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How I Started Managing Symptoms Through Diet
- Post starter annexthecelt
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I also want to say that changing my diet has made a big difference and I am so much happier, more balanced, have way more energy, far less anxiety and depression and it weirdly boosts my self-esteem a lot too (not sure but must positively effect dopamine and serotonin levels!). I do not eat any cane sugar or simple carbs and I juice a lot and eat LOADS of greens and veggies. I eat fish, meat, eggs and dairy...I personally find dairy, eggs and fish help balance my mental health but I don't overload on them. Though I do hope to be veggie one day for ethical reasons...but then b12 and Omega 3s are so important for mental health so it's a bit of a tricky one for me! I think that we all have unique brain chemistry and there is no one size fits all, we have to do what is right for us! I think the main thing is to make sure the bulk of your diet is fresh greens and veggies with some fruit and that you cut out cane sugar and processed food as it seriously screws with your mental health and causes such depression and anxiety. I look at it now and just see it as 'suffering', I feel so shitty and depressed on a crappy food diet!! And there are so many wonderful, delicious healthy recipes to try!! Who needs junk food ;)? I'm making homemade nutella this weekend (with natural sweetners) ^^, can't wait :)!
Try one of these :)?
Raspberry Ripple - I Quit Sugar
100 Calorie Protein Brownies | Ambitious Kitchen
I make this one without the chocolate chips and it's soooo good ^_^!
J
Jay Van Wyck
Believe in the Vegan diet, whole plant based foods with many raw but not all. It has change my view of the world and myself.
My story if it can help you deal with your stress.
22 year U.S Navy Nuclear Power Veteran, have had anthrax shots, malaria pills, and many other. Launch planes full of bombs that killed people. After the anthrax vaccine had a hard time focusing and sleeping, maybe just deployment. Start getting more excitable, struggled with last years in the Military. Got fired from a job. Retired in 2007 by 2010 I was sleeping upright from acid reflux the my gas started. Painful and loud, fatigue and brain fog started. Got sent home from work for 2 days because of an excitable incident. My marriage failed. Suicide thoughts kept creeping into my mind, and my self talk was not kind to myself. Thought I would be done one with life before 50 because I continued to feel worse.
Read an article about acid reflux and that it could be food related. Then read Ultra Metabolism by Dr. Mark Hyman, it sent me on a path. Did a 14 week exclusion diet, removing caffeine, sugar, dairy, nuts, soybeans, grains, no alcohol. Let my body reset for 7 weeks eating meat and veggies. My acid reflux went away by week 2 and my throat pain decreased every day. At week 8 I tried coffee and the acid reflux came roaring back (In me when I get coffee my lower esophageal valve loosens and stay open for 3 days). Weeks 9 and 10 were soybeans, and dairy, gas and stomach craps came back from each. Week 11 all kinds of nuts, no problems. Added back fruit, but processed sugar did not agree, brain fog and fatigue again. Added back wine and hard alcohol, no problems. Week 14 was my gift to myself, my hobbies were all around whole wheat. Baked oatmeal, chocolate, coconut, fresh whole wheat bread came out of the oven, whole wheat pizza dough for the next day. Popped open a home-brew, and ate a cookie. Smiling for 5 minutes, then my world went to hell. Pain from my head to my penis like two men were kicking me for the next 6 hours. Turtled up screaming in agony, got up at about hour 8 and vomited. Was unable to speak clearly or spell for a day.
Felt functional at about 48 hours. Have found out that all the neurons in my body go to war, if I get close to gluten.
Had more to go. Had been taking acid reflux meds for 14 years. Between gluten, anthrax, antibiotics, and acid reflux meds, my intestinal system was in shambles, and non-functional. Could not find a doctor useful for my problems. Dug into the internet, read books, etc.The reading prompted me to get a a fecal sample, did two by the best labs in the US. To make a long story short for the next 2 years I had to get rid of parasites, and a sever imbalance of microbiota in my intestinal system. Then worked on healing my intestines. Good thing that cells reproduce, your intestinal cells get replace about every 35 days.
4 years later, I only eat plants, nuts, seeds, fruits, and nuts. Gluten-free vegan. The brain fog, fatigue,and hate talk have ended. But have to watch out for gluten like a hawk. A little gluten and no work for 2 or 3 days, and the above symptoms come back for a visit. My resting heart rate is 55, and blood pressure is 98/58.
Being a vegan is hard, don't know many other vegans, and no close friends. But now feel like a contributing human, and got rid of my aches and pains. Feel better at 50 then when I was 25.
This is awesome Jay!!! Good job! It's so hard to be plant based, I'm trying my hardest but find it hard to get enough calories and get cravings, but I feel really good on it - just such a struggle to do it!
Tornadic Thoughts
VIP Member
My apologies for bringing up an old thread , but my life has also been changed drastically for the better in so many ways by switching to plant-based/vegan eating and I want to share a little bit about it in this space. I hope it's okay to do so. I was catapulted into plant-based eating by a medical emergency, but had been slowly, yet not so surely, working my way towards cleaner eating prior to the ER visit.
I had been diagnosed through the years with severe osteoarthritis, severe IBS, severe nervous stomach, severe fibromyalgia, severe insomnia, severe anxiety, severe depression, severe adhd, frequent respiratory viruses, frequent "stomach bugs", bronchitis and flu every year, sometimes more than once, and I'm sure I'm forgetting something. I also weighed over 300 lbs, yet had been told by the doc that my blood work was okay with each check-up.
My gateway gut/brain connection discovery was by eliminating gluten. I had been vending for a friend at a farmers' market on Saturdays and after each gig, I'd have to go straight home and crawl into bed. My energies were spent for the day and there was no reserve to tap into, ever.
My ankles, feet, and calves were swollen, lower back ached to where I couldn't stand straight, etc. This happened any time I had to stand for extended periods or do physical labor for any length of time. After only 1 week of no gluten, I left the farmers' market that Saturday, went to the grocery store, came home and started laundry, then began washing and prepping food and stopped in my tracks. I wasn't in bed and wasn't in severe pain!!!!!!!!???????? Hot damn!!! I sat down and cried tears of joy. Finally, a concrete and very clear connection into a root of some of my suffering. Then I wondered why in the heck this isn't common knowledge and started digging into research.
My next steps were to eat only local meat, local dairy, and local eggs trying to avoid the energetic absorption of the unspeakable suffering the animals endure in the factory farming scenes, the polluted marinades of various water sources of our seafood selections, etc. I did feel much improved overall health, and shed maybe 20 lbs, but the inflammation, the achy joints, the fatigue, the mood swings, the brain fog, etc. were still hanging around and flaring up randomly and often ragefully.
Add to it a heavy dose of stress from not finding competent and adequate professional help and care when I needed it the most, a job I was taking the admins to task on regarding unethical happenings, being a f/t step mom to two very active teens, and trying to remain the good wife, daughter, etc. and I ended up at what felt like rock bottom, repeatedly, with my health failing even more rapidly, being damn near bed ridden, and hurting too badly to try to get moving to improve things.
It took having a gall bladder attack (surgery wasn't required) and laying in the ER on a gurney to finally decide to try the plant-based methods. I was certain I'd die without my meats and cheeses, and felt like it was going to be torturous, at best, to have to give it all up, but luckily, I love to cook and had a lot of the necessary kitchen tools, and a husband who doesn't mind doing dishes, so I was able to dive right in. I was introduced to a book that had been initially written in the 1920s, but had been annotated and revised to be more up to date with today's food supply, called the "Mucusless Diet Healing System", then a book by the same author called, "Rational Fasting" and my eyes were open and attention properly grabbed.
However, I learned the hard way that I dove too quickly and too deeply and had to learn to reel it in and work on slowly and rationally transitioning by mindfully consuming, in regards to my entire environment, not just on the end of my fork, instead of simply trying to follow a single specified "diet". I pulled from several arenas and crafted it into what worked best for me. It always bugged me that the word "die" is in included in something supposedly good for us, ya' know? Just like the word "lie" is in belief, etc.. Things that make me go hmmmmmm........... But anyway......
I also learned that the word humane and slaughter shouldn't be in the same sentence. And that the dairy and egg industries are just as heart-wrenching as the meat industry in their practices. I also noticed a large number of higher institutions of learning are heavily funded by meat and dairy industries, so naturally, that plays into what information is allowed to be taught in these places. So many interesting dots became connected, and it pissed me off.
In all of the arenas I visited, other living things are being enslaved and exploited for us, for our taste buds, for our entertainment, and for profit. Even several of the alphabet agencies now publicly support and report that a well-planned vegan diet can provide all of the necessary nutrients. Key words, "well-planned". There's a lot of vegan "junk" food, too. Vegan does not equal healthy, neither do many of the other key buzz words and theories floating about out there in languageville, and even in scienceville, especially depending on who funds the studies.
My heart can't handle the thought of ever choosing another animal product knowing what it knows now. I also live near a dairy farm and have to hear the cries daily. I'm surrounded by the livestock farms for meat industries, too. I often have to pull over and weep for the pain we purposely and so eagerly create for those beings.
We absorb the energies those beings feel right before their life is ended and what they endured up until that point, as well as the supposed nutrients we can only get from them. Where are they getting these nutrients? Why do we have to continue to have the middle-man, so to speak? My body was steadily rejecting the energies and chemicals of all that torture, along with all of those other test-tube created food-like substances for all those years, but I was too busy calling it other things, like indigestion, heart burn, belly aches, insomnia, migraine, etc.
In the last year and 10 months of eliminating all meat, dairy, eggs, alcohol, and caffeine (except for the times I unknowingly ate it while eating out - but my body let me know), I've since lost 110 lbs, take no more prescriptions, however I do supplement with B12, D3, zinc, magnesium, C, and a multi, along with various herbal blends and tinctures as needed, and have much less pain, brain drain/fog, anxiety, and depression than I ever recall.
I still suffer from emotional, mental, and physical dis-ease(s) based on the happenings/memories/conditions of the moment and environment, and realize I always will, especially after enduring that many years of misinformed basic neglect on top of the repeated abusers, but I feel so much better equipped to be able to find the root of the issue now and actually take some healthful action towards either digging it up to do away with it or fertilizing it and helping it grow, whichever the situation calls for. My fork is my new favorite therapeutic tool, by far, along with my breath. Who knew? lol Grateful to find others having experienced significant relief, as well. It makes for quite an awkward alien existence, at times, as if we aren't already all too familiar with that feeling, already.
I had been diagnosed through the years with severe osteoarthritis, severe IBS, severe nervous stomach, severe fibromyalgia, severe insomnia, severe anxiety, severe depression, severe adhd, frequent respiratory viruses, frequent "stomach bugs", bronchitis and flu every year, sometimes more than once, and I'm sure I'm forgetting something. I also weighed over 300 lbs, yet had been told by the doc that my blood work was okay with each check-up.
My gateway gut/brain connection discovery was by eliminating gluten. I had been vending for a friend at a farmers' market on Saturdays and after each gig, I'd have to go straight home and crawl into bed. My energies were spent for the day and there was no reserve to tap into, ever.
My ankles, feet, and calves were swollen, lower back ached to where I couldn't stand straight, etc. This happened any time I had to stand for extended periods or do physical labor for any length of time. After only 1 week of no gluten, I left the farmers' market that Saturday, went to the grocery store, came home and started laundry, then began washing and prepping food and stopped in my tracks. I wasn't in bed and wasn't in severe pain!!!!!!!!???????? Hot damn!!! I sat down and cried tears of joy. Finally, a concrete and very clear connection into a root of some of my suffering. Then I wondered why in the heck this isn't common knowledge and started digging into research.
My next steps were to eat only local meat, local dairy, and local eggs trying to avoid the energetic absorption of the unspeakable suffering the animals endure in the factory farming scenes, the polluted marinades of various water sources of our seafood selections, etc. I did feel much improved overall health, and shed maybe 20 lbs, but the inflammation, the achy joints, the fatigue, the mood swings, the brain fog, etc. were still hanging around and flaring up randomly and often ragefully.
Add to it a heavy dose of stress from not finding competent and adequate professional help and care when I needed it the most, a job I was taking the admins to task on regarding unethical happenings, being a f/t step mom to two very active teens, and trying to remain the good wife, daughter, etc. and I ended up at what felt like rock bottom, repeatedly, with my health failing even more rapidly, being damn near bed ridden, and hurting too badly to try to get moving to improve things.
It took having a gall bladder attack (surgery wasn't required) and laying in the ER on a gurney to finally decide to try the plant-based methods. I was certain I'd die without my meats and cheeses, and felt like it was going to be torturous, at best, to have to give it all up, but luckily, I love to cook and had a lot of the necessary kitchen tools, and a husband who doesn't mind doing dishes, so I was able to dive right in. I was introduced to a book that had been initially written in the 1920s, but had been annotated and revised to be more up to date with today's food supply, called the "Mucusless Diet Healing System", then a book by the same author called, "Rational Fasting" and my eyes were open and attention properly grabbed.
However, I learned the hard way that I dove too quickly and too deeply and had to learn to reel it in and work on slowly and rationally transitioning by mindfully consuming, in regards to my entire environment, not just on the end of my fork, instead of simply trying to follow a single specified "diet". I pulled from several arenas and crafted it into what worked best for me. It always bugged me that the word "die" is in included in something supposedly good for us, ya' know? Just like the word "lie" is in belief, etc.. Things that make me go hmmmmmm........... But anyway......
I also learned that the word humane and slaughter shouldn't be in the same sentence. And that the dairy and egg industries are just as heart-wrenching as the meat industry in their practices. I also noticed a large number of higher institutions of learning are heavily funded by meat and dairy industries, so naturally, that plays into what information is allowed to be taught in these places. So many interesting dots became connected, and it pissed me off.
In all of the arenas I visited, other living things are being enslaved and exploited for us, for our taste buds, for our entertainment, and for profit. Even several of the alphabet agencies now publicly support and report that a well-planned vegan diet can provide all of the necessary nutrients. Key words, "well-planned". There's a lot of vegan "junk" food, too. Vegan does not equal healthy, neither do many of the other key buzz words and theories floating about out there in languageville, and even in scienceville, especially depending on who funds the studies.
My heart can't handle the thought of ever choosing another animal product knowing what it knows now. I also live near a dairy farm and have to hear the cries daily. I'm surrounded by the livestock farms for meat industries, too. I often have to pull over and weep for the pain we purposely and so eagerly create for those beings.
We absorb the energies those beings feel right before their life is ended and what they endured up until that point, as well as the supposed nutrients we can only get from them. Where are they getting these nutrients? Why do we have to continue to have the middle-man, so to speak? My body was steadily rejecting the energies and chemicals of all that torture, along with all of those other test-tube created food-like substances for all those years, but I was too busy calling it other things, like indigestion, heart burn, belly aches, insomnia, migraine, etc.
In the last year and 10 months of eliminating all meat, dairy, eggs, alcohol, and caffeine (except for the times I unknowingly ate it while eating out - but my body let me know), I've since lost 110 lbs, take no more prescriptions, however I do supplement with B12, D3, zinc, magnesium, C, and a multi, along with various herbal blends and tinctures as needed, and have much less pain, brain drain/fog, anxiety, and depression than I ever recall.
I still suffer from emotional, mental, and physical dis-ease(s) based on the happenings/memories/conditions of the moment and environment, and realize I always will, especially after enduring that many years of misinformed basic neglect on top of the repeated abusers, but I feel so much better equipped to be able to find the root of the issue now and actually take some healthful action towards either digging it up to do away with it or fertilizing it and helping it grow, whichever the situation calls for. My fork is my new favorite therapeutic tool, by far, along with my breath. Who knew? lol Grateful to find others having experienced significant relief, as well. It makes for quite an awkward alien existence, at times, as if we aren't already all too familiar with that feeling, already.
Tornadic Thoughts
VIP Member
I forgot to add that all of the above was closely supervised and supported by my doctor and several other practitioners. I didn't just give up meds cold turkey and switch my food intake all on my own. I've had a team of folks helping me along that includes a master herbalist, registered dietitian, acupuncturist, chiropractor, and iridologist, some being several specialists in one, most of whom have been open to bartering, or else I'd not have had the chance to work with them.
I had no choice to get off of all wheat and gluten. It is an allergy. The symptoms were heart racing, GI upset that felt like a heart attack, and anxiety with difficulty thinking or breathing.
I had thought all of that was PTSD, since it takes about 20 minutes after eating wheat and I ate almost exclusively wheat (ironically) because consuming wheat all along made it impossible to digest fats. So I ate almost all carbs. Ironically.
When I figured out I have a wheat allergy, so did my other relatives in their 30s, who also had to back off all wheat.
Finding out what other health problems are contributing to a lack of wellness does take some of the "pressure" off emotionally. Rather than almost cure my PTSD, it allowed me to notice more accurately what was being brought on by PTSD and what was anxiety based on allergy attacks.
I still have PTSD, but I am finding that awareness is bringing me more a sense of acceptance and peace about my symptoms, which in turn, makes them seem more manageable at times, others not.
I had thought all of that was PTSD, since it takes about 20 minutes after eating wheat and I ate almost exclusively wheat (ironically) because consuming wheat all along made it impossible to digest fats. So I ate almost all carbs. Ironically.
When I figured out I have a wheat allergy, so did my other relatives in their 30s, who also had to back off all wheat.
Finding out what other health problems are contributing to a lack of wellness does take some of the "pressure" off emotionally. Rather than almost cure my PTSD, it allowed me to notice more accurately what was being brought on by PTSD and what was anxiety based on allergy attacks.
I still have PTSD, but I am finding that awareness is bringing me more a sense of acceptance and peace about my symptoms, which in turn, makes them seem more manageable at times, others not.
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