All of the above changed dramatically two days after I started following a vegan (no meat, chicken and fish), dairy, wheat/gluten and sugar free (except for natural sugars in fruit and honey) way of eating ("diet", but not to lose weight). I started the "diet" on the evening of Saturday 25 August. That morning I was on my usual one hour walk and decided that I was sick of having to continually pull my stomach in, which I suspected had a negative effect on my breathing and consequently must lead to loss of oxygen/inability to concentrate. If I couldn't cure my CD, then at least I could start dealing with fundamental problem of bloating. I had read that steaming food is the best way to maintain nutrients in food so I researched and bought an 'Intellisteamer', which can be programmed to steam 3 different foods for different lengths of time. That afternoon, while researching recipes for my steamer, I came across www.nutritionfacts.org. After watching about 5 videos something clicked inside me and I 'knew' that I was going to give up the above foods. The videos that had the most impact on me were the following:
Canned tuna - geez! http://nutritionfacts.org/video/amalgam-fillings-vs-canned-tuna/
Spices http://nutritionfacts.org/video/antioxidants-in-a-pinch/
Chocolate ice cream - the more you eat the healthier you become http://nutritionfacts.org/video/a-treatment-for-chronic-fatigue-syndrome/
Best anti cancer veg http://nutritionfacts.org/video/1-anticancer-vegetable/
Chicken http://nutritionfacts.org/video/arsenic-in-chicken/ (must watch - not about how they are treated - more about what they feed them)
Dairy - mindblowing - http://nutritionfacts.org/video/nutrient-blocking-effects-of-dairy/
I also learnt that one needs to eat lots of fruit and veg to increase your oxygen levels. Haha...this reminds me of my research to increase my oxygen levels leading me to swim underwater for as long as I could every day. apparently this has an effect on your SCM (?) which helps get oxygen to the brain. friends thought I had lost it! I haven't kept this up.
Whether one has CD or not, I firmly believe that what we eat is having an immediate impact on our bodies and minds and that by eating the right food, and most importantly eliminating foods known to be polluted with chemicals/pesticides (I don't know about free range etc), we can eliminate so many of the physical and mental problems we deal with everyday. I am not advocating this diet, I am just sharing my experience in the hope that it may help and inspire someone.
I have kept a detailed food diary of my meals and moods. Here is part of a post I posted on a CD forum about 4/5 days after I started the "diet".
"The following are my moods/thoughts.
On Monday at midday, my bloating was down from a 10 to 6 and my breathing was “very relaxed, can easily take deep breaths although do not need them”. Twice during the day I noted that my neck felt like it was turning more smoothly – more relaxed, however after seeing some friends my neck got worse from trying to keep my head straight during the conversation, but fine after some time. The overwhelming sense I had was a feeling of CALM. I’ve put it in uppercaps because I it was such a dramatic experience. I wrote in my food diary“I feel like I’ve got it together, i.e. if faced with someone in conversation, I feel I could take in what they’re saying, think and reply calmly, clearly and in my own time. Not scatty and no quick, reactions without thinking”.
My initial thought on Monday when I felt the immense sense of calm was that my symptoms had greatly reduced not because of what I was eating, but because of what I was *not eating*.
On Tuesday: “My voice has changed (lighter – not raspy). I am joking with people!!”. I.e. I found I could react to people naturally. “Mood – amazing, calm, clear headed, when I hear myself talking on the phone my voice is happy, youthful and natural! Very lighthearted. Head clear. Feeling GOOD. Bloating 5″.
On Wednesday: “Feeling good. Not off the charts as previous days – 9″
Forgot to record Thursday, but I was feeling very upbeat. I feel confident that mood will be fairly constant.
This is one of the most dramatic, immediate experiences I have ever experienced. My CD hasn’t gone away, but I feel like physically and mentally I am able to cope with the CD. I feel like it has become secondary in my life because the happiness and calm I’m feeling has taken dominance."
On the Saturday evening (a week after starting the diet) I posted on the forum
"I started the new way of eating on Sunday 26th August so it has been ten days now. I cannot begin to tell you how my life has turned around. Complete 360 degrees. After 2 days I felt an incredible sense of calm and my voice became lighter and breathing less constricted. I have remained this way (with occasional bloating but not to same extent) the entire ten days. I went to a party on Saturday night and for the first time in maybe 15 years I was my old happy, light, carefree, fun self (I have been like that since 2 days after starting ‘diet’). My neck felt (and is feeling) amazing – smooth with no jerks and I held a 20-30 second conversation without my head turning. I could sense it wanting to turn but when I then felt it turning, I let out my new (semi flat!) stomach and concentrated on completely relaxing a muscle in my stomach. This in turn relaxed my neck. At the time I recognised that there must be a stomach muscle linked to the neck. I need to find out about this. So, when I stopped relaxing and it wanted to turn I relaxed my stomach completely and my neck stayed straight. It’s difficult to concentrate on letting my stomach out all the time (habit built up over years), BUT there has got to be a physical/muscular link between the two.
Other huge improvements are:
- my walking stride is longer and my arms are swinging much more freely
- my Feldenkrais exercises are much, much easier – somehow my body has lost its rigidity
- my skin overall especially on my face is 100% improved (I don’t wear concealer during the day anymore)
- my eyesight is better and I feel that when I look at someone I can actually ‘see’ them – it’s wierd but somehow my eyes are much clearer (I have never had eyesight problems).
- my thinking and concentration is hugely improved – this is probably the most significant result. I used to be able to concentrate on a conversation for about 2 seconds before my mind wandered. Now, there is no effort to concentrate.
- I can take in what people say, process it and respond appropriately, confidently and cleverly (make jokes) – I used to be talented like this, but ‘lost it’
- I am so much more relaxed and less hard on myself. I am taking rests now when I feel the need.
- I told two stories in a small group of people, which I would never have done previously. I managed to maintain eye contact and my language was lively and expressive – just how it used to be.
- lost the 3 kg’s I would have liked to lose (now I need to try and stay same weight)
- my road rage has significantly decreased. I was stopped by a traffic officer and given a fine for not carrying a fire extinguisher in my car. I felt my anger rising but it didn't get completely out of control like it used to (I didn't use to scream and shout, but I would feel a white rage coming over me).
I was trying to think when last I was my ‘old self’ and it seems to be somewhere around when I moved to Frankfurt a few months after getting married. We lived in a hotel in a very depressing area, I couldn’t work and I got severely depressed. My arm started to shake, I couldn’t handle the smallest social event and I lost all sense of myself and became very depressed. It took me years to function at a level I was happy with, but I never got the 'old me' back – until now. The depression was a ‘trauma’, then my bicycle accident (body went into complete shock) which flicked the CD switch (head started to turn about 3 months after accident). I don’t know how to say this, but even with all of that and the fact that the accident trauma may have triggered my CD, my not eating the *wrong* food (or maybe eating the *right* food) has unmasked the old me which is now able to cope with life as I should be/I have regained the skills I had lost. I now have the confidence and happiness and no anxiety which means that I’m not reacting negatively and resisting (resist was my second name), which in turn aggravates my CD. My personality now is ‘go with the flow’. I have a sense that my old self is and always will be ‘out there’, but something I was eating was blocking it.
On another note, for a long time now I have been doing Feldenkrais exercises. I am now at the point where my rotation exercises have improved dramatically. I also believe that this has something to do with my improvement as I do feel it (not nearly to the same extent as before ‘diet’ though) if I don’t do them. They are so simple, but they really, really work for me. I do however believe that it is the ‘diet’ which has had the most significant effect (personality wise – not anxious anymore) and the exercises have kept my body supple and functioning normally. Once again they are not ‘stretching’ exercises – they re-educate your body to move the way it should (Google it).
In summary,
- my sense is that I have regained my old self through not eating something that was bad for me. There are chemicals (arsenic/mercury) in so many of our foods (meat, chicken, fish) that one/some of them must have been affecting me negatively. I never get ill (touch wood) so I’ve always thought I was healthy and I just accepted that my sypmtoms (foggy head, anxiety, bloating etc) were just a normal part of life
- there must be a muscle linking the stomach to the neck? Letting my stomach out has a similar effect to the sensory trick that CD's use to stop the neck turning.
- Feldenkrais or the Santa Fe clinic exercises are very important to get your body moving naturally again and out of bad habits"
Whether one has CD or not, I firmly believe that what we eat is having an immediate impact on our bodies and minds and that by eating the right food, and most importantly eliminating foods known to be polluted with chemicals (I don't know about free range etc), we can eliminate so many of the physical and mental problems we deal with everyday.
This is a pic of me (left) before I started the new way of eating. I am shyly hanging at the edge and I can see that I’m not ‘all there’ - I can see it in my eyes. I was really battling that night – very ‘foggy’, bloated and head turning/pulling badly.
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