remission

[irish]

I also think that the hormones are involved somehow, but I have to add that I was falling apart and had sjogrens symptoms long before I had my hysterectomy. I had a terrible flare with my 3rd pregnancy and had flares prior to that pregnancy.

That was back in the dark ages and nobody thought much about it though---just thought I had "nerve" problems.  God Bless the docs who label all things they don't understand as nerves. Irish

[Skylar]

I looked at his diet. But it looked pretty generic to me. i.e. eat fruits and vegetables and not eat bad stuff, etc. And also his diet is vegetarian diet by not eating meat.

I did notice he had not to eat milk and yogurt. But I've always heard those were good to eat. I try to eat yogurt some since I have chronic diarrhea and it is supposed to help replenish good bacteria.

Though, on his diet he gives receipes that have alot of cooking. Some I looked at were like 4 hours to cook a meal.

I plan on eating healthier but I can't do the long cooking. I'm going to look at eating fruits and vegetables and finding easy to cook healthy meals. I wonder if things like the Weight Watchers TV dinners are healthy?

What I'd like to find are healthy easy to cook meals at the local store.

Yes, most of these doctors say no to dairy products, or limit them. Most people in the world can't digest milk beyond infancy (Asia, most of Africa and a surprising number of Europeans). Countries which historically had no dairy intake also historically had the lowest incidence of Osteopenia and Osteoporosis. There is one theory that milk proteins are involved in autoimmune diseases (and part of leaky gut theories too)- it's only one theory among many and no one really knows why we have AI so I mention it but don't a heavy stress on that because who knows what science will discover in the future about the cause of AI? The dairy industry has us all believing we need to eat a lot of dairy every day but the truth is that before WW2, many Americans didn't eat much dairy except for those living close to or on farms. Drinking milk became popular in the diet during WW2 when the US was looking for ways to feed soldiers- soldiers came back from war with a new habit to drink milk. If you want probiotics, yogurt only has one or two types of bacteria - you're better off with a live probiotic product that has a much wider range of bacteria more akin to what is in your digestive tract. And consider that dairy products might be one cause of your bowel troubles - you might have trouble digesting them. Also be careful taking probiotics - our bowels have carefully adjusted levels of bacteria - taking these products can throw off our system. Of course if you've taken antibiotics for a long time - killing off many of these bacteria, then you need to take them to help recoup a normal balance again.

I'm a lazy cook - if I can't prepare a meal in under 20 minutes, well I just look for another recipe. Jeff Novick has Snap meals as a sticky in his forum on Dr. McDougall's site which are meals that use a few ingredients, take about 5 minutes to put together and are so cheap that these were the recipes they taught to people depending on the food bank of Sacramento for their food. People on the site awhile back were seeing how cheap they could eat and were posting daily that their meals for the day were under $4 and even $3 - I spend a lot more because I like fancy fruit like mangos and honeycrisp apples and exotic veggies. What I have learned to to avoid things like Weight Watchers and all those commercially prepared foods. The best and healthiest foods are found in the produce aisle, generally don't come in boxes or bags and have simple list of ingredients with no chemical names. A bag of frozen mixed veggies and a bag of frozen brown rice is much healthier - just add your spices or a small amount of condiments to add flavor.

Are there any double blind studies on Dr. McDougall's diet showing what it can or can't do?

Yes the Multiple Sclerosis is a double blind study - and the other doctors I mentioned publish their work in peer reviewed medical journals that are highly regarded main-stream read by most Drs. in their respective field- I looked Dr. McDougall up in PubMed - he has articles in JAMA, Circulation, Mayo Clin Proc, Arch Intern Med for example.

I forgot to mention Dr. Neal Barnard if someone has type 2 diabetes

I do think hormones play a role, but I had many of my symptoms since I was a young child. Diet also plays a role with hormones - both the types and quantities of hormones we produce can be affected by diet.

[jasonsmith]

I'm a lazy cook - if I can't prepare a meal in under 20 minutes, well I just look for another recipe. Jeff Novick has Snap meals as a sticky in his forum on Dr. McDougall's site which are meals that use a few ingredients, take about 5 minutes to put together and are so cheap that these were the recipes they taught to people depending on the food bank of Sacramento for their food. People on the site awhile back were seeing how cheap they could eat and were posting daily that their meals for the day were under $4 and even $3 - I spend a lot more because I like fancy fruit like mangos and honeycrisp apples and exotic veggies. What I have learned to to avoid things like Weight Watchers and all those commercially prepared foods. The best and healthiest foods are found in the produce aisle, generally don't come in boxes or bags and have simple list of ingredients with no chemical names. A bag of frozen mixed veggies and a bag of frozen brown rice is much healthier - just add your spices or a small amount of condiments to add flavor.

I hardly drink milk. About the only time is if I have a bowl of cereal once in a very long blue moon. I used to eat cereal alot many many years ago. But I don't really anymore.

Do you have a link for these Snap Meals? I'll look at it. Though, I'm really used to fast meals that need little to no preparation. The main thing for my meals were quick microwavable meals. Or stuff that you could grab and eat. Though, I know alot of those aren't good for you. I plan on eating more fruits and vegetables though. The good thing is those are fast and easy to eat.

But I have alot of fatigue. So, I'm doing pretty good just making toast or making a simple sandwich.

When in town, I'm used to getting fast food. But what I plan on doing if I'm in town and want/need to get something to eat. I'll probably get a subway.

[Skylar]

I hardly drink milk. About the only time is if I have a bowl of cereal once in a very long blue moon. I used to eat cereal alot many many years ago. But I don't really anymore.

Do you have a link for these Snap Meals? I'll look at it. Though, I'm really used to fast meals that need little to no preparation. The main thing for my meals were quick microwavable meals. Or stuff that you could grab and eat. Though, I know alot of those aren't good for you. I plan on eating more fruits and vegetables though. The good thing is those are fast and easy to eat.

But I have alot of fatigue. So, I'm doing pretty good just making toast or making a simple sandwich.

When in town, I'm used to getting fast food. But what I plan on doing if I'm in town and want/need to get something to eat. I'll probably get a subway.

For fast food I like a baked potato and plain salad at Wendys but my favorite is Chipotle (black beans, lots of different salsas and lettuce salad). Subway is tricky and always a compromise since they have healthier but not truly healthy choices.

Okay, here are the links:(edited to remove direct links to the sales site, you will have to copy and paste, and they will lead to the forum part of the site, Linda)
drmcdougall.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=10519 this is where Jeff describes the science/nutrients behind the meals - there is one recipe but he didn't suggest any spices - add what you like


drmcdougall.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7168 - these are the recipes. They really can be used as ideas on how to make what you like to eat quickly - so adapt them to your taste.

BTW, I never really knew if my fatigue was due to SS or fibromyalgia or what? But iI now have normal energy and sometimes too much LOL I don't miss it. Between the fatigue and all the swelling in my muscles making it hard to chop veggies or even to stand and work in the kitchen - I have to say changing my diet to eat this way was a real struggle for the first few days. I had to push through it to see the sunlight at the end of the tunnel.  Unfortunately DH doesn't know how to cook beyond picking up take away at a restaurant. LOL

[jasonsmith]

I hardly drink milk. About the only time is if I have a bowl of cereal once in a very long blue moon. I used to eat cereal alot many many years ago. But I don't really anymore.

Do you have a link for these Snap Meals? I'll look at it. Though, I'm really used to fast meals that need little to no preparation. The main thing for my meals were quick microwavable meals. Or stuff that you could grab and eat. Though, I know alot of those aren't good for you. I plan on eating more fruits and vegetables though. The good thing is those are fast and easy to eat.

But I have alot of fatigue. So, I'm doing pretty good just making toast or making a simple sandwich.

When in town, I'm used to getting fast food. But what I plan on doing if I'm in town and want/need to get something to eat. I'll probably get a subway.

For fast food I like a baked potato and plain salad at Wendys but my favorite is Chipotle (black beans, lots of different salsas and lettuce salad). Subway is tricky and always a compromise since they have healthier but not truly healthy choices.

Okay, here are the links: (edited to remove link to direct sales site)

drmcdougall /forums] this is where Jeff describes the science/nutrients behind the meals - there is one recipe but he didn't suggest any spices - add what you like

[url=http://www.drmcdougall.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7168]http://www.drmcdougall.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7168 - these are the recipes. They really can be used as ideas on how to make what you like to eat quickly - so adapt them to your taste.

BTW, I never really knew if my fatigue was due to SS or fibromyalgia or what? But iI now have normal energy and sometimes too much LOL I don't miss it. Between the fatigue and all the swelling in my muscles making it hard to chop veggies or even to stand and work in the kitchen - I have to say changing my diet to eat this way was a real struggle for the first few days. I had to push through it to see the sunlight at the end of the tunnel.  Unfortunately DH doesn't know how to cook beyond picking up take away at a restaurant. LOL

Thanks. I'll check it out. I had been wanting to get off of drinking cokes. But every time I quit, I can't get to sleep. Strange. But I'm going to wean myself off instead of stopping cold turkey.

I had been wanting to eat healthiers for years. But one of the few things I've got left is enjoying bad food. But my recent blood test said I had real high triglycerides. So, that modivated me to cut out the fats and sugar and bad food in general. I figure if eating the right foods has a noticable benefit, it will probably take time since I've been eating bad stuff for decades.

I was drinking like 5 cokes a day. And now realized that one 12ounce coke has more sugar than you are supposed to have in one day. I'm lucky my glucose and cholesteral have always been good. But figure I need to change as I don't want to get diabetes, etc.

[Skylar]

Good luck kicking the Coke habit. My daughter is addicted and drinks a ton too - she had to stop Coke for health reasons and had terrible withdrawal headaches from the caffeine - take care with this.

BTW, if you're drinking regular coke there is plenty of sucrose and high fructose corn syrup in there - Fructose can raise triglycerides as can simple carbohydrates - such as in processed foods like white bread, cookies etc. 

[jasonsmith]

Good luck kicking the Coke habit. My daughter is addicted and drinks a ton too - she had to stop Coke for health reasons and had terrible withdrawal headaches from the caffeine - take care with this.

BTW, if you're drinking regular coke there is plenty of sucrose and high fructose corn syrup in there - Fructose can raise triglycerides as can simple carbohydrates - such as in processed foods like white bread, cookies etc.

Yeah, I think it was the cokes giving me high triglycerides. But I had read one possible cause of high triglycerides is hypothyroidism. As my body temperature is always on the low side.

[Still in the hunt]

I used to drin a gallon of milk about every 2 days,, now I dont drink it al all, I cant get it down, and it just tears my stomach up,, anything salty,, forget it,, makes my mouth worse,, if thats possible,, i think next step is removal of paratoid glands,,

[Skylar]

Yeah, I think it was the cokes giving me high triglycerides. But I had read one possible cause of high triglycerides is hypothyroidism. As my body temperature is always on the low side.

Yes hypothyroidism can raise it too - Have you been tested - I have Hashimoto's and it seems to be pretty common here?

Still in the hunt, I hope you are feeling better soon.

[jasonsmith]

Yeah, I think it was the cokes giving me high triglycerides. But I had read one possible cause of high triglycerides is hypothyroidism. As my body temperature is always on the low side.

Yes hypothyroidism can raise it too - Have you been tested - I have Hashimoto's and it seems to be pretty common here?

Still in the hunt, I hope you are feeling better soon.

I believe my thyroid stuff came up normal. There was a doc who did prescribe some thryoid medication like I was hypothyroid because of my low body temp. It was a starter pack. Where you take a small dose. Then in the morning, take your temp. Then keep increasing the dose until your morning body temp is where it is supposed to be. I forget what temp. Then you figure out what your dosage is.

But I think that thyroid stuff was increasing my heart rate, and I think it was giving me sleep problems. So, I never finished the starter pack to get a prescription.

[4Kids]

I fully believe I have secondary Sjogren's brought on by PCOS which has something to do with insulin affecting my hormone levels. I think that the link has not been proven medically yet but it is waiting to be. In my particular case everything presented together with PCOS first and the Sjogren's was the loud ringing bell which finally got me help for everything.

I have no doubt it is totally linked to hormones, insulin and something else I am not sure of. You could not convince me otherwise.

[Skylar]

Hi,

I can only find that is supposed to be a double bind study on the diet for MS but I cannot find the study or the results.

Has this study been started?

If it has been completed where do I look for the results?

Luckily I have an apt with my Rhuemy later this month so he should be able to help me more on this issue, but in the meantime I just can't pull anything but there is supposed to be a study.  My computer skills are not always the best so it could just me.

confused, there is nothing published yet. It's been ongoing for a year or two and will take another year or two before all the patients enrolled and then they need time to be on the diet (or not on the diet as the control). They may publish preliminary results when they have some - but I haven't seen anything from this yet. I'm interested in it too because I was Dx with MS for quite a few years before they changed it to SS. Here is some info: http://www.ohsu.edu/xd/about/news_events/news/2009/studyoflowfatdietandms.cfm  This article also mentions Dr. Roy Swank who started this kind of work in the 1950's.

[Skylar]

I won't be convinced unless I see the results of the double blind study from Oregon Health Sciences or somewhere as good.

Too many things come out touted as something that is supposed good to be for you, and then later, after a study you find out it is bad or usless.

Thanks

I agree, many things turn out to be different. He did a smaller study - not double blinded - rather single-blinded and for a very short duration on rheumatoid arthritis. These studies are extremely expensive and there are no drug companies to fund this kind of research - in fact no company will fund this because there is no money to be made telling people to eat fruits and vegetable from the produce department- so most of this is funded with his own money.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11890437 Of course there is tons of research on heart disease, type 2 diabetes etc. by the doctors I mentioned but no one else was, unfortunately concerned with autoimmune disease to study it.

[sugarbugar]

I have to agree that diet can make a big difference in how one feels. However, I feel not every diet works for everyone. Dr. McDougal cuts out all fat and all animal protein and Paleo diet cuts out all grains and legumes, including dairy. I have heard arguments for them both working against Auto Immune disease and yet both diets are drastically different. I think if everyone is to stay away from refined sugar, processed foods and eat wholesome foods such as nuts, seeds, fruits, veggies, grass-fed beef, free-range chicken and eggs, we are feeding our bodies what it needs to properly function. Yes, there are foods out there that are inflammatory to the body and should be avoided such as the dark shade vegetables. But, some people can handle these, even with auto-immune disease.
There is always going to be a study showing this or that for diets. I feel people need to eat what is best for them, what makes them feel good. For some it'll be Dr. McDougal's vegan diet, for other's, it'll be the Paleo Diet.
I also think B12 can and does play a role in nerve type diseases such as MS. However, I don't believe it's the cure all. My Dr's were shocked to find my B12 numbers are completely normal yet I have Autonomic Neuropathy. B12 isn't the answer for everyone unfortunately. For those that are low in it, or even vitamin D, supplementing can help. I'm just on guard with people saying that B12 can help everyone. I don't feel it's the case.
As with food, it helps on an individual basis. Each and everyone of us is so uniquely made, what may help one, may not help the other. I think it's great when people post what has helped them, it gives people hope it can help them too, I just think we need to remember we're all individuals, and so are the diets.

[susan]

Gursie,
My onset was like yours----started at puberty, went into high gear at menopause. I believe hormones played a part for me, as does a family history of autoimmune illness.