Food Allergy Success

May 28, 2008 

 

Dear Doc Flynn,

 

 It’s been about a month now since I met with you to review the results of the comprehensive food panel (IgG ELISA) and I want to give you some feedback about my progress. 

 

It took me a few days to digest (no pun intended J) the results.  What really got my attention was my score on yeast.  Almost 900! Unbelievable.  As you may remember, the day I met with you I was recovering from a stomach virus that caused me to vomit for the first time in I don’t know how many years.  I hate nausea and vomiting.  However, I threw up three or four times and each time in the vomitus were several 1-inch diameter patches of white matter similar to cooked egg white.  The night before, we had eaten some hard, over cooked breaded fish that served to scrape my gut each time it came up. 

 

It was curious to me but I didn’t pay a whole lot of attention.  The amazing thing was how much better I felt after throwing up.  I was still nauseated, weak, feverish, etc. but the depression, anxiety, and gut-wrenching ulcer-type pain were gone.  That really got my attention. 

 

After studying the test results it occurred to me that the white patches were most likely yeast growth that had been scraped off and regurgitated.  While I felt better initially, after a few days, and prior to meeting with you and beginning the diet, my symptoms returned. 

 

I started the elimination diet immediately.  I also became aware of a Web site www.candidafree.net and took the comprehensive questionnaire on the site.  It was like a litany of my symptoms.  I ordered the ThreeLac probiotics through this site and started on the beginning dose of one packet per day on May 6.  I also began taking Konsyl psyllium fiber twice a day.  After about a week of die-off discomfort I began feeling better.  I can breathe so much better and many of my allergies are gone.  I no longer need Flonase and Allegra. 

 

I have temporarily eliminated many of the foods on my permitted list, such as egg yolk, bananas, grapes, raisins, grapefruit, oranges, all juices (except lemon & lime), green tea, peanuts, maple syrup, maltose, maple sugar, corn syrup and any dried fruit and all simple carbs.  I don’t want to feed this monster inside me.  My greatest challenge is eating enough protein in meat form. 

 

My food staples are: 

 

Imagine brand organic soups (in cartons on shelf at Whole Foods)

365 brand chunky almond butter (Whole Foods)

Food for Life brand brown rice tortillas (Whole Foods)

Uncle Ben’s instant brown rice

West Soy Unsweetened Vanilla Soy Milk (32 oz. cartons on shelf at Whole Foods)

Quinoa pasta (Whole Foods)

Orville Redenbacher Smart Pop Kettle Corn, less sodium & sweetened with Splenda

            (I can tell when I eat this that it’s a problem so I limit)

Lemonade and Limeade made with organic Volcano Lemon Burst (concentrated juice from Whole Foods) sweetened with stevia.

Sweet potatoes, baked

Fresh corn on the cob

Apples

Pears

Beans

Chicken breasts (Kroger meat counter, no added broth solution)

Extra lean beef (Nolan Ryan brand at Kroger, no hormones, antibiotics, etc.)

Shrimp (sautéed with garlic & Smart Balance spread, with lemon juice & parsley)

Guacamole (avocados, tomatoes, onion, cilantro & mild minced jalapenos)

Fritoes 

 

A typical day’s menu is: 

 

Two cups of coffee (1/2 coffee and 1/2 soy milk, sweetened with stevia)

Brown rice tortilla spread with almond butter and sliced apple & cinnamon 

 

Cup of soup with leftover meat, rice or pasta, and leftover vegetable

Rice cake 

 

Snack of either cashews, almonds or pecans

Lemonade 

 

Some kind of meat

Two or three vegetables

Grain 

 

When I feel deprived (rarely) I fix tapioca pudding (using soy milk) and add a can of no sugar added cherry pie filling.  Way too much cooking for me. J 

 

I’m taking my vitamins, but while on ThreeLac I’m not taking the anti oxidant or the garlic.  The anti oxidant exacerbated my stomach pain, so will try again in a few months.  In a week or so I will bump up to two ThreeLac doses per day (which, by the way contain Vitamins C, B6, B1 and B2).  

 

The worst symptom I’m dealing with now is fatigue.  And still some fungal thing going on in my nose (I can smell the clear, watery discharge sometimes).   I’m still dealing with the back pain (improved) and I still get cranky in the heat (hot flashes). 

 

I’ve lost enough weight that people are beginning to comment on it.  I don’t have any scales, but I’d guess about 12 pounds.    I would like to lose another 12-15 pounds. 

 

I walk for 30 minutes in the morning, building up to 40 minutes.  I also do my stretches and core strengthening.  I sweat SO MUCH.  I probably have some dehydration issues that I need to address.  I try to get out in the sun for 20 minutes each day to soak up some vitamin D. 

 

I would like to have the IgG ELISA repeated in August, prior to beginning our travels.  I’m hoping I can resume eating some of the foods I’m presently avoiding.  I’m prepared, however, to avoid sugar and yeast indefinitely.  

 

Doc, I’m not exaggerating when I say thank you for saving my life.  With my sensitivity to yeast coupled with the leaky gut and systemic Candida Albicans thriving in my body, I’m convinced my immune system would eventually shut down.  Or my quality of life would deteriorate drastically. 

 

I’m sure you’ve heard from just about all your patients how frustrating it is to navigate the medical community, acquiring one specialist after another (prescribing one drug after the other) trying to heal the patient by eliminating or managing the symptoms instead of eradicating the underlying disease.  No wonder all the antidepressants they gave me never worked (or caused debilitating side effects).  I wasn’t depressed to start with.

 

 Only my PCP, Dina White, M.D., who referred me to you guys will listen to me and learn from my testimony.  I’m so glad she called “The Doc” to tell him how happy she was with my progress.  I’m sure there are millions of people out there suffering, going from doctor to doctor trying to find out what is wrong with them. 

 

Please continue recommending this testing to your patients in whom you recognize symptoms that may be caused by food allergies and yeast.  I had skin tests done by an allergist over a year ago but they said there were no food allergies.  Just extremely allergic to molds.  I would have never guessed yeast, or molds in foods could cause so many problems.

 

 Every day I thank God for directing me to Shapiro Clinic and giving me my life back.  I’ve told friends and family how amazing it’s been, but when I get to the part about giving up favorite foods and working hard, their eyes glaze over.  So sad.  If they were drowning and someone threw them a life preserver, surely they would swim as hard as they could to get to it. 

 

Keep up the good work.  You’re the best! 

 

Betty