kaybee
10-06-2008, 02:07 PM
OK, I dont know if anyone is going to have any further solutions, as I have been to several naturopaths as well as a holistic dr, including naturopaths at Bastyr, which is the alternative medicine medical school in Seattle, as well as trying a billion things on my own, but its worth a shot.
I originally went to the drs. because i was having a major problem with "brain fog"; i felt like i was hungover every single day until about 3 in the afternoon. couldnt function optimallly, had to drag myself around, couldnt get my schoolwork done. i was also feeling generally run down and tired and burned out, which i suspect had to do with the combination of my body exhausting its supply of nutrients and well-being over the 6 years that i pushed myself doing bicycle courier work, also combined with STRESS from an unfinished thesis and graduate program, along with other factors in my life. muscle aches and pains all the time, even after gentle exercise. i felt AND STILL FEEL like my body just doesnt repair itself. any activity or new movement = achy-ness, and the achy-ness seems to persist, instead of going away over time as we would expect when we use a muscle repeatedly over time. doc wanted to put me on thyroid meds and hrt, both of which i turned down, searching for non-drug options. fastforward a year. still same problems. tried diff supplements, dietary changes, changing sleep patterns, lived in different countries different cities, different jobs. no change. went to bastyr in seattle and they said. 1. i did NOT need hrt, my female hormones were fine, which is what i had intuitively felt anyway. 2. my thyroid was underfunctional, but not exactly in the range of hypothyroid. 3. i was run down and stressed out. 4. most of my vitamin and mineral levels fell "within normal range". so the good news was that i didnt have any serious "illnesses". the bad news was that nothing stood out as needing treatment, which made it more difficult to treat me. They acknowledged that my diet was very rich in nutrients, --though they are not necessarily supporters of a raw diet, as they do alot with TCM and TCM is not raw-food friendly. They arent closed to raw food, which is great, but they dont think it can work for all people and in all circumstances; they dont think its automatically the optimal diet for everyone. Conclusion: my body was being given great nutrition but i wasnt benefitting because my absorption SUCKED. they attributed this to stress and to the fact that i was always on the go, eating on the run, and my body couldnt settle and focus energy on absorbing the food so it just kind of went right through without the nutrition being absorbed. They also said my adrenals were exhausted. put me on a bunch of supplements, and told me that it was probably going to take lifestyle changes--reducing stress, regular GENTLE exercise, taking time to sit down and eat meals, etc etc etc. but they also suggested that there was probably only a certain level of health that i would get to without adding animal foods back into my diet and that when i reached that plateau i would have to think seriously about whether i wanted to continue to be not-optimal, or whether i wanted to add animal foods back in. As a long-time vegetarian, and going on 7 years mostly vegan, (2-3 years or so mostly raw) for reasons of ethics and compassion (and now, health a bit too), adding animal products back in IS NOT, and will never be, an option for me, and i told them that. my last appointment with them was in May. they told me that over time, by making lifestyle changes and taking the supplements, i should experience an improvement in my conditions. my major concern was the brain-fog, as it made me unfunctional and it scared me. sure enough, the brain fog has FINALLY more or less dissipated--but i have changed my lifestyle radically in that i am working only sporadically, im living on the coast near the beach where the air is clean, my thesis is more or less completed after 5 years, and though i still have a lot of schoolwork to do, ive had more "chill time" than ive had in a while in the sense that im not running around on the go all the time from job to job, etc. WHAT REMAINS, however, is the achyness. almost ALL the time. even when im not getting any exercise I hurt. throw the exercise in and I hurt more, even when it is gentle and consistent (i.e. low pressure walks 1-2 mile walks on the beach with my dog or whatever). anytime i try a new activity or make a new movement, it adds to the number of body parts that hurt... and i dont seem to EVER fully recover from the muscle achyness. Ive been on oral magnesium supplementation for 7 or so months, though i have gone through periods where i dont always take it every day. lately i have been though, and ive also added in the magnesium oil from sunfood, as ive read that if you are already magnesium deficient, sometimes its ironically difficult to absorb it through eating; transdermal is more effective. last week i had two REALLY good days, which occurred a few days after i started using the oil, but i dont know if it was really because of the oil becuase now for the last 4 days im back to hurting again. any new movement, or even varied movement that i might not do everyday, such as stuff in the garden, makes me tight and achy. and it just doesnt seem to go away. i tried doing the exercises out of peter egoscues book "pain free for women" to start to activate muscle groups that i dont think are being used properly, and to realign my back, as my back and neck have been out of line for years; the exercises are GENTLE; just stretching. and i couldnt tolerate it after just 2 days of the exercises because i was so hurting. i found this even when i was doing bike courier work years ago--that my body NEVER seemed to adjust itself to the new activity; even after doing it for years, i was still achy all the time....
So yeah, any suggestions....??? the supps that i have been taking are a eleuthero adrenal support, thyroid support formula with herbs and seaweed, vit D, cal/mag, B12 (though they prescribed me a pill form and i thought sublingual was best..), and im supposed to be using plant enzymes but I use them only occasionally because they are so expensive. also was taking iron since march or so but ran out now. and now also the mag oil
my diet is mostly raw most of the time; occasionally fall off the wagon and get my hands on some bread or something that i cant tear out of my hands ;) and occasionally do brown rice or something from the veg cafe or if im at a friends house, but rarely. sometimes, but rarely, really fall of the wagon and get into some cookies or pie or something, if im a guest at someones house. ive lived periods where ive been totally 100 raw for periods of time, and still no improvement in the conditions. im eating a fair amount of fruit, a fair amount of greens and veggies, some seeds and some nuts but nut availablity is kind of limited. I do GS when i can get them down, but they are kind of hard for me to stomach. ive been doing hemp milk with sprouted hemp seeds lately too, and lately have occasionally made flax crackers or something in the dehydrator. do a fair amount of homemade pesto or avo sauce on zucchini pasta, alot of salads, and scarf down dates when i can get my hands on them. use non-raw stuff like nutritional yeast, miso, and tamari a few times a week at the moment, though i have gone through periods without these. I add dulse, which i love, to alot of my salads, but dont have luck making myself eat most of the other seaweeds. am going to go harvest some bladderwrack when i get my car back and dry and powder it though, because ive read that 5 g a day has given equivalent results to use of thyroid hormone, and id love to stop buying these herbal supplements, especially since i have to have them shipped from the states. (my thyroid support formula is vegan though, no actual hormone in it).
so what am i missing? im tired of hurting all the time. i wonder if im not ABSORBING enough protein or something. but i cant FORCE my body to absorb stuff. SO frustrating. I tried vegan HCl but I didnt trust the company it came from because it had a home-made-ish looking label and it made my tummy hurt. i know ACV is supposed to help with digestion but Ive always HATED vinegar and it gags me to try to choke it down. i know fermented foods might help digestion as well, but the kombucha in the HFS says "heat treated on it (go figure...whats the POINT of heat-treated kombucha), and i dont seem to be able to get things like sauerkraut down, there is some kind of underlying smell that is so yuck to me...though i have had kimchi i liked back in the states, and ONE brand of raw sauerkraut (deep roots) that was fab.
So, any suggestions?
thanks so much.
kaybee
I originally went to the drs. because i was having a major problem with "brain fog"; i felt like i was hungover every single day until about 3 in the afternoon. couldnt function optimallly, had to drag myself around, couldnt get my schoolwork done. i was also feeling generally run down and tired and burned out, which i suspect had to do with the combination of my body exhausting its supply of nutrients and well-being over the 6 years that i pushed myself doing bicycle courier work, also combined with STRESS from an unfinished thesis and graduate program, along with other factors in my life. muscle aches and pains all the time, even after gentle exercise. i felt AND STILL FEEL like my body just doesnt repair itself. any activity or new movement = achy-ness, and the achy-ness seems to persist, instead of going away over time as we would expect when we use a muscle repeatedly over time. doc wanted to put me on thyroid meds and hrt, both of which i turned down, searching for non-drug options. fastforward a year. still same problems. tried diff supplements, dietary changes, changing sleep patterns, lived in different countries different cities, different jobs. no change. went to bastyr in seattle and they said. 1. i did NOT need hrt, my female hormones were fine, which is what i had intuitively felt anyway. 2. my thyroid was underfunctional, but not exactly in the range of hypothyroid. 3. i was run down and stressed out. 4. most of my vitamin and mineral levels fell "within normal range". so the good news was that i didnt have any serious "illnesses". the bad news was that nothing stood out as needing treatment, which made it more difficult to treat me. They acknowledged that my diet was very rich in nutrients, --though they are not necessarily supporters of a raw diet, as they do alot with TCM and TCM is not raw-food friendly. They arent closed to raw food, which is great, but they dont think it can work for all people and in all circumstances; they dont think its automatically the optimal diet for everyone. Conclusion: my body was being given great nutrition but i wasnt benefitting because my absorption SUCKED. they attributed this to stress and to the fact that i was always on the go, eating on the run, and my body couldnt settle and focus energy on absorbing the food so it just kind of went right through without the nutrition being absorbed. They also said my adrenals were exhausted. put me on a bunch of supplements, and told me that it was probably going to take lifestyle changes--reducing stress, regular GENTLE exercise, taking time to sit down and eat meals, etc etc etc. but they also suggested that there was probably only a certain level of health that i would get to without adding animal foods back into my diet and that when i reached that plateau i would have to think seriously about whether i wanted to continue to be not-optimal, or whether i wanted to add animal foods back in. As a long-time vegetarian, and going on 7 years mostly vegan, (2-3 years or so mostly raw) for reasons of ethics and compassion (and now, health a bit too), adding animal products back in IS NOT, and will never be, an option for me, and i told them that. my last appointment with them was in May. they told me that over time, by making lifestyle changes and taking the supplements, i should experience an improvement in my conditions. my major concern was the brain-fog, as it made me unfunctional and it scared me. sure enough, the brain fog has FINALLY more or less dissipated--but i have changed my lifestyle radically in that i am working only sporadically, im living on the coast near the beach where the air is clean, my thesis is more or less completed after 5 years, and though i still have a lot of schoolwork to do, ive had more "chill time" than ive had in a while in the sense that im not running around on the go all the time from job to job, etc. WHAT REMAINS, however, is the achyness. almost ALL the time. even when im not getting any exercise I hurt. throw the exercise in and I hurt more, even when it is gentle and consistent (i.e. low pressure walks 1-2 mile walks on the beach with my dog or whatever). anytime i try a new activity or make a new movement, it adds to the number of body parts that hurt... and i dont seem to EVER fully recover from the muscle achyness. Ive been on oral magnesium supplementation for 7 or so months, though i have gone through periods where i dont always take it every day. lately i have been though, and ive also added in the magnesium oil from sunfood, as ive read that if you are already magnesium deficient, sometimes its ironically difficult to absorb it through eating; transdermal is more effective. last week i had two REALLY good days, which occurred a few days after i started using the oil, but i dont know if it was really because of the oil becuase now for the last 4 days im back to hurting again. any new movement, or even varied movement that i might not do everyday, such as stuff in the garden, makes me tight and achy. and it just doesnt seem to go away. i tried doing the exercises out of peter egoscues book "pain free for women" to start to activate muscle groups that i dont think are being used properly, and to realign my back, as my back and neck have been out of line for years; the exercises are GENTLE; just stretching. and i couldnt tolerate it after just 2 days of the exercises because i was so hurting. i found this even when i was doing bike courier work years ago--that my body NEVER seemed to adjust itself to the new activity; even after doing it for years, i was still achy all the time....
So yeah, any suggestions....??? the supps that i have been taking are a eleuthero adrenal support, thyroid support formula with herbs and seaweed, vit D, cal/mag, B12 (though they prescribed me a pill form and i thought sublingual was best..), and im supposed to be using plant enzymes but I use them only occasionally because they are so expensive. also was taking iron since march or so but ran out now. and now also the mag oil
my diet is mostly raw most of the time; occasionally fall off the wagon and get my hands on some bread or something that i cant tear out of my hands ;) and occasionally do brown rice or something from the veg cafe or if im at a friends house, but rarely. sometimes, but rarely, really fall of the wagon and get into some cookies or pie or something, if im a guest at someones house. ive lived periods where ive been totally 100 raw for periods of time, and still no improvement in the conditions. im eating a fair amount of fruit, a fair amount of greens and veggies, some seeds and some nuts but nut availablity is kind of limited. I do GS when i can get them down, but they are kind of hard for me to stomach. ive been doing hemp milk with sprouted hemp seeds lately too, and lately have occasionally made flax crackers or something in the dehydrator. do a fair amount of homemade pesto or avo sauce on zucchini pasta, alot of salads, and scarf down dates when i can get my hands on them. use non-raw stuff like nutritional yeast, miso, and tamari a few times a week at the moment, though i have gone through periods without these. I add dulse, which i love, to alot of my salads, but dont have luck making myself eat most of the other seaweeds. am going to go harvest some bladderwrack when i get my car back and dry and powder it though, because ive read that 5 g a day has given equivalent results to use of thyroid hormone, and id love to stop buying these herbal supplements, especially since i have to have them shipped from the states. (my thyroid support formula is vegan though, no actual hormone in it).
so what am i missing? im tired of hurting all the time. i wonder if im not ABSORBING enough protein or something. but i cant FORCE my body to absorb stuff. SO frustrating. I tried vegan HCl but I didnt trust the company it came from because it had a home-made-ish looking label and it made my tummy hurt. i know ACV is supposed to help with digestion but Ive always HATED vinegar and it gags me to try to choke it down. i know fermented foods might help digestion as well, but the kombucha in the HFS says "heat treated on it (go figure...whats the POINT of heat-treated kombucha), and i dont seem to be able to get things like sauerkraut down, there is some kind of underlying smell that is so yuck to me...though i have had kimchi i liked back in the states, and ONE brand of raw sauerkraut (deep roots) that was fab.
So, any suggestions?
thanks so much.
kaybee