Friday 14 November 2014
Trying a Keto-Adapted Diet
....basically this means cut out all processed foods and sugars, eat a medium amount of protein and a high amount of fat. You train your body to burn fat to convert into ketones for energy rather than purely relying on sugar as the "developed" nations often do.
Now why would I want to do that? Because it appears to have a bunch of health benefits including reducing the symptoms of eczema. Additionally those looking to lose weight will enjoy this diet. I'm not but am interested at cutting out stuff to see the effects.
SUGAR
Interestingly a lot of medical sites warn about the developed nations consuming a high amount of sugar that leads to obesity, diabetes and a whole lot of other health issues. Sugars can be in different forms:
- Sugar as we know it
- Fructose from fruit
- Glucose
- Lactose
....and more
Reading about it from various sites, you get the feeling that it may also feed cancer cells. It appears that glucose is used as a trace to determine the location of cancer cells in your body, 'cos cancer cells will snap up the glucose before any other cells!
Our insulin levels have to rise in order to deal with our sugar hits and convert it into energy. Unfortunately our body can only store small amounts of sugar (compared to fat) and continued high doses can cause all types of complications as we cannot produce enough insulin to deal with the sugar spikes.
So on this diet no sugar also means no fruit!
CARBOHYDRATES (carbs)
We eat a lot of carbs in our diet. Carbs are converted to glucose so again an insulin spike is required to deal with that high carb meal that you've just eaten at breakfast, lunch or dinner. Hence after a meal filled with carbs we might experience a short energy high and then tiredness often follows after.
In this diet you get your carbohydrates from vegetables. Here is a list of high carb and low carb vegetables: http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/whattoeat/a/whatveg.htm
Now I love my rice and noodles and it is pretty hard watching someone else enjoy a bowl of rice and you've just got meat and veg!
It should be noted where there is too much glycogen in our bodies, the body will convert it to fat.
PROTEIN
I am mostly a vegetarian at heart. I get my protein from eating tofu, quorn and textured vegetarian protein (this is quite high in carbs) and the occasional fish...although I seem to have gone off fish. However I eat pretty much what ever I am served.
FAT
So I have learned that not all saturated fats are the same nor are vegetable oils. Medium chained triglycerides (in meat and coconut oil) are apparently good for you and do not stay in the body like long chained triglycerides that is in vegetable oils. It appears that Coconut Oil has lots of medicinal benefits. My holistic masseur friend raves on about how fantastic coconut oil is for the body.
I am thus eating lots of coconut oil.
So far what have I found...
I am pretty useless at staying on a "strict diet" especially as winter heads in. I love my rice and noodles and watching my partner eat it everyday makes me want it more. I think I should just kick him out of the house!!! However I have managed to stay on this diet for about 6 consecutive days at a time and the patches of eczema have been less itchy. Also as winter comes in I have increased my vit D, omega 3, vit C, calcium and magnesium supplements.
I have found I eat less due to the higher fat content in my diet. I have not gained or lost weight.
Although I have flirted with eating slightly more carbs than usual, I have lost the appetite for sweet things. After about a month of eating no sugary substances, I gave into a friend who kept on about sharing her dark chocolate truffles. I caved in to her "come on you need to live a little" etc. I was surprised about how soon after my neck became itchy. I will be avoiding chocolate from now on.
My partner brought in a whole bag of biscuits because he is addicted to sugar. However with the increased stress of a greater workload, I did a dive in for some.....during a day....okay 1/2 a pack. Again the eczema patches reacted.
I guess might have to give up biscuits for good as well.
Interestingly I have found eating sausages before a marathon far more "energising" than carbo loading. With carbo loading I have found I am hungrier sooner and I eat more.
Anyway as long as you do not have medical problems, perhaps you might like to try a high fat diet with medium protein and low carbs. and see how your eczema responds.
Thursday 13 February 2014
An Interview and thus an overview
Ahh questions, questions, questions and a response for those who don't want to read back thru my blog.
Social life and Eczema
Eczema started with me in my young teenage years, first only a small area was affected and into my late teens spread on my face, neck an body. The docs were busy prescribing higher doses of cortisone which would appear to improve the skin, but really my skin was becoming addicted to cortisone in the pursuit to see "nice" looking skin.
I had scaley scabby skin, but never let that interfere with my social life, nor my sporting life. Growing up I realised that people had all sorts of hang ups. At A'Levels other slim gals would compare their body sizes against me, wishing to have my body size!!! Or they would comment about how much weight they've put on (they're slim!). Self-awareness is high on the agenda and skin disorders are rife amongst teenages - greasy skin, spots, dry skin, psorasis....and me with eczema. So I would just get the elephant out of the way and tell folks I had eczema and want that meant. Once that was out of the way, no one really cared.....well those that did kept on telling me not to scratch or hit my hand off my skin - which irritated me even more and made me scratch more vigourously.
I had to stop and not be forced to stop by someone else.
Eczema did not and has not stopped my social or sporting life because I did not allow it to.
Sport and Eczema
Sweat causes my eczema to become worst. On the eczema areas, this is because the skin is broken and becomes irritated. However have also found that during times of "low sleep" and "low hydration", the sweat can cause intense areas of itchiness. When am feeling that am going to be itchy during sport, I now take a quarter of an anti-histamine tablet before sport. When I have had good sleep and hydrated beforehand, there is none to low intensity of itchiness. Hydrating during sport is important to keep the itch at bay.
Winter and Eczema
The more active I am during winter, the eczema has a smaller area. This has probably to due with my skin being able to sweat out "stuff". Additionally I have been experimenting with taking 5000 iu vitamin D3. This appears to cause my skin, hair and nails to grow faster. Due to frostbite on my finger and it going necrotic, have increased the dosage to 10,000 iu + omega 3 oils. Probably throw in some ginger tea and gingko nuts to aid circulation.
My eczema toolkit contains some antihistamine and weak moisturing creams. Petroleum vaseline is no longer in my winter kit as it appears to aggrevate my skin.
Sleep and Eczema
We spend about 1/4 of our lives sleeping which is good for healing! Sleep deprivation (unfortunately I am a little bit of an insomniac) causes you to be stroppy and can cause the eczema to itch for no apparent reason.
With so much time in bed, clean and dust your room, to reduce dust mites. Sleep is really very beneficial. So if you find you're in that crazy lack of sleep due to itchiness, it is worth cleaning up your body (food and water) and taking a little antihistamine to help control the bad time. Once you're under control, ditch the antihistamine.
I don't like drugs, and have found a quarter of an antihistamine is sufficient as indicated above, especially a week before my period when my head does not appear to like sleeping!!!
Food and Eczema
When we have eczema, lots of different types of food can appear to cause the eczema to become itchy. When you clean up your body, those foods that appeared to cause the eczema to become more pronounced will have less of an effect. MSG, peanuts and peaches can still cause me a problem.
I cleaned up by eating raw, freshly grown veggies every day for a couple of months and fish. My skin cleared up totally and my local GP asked me what I did! I found I can now use seasame oil which once before would have appeared to irritate the skin on my throat!
I also do find herbal teas help to relax me if I am feeling itchy. Fennel is a favourite for me.
Holistic Approaches
Unfortunately I believe there are many GPs who are owned by the pharmaceutical companies. They are too fast to prescribe medicines when there are other ways to cure a disorder. During 2012, I had swollen fingers on my right hand and was prescribed anti-inflammatories. At the end of the year I was diagnosed with carpel tunnel syndrome (as well as restless leg syndrome) - more drugs and potential surgery. Thankfully a friend intervened and asked me to try massage therapy. This friend felt "blocked energy" from the shoulder down to the finger. After 2 weeks of massage therapy my fingers were no longer swollen. I returned to the neurosurgeon's clinic to have more tests. I no longer have carpel tunnel syndrome! My friend's details are here: Sarah Chevasse.
So look at your eczema problem more holistically before you start on the cycle of medicines and steroids. Change your life and begin to heal. I hope the above helps you discover what will work for you.
Social life and Eczema
Eczema started with me in my young teenage years, first only a small area was affected and into my late teens spread on my face, neck an body. The docs were busy prescribing higher doses of cortisone which would appear to improve the skin, but really my skin was becoming addicted to cortisone in the pursuit to see "nice" looking skin.
I had scaley scabby skin, but never let that interfere with my social life, nor my sporting life. Growing up I realised that people had all sorts of hang ups. At A'Levels other slim gals would compare their body sizes against me, wishing to have my body size!!! Or they would comment about how much weight they've put on (they're slim!). Self-awareness is high on the agenda and skin disorders are rife amongst teenages - greasy skin, spots, dry skin, psorasis....and me with eczema. So I would just get the elephant out of the way and tell folks I had eczema and want that meant. Once that was out of the way, no one really cared.....well those that did kept on telling me not to scratch or hit my hand off my skin - which irritated me even more and made me scratch more vigourously.
I had to stop and not be forced to stop by someone else.
Eczema did not and has not stopped my social or sporting life because I did not allow it to.
Sport and Eczema
Sweat causes my eczema to become worst. On the eczema areas, this is because the skin is broken and becomes irritated. However have also found that during times of "low sleep" and "low hydration", the sweat can cause intense areas of itchiness. When am feeling that am going to be itchy during sport, I now take a quarter of an anti-histamine tablet before sport. When I have had good sleep and hydrated beforehand, there is none to low intensity of itchiness. Hydrating during sport is important to keep the itch at bay.
Winter and Eczema
The more active I am during winter, the eczema has a smaller area. This has probably to due with my skin being able to sweat out "stuff". Additionally I have been experimenting with taking 5000 iu vitamin D3. This appears to cause my skin, hair and nails to grow faster. Due to frostbite on my finger and it going necrotic, have increased the dosage to 10,000 iu + omega 3 oils. Probably throw in some ginger tea and gingko nuts to aid circulation.
My eczema toolkit contains some antihistamine and weak moisturing creams. Petroleum vaseline is no longer in my winter kit as it appears to aggrevate my skin.
Sleep and Eczema
We spend about 1/4 of our lives sleeping which is good for healing! Sleep deprivation (unfortunately I am a little bit of an insomniac) causes you to be stroppy and can cause the eczema to itch for no apparent reason.
With so much time in bed, clean and dust your room, to reduce dust mites. Sleep is really very beneficial. So if you find you're in that crazy lack of sleep due to itchiness, it is worth cleaning up your body (food and water) and taking a little antihistamine to help control the bad time. Once you're under control, ditch the antihistamine.
I don't like drugs, and have found a quarter of an antihistamine is sufficient as indicated above, especially a week before my period when my head does not appear to like sleeping!!!
Food and Eczema
When we have eczema, lots of different types of food can appear to cause the eczema to become itchy. When you clean up your body, those foods that appeared to cause the eczema to become more pronounced will have less of an effect. MSG, peanuts and peaches can still cause me a problem.
I cleaned up by eating raw, freshly grown veggies every day for a couple of months and fish. My skin cleared up totally and my local GP asked me what I did! I found I can now use seasame oil which once before would have appeared to irritate the skin on my throat!
I also do find herbal teas help to relax me if I am feeling itchy. Fennel is a favourite for me.
Holistic Approaches
Unfortunately I believe there are many GPs who are owned by the pharmaceutical companies. They are too fast to prescribe medicines when there are other ways to cure a disorder. During 2012, I had swollen fingers on my right hand and was prescribed anti-inflammatories. At the end of the year I was diagnosed with carpel tunnel syndrome (as well as restless leg syndrome) - more drugs and potential surgery. Thankfully a friend intervened and asked me to try massage therapy. This friend felt "blocked energy" from the shoulder down to the finger. After 2 weeks of massage therapy my fingers were no longer swollen. I returned to the neurosurgeon's clinic to have more tests. I no longer have carpel tunnel syndrome! My friend's details are here: Sarah Chevasse.
So look at your eczema problem more holistically before you start on the cycle of medicines and steroids. Change your life and begin to heal. I hope the above helps you discover what will work for you.
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