It's only in the 70's outside and it's 71 inside today. And my hands (fingers!) are freezing already!! I dread winter!! Do you guys wear gloves inside the house? I'm about ready to!! Any other suggestions???
About the only time my hands are warm is if my body is hot! :-\
So far my fingers are ok. I have Reynaurds but it only appears on two fingers of my right hand and only in winter. Guess I am odd and lucky?
I was looking for some heated gloves but I found some winter gloves at a sporting goods store that have a much higher thinsulate # than those at dept stores, etc. So will see how those do this winter.
I never asked further - BUT when my gp said I had Reynaurds, he said the pharmacy made a "cream" that would help it. Have you ever heard of that?
I could ask him again or call the pharmacy if you want and get the name.
I have raynauds bad in my feet. I have socks, heating pad & 2 blankets on them & they are still cold! warm water is the only thing that helps them but only for a while.
The only time my feet aren't cold is when the rest of me is sweating.
I'm a mess!!!! Carie
I use a heating pad, and try to not let myself, my body get chilled. Otherwise I get a raynauds episode where all my fingers go numb and I cant get warm and get really fatigued.
Quote from: engy on October 01, 2011, 02:03:28 PM
The only time my feet aren't cold is when the rest of me is sweating.
-
exactly...same here with my hands. My feet are bad too, but at least I can put socks and shoes on them!! It's hard to type on the computer with gloves!! lol
Will ask about the cream .. thanks!
Hi Jazzlover
We have just come through a winter and my hands and feet suffered terribly this year,I had gloves and thick socks for most of the time.
keep rugged up Good luck.
Cheryl
I have it so of affects me while I am nursing or after I get very, very cold. We have hardwood floors and -40 here, nighttime wake UPS with the baby is terrible. My breasts hurt so bad and my nipples turn life white, it is agony. I have started wearing moccasins to bed but my hands stay cold as ice cubes. None of us can sleep in a warm house, it is generally 17-19 degrees but I might have to have it a bit warmer this year. Not looking forward to it :(
Raynaud's is "closely related" to elevated levels of homocysteine as the following information shows. Homocysteine rises in direct proportion to low B12 levels. In autoimmune disease, patients are not able to properly metabolize B12. Homocysteine causes the endothelial cells that line the vascular walls to "commit mass suicide." It is also linked to scleroderma. I can post some studies if anyone would like to see them. Here is the info.
http://www.yourhealthbase.com/database/a97c.htm
It is very important to address elevated levels of homocysteine. A study conducted at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts followed 14,915 doctors. The study revealed that participants with high homocysteine levels had 3.4 times greater risk of heart attack that doctors with lower homocysteine levels. That's 340%! Homocysteine is a potent nerve and blood vessel toxin.
My doc said I have it but my hands only get red or purple when cold. My feet feel cold all the time and white but not purple. What color are your feet when it acts up?
I only have it in my feet & they get red but a few toes turn purple/black. Rhuemy wants me to try a calcium channel blocker this winter to see if it helps. Unfort. those drugs lower bp so I may not be able to tolerate
Carie
I moved to Florida last December :)
Quote from: Nat on October 01, 2011, 06:31:22 PM
Raynaud's is "closely related" to elevated levels of homocysteine as the following information shows. Homocysteine rises in direct proportion to low B12 levels. In autoimmune disease, patients are not able to properly metabolize B12. Homocysteine causes the endothelial cells that line the vascular walls to "commit mass suicide." It is also linked to scleroderma. I can post some studies if anyone would like to see them. Here is the info.
http://www.yourhealthbase.com/database/a97c.htm
It is very important to address elevated levels of homocysteine. A study conducted at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts followed 14,915 doctors. The study revealed that participants with high homocysteine levels had 3.4 times greater risk of heart attack that doctors with lower homocysteine levels. That's 340%! Homocysteine is a potent nerve and blood vessel toxin.
Enjoyed my kefir smoothie this morning, Nat ;)
jazzlover, I understand completely! If my body is really hot, then my hands and feet feel great! But any other time, they are freezing. I know what to do when I go outside, but inside the house its tough. The only thing that helps me at all is to bundle up and then keep myself moving. If I sit, I am in trouble.
Designer
Thanks for all the info.. esp on homocysteine!! I need to get that checked since I have heart issues. Also.. I give myself two B12 shots per month. Will that bypass the absorption problem or not??
and ... I'm already on a calcium channel blocker...so I guess it doesn't work all that great for Raynaud's.
----spill the beans on the kefir smoothie, please! ;D
4kids... OMG .. where the heck do you live? 17-19 degrees inside your house?? I hope I read that wrong!!!
My fingers get whitish .. if I have an episode, they turn white, then blue then red... forgot the actual order of the colors!! ;D That is when it is painful.
The problem is in the binding and transport of B12. Here is the title of a study you can access online that concludes, "the absorption of vitamin B12 is dependent on the presence of appropriate pancreatic enzymes." (protease) In the first sentence it states,"In vivo studies demonstrate that the pancreatic enzymes and the ionic environment in the upper gastrointestinal tract are essential determining factors for TRANSPORT AND ABSORPTION OF COBALMIN(B12) in man." The title of the study is ,"Cobalamin Malabsorption Due to Nondegradation of R Proteins in the Human Intestine." When the abstract speaks of "R" proteins, they are referring to the amino acids of which proteins are comprised. If you lack pancreatic enzymes called protease, you will not be able to release essential amino acids, nor will you be able to bind and transport B12 to the only place in your body it can be properly absorbed into your cells, the lower intestine. Studies show that supplementing with B12 will increase your cancer risk by about 25%.
Kefir is a wonderful healing food for someone with Sjogren's. Here is some info from my book.
Kefir
Kefir, which means ?feel good? in Turkish, is an ancient, cultured, enzyme-rich food that is filled with friendly bacteria. It is made from whole organic raw milk and it will help you in ways nothing else can. Kefir is an essential part of your recovery. Here are some of the reasons why.
Although homemade yogurt is a perfectly healthy food, it doesn?t hold a candle to kefir. Both are cultured milk products, but they work differently. The digestive enzymes in yogurt help digest the yogurt and only the yogurt. Kefir comes with extra enzymes that attach themselves to the walls of your gastrointestinal tract. The yogurt?s nutrient delivery is gone in 24 hours, while kefir?s is indefinite. It will fill your digestive tract with living, beneficial bacteria and enzymes.
Kefir contains 30-35 major strains of friendly bacteria not commonly found in yogurt. It is a turbo-charged, antibiotic colon cleanser. Kefir also contains beneficial yeasts, such as Saccharomyces kefir, which dominate and eliminate pathogenic yeasts. The beneficial yeasts penetrate the mucosal lining, where unhealthy yeast and bacteria reside, and destroy them. The friendly Candida yeast in kefir will kill the Candida albicans yeast that causes the classic yeast infection.
The complete proteins in kefir are partially digested and therefore more easily utilized by the body. Kefir is also rich in vitamin B12. You will have an immediate source of B12 to begin to heal. I cannot stress enough how important this is. Also, since the proteins are already partially digested, this will lessen the load on what little enzymes you are starting with. Your immune system will recognize these proteins and stop the attack. There just isn?t another food out there that can match kefir for your specific needs.
Kefir also contains an ample supply of phosphorous, which aids your body in utilizing the proteins you are now able to break down for cell growth and energy. It is an excellent source of biotin, a B vitamin, which aids the body?s absorption of other B vitamins (including B12). Kefir has a particularly calming effect on the nervous system. It contains calcium and magnesium, both of which are beneficial for healthy nerves and restful sleep. It also contains tryptophan, a precursor to serotonin and melatonin, well-known for their relaxing properties.
What if you are lactose intolerant? The lactose in kefir has already been predigested by the beneficial bacteria in the kefir. Therefore, even people with milk sensitivities can usually drink it. This is nature?s perfect food.
A man-made probiotic supplement in pill form has around 15 million bacteria. Yes, that sounds like a lot, but if you look at 500 ml. of kefir, you get up to five trillion beneficial bacteria! The most difficult part of making kefir will be locating a source for organic raw pastured milk. Store bought kefir is made from pasteurized milk and contains denatured proteins.
In addition to the raw milk, you will need kefir grains (look in the resources section for where to order). Kefir grains are colonies of microorganisms, mostly yeasts and bacteria, that are beneficial to the human digestive tract. They form small, irregular, whitish balls, that when immersed in a nourishing liquid (usually raw milk), digest the liquid through a fermentation process that results in ?kefir.?
To be continued: I have exceeded my allowed number of words I can post.
Yes, I know about kefir...was waiting for the smoothie! ;D sugar free, I hope!
thanks for info...I've tried the homemade version...want to try again. Don't care for store-bought.
I may have pernicious anemia...so NEED B12 shots, right??
my bloods show that my b12 levels are fine, if not too fine! overdose :)
but does that also mean that i am absorbing it ok?
i have one injection a month.
i had an ileal resection due to crohns disease and thats the place that absorbs vit b12. wonder if testing for the enzyme will see if i do absorb what i am getting.
Serum (blood) levels of B12 are not indicative of cellular levels. The body has a very complex absorption process in place to get B12 into your cells. It is futile and according to studies, very harmful to try and circumvent it. Study after study shows that many of the symptoms of autoimmune disease are directly linked to a lack of cellular B12. The abstract entitled:"Subacute Combined Degeneration with High Serum Vitamin B12 level and Abnormal Vitamin B12 Binding Protein, New cause of an Old Syndrome" states, "futher evidence that serum (blood) vitamin B12 may not be a reliable guide to vitamin B12 deficiency." (certainly not if your spinal cord can begin to degenerate while showing high blood levels)
Jazzlover, the interstitial cystitis is related to homocysteine also. The following study shows that the endothelial bladder cells have high rates of apoptosis. I have posted a study previously showing homocysteine causes the endothelial cells to commit mass suicide.
http://www.mendeley.com/research/increased-number-apoptotic-endothelial-cells-bladder-interstitial-cystitis-patients/
The cranial nerve pain is very likely linked to low B12 also. The Center for Peripheral Neuropathy states, "A clear link has been established between a lack of vitamin B12 and peripheral neuropathy. "
Pernicious anemia is caused by a lack of B12.
Also, the 2 neurotransmitters that regulate the autonomic nervous system are adrenaline and acetylcholine. Acetylcholine is derived from choline. Choline is derived from B12 and folate. The autonomic nervous system regulates the salivary glands. Even government researchers at the NIH are starting to believe that dysautonomia is really what is causing Sjogren's.
I have posted a study showing that lupus patients lack the pancreatic enzyme DNase 1. DNase 1 breaks down DNA and proteins. It is a protease, but you cannot replace it through supplementation. Man cannot duplicate it. This is the missing enzyme that is needed to break down dietary proteins into amino acids and release B12. All of this can be corrected, but you just have to do it nature's way.
I made a strawberry kefir smoothie today. I just added some frozen organic strawberries,raw organic honey to taste and a dash of organic vanilla extract. Pour into a chilled glass and it tastes amazing!
4Kids, that is great that you are doing kefir. Do your kids like it? I am curious too, what kind did you make?
I'm nervous about the kefir because of the yeast in it so I haven't tried it yet but I'm going to soon.
Carie
When my Raynauds gets really bad my dr has me take Procardia. It works quite well - you just need to make sure your blood pressure does not go too low. I do wear gloves in the house and wool socks and a hat all winter (when I lived in MI) I also have a corn muff that I heat in the microwave and slip my hands into. Standing up and swinging your arms like a windmill looks a bit funny but helps get the blood back out to the fingers. The only way I can really get warm when I feel chilled is a warm bath or shower. My hubby had a steam shower put in when we lived up north and it was sooooo wonderful. (Yes, he spoils me!)
Thanks Nat for posting the info. I am very interested in this as my many ailments could be explained by this. Also my daughter has scleroderma and Raynauds. Interesting.
I have been doing kefir for four days? My gas from the metformin has almost disappeared. My hair is falling out less but is that because I am doing better hormonally? No yeast problems yet. Also i am craving protein.
Kefir only has beneficial yeasts. Nothing to be afraid of. They will dominate and eliminate pathogenic yeasts.
You are welcome Patty. Your hypothyroidism can also be explained by an inability to break down dietary proteins. The thyroid hormones, thyroxine and triiodothyronine, are tyrosine based. Tyrosine is converted from phenylalanine. Phenylalanine is found in high protein foods.
You would also expect to see a B12 deficiency is hypothyroidism, if you are unable to break down proteins. According to a study entitled: Anemia in Hypothyroidism," Pernicious anemia occurs 20 times more frequently in patients with hypothyroidism than generally."
Following is a study showing just how common vitamin B12 deficiency is in hypothyroidism. It shows a 40% prevalence of B12 deficiency in hypothyroidism. While the deficiencies found in this study is remarkable, these numbers likely would have been much higher if a more appropriate set of criteria has been used. First, they tested serum (blood) levels. Cellular levels are often much lower. Second, they used an extremely low level to determine a deficiency-133pg/mL. At more than three times that level (500 pg/mL, you will start to see disease symptoms such as memory loss, lethargy, and dementia. In the U.S., current levels used to determine a deficiency are set at 200 pg/mL, the level at which severe changes in the blood cells occur.
Here is the study!
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18655403
thanks... I'm confused as to whether anything can be done to help my situation...????
re: B12 and protease, etc
Patty.. I take Verapamil on a regular basis for my heart. May be similar to procardia.. I'll check. I already have trouble with it making my BP too low.
Nat.. where do you buy your kefir grains??
Jazzlover, there is a great deal you can do. It is all about restoring your pancreatic enzymes and healing your GI tract. There is a support group that has been started based on this info. It is called Curing Autoimmune and Mimics. They are very helpful. The group is based on my book, but I didn't start the group and I don't post on the site. My daughter does though. She is Naturemommy. You do not have to have read the book to join the group.
I know it sounds bizarre, but you can really trace each and every symptom of autoimmune disease back to these missing enzymes. Even if a disease or symptom is associated with autoimmune disease, you will be able to trace it back. It is not really the name of a disease that tells us it originates with PEDD (pancreatic enzyme deficiency disease), it is the SYMPTOMS of a disease. For instance, gluten intolerance is quite common in autoimmune disease. Gluten is a PROTEIN. If you lack pancreatic protease, you would not be able to digest gluten. Also, B12 is responsible for repairing the damaged flattened villi. Anytime the protein-B12-enzyme pathway is blocked, symptoms of autoimmune disease will arise. Each and every symptom of every autoimmune disease can be traced directly back to missing amino acids, lack of B12(amino acids and B12 come from the breakdown of dietary protein) or missing protease.
jazzlover, I live in the great white NORTH. lol. It gets to be -40C here in winter, and we keep our furnace at 17-19C which is 63? to 66?F. It is just hard for us all to breathe when it is warmer to sleep. I might have to go to 20 this year though.
If I could just find the organic fresh sauerkraut. Kefir is a good start, here you can find Organic at the Co-op. I just make a smoothie with raspberries, strawberries, bananas and apple juice and kefir and some yogurt. Hope that works!
Sorry Jazzlover, I forgot to answer your question on the kefir grains. I got mine from a friend. I know you can get them online. Just make sure they are from organic raw milk. The milk you use should come from cows that are on pasture. If the cows were not pastured, the milk will have no B12. B12 is made by organisms in the soil, so an animal must have been exposed to pasture or the meat, eggs, milk etc. will not have B12. 95% of our animals are raised on concrete now. Even most organic milk is still pasteurized and the cows were not raised on pasture. I know that the members of Curing Autoimmune and Mimics are sending each other grains also.
It is super important that only raw milk is used for your kefir. If it has been pasteurized, the proteins have been denatured and all of the 60 living enzymes and beneficial bacteria have been destroyed. Amyloids, abnormal peptides and improperly broken down proteins are what cause the immune response in autoimmune disease. Peptides are just short chains of amino acids. If you are unable to properly break down dietary proteins, you will not be able to make normal peptides.
Quote from: 4Kids on October 02, 2011, 09:09:28 PM
jazzlover, I live in the great white NORTH. lol. It gets to be -40C here in winter, and we keep our furnace at 17-19C which is 63? to 66?F. It is just hard for us all to breathe when it is warmer to sleep. I might have to go to 20 this year though.
-I thought about that later, that you must be talking in Celsius!! ;)
Nat .. what about a low MCV blood test? Any relation to any of this?
Getting and/or consuming organic raw milk could be problematic for me.
Yes, you could get a MCV test. These red blood cell changes are some of the more severe manifestations of a B12 or iron deficiency. Pernicious anemia occurs at around 200 pg/mL and that is considered a pretty normal level in the US. At around 500 to 550 pg/mL , you would see dementia, fatigue and lethargy.
Here is some info on the association to B12 and iron. I am going to find and post a study that shows how important proteases are in iron absorption.
What I meant was that my MCV bloodwork was low. I believe my dr said my iron levels were OK, so he checked B12 and folate... both OK.
Do you take any supplements and do you remember what your B12 level was?
If your iron levels are normal, then this could be secondary anemia caused by chronic disease, as in the case of autoimmune disease. Your body has iron, but it is not using it properly. Here is a pretty amazing study that shows the role serine proteases plays in iron absorption. They described this as a 'novel and exciting finding.' This would explain normal iron levels, but low MCV.
http://ndt.oxfordjournals.org/content/23/10/3063.full?keytype=ref&ijkey=IC94FAmKug1SV5n
WHEW! Somehow I need to get all this down so I can email it to my PCP, who is an Internal Med doc.
What kind of supplements are you interested in? I take tons, actually!
I was just asking about supplements because some can mask a B12 deficiency. Here is some info on that.
http://www.livestrong.com/article/398654-what-vitamin-can-mask-vitamin-b12-deficiency/
I don't take any myself.
Confused, here is a good website to get some information on raw milk. I think a better word for raw milk might be unprocessed milk. That is all it is, milk that hasn't been processed.
www.realmilk.com
This is a small segment from my book.
"Mark McAffee of Organic Pastures, a raw milk dairy, has sold thousands of gallons of milk with no ill effects reported. Independent tests were performed between McAffee's raw milk and commercial pasteurized milk. Disease pathogens, including salmonella, listeria, and E.coli, were added to both the raw and pasteurized milk. The raw milk, which contains beneficial bacteria, would not support the growth of pathogens and they all died off. However, in the pasteurized milk, the pathogenic bacteria thrived and proliferated. In the absence of beneficial bacteria, harmful bacteria can more easily take hold."
It is important to visit your dairy and make sure you are comfortable with what you see. Ask questions, talk to other customers etc. This is a whole new ballgame. The point is to get back involved with your food. This will be your medicine, so it needs to be the highest quality you can find.
Confused,
You are right about the raw milk. You 'can' get sick (with various things) from raw milk. This is why raw milk is illegal in many states.
I still know people who swear by it, but use caution because there is NO regulation for raw milk and/or it's processing.
Ask your doctor about it. I'm not saying it 'will' make you sick, but our autoimmune systems 'may' respond differently to the bacteria in raw milk.
As a Food Scientist and a retired dairy farmer, I would never drink unpasteurized milk myself.
Of course this is a personal decision.
my hands will go ic cold but never get that reynauds look,, they dont get purple or anything like that,, they just get ice cold,
Here is some in depth information on the safety of raw milk.
http://www.realmilk.com/ppt/index.html
I think Carebear is right. This is a personal decision. We live in an era of access to information like never before in human history. Regardless of what we are "told" we have the choice to investigate it further for ourselves.
Some of the questions to have answered would be: Why is milk pasteurized? Does making a food sterile make it safe to drink? Will it harm me in other ways? Is this what nature intended?
Raw milk will begin to sour within days. It is highly perishable. This is your signal to turn it into sour cream, kefir, yogurt etc. The highly perishable nature of milk would make it impossible to transport and store on an industrial level. I have personally seen milk at Walmart dated 6 months from the expiration.
Oftentimes we are convinced something is true simply because we are told it is. This was the case with me with canola oil. Once while preparing dinner, I reached in my pantry for a "healthy oil" to stir fry with. I had been led to believe that it was healthy and I had accepted what I had been told as true without question. "Wait a minute", I thought, "What is a canola plant?" When I couldn't answer that question, I knew what I would spend the next few hours doing. What I discovered made me realize that I had been on autopilot. We can't assume that just because something is marketed as healthy (or unhealthy) that it truly is.
So, what is a canola plant? Not something you would plant in your garden I'm sure. Canola oil comes from the rapeseed plant. The rapeseed plant is the same plant that gave us mustard gas in WW1. It is toxic. Even the insects won't eat it. It is also cheap and plentiful. Canadian scientists figured out how to extract the chemical that would kill you immediately, and then began to market the remainder as a health food; hence the name, "canola oil", which is derived from 'Canadian oil'.
Producers of canola oil contribute five percent of their profits to the Canola Oil Marketing Fund. I could go on and on about its structure and whether this oil, that can only be created in a laboratory is something or bodies recognize. However, if it wasn't a food 100 years ago, it's not a food now. At least it shouldn't be. Raw milk has been a valuable, nutritious food that we have consumed for centuries. (land of milk and honey)
Drinking raw milk from a commercial dairy would not be wise in my opinion. That is not the milks fault. The animals are treated inhumanely and fed an unnatural diet of corn of other inedible foodstuffs such as cottonseed oil. They are also given massive amounts of antibiotics and a cocktail of hormones. The animals are sick and diseased and these pathogens are passed into the milk. Pasteurization under these conditions would be necessary. During the pasteurization process, all of the 60 living enzymes have been destroyed. Each one of them there for a reason. So has all the beneficial bacteria. The proteins have been damaged and will be unrecogizable and even dangerous to your body. Pasteurized milk is the number one allergic food in the country for this reason.
Nat,
Pasteurization is not the same as sterilization. Pasteurization is carried out to kill only heat susceptible organisms and their spores, while sterilization will kill all organisms. Beneficial microorganisms (mainly bacteria) are left alive when pasteurizing.
I just wanted to add that in Canada at least, all raw milk is tested for antibiotics prior to processing. If detected, the entire load of milk is dumped and does not get into our food system. The farmer will not receive payment either.
Here is some info from the Real Milk website on what happens during the pasteurization and ultra pasteurization process. The latter does destroy even the heat resistant bacteria. Most modern milk is ultra pasteurized. For the purposes of restoring missing enzymes, these are all lost during the pasteurization process. That is how they know he process is complete; every living enzyme is destroyed. Also, a vital component of reversing the autoimmune disease process is lost entirely-vitamin B12.
"Pasteurization destroys enzymes, diminishes vitamin content, denatures fragile milk proteins, destroys vitamins C, B12 and B6, kills beneficial bacteria, promotes pathogens and is associated with allergies, increased tooth decay, colic in infants, growth problems in children, osteoporosis, arthritis, heart disease and cancer. Calves fed pasteurized milk do poorly and many die before maturity. Raw milk sours naturally but pasteurized milk turns putrid; processors must remove slime and pus from pasteurized milk by a process of centrifugal clarification. Inspection of dairy herds for disease is not required for pasteurized milk. Pasteurization was instituted in the 1920s to combat TB, infant diarrhea, undulant fever and other diseases caused by poor animal nutrition and dirty production methods. But times have changed and modern stainless steel tanks, milking machines, refrigerated trucks and inspection methods make pasteurization absolutely unnecessary for public protection. And pasteurization does not always kill the bacteria for Johne?s disease suspected of causing Crohn's disease in humans with which most confinement cows are infected. Much commercial milk is now ultra-pasteurized to get rid of heat-resistant bacteria and give it a longer shelf life. Ultra-pasteurization is a violent process that takes milk from a chilled temperature to above the boiling point in less than two seconds. Clean raw milk from certified healthy cows is available commercially in several states and may be bought directly from the farm in many more."
Care, there is nothing wrong with healthy debate and open discussion. I hope no one sees this as anything but. I am not offended when someone presents a different viewpoint other than my own.
Yes, our viewpoints are different, and we both obviously feel strongly about our opinion on the matter. That is O.k. I believe the denaturing and industrialization of our food supply is one of the reasons we are sick. I hope anyone reading this will gain knowledge that will help them make decisions that will benefit them. Nothing more.
Nat,
I was employed in the dairy industry for over two decades... on the farm, in private industry, and in government regulatory agencies. These are not my opinions. These are my experiences.
I apologize to everyone for hijacking this thread...back to Raynaud's. ;)
Confused and others.. Google Raynaud's if you want to see what the fingers look like when an episode happens. It can be damaging to the tissue. Mine has never gone on for more than about 15 min when the fingers have turned white, purple, red. Thank goodness!!
No problems with hijacking that i see. I have been fascinated by Nat's contributions. And thanks for your input too, Carebear. I would worry most about bruccelosis. But Nat did make a very important point that I agree with. "However, in the pasteurized milk, the pathogenic bacteria thrived and proliferated. In the absence of beneficial bacteria, harmful bacteria can more easily take hold."
I believe that!!
I found out we have raw milk available about 30 miles from here. But I know I could not drive there every week. Right now I'm having really bad neck/back pain and driving one mile to the grocery store causes pain.
Jazz, I hope you feel better soon.
Patty, I was going to post this study for your daughter on the connection to homocysteine and Scleroderma. This study states homocysteine is "significantly higher".
http://lib.bioinfo.pl/pmid:17047894
Also, You can access this one by title."Homocysteine Plasma Concentration is Related to Severity of Lung Impairment in Scleroderma." In the conclusion it states,"Our data support the hypothesis that homocysteine could be involved in the pathogenic process of scleroderma pulmonary involvement."