Dr. Mei gave Rob no timeframe. She is quietly confident that he will heal. She doesn’t seem too concerned about his low platelets, but was more concerned about his kidneys, which she says are better now, and now his liver. She said “the hgb’s the most important” and Rob’s steady at 11.

She does acupressure when he sees her and gives him herbs but I don’t know what they are. She makes dietary recommendations, most recently for kelp for liver cleansing, beef broth for strengthening. She also teaches him Qi Gong exercises and we took a course together in a healing Qi Gong exercise called Soaring Crane. Doing this was really wonderful because it was something that was actually fun but also good for Rob’s health. We do a “Crane” together about 3x/ week. (It takes about 30″)

In Chinese medicine, bone marrow failure is a symptom, not a disease, and so each patient is treated differently.

It’s very impressive, your mil’s improvement in hgb. When did she start TCM? (I know I could look this up in your chronicle, but I’m too lazy.)

One positive thing about TCM too for Rob is that he really loves the philosophy and the feel of it. Western medicine is so, um, cold, and negative, and it really affects Rob emotionally. (Emotions are also really big in TCM.) It takes him several days to get over a visit to the onc, even just for a blood draw.

But he always feels encouraged after seeing Dr. Mei. Do you notice this as well?

So glad you got some sleep. Now I’ve got to get some.

Best, Andrea

Didn’t know your hubby was doing chinese medicine! That is what mom is using for her MDS. What does your TCM have Rob on for his platelets? Do you know? Mom’s has her eating Mung Beans and jujubees. He also has a lot of herbs in her teas for platelets but other then a few that have american names I don’t know what they are. Mom’s HGB has stabilized at 7.6 -7.7 even though her HCT goes very low, her HGB stays in that range for the most part. On a low time her HCT is 22-23. Before CM her HGB would be 5-6. It’s a really slow climb but it is climbing. Our TCM told mom two years of intense treatment to heal her bone marrow. Did Rob’s give him a time frame?

Patti

We’ll keep you posted on Rob’s progress. He’s doing nothing allopathic now, exclusively Chinese medicine. His platelets are stable at 13-16, wish they were higher but trying to be patient, reds at 11-12, whites at 3-4. He feels good, works pretty hard, still looks a little yellow but color improving.

My feeling is, if he stays stable OR even improves, it’s probably the Chinese stuff.

Best, Andrea

My sister is also into yoga, and she claims that she feels a lot better. Have you been doing yoga continually for 12 years? Wow, that’s dedication!

Thanks for the tip to do the backbend maneuvers. I will definitely focus on those. I have a couple yoga books that show different positions, so will bookmark them.

I was taking a liver extract a couple weeks ago, and a couple of days ago, I caught a cold. . . No one else in my family has a cold. Not sure where I got it from, so the thought crossed my mind that this “might” be some sort of detox? Maybe that’s wishful thinking, but we’ll see how it goes.

Keep us posted on the Qi Gong. I’m very interested to know how effective that is. Rob seems to feel it helps him, so that counts for something.

Okay! That’s all for now!

Marla

In medicinal yoga, backbends are said to promote liver cleansing. The sign that your liver is detoxing, they claim, is nausea. I have experienced this during backbends. Quite unpleasant, but the book I use emphasized that it is not at all dangerous, so I didn’t worry.

I tried to get Rob interested in yoga, but it just didn’t catch on with him. (There are even specific postures for anemia.) But he loves Qi Gong. Comparing the two, Qi Gong gives less of a rush-y high, more of a gentle breezy buzz. I’m trying to maintain a practice that includes both now.

Including the Qi Gong Liver Cleanse. No, I haven’t noticed any difference, but I really don’t expect to so soon. My experience with so-called “natural” therapies
is that they work very slowly and deeply over long periods of time. It is only in retrospect that I feel the yoga has been crucial in restoring my health, and I think it has been an extremely gradual process.

So I’ll continue to do the Liver Cleanse and trust that the old Chinese folks who made it up knew what they were doing!

Our Soaring Crane class is over, and we’re going to sign up for a class that includes more Qi Gong movement and Chinese Healing Sounds in the fall. Should be interesting!

Best, Andrea

I will work on getting a copy of the eczema paper from my NS gal. I think she’s in South Dakota right now but she should be back soon. Well, the sugar stuff was worth a try anyway.

Oy, I’m a stomach sleeper too. Always have been. When I was pregnant it was awful! I couldn’t stand not being able to sleep on my stomach. I snore on my back so hubby doesn’t like that! Ah well, I figure I’ll sleep how I’m comfortable for now. There are too many other battles in life to worry about then how I’m sleeping.

Take care.

patti

First of all, Andrea, my husband must have packed that Qi Gong video up with some books he put in the garage when he was making room for more books on the shelves. So I guess it might be easier for me to run to the central library and look for a Qi Gong video there. However, while searching, I did find 2 yoga videos here. Ha ha! I’ll check them out and see if they have any liver moves. Have you been doing the liver cleanse manuevers? If so, have you noticed any improvements?

Thanks, Marlene, for the info on the metabolic typing. How’s it going with you and John on it? A few years ago there was a big discussion on it on the Native Nutrition forum, and I even checked out the book from the library. But, to be honest, there were so many topics of discussion going on and I was on several forums, so I couldn’t focus on the metabolic typing. I think at the time I was very much into reading Stefansson’s work and McCarrison’s. So I should re-visit the metabolic typing. I checked out the Mercola website, and it appears they removed some info on the free test. So, I may look for the book again at the library. More recently, Brian has been interested in the Optimal Diet by Dr. Kwasniewski aka the Polish Doctor. I heard about him years ago while on the Native Nutrition forum, too, but again, only dabbled with his ideas a little. So now Brian is more interested in it and is going to try this diet and see how it goes. It’s a pretty high fat diet, and a lot less protein than I’m used to eating. For my height, 60cm, I’m allowed 2.1oz protein (ack!), 5.25-7.35oz fat, and 1.7oz carbs per day. I’ll be interested to compare this with what the metabolic typing would recommend for me. One thing I thought was interesting was that Kwasniewski feels that dairy intolerances is due to eating too much carbs. Hmm. Now I would like to have yogurt again! And just yesterday I tried a big spoonful of goat yogurt to see if goat worked better for me than cow. But it does make sense that the differences in our metabolic systems are affecting how each of us benefits from various foods and supplements.

Patti:

We discussed it alittle via private email that it doesn’t seem like the protein snacks before bedtime is my problem regarding waking at night. I tried snacking on a little protein before bed, but I was still waking up. And as I mentioned to you, I also picked up Dr. Pagano’s book on Healing Psoriasis even though I don’t think I have psoriasis, but he claims that eczema responds well to his diet program as well. His main contention is skin problems are linked to leaky gut, so along those lines, I also picked up a book on Natural Stomach Care. That book deals with healing leaky gut, candidiasis, diverticular disease, etc. So I thought it would be interesting to see if his diet recommendations were the same as Pagano’s. But back to the sleeping problems, the Stomach book does have a sectionon insomnia and its relation to the digestive system. He gives some suggestions and did mention what you asked me about whether my regular waking might be “habit” related. That was one thing he also mentioned. Which could be. But also he mentioned to go out and get about 1 hour early morning sunlight through the eyes to help rest my “internal clock.” I think that’s related to the circadian rhythm idea. He also goes into how important sleep is to digestion and how not to sleep on a full stomach and no nighttime snacks. Ha ha! Gee, to eat or not to eat. . . He also mentioned that people who sleep on their stomachs tend to be light sleepers. Well, guess how I like to sleep! On my stomach! He recommends sleeping on the left side whenever possible since it is beneficial for digestion and controlling acid reflux. Stomach sleeping is considered the worse of all sleep positions. Another thing that may apply to me is drinking before bed. One question was whether you have to empty your bladder during the waking hour/s, and yes, that’s me. . . So another suggestion was that I not drink 2-3 hours before going to bed. He does go over other suggestions, but those are the ones that stuck out to me so far.

I am definitely interested in the resources that your newsletter suggests. Would you be able to forward a copy to me? I’d appreciate it.

I finished my adrenal extract a few days ago, and a couple days ago started on some liver extracts. I’ll see how that goes.

Well, I think that’s it for now.

Marla

I got a newsletter from Natures Sunshine the other day covering skin conditions and thought of you. As I was reading through it all I could think of is, “Marla’s on the right track!” Everything you’ve mentioned to me about leaky gut syndrome, liver, adrenals, etc. The newsletter said they are all very related to eczema. The newsletter gave a resource for more information on the eczema issue and how it relates to those things and what to use to help them if you want me to get if for you. Keep on keeping on. You’re definately on the right track.

Patti

John and I have been exploring Metabolic Typing and are in the process of adjusting our diet to match our metabolic type. It’s premise is that we are all different and what works for one does not work for someone else because of metabolic differences. There are nine systems that keep your body in balance and if you are not “in balance” , you are prone to disease. These nine systems are constantly working to keep you balanced but if you are not getting the proper nutrition for your body type, then over time, the system breaks down. The two main systems that we focus on for now is the ANS Autonomic Nervous System and Oxidative system. Marla, Dr. Mercola’s metabolic typing is based on this. So the best example I can give is a nutrient can be good or bad for you depending on your metabolic type. It can be alkalizing for one type and acidfying for another throwing off your system. That’s why some people do really well on supplement and others have no effect or feel worse. So if you are having issues related to sugar, you could be a “fast oxidizer” meaning you burn through your food quickly and don’t maintain proper stable surgar levels. This could translate to your need for heavier protiens and more fat in your diet versus carbs.

Another way to look at this is that many people have high blood pressure and everyone responds differently to various medications. And that high blood pressure is not usually caused by one thing. Instead it’s an imbalance in your system and the imbalance will be different for each person with high blood pressure.

Well anyway….we are attempting to work within this framework for now and see if anything changes. The difficulty in this is that based our metabolic types, we have had to increase our protein/fat intake at each meal and are required to eat our meals in certain combinations. Takes more planning because I can’t just throw something together yet. The easy part is that we already eat whole organic food. And as usual….sugar is out, refined carbs out, etc. Not a problem.

Marlene

Yeah, those are really low glucose symptoms. I am very hypoglycemic and sometimes experience those if I don’t watch my blood sugar but I know when the naturapath pointed the sleep/sugar out to me it didn’t make much sense to me either because I was never hungry when I woke up. Just awake. It would drive me nuts. But the bedtime protein did solve that problem. My oldest daughter has the same problem so I make sure she gets a good protein snack (usually a cheese stick or something) before bed. It’s worth a try anyway. You don’t really lose anything trying it. I think it took me two or three days before my body settled and slept all night. I’ll be curious to see if it works for you.

Patti