Breathing easy - at last

[joe90]

2 minutes ago, richi said:

@Onoff makes an interesting point. Here's where SWMBO-@Coopers rolls her eyes as I strike up my usual two-part rant.

 

1. It's becoming clear that the microscopic fauna we share our bodies with are an important part of our overall health. We evolved with them (and they with us). If this is the case, then modern, overly-clean lifestyles, sanitised, sugar-spiked food, and overuse of antibiotics will inevitably piss all over our health, in so many ways.

 

2. The nature of the wheat in our food has changed fairly radically since about 1970. It's now much easier for farmers to farm -- more consistent and shorter -- but there's some evidence to show that it contains proteins that are sub-clinically harmful to many people. I'm not talking about gluten, although a growing number of people are self-diagnosing as "gluten-intolerant" because they gave up wheat and feel much better -- it's more likely to be intolerance to the new proteins, rather than new intolerance to old ones.

 

Ergo: Consider taking broad-spectrum pro- and pre-biotics after a course of antibiotics, don't wash too much, avoid wheat and sugar.

 

I could not agree more with the above, I have been studying health and food for the last 10 years, a recent blood test showed I had a wheat intolerance but not gluten intolerant.

[Jeremy Harris]

9 minutes ago, richi said:

@Onoff makes an interesting point. Here's where SWMBO-@Coopers rolls her eyes as I strike up my usual two-part rant.

 

1. It's becoming clear that the microscopic fauna we share our bodies with are an important part of our overall health. We evolved with them (and they with us). If this is the case, then modern, overly-clean lifestyles, sanitised, sugar-spiked food, and overuse of antibiotics will inevitably piss all over our health, in so many ways.

 

2. The nature of the wheat in our food has changed fairly radically since about 1970. It's now much easier for farmers to farm -- more consistent and shorter -- but there's some evidence to show that it contains proteins that are sub-clinically harmful to many people. I'm not talking about gluten, although a growing number of people are self-diagnosing as "gluten-intolerant" because they gave up wheat and feel much better -- it's more likely to be intolerance to the new proteins, rather than new intolerance to old ones.

 

Ergo: Consider taking broad-spectrum pro- and pre-biotics after a course of antibiotics, don't wash too much, avoid wheat and sugar.

 

On the topic of wheat, and as a farmer's son, I have to say that modern farming methods do cause me concern.  For example, I remember when we were first sold Round Up (glyphosate) back in the 70's.  The reps demonstrated it's safety by drinking the stuff, believe it or not.   Lots of trials showed that, when used as intended, to kill spring growth of weed prior to seeding, or for weed suppression around field boundaries (not something we'd really do now!)  it was very safe indeed.  I must have sprayed tens of thousands of litres of the stuff, and genuinely believed it was as safe a herbicide as you could get, based largely on the large body of evidence that proved that soil bacteria break glyphosate down within a few days, so there were no toxic residuals.

 

However, we now have the situation where glyphosate is used to reduce energy bills, by being sprayed on crops before harvest in order to dry the seeds, by killing off the plants.  This saves a great deal of energy in wet summers, by not needing to run grain driers as much.  The major downside is that if the glyphosate is not washed off the crop, then it will be on the grain or seed, so gets into the food chain.  I'm now far from convinced that this is a safe practice, as there seem to be low levels of glyphosate in a lot of grain and seed based foods, and none of the initial safety studies looked at the scenario of long term continuous low level ingestion - they all assumed that there would be no residual glyphosate in the crop come harvest time.

[TerryE]

4 hours ago, JSHarris said:

What puzzles me is why we are seemingly getting more people  suffering with allergies.  Apart from hay fever and a few well-known serious allergies, like those to nuts, it seemed pretty rare to come across people that were allergic to things years ago

 

I am old enough to remember Kate Boyle's TV advert for Cling Film in 1972 -- that was the one where she covered a glass of milk and inverted it over her head.  And that was the first time that our family had seen the the use of plastic wrap for food use (or to be honest any use).  And up to that point plastic bottles were also pretty much unknown. So this is really the same point that @richi has just made.   It's really only in the last 45 years that we've moved from a food and contaminant mix that we'd had for 50 years prior.

[Cpd]

I have been somewhat ill over the last two years and four months ago i started a paleo ketogenic  diet that eliminated a vast amount of everyday food, i am not miraculously cured but i am better than i have been for two years, time will tell but so far i am amazed at what just changing my diet has done to improve my health. 

[Jeremy Harris]

3 minutes ago, Cpd said:

I have been somewhat ill over the last two years and four months ago i started a paleo ketogenic  diet that eliminated a vast amount of everyday food, i am not miraculously cured but i am better than i have been for two years, time will tell but so far i am amazed at what just changing my diet has done to improve my health. 

 

A friend of mine is a dietician and nurse, and she is becoming increasingly convinced that many, many more people are sensitive to their diet than was the case years ago (she's around my age, recently retired, but still doing voluntary work).

 

Although there is clearly a great deal of BS around, just as there always has been, there seems to be a growing body of properly conducted, peer-reviewed, studies that are associating diet and health to a far close degree than we had assumed in the past.

 

The really big problem is that there are orders of magnitude more pseudo-science and total BS around, especially on the internet, so it's quite challenging to sift out truth from fiction.

[Onoff]

Fecal transplants? 

 

You heard right! Basically there's a school of thought that you can take a healthy, skinny persons gut bacteria and introduce it to an obese person. Generally to try and cure IBS like diseases or even hard to shift c.diff infections.There's a big underground movement for this that quite literally involves poo, a liquidizer, piping bag etc and bending over to take the medicine! Of course there's risks and it's sometimes done between family members as in "you know where they've been" hopefully.

 

It can apparently work and avoid life changing surgery:

 

https://www.everydayhealth.com/ulcerative-colitis/one-familys-personal-experience-with-fecal-transplants.aspx

 

The downside is that although it can cure one thing it can cause other issues:

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-31168511

 

I've even read it could get to the stage where we in the West pay 3rd world "donors". Brown gold was the term used.

 

Anyone with gut/skin problems give this Kimchi a go. All I can say is it worked for me!

 

https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/gb/groceries/yutaka-korean-kimchi-215g?langId=44&storeId=10151&krypto=WsBabqNuFOluUEEIn80yOqfZrPZDEwZU8OJar81ugGJaSIVAgRzfUaKwKzynPm47jn17WlSVXdeLASw1sNEYxxE39SL8gTRIkbCy89nKO%2BZZU0WkvKDU%2BUQ%2FyZw8jkBZKPHmJR5ptj2JgavtqaVoKfDgtvb4IR42yaeG7uxoJgg%3D&ddkey=https%3Agb%2Fgroceries%2Fyutaka-korean-kimchi-215g

 

 

[richi]

...or if kimchi is a step too far, seek out other fermented and traditionally-bio foods, such as sauerkraut, proper live yogurt, tempeh, and pickled vegetables.

[Onoff]

12 minutes ago, richi said:

...or if kimchi is a step too far, seek out other fermented and traditionally-bio foods, such as sauerkraut, proper live yogurt, tempeh, and pickled vegetables.

 

Got to admit I struggle a little with the kimchi. I find it better if well drained for a start. Tried in a smoked salmon sandwich which was OK. Best was when eaten with pickled onions and walnuts! 

[richi]

24 minutes ago, Onoff said:

 

Got to admit I struggle a little with the kimchi 

 

Yeah, I worked for Samsung SDS for a couple of years. We were based in Green Park, but the occasional visit to the UK HQ in Brentford were eye-opening at lunchtime!

[NSS]

A little anecdotal addition to this thread (on the original topic rather than kimchi!). My wife had a group of old friends round on Thursday evening, one of whom is an asthmatic. As she arrived she was clearly wheezing and said she was currently on steroids as her asthma was particularly bad at present. Four hours later she left, reluctantly, having not needed to take her inhaler once whilst in our house. As she left, she said to Mrs NSS, I didn't think it possible, but I now see why this place has been so helpful to you. 

[lizzie]

44 minutes ago, NSS said:

A little anecdotal addition to this thread (on the original topic rather than kimchi!). My wife had a group of old friends round on Thursday evening, one of whom is an asthmatic. As she arrived she was clearly wheezing and said she was currently on steroids as her asthma was particularly bad at present. Four hours later she left, reluctantly, having not needed to take her inhaler once whilst in our house. As she left, she said to Mrs NSS, I didn't think it possible, but I now see why this place has been so helpful to you. 

Great feedback  @NSS so glad to hear it is working so well and hopefully Mrs Nss is still feeling the benefits.

 

It has taken me nearly a year of perseverance to get my mvhr properly set up.....I must admit there were low points during the last year (usually from hospital) when I just about gave up and thought it would not work for me and the whole point of the build was wasted as I have had a lot of bad bouts since moving in.  However the last month or so since it has been properly working has been a revelation and at last I can feel some benefit from it even in a short time. My docs are pleased but not half as much as I am.

[NSS]

8 hours ago, lizzie said:

Great feedback  @NSS so glad to hear it is working so well and hopefully Mrs Nss is still feeling the benefits.

 

It has taken me nearly a year of perseverance to get my mvhr properly set up.....I must admit there were low points during the last year (usually from hospital) when I just about gave up and thought it would not work for me and the whole point of the build was wasted as I have had a lot of bad bouts since moving in.  However the last month or so since it has been properly working has been a revelation and at last I can feel some benefit from it even in a short time. My docs are pleased but not half as much as I am.

So pleased to hear you're at last starting to feel the benefit @lizzie, you must have begun to wonder whether my accounts of how it's helped Mrs NSS were fairy tales! Yes, if anything she's benefitting more since she was medically retired last year (the osteoarthritis finally did for her efforts to keep working part time) as she spends more time in the 'bubble'.