Nessa's Long, Involved Situation

[Nessa]

DIGESTION

*beet test:
I failed it eaten plain. bright red/pink pee within hours. persisted for 36+hrs.
I passed it when I drank kombucha with the beets. yay!
Can't get beets in the kids unless they are boiled and pureed. They both failed eaten plain. I will have to try the kids again when I have more beets & kombucha.

*low stomach acid - I know I have low stomach acid since I also LOVE the taste of ACV or citric acid in water. not too sour at all.

* i also pass grains completely undigested in my stool. both girls do this as well. dave claims he does not. i do not check his poop. LOL

* digestive enzymes: when i take enzymes (on a break b/c i'm not sure about the aspergillus) i do not notice whole grains in my stool. however, since going GF (was already CF for 6+m) i don't get all full and bloated after meals anymore, unless i eat A LOT of food


ABSORPTION

* both kiddos reacted to foods via my breast milk; pretty sure i have a leaky gut

* had abx in labor with #1 (and she had them after birth, too). I had abx again at 3wks PP for a severe bladder infection (related to cath-ing in birth). *sigh* prior to that, I hadn't had abx in a decade or more.

DETOXIFICATION

* glucuronidation - pretty sure i have significant issues w/food additives in the form of headaches; PLAN - kombucha

* amino acid conjugation - not sure about this, probably won't get the clearance test (nursing two kids); PLAN - continue to eat enough meat; look into whole food sources of glycine that's not gelatin

* acetylation - CANNOT handle sulfa drugs, INTENSELY itchy; PLAN - continue to take B/C/biotin supps (found in my multi & my extra C supp)

* methylation

- i for SURE have low serotonin and have for awhile. though, i think that's improving.

- i think i have mildly high dopamine? not sure... i really don't have a chemically addictive personality. cigarettes, alcohol, caffeine, etc however, when i *do* partake in any of those things, i get buzzed INSTANTLY. thus, i avoid them.

- i think i'm undermethylating. per some chart that was posted sometime in the last couple weeks.

- definitely have symptoms of high homocysteine - midline defects in both kids & i (me: tongue-tie; ridged palate; sacral pit. DD1: mild tongue-tie; ridged palate; sacral pit with "tail". DD2: thick labial frenulum; small sacral pit).

- histamine test - raw tomatoes & possibly eggwhites make my skin red and itchy. DD1 as well. DD2 seems okay.

- transsulfuration - REALLY like/crave chocolate. A LOT. currently taking mag supp and finding it's not so intense anymore.

- vit D - currently taking 2000IUs daily.

- glutathione - i have a slow phase I, per the 'how much does caffeine affect you' test. i'm thinking i need to look into glycine and dietary glutathion

- sulfation - taking molybdenum in my multi

CURRENT REGIMEN (ME)

- Multi in the morning (including A (8333 IU), C (300 mg), D (266 IU), E (133 IU), Thiamin (33 mg), Riboflavin (20 mg), Niacin (33 mg), B6 (30 mg), Folic Acid (266 mcg), B12 (133 mcg), Biotin (133 mcg), Pantothenic Acid (66 mg), Calcium (100 mg), Magnesium (100 mg), Zinc (8 mg), Selenium (66 mcg), Copper (500 mcg), Manganese (3.3 mg), Chromium (66 mcg), Molybdenum (33 mcg), potassium (35 mg), choline (16 mg), NAC (16 mg), Glutathione (6.6 mg), Boron (500 mcg), Vanadium (33 mcg)

- Add'l Calcium (1000 mg) + D3 (400 IU) in the morning

- D3 (2000 IU) in the morning

- MSM (1000 mg) in the morning

- Vit C (1500 mg) + Calcium (100 mg) + Magnesium (50 mg) in the morning. Additionally throughout the day if we're having a rxn.

- Zinc (50 mg) @ lunch

- Magnesium (250 mg) @ dinner

- Betaine HCl (324 mg) + Pepsin (39 mg) w/meals

WILL ADD: a bit of kombucha, kefir and/or fermented foods daily. Try to get at least one epsom salt bath weekly. (Ha.)

CURRENT REGIMEN (KIDS)

Aev (21m) - nothing. nurses constantly. looking into chewable C just for her. trying a nightly epsom salt bath. getting 3x/wk probably on average.

Lily (nearly 4) - nurses once daily, sometimes every other. Takes 1/2 a dose of same multi as me; MSM every other day; full Vit C daily; D3 every other day; 1/2 calcium, 1/2 zinc, 1/2 mag. No betaine. Will drink kombucha & kefir when we have it. trying to get her into a nightly epsom salt bath, but she's currently on a bath strike. we're hitting weekly or so.

[Shannon]

things that jumped out at me:
-you don't absorb much calcium from doses over 500mg/meal, and it's absorbed best with food. Any way to split up that Ca supplement?
-B12 needs proper HCl (among other things) to absorb right, so even though it's in your multi (and diet), you might still be low. Maybe try a sublingual supplement?
-chewable C I've seen linked to cavities
-for transsulfuration, B6 is needed in addition to the magnesium, increasing that one might help.
-if you have certain MTHFR mutations, the folic acid in the multi might be working against you. How are you on food folate sources?

[Nessa]

Thanks for the quick reply!

* The Ca supp can be split (it's 4 capsules...). i thought i'm supposed to be taking it apart from magnesium for best absorption. i suppose i could take it with breakfast & with lunch since i do the mag with dinner...

* b12 - i will look for a sublingual supp. i was veg and then vegan for awhile, so i'm sure i'm abysmally low, despite my best efforts

* i'm not sold on the chewable c i was just thinking... dd2 does do the emergen-c well enough, i just didn't want to load her up with extra vit & min if she didn't "need" them.

* i'm not sure about the mthfr mutation. i suppose i could ask my hcp. we don't have insurance that covers any of that stuff so if there's anyway i can figure it out w/o a test, i'm all for it. i see that it's in my multi, and i'm not sure how i feel about that, though my multi seems pretty awesome otherwise.

* our food folate sources suck. btwn allergy avoidance and then failsafe on top we haven't been doing pretty much any of those. i'm hoping to get beans & lentil back soon. and the green veggies like spinach, broccoli, etc are already rotating in with success.

[Shannon]

if you can get folapro (metagenics), that's folate without folic acid. You could try taking it for a few days to see if you notice a difference.

[Nessa]

hmm. taking it in addition to the multi w/ the folic acid, or dropping the multi and seeing?

[Shannon]

Probably both would give you information. Sticking with the multi would reduce variables, but if you choose that route, I'd take the folate at a different time of day, just in case they (folate and folic acid) compete for absorption. (I know the two compete somewhere, but I forget where, exactly.

[Pat Robinson]

I'm going to try to read through this in the morning. My brain is shot for the day.


Pat