Newly diagnosed with LC, needing some guidance

[lotus_03]

Hi Tex, I did try cooking the carrots by steaming them until they were soft, but maybe I could've cooked them even longer. I might try boiling them next time.

It might be the zucchini interfering, although I was able to eat all 3 (zucchini, yellow squash, carrots) in a little medley months ago without WD reactions. Maybe my digestion has changed since then, who knows... I'm considering testing new foods with minimal other veggies/rice in the same meal to see if that helps.

I think I did read that newsletter, it was really interesting! I have to remind myself that this is a marathon, not a race. And also - I actually only discovered this forum about 4 months ago, hahah. I feel like I've made huge progress in that time with the help of everyone.

May I ask which supplements you are taking right now? Which ones you suggest taking longterm (other than vit D3 and mag, of course)? I am taking my vit D3 and I've started a homemade magnesium oil topical. Besides that, I don't know if I should be considering other supplements for future use.

Thanks as always.

[tex]

A possible reason for your symptoms might be histamine intolerance. Some of us develop histamine intolerance after years of living with MC. Because of it, we have to carefully limit our diet to avoid (or at least limit) high histamine foods.

Okay I'll tell you what I'm taking, but remember, this is not medical advice. I'm taking these supplements not necessarily because I need all of them, but because I might need them due to my old age and my limited diet (I'm 83, and I eat no vegetables, except for the corn in corn tortillas, if you consider corn to be a vegetable — actually, it's a grain, of course).

I take ubiquinol (because I take a statin), Thorne Laboratories Methyl Guard Plus, flaxseed oil, magnesium, vitamin D, Centrum Silver, lutein (I've had drusen for over 45 years — drusen is a vision issue of the retina), Solaray zinc/copper capsules, vitamin C, Life Extension Neuro-Mag Magnesium L-Threonate (I've taken this ever since I had a stroke, to overcome the stroke symptoms, and maintain my cognizance into old age), and Glucosamine with Chondroitin (to assist a worn-out knee because of years of repetitive heavy lifting at work). Remember, just because these supplements work for me, doesn't mean that they will work for anyone else, because we're all different.

Tex

[lotus_03]

Good point. I completely forgot to mention in my update that I also ventured to try banana last month. One morning I tried having only two bites of banana, maybe a tbsp amount, and after having my lunch of safe foods 4 hrs later I had an episode of WD. It seemed to me that the banana was the culprit, since nothing else had changed. I was amazed at how fast the response was for me.

So I very likely have a histamine intolerance right now. Should I be changing anything though? I am able to eat my safe foods up to 3 days after cooking and refrigerating them. (I only ate them on day 4 one time when I was in a pinch, and it seemed to give me a reaction later on, so I don't dare to do that anymore).. I thought carrots were low histamine too?

And thank you for sharing your supplement info! I'm glad to see that you've found ones that work for you. I think the only ones I am considering for the future are the Thorne Lab Methyl Guard Plus and perhaps a multivitamin with safe ingredients. I will have to look into this more later on.

[tex]

The foods you listed are not normally high histamine foods, so refrigerating them for a few days should be safe. Foods such as chicken, or fish, gain histamine in the refrigerator, so leftovers need to be frozen between meals in order to keep their histamine levels down. But once we develop a histamine problem, it seems to be permanent. So going forward, you will probably need to avoid high histamine foods. That said, that's strictly a guess, because these are uncharted waters as far as medical research is concerned.

Tex

[lotus_03]

Ok, thank you Tex. I'm alright with avoiding high histamine foods like chicken and fish anyways. Between having turkey and lamb, I'm very satisfied.

[HockeyMom]

Sorry I'm reading this very late but I figured I would throw out the fact that for the longest time I pressure cooked EVERYTHING!!! Of course everything wasn't very much of anything back then I did bone broth from lamb bones in my crockpot (Whole Foods had frozen lamb bones). I didn't do any ground meat either. My meat was only elk, antelope, turkey and lamb. I was lucky living in Colorado because hunting friends kept me stocked up with the elk and antelope. I either pressure cooked the meat or sauteed it with a little coconut/olive oil. My mom to this day just can't understand why lamb on holidays isn't some special deal for me! If I never eat lamb again, it will be too soon

I avoided regular potatoes but did sweet potatoes, carrots, pumpkin, zucchini and any sort of squash I could find - in the pressure cooker. I'm sure if I was inclined to look into OLD posts on this page-Tex was gently encouraging me to cut back on most fruits/veggies. I was a tough nut to crack on that one-but when things just went from bad to worse-I listened to the man and cut all that stuff out. I would meal prep by putting the cooked meat/veggies and bone broth in single serve containers and freeze them.

When things got a little better I added cassava flour or green banana flour into the mix for pancakes (no real eggs, no dairy). Pretty darn good actually!!!

Laine

[lotus_03]

Hi Laine! I hadn’t thought about pressure cooking, I will definitely have to try it now. For my turkey, I bake thighs/drumsticks/breasts in the oven until they’re nice and crispy, usually overcooked according to the internal temp. I found a brand of ground lamb (Thomas Farms) that works well for me, so I cook a pound at a time and use it for breakfast meals. For the zucchini & yellow squash, I’ve found that slicing them up into a glass pan and filling it with some water allows me to bake them along with the turkey without drying them out. It’s a weird technique, but they come out cooked to mush every time which is all I need.

For things like sweet potatoes, carrots, pumpkin – how long did you pressure cook them for? And for the pumpkin, did you use pieces of a whole pumpkin? Or canned pumpkin?

Thank you for the tips!

[HockeyMom]

Acorn squash, butternut squash and pumpkin all got cut up into bigger bite sized chunks and pressure cooked for I don't remember how long-just veggies done together. I'm sure there is a setting on my pressure cooker for veggies!! They were well "pressured" - that's for sure. I just did whole chunks of meat because I didn't trust any ground stuff-glad you found a lamb that will work for you. Canned pumpkin was added to pancakes...

Laine

[lotus_03]

Hi Laine, you've got me excited about the idea of trying out pressure cooking. Thanks again for the advice.

[HockeyMom]

Well, it was really easy and took the guess work out of everything-which I needed at the time. It let me make large quantities of food with very little clean up afterwards.