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I am not licensed to diagnose or treat any disease or condition and nothing on my blogs or in my eCourses should be used to diagnose, treat or cure any disease or condition. So please make a note:
Do Not Use Information On My Blogs Or In My eCourses As Medical Advice.
Since you have registered for my eCourse you should probably know a little about me. Not so that you’ll say “Wow! This guy is AWESOMELY smart and knows his shit” but so that you’ll know I am pretty much like you. I’m passionate about helping people who are sick and can’t seem to find a solution via orthadox medicine. Probably because I’ve experienced some illness myself, just like you.
Medicine and Healing Intrigue Me
Medicine, healing, alternative treatments for diseases and conditions intrigue me. I first became interested in health conditions when my dad was diagnosed with Hodgkins Disease, now called Hodgkins Lymphoma.
Before my father passed on July 28th, 1974 he had gallbladder surgery (it was full of cancer) and died from a heart attack on the table. They resurrected him but he was dead long enough to suffer brain damage.
What I find interesting about my father’s death is what was written on his death cert as a cause: Liver failure.
Not cancer, liver failure. After a couple rounds of radiation and 3 rounds of chemotherapy I imagine a liver would fail. This begs me to ask the question what really killed my dad? His disease or the treatments [1]?
My Health Challenges
I’ve also had some health challenges all my life, one of which is Celiac Disease, another is Pancreatitis. The medical community has been of little help in regards to either condition, except for diagnosis even if it did take over 50 years for them to find the celiac disease and about 10 years to diagnose the pancreatitis.
As a child my family doctor couldn’t figure out why I had digestive issues (nausea, diarrhea, vomiting). Why I had mouth sores. In fact he told my parents I was a hypochondriac. And so celiac disease, known then more commonly as sprue, went undiagnosed for over 50 years.
7 ER doctors looked at me like a bull with a bastard calf when I came in suffering from extreme abdominal pain, fever, chills, nausea and more. One gastroenterologist told me I had a spastic colon. I finally found a doctor in 1979 who didn’t get his M.D. from Cracker Jack University and diagnosed me with acute and chronic pancreatitis.
Because of my personal piss-poor experience with most doctors and my need to survive I became passionate about learning to survive with pancreatitis. Years later I started telling others who suffer from it how I controlled it, healed and lived. Some who have read about my journey have adopted my same regimen. Amazingly many of those are finding relief, even healing. In fact, if you are interested in my 30+ year journey you can visit one of my blogs called Beating Pancreatitis.
The doctor I have now is pretty decent. He listens and takes what I tell him at face value. He diagnosed me with celiac disease in 2009. I have lived with uncontrolled celiac disease for over 50 years.
Doctors seem to know very little about either condition (celiac disease and pancreatitis). They THINK they know everything but in all reality their knowledge is lacking (that’s why they call their business a “practice”) and recommendations can even be dangerous.
Ok, I KNOW what you are thinking but let me give you some examples …
Example number 1 – A gluten free diet is all a celiac needs to control symptoms and continued damage of the small intestine, right?
Not true in some cases.
Refractory Celiac Disease
Celiac Disease that doesn’t respond to a “normal” gluten free diet along with certain testing protocols, is termed as refractory celiac disease. When one does their research things come to light.
Supposedly refractory celiac disease is rare. They classify it as either type 1 or type 2. The risk of non healing, refractory celiac disease is its propensity to evolve into intestinal lymphoma which is a death sentence. Basically they treat type 1 with IV feeding and steroids, sometimes more powerful immune suppressing drugs that can cause cancer, blow out your pancreas and other cool things.
They treat type 2 in much the same way as cancer. With chemotherapy. And everybody know how damn effective chemo is right? Small intestinal cancer, pancreatic cancer and some other cancers don’t even respond to chemo yet it is given as the main protocol anyway? Makes sense to me! Anyway …
I wasn’t healing.
ONE YEAR on a gluten free diet and I saw very little resolution. My mom on the other hand, who is also celiac and diagnosed AFTER I was, received complete resolution on the normal gluten free diet. Please understand I have NOT been diagnosed with refractory celiac disease. I simply was not healing and was losing weight. Instead of telling my doctor and having to endure testing procedures I started doing research.
What Did I Find?
I found that in a certain number of celiacs the prolamins (protein) in corn also known as maize (anything made of or from corn) and rice can and does illicit a response in some celiacs [2], [3]. Yet everyone on the face of the earth, except a few research scientists believe corn, oats [4] and rice are completely safe for all celiacs. If someone thinks corn is a problem their doctor will most likely think it is probably a virus, a food allergy or simply all in their head! Anyway …
I learned how to win, at least so far and to resolve my celiac symptoms. I had to eliminate wheat, rye, barley, corn, oats and rice from my diet to accomplish the task.
Heart and Cardiovascular Disease: My Family History
My father died of cancer and/or liver failure when I was 19.
My grandfather (my father’s father) suffered from a heart arrhythmia and diabetes. Ironically he died from a staph infection contracted in the hospital after he broke his hip.
My grandmother (father’s mother) died from a heart attack.
My father’s oldest brother had peripheral arterial disease (PAD) and after some years of hard knocks decided to blow his brains out.
My father’s youngest brother had a quadruple bypass and later died.
My father’s sister had a stroke. She is still living but isn’t quite all there and resides in a nursing home.
So on my father’s side there is plenty of artery disease, heart conditions and other risk factors.
I have very little knowledge of my mother’s family health history because she was adopted. She has been plagued by health issues since she was a kid as well and …
Not ONE doctor, including her current doctor she has been seeing for the last 25 years, ever put together her digestive issue complaints, previous miscarriages, along with other signs and symptoms and determined she needed testing for celiac disease. Neither did I for a long time but I shouldn’t have to diagnose my family members. I am NOT a damn doctor! Yet …
It took my doctor diagnosing me, my knowledge that celiac disease is genetic and my insistence that her doctor test her. She tested positive just like me. She has suffered at least one Lacunar Stroke, has celiac disease, high blood pressure that seems difficult to control or resolve and is a type 2 diabetic. Her side of my family hasn’t blessed me with good health either.
I’m also blessed with a supposedly benign, non-dangerous, arrhythmia. It’s called Atrioventricular Nodal Reentry Tachycardia or SVT for short. Since it started when I was 33, or at least that is when I first noticed it, and I passed out one time in 2003, and wasn’t diagnosed until 2005, I certainly hope they have the right diagnosis. I’ve had several thallium stress tests, a heart echo, holter monitor and event monitor (this caught the arrhythmia). I show no sign of clogged arteries or defects. I’m hoping I don’t suddenly drop dead and they later find out it was LQTS! Just kidding, sort of. 😉
So you may be able to understand why I invest so much time researching certain diseases because when it comes to health, genetic risk factors for various diseases and the competence of most doctors I’ve met – I’m screwed!
Reference Sources:
1 – Liver Damage (Hepatotoxicity) quote: “Chemotherapy drugs are toxins and may cause liver damage.” read more
2 – Transglutaminase treatment of wheat and maize prolamins of bread increases the serum IgA reactivity of celiac disease patients. Read abstract
3 – Maize Prolamins Could Induce a Gluten-Like Cellular Immune Response in Some Celiac Disease Patients. Read absract
4 – The safety of oats in the dietary treatment of coeliac disease. The abstract states: “Recent research has suggested that it may only be in certain strains of oats which could produce a toxic response to people with coeliac disease. In conclusion, research suggests that the risk from consuming oats may be less harmful than first thought; however, may vary according to the strain of oat. Handling that risk in clinical practice remains controversial.” Read abstract