March 29, 2005

Glyconutrients - The eight essential sugars

Links

Posted by zarkme at 11:27:24 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

March 15, 2005

Weight Gain

I am very keen to put on weight as I am terribly skinny thanks to many years of suffering this darn autoimmune disorder. There is something about immune disorders and inflammation that causes one to lose weight. Probably due to TNF-alpha..

Thoughts on what might help:
  • eat heaps of fat: coconut cream, mayonaise, coconut jelly, nuts, coconut macaroons, coconut soups, butter, oils, ...
  • lots of dried fruit: figs, dates, currants, raisins, ..
    (I avoid the dried fruits with preservatives)

Quoted from http://www.thepaleodiet.com/faq.htm
However, this being said there are some important exceptions. Dried fruits are not only concentrated calorie sources, they also represent high glycemic loads and have a high potential to cause weight gain, particularly when eaten in unlimited quantities. In addition, high-fat foods such as nuts, seeds, or fatty meats, if consumed in excessive quantity along with fruits, can also promote weight gain.


Posted by zarkme at 23:57:15 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

March 13, 2005

Statistics of Immune disorders

Quoted from : http://nceph.anu.edu.au/Ausimmune/index.php   
Immune disorders are becoming more common.

Recent work suggests that environmental circumstances can alter immune activity in ways that may or may not be important in various immune disorders such as asthma, allergy, Type 1 Diabetes, autoimmune demyelination and multiple sclerosis. It is well established that asthma and hayfever are more common in modern times. It also appears that other immune disorders, including Type 1 Diabetes, Crohn's colitis and multiple sclerosis are becoming increasingly common. The latter three disorders occur when the body's own immune system attacks body organs: the pancreas, bowel lining and central nervous system respectively.

Multiple Sclerosis (an immune disorder)

Here are some articles I read some months back on MS. The fact that MS is six times more common in Tasmania than Brisbane was reported widely in the Australian media at the time (ie: in 2003).

Quoted from: http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health/story.jsp?story=483268
But now Australians, who over the years have received the most dire warnings to keep out of the sun, have found that MS is six times less common in tropical Queensland than it is in Tasmania which has much less sun, particularly in winter. Genetics could not explain the difference: the people of Tasmania and Queensland have the same Anglo-Irish and European ancestors. Children in Tasmania who did not develop MS were more likely to have spent two to three hours a day playing outdoors in summer during weekends and holidays. Maybe these diseases can be prevented by playing in the sun. Fun in the sun, could the answer be so simple?


Quoted from: http://www.mssociety.ca/en/research/PC030820.htm
Multiple sclerosis has a well-known and varied distribution throughout the world. It is more common in countries that are farther away from the equator. It also has a striking north-south gradient, i.e., MS is more common in the northern United States than in the south, and conversely, is more common in southern Australia than in the north.
...
The researchers found that people who had spent more time in the sun when they were between the ages of six and 15 were less likely to develop MS than those who had less exposure to sunlight. Having higher sun exposure during the winter months seemed particularly important.
...
Sunlight delivers ultraviolet radiation, which upon coming in contact with the skin, stimulates the body to produce Vitamin D. Several studies have shown that ultraviolet radiation and Vitamin D suppress the activity of immune T cells. Several other studies involving an animal model of MS found the animal disease could be prevented or delayed by giving ultraviolet radiation or the active form of Vitamin D. MS appears to be the result of certain T cells mistakenly attacking the body's own tissues, including myelin, the vital protective cover of the central nervous system.



I would also recommend you read this:
* Title: Past exposure to sun, skin phenotype, and risk of multiple sclerosis: case-control study.
From the August 9 issue of the British Medical Journal (2003;327:316)
http://bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/327/7410/316

Posted by zarkme at 21:33:17 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

March 12, 2005

Paleolithic Diet

Related Links:

Quoted from : http://www.thepaleodiet.com/faq.htm

1. Describe how The Paleo Diet works.

With readily available modern foods, The Paleo Diet mimics the types of foods every single person on the planet ate prior to the Agricultural Revolution (a mere 500 generations ago). These foods (fresh fruits, vegetables, lean meats, and seafood) are high in the beneficial nutrients (soluble fiber, antioxidant vitamins, phytochemicals, omega-3 and monounsaturated fats, and low-glycemic carbohydrates) that promote good health and are low in the foods and nutrients (refined sugars and grains, saturated and trans fats, salt, high-glycemic carbohydrates, and processed foods) that frequently may cause weight gain, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and numerous other health problems. The Paleo Diet encourages dieters to replace dairy and grain products with fresh fruits and vegetables -- foods that are more nutritious than whole grains or dairy products.


Posted by zarkme at 20:51:12 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Fasting and pain relief

Originally posted here by Tacitus:
I have taken down many flares using the Cayce 3 day apple diet; fasting seems to take longer, in fact.

My reply:
Yes, from my experience I believe this to be the case too. The sooner the offending food is out the other end, the sooner I get relief from the inflammation. And fasting just slows down the bowel movements far too much.

For instance I got really sick once and could not keep any food down.. so I decided that I may as well go and fast. Well pretty soon the tummy bug had cleared my bowels out completely (diarrhoea) and I was in no pain ! Not only that but I felt awesome and my mind was super sharp and clear..

Posted by zarkme at 07:07:50 | Permanent Link | Comments (2) |

March 07, 2005

Song: 7 Zark 7 by Spiderbait

This is freaking weird and spooky. This band called Spiderbait went and made a song called '7 Zark 7' - Where the hell did they get the idea to write a song like this. It's as if the song was written by me ..

7 ZARK 7
Take away the pain
Take away the pain
Take away the pain
Take away the pain I suffer every day

Give me everything
I want everything 
Give me everything
I want everything that I'm supposed to hate

Feed it 'till it cracks
Smash it through the bridge 
Bust it up and boy
All the pieces
(something)

Take me to the edge
And I will take you back
Crack it up 
And try to crack it down but I am just about too late

I got the lyrics from here .. but actually when I listened closely I reckon he was saying 'take away the rain', well it is pretty hard to tell !
Posted by zarkme at 09:02:15 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

March 06, 2005

crazy theory : simple diet

Spent the day walking in the park... Perhaps I got to much sunshine :-). For what it's worth, here is what I said to Jan (twisks) :

~~~ crazy theory : simple diet ~~~
Observation:
After fasting on fruit for a few days my gut flora improved a great deal and certainly my ability to tolerate fruit improved. Candida is gone. Inflammation is gone. Fatigue is gone.

Wild speculation / Conclusion:
so hey my newest cooky theory is that if I eat nothing but lentils or some other unprocessed     grain / bean for about three days straight maybe my immune system will be able to stabilise a healthy gut flora .. hehehe ..  ya never know, could happen!  My argument is that by eating such a basic diet the gut flora will be more stable and will give the immune system a good chance to get its act together.. it's hard to put into words exactly why I think it would work.  So if I am right, the theory that a varied diet ==> brings good health is false.

Posted by zarkme at 09:44:53 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

March 04, 2005

Coeliac Disease associated with AS?

The 'no starch diet' works for me, but certainly not becuase of any allergy to wheat. Still this is a curiousity. Thanks to Chris Miller for finding this:
 
Coeliac (Celiac) disease in spondyloarthropathy: usefulness of serological screening.

Excerpt: "We found an association of spondyloarthropathy with coeliac disease in one patient out of 74. Clinicians need to be aware of this association, which has important implications for the correct management of patients."
Posted by zarkme at 10:38:06 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

March 02, 2005

Klebsiella P. - Lab Report

this was posted here by MikeinSA :

I have had A.S. for several years now and I wanted to post a lab report of my saliva that shows that I really am infected with Klebsiella P. After finding several medical reports at my local medical library by Dr. Alan Ebringer concerning the association of Klebsiella P. and A.S., I decide to prove his theory for myself. I convinced my dentist to check my saliva for this notorious bug. The lab report consists of two saliva samples. The bottom (second) sample confirms Dr. Ebringer's theory. The concentration of Klebsiella P. species is almost 8%. The dental lab suggested that I take Cipro for a couple of weeks because of this high concentration of Klebsiella P. Dr. Ebringer has said that if you [don't] set up some type of protocol(s) to help minimize or get rid of Klebsiella P., that you are not addressing the issue of molecular mimicry and you are not addressing the underlying cause of A.S., namely Klebsiella P.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/masons3/LabReportKlebsiellaSpecies.pdf
[...]
Klebsiella is a pneumoniae bacteria. There are approx. 60 or 70 species of Klebsiella pneumoniae bacteria. I don't know where Klebsiella comes from, but I have seen water filters that say they can extract Klebsiella from water. Again, I'm not sure were Klebsiella comes from. I think you were asking if it is dormant. I don't know if it is active all the time. I don't know how we get it. These are all good questions and when I post this next week in the main forum, maybe there we can get some answers. I know that Dr. Ebringer thinks it lives in our large bowel. I resentally sent this lab report to the department head of microbiology at the University of Texas Health Science Center and Dr. Baseman thinks it can live in the respiratory tract (lung, nasal mucosa, etc.)

Posted by zarkme at 05:58:42 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Quotes

"Though I have no power to quote from authors as they have, I rely on a far bigger and more worthy thing: on experience... if they despise me who am an inventor, how much more should they be blamed who are not inventors, but trumpeters and reciters of the works of others?"
-- Leonardo Da Vinci, Codex Atlanticus

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it"
-- Aristotle

"To live by medicine is to live horribly." - Carl Linnaeus, 1707-78

"Thy food shall be thy remedy." - Hippocrates, 500 BC

"It's a fact of life that people find it much easier to believe a lie they've heard a thousand times than a fact they've never heard before." - ?
(thanks to ted for sharing this one)


"There is an old Zen analogy that the way to calm, clear and quiet the mind is similar to the way to clear a muddy pool -- not by action, by doing, by stirring it up, but by stillness, by letting it be, by letting it settle itself."


"To the human body it makes a great difference whether the bread be made of fine flour or coarse, whether of the wheat with the bran or the wheat without the bran" Hippocrates 450 BC


A good memory does not equal pale ink... So I keep a good log of what I learn about AS :-)


Just say no to Grains :-) hehehe
No grains = No pain ! --John (The DragonSlayer)

Eat to live, do not live to eat!

And what's he then that says I play the villain
When this advice is free I give and honest
(bilko used this)


"Things sweet to taste prove in digestion sour" - Shakespeare. King Richard II



"No illness which can be treated by diet should be treated by any other means."
- Moses Maimonide. Great twelfth-century physician.


"Thy food shall be thy remedy." - Hippocrates, 500 BC


"There are certain persons who cannot readily change their diet with impunity;
and if they make any alterations in it for one day, or even  part of a day, are greatly injured thereby." - Hippocrates, 500 BC


"Even your body knows its heritage and its rightful needs and will not be deceived.
And your body is the harp of your soul,
And it is yours to bring forth sweet music from it or confused sounds."
- Kahlil Gibran. The Prophet


"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious."
- Albert Einstein. The living Philosophies.


"The aim of medicine is to prevent disease and prolong life; the ideal of medicine is to eliminate the need of a physician." - William J. Mayo MD


"Now learn what and how great benefits a temperate diet will bring with it. In the first place, you will enjoy good health." - Horace, 65-08 BC


"His food was glory,
Which was poison to his mind
And peril to his body."
- Sir Henry Taylor, 1800-86


"To live by medicine is to live horribly." - Carl Linnaeus, 1707-78


"It is highly dishonourable for a reasonable soul to live in so divinely built a mansion as the body she resides in, altogether unacquainted with the exquisite structure of it." - Robert Boyle, 1627-91


"In every person, even in such as appear most reckless, there is an inherent desire to attain balance." - J. Wasserman


"One man's meat is another man's poison" - Hippocrates, 500 BC


"Know Thyself."
"Nothing in Excess."
Carved by the ancient Greeks on the portals in front of the temple of the oracle at Delphi

"the best food you eat, you cook" -- Alohaben (Chef)



Posted by zarkme at 05:21:43 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |