Just a little bit of research makes me want to scream….please read on….it’s very long, but may have something in it you can use.
For the last 6+ weeks, I’ve been talking about adding butter (from grassfed cows ONLY) to my coffee for the sole reason of increasing the Omega 6 to Omega 3 oils ratio in my body chemistry, to see the benefit I might experience as I’d read about that could be possible. I am here to tell you, and anyone who has been around me – that change HAS been incredible. I’ve been more “together”, sharper, making better decisions and have had a better sense of clarity than I have had in YEARS.
FOR THE LAST 6 YEARS, since being diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder (Rapid Cycling Bipolar Disorder), I have been dispensed pill after pill after pill – Lithium (which I still take, 1200 milligrams daily, and which added 75 very unhealthy pounds, made me diabetic and screwed with my heart), Clonazapan, Abilify, Trapazole, Topiramate, Alprazolam, among others that didn’t “work” for my condition) AND these medications triggered the causal of an auto-immune disease called Lichen Planus, which I’ll have the rest of my life due to these medications (yay, surprise!)…..
SO….Let’s fast forward to 2014…. What did I do?
I simply changed my eating habits. And what the hell happened?
I dropped over 100 pounds. I got away from most junky fast food and ate healthier, and saw an immediate increase in my body functions of course, i.e., blood pressure dropped to normal ranges, blood sugar returned to normal, diabetic conditions left me, sleep apnea left, etc….
However, the mental health issues, while a bit better, were still present. And then I found the issue of the Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratio factor and the importance of how it helps the brain functions. More importantly, the fact that it has had an INCREDIBLE result with me personally, both in every day “life” and how I handle bipolar disorder.
WHY I’M PISSED OFF RIGHT NOW:
I have been telling Ed for the last several weeks that I am noticing a dramatic and noticeable difference, and I know he has too. However, in the past, these “upswings” are usually indicators of a manic phase, marked by errors left & right. Wrong life turns, lying, mistakes, classic textbook manic episode blowups that are very difficult to live through…..however NONE of those items have accompanied this present course. The ONLY change has been this recent dietary change and my continuation of exercise.
I’M PISSED because I go to research the correlation of Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratio and Bipolar Disorder and find right off the bat FIVE studies done through Harvard in between 1998 & 2000 – FIFTEEN YEARS AGO – that show that there is a DEFINITE benefit to the administration of the balance of this and the brain, and the effect of it on Bipolar Disorder. And do you want to know the number of times that my psychiatristS have ever mentioned it to me? (And I’ve had 4 different psychs, never been happy with any of them!)
NOT. ONE. TIME.
NOT ONCE!
WHY? Because they would rather keep me on MEDS.
THEY would rather collect insurance money.
THEY would rather collect funds than respect their oath to make a patient truly BETTER from within.
THERE’S MORE.
With the development of the Lichen Planus, about 3-4 years ago, I began having horrible looking huge purple splotches breaking out on my legs. They’d come up out of nowhere, looking like a huge bruise. After 2-3 of them came up, and my doctor not knowing what they were, I eventually sought the care of a dermatologist and the condition was diagnosed as something called lichenoid pigmentation purpoa. It’s basically – so I was told at the time – where blood cells collect under the surface of the skin, but don’t come through the skin. Basically harmless, but ugly just the same. They stay for about 6 months, and then start to fade, but remain after about a year, looking like birth marks when they’re “finished”.
They’ve continued, but never started until AFTER I was on all this medication. About a year ago I started doing some research on the lichenoid purpoa condition and found that it is usually triggered by GUESS WHAT: MEDICATION, although “they are unsure which medications can cause it”. I perused through the med classifications, and I had taken about 75% of the meds on the list over the period of 5 years. NONE of the doctors ever told me that this could be the case.
A few months ago I had to have a biopsy on one of the spots because it came on very aggressively. The biopsy came back with the condition of what I now know as Lichen Planus auto-immune disease I’ll live with, supposedly forever.
Not fatal, just an irritation. I move on, and Ed & I join Planet Fitness. Planet Fitness has tanning booths. I like to tan. In moderation of course, I’m never going to let myself look like a brown leather bag.
What? Tanning, “Doctors” say, is BAD for you…
However, two weeks in, and I’m in the shower, and start to get ready for school one day and I look in the mirror and what do you know….the remaining spots on my legs, about 5 of them….have ALL started to break up and fade away. I hid my suspicions right away that the ultraviolet light was causing this to happen and kept on with the tanning, about 10 minutes at a time, 3 times a week. By week 4, 3 of the spots are nearly completely GONE. And it was time for regular check up with my GP for the dieting/weight loss, and then with my newer dermatologist, the one who’d done the biopsy (and had prescribed about $125 in steroid creams).
My regular doc, whom I truly adore, nodded right away and said “yep, the ultraviolet light can definitely help with rashes, etc.”. I truly like this doctor and he has helped me in many ways in the last 10 years, and I’m not going to fault him – as a GP he is one of the best, and hasn’t been responsible for the more intense things that I’ve experienced healthwise in that decade. But the visit with the dermatologist….well…..I immediately showed her my legs and upper thighs where the condition had taken root and the huge difference from the previous visit. I had only used the creams she prescribed twice, and had zero effect from them. I told her that I had started tanning – but I told her that BEFORE i showed her the spots. Of course, she launched into her story about how bad it was for me, blah blah blah….and then I pulled off my sweats. The look of surprise on her face was priceless. I told her my $10 month membership was REALLY worth my copay because “Look at the improvement I’m getting from that!”. She then tried to tell me that “her next line of attack should the creams not work was going to be to come to their clinic and use UV light therapy”. Yeah doc. Bite me.
So here’s the deal. I’m going to be FIFTY in September. With the exception of the spinal fusion surgery that I had nearly two years ago, and the excellent healing I’ve had from that (I’m very lucky), I’m starting to really believe that the MEDICAL INDUSTRY is possibly one of the biggest SCAMS to exist on this planet, at least in the United States. We are OVERMEDICATED, OVERCHARGED, and I sincerely believe that what we are being MEDICATED with is CAUSING more harm than it is fixing, and that these issues are being started now at even earlier ages, with MEDS for our CHILDREN that is setting up GUARANTEES for the industry at later dates.
YOU seriously need to look at the benefits you can experience by simply CONTROLLING YOUR DIETARY INTAKE.
The phrase “You Are What You Eat” came from something originally, for a reason.
I may possibly have not been more serious about anything in my life.
You owe it to yourself to see what kind of change you can affect in your own life, both physical AND mentally by simply CHANGING YOUR FOOD HABITS. It could really mean the difference between life and death.