Progress

Posted on March 12, 2014 | 1 comment

I’ve decided to share some of the progress I’m making.  I looked back at my post titled Glimpses and I can see I’m much stronger than when I wrote that at the beginning of December.

I’m not fully recovered yet, after some of the activities listed below I was exhausted and had to have a nap or rest.  However, I have managed to sleep well at night after my exertions and wake up the next day feeling back to normal. This is a huge improvement on the time where any little activity could take days to recover from.

Here’s what’s I’ve been up to:

  • a 15 km family cycle ride.  I was on my electric bike and did a mixture of assisted pedalling, and using the throttle instead of pedalling.
  • A family walk along the river, not sure how far we went, but probably about 30 minutes walking.
  • consistently pedalling my electric bike for the school runs.  It has taken longer than I expected, but at last I think I can do this every day.
  • Attending a professional meeting and speaking in the questions section at the end.  I used to do this type of thing as part of my job.  To have the mental and physical capacity to attend this meeting for about 90 minutes and put my point of view across was amazing.
  • Gardening.  I have been doing a little bit of gardening most days.  This has included moving barrow loads of compost, edging the path, weeding and planting seeds.  It’s fantastic to be out in the fresh air trying to make things grow.
  • Laundry – I’m gradually doing more and more of the laundry, but not all of it yet (I prioritise the more fun activities).
  • Cooking – my cooking abilities are much improved.  I no longer have to cook everything in the slow cooker. I’m enjoying sourcing new recipes of healthy food.
  • Socialise – I can now spend several hours socialising with friends.  Good times!
  • Shopping – I can now walk round a small supermarket and do most of the weekly food shop.  I also went shopping and bought a dress for my sister’s wedding without using a mobility scooter.

Each of these activities enables me to feel more like me, lifts my spirits (well perhaps not the laundry) and spurs me on to be able to do even more.

I hope you can see signs of progress in your own situation.  If you are going through a tough time then hang in there and remember it’s temporary.

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Inspiration

Posted on March 6, 2014 | 1 comment

When times are tough it’s difficult to find the mental and emotional strength to keep going.  It can be comforting to hear of others going through similarly tough times and coming out the other side.

I found listening to positive stories really helped my emotional state, and built my belief that I could recover; that I could beat this horrible illness.

For the first nine months of my illness I couldn’t read.  It was too difficult for my brain fogged mind to cope with.  During this time I signed up to the Optimum Health Clinic’s Secrets to Recovery Website;  I highly recommend this resource.  As well as having great information about things that can help your recovery, it has lots of recovery stories from former patients.  I listened to these stories, sometimes multiple times. Slowly they helped me understand that although there is no magic cure for ME/CFS, it is possible to recover.

Later in my recovery, when I could read again I searched for inspirational books.  Two that stand out for me are:

  1. Things Get Better by Katy Piper
  2. After the Crash by Martin Spinelli

I’m currently reading Wild: A Journey from Lost to Found by Cheryl Strayed.  I’m only part way through this, but I’m already inspired by this book too.

These books are not about ME/CFS, but they are all about people working through difficult times in their lives.

I also came across the film Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead.  If you haven’t seen this yet, then make an effort to watch it.  It is a great example of how changing your diet can change your health.

I’d love to hear about other inspirational stories you’ve come across and enjoyed, either books or films.  Please share in the comments below.

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A Low GI Diet

Posted on March 3, 2014 | Leave a comment

One thing that most nutrition advice agrees on is that a low GI diet is better than a high GI diet.  Even the NHS ME/CFS clinic I attended recommended a low GI diet, and they didn’t give much nutritional guidance at all.

What is the GI?

GI = Glycemic Index.  The Glycemic Index is a measure of the speed at which carbohydrates break down in our digestive system into glucose. Glucose is indexed at 100 and all other foods are calculated against this.  For example cornflakes, which contain mainly carbohydrate, are digested quickly and have a GI of 77, whilst yoghurt has a much lower GI of 14.

Why is it Important?

Some carbohydrates break down quickly and flood the bloodstream with glucose, others break down more slowly, only marginally increasing blood sugar levels. (High GI foods increase blood sugar faster and higher than low GI foods).

In my post on sugar I explained how sugar causes a spike in blood glucose levels. Our body responds to this by releasing insulin, which reduces the level of glucose by diverting it into body tissues for short term use or storing it as fat. The surge of glucose followed by the rapid drain leaves us starved of energy, so we search for another sugar fix to bring us out of the slump. By knowing whether a food is high GI or low GI we can understand whether it is likely to increase our insulin levels.

Fat and protein can slow down the rapid absorption of carbohydrates in our digestive system.  Hence foods with higher fat content tend to have a lower GI.  For example whole milk has a lower GI than skimmed milk.

Is all low GI food good for us?

I’m sure you can guess the answer to this: No!

Whilst we should all avoid the highest GI foods (sugar and refined grains), just because a food is low GI does not mean it’s OK to eat huge amounts of. There are other things we need to consider:

  • Do I have a food allergy/bad reaction to this food?
  • Is this food inflammatory? (more information in a future post)
  • Is this food nutrient dense?
  • Am I eating a variety of foods?

What are the main recommendations of the GI diet?

  • Avoid heavily processed foods (these tend to have a high GI)
  • focus on low GI “slow release” foods
  • Eat plenty of wholegrains – many of the recipes add wheat bran
  • Eat regularly  – 3 meals and 2-3 snacks per day
  • aim for your plate to have 1/2 vegetables, 1/4 protein and 1/4 wholegrains
  • avoid alcohol
  • drink plenty of water
  • eat plenty of vegetables
  • exercise is not essential for weight loss, but is good for long term health

I have the GI diet book by Rick Gallop.  Some of the thinking in the book seems outdated, particularly as to which fats we should be consuming. Many of the recipes rely on the addition of wheat bran as additional fibre, to lower the GI of the food.  I have a post about gluten sensitivity which explains the problems that gluten (found in wheat) can cause.   However, there are plenty of naturally low GI foods that we can eat without wheat.

My Experience

I first discovered the GI diet after having my second child.  I wanted to loose the “baby” weight and following the low GI diet worked really well for me.  I enjoyed the food, wasn’t hungry and it was a diet that the whole family could eat (except the baby).  I have recently learned that our family carries the gene for coeliac disease (I don’t yet know whether I have this gene).  As such, with hindsight, adding additional wheat bran into our food was not good for my family. My daughter and I currently follow a gluten free diet and hence avoid wheat.  However, there are plenty of low GI foods that we can, and should include in our diet.

Conclusion

The GI diet has lots of positive aspects, and much of the dietary advice agrees with advice from other diets e.g. my foods to eat more of and foods to eat less of posts. It is a good idea to avoid foods with a high GI, and it’s no coincidence that these are the highly processed foods: white flour, bread, cakes, sugar etc, which every healing diet I’ve read about recommends we avoid. However, whether a food is low GI is not the only criteria we should consider when we decide whether or not to consume it.

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The Wahls Protocol

Posted on February 23, 2014 | 2 comments

“The power of healing is within you. All you need to do is give your body what it needs and remove what is poisoning it. You can restore your own health by what you do—not by the pills you take, but by how you choose to live. When you eat and live in accordance with the needs of your cells, your body can finally concentrate on healing, and that is when the dramatic changes will happen for you.”

Dr Terry Wahls

I saw Dr Terry Wahl’s TEDx talk Minding Your Mitochondria a few months ago.  If you haven’t seen it yet I suggest you check it out.

Here’s a quick bullet point summary

  • Dr Wahls has MS
  • She went from using a tilt recline wheelchair to being able to walk unaided, cycle 30 miles and horseback ride.
  • She did all this via changes in diet, meditation electrical stimulation of her muscles and self massage.
  • She recommends eating a paleo diet with 3 cups of green vegetables, 3 cups of sulphur rich vegetables(cabbage and onion family, mushrooms and asparagus) and 3 cups of colourful vegetables each day.

She is proof that the functional medicine approach to chronic disease works and she is now working on clinical trials to prove it to the wider medical community. In the meantime she’s sharing the information she has learned in a new book: The Wahls Protocol.  I’ve pre-ordered it and I’m looking forward to reading it next month.

Meanwhile if you’re struggling with ME/CFS, MS or any other chronic disease I hope her TED talk gives you hope that things can change.

 

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Posted in helpful foods, positive activities, science

Sweet potato and Lentil Stew

Posted on February 13, 2014 | Leave a comment

2014-02-11 12.09.33

Now that I’ve got more energy I’m enjoying making soups and stews for my lunches. Normally I make a big potful and freeze it in individual portions.

I made this simple stew in my slow cooker the other day, it tasted great so I thought I would share it with you.

  • 300g dried lentils, washed
  • 2 sweet potatoes
  • 400 g tinned tomatoes
  • 1-2 red peppers, diced
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic, pressed
  • 600 ml  chicken stock
  • 3 tsp dried mixed herbs
  • 1 tbsp olive oil

Put all the ingredients, except the olive oil, in the slow cooker.  Cook on low for approximately 8 hours, until the lentils and vegetables are tender.  Stir in the olive oil just before serving.

I served this with some salad leaves and home made dressing.

 

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Sugar

Posted on February 11, 2014 | 3 comments

Addicted

I confess. I’m a sugar addict. I gave up sugar for several months in the spring/summer of 2012 when my determination to get well overcame my desire to consume the white stuff. Then I went on holiday, slipped off the wagon and (because holidays are a relaxing time with few demands) improved. That destroyed my motivation to go back on a sugar free diet, and although I’ve had a few attempts at it since I’ve not managed to kick the habit. I’m doing my best to minimise my consumption, but I frequently succumb to some dark chocolate, or my daughter’s baking.

A sugar free diet is crucial if you are someone who is suffering from Candida or Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO). It’s also an ideal for all of us. There is plenty of evidence that sugar is bad for us, and unlike some foods e.g. caffeine and red wine where there are health claims that in some way counter balance the negative effects I’m not aware of any beneficial health claims for sugar.

What’s the problem with Refined Sugar?

Whole books have been written about sugar. Since I want to keep this post fairly brief, I’ll focus on the main issues for ME/CFS sufferers:

Nutritional Value

It’s empty calories – no micronutrients, just pure carbohydrate. To heal our bodies we should be aiming for optimum nutrition from our food, refined sugar is absolutely wrong in this respect.

Blood sugar, insulin and weight gain

Sugar is absorbed into our blood stream quickly leading to a spike in blood glucose levels. Our body responds to this by releasing insulin, which reduces the level of glucose by diverting it into body tissues for short term use or storing it as fat. The surge of glucose followed by the rapid drain leaves us starved of energy, so we search for another sugar fix to bring us out of the slump. Insulin also inhibits the conversion of body fat back into glucose for the body to burn. Since high insulin levels prevent the body from burning fat if you want to lose weight it is important to keep your insulin levels low. You may have been advised to eat low GI food -this was the only nutritional advice I got from the NHS ME/CFS clinic I attended. Low GI foods break down in your digestive system at a slow, steady rate and hence do not cause such a spike in insulin levels.

Hormone Regulation

ME/CFS sufferers often have difficulty regulating their hormones, due to problems with the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis. Thus putting stress on this system, by eating lots of sugar and needing our hormones to balance is not a good idea.

Gut Bacteria

Bacteria in our gut carry out many important functions. You can read more about that in A Healthy Gut. There are many factors that can affect our bacteria, (see what causes damage to our gut). One of the factors that can have an adverse effect on our gut bacteria is Sugar. The “bad” bacteria feed on sugar and increase in number. This crowds out the “good” bacteria and can lead to a damaged gut.

My Experience

I know if I eat a lot of sugar I don’t feel good. I get shaky and weak. It’s not a nice feeling. On my 40th birthday my friends threw a small get together for me (it was all I could cope with). They baked cakes and whilst they were drinking wine, they knew I wasn’t drinking alcohol, so they had bought a selection of soft drinks for me. I was touched by the effort they had put into the evening, and whilst normally I politely decline soft drinks and stick to water I did imbibe on this occasion, along with plenty of cake (it was my birthday after all). That night I woke up at about 3 am with my heart pounding – fight or flight at its best. When I spoke to my nutritionist about this she explained it was probably due to my body trying to process the sugar – in particular my liver struggling to cope with blood so high in glucose. In simple terms my liver was struggling so the body helped by going into emergency (fight of flight mode). This experience was unpleasant enough to ensure that when I do eat sugar I usually limit the quantity and try to eat it with other foods, especially fat and/or protein which helps moderate the effect.

A way forward

If you’re eating a high sugar and high refined carbohydrate diet, don’t try and make a sudden change. Instead aim for a gradual change. Think of one thing you are going to change this week. For example, perhaps you will stop drinking fizzy pop and replace it with water and/or herbal tea, or perhaps you will swap your daily mars bar for a square of dark chocolate and an apple. As I said in increasing or decreasing it is easier to focus on what you want to increase in your diet rather than what you are decreasing.

Writing this article has made me more mindful of my own sugar consumption. I am not ready to commit to going sugar free again at the moment, but I am going to take a look at my sugar habit and think about how to reduce it further.

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Posted in my experience, science, unhelpful foods

Apple and Chia Seed Porridge

Posted on February 3, 2014 | 2 comments

This is a great breakfast for those cold winter mornings.

The recipe largely comes from Wallflower Girl.  Thanks to her for a great idea, which I adapted slightly to suit the ingredients I had.  I found I did not need to add any sugar, as the apple and spices gave this dish plenty of flavour.

Also, I did not have any almond butter, so I just used ground almonds instead – it worked a treat!

Ingredients
  1. 120ml (1/2 cup) almond milk
  2. 2 tbsp chia seeds
  3. 2 tbsp ground almonds
  4. 3 dates, roughly chopped
  5. 1/2 tsp mixed spice
  6. 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  7. 1 apple, cored*
  8. Chopped pecans
Instructions
  1. Mix all the ingredients, except the chopped pecans, in a blender until thick and smooth.
  2. Transfer to a saucepan, stir and heat gently until warm.  (The original recipe is from a raw food blog and recommends not heating above 40 degrees C.  I just heat until it’s a pleasant temperature to eat – no need to boil)
  3. Serve with chopped pecan nuts.  Enjoy!

*I’ve also tried it with pear instead of apple -that’s just as good.

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Tagged

Meditation

Posted on January 30, 2014 | Leave a comment

It may seem to you that all has been quiet on this blog, but I have been beavering away and I’m really pleased to announce that my pages about meditation are all now live.

Some of the pages have been available for a few days and I apologise to anyone who read them and tried to follow the links.  I discovered several of them were broken.  I have now checked and repaired them all.

You can find all the pages about meditation under the other helpful stuff tab, but to make things easier, here are direct links to all the pages.

 

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Posted in positive activities, science

New page – fight or flight

Posted on January 22, 2014 | Leave a comment

Today I’ve put a new page up all about the fight or flight/maladaptive stress response.  Since I’m not sure you get updated when I post a new page, I’m writing a post about it too.

It ended up quite long, as for me it’s a really important component of my ME/CFS.  If you have brain fog and struggle to read long articles, break it up into sections.

I hope you find it useful.  I always enjoy feedback so feel free to leave comments.

Here’s the page link again fight or flight/maladaptive stress response.

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Introverts

Posted on January 9, 2014 | 3 comments

I’ve just finished listening to Quiet: The power of introverts in a world that can’t stop talking as an audio book.  I found it thought provoking – it’s even provoked this blog post.

I know I am introvert. I went on a corporate course in 2001 where I took the Myers-Briggs personality test, and came out as an introvert.  Despite learning on the course that as an introvert I liked to recharge by being on my own, in quiet spaces, and recognising from how I chose to live my life that this was true, over the intervening years I haven’t thought about this.

I had my first child in 2000, and as a working mum I did not make an effort to carve out time for myself. Any mum of young children will tell you about the impossibility of time alone (unless they’re sleeping). By the time I had child number 3 (who didn’t sleep much) I don’t remember times in the day when all three of them were asleep or at school/playgroup and I could grab a few minutes of peace of quiet.

When child number 3 was two years old, I went back to work, and time to myself became even harder to find.  I worked in an open plan office and there was a lot of noise and chatter.   I used to cycle to and from work and also go for rides on my own.  I used to love this time and it was quiet mentally, but since I was very physically active I don’t think it would count as recharging.

From the book I learned that introverts operate best in environments with less stimulation (noise, people etc.) than extroverts.  However, our modern world seems designed for extroverts.  The education system focusses on discussion and group work, whilst at work offices are usually open plan and team working is often obligatory. Pre-illness I was operating in a world with a higher level of stimulation than was ideal for me as an introvert and I did not take time to recharge by quiet, alone time, because of my many commitments (especially the children).

The book also talks about the role of the amygdala in our “arousal” state – introverts are “aroused” by lower levels of stimulation than extroverts, and the Amygdala is also mentioned in ME literature:  most notably in Gupta’s Amygdala Retraining. Gupta’s theory is that the Amygadala becomes chronically sensitised and hyper reactive to symptoms in the body.  

This has got me wondering whether my in-built introvertedness contributed to my illness.  Perhaps because introverts amygdalas are naturally more sensitive it is easier for them to flip into the hyper reactive mode experienced in ME.  Certainly, quiet time alone has been a key part of first stabilising my illness and then the improvements I have made.  I have built a meditation habit, which I plan to continue even when I am fully recovered.

I would be interested to know of any research into the prevalence of ME amongst Introverts and Extroverts.  If proportionally more introverts than extroverts develop ME then that would be an indication of a link.  Given the lack of research into so much of our illness I won’t hold my breath on this one.

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