todsay is the 3rd day that 'lou and i have been on the rice-only diet. well, almost. we still have to have our smoothies in the morning. but other than the fruit and flax seeds in that, it's all rice, all the time. and his improvement is drastic and amazing. today his skin has lost the rough, raspy dry flakiness. for 6 wks now, he's been scratching me up like sandpaper with his ankles, wrists and knees. even with having gone to the pool, his skin has returned to shiny smooth baby softness. you can even see the difference in the pics i've posted here.

he still has a few pimple-like bumps, but they are more isolated and not nearly as inflamed and large as they were before. i'm dying to find out what new thing(s) caused this most recent setback, eliminate them and get him completely back to baseline. he just slept for a full night for the 1st time in over a month last night. we should have the results tomorrow or tuesday. i'm hoping for tomorrow before i go into rice toxicity dementia.

i've been ramping up the research efforts about multiple severe allergy kids in general and keep finding references to doing a strict elimination diet temporarily with the goal in mind to trial food back in w/in 3 months at the most. everything says avoiding it for about that long should help the body heal enough to begin tolerating it again after the 'break'.

~so what's different about my child that we've been doing it for 2 yrs now and he's only gotten more allergic?

~if he's really such a totally new and rare kind of case, shouldn't his dr.s want to research and study and learn all they can about such an extreme and fluky example of allergies? shouldn't they be sharing info w/ other experts in the field to learn how to support, educate and advise a patient like this?

questions for the dr. tomorrow !

"where's the beef?"

a thought kept struggling to bob to the surface of my addled, rice-infested brain today. it finally surfaced and i realized: the last time he was this bad (at 11 mos), was when all of his other food allergies were diagnosed (besides the dairy he was born reacting to and the egg he became allergic to at 7 mos). i've been sitting here preparing myself to deal with eliminating chicken... and what if it's really black beans, kidney beans, chicken, turkey and beef? (when he was 11 months, he had a virus and became allergic to: corn, soy, wheat and peanuts).

how on earth do you get protein if you can't have dairy, soy, nuts, meats, or beans? he's still getting human milk protein from my milk, but would that be enough at his age to replace these other sources? i'm not going to worry about this until i have to... but it just keeps bobbing up in my brain like some noxious and malevolent toad in a stagnant pond.

on a positive note, we've only had rice today and one fruit smoothie in the morning and i haven't seen 'lou scratching at all! he slept better last night and got off my boob for a while to play, too! i think :::knock on wood::: this rice-only diet is clearing him up. i also think this shows it's probably not the dog he's allergic to, but something he was eating. of course, i don't know if he will ever poop again... and i am starving 5 minutes after i eat and yet have the belly of a 7 month pregnant woman. i really hope our allergist calls the second he gets our results and doesn't wait until the end of office hours. come to think of it, i may just call and check in myself about those results on monday!

what i'm wondering about today is how there can't be a doctor specializing in these kinds of issues yet. how there can't be corn-free medication options out there. i have so many questions i want answers to that nobody seems to know.

~how do i advocate more effectively for my child's right to have medications he isn't allergic to?

~who dictates what medication options there are, if not the dr.s treating children like 'lou?

~why is he becoming allergic to more and more things if i've eliminated all the allergens and been doing things to heal his gut all his life?

~are other kids like him outgrowing these food allergies? by what age?

~can we import corn-free medications from other parts of the world for kids like this on an as-needed basis?

~can a corn allergy become anaphylactic?

~are children with a history like 'lou's outgrowing these food allergies?

~is it possible that his immune system is also fighting off food proteins and becoming allergic when it fights off prolonged viral exposure?

~if so, would restricting his diet to rice while he's ill, prevent him from 'imprinting' on his foods and becoming newly allergic to foods that were previously safe?

~are children with a history like 'lou's outgrowing these food allergies?

~what kind of dr. would i need to find that was curious and passionate enough to start researching severe corn allergy issues in his spare time and give us more guidance, support and options?

~or is there such an expert out there already that my own dr.s can contact?

~where would i look to find such a specialist?

~are children with a history like 'lou's outgrowing these food allergies?

see if you can guess which question is most urgent to me right now, as i sit here hallucinating about protein, any kind of protein i could sink my teeth into...

corn medicine update - 2nd day

today 'lou's new rash has crept almost to his belly button in the front and his old rash is beginning to redden and crop up with new bumps today. he's beginning to scratch and dig at his ankles again, too. which tells me he's getting enough corn from these meds to start flaring up his primary allergic pattern. which means they're starting to do more harm than good now, so it's time to stop. at least they helped most of the open sores to close and much of the rawness to dry up.

i spoke with the actual owner of the compounding pharmacy today (he also owns the pharmacy we use, which has been fabulous about reading me every single ingredient of every single option we could try and helping me pick the ones w/ the least corn), and once he understood how much corn is really in these meds, he vowed to find me some truly corn-free options, "no matter where he has to go to get it".

which got me thinking after we hung up, other parts of the world don't add corn to everything like we do. if there were a real desperate need for it, if he had to be on steroids long -term, for example, couldn't we get them from somewhere that doesn't use corn? like canada or mexico or norway, or who knows where? i wonder how that works, if a compounding pharmacy can do that. i'm going to ask him when he calls back to tell me if their manufacturer overseas sends the prednisolone with corn already in it.

the allergist also called with the 1st of the test results. he said 'lou's IgE count is at 319. normally it should be around the 25-100 area. but we still don't know *what's* causing him to have such a huge reaction. hopefully we get that answer on monday or tuesday.

in the meantime, i'm assuming it's a new food like beans, meats (i'm betting on chicken) or lentils, possibly grains (please, not rice) and since i have to quit the medicine, i'm going to eat rice only along with him until monday/tuesday, when we hopefully find out what he's actually allergic to now. i'm praying it's not the dog.

his ped also called me back to day and i got the chance to ask her as well as the allergist many of my questions. like why there aren't options for children so allergic to the substance that's in everything. the reply i got was that it's still very rare for anyone to be this sensitive and that neither dr. realized there was so much corn in everything - and that's there's virtually nothing available without it.

i really think when we're being this overexposed to something this mutated and genetically modified, more and more people *are* going to start becoming allergic. how could they not? both dr.s said the exact same thing to me today, "i'm learning from you." they have no idea what options there are, they have no idea what alternatives could be used, they have no idea how or why he's so sensitive he's reacting to corn in such tiny & processed amounts, they have no idea how long 'lou might be like this, they have no idea if an allergy like this can become anaphylactic or always remain isolated to a skin response, no idea if it's lifelong.

it's very scary to realize the people i look to as authorities on the subject have no real experience with it! they both agree that i need to stop the oral steroid now and that going on a rice- only diet to help minimize the reactions seems like the only option until we get some answers. if nothing else, i'm lucky they are very open to listening to me and respecting my observations and instincts.

the more and more i think about this, the more upset i get at how little i knew about the way i ate. it used to be food allergies were only seen in families with a history. a genetic tendency to be allergic to a food that other family members had also had. now it's cropping up everywhere with no family history and nobody knows why.

i think it's from gut damage caused by the way we eat and how our foods are made now. i suspect my son is so particularly sensitive for the simple reason that we got our 1st del taco restaurant a few blocks from my house while i was pregnant with him. i probably ate there 3 or 4 times a week, every chance i could. i had no idea every single thing had several sources of corn in it. corn that is now genetically modified. corn that has been shown to actually alter the dna of rat's gi cells.

what could overexposure to something like that do to a developing fetus? i've been doing everything possible for 2 yrs now to heal his gut damage. completely restricted diet, medical grade corn and allergen free probiotics, breastfeeding, coconut rich recipes, essential fatty acids and good oils... why is he getting more and more allergic? why is he collecting new things to be allergic to and not outgrowing any of the old ones?

nobody can answer these questions because nobody's seen kids like this before. my darkest fear is that, while his gut was being formed, i ruined and warped it by bombarding him with all the gmo's i was eating. that he'll never get over it, that he'll always have problems with food allergies. nobody can even tell me if this is a rational fear, it's such a new issue!

another odd fact i've just realized as i write this blog & reflect (and am wondering if it may be a clue for the dr.s) is this: it seems to me that each time he's become allergic to new things, it was preceded by an illness. a prolonged viral exposure. i would really love to find a group of other parents with multiple food allergy kids - esp corn - and ask them if they noticed their children cropping up with new food allergies after illnesses. is this typical of multiple allergy people? is it indicative of how they became multiply allergic? could it offer a clue as to how to 'cure' them? i'd love any thoughts or feedback.

what could this mean? that his immune system starts fighting off a virus (he is actually sick much less than my other children - twice now most or all of the others have gotten stomach flu and it hasn't touched him and he rarely gets the sore throats and runny noses when they do) and then gets confused or overstimulated and turns to fighting off foods? if this is so, would it mean his immune system is damaged... or maybe hyperactive...?

i never had a problem with corn. i always said it was like eating tiny bits of sunshine. loved corn! didn't know a gmo from a hole in the ground. if i was gonna pick something we eat to crusade against, it would most likely have been meat since i used to be vegetarian all my life until the 1st pregnancy. or the way we give children cow's milk in our country - that's always ben a HUGE pet peeve of mine. but corn? who would have ever guessed that corn would have to become my pet conspiracy theory? but once you start looking into it, there's very valid reason for concern.

i can't urge people enough to learn more about it - the corn your kids are getting is not the corn you

got !

1st day after giving (corn) meds

here is 'lou today, after starting the meds last night and giving him this morning's dose, as well. hubby and i both agree that his previous sites already look a little better. his wrists, ankles and knees were red and irritated w/ pimple-like sores opening up on them. already today they look much drier and flakier, not so beefy and irritated.

however, he has been scratching everywhere else constantly and saying his clothes hurt him, so he keeps taking everything off to be naked. a new irritated rash is creeping up the backs of his legs, buttocks and forearms. this is classic corn exposure pattern for him. if i keep giving him the meds, it will go up his trunk to his neck and then start concentrating on the hands, ankles and knees again.

i want to take him in to the allergist so he can see and document for himself, but they're closed today. i thought i could go to the ped and have her verify and bear witness to the allergist if need be, but she's also off today. even my favorite nurse/assistant of hers is off today! so instead i'll take pics and post them here.

the physician's compounding pharmacy that was so helpful yesterday called and said the manufacturer where they get the actual drug (prednisolone) in the steroid med is overseas and they don't expect an answer on whether or not it is corn-free before it comes to them until monday. i have to say here how impressed i am that they were very eager to learn about the www.cornallergens.com website and find out for me, though! i wasn't sure what level of response i'd get, just being a concerned parent as opposed to a physician inquiry.

so it looks like a waiting game today, balancing the severity and discomfort of the new rash against the clearing up of the old one and a balancing act to see which one advances more quickly. if the beefy, fresh new rash gets much worse, i think i'm going to just quit everything, wrap his worst breakouts areas in raw shea butter and saran wrap w/ socks overnight and eat absolutely nothing but rice with him until we get the blood test results as to what the original offending food is this time.

i had an allergist tell me about one case he had where the corn allergy was so severe and - like 'lou - the supplemental neocate he'd prescribed wasn't tolerated at all by the baby and she ended up in the hospital from the severity of her eczema. her mother was so invested in breastfeeding her and she was so reactive to so many things and they hadn't yet narrowed down which foods were the worst offenders (though they knew corn was the worst), that this mother lived on nothing but the neocate herself for a couple weeks to see if the baby could tolerate it this way and to keep all other offending food proteins out of her milk and continue breastfeeding. if another mother can do all that, i can surely quit giving him more corn in meds that obviously aren't working and eat just rice for a few days!

i'm hoping we can hold out until tomorrow when i can show the allergist so he can see for himself (and of course, secretly also hoping against all my experiences and instincts that i just haven't given the meds long enough to work and there will be a miraculous turnaround and cure at some specific point and that this fresh and raw rash is just some coincidence... but aren't antihistamines and steroids supposed to suppress all rashes and itching? so shouldn't he really not even be able to break out w/ a new rash right now? argghh, i wish someone who's already been down this road would write a book i could refer to!)

how do you say, 'relapse' in pig latin?

we've been at baseline for a wonderful 9ish months until about 6 wks ago. lou is 2 3/4 and was born with 100% blood for stools & losing weight for his 1st 7 wks until we eliminated dairy completely. he doesn't come up allergic to it on the skin or RAST tests, but any accidental exposure to traces of goat's or cow dairy causes an immediate reaction of full torso hives & itching that can last for days. he has gone on to become allergic on both skin and RAST tests to: egg, corn, soy, wheat, peanuts, almonds, catfish, tuna, cats, dog - and without a test for it, he also is allergic to all commercial laundry detergents. we've eliminated all of these things 100%, been eating the same safe things over and over for over 2 yrs now and finally reached that holy grail of allergyworld - baseline.

corn and dairy definitely seem to be his worst allergies. soy and wheat are his least. his allergist keeps telling me things like neocate supplemental powdered nutritional additives are based on corn, but it's so processed out, it doesn't even resemble corn in any way any more and would be technically impossible to react to. i've had 2 different allergists tell me this and i've tried it on 6 separate occasions, each time w/ the same result: full flare up and break out in typical corn reaction pattern. i've had the same results w/ the antihistamine 'atarax' which has less corn than any other i've been able to find and which the allergist said shouldn't be enough to cause a problem for any corn allergic child. so we've learned the hard way there is going to be no pharmacological help for us and to live by the old adage, 'an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.'

i've been through every stage of bargaining and denial throughout this almost 3 yr process - all at my child's expense. i've questioned myself and convinced myself previous reactions to medications or supplements could have been coincidence or my imagination - i've repeatedly tried giving him things that harm him, in the hopes that it will help. i've seen myself through others' eyes and wondered if i've gotten so used to micromanaging every aspect of every crumb he eats, that now i've become obsessed and militant to the point that i think it's worse than it is. am i developing a munchausen-by-proxy-like fixation on my baby having these food allergies worse than he really does? it's thinking like this that makes me give in and try the things the dr. says really shouldn't cause a reaction - time and again i've squashed my own instincts down and done it and watched as it either didn't help, or actually made things worse.

i've read everything i can find on the subject of corn allergy (and there's not much!) and i've met all the other corn allergy people i can and i've gone to the best local doctors and i'm left with the realization that there just isn't a lot of info out there about cases like this, so i'm sort of on my own here.

one thing is certain, since cutting out every single trace of corn and his other food allergens, we reached baseline. he's been growing and gaining and thriving and looking almost normal. (no huge rings under the eyes, no longer starved looking and as scrawny, not all red and blotchy and broken out, etc...) only another food allergy parent can understand the enormous relief of having a former 'failure to thrive' baby suddenly begin growing and gaining and sleeping at night and living a normal, active, happy life - it's been heaven - even with all the restrictions and hard work to maintain the restricted diet. i would do anything i had to, to keep him that happy and healthy.

6 wks ago, we got a bug in the house. just a cough/sore throat kind of thing, but as we've found out with this multiple allergy kid, a virus of any kind triggers a full-blown allergy response. so i was waiting it out and squashing down the usual panic that comes when you watch baseline slipping away. he stops sleeping as much, he itches constantly, a rash breaks out all over his body, but especially his extremities - that begins to turn into little open sores everywhere after a week or so... which i then have to patch up with neosporin every night because God forbid he get an infection since there are no antibiotics made without corn.

he gets huge dark rings around his eyes, he cries and whines constantly and all he wants to do is nurse. it's hard to even manage to cook his meals when he's in reaction mode, let alone keep up with the needs of our other 4 young kids. the stress level for the entire family goes up 10 notches. if i happen to go see my own dr. during a reaction phase (like i did today), my blood pressure is always significantly higher - and normally it's a perfect 120/80!

so the cold in our house morphed into Fifth Disease for all 4 of the other kids. since 'lou was already so broken out, it was hard to tell if he actually got it, but i think he did. this marked another 2 wks of waiting for him to go through an outbreak pattern - though he'd never really cleared up from the first one. i started to wonder how i'd know if this was really just a reactionary outbreak to the viruses and not a new food allergy, but reminded myself he always clears up a week or two after the illnesses. well, we barely got a week- long break between the Fifth's and stomach flu descending upon 3 of the kids. Before i knew it, he'd been a miserable mess for almost a month that i kept chalking up to a virus being in the house. after giving it the 2 weeks post-illnesses and watching him get worse instead of better, we went to the allergist.

we got a topical steroid cream that basically burned his skin to the point of no longer being able to use even his gentlest soap on him. i tried all my normal, natural tricks like slathering on the raw shea butter w/ long layers, going to the pool, not going to the pool, using the a/c and sealing up the house, not using it and letting his environment be hot and humid, showering him daily, not showering him for days - nothing worked.

i went back to the allergist and he agreed we seem to be back at square one. 'lou somehow lost a pound according to the allergist's scale during all this. he's now broken out in areas he never normally breaks out in - which pretty much means it's over every square inch of his body by now. he doesn't stop itching for more than a minute or 2. we suspect a new food allergy and took him to the hospital to test (RAST) for meats, grains and beans and lentils as well as to check his numbers for most of his previous allergies. this test always seems to have been pretty accurate for us in the past, i'm hoping for a quick answer like chicken allergy (which we eat a lot of and what do they eat? corn. so this would make sense to me and i'd be happy to eliminate it if it helps my poor guy). we should have the results in about another week.

in the meantime lies my quandary. the allergist says it's well nigh time to do an oral steroid and antihistamine. i can see that he's getting much worse and am terrified he's going to go septic from all the broken skin and constant scratching. but there are no medications made without corn. with atarax, we were lucky to get 2 days of slight relief before new rashes started breaking out in other areas and i had to discontinue it.

the allergist insisted we have to get him on oral steroids and recommended i try a compounding pharmacy. i found 4 in our area: one said it was impossible and they couldn't help me, one was temporarily closed due to a family emergency, one just went out of business and the other was interested and helpful and will let me know by tomorrow after they've contacted their own distributor. in the meantime, we had to try to get him on something now. so i took the prescription from the dr. for orapred, with dread in my heart. i called to check on the ingredients and found out that the way my pharmacy makes it, the corn it contains is:

alcohol: 1.8%

glycerin

sorbitol

sucrose

just to compare, atarax (an antihistamine that is stronger than benadryl) contains:

alcohol: .5%

citric acid

propylene glycol

when i called to ask about picking up the prescription, the pharmacy called it, 'prelone' instead of 'orapred'. i didn't think much of the fact that they'd switched us to a generic, but just before i made the drive to pick it up, i called to ask for the ingredients on a whim. the corn in this prescription is:

alcohol: 5%

artificial flavor

glycerin

propylene glycol

sucrose

realizing it was a lot more corn, i called my allergist - who of course wasn't in for the day. i called my normal pediatrician to see if she could use her pull to help contact a compounding pharmacy and get us a prescription without corn any faster, but she never called me back at all. (oh how i miss dr. cheryl - who called from her own cell phone & home on her own time, if need be and took my instincts seriously!) i called several more compounding pharmacies out of the area, to no avail.

i finally got the allergist's office to contact him on his day off to ask if i should really do these medications now instead of waiting another day or 2 for the compounding pharmacy to let me know if they can make something for us. he reiterated that he didn't feel the orapred was enough corn to cause a reaction and that he 'd also like 'lou to take an antihistamine called 'periactin' that should help stimulate his appetite and might help with the weight loss. periactin, in tablet form contains the following corn:

microcrystaline cellulose.

i got both prescriptions filled and dosed him with both just after dinner. he's been sleeping fitfully -in between scratching and nursing - for about 4-5 hours a night through all of this. the medications said they cause drowsiness. true to form for my kids with their crazy fast metabolisms, it made him hyper. he climbed the walls until he fell asleep abruptly at about 10 pm. at midnight, he woke up scratching furiously and asking to nurse. he hasn't been back to sleep since and it's 6am now.

i'm at my wit's end with this issue. i live in constant fear that he's going to get some major illness or be in some kind of accident and nobody is going to take me seriously about his corn allergy and decide to give him whatever they see fit. and then whatever issue he is already having is going to be made worse by his allergy reactions. but then when he really does get this bad, i tell myself it's worth the risk, we have to try the medication to make him better, maybe after x amount of time off corn and all this breastfeeding and probiotics and gut healing and optimum diet, he won't be as allergic as before... and every. single. time. i'm wrong and it just makes things worse.

i wish the dr.s could see him at home. we didn't even get 3 hours of sleep last night. he's sitting on his chair right now, watching a dvr'ed episode of 'go, diego, go' so i could have a minute with him off my boobs. i sneaked in and took a picture at 5 am. he's got his legs straight up in the air, an intent and pained expression on his face as he claws away at his ankles. he never stops scratching. it's like his actual bones itch - if he's cleared up and gets corn, he itches even before the rash comes. within 2-6 hrs of getting corn, it's like his flesh is crawling just under the skin... and then the rash comes about a day or less after the itching starts and the rash can last for weeks.

every fiber of my being is yammering that i just gave him 5 sources of corn after living for almost 2 yrs 100% corn free. every instinct is telling me to throw the medicine out and not allow it near him again. part of me knows the dr.s can't really know how to properly treat his issues because they don't even have the tools to work with kids like him. this is a brand new problem they've never dealt with before. it's like i'm coming into the office and telling them he only speaks pig latin, will they please only speak pig latin to us from now on?

i actually asked the nurse if she thinks the dr. remembers for sure who we are and that he is the extremely corn allergic toddler when she told me he wanted to add another medication with corn to his prescription. i had to remind her that this is the child the dr. said shouldn't react to neocate. she said he remembers perfectly, and still thinks we need to do these medicines. they don't even know all the terms for corn, or if a compounding pharmacy can make medicines without corn - i'm doing all the research myself and educating *them* as we go along. and letting them experiment on my child in the process. i really like this allergy dr. - even went to another one for a 2nd opinion and came back to him- but i just think my son is a patient that speaks only pig latin and the dr. didn't take any courses on pig latin. but have any dr.s?

can there really not be a dr. out there that's experienced/educated in this particular problem? is it because it's still such a minority of patients dealing with it? is it because they expect them to outgrow it quickly enough that a lot of research and alternatives aren't warranted? is it because corn is just so cheap and easy and so few people have a problem with it, nobody is going to change things for the few that do? is it because this tends to be a skin-reaction problem or GI tract allergy and not an anaphylactic or life-threatening one? my response to that is that it kinda feels like a very slow anaphylaxis when you watch your child stop growing and actually start losing weight, stop sleeping and have the quality of life of a bedridden invalid that's hooked up to a boob instead of an IV.

i just don't understand how there can't be a dr. or expert out there on this issue that my own dr.s can look up. i can't have the first or the only child dealing with this. why isn't there information being circulated about kids becoming allergic to the most commonly used thing in our foods and medications? why aren't alternatives being made for these kids? why isn't it any of my dr.s priorities to keep corn away from him at any cost, like it's mine? why aren't they demanding corn-free medicines for their patients and/or helping those patients find some? the attitude i'm running into is, 'well, here's what i recommend/prescribe and if you want to do it corn-free, you're on your own, good luck!' this isn't a fad diet choice, this is a bona fide, documented, tested-postive-for ALLERGY. would you give me penicillin for my very sick but penicillin allergic child and then tell me to go try find some other rare and hard-to-find alternative to it on my own?!

:::deep breaths::: for now, i'm going to keep juggling the balancing act. i have to try to keep him on the steroids to heal the skin while making sure he doesn't actually get worse skin issues from the corn in them. i have to try to find corn-free options on my own time while taking care of 5 kids. i have to keep cooking his time-consuming meals from scratch and keep a household going on 3 hrs of sleep a night. i have to maintain a cooperative and proactive attitude and outlook when inside i am ranting and raving with frustration that this problem seems to be getting overlooked or discredited to the detriment of my child's health.

even as i type this up to vent my frustration, i am sitting here trying to tell myself that perhaps this time the lack of sleep and increased itching is really from the progression of the underlying original food reaction issue and not the corn i just gave him in the medication. today i will be giving him a full days' dosage - 3 times today i will give him 5 sources of corn. i'm sitting here thinking, 'surely the good it will do him is going to outweigh the bad. surely the dr. is right, it's barely corn at all, it's so processed into something else!' i'm imagining healed skin and restful sleep and a good appetite. maybe i haven't given it enough time. maybe i'm jumping the gun. maybe i'm crazy and the dr. is right and this is going to fix him right up. yes, while i'm giving him the thing that is basically poisoning him, that we've had confirmed 6 legitimate ways to sunday he's allergic to. ridiculous, isn't it? any time he's gotten an accidental corn exposure (or i've trialed something like the neocate), within 2-6 hrs, he's reacting. after his 1st doses of the medicine last night - by 6 hrs, he was worse. do i really have no common sense? do the dr.s?

i really hope the compounding pharmacy comes through for me tomorrow. i am going to try to find any information on dr.s or hospitals or centers in the area that might have an expert in corn allergy - the information and resources just can't be this limited.

on a positive note, i never knew 'sesame street' is on at 5 am on sprout!

8 Steps for Cancer Prevention

Cancer prevention?

Maybe I should have titled the subject line “Illness Prevention.” But the big C always gets people’s attention. Especially when 1 in 3 women and 1 in 2 men are getting cancer now.

So why not change a few things to reduce your risk?

1 Eat more vegetables

Vegetables aren’t just delicious and filled with vitamins and nutrients; they also contain a lot of fiber, antioxidants, and beta-carotene. All of these help reduce your risk. Eating vegetables makes your body more alkaline, which is also good for preventing any illness.

For more on why eating a more plant based diet is better for you and the environment, please read another great resource at GoVeg.com

2 Go organic

Organic food not only tastes better, it doesn’t have all those pesticides, antibiotics, steroids and growth hormones that can make you very sick. A lot of people say to me organic costs more. One trick is to go to your local farmer’s market right before closing. The vendors are practically giving their products away. Plus, eating organic is much cheaper than getting sick, missing work, and having medical expenses.

3 Sweat more

Sweating releases toxins through the skin. Fewer toxins in your body, the lower your risk of getting sick. Go for a hike, take a power yoga class, or sit in a sauna on a regular basis.

4 Do a liver cleanse on a regular basis

If you’ve been getting my newsletters for a while, you know I’m a fan of doing a safe cleanse at least once a year. Along with sweating, a liver cleanse will flush out the bad stuff that’s stuck in your liver.

5 Taking care of your mental health

Stress can weaken your immune system. Thus, making you more susceptible to getting sick. So whether it’s meditating, therapy, a spiritual practice, exercise, or all of the above, please take care of you!

6 Avoid sugar, including sugar substitutes, and dairy

Sugar feeds cancer. Eat some fruit instead. And dairy is mucous forming, since it’s mucous too. Try milk alternatives, such as hemp, almond, or rice. You can get really creative and make your own.

7 Deep breathing

Cancer cells won’t thrive in a highly oxygenated body. So take out that yoga mat and breathe.

8 Don’t store or cook your food in plastic.

Highly heated plastics release dioxin (carcinogens) into your food and ultimately into the cells of the body. In fact, avoid using plastic altogether.

See? That wasn’t so hard, was it? Knowing that you’ve taken the first steps to being disease free can be liberating.

Live natural. Live well.

Heather


From Elephan Journal

GMO's Create Incredibly Toxic Colons

GMOs Create Incredibly Toxic Colons Written by Kim Evans, Natural News Tuesday, 22 June 2010 22:10

Probiotic expert S.K. Dash calls the healthy bacteria in our guts our first line of immune defense, as these tiny bacteria protect us from all sorts of problems. Everything from cancer to IBS to allergies and most every disease imaginable is connected to our healthy bacteria. But there's one problem. Eating one serving of GMO foods has been found to change the genetic structure of our healthy bacteria. Literally, some GMO foods might be altering our healthy bacteria so they'll now produce concentrated pesticides in our guts for the rest of our lives. GMOs may also be changing our healthy bacteria on a genetic level, so they'll continually produce abnormal proteins inside us. Because our ever-working DNA runs on proteins, throwing abnormal proteins into the mix can be the source of all sorts of serious and unpredictable problems. Yet, evidence from the only human GMO feeding trial ever published shows it's likely that GMOs have taken our once healthy bacteria that are designed to protect us - and turned them into a major toxicity source. In this manner, it's likely that GMOs have made our colons toxic beyond belief. One serving of GM soy was all it took to see the genetic mutation of our healthy bacteria -- and you'd be a rare individual not to have had thousands of servings of GMOs in your lifetime, let alone just one. In Europe, where GM foods aren't as prevalent as in other parts of the world, the animals are most likely eating GM grain - and GM genes are found in their flesh and the dairy that people consume. This intense pollution of inside the colon may be the reason that bees living near and eating GMOs crops have died in large numbers. Autopsies of the bees showed that they died from something that looked a lot like colon cancer. The depth that the problem presents is larger than can be conceived and it's unknown if it's even possible to completely reverse it. If so, it'll take some work because these tiny bacteria can double in number every 20 minutes and your body contains many trillions of them. So, if we didn't have enough reasons to do colon cleansing in a time when disease is rampant and often considered normal, GMOs offer yet another. To work to reverse the problem, you'd make good mileage by doing deep and aggressive colon cleansing using enemas or professional colonics. You'll also want to reseed your healthy bacteria with untainted bacteria from raw homemade sauerkraut, which contains more strains of bacteria than store-bought probiotics. Of course, you'll also want to get really familiar with the foods and food additives that contain GMOs and never put another in your mouth. Deep and regular colon cleansing will likely clean out stores of abnormal proteins and possibly release large amounts of pesticides that may have been created in your gut. Importantly, it'll also allow you to remove stores of now genetically mutant bacteria, while replacing them with untainted bacteria to try and correct the problem. For most, avoiding GMOs will require some new shopping and dining habits because about 90 percent of the packaged foods in a traditional U.S. grocery store contain GMOs. You'd also be hard pressed to find a restaurant that's not serving up GM corn chips that are likely mutating your healthy bacteria to produce concentrated pesticides. And it's hard to imagine that's what you thought you were ordering for lunch. Source: Natural News

TED Talk: You can starve cancer with a healthy diet?

new products to love

i had a gift certificate for a 'regular' (hollywood market) grocery store that i needed to spend the other day. hubby does all our shopping for 'normal' foods at costco and the local grocery store, while i buy all the organic/allergy friendly stuff at whole foods and our other local health food store. suffice it to say, i haven't really shopped at a regular grocery store in over 2 yrs now. i wandered up and down every single aisle, trying to find allergy friendly and corn-free things i could buy.

in the juice aisle, i got excited when i saw a giant bottle of grape juice that said, "100% grape juice". i picked it up and read the label. it had 6 ingredients, the second of which was maltodextrin, which is corn. the rest were preservatives, additives and color enhancers. how the hell can they put "100% grape juice" on the label?! i was thoroughly annoyed. imagine all the parents thinking they just bought their kids something healthy... and they're really feeding them corn syrup and chemicals with a tiny bit of grape juice - from concentrate, at that! we, as american consumers - have *got* to start holding food manufacturers accountable for misleading labels like this. we've got to learn all the deceptive names for corn (www.cornallergens.com) and start boycotting products containing it. i've been using alternatives for 2.5 yrs now and it *can* be done and they taste even better and we're healthier for it - you don't need all that corn, it's just cheaper and easier for them!

anyway, i ended up buying non-edible products and walked out of their with a new appreciation for health food store labels!

speaking of which, i have recently discovered 2 new products i want to share. one is a fabulous mosquito repellant by burt's bees. i live in michigan, where they swarm by the thousands this time of year in every swampy, humid backyard. we get eaten alive in just a few minutes of walking the dog. i don't like to use the chemical stuff and typically try putting long sleeves & pants on all my kids and spritzing their clothing with folkloric repellants like windex or 'skin so soft' by avon or citronella oil. for the 4th of july, though, i have to bring out the big guns and go for the deet- free 'off!' on all their clothing as we are sitting on grass for hours.

i decided to try this burt's bees herbal insect repellant in time for 4th of july this year. my oldest boy was my first tester, as he walks his dog every evening in the gloaming and comes home looking like he has chicken pox again - he is, apparently, mosquito ambrosia. i spritzed his bare arms and legs and rubbed some on his face and he came home just crowing and raving about seeing the mosquitos swarm up from the grass in the park and cut a wide swath around him as he approached! and this stuff smells great, he smells like a lemony christmas tree. now, it does have soybean oil as an inert ingredient so i won't put it on the allergy toddler's bare skin, but i put long light layers on him and spritz it over those. (soy is one of his less serious allergies - i'm not sure i'd try it if it were one of his serious ones.) besides, as anyone with a multiple severe allergy child knows, their skin tends to be extremely fragile and easily irritated, so you wouldn't put something with all these zingy oils directly on their skin anyway - even without the soy.

we all experienced the same effects as my 10 yr old and you know what the best part was? i didn't feel like i had to come home and immediately get them all in the shower to get every trace of chemicals off them. this stuff eventually just rubbed into their skin and clothes and smelled so nice, i didn't care if it ended up in their beds, too. the packaging is awesome because it's in a little metal pump canister that we will save and reuse for misting plants or for skin oil or something else! i can't recommend it enough, it gets a 10 out of 10 for me for effectiveness and ease of use and just general peace of mind and likability factors!

the other product is a peppermint patty. my youngest is the one with all the food allergies at 2.5. the others all love chewing gum. he can't have any. he watches them chew it with fascination and i feel so guilty for the poor guy. he's never tasted pizza, never had a single crumb of dairy in his whole life, not even one fast food french fry... and now no gum. kids love gum. :-( so i found these peppermint patties by 'heavenly organics'. as you can see, they have exactly 3 ingredients. they taste just like junior mints, but they are much denser and chewier and last longer. he calls it his 'chocolate gum' and i keep them on hand to give him when the other kids get gum! again, i can't recommend them enough, i love them myself and buy them buy the bagful.

Meat, fish protein linked to women's bowel disease

Anne Harding

NEW YORK

Fri Jun 4, 2010 9:13pm EDT

A veterinary surgeon roasts pork during a consumption campaign at a meat restaurant in Seoul May 12, 2009.

Credit: Reuters/Jo Yong-Hak

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Eating lots of animal protein appears to increase women's risk of developing inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), according to a new study from France.

Health | France

"Our results may help better understand the role of diet in IBD risk," Dr. Franck Carbonnel of the Center Hospitalier Universitaire de Bicetre in Paris and his team write in the American Journal of Gastroenterology. "If confirmed, they can lead to protective strategies, especially in families at risk of IBD, and possibly to advice for preventing relapse."

Inflammatory bowel disease is a collective term for diseases characterized by severe inflammation in the digestive system such as ulcerative colitis, which typically only affects the colon, and Crohn's disease, which can attack the entire digestive tract. IBD, which affects about one in 500 people, has become much more common since World War II, Carbonnel and his colleagues note. The reasons behind the increase are still unclear.

To investigate whether diet might be a factor, the researchers followed more than 67,000 women participating in a long-term study of risk factors for cancer and other common illnesses. The women were 40 to 65 years old when they enrolled in the study.

During follow-up, which averaged about 10 years, just 77 of the women developed inflammatory bowel disease. Ninety percent of women in the current study were eating more than the recommended dietary allowance of protein.

Women who consumed the most protein were at more than triple the risk of being diagnosed with IBD, the researchers found; animal protein accounted for most of the risk. Risk was specifically associated with high intake of meat and fish, but not with dairy products or eggs.

While experts have long suspected that diet might play a role in inflammatory bowel disease, Carbonnel and his colleagues note, the only links identified previously were with eating a lot of fats and certain kinds of sugars. Those studies were more prone to error than forward-looking or prospective studies like the current investigation. There have also been several studies linking vitamin D deficiency to IBD.

Another recent prospective study found that a diet high in omega-3 fatty acids decreased inflammatory bowel disease risk, while eating lots of omega-6 fatty acids increased it, Carbonnel noted in an interview with Reuters Health. Omega-3s are found in fish oil, flax seed oil, and a few other sources; omega-6s, which Westerners tend to eat much more of, are found in several types of vegetable and nut oils.

Meat could contribute to inflammatory bowel disease risk because digestion of animal protein produces many potentially toxic "end products," such as hydrogen sulfide and ammonia, the researchers note. Also, Carbonnel pointed out, a high-protein diet could alter the mix of bacteria that live in the colon.

"These findings have to be confirmed in other populations, particularly in men and younger subjects," the researcher said, adding that if they are confirmed, the next step would be to conduct a trial comparing the effects of restricted versus unrestricted animal protein on inflammatory bowel disease risk.

Given the large amount of protein women in the study were eating, he added, a restricted diet wouldn't involve radically reducing protein intake, but instead sticking to the recommended amount.

from Reuters

Top 10 Foods That Increase Cancer Risk

posted by Melissa Breyer

About 1,444,920 new cases of cancer were expected to be diagnosed last year–while 559,650 people were expected to die from the disease, according to the American Cancer Society. That’s more than 1,500 people a day. What a startling statistic. In the book Cancer: 101 Solutions to a Preventable Epidemic (New Society Publishers, 2007) by Liz Armstrong et al, the No. 4 solution is “Eat a Healthy Diet.” Listed within are the 10 Foods and Drinks to Limit or Eliminate:

1. All charred food, which create heterocyclic aromatic amines, known carcinogens. Even dark toast is suspect.

2. Well-done red meat. Medium or rare is better, little or no red meat is best.

3. Sugar, both white and brown–which is simply white sugar with molasses added. (See Care2’s Directory of Natural Sweeteners for great, healthy alternatives.)

4. Heavily salted, smoked and pickled foods, which lead to higher rates of stomach cancer.

5. Sodas/soft drinks, which pose health risks, both for what they contain–sugar and various additives–and for what they replace in the diet–beverages and foods that provide vitamins, minerals and other nutrients.

6. French fries, chips and snack foods that contain trans fats.

7. Food and drink additives such as aspartame.

8. Excess alcohol.

9. Baked goods, for the acrylamide.

10. Farmed fish, which contains higher levels of toxins such as PCBs.

Now that you know what not to eat, see the Top 10 Foods and Drinks for Cancer Prevention.

from Care 2

Monsanto's Power to Kill Stories / Milk

Everything You HAVE TO KNOW about Dangerous Genetically Modified Foods

Listened to Coast to Coast last night with guest Jeffrey M Smith.

It just shocks me the information that he had to say about Monsanto's GMO seeds. I feel that I have to keep passing on this information because we are at a tipping point. The Supreme Court is hearing Monsanto vs organic alfalfa farmers currently so we know it's something in debate right now! It's soo important for everyone to demand the stop of this technology. The rest of the world will not accept it why do we? because we have no idea where it's being used. Our labels do not reflect it. Our government has dropped the ball by letting the companies regulate themselves! It does not work!

We have to refuse to be experimented on without our consent. Please watch the videos below and inform yourself AND PASS THE INFORMATION ON TO OTHERS!

Get the conversation going no matter how uncomfortable it is. Think of it as if you were talking about breast feeding. You take the time to nourish your children right for those first few months, or years but then let the corporations decided what you will eat for the rest of their lives? It just does not make any sense.

Please pass this information to moms, dads, and anyone who will listen.

and for your free Non GMO Shopping Guide got to www.responsibletechnology.org


From the DVD Seeds of Deceptions by Jeffery M. Smith

Part 1



Part 2


Part 3


Part 4


Part 5


Part 6


Part 7


Part 8


Part 9


Part 10

Genetically Engineered Foods Pose Higher Risk for Children

Genetically Engineered Foods Pose Higher Risk for Children

Children face the greatest risk from the potential dangers of GM foods:

• Young, fast-developing bodies are influenced most
• Children are more susceptible to allergies
• Children are more susceptible to problems with milk
• Children are more susceptible to nutritional problems
• Children are in danger from antibiotic resistant diseases

Young, fast-developing bodies are influenced most

Children's bodies develop at a fast pace and are more likely to be influenced and show the effects of genetically modified (GM) foods. That is why independent scientists used young adolescent rats in their GM feeding studies. The rats showed significant health damage after only 10 days, including damaged immune systems and digestive function, smaller brains, livers, and testicles, partial atrophy of the liver, and potentially pre-cancerous cell growth in the intestines.

Children are more susceptible to allergies

Children are three to four times more prone to allergies than adults. Infants below two years old are at greatest risk-they have the highest incidence of reactions, especially to new allergens encountered in the diet. Even tiny amounts of allergens can sometimes cause reactions in children. Breast fed infants can be exposed via the mother's diet, and fetuses may possibly be exposed in the womb. Michael Meacher, the former minister of the environment for the UK, said, "Any baby food containing GM products could lead to a dramatic rise in allergies." GM corn is particularly problematic for children, as they generally eat a higher percentage of corn in their diet. Further, allergic children often rely on corn protein. Mothers using cornstarch as a talc substitute on their children's skin might also inadvertently expose them via inhalation.

Children are more susceptible to problems with milk

Milk and dairy products from cows treated with the genetically engineered bovine growth hormone (rbGH) contain an increased amount of the hormone IGF-1, which is one of the highest risk factors associated with breast and prostate cancer. The Council on Scientific Affairs of the American Medical Association called for more studies to determine if ingesting "higher than normal concentrations of [IGF-1] is safe for children, adolescents, and adults." Sam Epstein, M.D., Chairman of the Cancer Prevention Coalition and author of eight books, wrote, "rbGH and its digested products could be absorbed from milk into blood, particularly in infants, and produce hormonal and allergic effects." He described how "cell-stimulating growth factors . . . could induce premature growth and breast stimulation in infants, and possibly promote breast cancer in adults." Dr. Epstein pointed out that the hormones in cows could promote the production of "steroids and adrenaline-type stressor chemicals . . . likely to contaminate milk and may be harmful, particularly to infants and young children."

Children are more susceptible to nutritional problems

A 2002 report by the UK's Royal Society, said that genetic modification "could lead to unpredicted harmful changes in the nutritional state of foods." They therefore recommended that potential health effects of GM foods be rigorously researched before being fed to pregnant or breast-feeding women, elderly people, those suffering from chronic disease, and babies. Likewise, according to former minister Meacher, unexpected changes in estrogen levels in GM soy used in infant formula "might affect sexual development in children," and that "even small nutritional changes could cause bowel obstruction."

Children are in danger from antibiotic resistant diseases

Children prone to ear and other infections are at risk of facing antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria, due to the use of antibiotic resistant genes in GM food. The British Medical Association cited this as one reason why they called for a moratorium of GM foods.

[For a more in-depth look at 65 health risks of GM foods, excerpted from Jeffrey Smith's comprehensive new book Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods, click here.]

Conspiracy for Fat America & High-Fructose Corn Syrup Video

from http://advancedhealthinstitute.com/

Chemicals Banned in 1970s Still in Our Food

by Zachary Shahan

Extremely toxic chemicals linger in our food decades after being banned. Are we setting ourselves up for a worse discovery than this with GMOs?

Think that once a toxic chemical is banned from agricultural use it doesn’t take long for it to leave our food? Think again. Recent research shows that numerous chemicals banned years or even decades ago, such as DDT, are still showing up in many of the foods we consume today.

These are labeled POPs, “persistent organic pollutants”, and are not quite as nice as their acronym sounds. POPs require decades to break down and they can travel the globe blowing in the wind or travelling on water (even ending up in the Arctic). Additionally, once ingested by humans or animals, POPs can sit in our fat tissues for ages, raising our risk of cancer or other diseases, altering hormones, reducing fertility, and disrupting brain development.

A recent study looking at these POPs in the food supply chain found the presence of these chemicals across a wide range of food types. Published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, the study led by Dr. Arnold Schecter, a professor at the University of Texas School of Public Health who has been studying human exposure to chemicals for over 25 years, analyzed more than 300 samples from supermarkets in the Dallas area. The samples were combined into 31 food types (i.e cheese, beef, peanut butter) and tested for old contaminants as well as newer ones. According to the authors, “Every food within this study contained multiple pesticides.”

The DDT metabolite DDE was the most prevalent, occurring in 23 of the 31 foods sampled.

In What Foods are POPs the Most Common?

It is unclear what kind of effect these small amounts of toxic chemicals are having on humans, but if you want to avoid them, there are definitely some foods that contain more of these toxins than others. “The more fat a food contains, the more chemicals are present. Foods including peanut butter, ice cream, cheese, butter, oil, fish and high-fat meats showed higher contamination levels than vegetables and low-fat milk,” Sustainablog reports.

Salmon was found to contain the most of these contaminants. It was found to contain “traces of six types of PCBs, two flame retardants and 25 pesticides, including DDT, dieldrin and toxaphene.” Additionally, a 2004 study found that farmed salmon contained approximately ten times more POPs than wild salmon.

POPs Traveling from Animals to Animals to Humans

POPs become increasingly concentrated as they move through the food chain. Animals being fed animal fat is one major source of POPs in humans. A 2003 report, published by National Academies Press, noted that feed containing animal fat was a major source of people’s continued exposure to dioxins, which are carcinogenic.

“We recycle waste animal fats back into the food supply,” Dr. David Carpenter, director of the Institute for Environmental Health at the University of Albany, New York explains. “We feed the cow fat to the pigs and the chickens, and we feed the pig and chicken fat to the cows.” Waste animal products apparently make up the large majority of animal feed.

Lessons Learned? Maybe Not

Other than leaving you with some foods to consider avoiding, this raises a larger issue. Rather than learn from the mistakes we made years ago approving these POPs without doing comprehensive testing on them, we seem to be setting ourselves up for a similar or worse nightmare if genetically modified foods turn out to have such effects (or worse).

GM crops are approved without testing from independent bodies or researchers. Government agencies just trust the companies when they say that their products have been tested and found to be safe. The data is not available for others to evaluate in the vast majority of cases either. Are we going to find out in a few decades that GM crops discovered to be completely unsafe for humans cannot be controlled or eliminated? Unless we see some major changes in the way we regulate these crops, this could well be the case.

from: http://ecopolitology.org/