In my previous post, I shared with you about my mom's recent and disheartening diagnosis of an Autoimmune Disease. Her particular type is called Scleroderma (skler-o-derma).
It is rare and research will tell you that "there is no known cause or cure." Trust me, I've been doing a ton of research since her diagnosis!
As someone who blogs about health, this shock hit me twice as hard. First, this is my mom! I love her and resent the implications that this diagnosis makes for her!
Second, autoimmune conditions are some of THE hardest to approach holistically. I mentioned in my first post of this series (Autoimmune Disease, An American Epidemic), that we had found her an integrative doctor. We liked this new doctors more open-minded approach, the fact that she didn't scoff when we refused the usual regimen of immunosuppressant drugs. Beyond that, quite honestly, we felt we could do better. Some things this new doctor said just didn't jive with either my mom or I.
Through the generosity of some family members, we were able to take my mom to a Naturopathic doctor we have had a lot of experience with in the last several months when she was taking care of another family member, my one and only sister! After taking over an hour with us, the ND made several recommendations. She agreed with us that removing a probiotic supplement from my mom's regimen made no sense. My mom is back on her probiotic, instead of trying to eat enough fermented foods to balance her good flora/bacteria.
In addition, she recommended the following:
- Borage/flax seed oil - according to her, this is the most concentrated amount of Omega 3 my mom can be taking and these oils will help not only keep her saliva and mucosa producing organs functioning, but it will help her dry eyes as well. We already know how good it is for the blood, as my mom was able to come off statin drugs years back! (No, its not true "once on statins you're always going to have to be on them." That's a lie, like many things the pharmaceutical companies tell you!)
- The ND also recommended Magnesium. This will help prevent the terrible migraines my mom gets more often now. My sister will testify that magnesium has helped her tremendously! She suffered terrible migraines from trauma to her spine in recent years.
- 1 cup of blueberries (fresh) a day. I recently did a blog post on the benefits of berries, particularly in women. This made total sense to us.
- Lastly, the ND also recommended that my mom take and stay consistent with the Hawthorne supplement that I recommended for her upon learning of the Raynaud's Phenomena. Hawthorne is a food in Europe and many other countries, but my mom's integrative doctor was afraid of it, citing there wasn't enough "data." (Groan...)
Lastly, my mom had her first full body massage last week and that really seemed to help her neck and shoulder for the next few days. It was so nice to see her being pampered and so relaxed! We just celebrated her 74th birthday and thanks to the kindness of family, she received a gift card for another massage!
So my mom is hopeful, feeling like we are going to get to the root cause of what's going on here. We are all encouraged that even with a few small changes she has seen slight improvement, but we know this is the beginning of the journey too. In fact, in addition to the follow up with the Integrative Doctor, we will be gathering more data by having my mom see a Rheumatoid Arthritis Specialist. The more the ND knows what's going on in my mom's blood, the better chance we have at reversing this autoimmune process.
Now that you're updated on her status personally, I want to expand on this whole concept of AD a bit more as promised.
If you read my first post, you'll remember that I mentioned AD affects mostly women. There has been a lot of speculation as to why. One common theory among both medical and wellness practitioners is the increased exposure to hormones.
This reminded me of the book, The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted And the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss, And Long-term Health
, which was an excellent look at the link between nutrition and health. One thing that the author T. Colin Campbell mentions is that compared to other countries, women in the United States begin menses earlier and end much later in life! The average age for an asian woman for example, to begin her menstruation is 17 and it ends before or just after 40. Any guesses what it is here in the United States? Try 9 years young!
It wasn't always this way. I haven't looked, but I'd bet money that if you were to pull a colonial era or even circa 50s diary and look up entries of girls 9 years old, one thing they weren't talking about was PMS! If it was mentioned, it was more likely something girls at 9 years old were anticipating getting "some day."
So why the changes in this pattern? Once again, there are many speculations about that as well, but one thing that is certain, American women are not only exposed to their own hormones for longer periods of time, they are also exposed to hormones in meat and dairy products the USDA touts as "doing the body good."
There's another reason though. It's something you might never imagine. Ladies, I certainly hope you are smart about reading the labels on the food you eat. I really hope you're not blindly shopping for food and poisoning yourself. If you've been following my blogs, I hope you've learned a thing or 2 about how to benefit from whole, fresh foods.
This next reason for the uptake in hormone levels may come as a shock. Here it is:
"Great care should be taken to avoid unnecessary exposure to conventional cosmetic products. Lipstick, lip balm, and other products that are typically used around large pores have a relatively easy pathway to your blood supply. It is a well established fact that women suffer from autoimmune illness at a significantly higher rate than men; I have come to believe that this is, in part, due to the widespread use of cosmetics among women..." Dr. Ben Kim
Watch this quick little video for more information on the research that's been done on this claim.
I never want the tone of my blogs to be the scary doomsdayish types that the internet is plagued with. I simply want to give you the information, suggest more natural approaches and solutions and leave you with the decisions that will affect your health one way or another.
As lousy a diagnosis this is for my mom, I firmly believe (and she does too), that if she wasn't already living a wellness lifestyle, she'd be so much worse off. She may not have mobility at all if she was regularly consuming inflammatory foods such as sugar, dairy and flour! With God's help we will stop and reverse this autoimmune process without the use of pharmaceuticals. People have done it. I hear "there is no known cause or cure" as an invite to a challenge I cannot refuse - especially when it involves someone dear to my heart!
