Gluten & Fibro Free

Summer is a great time for traveling. Many spend time outdoors attending fairs and festivals enjoying the nice weather with family and friends. But smelling the fair food can really make me feel like I am missing out on some of the fun. While we are all watching our waistlines, we definitely give in to temptation occasionally when we are out celebrating with family. Part of the fun of going to a carnival is getting to dine on your favorite greasy treat, be it a corn dog, ribbon chips, fried Twinkie or the classic funnel cake.

I have just returned home from visiting my younger brother, Justin, who is now living with his wife in Colorado Springs. Traveling from Indiana by car with my husband and son, we saw many sights and had a wonderful trip. Of course I still packed my cooler full of gluten-free goodies because I had no idea what to expect along the way. When we finally arrived in Colorado, I dined on the best gluten-free pizza I’ve ever had from a take-out restaurant. Plus the grocery stores were fully stocked with organic whole foods and gfree options. I can attest to the area being a gluten-free mecca and would happily move there, if I could convince the rest of my family.

My dad unfortunately passed away this year, so I didn’t get to visit with him on Father’s day or the 4th of July. So my trip to Colorado to see my baby brother was a much needed visit. All of us went on a day trip to the Royal Canyon Gorge park. Not only did we get a gorgeous view, but there was an incline railway, a petting zoo, a few rides, along with the typical fair food. My brother bought a funnel cake, and I reminded him to eat slowly and to chew his food properly. You see, the last time he ate funnel cakes he almost choked to death.

Gluten-Free Funnel Cake

My mom is a bit of a spendthrift and as she didn’t like spending $5 on a small funnel cake at the local Forest Festival. She thought, “Why not have funnel cakes anytime we want?” So she bought a funnel cake kit. My dad would mix these up and my younger brother would practically inhale them. One night, Justin ate one too many and it upset his stomach. In a late night run to visit the porcelain god, his stomach in angry protest began returning the food from whence it came. Unfortunately, Justin didn’t chew his food properly and some funnel cake lodged in his throat. Luckily my dad was up late that night, probably having problems sleeping. He heard Justin being sick in the bathroom and was able to give him the Heimlich Maneuver. Dad saved Justin’s life that night, true story. So after this happened to my little bro, he is able to eat funnel cake, so why can’t I? Oh the Gluten.

What if I told you there is a super easy way to make a gluten-free funnel cake, easy enough that even I can make it? So easy I made two pretty perfect ones my first time trying. The idea came to me when I was telling my mom about my brother risking eating a funnel cake again. I was reminiscing with mom about how dad use to make them. I asked her if the batter was anything like pancake batter and when she said yes, I instantly thought about Pamela’s Products. After I got off the phone, I whipped up a batch.  I’ll warn you though, they are a bit dangerous. Please chew them properly. Eat slowly and enjoy!

Gluten-Free Funnel Cake Recipe
(Follow the directions on the Pamela’s Products Pancake and Baking Mix for Waffles)

1-1/2 cups Pamela’s Mix

3/4 cup water

2 eggs separated

2 TBSP oil

You will also need clean vegetable oil for frying. You don’t want your funnel cake to taste like onion rings. For the topping you will need enough powdered sugar or brown sugar & cinnamon mix to dust on top.

To make the batter, first whip the egg whites until they are stiff. In a separate bowl combine Pamela’s Mix, egg yolks, water and oil until there are no lumps. Fold in stiff egg whites.

I mixed my batter in a large Pyrex measuring cup with a spout. I filled a medium size pot with vegetable oil. Once the oil was up to temperature, I drizzled the batter into the hot oil in circular and criss-crossing motion. I let the funnel cake fry until the bottom was golden, then flipped it to brown the other side. When it looked golden and delicious I placed it on a paper plate and tossed powdered sugar all over it. Another option would be to top them with brown sugar and cinnamon, which would taste more like an elephant ear that you would purchase at a carnival.

Upon tasting my deep fried treat, I thought it must taste so good because it has been so long since I have had one. So I had my hubby taste it and he thought it was pretty close to what you might get at a fair. Unfortunately it doesn’t reheat well, so just make as much as you can eat in one sitting. Using 1-1/2 cups of Pamela’s Mix yielded two good sized funnel cakes.

Diary, Recipes funnel cake, Gluten-Free, Pamela's Products, Recipes

Celebrating One Year Gluten-Free

On February 25, my family went out to Arni’s to celebrate my one year anniversary of when I went gluten-free. I’m sure that last year around this time I was probably thinking I would never eat pizza again, but just this past month one of my favorite restaurants started serving up a GFree Pizza that is actually pretty tasty. Frankly, I couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate this life-changing event!

When I cut gluten out of my diet last year, my health improved significantly. While it was a difficult diet to follow in the beginning, the rewards of doing so were practically immediate. Withing three days of adhering to a strict gluten-free diet, the inflammation in my body began to recede and I had more energy than I’d experienced within the past four years. I remember crying in front of the butter at the grocery store, wondering if the “natural flavor” in the generic butter meant it might contain gluten. The possibility of something as simple as butter containing gluten was overwhelming to me at the time. I quickly found it easier to avoid processed foods altogether, with food labels that require a chemistry degree to decipher, and stick to whole foods that I cooked at home. I think by doing this that I also eliminated many chemicals and preservatives that my body was reacting to as well.

At one point I noticed that I was getting nauseous eating baby carrots. My doctor didn’t think I was allergic to carrots, and he suggested I try eating organic carrots to see if I had the same reaction. I tried the organic carrots and was able to eat them just fine. So from then on I started buying organic products whenever they were available. This also has helped eliminate my exposure to toxic chemicals and has reduced some of my symptoms.

About two years ago, even before I cut out the gluten, I swore off Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) and artificial sweeteners. Doing this really helped alleviate some awful migraine headaches. So I must say that it isn’t just through avoiding gluten-full foods that I have reduced my Fibromyalgia symptoms, but it has been a process of eliminating my exposure to variety of triggers. However, I believe that going gluten-free has had the most significant impact on the overall improvement of my health thus far.

Going gluten-free has certainly improved my health over this past year. I have lost about 45 pounds without counting calories. I didn’t concern myself with counting calories or tracking fat intake because it was such a challenge just to make sure that I wasn’t ingesting gluten. I’m not sure my body knew what to do with all the chemicals in the processed foods. Possibly my liver couldn’t process things fast enough, so maybe it just manufactured fat and shoved the chemicals into the fat cells thinking it would get to that later. Also, a skin rash I’ve had on my arms since my early teen years has almost completely vanished. How interesting that the rash originally appeared around the same time I was diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). I have fewer problems with my digestion now, although I still suffer from reflux. I cannot seem to stop taking the Protonix, a proton pump inhibitor, that I have been taking for over four years.

I am still having occasional flare-ups, and so I’m trying to figure out what some of my other triggers might possibly be. On my list of suspects are corn, soy, chocolate, cinnamon, nutmeg, and probably vinegar.  The last four are known to be  high in histamine or produce large amounts of histamine in the body. I have horrible reactions to cinnamon and nutmeg; my arms get stiff and heavy, with numbness and tingling in the mouth, accompanied by persistent coughing and fatigue. Chocolate seems to make my skin crawl, and I’ve always attributed this to the caffeine. Cinnamon and nutmeg are high in benzoates, and I know I have reacted to a salad dressing that has had sodium benzoate as a preservative.

I’ve been reading Dealing with Food Allergies by Janice Vickerstaff, and apparently it is possible to have an intolerance to benzoates. She also discusses the possibility of developing a histamine intolerance caused by a deficiency of two enzymes, diamin oxidase (DAO) and histamine methyltransferase (HMT). Histamine tolerance may also be reduced by autoimmune diseases and medications, such as antidepressants. Since histamine is responsible for triggering the immune response, it becomes difficult to distinguish between a reaction due to an allergy, or a reaction that has resulted from high levels of histamine in the system. Without the proper enzymes to break down histamine, it can build up in the body. One way to cope with reactions due to histamine toxicity is to modify your diet and eat foods that are naturally low in histamine, and foods that do not trigger a release of histamine to the body.  Dr. Vickerstaff recommends trying a histamine-restricted diet for a period of four weeks to see if it will alleviate symptoms.

Low Histamine Diet

I think that it is worth a shot to see if my remaining symptoms will subside. I’ve seen many fibromates talking about how they avoid the deadly nightshades. I think that it is interesting that these are also high in histamine and should be avoided on this diet. I’ll make sure to post if this also makes a difference.

Diary allergies, chronic fatigue, diet, Fibro, Fibromyalgia, Gluten-Free, histamine

Photo by Andrew Mason/Creative Commons License

The EPA announced today, 02/02/2011, that they are taking steps to regulate Perchlorate content in our drinking water, along with 16 other chemicals¹. Perchlorate is a man-made chemical found in rocket fuels that has been shown to disrupt the thyroid, by reducing the thyroid’s ability to absorb iodine².

While I think that this is a great move towards providing safer drinking water, I think we need to be doing more to protect our watershed in the first place. Keeping chemicals out of our watershed will help provide us with clean drinking water in the future. The EPA has a guide on what we can do to help restore and protect our watersheds. Purdue University also has a Safe Water website with more information. See the links below for more information.

Purdue Safe Water for the Future
EPA Handbook for Developing Watershed Plans to Restore and Protect Our Waters

As much as I would love to drink water straight from the tap, I know that all the chemicals in the tap water aggravate my Fibromyalgia. So instead I love to drink Eternal Water, that is imported from New Zealand from a deep watershed. This however arrives in a plastic bottle, depletes the watershed in New Zealand, and uses lots of oil to make its way to the states. I would prefer to drink water straight from my tap, but it makes me sick. I have looked at having a reverse-osmosis filter installed in our house, but it seems too cost prohibitive (over $1,000). If anyone has any cheaper solutions that are ecofriendly, I’m open to suggestions.

1. EPA To Develop Regulation for Perchlorate and Toxic Chemicals in Drinking Water [↩]
2. Perchlorate and Perchlorate Salts [↩]

Diary Drinking Water

Over the summer I felt that I had made an almost full recovery from my Fibromyalgia. Modifying my diet to one that consisted of low grains, no gluten, and no processed foods changed my life. I felt like a new person. The summer has ended and so has the concept that diet alone affects my Fibromyalgia flares.

Fall has always been a rough time on me because of the change in weather; the decreasing sunshine and the cooler weather can wreak havoc on most sufferers’ Fibro. In June of this year I was diagnosed with vitamin D deficiency, and so I made a big effort over the summer to get morning sunshine so my body would make its own vitamin D. I just felt like the supplements the doctor put me on wouldn’t be absorbed properly given the current state of my digestive system. My gut is still healing from the years of abuse from chemically treated processed foods. Now that I am back to my work as a middle school librarian, I’ve been missing my morning walks in the sunshine. Is that why this year’s fall fibro flare has been so bad or is it something else entirely?

I have been back to work for about 8 weeks now, and on average have taken about one sick day per week. The pain and stiffness have been so bad at times that it was difficult for me to hold a phone to call the doctor. Of course there have been days that I have gone to work and suffered through times when trying to carry just a few paperbacks was a chore. It has gotten so bad that several people have mentioned the “D” word – Disability. I cringe. My response is that I am only 32 years old and I have a Masters degree. I want to work. I want to have a career. I shouldn’t feel like this.

So I went back to keeping a food journal, and also started tracking my work activities, along with my chemical exposures at work using Google calendar. My doctor diagnosed me with environmental illness upon my return to school because I was reacting to fragrances the students wear, along with the VOCs the laminator puts off into the library. The days the lamminator is on I feel extreme nausea, fatigue, dizziness, and the fibro fog hits me so hard I can barely walk around the library.

I’ve tried all kinds of medications, and most of the time the side effects seem to make me feel worse not better. However, as a last ditch effort, my family doctor wanted me to try Savella. I was optimistic that it would help. If medicine will help me cope I will take it, but if it is not effective I don’t see the point in overtaxing my liver and kidneys. I was only on the Savella for 3 days before I was advised to discontinue the drug due to chest pain. I was still on the lowest dose in the titer pack, and was feeling dizzy, nauseous and that fog came back. I am just baffled that Savella and Lyrica are marketed for Fibromyalgia treatment, when the side-effects they cause can be so similar to what they are trying to treat. I don’t want to feel like a walking zombie, and I don’t think I should have to suffer with chronic pain either.

I hit rock bottom about a week ago. I am so sick of trying to figure out how to cope with this syndrome, but yet I persist because I am only 32. I want to work and I have an almost 4-year-old son. What I discovered while tracking my day to day schedule, with my food diary and chemical exposure, will not surprise you. It may annoy you because you have heard it many times before, but I think this not-so-hidden trigger is really just stress. I went from enjoying my summer holiday, to being thrown into the lion’s den that is middle school. My fight-or-flight reflex has gone into overdrive triggering a horrible Fibromyalgia flare.

So at my lowest point, I went back to my rheumatologist begging him to help me cope with the pain caused by the stress and anxiety. The doctor laughed at me and offered to put me on some medication. He wanted to try Savella, but I told him of my bad experience with it, and he said, “Well I would like to try it again.” I told him it hadn’t been a week since I had taken it. He said, “What about Cymbalta?” My response to that was, “Isn’t it essentially the same thing as Savella?” It is also an SNRI, and I just thought that I would probably react to that one with chest pain too. “So we will go back to the Lyrica then.” Ugh.

I told the rheumatologist that when I was on Lyrica before, that I could barely drive. I was so fatigued and foggy headed that I almost got into two fatal car accidents! His response was, we will just put you on a low dose and you can take it at night only. We will pair it with Flexiril, a muscle relaxant. I just said “Okay.” Obviously this doctor was not going to listen to me. I had to spend more time explaining to him why my job was stressful than we dealt with treatment. Shouldn’t the fact that I work in a middle school be red flag enough that my job is stressful? He said, “How do you want me to advise you? Maybe you should leave your job.” And do what exactly? I love my job, even though looking at my calendar I discovered that most of the time I am literally suppose to be in two places at once, the broadcasting studio and the main library. Instead of just giving me some drugs that will make me numb, how about you refer me to someone that can help me cope with stress? But I guess it is easier just to give me some drugs and send me on my way than actually do anything to prevent triggering the Fibro flares in the first place.

I left his office and headed for the pharmacy. I was still debating whether or not I wanted to go back on the Lyrica, but I had to pick up my Vitamin D pills for the month anyway. I decided to speak (I mean cry) to the pharmacist. She suggested trying Nerontin over the Lyrica, if I decided to go back on that type of medication. Mostly she recommended I find a new doctor. I seem to go through doctors like water.

I spent the afternoon trying to find someone that specialized in environmental illness with no luck. Many mainstream doctors, like my lovely rheumatoligist, don’t seem to recognize it as a valid diagnosis. Remember when the diagnosis of Fibromyalgia didn’t hold any water? Well at least Fibro is becoming more recognized today. Pharmaceuticals are marketing drugs for treating it so, now doctors have options for helping treat patients with a diagnosis of Fibromyalgia. I think perhaps the only way someone with environmental illness will be able to be treated is through holistic medicine. Giving me more drugs doesn’t seem to make me feel better. Sure you can numb my hands and arms so I can’t feel the burning pain sensations, but that doesn’t really fix my problem.

Besides going to the rheumatoligist, I went to Dr. Charles Turner’s office for a somewhat weird body-balancing treatment (BBT), that uses accupressure to sort of reprogram your body not to react to certain foods, chemicals and emotions. This is based on Nambudripad Allergy Elimination Techniques (NAET), which comes out of more eastern medicine practices. I’ve only had two treatments, and I do seem to improve each time I have one, but I have no idea why this works. More than the BBT, I think the adrenal support supplement they gave me is helping me get through each day. I seem less emotional, I have more energy, and less pain on the supplement.

I didn’t start back on the Lyrica, and I am hoping that I won’t have to do so. I’m continuing to research adrenal insufficiency and stress coping mechanisms. I’m a type A perfectionist, people pleaser to the core. Learning to say no without feeling guilty is the next thing on my to do list.

Diary Adrenal Fatigue, Adrenal Insufficiency, Environmental Illness, fatigue, Fibro, Fibro flare, Fibromyalgia, vitamin D deficiency, weather