2 Comments
Tags: Candida, food allergies, gut dysbiosis, immune dysfunction
By Vicki Kobliner, MS RD CD-N
Mention the words “nutrition” and “autism” and many people quickly but exclusively think of gluten and casein free diets (GFCF). While this diet has certainly helped to improve the symptoms of autism for many children, there is far more about nutrition and its relationship to autism that every parent should know before embarking on the complex and often expensive journey into the world of biomedical therapies. Good nutrition is the cornerstone of growth and development for all children, healthy or ill. When nutritional status is compromised it will directly affect a child’s progress, and for a child with a chronic illness like autism, the lack of critical nutrients can have far reaching effects.
Children with autism often exhibit a frustrating mix of picky eating behaviors and limited diets, bowel irregularities, food allergies or sensitivities and physical and behavioral signs of nutrient deficiencies. A vicious cycle is created which goes something like this:
- The poorly functioning digestive tract (whether from food allergies, lack of healthy bacteria or enzymes etc) causes inflammation and/or discomfort which makes a child want to eat less
- The inflammation reduces the ability to break down and absorb nutrients from food
- The limited intake reduces the amount of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients needed not only to help heal the inflammation, but to support brain function as well.
- As a result, inflammation is not addressed, the digestive tract remains compromised and the gulf between nutrition needs and nutrient intake grows ever wider.
To further complicate matters, children with autism frequently suffer from inefficiencies in many other biochemical processes that are nutrition dependent. As the nutrition gap grows, these pathways are further compromised. Some examples include the following:
- The immune system is commonly skewed in children on the spectrum. A normal immune system requires essential fatty acids, zinc, Vitamin C and protein, as well as many other nutrients for normal function.
- Research shows that ASD kids often have a reduced ability to detoxify from the everyday chemicals and toxins we are naturally exposed to. To perform normal detoxification reactions, the body requires a compound called glutathione, which is made from pieces of protein called amino acids. In addition, natural detoxification requires B vitamins, and minerals such as selenium.
- Because children on the spectrum are chronically ill, their small bodies are under tremendous stress, and produce lots of the free radicals that are damaging to cells. Antioxidants such as Vitamin C and Vitamin E are critical for quenching the free radical fire.
- An emerging area of study has linked autism with mitochondrial dysfunction. The mitochondria are the energy producing engines of all cells, and not only impact muscle tone, but can also affect mood and brain function. The mitochondria need the amino acid carnitine, Coenzyme Q10, and a variety of B vitamins to do their job.
- Mood and behavior modulating neurotransmitters are built from the amino acids tryptophan and tyrosine. They require Vitamin A and D, B vitamins and other nutrients to become dopamine and serotonin.
While the GFCF diet is certainly an important consideration, a comprehensive nutritional intervention for autism is far more than a single diet that simply removes specific foods from a child’s menu. Instead, it should include all of the following components:
- Evaluation of the child’s current diet for nutritional adequacy
- A visual examination to observe physical signs of nutrient deficiencies
- A proper medical history
- Interventions to heal an impaired digestive tract, such as probiotics (good bacteria), digestive enzymes, healing foods and/or herbs to mend intestinal cells
- Identification and removal of any problem foods and recommendations for nutritionally comparable replacements
- Specific, individualized nutrition therapy.
- Menu suggestions designed to insure appropriate intake of all major nutrients (fat, carbohydrate and protein), and micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals.
- Supplement recommendations when diet alone will not meet nutritional needs.
- Recommendations and/or referrals to specialists to expand a picky eater’s diet
- Ongoing support and modifications as needed.
When faced with a dizzying array of therapies and other interventions in the struggle to improve the quality of an autistic child’s life, parents should make nutrition a priority early in the process and find a qualified dietitian/nutritionist to develop a specific plan for their child. Not only can behavioral and cognitive improvements result from dietary modification, but well nourished children will sleep better, have improved moods, and less bowel distress. They will gain much more from their other therapies and may need fewer or less intense medical interventions later. Without adequate nutrition, it is far harder to achieve these goals.
Vicki Kobliner MS RD, CD-N, is a Registered Dietitian and owner of Holcare Nutrition (www.holcarenutrition.com). She practices using a functional nutrition approach to help the body heal itself and has extensive experience using various diet modalities to help children with autism and related disorders. Vicki works with infants through adults with chronic illnesses, digestive disorders, food allergies, ADHD and autism and provides fertility and prenatal nutrition counseling. She is a contributing author to A Compromised Generation: The Epidemic of Chronic Illness in Americas Children. She can be reached at vicki[at]holcarenutrition[dot]com
Filed under: Autism, Nutrition | Leave a Comment
Maria Rickert Hong received her training as a Certified Health Counselor from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, where she was trained in more than 100 dietary theories. She is also a mom who has recovered her sons from sensory processing disorder, allergies, asthma and acid reflux as well as recovered herself from heavy-metal poisoning, adrenal fatigue, hypothyroidism, pancreatic insufficiency, insomnia, systemic Candida and immune disregulation.
Last month, I mentioned that my older son had a retained Moro reflex, which caused him to have a high level of anxiety (as witnessed in his constant crying) and increased his physical level of sensitivity and sensory issues. The book I mentioned last time, “Reflexes, Learning & Behavior” by Sally Goddard, stated that a retained Moro reflex causes surges in adrenaline and cortisol, which are known to create a physiologic “fight, flight or fright” response. The trouble was his body was constantly in this mode, and the ongoing, chronic releases of adrenaline and cortisol were wearing his body, immune system, and family (especially me, his mom, who got the brunt of it) out!
Several months before I learned about my older son having a retained Moro reflex, we moved him from his crib and into a big-boy bed (he was 3-1/2 at the time, much older than his peers, it seems, but he seemed so comforted by being in his crib). This once-heavy sleeper began waking up (and waking me up) anywhere from one to five times a night. It was like having a newborn all over again. I had been severely stressed since I began taking care of my two boys without any help six months prior, and I was now even more stressed out by the lack of sleep. I’m sure I’m not the only mom who has said, “Sleep deprivation is a form of torture”! All this is to say that I had begun researching adrenal fatigue for myself and thought that my son could benefit from my findings as well. His surges (and mine) of adrenaline and cortisol from constant sensory stress were creating a vicious cycle that he couldn’t break by himself. Going on the symptoms of adrenal fatigue, I realized that he and I both had it. We were worn out.
His adrenal fatigue stressed his body so much that he was constantly getting sick. He would go to preschool for a week and be out the whole next week because he had gotten sick. This scenario played out for the whole first year of preschool when he was 3 and got slightly better the next year after he started going to OTs because their work on neuromuscular reeducation, vestibular reeducation, and core strengthening was helping to inhibit some of his retained Moro reflex.
Other signs and symptoms of his adrenal fatigue were:
- Difficulty getting up in the morning
- Continuing fatigue not relieved by sleep
- Craving for salt or salty foods
- Lethargy (lack of energy)
- Increased effort to do everyday tasks
- Decreased ability to handle stress
- Increased time to recover from illness, injury or trauma
- Symptoms increase if meals are skipped or inadequate
- Decreased stamina
I found a great discussion of these symptoms in the book, “Adrenal Fatigue: The 21st Century Stress Syndrome”, by James L. Wilson. He also says that, “Chronic and recurrent bronchitis, pneumonia and other chronic lung and bronchial diseases typically have an adrenal fatigue component. This includes many cases of asthma, influenza and allergies.” My older son had constant eczema, which was worse in the winter, and later developed a life-threatening bout of asthma when he was just over 4 years old in which he was on prednisolone, Xoponex, and a nebulizer.
After learning about adrenal fatigue, I understood that there was a connection between it and low blood sugar. I, myself, have had hypoglycemia since at least my high school days, and I knew from experience that eating foods high in protein, fat and fiber helped tremendously as well as avoiding foods that are high in sugar and processed carbs. You may think most store-bought yogurt is good for your kids, but have you ever looked at the nutritional label? Most of them are loaded with sugar, and that sugar will contribute to hypoglycemia, an insatiable need for processed carbs and sugar, sensory sensitivities, and an inability to control angry outbursts.
I also began seeing a naturopath for myself when my older son just turned 4. In a later blog, I’ll talk about why I needed to do so. I believe the reasons for what I was going through and what my sons were going through are intertwined. The more I learn about what can help myself, the more I think of ways to see if those things can apply to and help my sons.
One of the first things the naturopath told me was to eliminate all processed foods. What? Our family was practically living on them! My favorite things to do were to go to Trader Joe’s and buy prepared meals and snacks and to also buy Amy’s Kitchen frozen meals; they were healthy and organic, right? I realized this was going to be very hard, and it weighed on me for almost a year: “Why me? Everybody else gets to eat them!” I felt overwhelmed, and a bit paralyzed for a while, as I’m sure a lot of moms do when they attempt to go down this path. However, the more I read up on the additives, preservatives, and chemicals used during processing but not listed on the label, the more I tended to agree.
The second thing the naturopath told me was to use only ghee (clarified butter) and coconut oil for cooking. I thought this was strange advice – what? No canola oil? No olive oil? Aren’t those healthy? So, being that I used to be a research analyst before I became a mom, I set out to do my research. I read, “Fats That Heal, Fats That Kill”, by Udo Erasmus (he’s the one who sells Udo’s Oils), and he confirmed what the naturopath had said. Turns out that cooking with unsaturated fats makes them turn rancid and leads to inflammation in the body. This is not something I wanted my family to have, so I began using ghee and coconut oil, which are saturated fats. (For a good book on the many benefits of using coconut oil, I recommend reading, “The Coconut Oil Miracle”, by Bruce Fife and Jon J. Kabara.) This advice also meshed with that found in the “Adrenal Fatigue” book I mentioned earlier. Later on, after discovering the Weston A. Price Foundation and his classic book, “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration”, I began using animal fats that I rendered: bacon fat, beef tallow, duck fat, and chicken schmaltz. These are all saturated fats as well and sure make for delicious home-cooked food! Our ancestors didn’t have the level of inflammatory diseases that we do today, and that is likely because they used saturated fats for cooking and didn’t eat processed foods.
The third thing he told me was to stop eating so many carbs; it wasn’t helping my (and my kids’) hypoglycemic issues. We would tear through boxes of cereal, our favorite snack. This meant no crackers and no chips; what were we supposed to do for snacks? Understanding this connection led me to make sure that my kids had a source of (unprocessed) protein with every meal and with many of their snacks (beef jerky, hummus, bean dips and nuts are great protein-rich snacks). I bought a dehydrator and meat slicer and began making my own beef jerky, using no added sugar but just a little freshly squeezed orange juice and honey. (The kids, and my husband, really like it.) I also began making homemade hummus, with homemade chicken broth.
Speaking of broth, I began taking classes at the Natural Gourmet Institute in New York City. The first class I took was one about healing the adrenal glands taught by Andrea Beaman of “Top Chef” fame. She has cured herself of thyroid disease naturally by eating whole, seasonal foods and has written three books. I have “The Whole Truth: Eating and Recipe Guide”, and I find a lot of the recipes in there to be delicious as well as healthy. In her class, she recommends eating whole, organic, seasonal foods, of course, but also eating foods that are rich in minerals: animal organs, homemade stock made from animal bones, and sea vegetables (seaweed). She also recommends that people with adrenal fatigue not eat raw food, as this requires more energy from the body than people with adrenal fatigue have. This means even cooking your fruit. (Try sautéing it in butter and cinnamon with the lid on over low heat; it’s delicious!)
Again, what she and the naturopath advised was similar. I read up on minerals and found that magnesium, especially, can help reduce symptoms of asthma and calm the central nervous system. Another book I highly recommend is, “The Magnesium Miracle”, by Dr. Carolyn Dean. I was concerned about the amount of sugar found in most kids’ supplements, so I ultimately chose liquid magnesium drops and added them to a little (1/8 c.) fruit juice. Even though that has sugar, too, I use either freshly squeezed juices (from pears, apples or oranges) or pomegranate juice, which is very high in antioxidants. I discovered that selenium, zinc, vitamin C and vitamin D are also valuable at detoxifiying and maintaining a healthy immune system, something I was very interested in, given how often my older son would get sick.
One of the supplements the naturopath gave me was Efalex, a combination of tuna, borage, and evening primrose oils that provides a mercury-free (they’ve been distilled) source of essential fatty acids (EFAs), especially omega 3 fatty acids, of which the American diet is so deficient. EFAs calm inflammation and the central nervous system, and numerous studies have shown that they help reduce symptoms of ADHD, autism, allergies, and asthma, as these are all chronic diseases with chronic inflammation in common. The one book I recommend to my friends about this subject is “Healing the New Childhood Epidemics: Autism, ADHD, Asthma, and Allergies: The Groundbreaking Program for the 4-A Disorders”, by Kenneth Bock, M.D. and Cameron Stauth. The information found in this book agrees with that found in “Fats That Heal, Fats That Kill.”
The “Adrenal Fatigue” book also recommended adaptogenic herbs to help calm the central nervous and adrenal systems. I confirmed with the naturopath that holy basil, ashwaganda, and licorice root (in small doses) were indeed appropriate for my sons (and myself!) for calming anxiety. For further information about this subject, you can read, “Adaptogens: Herbs for Strength, Stamina and Stress Relief”, by David Winston and Steven Maimes. By this time, I had begun taking my sons to the naturopath as well, and he gave my older son a kids’ version of valerian root and passionflower drops to help him stay asleep and astragalus, another adaptogen, to boost his immune system.
Anyway, this long nutritional lecture is to say that I found all of these things to be helpful in erasing some of the symptoms of my sons’ SPD, especially my older sons’ anxiety. None of these things by itself is a magic bullet, but I believe that together they have had a profoundly beneficial effect on my family’s health. My older son still has some residual anxiety and doesn’t always sleep through the night, but he is so much better now about these issues than he was before.
In my next blog, I’ll talk about how the naturopath educated me about probiotics and gut health and why this is so important for children with SPD and other chronic illnesses such as autism, allergies, asthma, and acid reflux.
Maria Rickert Hong can be contacted at maria[at]epidemicanswers[dot]org
Filed under: Sensory Processing Disorder | 1 Comment
Tags: adaptogenic herbs, adrenal fatigue, anxiety, EFAs, hypoglycemia, magnesium, saturated fats, whole foods
