diet

Leave a comment Posted on March 22, 2016March 22, 2016 Patient Talk

Tips for a Healthy Life After Facing a Difficult Diagnosis

When diagnosed with an aggressive and potentially life-threatening disease, like cancer, it’s natural to become overwhelmed with all of the “what if’s and what now’s” and while you’re eager to fight your disease, it’s difficult to know where to begin. Although your diagnosis may be one of the most challenging things you have or will face, your health is now even more important than ever. Here are some tips for adjusting to a difficult diagnosis, taking care of yourself, and making the best of your life:

Educate Yourself

Unless you’re a medical professional, such as an oncologist, you may know very little about your recently diagnosed disease. Take mesothelioma, for example. Mesothelioma is a cancer that typically affects the lungs and is related to asbestos exposure. Since mesothelioma is often diagnosed decades after the exposure occurred, many patients have no idea they have the cancer in their body until they are faced with a late stage diagnosis.

While the initial diagnosis can be daunting, especially if faced with an aggressive and advanced stage, it’s still advantageous for patients to learn as much as they can about mesothelioma and what types of treatment options are available. When your health changes dramatically, you, as a patient, have a right and responsibility to gain as much information as you can about your disease (regardless of the stage). Not only can you help yourself, but you’re raising awareness and helping others around you.

Surround Yourself with Support

Surrounding yourself with family and friends that care about you and having a support system can help you get through some of your roughest times. Whether your neighbor gives you a ride to your chemotherapy treatments, your best friend brings over a week’s worth of food, or a co-worker offers to go on a walk with you, allow these people to help you and be part of your journey. You may want to push people away and you may get tired of talking about your diagnosis, but the people around you want to help and their offers may be the only way they know how to show support. If you don’t have a support system of your own, consider joining a support group of people who are facing the same health challenges as you.

Exercise, Eat Well, & Get Sleep

Whether you exercise regularly or not, exercise is a great way to stay healthy when you body is fighting a disease. Not only does exercise boost your serotonin levels, which can help you overcome depression and fatigue, but even taking a short walk outdoors can give you a much needed dose of Vitamin D. Before you start exercising, always check with your doctor and he or she will help you choose a suitable exercise regime such as walking or swimming.

In addition to making exercise part of your daily routine, a healthy diet and a good night’s sleep of at least 7 to 8 hours per night will benefit you through your recovery.

Stay Positive

When facing a tough diagnosis, it’s natural to be afraid and experience the five stages of loss and grief. You may feel helpless and you may feel depressed, but studies show that if you choose to have a positive attitude about your life and your diagnosis, your recovery may be faster and your health may improve. By having a positive outlook, your physical, emotional, and mental health may experience a significant boost. Positive thinking may come easier for some than others, but by surrounding yourself with support and practicing healthy routines, you may find it easier to be optimistic about your future.

Leave a comment Posted on March 20, 2016March 18, 2016 Diabetes

Study finds low energy formula diets more effective for diabetes patients than ‘gold-standard’ clinical NHS care

Diabetes Awareness

Every purchase of one of these Diabetes Awareness Insulated Travel Cup helps fund diabetes research – you can get yours here.

The preliminary study by Imperial College London studied the impact of a low energy formula diet on obese patients with long standing type 2 diabetes on insulin treatment

This formula diet was a controlled, low energy food plan where specific soups and shakes were provided to patients to control their calorie intake

Patients on a low energy formula diet shed nearly 10 kilos over the 12 week programme

That’s compared to just 2.2 kilos lost by the control group who followed ‘gold standard’ NHS clinical care and the recommended 600 calorie-deficit diet

Study will be presented at Diabetes UK Conference in Glasgow on the 2^nd of March

A new preliminary study has found that formula diets help people with insulin-treated diabetes to reduce their body weight and dose of insulin.

A randomised, controlled trial by Imperial College London, which will be presented at Diabetes UK Conference in Glasgow on the 2^nd of March, studied the impact of a low energy formula diet on weight loss in obese patients with long-standing type 2 diabetes on insulin treatment.

The study split the insulin-treated patients into two groups, with half taking the formula low energy diet, the Cambridge Weight Plan, and half following the ‘gold-standard’ clinical NHS care and 600 calorie-deficit diet. Both groups received advice to help change their behaviour and physical activity advice.

The patients completing the low energy formula diet saw greater reductions in their blood sugar, body fat mass levels, cut back their insulin dosage and shed nearly 10 kilograms of weight over 12 weeks, whilst those in the control group following the NHS guidelines lost only an average of 2.2 kilograms without as big an impact on insulin.

This is the first evidence from the UK that a group of people with insulin-treated diabetes can improve their condition by losing weight and lowering insulin use through such a diet.

Soaring rates of obesity-linked diabetes have led to a huge rise in UK insulin users since 1991, an earlier study from Cardiff University’s study of patient prescriptions reported in the Journal of Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism in 2014. It said the number of individuals with type 2 diabetes injecting insulin soared seven-fold from 37,000 in 1991 to 277,400 in 2010.

As a result there are more type 2 individuals on insulin now than type 1 diabetics with which insulin treatment is more commonly associated.

So should the NHS be reviewing their gold-standard advice when it comes to diabetes care?

To find out more we interviewed Adrian Brown of Imperial College London.

Adrian Brown – My name is Adrian Brown and I am an investigator on the study and a specialist dietician in weight management.

Patient Talk – Can you explain what type 2 diabetes is?

Adrian Brown – Type 2 Diabetes is a condition associated with high blood sugars, approximately 4 million people in the UK currently have Diabetes and worldwide it has 358 million people and what it is is possibly by 2025 it’s going to rise to about 5 million. What we do know about type 2 Diabetes is in simple terms it’s when your body either doesn’t produce enough insulin to cope with the sugar in your blood or you have something called insulin resistance where you resistant to the insulin that you do produce and this results in you having higher than normal blood sugars, recently it’s also been linked in with recent evidence to suggest actually the fat it accumulates within an organ called your pancreas and an organ called your liver, which are organs that help to maintain you blood sugar levels in your body are actually linked with the development of Diabetes. Type 2 Diabetes is also associated with obesity so what we do know is that it is also associated with family history and women that have Diabetes in pregnancy, approximately 85% of patients with type 2 Diabetes are either overweight or obese so a huge percentage of patients and if you look between type 1 and type 2 around 90% of patients within that 4 million are actually type 2 within the UK.

Patient Talk– Ok and why is diet important to people with Diabetes?

Adrian Brown – Diet is key, it’s very important for patients as previously mentioned to the links in patients being overweight obese and how diet significantly links in with a patient or a person increasing their body weight. Furthermore what we also know is that type 2 Diabetes is also linked in with conditions like heart disease and high blood pressure and diet has been linked in with the development of those as well so it’s very important that patients and people with type 2 Diabetes look at their dietary habits, furthermore what we also know is that carbohydrates specifically affects their blood sugars and as I said before blood sugars are part of type 2 Diabetes where people are able to control their blood sugars so it’s important that people understand where the carbohydrates is within their diet and whether they can patiently change that to give them better blood sugar control, In addition to that what we also know is that nutritional status within patients that are overweight is also very key, a lot pf patients when you look at the literature who are obsess or nutritional deficient in a variety of different vitamin and minerals so it’s important that diet is well balanced and when we actually look at things actually using a low calorie formula based diet is actually a good option because there is evidence to suggest that actually it shows within patients with arthritis there is improvement is vitamin D and I believe iron as well.

Patient Talk – Ok and what is the current NHS plan and why is it failing?

Adrian Brown – So the NHS has a variety of different guidance documents out there on the treatment management of type 2 Diabetes, they look at setting out guidelines particularly around HBA1C, blood pressure readings and all sorts low fat reading levels for the nation. What is also looks at is it sets out guidance related to the type of dietary management and also physical activity which is key to help people with type 2 Diabetes particularly around prevention but also it links in with medication advice as well so when to start medications, I think some of the key elements are around the ideas of patient education specifically, managing those patients and complications within the UK and also in England and also making sure that we look at prevention as well is a key.

Patient Talk – Ok and can you explain how this study was conducted?

Adrian Brown – Of course, so the study itself is looking at patients with long standing type 2 Diabetes that are currently treated on insulin so these patients have had Diabetes for a number of years and has progressed through initially diet and physical activity advice then onto oral medications and finally usually between 4 and 10 years they end up on insulin so what we are doing at Imperial college London is we are randomising to putting patients randomly into one group or another and the two groups that we are comparing is we are looking at gold standard NHS care, so what I mean by that is we are giving patients dietary advice to help them lose weight and we are doing that by using a 600 calorie deficit diet that is calculated by figuring out someone’s basil metabolic rate using a special calculation and then what we do is we take off 500 – 600 calories to allow them to lose weight and we give them dietary advice and portion size advice for that. In addition to that in both groups we give them behaviour change so we look at a person’s relationship with food so we give them advice related to self-monitoring to goal setting and those types of things, in addition to that we talk about emotional eating and the behavioural side to that and also slip ups and step backs as we appreciate it isn’t just about weight loss it’s also about weight maintenance. So just in this study in the 12 weeks which start to give people those skills to be able to do that, in addition to that we give them physical activity advice for general health which is around 150 of moderate activity a week and what we are doing is comparing this gold standard NHS care and we are comparing that to using a low energy diet for a period of 12 weeks and this low energy diet is a soul source formula based diet, the one which we are using is Cambridge 0800, and this gives patients between 808 to about 840 calories every day and they have soups and shakes thought that whole time of the 12 weeks and what we are doing is comparing whether using this low calorie diet compared to traditional dietary care produces better weight loss, improvement of blood sugar control and reduction of insulin.

Patient Talk – So it’s kind of everything you are after then?

Adrian Brown – In a way what we are looking for is we are looking to see how or if there are other ways other than medication or bariatric surgery to see if we can help these patients lose weight, there is evidence out there within patients with early onset diabetes, so on oral medications that using a very low energy diet can help to put a patient in a way remission of the conditions that actually dictate they have diabetes, so they significantly improve the bloody sugar control and also the sensitivity of the insulin in the body so we are looking to see whether this can happen in patients with long standing type 2 diabetes currently treated on insulin as that is a question that we would like to know as there is an increasing amount of patients that are currently being treated on insulin for type 2 diabetes , approximately about 370000 to 2010 about 270000 so that is a huge increase in the amount of patients that are currently treated on insulin and if we can reduce some of the burden that these patients have we can also reduce the patient burden but also the pressure on the NHS from a cost point of view as insulin is a very expensive medication.

Patient Talk – And is there any other conditions that this would also be useful for?

Adrian Brown – There is evidence to suggest that the use of very low calorie diets can help with symptoms of arthritis, psoriasis and also obstructive sleep apnea, however, if you want to speak to the right person for that I would probably recommend you speak to Dr Tony Leeds’s who has all the full papers for that but there is some good evidence to start to suggest that those conditions can be improved but what we do know is that 1 year after the use of a low energy diet that continuing to use 1 product a day for the next 4 years has actually been shown to maintain the 10% weight lose that you have achieved in the first year up to 4 years which is very impressive, it will be interesting to see how our study continues over the next 12 months to see if we can maintain the pulmonary results that we have got here.

Patient Talk – And can you tell us the results that came from doing this study?

Adrian Brown – The pulmonary results from the study showed that there was a significantly greater weight loss in the low energy diet group compared to the gold standard NHS care, the low energy group lost around 10kg in weight whereas the gold standard NHS care group lost around 2.2kg so that’s a significant difference between the two over the 12 week period. Both groups reduced their insulin significantly, to put it into context, there was reduction of around 40 units for the patient on a low energy diet and for the group the was on the good clinical care what they did was lost about 34 units so that was actually a representation of around 75% reduction in the low energy diet group and about 46% in the gold standard NHS care group so it actually shows that with the right balance and the right advice of dietary and behavioural and physical activity advice that actually we can get significant improvements with patients with type 2 diabetes currently treated on insulin. In addition to that we got 4 patients completely off insulin with a low energy diet group compared to none in the gold standard NHS care and we actually saw a significant reduction in blood sugar control so that’s something called HPA1C so that is your average blood sugar and what we say we saw a reduction of around 1% in the low energy diet group and about 0.6% in the good clinical care, one very very interesting element that actually we did find was there is talk about the loss of lean tissue or muscle mass particularly when using low energy diets and actually although the amount of lean tissue was significantly different between the two groups which meant that the lower energy diet lost more weight in terms of muscle mass compared to the good clinical care, when it was converted into an actual amount compared to the weight loss lost what that represented was that only around 30% of the total weight was muscle mass compared to around 38% on the good clinical care so actually the traditional diet actually made people lose more lean tissue which is a good outcome related to low energy diet and something quite interesting that I think that we need to look in further for before we can make definitive answers related to that.

Patient Talk – And where can people go for more information?

Adrian Brown – For diabetes what I recommend people do is that they go to a www.diabetes.org.uk and if people are interested about more information about the formula diet used within the pulmonary study I would recommend they go to www.cambridgeweightplan.com .

Leave a comment Posted on January 31, 2016January 27, 2016 Exercise

Different ways to stay fit with your busy lifestyle

Developing a daily workout schedule is hard and not a custom to most of us. We tend to sink deep into our daily routines and forget to remind ourselves of the need for setting aside some time to give our bodies fitness treats. Staying physically fit while attending to your daily chores is a possibility as long as these simple dos and don’ts are adhered to.

Intensify your working

Diets for weight loss

Good lifestyle fitness and an organized workout plan are critically important insofar as weight loss is concerned. Schedule your days’ activities by dividing your days working hours and the jobs you will be doing during each session while taking into account the amount of energy required for each activity. Give yourself some time to rest before embarking on your next activity. The trick here is to get as much exercise as possible to help strengthen your muscles, monitor your pulse and burn fat.

A continuous 30-50 min workload in your subdivided plan followed by adequate rest time before the next session is the most ideal way to go. This will ensure your fitness level is at your sleeve while at the same time shedding off extra weight.

Commit to a fitness workout time-table

Although one can comfortably do without this, it’s important to draw and strictly carry out a good fitness plan. Having time to the gym, no matter how busy your day may look will always be a plus in your weight loss program.

An hour or so for aerobics isn’t a bad decision either. Besides the fun or enthusiasm associated with the training session, there are other numerous healthy benefits you can always enjoy – losing weight is just one of them.

Have a little fun

A day with fun is a day worth remembering. Working from sunrise to sunset won’t make you a successful. Fun and little play will help refresh your mind, cut off your day’s stress and most importantly, help you burn the extra fats in your body. As a matter of fact, having the right weight keeps obesity and heart related complications at bay.

Team work

Haven’t you heard that two heads are better than one? Then get a partner and work your way out to achieving your weight loss goals together. Getting a like-minded partner is a great a challenge but the ideal thing is to find someone you will enjoy working with, have fun together and the one that will remind you to go for a run or jog when you are fully engrossed in your favorite movie.

Teaming up with a friend will make you do more than what you do when you are alone. That means working as a team will not only make you burn more fat but will also ensure you remain and in the right mood.

Make friends with the kitchen

Getting rid of the obsession of processed foods, restaurant meals and deviating from take-away from cafeterias is must if you want to achieve any progress in weight loss resolutions. Having a whole week feeding plan and timetable will help you avoid this unhealthy habit. Eating vegetables and cereals on certain days and carrying packed lunch on daily basis at work won’t cost you as much. Irrespective of your status, teens or CEOs alike break the rule and take to the kitchen to live long and stay fit.

Engage in physical fitness daily

Our health is always our priority and staying fit is the only guarantee of living healthily. How we should stay fit and work at the same time is more often a puzzle to many.

Follow these few simple weight loss tips and you will find yourself ticking towards your ultimate goal of a fit, flexible and healthy physique.

Exercising alone won’t guarantee us food on the table; hence, a great deal is on how to fix our routine exercising plan into our daily schedule without brushing shoulders with relevant protocols around us.

A routine interval workout plan can be a great solution in such circumstances. A proper analysis of what you are expected of during the day and good grooming of your style of working with a little intensity can work you miracles as far as your staying fit and weight loss scale is concerned.

Let your hobbies in

Nothing entertains more than doing what you enjoy doing. Discovering your likes and dislikes and perfecting on your likes will help you shed off a considerable amount of weight.

Take for example an artiste who loves music, and takes her performance to the nearby church during his/her free time, dancers who train daily using new different styles and a footballer who will take to the pitch on daily basis to perfect his skills. This group besides enjoying their take has an upper hand when it comes to staying fit and healthy.

References

http://enkivillage.com/importance-of-high-fiber-diet-in-day-to-day-life.html

http://global-health-tips.blogspot.com/2016/01/functional-fitness-training-for.html

Author Bio

Kathy Mitchell was born and raised in the USA. She has done MA in English literature, and she loves to write articles on health and beauty. She loves to read daily online magazine on health and beauty. Also, she is contributing to consumer health digest since 2011.Her articles are both professional and creative. You can contact her on Facebook and Twitter.

Leave a comment Posted on January 28, 2016January 26, 2016 Hormones

Testosterone Deficiency Syndrome – What is it? What are it’s signs and how can it be treated?

Testosterone Deficiency Syndrome

A survey has lifted the lid on how men really feel when it comes to talking about sensitive topics, with nearly half of British men (49%) more comfortable discussing difficult financial matters than sensitive health issues such as loss of libido.

With only 4 in 10 (41%) regularly speaking with their partner about their physical and mental health, sensitive issues are proving to be a harder topic for today’s man to tackle, even in 2016.

However, experts are concerned that men’s lack of openness about their health may be stopping them from tackling any issues they are facing.

One such issue is testosterone deficiency syndrome or TDS, which affects around 700,000 men aged between 50 and 79 in the UK.

So we decided to interview Dr Douglas Savage who is both a GP and men’s health expert to find more about testosterone deficiency syndrome. What are the signs and symptoms of testosterone deficiency syndrome? How is testosterone deficiency syndrome treated? Who is affected by testosterone deficiency syndrome? Find out more in this fascinating interview below!

Patient Talk – From a clinical point of view, what is testosterone deficiency syndrome?

Dr Doug Savage – It’s a combination of a lower level of testosterone than normal and typical symptoms, the typical symptoms are what we call sexual and non-sexual ones, the sexual ones may be, erection problems and the non-sexual ones which are often actually more striking than the sexual ones , excessive fatigue, poor concentration, the patient often uses the word brain fog , they tend to find it difficult to think things through , they may have a depressed moods, they may be irritable , some of them get excess sweating but I would say the most striking one is the fatigue they often say it’s ridiculous as they could sit down and go straight to sleep.

Patient Talk – Who is affected by testosterone deficiency syndrome?

Dr Doug Savage – This can occur in men of all ages but it’s defiantly like a lot of other things most common as you get older and the reason it gets common as you get older is there is obviously a slight falling of testosterone with age so it’s often related to lifestyle deterioration as one gets older, it’s the same as putting weight on around the middle and as weight goes on around the middle this lowers testosterone and they often get into a vicious cycle as the more fat that goes on there lowers testosterone further and also lack of exercise, so once again this is a condition in many men related to lifestyle but it isn’t all that mainly slim men who exercise but it can get it but its commoner with people with poor lifestyle.

Patient Talk – And what are the main causes of TDS and are there other common co-commodities

Dr Doug Savage – Right so we’ve been into that already it often part of lifestyle or poor lifestyle so excess fat particular around the middle , lack of exercise but it’s also associated with typical medical conditions the commonest one being type 2 diabetes and it can occur in about 40% in those patients, its commoner in man with high blood pressure , cardiovascular disease so many who have had heart attacks, it’s also quite common in men with chronic diseases so what we call in nowadays CODP or what the public often call chronic bronchitis, people with poor kidney function and liver function and deterioration, HIV patients and also the thing that people may not be aware of is people who use chronically powerful pain relievers, it can occur there and often missed there because people just think that they feel sleepy because of the medication .

Patient Talk – Ok and what are the treatments of TDS?

Dr Doug Savage – There are many which will obviously will be discussed with the doctor in detail but generally like so many other conditions it starts with lifestyle modification, reducing that weight and increasing exercise but other treatments are several and would be discussed with your physician.

Patient Talk – And how effective are these treatments?

Dr Doug Savage – The great majority of men do improve both with rising level of testosterone and deduction in their symptoms and I would say there is quite a variation in the speed of recovery , you really do you know working as a doctor in this field many years you do get what I call miracle men and you know within two or three weeks they have just transformed, they will often say ‘god I feel 20 years younger ‘ so that’s the dramatic improvement which is unusual to be honest with you it’s generally a more slow improvement over months and for a few people it’s really a long time until they get fully well maybe even a year or so. We have established one of the reasons of that is connected with what we call ‘deficiency of the testosterone sector ‘basically it’s one thing improving the level of testosterone in the blood stream but obviously what matters is how their body uses that testosterone and its now been shown that peoples efficiency various from one person to another which can’t be predicted but I do warn all patient that this may take some time but be patient.

Patient Talk – Ok and what is the general prognosis of TDS and what changes in lifestyle that someone with TDS expect?

Dr Doug Savage – Well its great in the sense of that many patients we see will say ‘ oh I’ve tried this diet , I’ve tried this and I can’t seem to lose weight’ well what is amazing is often it’s a combination of lifestyle intervention so that’s obviously eating more appropriate food and less of it and medical treatment and if you put the two together that often does produce great improvements in symptoms and the waistline and there are definite trails showing that waist measurement can reduce on treatment and indeed in men improvement of a diabetic control for a diabetic, improvement of blood pressure as if they are losing weight than obviously that will improve so a combination of lifestyle and other treatments can have a great response.

Patient Talk – Ok and what advice would you give to someone who has just been diagnosed with TDS?

Dr Doug Savage – Well to follow the doctor’s advice as I said, the problem is as we know we never, patients particularly men are terrible at taking following up appointments, getting blood tests and you know I do feel sorry for patients as like everybody else we have such busy lives and obviously it’s too tempting to not go back for review so it is very important that a patient attends follow up appointments and the appropriate blood tests.

Patient Talk – Ok and where can people go for more information?

Dr Doug Savage – Right well there is a very good website its especially about TDS and that is called www.whatistds.com and they can obviously google TDS deficiency symptoms and there is a lot of information there, there is loads of information out there and that’s one thing men are least good at they are not very good at talking about things but they are very good at doing the research online and there is plenty of information.

Patient Talk – Ok Dr Savage thank you very much.

13 Comments Posted on January 17, 2016March 3, 2018 Fibromyalgia

Diet and Fibro- Has a change in diet helped your fibromyalgia?

A change in diet has often recommended for conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. Looking at our page FibromyalgiaTalk it is also used by many people who have fibromyalgia.

“I don’t look sick” – Life with Fibromyalgia – Please like and share Donnee Spencer’s great infographic which explains to others what it is like to have Fibromyalgia

So we thought we would use this opportunity to find out how useful a change in diet has been to our readers with fibro.

Firstly it would be great if you could take our poll below which asks “Has a change in diet helped your fibromyalgia?”

Once you have taken part in the poll we would love it if you might add your thoughts in the comment boxes below. It would be great if you could think about the following questions!

a) How long have you or a loved one been diagnosed with fibro? What are your main symptoms of fibromyalgia?
b) Have you tried diet as a treatment for fibromyalgia? If so which one?
c) How successful was the diet? What do you feel it achieve?
d) Would you recommend it to others?
e) Have you tried other natural treatments for fibromyalgia? If so which ones and how effective were they for you?

Many thanks in advance for your help.

Multiplicity	I followed a strict no flour, no sugar diet and lost 70 pounds in under a year. Then I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia (with MS) and was started on Gabapentin. I have gained almost all the weight back now after only a few months. I am now off the gabapentin and started taking MagSense. I feel good and have dropped a couple of pounds already in only about 1 week.
SaraBarnes	I have found cutting out caffeine has helped immensely with pain. It has not taken all the pain away, however I have found I can manage so much better on so much less painkillers having taken out the caffeinexxx
GretaLarssonSerra	I’ve had to go all in with; no dairy, no gluten (in fact no grains at all), no processed food and no sugar(except natural fruits/berries and small amounts of honey. It works a bit with the pain, loads on the cognitive side and gives higher energy and better moods.
opotikimaori	@Beeyaach have you tried Kyäni?
Beeyaach	I will try to remember.. lol
patienttalk patienttalk.org	Beeyaach Wow that does seem very expensive. Canadian $?
patienttalk patienttalk.org	Beeyaach Will you be able to share the Dr’s suggestions after the appointment?
Beeyaach	I stopped the diet shortly after I was diagnosed due to cost and the fact that I had already started to put weight on (at an alarming rate!) due to the medication I had started taking WHILE on the diet. At $250-270 per WEEK, it just didn’t make sense. After gaining 30lbs+ I decided to try going back on it, but I couldn’t lose weight, exercise or truthfully stick to the program financially as I’d had to decrease hours at work.
Beeyaach	I also forgot to mention that I have tried pretty much EVERY holistic approach out there. Chiropractor, massage therapy, acupuncture, traction, osteopathy, vitamin D supplements, probiotics, to name a few. I had a naturopathic doctor suggest going gluten free, as she figures it’s a gluten “sensitivity”. As being gluten free is so en vogue right now, I just felt like it was yet another dead end and have up there. I am seeing a doctor this week from the Environmental Health Clinic @ Women’s College Hospital in Toronto to discuss other options.
patienttalk patienttalk.org	Beeyaach Why did you decide to stop using it?
Beeyaach	It is a diet plan based on prepackaged food. Calorie restrictive based mainly, also substitutions such as soy instead of meat protein, low sodium, sugar substitutions. You eat strictly their menu with the addition of your own fruits/veggies and fat free milk. I was on a 1200 calorie intake. They also have a “bar” that is supposed to contain all your necessary vitamins/minerals that I ate once daily.
patienttalk patienttalk.org	Beeyaach What is the Jenny Craig diet please?
Beeyaach	Nothing changes with diet. Pain is the same. Low sodium, low carb, no meat, no dairy, doesn’t seem to matter. No difference in lower or higher weight. (I’ve gained 70lbs since starting on meds and not being able to exercise) I’ve been diagnosed about 3 years now. I was on Jenny Craig for about 2 years before all of this started with my body and I’ve often wondered if something in the prepackaged food contributed to it.