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What is an alternative medicine doctor and what do they do?
What testing do you get when you choose alternative medicine?
What is a detox diet and why do you do it?
What supplements and shakes do they recommend?
Last Thursday was the big day - the day I got the results from all the bazillions of tests that I took at the alternative medicine clinic in Atlanta. Tim went with me this time, which was good. He took notes while the doctor talked and I tried to absorb it all.
The tests with the biggest impact on my life were the Food Sensitivity tests. The first one, the IgG blood test tested over a hundred different foods to see what I am most sensitive to. (IgG is some kind of antibody your body creates when it feels attacked by an outside agent, like a food. You can read more about it here if you are interested.)
The test showed different levels of sensitivities, from "no reaction" up to "severe reaction". Only one food showed up as "severe" for me - pears. That means I am not supposed to eat pears for 9 months. Then after that I can eat them sparingly. That's really OK. I'm not a big pear eater. Next up, in the "high reaction" category - peaches. What is it with me and fruit? OK, no peaches for 6 months. All that is no problem. I can easily live without peaches and pears.
Then comes the biggie, the "moderate reaction" category. Two foods showed up on there - chicken and tomatoes. Um, that's a little harder to handle. So now I'm not supposed to eat chicken or tomatoes for 3-4 months. That means no pizza, no marinara, no salsa, no ketchup, and no barbecue sauce. As for chicken, well, I eat it in probably half of all my meals now. And that's all I eat at a fast food restaurant. Cutting it out for 4 months does not make me happy.
In the "mild reaction" category were tons of food, such as all berries, carrots, cinnamon, lemons, plums, pumpkin and tea. (Clearly I have issues with fruit, which is bad, because I love fruit.) These items I can eat, but I need to limit them to 1-2 times a week.
Then comes the IgA test results. IgA is another type of antibody that your body can create, this time in response to eating gluten. These results came from my adrenal stress test. I got to chew on a cotton plug 4 times during one day. I put those spit-filled cotton ball things into a test tube and wrote the time of day on them and mailed them off to be tested. Besides showing low adrenal function, i.e. no energy, it also showed my Gliadin IgA results. I am highly gluten sensitive. Normal ranges are 1.0-25.0 ug/mL. Mine was 78.0, over 3 times the top end of the scale. What does that mean? I should not eat gluten any more. :(
The good news is that I am NOT sensitive to eggs, peanuts or dairy, which means I can add them back in. Adding in eggs makes finding gluten-free items much easier. And I just love cheese, so being able to add that back in is a relief as well.
I had some other results that I will tell you about in another post. Right now I'm just trying to fully grasp what no gluten, no chicken and no tomatoes means for me. Literally, that is every food I love and 3/4 of my current diet. Just trying to figure out what I could have at a fast food restaurant is daunting right now - nothing with a bun, no chicken. That pretty much only leaves fries... Even fast food salads have chicken on them and they are premade so asking for something special to be left off doesn't always work.
Just like the last time I went to the clinic when they put me on the detox diet, I think after a week or two and some research, I will be fine. But right now, I'm overwhelmed.
Any resources or recipes that you know of that are gluten, tomato and chicken free would be great!
What supplements and shakes do they recommend?
Last Thursday was the big day - the day I got the results from all the bazillions of tests that I took at the alternative medicine clinic in Atlanta. Tim went with me this time, which was good. He took notes while the doctor talked and I tried to absorb it all.
The tests with the biggest impact on my life were the Food Sensitivity tests. The first one, the IgG blood test tested over a hundred different foods to see what I am most sensitive to. (IgG is some kind of antibody your body creates when it feels attacked by an outside agent, like a food. You can read more about it here if you are interested.)
The test showed different levels of sensitivities, from "no reaction" up to "severe reaction". Only one food showed up as "severe" for me - pears. That means I am not supposed to eat pears for 9 months. Then after that I can eat them sparingly. That's really OK. I'm not a big pear eater. Next up, in the "high reaction" category - peaches. What is it with me and fruit? OK, no peaches for 6 months. All that is no problem. I can easily live without peaches and pears.
Then comes the biggie, the "moderate reaction" category. Two foods showed up on there - chicken and tomatoes. Um, that's a little harder to handle. So now I'm not supposed to eat chicken or tomatoes for 3-4 months. That means no pizza, no marinara, no salsa, no ketchup, and no barbecue sauce. As for chicken, well, I eat it in probably half of all my meals now. And that's all I eat at a fast food restaurant. Cutting it out for 4 months does not make me happy.
In the "mild reaction" category were tons of food, such as all berries, carrots, cinnamon, lemons, plums, pumpkin and tea. (Clearly I have issues with fruit, which is bad, because I love fruit.) These items I can eat, but I need to limit them to 1-2 times a week.
Then comes the IgA test results. IgA is another type of antibody that your body can create, this time in response to eating gluten. These results came from my adrenal stress test. I got to chew on a cotton plug 4 times during one day. I put those spit-filled cotton ball things into a test tube and wrote the time of day on them and mailed them off to be tested. Besides showing low adrenal function, i.e. no energy, it also showed my Gliadin IgA results. I am highly gluten sensitive. Normal ranges are 1.0-25.0 ug/mL. Mine was 78.0, over 3 times the top end of the scale. What does that mean? I should not eat gluten any more. :(
The good news is that I am NOT sensitive to eggs, peanuts or dairy, which means I can add them back in. Adding in eggs makes finding gluten-free items much easier. And I just love cheese, so being able to add that back in is a relief as well.
I had some other results that I will tell you about in another post. Right now I'm just trying to fully grasp what no gluten, no chicken and no tomatoes means for me. Literally, that is every food I love and 3/4 of my current diet. Just trying to figure out what I could have at a fast food restaurant is daunting right now - nothing with a bun, no chicken. That pretty much only leaves fries... Even fast food salads have chicken on them and they are premade so asking for something special to be left off doesn't always work.
Just like the last time I went to the clinic when they put me on the detox diet, I think after a week or two and some research, I will be fine. But right now, I'm overwhelmed.
Any resources or recipes that you know of that are gluten, tomato and chicken free would be great!
Posts
well, sounds like a good excuse to eat steak :) , providing you can find a marinade that works for you. And pot roast w/veggies if you can find a sauce. I have some friends that are gluten free and one is also vegetarian. I will ask them for some ideas for you. Hang in there. I am glad you have some answers...but hate it wasn't really what you were hoping to hear though. :( I hope this helps your other health issues/pain. Can you tell any difference yet in that?
ReplyDelete-Robin
No difference yet in pain. Guess I'm not totally convinced that a change in diet will affect my muscle pain, but we'll see. The research I've done says it could take up to 6 months to see a change in health after cutting out gluten.
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