Tag: placebo

The Medical Medium Diet : Day 4 1/2

Medical Medium Diet

Usually I write at night, after the day has gone by, to report.  But this morning I felt like writing.

This morning I weighed 169.5 pounds.  A loss of 1 1/2 pounds in the past two days.  🙂

Last night, after writing about Day 4, I was trying to go to sleep and my nerves were acting up, meaning, they were scintillating and tingling and doing their abnormal thing on much of my skin, especially face, head, hands, feet, arms, legs, torso . . . hmm, I guess my whole body.  My right side was also experiencing sore muscles in the quadriceps and the gluteus maximums muscles (which was new), though I had not done any exercising to cause soreness.  I took my Sertraline (generic for Zoloft) so I could get some sleep.  I don’t believe the earlier success  I had, of no nerve pain while not taking the Sertraline, was from a placebo effect, but probably more from the medicine still in my body.  I’m thinking the Sertraline just took a couple days to leave my system and stop helping.

This leads me to think that I am expecting way too much, way too soon.  In the book “Medical Medium” many of the success stories show the diet took 3 to 18 months or more to relieve the patient of the symptoms.  In my own past, when I kicked the Hashimoto’s symptoms and got the the point where my blood tests showed I was in the normal range for thyroid hormone levels and Hashimoto’s titers, I had been eating carefully and taking supporting herbs for three years.  So, I humbly retract my brashness and will stay the course until I am really well, using the needed Sertraline for now.

The Medical Medium Diet : Day 4

Medical Medium Diet

I can’t believe it!  I forgot to weigh myself this morning!     😦       Oh well . . . tomorrow.

Today, on top of what I did the first three days, celery juice, smoothies, fruit, nuts and seeds, I did a lot more reading in the book.  I still have a lot to learn about what other things I need to do to combat the Hashimoto’s disease and the Nerve pain, which may be Lyme’s disease, but according to Anthony William is probably the Epstein Barr virus.

The 28 day cleanse of eating only fresh, raw, fruits and vegetables is not exactly what I am going for.  I’m going for the “Gut Health” diet first, described in chapter 17, and adding in specific healing herbs and supplements suggested in the chapters on Hashimoto’s and Lyme’s diseases.

I’m finding that the amount of fruit may be too much sugar for my head because I get headaches if my food has too much fruit and not enough veggies, and nuts and seeds.  I’m also finding that I have very little appetite and am having to eat to live, not live to eat.  I eat so I can not be tired, but I really have no desire to eat, and the food on my menu is not something I crave.  Today, I even ate a plum sized piece of a yam, sliced up, to stave off my hunger, because I was sick of everything else I could eat.  It was good raw and made me better.  When I have just eaten, I usually feel a burst of energy and get some things done, then I wilt again and rest.

I bought blueberries, cilantro, parsley, avocado, and kale, which are going in my smoothie tomorrow.  There are so many things listed, I have to get a few new things each time I shop.  Actually, the author suggests to eat a variety of the listed foods and herbs, and not the same things day after day.

I chose to not take my Sertraline again today and I am still not having much nerve pain.  No more than I was when I was taking the Sertraline.

I am also being very careful to keep my attention in a very peaceful place within myself.  It feels like my attention/awareness/point of focus must remain deep in my core, which feels at about the belly, toward the spine, in order to stay calm and centered, not anxious.  I have also been using some meditation techniques taught in Tom Brown Jr.’s “Trackerschool”, and others taught in Karl Direske’s “Wilderness Fusion” classes, to help me stay balanced and centered as I attempt to help my body heal.  The balancing and centering meditations do help.  The book “Medical Medium” has a chapter on meditations too, but I have not read it yet.

The Medical Medium Diet : Day 3

Medical Medium Diet

I weighed 171 today, a loss of 4 pounds in two days!  That is encouraging, to say the least.

Sticking to the recommended food is getting easier because I don’t crave the really bad stuff any more, like donuts, chocolate, or ice cream.  I did learn yesterday, though, that I was craving something but didn’t know what, so I tried a fourth teaspoon of salt mixed with water.  That was just what I needed.  The mixture reminded me of broth and really helped relieve my craving.

I began today with the usual celery juice and continued with the same smoothie as yesterday ( I had two 16 oz glasses leftover in the fridge).  When I felt like eating something else, I had bananas, an apple, and some almonds.  We went to a special dinner for our homeschool group and I ate two plates of fresh salad.  I cheated a little by having a little dressing on it.

Yesterday, at about 3 pm I remembered to take my Sertraline, and I felt a little dull headed after taking it, so today I didn’t take it and I do not feel the usual tingling and nerve pain I used to feel, nor do I feel as dull headed.  My daughter Melissa says to see how it goes, if I am experiencing a placebo effect, it will not continue to work, but if the changes I am making are legitimately helping, then the diet is not just a placebo and the positive effects will continue.

I am also doing my best to let go of negative and stressful thoughts, and relax.  Stress really exacerbates this nerve problem.  This is difficult to do when my life has been so full of stress and anxiety for so long.  Being in Oregon, and having family around, is a big part of my self prescribed medicine, and it is good medicine!  Mostly, I am learning to recognize the negative thoughts when they creep in.  The negative thoughts target me when I am either really tired, or feeling really good.  It is almost comical now that I recognize the pattern.  When I am feeling tired I think, “How are you going to do anything, you’re so tired!  You are not capable of anything significant.  You might as well stop trying and just do little tiny things,” and when I don’t recognize that those are just negative thoughts trying to mess me up, I feel hopeless and helpless.  Then when I feel really good, with a burst of energy, I think, “Look at you, you are just fine!  Why do you think anything is wrong with you?  You are just fine now.  You don’t need a doctor!” and I feel all excited and happy until I hit the wall again and have to rest in a dark room because my head hurts, which is usually only ten minutes, up to a couple hours, into my burst of energy.

I read more from “Medical Medium” this evening, and the chapter on the Epstein Barr virus is very interesting.  Anthony William says the Epstein Barr virus is behind many of the illnesses that doctors cannot explain, like Hashimoto’s, Lyme’s, Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia, Tinnitus, and Vertigo, among others.  I have symptoms, or have had symptoms, for all of these.  I read the list of recommended foods and herbs, specifically to get rid of the Epstein Barr virus, and looked through my shelves.  I found Silver Hydrosol and L-lysene, both of which are recommended in this treatment, so I took them tonight.  Tomorrow I will gather more of these recommended foods and herbs so I can proceed with more of the recommended foods.

What is that saying . . . “Make food your medicine, and your medicine your food” . . . something like that.  I always liked that saying.