MEAL REPLACEMENT SHAKE
This recipe really works to curb appetite....... or strengthen
those with no appetite!
2-3 large bananas Potassium
300-350 mls Skimmed Milk
150-200mls Coconut Milk Highly nutritious water
50mls Kefir Milk Excellent Probiotic and good for weight loss
1 tlbs Baoabab powder Packed full of Vit C and very filling as it expands in the gut
1 tlbs Slippery Elm Powder Excellent powder for loss of
appetite and also filling. Healing to tissue
Vanilla essence for flavour but also treats intestinal gas
Whizz in your processor or milkshake maker
This recipe makes enough for two meals
Please make sure you realise this is not replacing a healthy
balance diet!!
Excellent tho to lose weight and balance the gut.
Also good for those with acid reflux.
For those who are trying to control acid reflux naturally......arecipe for Lozenges is on its way!
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Having had Lupus antibodies and all the symptoms of full blown Lupus and also now having a diagnosis of Fibromyalgia, I am not sure which is the lesser of the evils.
Both illnesses are hideously debilitating, painful and frustrating in equal measure.
Can anything be done to alleviate the strain of constant chronic pain and even send it into some kind of remission?
The answer for some will be yes.
Although I have diplomas in Herbalism and Aromatherapy I still struggle, big time, to keeps these illnesses at bay. Particularly when life is throwing situations head on that can cause stress and anxiety.
It is difficult to help yourself, What doctor will treat themselves if chronically ill? It is always correct to seek help.
I choose natural help and find that it is the solution to keeping relatively good health and to be able to maintain a near normal life style even while coping with the condition.
We can do this without heavy drugs!
Herbal medicine is powerful and needs to be treated with the utmost respect. The secret, I feel, is to take control and responsibility for your own illness. You are the one that knows best how you feel and therefore you are your own best advisor.
However effort needs to be taken to do the research and seek the correct help.
I am giving a few links here to a few people that have websites and media presence that can really help.
Dr Josh Axe. https://draxe.com/natural-fibromyalgia-treatment/
For those in the South of the Uk a wonderful Herbalist who deals in Natural Western Herbal and Functional Medicine, which looks at the root causes of illness and dis-ease
https://www.sussexherbalist.co.uk/
Medical Doctor http://http://drhyman.com/blog/2010/07/30/how-to-stop-attacking-yourself-9-steps-to-heal-autoimmune-disease//blog/2010/07/30/how-to-stop-attacking-yourself-9-steps-to-heal-autoimmune-disease/
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I have to say that throughout twenty two years of managing my own auto-immune disease I have always tried to avoid the subject of Gluten or no Gluten.
It has always seemed to be a step too far. Bread flour is a staple and to mess with other alternatives does seem too intricate and bothersome.
I have always tried not to be too obsessed with intake. The illness itself is hard to manage already as it does affect your life and to take pleasures away seems unnecessarily harsh.(who doesn't love the occasional cake , bagel, doughnut)
However, it is good to be informed of the possible dangers and side effects of Gluten. Then we can make our own choices.
In my search I have discovered much about so many pitfalls in our diets that can worsen our disease or, dare I say, even cause our illness?
The last blog briefly talked about Aspartame in foodstuffs. I really have no doubt in my own mind that yes, Aspartame does have immediate and dramatic effects of the health of a person suffering autoimmune disease.
From personal experience I feel that the effect is felt within one or two days or consumption! We can choose to help ourselves or hurt ourselves, and, I have to say that when I give into the urge to drink a Diet Cola I most certainly do hurt myself! Without a doubt pain will come and brain fog and all the debilitating symptoms that make up Fibromyalgiaand Lupus. I try to avoid aspartame like the plague but on the odd occasion I seem to excuse it and trust it not to hurt too much then hey presto it never fails!! Foolish of me I know.
soo...... back to the Gluten issue. Is it just as harmful?
Frankly? The answer is yes. Through experience I truly believe that some Gluten can have a seriously bad effect of our health and well-being.
It seems to be proven that it is highly likely that Gluten can seriously aggrevate or even cause the symptoms of many twenty-first century illnesses.
It is at least worthy of examination surely?
As usual in my blogs I must reiterate that I am talking through my own experience and limited medical knowledge.
I am diploma trained in Herbalism for my own benefit. I am an aromatherapist, again for my own use, and I make no claims to be trained in any other medical sciences.
I do however like to point folk to the experts who do know exactly what they are saying. There are somany opinions and I am just putting some of them out there for you to come to your own conclusions.
One thing that all seem to agree on is that Gluten can and does cause damage and inflammation in the digestive tract.
For many that are sensitive this can trigger or even cause severe autoimmune problems. The most commonly known, obviously, is Celiac Disease.
Gluten may not be the cause of your particular autoimmune disease but surely a person with any autoimmune condition needs to give their bodies bucket loads of TLC. Anything that may cause extra inflammation is not required and to be avoided in ordernot to aggravate an already struggling immune system.
Bearing in mind that some autoimmunediseases can be life threatening, surely we should be aware of dangers?
Amy Myers MDhas a very clear and extremely informative site that deals with Gluten along side other very useful subjects such as Gut Healthand Stress. Also, other majorleyimportant issues in the battle with auto immune disease
I must say that becoming Gluten free is a bit of a challenge but, with the right pointers, very do-able. there are many products out there right now in most supermarkets that can help in this regard. Perhaps a little more expensive but what price your health?
For those trying to cook from scratch in a non Gluten way there are many books at the library and in the bookshops explaining the use of different kinds of flour such as Coconut Flour, Teff Flour, Brown Rice Flour and other products that can help in the baking process such as Potato Starch, Xanthum Gum.
Click on this link below for a fabulous website that really helps to start up a Gluten free lifestyle. Especially good if you are disabled and having to manage of a tight budget as the title suggests it is possible to be Gluten free on a Budget. Happy days!
https://glutenfreeonashoestring.com/all-purpose-gluten-free-flour-recipes/
I would be so happy to have comments from those of you with auto-immune illness of any sort who have found that cutting out Gluten has improved symptoms of the illness. Also if you have any advise, favourite recipes or tips for those yet to begin a journey of Gluten free living that would be wonderful!
Lets help each other!
My very best regards to all.
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We need to understand that just because we dont have lots of money it is still possible to eat well on a budget, enjoy healthy homecooked meals and avoid foods that hurt us.
Shall we firstly examine a small selection the foods that would most definately hurt and and also the reasons why. Lets do this over the next few blogs.
Lets take first
Aspartame. One of my pet subjects....why produce aspartame?
What products contain it? What does it do to us?
Aspartame is found in many food products such as Diet drinks, flavoured syrups i.e the type they mayadd to a lattein a coffee shop. (Yes I agree...sooo tempting) The list goes on.. Yoghurts, deserts, condiments, meal replacements, even flavoured waters
What is the harm?
Aspartameis known to actually produce many of the symptoms associated with auto immune disease. I know this from bitter experience. Now....I am gonna hit you with a great long list. I gotta start typing...sorry but there is no other way. The list is long!
Actually no.....its a very long list. There is no way I am typing it for you. Gonna be really lazy and refer you to the original author
Dr Janet Hull
Thank goodness for these people that do all this work for us to enable awareness!A Sweet Poison
have you read this now? If you didnt read that link please do It is vital that we inform ourselves!
Enough said about aspartame!!
Next blog will be on the subject of Gluten!
If you have any stories of helping yourselves by avoiding Aspartame and improving your health please comment on this blog We would love to hear your stories!
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Total Body Load (Burden)
This is the patient=s total pollutant load of whatever source (usually from air, food, and water or surroundings).1,2,4 The body must cope with this total burden; usually, it must be utilized, expelled, or compartmentalized. Total body load includes (1) physical factors (e.g., hot, cold, weather changes, positive ions,5 electromagnetic phenomena,6 radon), (2) toxic chemicals (e.g., inorganics: Pb, Cd, Hg, Al, Br, etc.; organics: pesticides, formaldehyde, phenols, car exhausts, etc.),7-21 (3) biological (bacteria, virus, parasites, molds,22 food),23,24 (4) psychological or emotional factors also significantly affect the patient, confirmed by recent work in psychoneuroimmunology, linking the psyche and the neuroendocrine and immune systems.25-28 Failure to reduce the total body load prior to pollutant challenge will frequently yield inaccurate results. Accordingly, we believe it is essential to conduct investigative procedures in controlled environmental circumstances with the total load reduced.
Adaptation (Masking, Acute Toxicological Tolerance)
Induced by the internal or external environment, this is a change in the homeostasis (steady state) of body function with adjustment to a new Aset point.@29-32 Adaptation is an acute survival mechanism in which the individual Agets used to@ a constant toxic exposure in order to survive, at the same time suffering a long-term decrease in efficient functioning and perhaps longevity. Selye was among the first to describe this compensatory mechanism.33 Because of adaptation or tolerance, the patient=s total body load may increase undetected because the perception of a cause-and effect relationship is lost. With no apparent correlated symptoms, repeated exposures may continue to damage his immune and enzyme detoxification systems.34-35 The eventual result of continued toxic exposure over a period of days, weeks, months to years is end-organ failure. Withdrawal or avoidance of an offending substance for at least four days will aid in reducing the total body load, after which a controlled re-exposure challenge will reproduce cause-and-effect reactions. In these deadapted individuals, there is high reproducibility of these evoked reactions permitting the physician to acquire sound scientific information.
Bipolarity
After an exposure, the body initially develops a bipolar response of a stimulatory phase, followed by a depressive phase,1,29,37 usually with induction of immune and enzyme detoxification systems.38 If the incitant is strong enough, or if substantial size or duration of exposure occurs, the induced enzyme and immune detoxification systems are depleted or depressed by overstimulation and overutilization. An individual may also initially experience a stimulatory reaction in the brain, perceiving the inciting substance not as being harmful, but as actually producing an energizing Ahigh.@ Therefore, he continues to acquire more exposures. After a period of time, however, be it minutes, months, or years, his body=s defenses are adversely overstimulated, and he develops disabling depression-exhaustion symptoms.31 This stimulation and depression-exhaustion pattern has been observed with many pollutant exposures, including ozone.12,30 When studying the effects of pollutants upon adapted individuals, the stimulatory phase is often missed or misinterpreted as being normal, thus giving faulty data. Studies in the controlled environment, involving 16,000 challenges in 2,000 deadapted patients, has proven this bipolarity phenomenon repeatedly.
Lots of love to all of you fellow sufferers and your families.]]>
Been very busy with a new project!!
Found what I have been looking for! Tropic Skincare.
Take a look at Tropic at www.tropicskincare.com
You cant do better if you are looking for a luxurious and fragrant body product range. Its heavenly.
Look at why I promote it at Facebook/Tropic Pure Botanical Skincare Sussex with Karen Hale.
Also check out Facebook/LupusNaturalHealing
Hope you are all as well as you can be. Take care everyone!!]]>
What fantastic weather we have had. Take advantage and plant up the gardens with those herbs! Especially calming and stress reducing ones. Lemon Balm is one of the best. Look it up on the Medicine Chest.
This is just a quick post today so I wish everyone a good day and please try to use the Forum as this will really be a good way to share and get things off our chest in a more private way.
Have a good day all :-)]]>
Well I'm back in the land of the living. Its been a rough winter for so many and we are still expecting more!! Personally, not had a great winter. Just been trying to keep a low profile so as not too go into another full blown flare.
Time to come out of self imposed hibernation!
Just had news that I am now qualified as an aromatherapist. Looking forward to completing a massage practical course and then all systems go!
Been working on a few ideas for natural cosmetics. Dabbling with making my own moisturisers and lotion etc. Great fun! and so easy really.
How many of you guys out there would be interested if I were to do a few workshops?
We all know how harmful chemicals can be and it is so easy just to get a few oils together and create tailor-made oils specifically for your own skin. Or, perhaps you need to make creams that tackle problems like excema or psoriasis. Let me show you how you can help yourself.
Can you let me know if you would be up for a workshop? I can get some idea of interest and hopefully plan this thing!
Hoping you guys are all doing well and have a good summer ahead!
Take care!]]>
Its been wonderful to have a bit of sunshine lately. It makes me feel like going into the garden and greenhouse.
The latest additions are some culinary herbs. Basil is growing nicely along with some thyme, chives, coriander and a few others whose names escape me at the moment.
Great to think that these herbs can be added to cooking and salads but still be really useful too as support to our systems! Never under estimate the medicinal benefit of culinary herbs!
Coriander for instance has a multitude of benefits . It has lots of anti oxidants, vitamin-A, vitamin-C and minerals like phosphorus in the essential oils in it which prevents aging of the eye, macular degeneration and soothes eyes against stress.
It has iron which along with vitamin C strengthens the immune system and helps prevent iron deficient anaemia
It helps proper secretion from the endocrine glands, it also helps proper secretion of the hormones and thereby inducing proper menstrual cycles and reducing pains etc. during periods.
Do you have High Cholesterol? Then coriander can help. Some of the acids present in coriander such as linoleic acid, oleic acid, palmitic acid, stearic acid and ascorbic acid (vitamin-C) are very effective in reducing the cholesterol level in the blood. At the same time as helping to reduce the cholesterol deposition along the inner walls of the arteries and veins.
It is an excellent appetizer and helps to stimulate the appetite.
It is anti-carcinogenic, anti-convulsant, anti-histaminic and hypnotic.
These are just some of the benefits! Not to mention the wonderful flavour it imparts to curries and salads.
What a herb! Needless to say I have a copious amount of this generous herb in my greenhouse.
Well enough of my raving! Hope you all have a good day!]]>