Endothelial dysfunction

[shijing]

I'm starting a thread on endothelial dysfunction, because I've recently been diagnosed with a moderate case of it and am trying to learn more about it. I'm hoping this might help others who are or will eventually also deal with it.

The background is that last summer I experienced a period of intermittent angina along with some shooting pains and tingling in my chest and left arm and fingers. I had my iron levels tested, and besides having slightly high ferritin levels, the only other thing that seemed out of the ordinary was a low sedimentation rate (blood serum). At that time, various members recommended that I increase my fish oil, vitamin E, and use an Earthing pad, and I also started giving regular bimonthly blood donations. This seemed to take care of my symptoms for the rest of the year, and I didn't think much about it until they started to recur again a couple months ago.

After an incident several weeks ago where I passed out after a blood donation (most likely from not eating enough beforehand), I looked up the information that my former rolfer had given me on a holistic cardiologist and made an appointment. I had an initial intake where we talked about my lifestyle and dietary habits and she asked me to log my food intake and bowel movements for a week, and then I went back the next week for something called an EndoPAT test, which tests endothelial function. A healthy score is above 2.0, and my score was 1.53, placing me in the category of moderate endothelial dysfunction (endothelial dysfunction can precede atherosclerosis, which in turn is a precursor to stroke, heart attack and other cardiac events). I also did a blood draw (I'm unclear for what, but I think it's partly to test micronutrients and something called an HS-CRP), and we'll look at the results at a follow-up appointment this coming Friday.

Since my weight, blood pressure, and other indicators were all generally healthy, the doctor said she thought that the main problem was probably genetic predisposition, which is entirely possible since both my father and paternal grandfather have suffered strokes and my dad has undergone bypass surgery and had other vascular complications. She gave me a cardio health supplement, advised me not to smoke, drink, or eat trans- or saturated fat, to increase my vegetable intake, and sent me home with homework to do: watch Forks Over Knives and Food Inc. She also said that she's worried that my cholesterol levels may be high based on some bloodwork I showed her from 2012.

Needless to say I'm going to have to be strategic about how I interact during my next appointment, because there are certain things that I think she can help with as a holistic doctor, but at the same time it looks like what she has in mind is for me to go on (or at least steer toward) a whole-foods, plant-based diet which will keep my system more alkaline and less acidic (for more on that, see this post by dugdeep).

In the meantime, I've started doing some reading on endothelial dysfunction myself. I found a book recently which discusses it in some detail, What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Heart Disease by Mark Houston, and plan to order Reverse Heart Disease Now and The Great Cholesterol Myth.

What I've learned so far is that endothelial dysfunction is correlated with one or more of the following:

• inflammation
• oxidative stress
• vascular autoimmunity
• dyslipidemia (an abnormal amount of lipids (e.g. cholesterol and/or fat) in the blood)
• blood pressure
• blood sugar
• obesity and increased body fat

Several of these are intertwined, but it doesn't seem that I have problems with at least the bottom three. The one which I do seem to fit the profile of most closely is oxidative stress, which is tied closely to inflammation. In light of this, I've put together the following protocol over the past week which I've begun taking every day:

• ascorbic acid
• magnesium
• potassium
• cod liver oil
• boswellia
• L-arginine
• vitamin E
• CoQ10
• zinc
• selenium
• NAC
• ALA

Other things that cause or are correlated with oxidative stress include:

• elevated levels of iron/ferritin
• increased levels of heavy metal in the blood and tissue
• excessive stress
• obesity
• sunlight
• radiation and chemotherapy

Smoking is, naturally, always listed as well. One of the biggest things that I'm looking into is controlling stress, since I don't always do a good job of that. In the past couple of month I've also become lax about exercise. Houston promotes a combination of high impact (resistance training) and aerobic exercise -- resistance training has been discussed rather extensively here in conjunction with the ketogenic diet.

I hope this is helpful to other people, and if anyone has additional information or feedback it's of course welcome.

 

[truth seeker]

I'm starting a thread on endothelial dysfunction, because I've recently been diagnosed with a moderate case of it and am trying to learn more about it. I'm hoping this might help others who are or will eventually also deal with it.

The background is that last summer I experienced a period of intermittent angina along with some shooting pains and tingling in my chest and left arm and fingers. I had my iron levels tested, and besides having slightly high ferritin levels, the only other thing that seemed out of the ordinary was a low sedimentation rate (blood serum). At that time, various members recommended that I increase my fish oil, vitamin E, and use an Earthing pad, and I also started giving regular bimonthly blood donations. This seemed to take care of my symptoms for the rest of the year, and I didn't think much about it until they started to recur again a couple months ago.

Just curious but was there some stressful event(s) that occurred last summer and/or a couple of months ago that might have contributed to triggering this? I realize that genetics may play a role in, this but since you mentioned issues with controlling stress, the first thought I had was that perhaps there is also an underlying emotional component that comes into play as well.

 

[LQB]

Several of these are intertwined, but it doesn't seem that I have problems with at least the bottom three. The one which I do seem to fit the profile of most closely is oxidative stress, which is tied closely to inflammation. In light of this, I've put together the following protocol over the past week which I've begun taking every day:

• ascorbic acid
• magnesium
• potassium
• cod liver oil
• boswellia
• L-arginine
• vitamin E
• CoQ10
• zinc
• selenium
• NAC
• ALA

The orthomolecular route according to Pauling, for arterial/heart would add L-lysine and L-proline to the Vit C. I think Richard S mentioned that he is doing this (in a recent post of his). According to Pauling this can reverse arterial disease/blockage.

The Vit C foundation makes a product called Cardio C that uses Pauling's protocol. Its cheaper if you buy the bulk powders (AA, lysine, proline) and mix yourself (for powdered drink mix) to these ratios:

AA 2.5gm
lysine 2.5gm
proline .5gm
stevia (if desired)

I used this regularly many years ago to get my BP down (I was in my mid-40s) when my doc threatened me with BP meds. Its best to mix up a pitcher of it and sip it all day slowly to keep blood concentration high and steady.

If your CRP-HS (C-reactive protein-high sensitivity) come back high, it can be due to a buildup of fibrin (due to inflammation) in the blood, organs or elsewhere. AST enzymes makes a product Serracor-NK (I think I've mentioned this to you in the past) that combines serrapeptase, nattokinase, and cofactors for a pretty powerful anti-fibrin.

There is also a good homeopathic route. The following is from the latest WAPF Journal by Joette Calabrese:

My Dad and the Dead Cardiologists
Written by Joette Calabrese
Tuesday, 21 January 2014 21:00
How Dad Outlives Them All With Homeopathy

I put responsibility for my health care completely in my own hands. And the only way I or anyone can take this stance with such fervor is to know, down to our very cells, what we actually believe.

I put my faith in a nutrient-dense diet and in homeopathy. This doesn’t mean I will never place a toe in the conventional medical arena. But that toe will be positioned there for mere moments for the sake of a diagnosis or to set a broken bone. That’s enough for me! I’ll slip from the sterilized mitts to return to my trusted homeopathy. Indeed, do I have confidence in my craft or not? Not blind faith, but robust, wholehearted trust in the data and clinical observations my colleagues and I have made in our professional and personal lives.

Take my father, for example. He hails from an Italian-American family and was the second youngest of seventeen children. All except two of his siblings, as well as his parents, died before the age of 76.

Over the last years, my father and I have cooperatively gotten him off all heart medications and kept him out of doctors’ offices. In a few months he will be 87. So far, so good.

Here are the details of his story. At the age of 62 my father had the first of two myocardial infarctions. He had also been suffering tachycardia (rapid heart beat) for months before the incident. At the time of this episode his total cholesterol was a skimpy 112. For years, he had followed the Fit for Life diet: lowfat and vegan.

Leading up to and including the 1980s my father was fully cemented in the conventional medical cardiac treatment protocol. He was dutifully compliant with his doctors in every way: he continued the lowfat diet, daily baby aspirin, Lipitor, nitroglycerin, calcium channel and beta blockers, and two more blood pressure meds. Nary a missed drug nor appointment.

But his doctors didn’t always show up for their scheduled appointments. Something began to happen to his cardiologists. One by one, each died over a period of fifteen years. The grand total was six cardiologist deaths with only one of them to survive beyond his seventieth birthday! If these fallen medical men had been living according to their own counsel, swallowing their prescribed nostrums, and eating per their recommended regimes, then their advice would be at best specious, and more likely deadly.

Two years after his first infarction my father suffered another attack and more drugs were added to his treatment protocol. But just before the last cardiologist died, he warned our family that if my father did not undergo bypass heart surgery, he’d not make it to his next birthday.

That cardiologist’s surgical plan sounded more like highway construction than something done to a human body. He artfully planned to connect Route 33, which was partially blocked, to the New York State Thruway through my father’s leg, splice and redirect several more vascular roadways, and of course require the mandatory stop at the toll booth to pay. When I finally shook off my flabbergastion my first coherent thought was to consider the unconsidered. I said, “Dad, let’s get out of here.” My father gave it about an hour’s deliberation and then decided he’d take the detour and forgo surgery, thank you very much.

Before my father reached his seventy-first year, that cardiologist died, too!

TIME FOR A REAL DETOUR

After years of conforming to the conventional medical canon along with mounting side effects from the drugs he took, my father allowed me to convince him to consider another way: homeopathy.

It took time to persuade him to rely completely upon the homeopathic methods as well as a modified WAPF-styled diet, which turned out to be both a safe choice and a triumphant one.

If you knew my father you’d understand that he doesn’t move quickly to alter dietary habits, so this remains a work in progress. We began with butter first, then coconut oil. Today he makes dinner for himself and my mother with these two saturated fats in every meal and he makes his own raw milk yogurt on a weekly basis. I must confide that getting him off commercial bread was a trial only a devoted daughter could endure.

As for the drugs, the aspirin was the first to go. No persuasion was needed, since it had caused him gastrointestinal burning that he had simply put up with.

In practicing homeopathy we don’t recommend that people heedlessly eliminate their drugs. Instead, we allow them to live with the newfound benefits of the homeopathic remedies for some time. This method allows the remedy to take up the slack so that the body no longer requires drugs in order to function.

Once we observe this shift, the client is encouraged to see his doctor for help in getting off medication. However, doctors are not trained to get patients off drugs, only on how to get them on. In my father’s case, we skipped this step. Another detour!

Early on, during the period of physiciandirected choices, and unaware that his doctor knew nothing of homeopathy, my father asked his MD’s opinion on using Arnica montana in place of aspirin. The doctor sniffed, “You can’t use those methods without taking risks. What are you hoping to accomplish? I take aspirin daily myself.” That doctor died five years later.

It’s a little hard not to be smug. And so, it wasn’t long before we made a conscious decision to leave the conventional doctors out of our loop. It only caused undue stress on my father to argue with someone who had no understanding of drug-free methods, nor of proper nutrient-dense diets. Instead, my father simply began taking Arnica montana 6x twice daily and within several months he was done with aspirin.

Since making this decision we have observed that when my father inadvertently cuts himself he doesn’t bleed heavily as he once did. This is reassuring, since a more sobering injury or surgery could have potentially resulted in hemorrhage. On a daily note, he no longer complains of chronic burning stomach, indigestion and constipation. The telltale ecchymosis, euphemistically called black and blue spots, disappeared.

Another daunting symptom my father experienced through the years was angina, which accompanied even the smallest of activities. Walking to the mailbox left him in an anguished state because of pain and breathlessness. Arnica montana brought this complaint down to a mild purr, but Magnesium phosphoricum (Mag phos) 6x settled it completely. Instead of keeping nitro-glycerin in his shirt pocket, he tucked in a small bottle of Mag phos 6x and popped a few pills into his mouth as needed. After a few months, the need for this remedy was eradicated and Dad stopped carrying it with him. Mag phos 6x cured his angina.

However, there still remained his cardiac dysrhythmia (irregular heart beat). His cardiologist, the one who died first, told him that dysrhythmia often ushers in cardiac arrest and is incurable. Naturally this symptom therefore carried the greatest fear factor for my father. Digitalis 30c became our remedy of choice, and this too can be used daily for many months, or years if need be. However, the dysrhythmia is likely to resolve in a much shorter amount of time if this powerhouse of a remedy is employed.

Dr. A.L. Blackwood in Diseases of the Heart says of homeopathic Digitalis: “It not only relieves the palpitation but also diminishes and arrests the nightly emissions that so frequently accompany it.” Digitalis has a place even in conventional medical settings, but in that arena it is used in gross form. Unfortunately, as with aspirin, when a substance is used in material structure (as opposed to homeopathic dilution) it frequently causes side effects. In fact, the more “effective” a drug is in suppressing symptoms, the more likely it is to cause damaging side effects. In the original, gross form before it is made into a homeopathic remedy, Digitalis is a poisonous plant, the foxglove. Poisonous substances ultimately make the best homeopathic remedies, because when highly diluted and potentized, they become powerful medicines. The drug industry uses the original plant to formulate a synthetic version in the manufacture of the prescription drug called Digoxin. The difference between this synthetic version and the homeopathic is like the difference between aspartame and raw honey.

For arterial sclerosis, we count on Arnica montana, but another remedy is required to be certain that blockage is not imminent: Secale cornutum (ergot). In his Desktop Guide to Homeopathy, Dr. Roger Morrison points out the following: “Secale cornutum acts mainly on the circulation. Allopathically, ergotamines are used for their (primary) vasoconstrictive properties; homeopathically, Secale is used for circulatory imbalances.”

In my father's case, we also occasionally counted on Aurum metallicum 200, which is especially valuable when heart disease is accompanied by depression. This remedy has a reputation for resolving the cardiac event as well as depression.

Aurum arsenicum 200 is the remedy of choice at the critical time of cardiac arrest and in general for arterial sclerosis. Dr. Ramakrishnan reports that he has used this on thousands of patients. My father has counted on it when he has gone into tachycardia, with severe pressure and pain radiating down his right arm. After two doses of this miraculous remedy, the pain and heart flipping halts. So does the accompanying anxiety. He has used this powerhouse medicine for such acute situations as well as chronic conditions. After such events, my father counted on Aurum arsenicum 200 to keep this event from recurring. That was over four years ago and he has not had a recurrence.

I also include the tincture, Crataegus oxyacantha (hawthorn), as part of his daily routine. It has a history of addressing hypertension and most important, as per Concordant Materia Medica, “[has] a solvent power upon crustaceous and calcareous deposits in arteries. Tincture, one to fifteen drops; must be used for some time in order to obtain good results.”
CONSIDER THE UNCONSIDERED

How many times did my father hear that the only way to treat heart disease was to submit to surgery, take drugs for life, and abstain from saturated fats? These doctors overtly stated that there was no way to save his health other than to acquiesce and accept lowered expectations for his quality of life.

But for you and me, lowered expectations are the least rational response! It only makes sense if we wish to cede control of our lives to the opinions of others. When it comes to chronic illness such as heart disease the model of modern medicine offers unreliable solutions that can usually be circumvented with intelligent alternatives.

If my father and I flatly refuse procedures and drugs of commerce, are we thrusting our heads in the sand? Certainly not! For I have as much sure confidence in my medicines as does a conventional doctor who depends on his drugs.

One doctor I didn’t count in my previous tally was a close friend of my father’s and a world famous professor of cardiology. He once said to our family, “The way to have good health is to get yourself a scary disease, then learn how to bring yourself back to health.” That is how my father and I approached his illness.

If we believe that we should be personally responsible for our health, and when we depend on ourselves we discover that we are stronger, more successful, and take greater pride in ourselves and our work, then we make positive contributions to society. When you cure a family member, there is profound gratification not only in the joy of watching his or her suffering melt away, but in the blush of accomplishment.

I want the heady experience of serving someone most dear to me. If that means I’m a rebel then I’ll accept that label. Just don’t stand in the way of my helping my father.



SIDEBARS



Schedule of Remedies


It would be irresponsible of me to suggest that the protocol I devised for my father is indicated for everyone suffering from heart conditions, so this is where I must state that each cardiac case presents different settings, hence somewhat diverse remedies. Cardiac homeopathic choices are numerous, and I didn’t come to the following schedule without trials of other remedy considerations over time. Since I know I’ll be receiving emails and calls on precisely what we used, below is the schedule on which I’ve settled for the last many years.


While items one through four below have been included in my dad’s schedule for years, items five through seven have been adjusted according to symptoms as they presented. I might add that the longer my father has been on this plan, the more infrequently certain remedies are needed. In spite of his age, he grows towards more vigorous health. This is not something you hear in conventional medical arenas, which routinely blame the patient’s age for the lack of response.

1. Arnica montana 3 or 6x, twice daily
2. Magnesium phosphoricum 6x, twice daily
3. Crataegus Q, 5 drops, twice daily
4. Secale cornutum 30, twice daily
5. Digitalis 30, twice daily
6. Aurum arsenicum 200, every 30 minutes in an emergency, followed by twice daily for months until the emergent setting clears
7. Arnica montana 200, every 30 minutes alternating with Aurum arsenicum 200 in cardiac emergency.

Cardiac Benefits of Arnica Montana Versus Aspirin


Arnica montana is one of our leading homeopathic remedies for the heart, particularly in relation to blood and arteries. As Frans Vermeulen states in his Concordant of Materia Medica, Arnica has the ability to resolve the following symptoms: “Angina pectoris, stitches in the heart, pulse feeble and irregular, cardiac dropsy, palpitations after any exertion, pressure under the sternum, anguish, collapse, beats shake the whole body.” Also, “Feeble debilitated patients with impoverished blood. Cardiac dropsy and dyspnoea. Marked effect on the blood, affects the venous system.” The very symptoms my father suffered at the time of his cardiac event are fully covered by Arnica montana.

This medical book is a compendium of excerpts from the writings and clinical experience of Drs. Boericke, Phatak, Boger, Lippe, Allen, Pulford, Cowperthwaite, Kent, Clark, and Vermeulen. Also, Dr. S.R. Phatak in Materia Medica of Homeopathic Medicines relays the pathologies that Arnica montana can address: “Ecchymoses and haemorrhages. Relaxed blood vessels with tendency to haemorrhage, epistaxis.”

For five years, I studied under the homeopathic physician Dr. A.U. Ramakrishnan, who is the medical physician to the president of India. In his hospital in India, he and his colleagues eschew daily aspirin for cardiac patients and instead prescribe Arnica montana 6x. Over the years, my client-students who have elected to use Arnica montana 6x report that this simple change has made a remarkable shift in their well being.

If you are unfamiliar with the harms associated with aspirin use, consider the Mayo Clinic’s website, www.mayoclinic.com/health/daily-aspirin-therapy/HB00073/NSECTION GROUP=2, which reports: “Stroke may be caused by a burst blood vessel. While daily aspirin can help prevent a clot-related stroke, it may increase your risk of a bleeding stroke (hemorrhagic stroke).”

In the New York Times article, “A Hidden Danger of an Aspirin a Day” (consults.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/01/ahidden-danger-of-an-aspirin-a-day/?_r=0 ), Dr. Neena S. Abraham, a gastroenterologist at the Michael E. DeBakey V.A. Medical Center says: “If your physician has suggested you take aspirin to reduce your risk of heart disease, it is important to remember that even small doses of daily aspirin—including 'baby aspirin,' at a dose of 81 milligrams daily—can increase your risk of ulcers and bleeding. It is important to remember that all aspirin has the potential to damage the tissue of the gastrointestinal tract. Damage can occur anywhere, from mouth to anus.”

Thus, not only will Arnica montana address the integrity of the blood, but it shores up the vessels. In that light, aspirin appears to be the wrong drug choice altogether, particularly when the vessels break more easily with its use. My father started on Arnica montana 6x and for over a decade he has happily refrained from aspirin.



This article appeared in Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts, the quarterly journal of the Weston A. Price Foundation, Winter 2013.

In the hardcopy Journal, Joette offers a free 15min phone consultation to everyone reading it (PM me for it if you want to use it). I've followed Joette for years in the WAPF Journal and I like her and her practice. Arnica might just be a good tool for the toolbox.


Added: Link http://www.westonaprice.org/homeopathy/my-dad-and-the-dead-cardiologists

 

[shijing]

Just curious but was there some stressful event(s) that occurred last summer and/or a couple of months ago that might have contributed to triggering this? I realize that genetics may play a role in, this but since you mentioned issues with controlling stress, the first thought I had was that perhaps there is also an underlying emotional component that comes into play as well.

There is that -- I don't know if there is any one particular event that would be the specific trigger, but at both times there have been multiple stressors (domestic, financial, etc) that happen at simultaneous or overlapping times. This sometimes results in feelings of frustration, helplessness, and general fatigue and exhaustion when I don't feel like I have enough time to rest between putting out one fire and having a new one pop up.

However, I think many people experience this kind of situation at least some of the time, so one of the things that I've been working on is trying to apply the concepts from the How To Make Stress Your Friend thread that Pob started last month. I know on the one hand that I tend to be fairly sensitive and am somewhat vulnerable to emotional overload and sensory overwhelm -- on the other, I also know that the world is never going to accommodate me just because that's my inherent predisposition. So one of the things I'm trying to make part of my Work right now is adjusting the way that I perceive stress, since I am one of the people that Kelly McGonigal describes in her video who has internalized the idea that stress is inherently bad and unhealthy.

The Vit C foundation makes a product called Cardio C that uses Pauling's protocol. Its cheaper if you buy the bulk powders (AA, lysine, proline) and mix yourself (for powdered drink mix) to these ratios:

AA 2.5gm
lysine 2.5gm
proline .5gm
stevia (if desired)

I used this regularly many years ago to get my BP down (I was in my mid-40s) when my doc threatened me with BP meds. Its best to mix up a pitcher of it and sip it all day slowly to keep blood concentration high and steady.

If your CRP-HS (C-reactive protein-high sensitivity) come back high, it can be due to a buildup of fibrin (due to inflammation) in the blood, organs or elsewhere. AST enzymes makes a product Serracor-NK (I think I've mentioned this to you in the past) that combines serrapeptase, nattokinase, and cofactors for a pretty powerful anti-fibrin.

[...]

There is also a good homeopathic route. The following is from the latest WAPF Journal by Joette Calabrese [...] In the hardcopy Journal, Joette offers a free 15min phone consultation to everyone reading it (PM me for it if you want to use it). I've followed Joette for years in the WAPF Journal and I like her and her practice. Arnica might just be a good tool for the toolbox.

Thanks for the information LQB, I appreciate it. You did mention Serracor-NK to me last year, but I didn't end up ordering it because the initial protocol that I had begun with the fish oil and vitamin E had seemed to work and I was trying to conserve funds at the time. I just brought the information up again, and will order it this time to try out. I'm also going to look for the Arnica montana locally and online. Thanks also for your offer to use the phone consultation -- I'm going to try your first two suggestions and see what happens at my upcoming cardio appt first, but I may eventually take you up on that :)

 

[LQB]

Also in the same WAPF Journal there is: http://www.westonaprice.org/cardiovascular-disease/beyond-cholesterol

Beyond Cholesterol
Written by Christopher Masterjohn
Monday, 20 January 2014 18:08

Article Summary

• Betweem 1928 and 1945, Weston Price measured the fat-soluble vitamin content of over twenty thousand samples of butterfat from many different regions. He found that abundant sunshine and rainfall, together with high-quality soil, was associated with high concentrations of vitamins within the butter and fewer deaths from heart disease.

• Modern science has shown that vitamins A, D, and K cooperate to prevent the calcification of arterial plaque, which in turn prevents heart disease. This confirms Price’s conclusions that fat-soluble vitamins protect against heart disease.

• We can maximize our fat-soluble vitamin status by consuming a diet rich in organ meats, animal fats, fatty fish, cod liver oil, and fermented foods, supplemented with leafy greens and other colorful vegetables; by spending lots of time out in the fresh air and sunshine; and by using traditional fats and oils while avoiding modern vegetable oils.

• Vitamin D can be a double-edged sword: adequate vitamin D prevents heart disease, but too much vitamin D promotes heart disease. The available evidence suggests that the lowest risk of heart disease occurs when vitamin D status is between 20 and 40 ng/mL.

• Trying to determine optimal vitamin D status is very problematic. Rather than trying to achieve an optimal vitamin D status with vitamin D supplementation, most people should focus more on optimizing the nutrient density and nutrient balance of the diet.

One added bonus of the Serracor is that you get a small dose of useable K2 from the nattokinase in the blend.

 

[shijing]

• Betweem 1928 and 1945, Weston Price measured the fat-soluble vitamin content of over twenty thousand samples of butterfat from many different regions. He found that abundant sunshine and rainfall, together with high-quality soil, was associated with high concentrations of vitamins within the butter and fewer deaths from heart disease.

• Modern science has shown that vitamins A, D, and K cooperate to prevent the calcification of arterial plaque, which in turn prevents heart disease. This confirms Price’s conclusions that fat-soluble vitamins protect against heart disease.

• We can maximize our fat-soluble vitamin status by consuming a diet rich in organ meats, animal fats, fatty fish, cod liver oil, and fermented foods, supplemented with leafy greens and other colorful vegetables; by spending lots of time out in the fresh air and sunshine; and by using traditional fats and oils while avoiding modern vegetable oils.

Thanks, LQB -- this is good timing since I was also reading about this recently in Cure Tooth Decay. I've been taking Emulsified Norwegian Cod Liver Oil the past couple of days, but will eventually look into the fermented variety at the Cod Liver Oil Shop, since you can also get it in a blend with butter oil.

One added bonus of the Serracor is that you get a small dose of useable K2 from the nattokinase in the blend.

The Serracor is also on my list -- in the meantime, I found a bottle of nattokinase last night (as well as Hawthorne) to hold me over until I can make an order.

 

[beetlemaniac]

Thanks for Joette's story on her father -- I was surprised at the similarity of the symptoms to my own situation. I really am somewhat disconnected from my body. The tachycardia and fatigue that occurred upon climbing stairs was something I noticed but didn't really go any deeper into. It's also funny how the words "feeble", "weak" and "meek" gel with the feedback I get from some friends. Like Shijing says, I don't think I can expect reality to give me a break because I was born a more sensitive physically, emotionally and mentally. But I do think that it has given me just the right amount of stress to push my out of my comfort zone and get working on my issues. I plan to get into the MTHFR thread now. Thanks so much everyone.