This has to be the worst year EVER... I seriously cannot remember being this sick in the spring. Its making it really hard to get outside and do anything. I knew we would pay for the fact that Lake Erie didn't freeze... or nothing froze for that matter.
That's scary. Â I hope this is not going to be that bad here. Â I can not afford to be sick, nor my son. We both get asthma very bad and if the allergies are bad so will our asthma. Â Lets all hope for the best. Â Sadly, yesterday and today we both have been feeling quite bad. Â
That makes me sad.  Guess we better start a good plan for prevention.  I hate giving my son medication every day.  Its sad, because his aunt, my sister died two years ago from asthma.  I always felt it was because they over medicated her her entire life.  But I do try to prevent what we know is coming. Â
Okay, I know this isn't yourhealthshow.com but I remiss if I didn't tell you what I did to get my asthma under control - without medication. You don’t have to live like that and you don’t have to die like that.  I've dealt with it since I was an infant. A major portion of my life - childhood and adulthood were spent either in hospitals or bedridden with upper resp. infections. One year I missed 52 days of school. I was on some sort of steroids from the time I was 5 until about 3 years ago and I am 48. Not only that but I was obese, diabetic, hypertensive, had INSANE PMS, debilitating migraines and my hair was falling out in mass.  Here’s how I changed my life: first and foremost, I switched to eating all organic whenever possible. It was not an easy endeavor and it started with baby steps like the milk, then baking products and bread, then veggies and fruits and eventually everything.  Then I fired all my doctors because all they EVER did was overmedicate me. I found a new doctor, sat down and told him I wanted to get off anything and everything (RX and over the counter) and he said he would help. If wouldn't help, I was going to go on to the next doctor and then next doctor until someone would do what ever *I* said... not them. The first thing I had him do was check my nutrient levels, ESPECIALLY VITAMIN D, complete thyroid and liver panels. So here I was in the middle of August with one of the best suntans I ever had (from gardening!) and I had severely low vitamin D levels. After doing some research, I learned that inhaled steroids (at the time I was using Advair) absolutely block the absorption of vitamin D. I had been on Advair and others just like it for many, many years. It took several tries of weaning off that drug to be done with it completely, almost a year. Not only did I get on massive amounts of food derived vitamin D, I also got on a very aggressive Standard Process supplem... program under the direction of my chiropractor. I will tell you it wasn't cheap but each month I considered it an investment into my future... just like a 401K – but even  BETTER! Over the past five years, I have completed the Standard Process 21-Day Purificatio... Program several times – basically eating like that has become a way of life. I also get weekly chiropractic adjustments, use an infrared sauna and garden! My chiropractor also taught me about living chemical free. Over these years, I have eliminated chemicals from my body and my home. If I can’t put it in my mouth and eat it, I won’t put in on my body, spray it in my air or clean my house with it.   By switching foods, taking the supplements, weaning off all drugs, I then lost weight - like a lot of weight - 100lbs to be exact. I’m no longer diabetic, my periods come and go… Shoot, I haven’t taken so much as an Advil in five years. I gotta tell you, I look 10-20 years younger (and feel it). People often think I’m in my late 20’s or early 30’s. Other than the wheezing I’ve been doing this week, I haven’t been to the emergency room or had an asthma attack in five whole years. That is unheard of. The amount of money I am saving in medical bills is all being reinvested right back into my food, my supplements and my Yarden and my health. My husband has lost 80lbs, my grandchildren are all being raised organic… this has not only changed my life, it has changed the life of generations to come.
Hey, Glad you wrote it all down, thats a lot of work and I truly appreciate it. Â I have alway felt that the doctors are more in to medicating than curing and it drives me crazy. Â I watched them over medicate my sister my whole life and ultimately she died at 43. Â I am very glad that you wre able to turn your health around, as it sounds like my sisters fate was on your doorstep. Â I tried a diet for my son last year, but we ran into complications, ultimately I think it was me, but we are going to get going on it again this year... starting right now. Â We, Sam and I, discussed it yesterday that we were going to start eating better and see how we felt. Today, I get this great letter from you... so I have a few questions.Â
1. Â Did you quit drinking milk or go to raw milk? Â Hearing so much bad about store bought raw milk, I think I would have to get a milk cow.
2. Â Do you do veggie juicing, or just eating regular (organic, non gmo) vegetables?
3. Â Do you eat meat?
4.  What about breads?  You do eat them or not?  I know gluten is such a problem these days.
1. I only milk when I can get my hands on local raw milk (which is illegal in OH). Raw milk is the only why to go IMO. I would say if you continue to drink milk, it has to be whole, non homogenized, grassfed, and organic. Not an easy shoe to fill. Kalona Supernatural is one of the few you can find in the stores.
2. Veggie juicing occasionally, when the mood hits. I just eat a lot of veggies. organic always.
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3. Yes on the meat. Local grass fed, pasture raised where I can come see the animals only. I have a few farmers I rely on.
4. Rarely. We are pretty much wheat free in our household.
5. I garden :)
One of the most important things is to get rid of the chemicals in your house. That is especially important for asthmatics. No plug ins, dryer sheet, harsh cleaners, carpet powders, perfumes/colognes, etc...
@tfacey:Okay, I can handle most of those... except dryer sheets. Â Is there a non- harmful one I can use? Â Static absolutely drives me insane. Â I would have to go naked, and that just cannot happen! Â What do you recommend?
I will (and have thought of doing so) change my laundry soap to an organic brand. Â We pulled out all of our carpet. Â And I will re-start using baking soda and vinegar for basic cleaning. Â I/we do not use to much perfumes/colognes as they do bother us.Â
I guess we are on the right track, we just need to be consistent, and reinforce our eating habits.  Eating is the hard one, as we all like to eat stuff we know is bad.  Sad the world teaches us to keep doing it.  Â
Paragraphs?  I don't know, mine seem to work, LOL.  This site is a bit temperament....  Are you using Explorer or Google?  I had to change to Google to get some things to work.
 - Milk,  I will check our market and see what they have.  I will look for Kalona Supernatural.  Guess I better keep getting the rice milk, as my son liked it enough to use it on cereal.
-  Bread, do you not eat wheat because of gluten? or because you feel it is bad for your asthma/allergies... and why?  Have you been tested for gluten intolerance?  I hope you do not think I am being to personal here, but I am very interested in what choices you made and why, to see how I might use the information regarding our health issues.  We love bread!  I do not believe we are gluten intolerant.  My kids are allergic to grasses, alfalfa and tall weeds..... maybe they are allergic to wheat also??  Guess i will send out to the farmers wheat field to play and see if their eyes swell up (so sad :(  ) .  I know I am allergic to milk, and have reaction to eggs, yet I do not notice it when they are  cooked in something... like bread or cake.
Thank you again for your help and input on this. Â This may be a garden website, but it is based on wanting to be healthier and this is why I am growing my garden and raising our own animals. Â We really want to help ensure our children are off to a good start, and that maybe we can rid our son (and me) of asthma, and our daughter of allergies.Â
Your results are really quite inspiring..., you should write a book... or as they do these days, a blog!  There are so many people that need to know, there is life beyond medications!
Yeah, it must be the internet explorer. I dont eat wheat because wheat is not food. Once upon a time it was a healty grain... but it has been modified so much, it basically costs your body nutrients to eat it. You can find a tons of articles on the dangers of wheat here: http://search.mercola.com/search/pages/Results.aspx?k=wheat
I wonder if the old "good" wheat still exists s...?  I can do without, TV, Chocolate, sodas and more, but Bread is hard.
 I am really getting depressed.  No bread and no dryer sheets, what kind of life is that?
I saved the page on wheat and will have to spend time to read the whole thing. Â Do you make gluten free breads? Â Or just replaced bread with other food. Â
Dont rely on scratch tests to determine food allergies, either. They are very unreliable and often give false negatives/positives. The only way to really know for certain when it comes to food is to eliminate it for 21 days and then reintroduce. We had a friend who thought that she was allergic to apples... turns out she was only allergic to conventionals apples not organic!
It is my hope that I will be able to eat more as I change to purely organic fruits and veggies.  I have be suffering with getting sick every time I eat.  Nothing is consistent ... why I get sick, other than there are GMO's in it.  I am really trying to eliminate them completely, but as you know, that is very hard to do.  Even growing our own food, it can get contaminated.  I wish the whole world would get a grip on what is happening. Â
I never thought my family could live without bread, pasta and cereal, but oddly enough, we do. Mostly because I cook my ass off. So, maybe once every two months or so we might buy a loaf of bread from a local baker who is using local organic non gmo grain. At first its a treat and then after a couple of days of wheat belly, we are glad to see it go!
I guess I have never felt that eating bread/wheat has bothered me, but I guess to make an accurate decisi... that I need to quit eating it for the 21 days then try it again.  I really wish eating could be easy rather than full of so many decisions and trying to find things that are "still" healthy. Â
Honey, yes we love honey.  We are hoping to raise bees sometime soon.
For me, eating has become real easy. It has to be in it's WHOLE original state. The less processing the better. Get yourself a vitamix, buy or grow or have someone you know grow your very own grain.... you grind it... you make what ever you want from that. Add whole, milk, real butter, crack an egg... and there you go. Whole food. You recognize every thing.
Here is an exercise in awareness for you and your family... put all your average daily food intake on the table - every box, bag, beverage, condiment, etc. Spend some time writing down the ingredients. In one column put WORDS I KNOW and in the other column put WORDS I DONT KNOW... How many words you don't know are you putting in your mouth each day... and why? If you cannot recognize it as food... it probably isn't.
I guess it is hard to do, not because we do not know what to do,but because we are so trained to "need" some very "not good for you" foods.  I am making an effort, and I mean I am going to do it, to eat healthier and to get my family to eat healthier.  We really do not eat badly right now, but there is definite ro... for improvement and we are going to do it.  We will continue with bread...for the time being, as it is our favorite food.  We do make it ourselves and when we can get wheat from the farmers we grind it ourselves, as well as add some whole to rice when we cook it.  I /we sometimes have reactions to eggs, but are hoping that will diminish ... raising our own. Thanks again for all your help,  you are an inspirationÂ... I am glad we shared this info.  ...ohh, do you use a vitamin?  I have been trying to find a good recommenda... a liquid vitamin.  They say they do not need to be digested as much, and I have alot of problems with vitamins upsetting my system.
No, I dont take "vitamins" I do not believe they are good for you liquid or not. Most of the synthetic nutrients that are found in regular old vi... are chemicals made primary in china and then imported here. I only take food supplements and herbs. Basically vitamins made from whole food. Re-read my LONG post and I talk about the Standard Process line. There is only one other vitamin on the shelf that I would even consider, and thats MegaFoods. New Chapter used to be good, but they recently sold out to Proctor and Gamble...which now makes them garbage. I eat a lot of coconut oil, raw apple cider vinegar, E3Live (google it), whole food fiber, and cod liver oil.
Maybe that is why they always make me sick. Â Boy, I have a whole page of notes from information you have given me... thanks. Â I will look up E3live, I was taking the vinegar, but somehow it got old and I quit. Â Guess I better start back up. Â Coconut oil? Â What is this for.
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