Allergy Season! (Month 2, Day 36)

It's that time again - springtime in New Mexico, when the pinion trees sweat pollen and the rabbitbrush throws the stuff out like a sneeze. Any building you go into, you'll see signs of the season - runny noses, red eyes, coughing, headaches.

But not me -aside from a slight runny nose, I have no allergy symptoms, which is actually really surprising!  The only thing that I can really say is different from this year and last is diet and supplementation.  Obviously, the INH is a new ingredient.

The diet is the big one though - the histamine-free diet. I can control the exposure coming in through my mouth, which means a lower dose of histamines in the body.  Granted, I can't eliminate all histamines, but my diet is pretty darn clean. (See the Histamine Page for more info on Histamines)

I'm on the first week still of my Histamine-free diet.  Unfortunately, my hands are just as bad as ever, even if my allergies are mild.  Does that mean that the arthritic symptoms in my hands are no relation to histamines?  Possibly, although everything I've read says it takes at least 2-3 weeks to lower histamine levels in the body.

Again, no idea how it all works.  All I know is that I feel relatively good for all the yellow stuff in the air, and I plan on staying on the diet for another 2 weeks.  It's not as bad as it sounds!

Today's Diet:
32oz water
Breakfast: 2 slices Manna bread with homemade cashew butter
3 vitamins
Chai tea with Stevia and coconut cream
Lunch: Pea soup and vitamins
Snack: 3 rice cakes
Home snack: Corn chips and apple salsa
Dinner: Steamed cauliflower, romaine salad with rice cheese shred, sunflower sprouts, hemp seed and goddess dressing
Dessert: Applesauce
Pre-bed: Pollen and the Pill

Picture source

Starting the Histamine-free Diet (Month 2, Day 32)

Welcome to Month 2, I said to myself.  In fact, I feel recommitted to making this month experimental. A challenge, so they say. Find out what is causing my arthritis.  See what makes me feel good, as opposed to hurting.  Other than the obvious...

Wouldn't it be nice if all of the sudden the heavens opened and a loud booming voice said "APRIL FOOLS!  You don't really have Latent Tuberculosis!"  Yeah, right.

'Course, it could just be that I have arthritis and that's that...but I don't like to think that way.  At the very least, I'd like to find what lessens my symptoms.  At best, what completely alleviates them.

My commitment for now:
1. Get Vitamin Sun every day (at least 15 minutes)
2. Eliminate all (or most) high histamine foods and histamine triggering foods from my diet to see if it helps my hands.  If it does, I'll add them back in here and there to see the limit. (See my post on arthritis)

I just went out and bought Vitamin D, 5000 IU's.  100 caps for 10 buckaroos at Whole Foods. Not bad.  I'm going to take one a day to see what happens.   5000 IU's = 125 micrograms.  47% of that is about 58 micrograms.  Not bad.  Combine with sun exposure I should be good for my Vitamin D intake.  By the way, here's an interesting source about Vitamin D toxicity myths (the body uses at least 4000 IU's daily).

As part of this whole diet, I think it will be important to record what I'm eating to see how my hands feel.  Hey, I do this with my five year old, why not with myself?

So here is what I ate yesterday.  My hands feel about the same this morning.  Stiff and weak.  The joints are achy.  I can function just fine, but it helps if I complain a lot to everyone (smile).

• Pre-Breakfast - 32 oz water with 2 acidophilis caps
• Breakfast - Polenta with almond milk, honey and blackberries (see my picture!) - Really delicious as I was generous with the honey (underneath all of the blackberries).  I will not cave to a boring diet!
• 3 food based multivitamins
• Chai Tea with Coconut Cream 
• Lunch - Brown rice with cucumbers and goddess dressing (Of course, still hungry so need a snack).
• 3 food based multivitamins 
• Snack - Dried Goji berries (about a 1/2 cup) and hot tea with coco cream and stevia
• Dinner - Fried polenta with sauteed vegees, butternut squash, arugula on the side with miso dressing.  Pumpkin seeds on top.
• After dinner - Vitamin D, 4000IU's
• Pre-bed - 1 very white, very pasty INH pill

Possible Histamine triggers:
-Goddess Dressing (Tahini, Soy Sauce, Apple Cider Vinegar)
-Goji Berries (although some sources say they are an anti-histamine)
-Miso Dressing (Miso, Vinegar)
-Pumpkin seeds

Eliminated my usual tomato, avocado, hummus morning sandwich on Ezekial bread (Yeast).  Goodbye my love...sniff...

Month 1 - Day 3

Felt very dry this morning...woke up and knew I needed water.

Once upon a time I used to start the morning with 32 oz of water. The purpose was not only to hydrate but to flush the kidneys of water soluble toxins and also flush the intestinal tract. I think I'll start this up again. The body is practically a bag of water, and needs to be changed just like a fishbowl. If you don't get enough water, those water soluble toxins just tend to hang out in the body. The new rule of thumb for water is half your body weight in water each day. I weigh around 130 (hoping that goes down!). So I should be drinking about 65 oz of water each day.

Drinking 32oz of water before doing anything else can be difficult the first couple of days. But it makes sense to get half my water consumption out of the way and provide a fresh start for my body each morning.

Today my diet is:
B- Medley of rolled oats, roasted almonds, banana, figs and coconut milk
S-Rice cake and 2 cuties
L- Rice, steamed kale, olives, tomatoes and a brown rice tortilla
S-Banana chips
D-Butternut squash soup, Salad, Chocolate bark (coconut oil, maple syrup, cocoa powder, almonds)

Took pill before bed.