One up front, and one in the back by Ed Yourdon, on Flickr

I was researching the answer to a question I received on a previous post and came across this case study:

 A recent patient of mine was a 67-year-old retired white male who gave a history of diabetes for about 4 years. He suffered from the typical symptoms including high blood pressure in the 160/95 range, diminishing eyesight and the recent onset of protein in his urine. This patient was about 35-40 pounds overweight, and he complained of increasing fatigue and lethargy.

Increasing fatigue and lethargy. Aren’t those hallmark symptoms of depression?

In The Schwarzbein Principle, Diana Schwarzbein MD links high insulin levels, primarily caused by high-carbohydrate, low-fat diets to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, oxidative stress, depression, eating disorders and obesity. Again, high insulin levels are associated with depression.

The American Diabetes Association, Mayo Clinic and WebMD all agree that people with diabetes are at risk for depression, although no consensus has been reached at all as to which comes first: the depression or the diabetes.

In a very unscientific and informal poll of my friends, family and Twitter followers, every one of those who responded as having been diagnosed as diabetic or pre-diabetic had been medicated for depression during the decade prior the diabetes diagnosis. And of those who were prescribed SSRIs before their diabetes diagnosis, not one of the prescribing physicians recommended checking their blood sugar status.

So which came first: the insulin resistance or the SSRI and depression?

The NIMH says:

Some antidepressants may cause weight gain as a side effect and may not be the best depression treatment if you have diabetes. These include:

tricyclics
monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOI drugs)
paroxetine (paxil), an SSRI
mirtazapine (remeron)

Healthier Talk.com puts it this way:

Depression causes diabetes and diabetes causes depression. The latest study to confirm this relationship was out of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and involved over 65,000 female participants between the ages of 50 and 75. The researchers found that the clinically depressed women in the sample group had a 17 percent higher incidence of diabetes than non-depressed subjects, even after adjusting for other risk factors such as obesity. Interestingly, those women taking antidepressants had an even higher rate of diabetes, at 25 percent.

Conversely, for those women who already had diabetes, the risk of developing depression was alarmingly high — 29 percent greater than in the population at large. And for those women taking insulin to control their diabetes, that percentage of depression jumped to a 53 percent increase over non-diabetic women.

A study in the European Journal of Pharmacology puts a pretty fine point on it:

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors fluoxetine and fluvoxamine induce hyperglycemia.

So, again, which came first, the depression or the diabetes? It doesn’t matter. The causes and remedies are so similar that treating one will treat the other as long as the treatment includes the natural steps of increased activity, fresh air and sunshine and real food in appropriate proportions.

For my friends and family, I recommend the following steps:

1. Cut back on the carbs. Carbohydrate intake from all sources is positively correlated to insulin resistance. Focus on clean, real food and traditional methods of preparation.
2. Get exercise in the sunshine and fresh air every day. By all means, if it’s dangerously cold or hot or otherwise a bad idea to go outside, exercise indoors. Find something you enjoy and do it!
3. Stay off prescription medicines if you can and manage your own symptoms. If you truly need them, they are a blessing, but they can create more problems than they solve. Your first steps should be toward self-management, not the pharmacy.
4. Develop a lifestyle of thankfulness and service to others.

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday and Fight Back Friday.

Back pain (joint pain, pain in general)
Body odor
Cravings for chocolate (beyond the normal “yum”, the “give me chocolate or die” variety)
Exhaustion from exercise (a thirty minute walk requiring a full day of rest for recovery)
Insulin resistance
PMS  (in a house full of girls, not good)
Tics

And at one point or another, many of us have suffered from:
Arthritis – Rheumatoid and Osteoarthritis
Auto immune disorders – all types
Cavities
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Depression
Gut disorders (food allergies)
Headaches (no, it isn’t normal for a kid to have to take aspirin on a regular basis)
High cholesterol, high triglycerides, high blood pressure
Hypoglycemia
Insomnia
Migraines and Cluster headaches
Obesity
Restless Legs Syndrome
Syndrome X (insulin resistance)

If it would just help my hubby sleep at night, that would be worth the investment even if it never touched the rest of our issues. We eat plenty of magnesium-rich foods in the form of leafy greens, but have stopped eating grains for the time being and have never eaten large quantities of sea vegetables. Also, the magnesium in magnesium-rich foods depends entirely on the health of the soil in which they are grown, something I can’t quantify, even when choosing the local small farm organically grown varieties I love.

We started out taking a calcium magnesium blend tablet in September of last year. I added a few drops of trace ionic minerals to my kombucha, both to supplement my diet and to “feed” the scoby, as I had done with my water kefir, but didn’t see any improvement at all with any of my issues. After reading this article, I realized I needed to be supplementing transdermally because gut issues will prevent absorption of magnesium taken internally.

The first experience was not awful, but also not entirely pleasant. I used one ounce of magnesium chloride flakes dissolved in one ounce of water, put it in a spray bottle and applied about ten pumps to my upper body. The itching and stinging reminded me very much of a niacin flush. My skin turned red, but both the stinging and the redness went away after about half an hour. Tests on my lower body went better, but less magnesium is absorbed from the lower body. I tried a bath, which didn’t sting at all, and a foot bath which was wonderful. My reading told me that the mucous membranes absorb the most, so I tried swishing some in my mouth. It didn’t sting or itch and didn’t cause any problems but the taste was truly awful. It took many rinses to get the metallic taste out of my mouth. I also put some magnesium oil* in my neti pot one morning. No stinging or itching at all! Nice!

The results were very pleasing. Even the first day my overall pain level dropped to a greater degree than taking NSAIDS. Within a week my emotions were smoothing out and I could take more of the ups and downs of life without overreacting. I wasn’t doing anything else during this time to help, as a matter of fact, life continued on its turbulent way. After a couple weeks I noticed I smelled different, and stopped using my homemade deodorant entirely.

At this point I started the whole family on magnesium supplementation. Everyone took to it well except my youngest who has the extremely sensitive skin and severe food allergies. I kept diluting the oil down 1:2, 1:3, 1:5, even at a 1:10 dilution it’s painfully strong for her. She will itch and sting, her skin turns red, but then it breaks out in a rash that lasts much longer than a half hour. She can take magnesium baths and foot baths, and I can rub it into her feet as long as I don’t go above the ankles and she washes it off after 20-30 minutes. I think if the rest of the family notices improvement they will be willing to put up with the stinging and itching for a short time each day rather than just the weekly foot baths we are doing now.

I also know that rotating locations of transdermal application are important because the receptors in skin don’t work as well after several applications at the same site. So, two days a week I swish mag oil in my mouth for as long as I can bear it (easier than oil pulling, in my book), two days a week I add mag oil to my neti pot, two days a week I spray the oil on my upper body about half an hour before my shower and the seventh day I participate in the “family foot bath.”

I’ll update here any additional improvements we experience, or any problems we run into.

I must remember to mention this all to my mother-in-law who suffers terribly from Reynaud’s syndrome. The lack of interest in the medical community for finding causes and solutions for this circulatory problem is truly shocking, but there are reports that magnesium supplementation can help.

*Note: Magnesium chloride dissolved in water is called magnesium oil even though it contains no oil. This is due to its slippery texture.

Liver Muffins?

My mother’s diet is nearly bereft of organ meat and healthy fat thanks to her doctor who has scared her into believing dietary cholesterol is a big, bad meanie waiting in every bite of butter to stop her heart. It didn’t used to be that way. When I was a teen, we had liver and onions at least once a month, and liverwurst sandwiches once a week. I was never thrilled with the liver and onions, but loved liverwurst with mustard and pickles! My friends thought I was nuts.

I’ve been able to convince Mom of some new facts about organ meats…old facts, really, that the medical mainstream has ignored. But she still has an obstacle: a roommate who only eats a handful of food items and is unwilling to expand her horizons beyond them. My Christmas gift to mom this year was a year’s worth of liver pâté in single-servings to stock her freezer. Her roommate doesn’t have to smell the liver cooking, and Mom doesn’t have to go without. I started with a super recipe from Nourished Kitchen, but changed it up a little based on what was available.

Liver Pâté for One

1 lb Livers from Pasture-fed Turkeys
1 Quart Cultured Buttermilk
14 oz Ghee from Grass-fed Cows
2 Large Shallots
2 Tablespoons Fresh Thyme
½ Cup Sherry

Rinse livers gently, pat dry and put in a bowl with buttermilk. Allow livers to soak in buttermilk at least 4 hours, preferably overnight. Drain livers and rinse again.

Heat 4 oz. ghee in a skillet until melted. Slice shallots thinly then add to ghee and brown. Pat livers dry then add to the onions and ghee. Simmer gently until cooked through and until the liquid they release has evaporated. Add the thyme and sherry, scraping up any browned bits from the skillet. Allow to cook down until the sound changes from bubbling to sizzling. Let skillet cool to room temperature.

Add liver mixture and 8 oz. of softened ghee to blender or food processor and process until smooth. Melt the remaining 2 oz. of ghee. Put paper cupcake liners into a cupcake pan with 12 holes. Spoon pâté into paper liners and pour melted ghee on top. Allow to set in the fridge for a few hours or overnight, then stack the pate cups, roll the stack in parchment paper and store in an airtight plastic container or bag in the freezer. Let the pâté come to room temperature before enjoying.

This post is part of Fat Tuesday, Real Food Wednesday and Fight Back Friday.

Look at the grass!

Pastured butter is an amazing food. Plain old, regular store bought butter is okay, but along with it comes all the baggage of mass-produced dairy: the inadequate diet of the animal, the inhumane living conditions, the illness and antibiotic use. If you are blessed enough to have a farmer locally who makes butter from his grassfed cows milk, you have a tremendous advantage.

I buy butter in large quantities when the grass is growing quickly. That May through September butter has more conjugated linoleic acid, more vitamin K2, a better Omega 3/6 ratio, more antioxidants and just crazy good flavor. It’s dark yellow to light orange in color, unlike grocery store butter which is so white it requires “natural or artificial coloring” to make it even a little yellow.

Vitamin K2 is not something we hear about in the media, unlike vitamins B, C and D, but it is extremely important because it allows other vitamins to be absorbed and properly used in the body. There’s a certain synergy at work in nutrients. You may have heard that you should include a food high in vitamin C when you serve food high in iron because the C allows better uptake of the iron. Or that Calcium and Magnesium should be taken together because the Magnesium encourages Calcium uptake. Vitamin K2 works that way for vitamins A and D, two essential vitamins that support the immune system, brain, heart and bone health.

We love the flavor of pasture butter, but storing it was a challenge. Once the freezer is full, what to do? Make ghee!

Being basically lazy, I use the oven method of clarifying the butter. In other words, I put it in a pan in a 350° oven and come back in 2 hours. All the milk proteins either rise to the top to be skimmed off or sink to the bottom where they don’t budge as the oil is poured off. I carefully skim the top and pour the oil through cheesecloth into clean, warm and dry canning jars.

Ghee, or butter oil, is the fat of the butter without any of the milk proteins that can make it go bad. Ghee is shelf stable for up to a year, so your May to September butter can last through the winter! In the picture above you see my good, grassfed ghee next to storebought ghee. You can see the grass!

What to do with ghee? It’s a good saute oil because it has a high smoke point. The dairy allergic can use carefully prepared ghee because the milk proteins are filtered out. One of the really cool things I do with my ghee is to dropper it into capsules (not as hard as it sounds) to take with our fermented cod liver oil. The difference in price between the butter oil and cod liver oil blend and just the cod liver oil makes it worthwhile, and means I can order more CLO for what I would have paid for fewer capsules. Taking butter oil with CLO is essential in my book, you can ready why here.

One drop by 'Ian Humes, on Flickr

After hearing so much press about diabetes and how deadly it is, the great percentage of the population who is afflicted with it and what the symptoms are, I decided it was time to test. I know my doctor could run an HbA1c test, which would tell me the range of my blood sugar over a longer period of time. But I wanted a more direct association between what I ate and how my numbers were affected.

I spent nine days testing eight times a day (yes, overkill) and recording my numbers. The first three days I ate the Standard American Diet of prepared and junk food. The next three days I ate straight out of the old Food Pyramid with its 9-11 servings of grain a day. The final three days I ate my traditional diet of fermented foods and full fat. The results?

Diabetes Testing Results (PDF)

You can click on the above link to see the specifics, but in short, I am very mildly hypoglycemic. My 2AM testing ranged from 80 to 116; immediately before breakfast I ranged from 70 to 85; 2 hours after breakfast I tested at between 114 and 174; immediately before lunch my numbers went from 71 to 86; 2 hours after lunch I ranged from 116 to 168; immediately before dinner I tested at between 71 and 86; 2 hours after dinner my numbers went from 116 to 176; and at bedtime I was between 80 and 105.

All this averages out to:
2AM: 99
Immediately before breakfast: 77
2 hours after breakfast: 133
Immediately before lunch: 80
2 hours after lunch: 135
Immediately before dinner: 80
2 hours after dinner: 143
Before bed: 90

The recommended “numbers” are 70-130 before meals and less than 180 after meals.

There was one test I didn’t include: on day three I had a 12 ounce cola in mid-afternoon. One hour after drinking it, I decided to test, just for giggles and found that my blood sugar had risen to 140, a pretty high number for me in mid-afternoon, but nothing dangerous. By dinner, my sugar was back down to 83.

Curiously, what made the biggest difference in my numbers was a traditional diet. Suddenly, instead of hitting 114-123, I was reaching the 170′s after breakfast, and my other meals showed similar increases as well. I was eating far less sugar, no refined grains and generous servings of healthy fat, but my blood sugar went up. All I can conclude is that my body functioned more efficiently on a traditional diet, and that the 170′s are closer to where my sugar level needs to be. I do not subscribe to the “less is better” theory, having suffered bouts of hypoglycemia as a teen.

I’ve passed my glucose meter down to my oldest girl and encouraged her to test. She has dizzy spells, nausea, fainting, mood swings and crazy food cravings, much like I did as a teen. I have her on a traditional diet at home (but she works in fast food) and she takes Maca (an herbal remedy) to help maintain her blood sugar. I’ve bought her a bottle of Gymnema (an herb) to carry and told her she should consider taking one before each meal to help level her blood sugar as well.

I hope you’ll consider doing this experiment as well. I was pleasantly surprised. But more than anything, I learned that you can’t assume that because someone is overweight that they are a “ticking time bomb” of diabetes, ready to explode at any moment. Later this year I want to test my pulse and blood pressure numbers as well. The mad scientist in me wishes there were a convenient home test for coagulation, white blood cell count and inflammation factors!

This post is part of Fight Back Friday, hosted by the never-testy Food Renegade.

Arthritis Relief by Timothy Valentine, on Flickr

NPR ran a story yesterday, the headline of which was “Can Diets Fight Chronic Pain? The Science Isn’t There“. The upshot of the article? Doctors say diet might help, but the studies attempting to prove their findings are poorly designed. In reviewing several popular anti-inflammatory diets, the article says…

Each diet emphasizes slightly different things, but they all have plenty of antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables, fish or small amounts of lean meat, whole grains, little to no processed or refined foods, and an emphasis on omega-3 fatty acids like those found in fish oil.

Sounds like a traditional diet to me. Now, there may be some argument about the soaking of the grains, and the lack of emphasis of healthy fats and raw foods in this definition, but I really like the “little to no processed or refined foods” part.

I have a chronic pain issue, and inflammation is a major bugaboo I deal with. I absolutely can say for certain that food affects my pain level, and not just what I don’t eat, but what I do eat. For example, I can link a bad knee/back/arthritis day to sugar intake about 80% of the time. Do I need scientific studies to “prove” the association to me? No, my food and pain diary does that quite well. Will cutting back on processed and refined foods and sugar hurt me? No.

So why not take the plunge and try it? Spend a week with a small notebook jotting down what you eat and how you feel. Then go a week eating a traditional diet, keeping track of how you feel. Want more improvement? Spend another week on your good diet taking a good antioxidant and see if that makes a difference. Try a fermented cod liver oil supplement one week, too. Identify and avoid what you are sensitive or allergic to. But keep track because the changes might be too subtle to notice unless you are really paying attention. By noting what really helps and what seems to worsen your own pain or inflammation level, you will be taking charge of your own health instead of waiting for the next “miracle drug” to come down the pike (and be recalled in six months for its side effects!)

Clock by Earls37a, on Flickr

My first attempt at oil pulling was a glorious disaster! First, I couldn’t keep the oil in my mouth for more than three minutes without gagging. My facial muscles got so tired it almost hurt. And what time of day does a stay-at-home homeschooling mom have the luxury of 20 minutes without answering 300,000 questions?

Today I learned the trick. Distraction. I pinned a note to my bathrobe: “Oil pulling. Can’t talk. Yes or no questions gladly answered.” I melted two tablespoons of coconut oil on the stove while waiting for the burner to heat up before I put on the teakettle. Then, it was just a matter of staying busy until the appropriate time had come for disposal.

I made tea, fed up the sourdough and started sourdough pizza crust for dinner, fed the pets, brushed my hair, got dressed for the day, started a load of laundry and updated my iPod with the family’s calendar for the week before *DING* the timer went off. Then it was just rinse and brush.

I doubt I’ll be able to do the three-times-a-day routine that Dr. Bruce Fife recommends, but once a day is better than not at all, right?

Do you do oil pulling? Was it hard for you at first? Have you seen any improvements in your dental or general health?

Kate's Hand, 2009

If you’ve been visiting here for very long, you’ve probably heard about Kate’s struggles with hand eczema. It goes by several names like: dyshidrotic eczema, pompholyx, acute vesiculobullous hand eczema, and dyshidrotic dermatitis.

The medical establishment is not the least interested in addressing this perplexing condition. It is not a big moneymaker because 1) so few of the population suffer from it and 2) it is usually brought on by allergies, a difficult and frustrating diagnostic at best. So, those of us who have this horrible condition go it alone.

My sister and I had it as children and teens, but never severely enough to warrant medical attention. My daughter has a moderate case, often severe enough that the blisters become infected and scar. I have seen some serious cases online and it is my goal to help Kate avoid that if I can.

How we support Kate nutritionally through careful avoidance of allergens helped quite a bit. Removal of her braces (and the nickel in them that she was reacting to) helped for a while. But there was always something that made the allergy come back every year around her February birthday and last until her summer volunteering job was over in August. I still haven’t identified the allergen, but it’s late April and I’m confident that we have found something that helps!

Here is Kate’s hand today (oddly, she has only ever had the rash on her right hand!)

She has one small patch broken out between her index and middle finger, but it isn’t open, oozing or bleeding. And that’s all! What’s made the difference?

Back around Christmas I read a post about amber teething necklaces and how the succinic acid they contain can break a cycle of chronic inflammation. I immediately thought of my oldest daughter, of the bone in her forearm that has been broken three times and the pain and stiffness she has when the weather turns nasty. But then I remembered that allergies are inflammatory responses! Could Kate’s hand eczema be improved by wearing amber near the inflammation?

Kate (and Blair) got amber bracelets for Christmas and have been wearing them 24/7 taking them off only to shower. Blair no longer complains about stiffness in her arm and hand before a rainstorm and the difference in Kate’s skin is nothing short of shocking. I wanted her to take the bracelet off for a month to see if the symptoms returned, but I can’t pry it off her wrist. She is so thrilled to not have a “leprous hand” anymore!

I don’t know if it will help you, and I don’t claim to understand all the science behind it. But I am absolutely sold. There are many places that sell Baltic Amber bracelets, eBay and Etsy included, but I didn’t want to pay for Baltic Amber and get brown-colored resin. I purchased my bracelets from Inspired by Finn and can highly recommend their products and service. I receive no compensation for this mention.

Above all, if you suffer from an ignored medical condition, keep the faith. Keep trying new things to find relief because it could come in a most surprising way! This post is part of Fight Back Friday, hosted by Food Renegade.

pancakes by rachelsbabies, on Flickr

Why?

My family caught this year’s winter cold and though some of us are over it just fine, some of us keep catching it back. One child is on their third go-round with it, and others are having some of the symptoms of ear and sinus infections. No one is running a fever, so I’m not rushing to the doctor for antibiotics. I know from experience that our mild infections heal themselves when given the opportunity.

But I also know that gently assisting our immune systems through nutrition and herbal medicine can help our bodies heal more quickly and efficiently. Vitamin D is a major player when dealing with illness and infection, that the body needs optimal levels of D to fight disease and heal itself once stricken.

One tablespoon of lard contains about 400 I.U. of vitamin D. Now, we’re not talking here about the green and white label hydrogenated lard made from CAFO pork on a grocery store shelf. I couldn’t tell you the amount of vitamin D in that kind of lard, but the hydrogenation process and the stewardship of the animals it is produced from makes it a food I wouldn’t eat. My lard is from pastured pork, who spend their days in the sunshine, eating their native diet and occasionally getting a good ear scratch.

How?

I cook sourdough pancakes in groups of three in a skillet. For each group of three, I put about a tablespoon of lard into the skillet and let it melt, swirling it around the pan to distribute it evenly before adding the batter.

Did it taste “porky?”

No! Not at all! Lard is a very bland fat when rendered properly and is a good fat for things like biscuits, pie crusts and pan-greasing like this.

Lucky extra!

My pancakes slid out of the pan like I was filming a non-stick skillet infomercial. I barely needed to touch the pan when I was washing it, either. When cleanup is that easy, I really love cooking!

This post is part of Real Food Wednesdays, hosted by Kelly the Kitchen Kop.

There’s a cold bug making its way through the family. Well, some of the family. Those of us who have been taking our cod liver oil and elderberry syrup daily are not experiencing any symptoms at all. Ah, but those who balk have got it good. This year’s bug starts with a dry cough and a whopper of a headache just before the nasal drainage sets in for days and days.

There are some good food remedies for a cold in this recipe. Garlic and onion strengthen the system and can help your body keep a virus from developing into secondary infections. Strong spice like cumin can help clear the sinuses. Homemade bone broth, rich in flavor and nutrition provide a sickly body the strength it needs to heal. And lard is very high in vitamin D, which both helps the body heal and avoid viruses.

I’m not a fanatic about the whole “Meatless Monday” movement. But I do like to make a meatless dinner once a week. It keeps the budget on an even keel. Sickies in the house like meatless meals as well, for they don’t tax the digestion as much as rich meats do.

I made this Congri, a Cuban Black Beans and Rice meal, this week. I made it strong on purpose. You might want to take the spices a little easier, tasting as you go. A few notes after the recipe on some variations.

Congri (Cuban Black Beans and Rice)

2 cups cooked black beans
2 cups cooked brown rice
1/2 cup homemade chicken stock
2 teaspoons oregano
2 tablespoons cumin
sea salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons lard
1 large onion
1 cup chopped frozen bell pepper
4 cloves garlic, minced finely

Warm the beans and rice in chicken stock and spices over low heat. While it heats, separately melt the lard in a medium frying pan. Add the chopped onion and allow to soften, about 10 minutes. Add the bell pepper and garlic when the onion is nearly done and cook for about 2 minutes. Add the cooked onion mixture to the beans and rice and serve.

If you have days to plan this meal, your healthiest option is to sprout the beans and germinate the rice before cooking both in stock. If you have only hours, cooking the beans and rice in stock from dried works fine. If you have leftover rice in the fridge or freezer and feel a bug coming on, you can still make this with canned beans, but please rinse the beans thoroughly first.

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday, hosted by Kelly the Kitchen Kop. No balker, she!