Update from Bindi

[Guest guest]

Hi Peeps,

I am hoping this finds everyone well, or at least on the way to

wellness.

I just wanted to uptdate y'all on my recent visit with my alternative

health practitioner, Layna Berman, in case my experience helps

anyone. The last I'd posted was about how she put me on a protocol of

natural hormones, including Armour thyroid, DHEA, bioidentical

estrogen and progesterone. For three weeks I had a glorious honeymoon

where I felt pretty close to fantastic. Then I crashed, big time.

My recent consult with her was enlightening. She explained to me why

I felt so good for three week and then crashed. Mind you, I am

paraphrasing her words here. She said that when your endocrine system

is not functioning properly and making the hormones the body needs,

the hormone receptors become very sensitive to any hormones that

might be available. When you add a bunch of new hormones to the

bloodstream, the body becomes almost " drunk " on them, before it

adjusts. That is why you feel so good.

I have crawled out from the crash but still feel pretty lousy. Layna

had me increase the dose slightly of the estrogen and thyroid but so

far I have not felt any improvement.

I have been trying to stick with the paleo diet. I did cheat a few

times and felt crappy. I think I might be sensitive to wheat and

dairy and just didn't know it. I've lived with a certain amount of

bloating ever since I got sick from implants but it just became

background noise like everything else I was tolerating. Layna also

told me that often people with chronic illness caused by a toxic

trigger can develop food allergies but they can also heal to the

point that those foods can be okay again. Not everyone, but some.

Layna said that the only way to know for sure if I have developed an

allergy is to stay off the possible culprits for at least three weeks

and then introduce them one at a time.

That Syclovir powder was also bad news, for me anyway. It made me

really sick. My digestion is still messed up from that stuff. Layna

totally disses the systemic candida theory. She says that a lot of

alternative docs manipulate people by telling them they have a fungal

overgrowth without any basing it on any sort of proof. It's funny,

though, because she promotes a diet very close to the candida one.

The difference is that on the paleo diet one can eat fruit, potatoes,

yams, some grains (brown rice, quinoa, amaranth, oats), some beans

(lentils), occasionally sweets like honey and agave. It's a little

easier than the straight candida diet. I can't seem to stop losing

weight no matter how much I eat. I am getting pretty skinny. I also

am so bored with eating, cooking, and food in general since starting

this diet.

I am seriously thinking of switching to an ayurvedic diet, which is

dependent on one's constitutional dosha, but I am going to stick this

paleo thing out for a month and see how it goes. On an ayurvedic diet

one can eat dairy, rice, legumes.

At any rate, I think it is extremely important that one eat as many

fruits and vegies as one can. So many studies have come out showing

how powerful plant foods are. Did you hear about the recent study

with black raspberries? Supposedly they stop the expression of cancer

genes. I am skeptical of diets that trash fruit. Of course one

doesn't want to go overboard and pig out on it, but no fruit? So many

important vitamins and minerals are found in fruit.

I wish I could report that I'd found the holy grail of health with

hormones, but so far I don't think I have. I made the mistake of

jumping the gun a while back and hollering from the mountaintops how

how hormones were the best thing since, I don't know, tampons or

something, and after badgering everyone who would listen to try them,

I was knocked back down to earth. Oh well.

I'll y'all let you know if anything changes.

xo

Bindi