A while back, I mentioned that I went to see a Functional Medicine Practitioner who I called Dr. Cooper. She has really helped me to figure out what my body needs and has helped me feel better. My migraines have not gone away altogether, but they have decreased in intensity and in duration.
Two days ago, I went in for a check-up. I had not seen her since September and I wanted to see how much I had improved since then.
What I found out:
1. I really do have a wheat allergy. Crazy that I've gone 35 years without realizing it until this year.
2. Other allergies I have: dairy, apple (weird, huh?), oats, pecans, and walnuts. (These aren't intense allergies where I have to have a shot or anything, but these things do cause problems for me.)
3. Dr. Cooper re-iterated that my headaches are caused by stress on my digestive system. (caused by Candida and bad bacteria.)
4. The Candida yeast are almost under control. I will finish out my current Nystatin prescription, then stop.
5. Now that the yeast is much improved, there is a high amount of bad bacteria showing up in my gut. This is what we are addressing now.
6. I have low Progesterone levels.
What I don't know yet:
1. Last time, Dr. Cooper found that I had insanely low levels of vitamin D. A healthy level is in the 80's and no one should ever be below 32 b/c it puts you at high risk for all sorts of things (including cancer). My level in September was 19!! I have been taking crazy high amounts (5000 mg) of vitamin D since then to build up my reserves. Dr. Cooper has ordered a blood test for me to see if I still need to be taking that high dose.
What I will do now:
1. Continue to eat a gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free diet --BUT I will ramp it up a bit and follow the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (see below) which prohibits all grains and sugars except fruit and honey.
2. Dr. Cooper has changed my diet from the Yeast Connection diet combined with the Specific Carbohydrate Diet to just the Specific Carbohydrate Diet ONLY! This means I can eat fruit! HOORAY! (I haven't had fruit in 8 months.....well...except when I cheated...rarely.) FYI - here is a more critical look at the diet. It's good to consider all sides.
3. Take 50 mg of progesterone per day.
4. Continue with all of my supplements which she originally prescribed. (I will list them soon.)
5. Get my vitamin D levels tested.
That's pretty much it. I am going to exercise more. It seems like that's the first thing that goes out the window when I get busy. I will have time to get back on track over the summer.
Showing posts with label "Functional Medicine" Advice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label "Functional Medicine" Advice. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Weight Loss
I'm going to discuss here how my body loses weight (and gains it). It is different than most conventional wisdom on the topic. For instance, they say it's best to lose weight slowly over time. Also, I've heard it said that you can't gain a significant amount in only a week or so.
My Body and Weight Gain:
In the week before my wedding (almost 7 years ago!) I found out that YES you can gain a significant amount of weight in less than a week. When it got to be a week before my wedding, I had already had the last fitting for my dress and I thought, "Whew! One week can't make much difference so I can just eat what I want!" So I ate whatever I wanted that week. Plus, I was stressed and carbs are something I crave when I'm stressed. Um....well... let's just say my dress was really tight on the wedding day. It had fit perfectly 5 days earlier, and on the day I thought I wasn't going to be able to zip it up! (I sucked in and did, but talk about stressy!)
My Body and Weight Loss:
As you can see above, my body gains weight all at once. As I later found out, my body also loses weight all at once. Fast forward to September 2009. My Functional Medical Practitioner put me on a Yeast-Free diet combined with the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. This means that you either take the Yeast-Free diet and remove all the grains and potatoes from it; OR you take the Specific Carbohydrate Diet and remove the fruit and honey. Basically, you can only eat meat and veg. No grains, starches, fruit, or sweeteners of any kind. Also no dairy because of the lactose (dairy sugar). If you're thinking this is a crazy, impossible diet - you're right! (Kinda) My husband calls it "the worst diet in the world". I found that after 3 days, it got much easier. After a week, it's almost automatic. Once you get used to making all your meals with weird ingredients, it's really not hard at all.
This diet is a corrective diet and is not intended to be used indefinitely. I was also put on a lot of vitamin supplements for a few weeks before I started this diet and I believe they REALLY helped me stay on it. I didn't crave things because my nutritional needs were being met. Also, I got off of all the addictive substances I was on (like caffiene and sugar) before I started this.
Well, I lost 20 pounds almost over night. It was crazy! It came off all at once over a span of about 2 weeks. People thought I was ill! I know conventional wisdom says that this is unhealthy, but I felt good doing this and my body became healthier overall. The other 10 pounds or so came off over the next month. I never lost this kind of weight on any other diet. When I was on Weight Watchers, I was eating WAY less calories than I was on this diet but they were from a lot of sugar and processed foods. This is a real foods diet and you cannot have processed food on it. (NOTE: This is NOT in any way like the Atkins Diet. A lot of people think it is but it's not because you don't count carbs, you can have as many veggies as you want, and things like bacon and animal fat are not allowed! Also things like Atkins bars and other products are forbidden on this because of all the terrible chemicals that are in them.)
When I was on this diet, a typical day's food was the following:
Breakfast:
Ultra Shake (rice protein, almond milk, nut butter, ground flax seeds, flax oil, and ginger)
OR 1/2 avocado with raw flax crackers
snack: a handful of any kind of raw nuts (except peanuts)
Lunch:
canned salmon with frozen broccoli and lemon juice
or leftover supper
or chicken soup
snack: raw flax seed crackers with nut butter or tahini
OR veggies and black bean hummous
Supper:
any kind of meat with any kind of veg
(example: lamb chops with asparagus and kale)
As you can see, this is not a low-fat diet! In fact, it is very decidedly high fat. BUT - the fat is all good fat and comes from healthy sources. I couldn't believe how well it worked.
Today:
I now realize that I need to go back on this diet for at least a week or two. Right now I weigh 165 pounds and need to lose about 30 more. My weight has stabilized and I haven't lost any more for a few months. This is because I eat more carbs now. (Not bad carbs like white flour and sugar!) Just things like rice cakes, quinoa, gluten-free bread, brown rice, millet cereal, etc. This is fine for maintenance, but I'm finding that in order to lose weight I must reduce carbs. I recently read that a high-protein and good fat diet sends your body a "dump fat" message. On the other hand, a high carb diet sends your body a "store fat" message.
Cheating:
Over Christmas, I ate all sorts of things. BUT - I didn't gain any weight because I made sure that whatever I ate was real. If I ate a piece of cake, it was homemade with no artificial chemicals, transfats, or high fructose corn syrup. We were in Greece this Christmas so I ate things like Baklava, tsoureki, and candied oranges. The good thing there is that bakeries in Greece do not use commercial chemicals and additives the way they do in this country. Things are still made with real ingredients. I KNOW this is why I could eat all those things and not gain a single pound back. So: If you're going to cheat, make sure it's REAL!
I'm sure everybody loses weight differently, but this worked for me. What has worked for you?
My Body and Weight Gain:
In the week before my wedding (almost 7 years ago!) I found out that YES you can gain a significant amount of weight in less than a week. When it got to be a week before my wedding, I had already had the last fitting for my dress and I thought, "Whew! One week can't make much difference so I can just eat what I want!" So I ate whatever I wanted that week. Plus, I was stressed and carbs are something I crave when I'm stressed. Um....well... let's just say my dress was really tight on the wedding day. It had fit perfectly 5 days earlier, and on the day I thought I wasn't going to be able to zip it up! (I sucked in and did, but talk about stressy!)
My Body and Weight Loss:
As you can see above, my body gains weight all at once. As I later found out, my body also loses weight all at once. Fast forward to September 2009. My Functional Medical Practitioner put me on a Yeast-Free diet combined with the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. This means that you either take the Yeast-Free diet and remove all the grains and potatoes from it; OR you take the Specific Carbohydrate Diet and remove the fruit and honey. Basically, you can only eat meat and veg. No grains, starches, fruit, or sweeteners of any kind. Also no dairy because of the lactose (dairy sugar). If you're thinking this is a crazy, impossible diet - you're right! (Kinda) My husband calls it "the worst diet in the world". I found that after 3 days, it got much easier. After a week, it's almost automatic. Once you get used to making all your meals with weird ingredients, it's really not hard at all.
This diet is a corrective diet and is not intended to be used indefinitely. I was also put on a lot of vitamin supplements for a few weeks before I started this diet and I believe they REALLY helped me stay on it. I didn't crave things because my nutritional needs were being met. Also, I got off of all the addictive substances I was on (like caffiene and sugar) before I started this.
Well, I lost 20 pounds almost over night. It was crazy! It came off all at once over a span of about 2 weeks. People thought I was ill! I know conventional wisdom says that this is unhealthy, but I felt good doing this and my body became healthier overall. The other 10 pounds or so came off over the next month. I never lost this kind of weight on any other diet. When I was on Weight Watchers, I was eating WAY less calories than I was on this diet but they were from a lot of sugar and processed foods. This is a real foods diet and you cannot have processed food on it. (NOTE: This is NOT in any way like the Atkins Diet. A lot of people think it is but it's not because you don't count carbs, you can have as many veggies as you want, and things like bacon and animal fat are not allowed! Also things like Atkins bars and other products are forbidden on this because of all the terrible chemicals that are in them.)
When I was on this diet, a typical day's food was the following:
Breakfast:
Ultra Shake (rice protein, almond milk, nut butter, ground flax seeds, flax oil, and ginger)
OR 1/2 avocado with raw flax crackers
snack: a handful of any kind of raw nuts (except peanuts)
Lunch:
canned salmon with frozen broccoli and lemon juice
or leftover supper
or chicken soup
snack: raw flax seed crackers with nut butter or tahini
OR veggies and black bean hummous
Supper:
any kind of meat with any kind of veg
(example: lamb chops with asparagus and kale)
As you can see, this is not a low-fat diet! In fact, it is very decidedly high fat. BUT - the fat is all good fat and comes from healthy sources. I couldn't believe how well it worked.
Today:
I now realize that I need to go back on this diet for at least a week or two. Right now I weigh 165 pounds and need to lose about 30 more. My weight has stabilized and I haven't lost any more for a few months. This is because I eat more carbs now. (Not bad carbs like white flour and sugar!) Just things like rice cakes, quinoa, gluten-free bread, brown rice, millet cereal, etc. This is fine for maintenance, but I'm finding that in order to lose weight I must reduce carbs. I recently read that a high-protein and good fat diet sends your body a "dump fat" message. On the other hand, a high carb diet sends your body a "store fat" message.
Cheating:
Over Christmas, I ate all sorts of things. BUT - I didn't gain any weight because I made sure that whatever I ate was real. If I ate a piece of cake, it was homemade with no artificial chemicals, transfats, or high fructose corn syrup. We were in Greece this Christmas so I ate things like Baklava, tsoureki, and candied oranges. The good thing there is that bakeries in Greece do not use commercial chemicals and additives the way they do in this country. Things are still made with real ingredients. I KNOW this is why I could eat all those things and not gain a single pound back. So: If you're going to cheat, make sure it's REAL!
I'm sure everybody loses weight differently, but this worked for me. What has worked for you?
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Possible Help for Women Migraine Sufferers
I am so excited because I found this book that has some ideas for naturally healing migraines. I don't know if it will work, and I'm certainly not recommending that you do these things. However, you may want to discuss these things with your doctor and perhaps get your hormones tested.
In the book, it says that 10 times more women have migraines than men and 80% of these are due to a lack of progesterone. Apparently, during days 14-28 of your cycle, progesterone levels drop off which can cause migraines along with PMS symptoms. (In fact, most women who have PMS also have migraines. Hmmm.)
Anyway, the book suggests that taking 50 mg progesterone supplements during days 14 - 28 of your cycle may help stop migraines. (Note: Only bio-identlical progesterone. Synthetic progesterone doesn't work the same way and can have side effects.) Also, it advises other various supplements. I had heard that some migraines could be from a lack of Magnesium. (Dr. Hyman covers this in his books.)
Here's what the book advises:
1. 50mg progesterone 2x per day.
2. 100mg of Magnesium 3x per day.
3. Essential Fatty Acids: Omega 3 + GLA + Oleic Acid
4. Iodine - 12.5 mg per day.
5. Vitamin D - 5000 IU per day.
Again, I am NOT saying you should just start taking these. If you have migraines however, and you are a menstruating woman, you may want to show this to your doctor and ask what they think. I know I'm going to! Actually, my Functional Medicine Practitioner had already recommended most of these things to me so I'm already doing everything except the progesterone. I'm going to get my levels tested and I'll be curious to see the result. Wouldn't it be awesome if I could prevent any more migraines from happening by taking progesterone pills?
Has anyone out there had any luck with taking progesterone to heal migraines?
In the book, it says that 10 times more women have migraines than men and 80% of these are due to a lack of progesterone. Apparently, during days 14-28 of your cycle, progesterone levels drop off which can cause migraines along with PMS symptoms. (In fact, most women who have PMS also have migraines. Hmmm.)
Anyway, the book suggests that taking 50 mg progesterone supplements during days 14 - 28 of your cycle may help stop migraines. (Note: Only bio-identlical progesterone. Synthetic progesterone doesn't work the same way and can have side effects.) Also, it advises other various supplements. I had heard that some migraines could be from a lack of Magnesium. (Dr. Hyman covers this in his books.)
Here's what the book advises:
1. 50mg progesterone 2x per day.
2. 100mg of Magnesium 3x per day.
3. Essential Fatty Acids: Omega 3 + GLA + Oleic Acid
4. Iodine - 12.5 mg per day.
5. Vitamin D - 5000 IU per day.
Again, I am NOT saying you should just start taking these. If you have migraines however, and you are a menstruating woman, you may want to show this to your doctor and ask what they think. I know I'm going to! Actually, my Functional Medicine Practitioner had already recommended most of these things to me so I'm already doing everything except the progesterone. I'm going to get my levels tested and I'll be curious to see the result. Wouldn't it be awesome if I could prevent any more migraines from happening by taking progesterone pills?
Has anyone out there had any luck with taking progesterone to heal migraines?
Friday, April 9, 2010
Candida
This subject is controversial in the medical community, but here it is: Candida! The information below is what I learned from my reading and my doctor. Most conventional doctors do not believe that a systemic Candida infection is possible. They confuse it with a much more serious condition which cancer patients can get. The book "The Yeast Connection" addresses the common misconceptions made by doctors and explains this much better than I can. In England, Candida is much more accepted in the medical community. In fact, that's where I first heard about it. A teacher I worked with over there ate avocados and rice cakes every day for lunch. When I asked why, I was educated by her. Later, I met several more people (in England) who were diagnosed with Candida by their doctors. Over here, no one has heard of it.
After my Functional Medicine Practitioner (Dr. Cooper) did endless tests, she diagnosed me with a Candida (yeast) overgrowth in my digestive system. (I won't go into detail about HOW they can test for this....but they can test for it.)
We all have Candida in our digestive tract and it usually isn't a problem because the "good" bacteria keeps it in check. However, frequent doses of antibiotics kill the good bacteria and the yeast can grow out of balance. In addition, a diet which is high in sugar and refined carbs will feed the yeast, which also helps it to grow out of proportion.
Now, I have never had a yeast infection where a lot of women have yeast infections so I didn't think I had a problem. BUT - this diagnosis is the only thing I have come across which makes sense of all my symptoms. I did have a lot of ear infections and strep throat infections as a child so I did take multiple rounds of antibiotics. In addition, I am a sugar fiend! For years, I ate a lot of sugar and sweet things. No wonder I'm out of balance.
My symptoms and possible causes:
1. Kill the yeast - take an antifungal like Nystatin or Diflucan
2. Replace the yeast - take a probiotic to replace the good bacteria. (Eating yogurt is NOT enough. Plus, there's sugar in most commercial yogurt which feeds the yeast and makes it worse.)
3. Stop feeding it - no sugar or anything which turns into sugar. Not even fruit sugar! And no alcohol either. (Drinking alcohol is like throwing gasoline on a fire. It just flares up.)
The above remedies are temporary. Once the imbalance it corrected you can enjoy fruit again in moderation. It takes a long time to get rid of Candida though. 6 months to a year in most cases. I have been on the Candida Diet for 6 months now. I lost 30 pounds on it.
Anyway, you can take or leave what I wrote here. This works for me. Here are some books that I found immensely helpful:
After my Functional Medicine Practitioner (Dr. Cooper) did endless tests, she diagnosed me with a Candida (yeast) overgrowth in my digestive system. (I won't go into detail about HOW they can test for this....but they can test for it.)
We all have Candida in our digestive tract and it usually isn't a problem because the "good" bacteria keeps it in check. However, frequent doses of antibiotics kill the good bacteria and the yeast can grow out of balance. In addition, a diet which is high in sugar and refined carbs will feed the yeast, which also helps it to grow out of proportion.
Now, I have never had a yeast infection where a lot of women have yeast infections so I didn't think I had a problem. BUT - this diagnosis is the only thing I have come across which makes sense of all my symptoms. I did have a lot of ear infections and strep throat infections as a child so I did take multiple rounds of antibiotics. In addition, I am a sugar fiend! For years, I ate a lot of sugar and sweet things. No wonder I'm out of balance.
My symptoms and possible causes:
- migraine headaches - Dr. Cooper thinks my headaches are caused by digestive issues having to do with the candida. Toxins released by the candida can cause a variety of symptoms including migraines. Also, I lack the chromosome that helps the body detox so the toxins build up in my system.
- itchy skin - sometimes when I exercise, I'll start to itch all over. It's weird. No doctor has ever been able to figure out why. (Am I allergic to exercise?) Anyway, I was reading "The Yeast Connection" and it said that candida can travel through the blood stream and cause itching.
- leaky gut syndrome - It's not what it sounds like! Apparently, the Candida yeast shoots out runners (like a strawberry plant) which can pierce the intestinal wall. Microscopic food particles can "leak" out which your body attacks like an invader. Dr. Cooper found undigested gluten particles in my blood when she tested it. The only way they can get there is through the intestinal wall.
- feeling sick all over - Vague symptoms and feeling sick all over is an indication of a Candida infection. It is frustrating to go to the doctor and have them tell you "it's all in your head".
- severe carb cravings - As I said before, Candida feeds on sugar and refined carbs. When you don't eat these things, the Candida starts to die and it will send signals to your brain to eat sugar. If it doesn't get it, it will make you feel terrible until you do. For years I could never figure out why I always felt awful when I tried to eat healthily. Then, when I ate french fries and a coke, I instantly felt better! This did not make sense to me until now. I had to suck it up and feel terrible for 3 days until the sugar was out of my system. (Seriously! I felt like I had the flu for 3 whole day just because of not eating sugar and refined carbs.)
- infertility - Yep. Candida can cause that too!
1. Kill the yeast - take an antifungal like Nystatin or Diflucan
2. Replace the yeast - take a probiotic to replace the good bacteria. (Eating yogurt is NOT enough. Plus, there's sugar in most commercial yogurt which feeds the yeast and makes it worse.)
3. Stop feeding it - no sugar or anything which turns into sugar. Not even fruit sugar! And no alcohol either. (Drinking alcohol is like throwing gasoline on a fire. It just flares up.)
The above remedies are temporary. Once the imbalance it corrected you can enjoy fruit again in moderation. It takes a long time to get rid of Candida though. 6 months to a year in most cases. I have been on the Candida Diet for 6 months now. I lost 30 pounds on it.
Anyway, you can take or leave what I wrote here. This works for me. Here are some books that I found immensely helpful:
Saturday, March 20, 2010
What's so bad about gluten anyway?
I'm still recovering from a busy week so I'm only going to share a blog that I find helpful. Here is Dr. Mark Hyman's blog. I like this post entitled, "Allergies: are they making you fat?"
Click here to see an article by him about why gluten may be a problem for you.
Click here to see an article by him about why gluten may be a problem for you.
Friday, March 5, 2010
My Visit to the Functional Medicine Practitioner
My saga continues......
So, I followed Dr. Hyman's book, "The Ultramind Solution" like the bible. I even did his "Ultra Simple Diet" (which is anything but simple!) Taking the supplements he recommends and following his advice did help me to get off of sugar which is something I've never been able to do before. However, I still felt rotten! I kept reading more and more of his books, trying to find answers. Every week, I thought I had a new issue and would buy corresponding supplements. (By the way - do NOT take any of the amino acids he recommends unless a doctor tells you that you need them! I had self-diagnosed and was taking several different amino acids which threw my levels way off.) Finally, I decided I needed help from someone who knew what they were doing!
I went to see a Functional Medicine Practitioner. (I sometimes call her a "holistic doctor" although she's not, because people don't know what a Functional Medicine Practitioner is.) A Functional Medicine Practitioner is a doctor who looks at how your body is functioning before they prescribe things in order to help the body do its job. Anyway, I found one in my area by going to the Functional Medicine site. I'll call her Dr. Cooper. Dr. Cooper is also a conventionally-trained doctor. She uses both conventional and alternative medicine (whichever one she thinks will be more effective for your specific problems, or a combination of both).
The thing I liked most about Dr. Cooper is that she listened! How many times have we gone to see a doctor and he/she is writing a prescription before you even finish telling them what's wrong? When you go for a first-time visit with Dr. Cooper however, she schedules 4 hours of time for you. I had no idea what would take so long, but she was very thorough in her questioning, plus she had her staff do lots of tests. What a Functional Medical Practitioner does is look at your body, test your blood, etc. to see where there are imbalances BEFORE they prescribe things.
Here's what I found out on my initial visit:
1. There is Candida Yeast in my blood. I saw it! They put a drop of your blood under the microscope and let you see it too as they explain what you're seeing. My blood cells were beautiful! It's really cool to see your own blood cells on a screen. I even saw a white blood cell doing its thing. The Dr. said, "Isn't it cute? It thinks it's still in your body and it's protecting you!" There were some dark chunks which the cells kept running into and were slowed down by. I asked "what is this?" and they told me "that's yeast". This made me really want to give my cells what they need and to get rid of the yeast which was slowing them down. Dr. Cooper prescribed "Diflucan" to kill the yeast.
(Note: The only way yeast can get into your bloodstream is if there's an overgrowth in your digestive tract (we all have some Candida in our gut, but sometimes it can get out of hand). Runners from the yeast organism can puncture your gut and that's how it gets into your blood. Most conventional doctors in this country don't even believe in it. More on this later.)
2. My body was craving B vitamins. My levels of both B and D were very low.
3. My hormones were out of whack. (Not surprising considering how much estrogen I had to inject into my body when I was doing fertility treatments.) Dr. Cooper recommended that I use a natural, plant-based Progesterone Cream called "Femarone". You can get it without a prescription and you just rub it on your belly every day on certain days during your cycle. (Note: Do NOT take this or any medication I mention without the advise and supervision of your doctor. I'm only documenting my own progress here, not telling you what you should take.)
4. I had high amounts of "bad" bacteria in my gut. Dr. Cooper recommended the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, and recommended the book, "Breaking the Vicious Cycle" by Elaine Gottschall. (From what I understand, Celiacs, Crohn's Disease, and IBS patients benefit from this diet as well.)
5. I have problems metabolizing sugar. This is not surprising since Diabetes runs in my family. I don't have it (and am not even pre-diabetic), but there's an issue there. Dr. Cooper told me to take "MetaglycemX" twice a day to help my body deal with sugars.
The above things were just what I found out on my first visit. To find out more in depth what was going on with my body, they took a lot of blood and scheduled me for a stool test and urinalysis. (Don't worry, I won't go into detail about that!)
If you have health issues like I did (and do), a Functional Medicine Practitioner may be just what the doctor ordered!
So, I followed Dr. Hyman's book, "The Ultramind Solution" like the bible. I even did his "Ultra Simple Diet" (which is anything but simple!) Taking the supplements he recommends and following his advice did help me to get off of sugar which is something I've never been able to do before. However, I still felt rotten! I kept reading more and more of his books, trying to find answers. Every week, I thought I had a new issue and would buy corresponding supplements. (By the way - do NOT take any of the amino acids he recommends unless a doctor tells you that you need them! I had self-diagnosed and was taking several different amino acids which threw my levels way off.) Finally, I decided I needed help from someone who knew what they were doing!
I went to see a Functional Medicine Practitioner. (I sometimes call her a "holistic doctor" although she's not, because people don't know what a Functional Medicine Practitioner is.) A Functional Medicine Practitioner is a doctor who looks at how your body is functioning before they prescribe things in order to help the body do its job. Anyway, I found one in my area by going to the Functional Medicine site. I'll call her Dr. Cooper. Dr. Cooper is also a conventionally-trained doctor. She uses both conventional and alternative medicine (whichever one she thinks will be more effective for your specific problems, or a combination of both).
The thing I liked most about Dr. Cooper is that she listened! How many times have we gone to see a doctor and he/she is writing a prescription before you even finish telling them what's wrong? When you go for a first-time visit with Dr. Cooper however, she schedules 4 hours of time for you. I had no idea what would take so long, but she was very thorough in her questioning, plus she had her staff do lots of tests. What a Functional Medical Practitioner does is look at your body, test your blood, etc. to see where there are imbalances BEFORE they prescribe things.
Here's what I found out on my initial visit:
1. There is Candida Yeast in my blood. I saw it! They put a drop of your blood under the microscope and let you see it too as they explain what you're seeing. My blood cells were beautiful! It's really cool to see your own blood cells on a screen. I even saw a white blood cell doing its thing. The Dr. said, "Isn't it cute? It thinks it's still in your body and it's protecting you!" There were some dark chunks which the cells kept running into and were slowed down by. I asked "what is this?" and they told me "that's yeast". This made me really want to give my cells what they need and to get rid of the yeast which was slowing them down. Dr. Cooper prescribed "Diflucan" to kill the yeast.
(Note: The only way yeast can get into your bloodstream is if there's an overgrowth in your digestive tract (we all have some Candida in our gut, but sometimes it can get out of hand). Runners from the yeast organism can puncture your gut and that's how it gets into your blood. Most conventional doctors in this country don't even believe in it. More on this later.)
2. My body was craving B vitamins. My levels of both B and D were very low.
3. My hormones were out of whack. (Not surprising considering how much estrogen I had to inject into my body when I was doing fertility treatments.) Dr. Cooper recommended that I use a natural, plant-based Progesterone Cream called "Femarone". You can get it without a prescription and you just rub it on your belly every day on certain days during your cycle. (Note: Do NOT take this or any medication I mention without the advise and supervision of your doctor. I'm only documenting my own progress here, not telling you what you should take.)
4. I had high amounts of "bad" bacteria in my gut. Dr. Cooper recommended the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, and recommended the book, "Breaking the Vicious Cycle" by Elaine Gottschall. (From what I understand, Celiacs, Crohn's Disease, and IBS patients benefit from this diet as well.)
5. I have problems metabolizing sugar. This is not surprising since Diabetes runs in my family. I don't have it (and am not even pre-diabetic), but there's an issue there. Dr. Cooper told me to take "MetaglycemX" twice a day to help my body deal with sugars.
The above things were just what I found out on my first visit. To find out more in depth what was going on with my body, they took a lot of blood and scheduled me for a stool test and urinalysis. (Don't worry, I won't go into detail about that!)
If you have health issues like I did (and do), a Functional Medicine Practitioner may be just what the doctor ordered!
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