Update: I'm back to drinking water kefir daily, and my digestion is A-OK again. Perfect normans every 1 to 2 days. The rash did not worsen, but did not improve either. It doesn't seem to care what I eat lately. But alcohol really flares me temporarily, I'm guessing from the vasodilation.
I tested my resting heart rate before and after drinking water kefir, to see if I might be having a reaction to the histamine levels. I'd read that an increase of 9 beats per minute or higher was indicative of a sensitivity. I tested it 3 times, at first ingestion, at 2 minutes, and at 5 minutes, and there was absolutely no change...I averaged 70 BPM each time.
With the rash not responding greatly to food, I'm wondering how to reintroduce eggs and nuts. Should I eat a lot in one sitting to see how I react digestively? Or eat eggs every meal for a few days? How does one re-introduce foods, other than the one new food no sooner than every 3 days rule?
I'm cookoo for Water Kefir!
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Well, most of us probably introduce "new" (trial) foods in either small or moderate doses, once or twice a day for a few days, but in your case it may not matter (since you are still taking a small but regular dose of prednisone. If I were in that situation, I would try eggs by eating 1 or 2 for breakfast each morning, for a few days. Nuts make a good mid-morning or mid-afternoon snack, but I would only test 1 "new" food at a time, of course. Any foods that test "safe" now may have to be retested whenever you eventually stop taking the corticosteroid, because even at very low maintenance doses, it should still have significant immune system suppressing capability.
You know, thinking about your symptoms (in view of your vasodilation/very low blood pressure issues), the thought occurred to me that you might have endothelial dysfunction. Have you ever been tested for it? I wouldn't even know what it is, except that I am almost certain that I have it (it's one of the issues that Metanx is sometimes prescribed to treat). I have no idea how one is tested for endothelial dysfunction, or if any research has ever been done on a possible correlation, but it seems intuitive to me that people who have myositis would be at a significantly increased risk of endothelial dysfunction. I'm just guessing, of course, so I could be all wet.
Tex
You know, thinking about your symptoms (in view of your vasodilation/very low blood pressure issues), the thought occurred to me that you might have endothelial dysfunction. Have you ever been tested for it? I wouldn't even know what it is, except that I am almost certain that I have it (it's one of the issues that Metanx is sometimes prescribed to treat). I have no idea how one is tested for endothelial dysfunction, or if any research has ever been done on a possible correlation, but it seems intuitive to me that people who have myositis would be at a significantly increased risk of endothelial dysfunction. I'm just guessing, of course, so I could be all wet.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.