I found cutting down my carbs also cut down on my junk food. This got rid of a lot of inflammatory food ingredients.

Led to me choosing healthier foods which made an incredible difference.

Gradually Reducing Carbs to Reach Ketosis | Mark's Daily Apple https://www.marksdailyapple.com/reducing-carbs-to-reach-ketosis/
#Autoimmune #Healing

"Whey protein can help you gain muscle and improve many health conditions, like obesity, diabetes, fatty liver, and more."

Been crucial to my recovery. When I can't digest much, I can still get my protein.

Whey Protein: What It is and Why You Need It | Mark's Daily Apple https://www.marksdailyapple.com/what-is-whey-protein/

#Spoonie #Autoimmune #Health

I went to the doctor and got his approval to keep doing the low oxalate angle along with what we agreed previously. Sent him some references, too.

This doctor is a treat to deal with. I go with partner and a merged appointment so the cross conversation, which is going to happen anyway, is streamlined.

Celebrated with a hearty meal and I was able to digest it, too. Always a thrill, believe me. I'm able to rest when I'm low which is crucial to healing.

And I have more to do. But at least I'm moving in the right direction.

Of course all this made the morning into a full day. There's that, too. So I couldn't do much after and I was able to plan ahead.

But a good day -anyway- made the whole thing seem more doable, somehow :)

#Spoonie #Autoimmune #ActuallyAutistic #burnout

Dramatic improvement from my "Toxic Superfoods" plan, one month in now.

I think the Neurodiverse are over-represented in autoimmune and there are papers tying these factors together. Might make us especially vulnerable to nerve toxins.

We've got more nerves and some people try to get on them.😃

Low Oxalate Foods May Help Reduce Auto-Immune Disease Risk, Autism and Fibromyalgia
https://www.thehealingcollective.us/post/low-oxalate-foods
#AutoImmune #Neurodiverse

TL/DR: processed food contains emulsifiers so it will have a mouthfeel like food. But it's bad for our digestive system.

Processed food has so much left out. And what they add back in? I've concluded that, at this point, I'm allergic to ALL of it!
#Autoimmune #Health

Direct impact of commonly used dietary emulsifiers on human gut microbiota - Microbiome https://microbiomejournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40168-020-00996-6

Cravings can be useful. To know them is to get rid of them.

Each time I got rid of food that was not nourishing me, and ate something full of something that was, I got vital nutrition. Which is different from food we eat because our taste buds light up.

They do that because we've trained them to think we live in a world of treats. And not nutrition. This was why I binged. I would stick to 1200 calories a day, despite never losing more than a few pounds no matter how I white knuckled my constant hunger.

Until I couldn't stand it any more of it and I feasted. On treats. Which only perpetuated the cycle.

I'm still learning and now I know the different kinds of hungry and what they mean.

Now I can extinguish the bad craving, by giving my body a better craving for actual food.

That's when food really starts to taste good. When everything, mind body soul, is aligned in "corners of the mouth" as the Tao says.

When all is nourishment.

#neurodivergent #Spoonie #AutoImmune #Tao

I'm spending the day in bed, resting. But this time, only because it's sensible for me, after stress and activity.

That's an advancement I can feel. Previously it was because I was spoonless after basic maintenance tasks. Now that my efforts are paying off, I'm not going to get impatient and ambitious and bored and push too hard.

Since I don't know my own lack of strength 🤣🛏️🌋
#ActuallyAutistic #Neurodiverse #AuDHD #Autoimmune #Spoonie #Burnout

Well, this just threw me for a loop.

Predictors and clinical complications associated with antiphospholipid antibodies in sickle cell disease https://discovery.researcher.life/article/predictors-and-clinical-complications-associated-with-antiphospholipid-antibodies-in-sickle-cell-disease/fb1eb5a3f0f73a50befe8bf67cbcbce7

#SickleCell #BloodDisorders #AutoImmune #Heme #madness!
#science #medicine #health

#BlackMastodon
#CaribbeanMastodon
@blackmastodon@a.gup.pe
@BlackMastodon@chirp.social

Mitochondrial dysfunction could be a flare trigger, and explains the extreme fatigue. Papers like this helps me improve self care.

It helps that I have good results with the path I've chosen, but the tweaking never ends.
#ActuallyAutistic #Neurodiverse #AutoImmune #Burnout #AuDHD

Oxalate induces mitochondrial dysfunction and disrupts redox homeostasis in a human monocyte derived cell line https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5975227/

When my issues were getting worse, I taking steroids, which I had become extremely wary of. My first self-dx was "there's something wrong with my cortisol" and I was right. My symptoms were of Low Cortisol, and even though I made an endo run a test, and they did it wrong! I had very high cortisol. Sometimes.

But it certainly wasn't too low. I gave up on endocrinology. This doctor was typical. They wanted to give me a statin, a sleep drug, and an anti-depressant.

Because I wasn’t already on them. Didn't he know The Lipid Hypothesis was cherry picked data? That statins have never been shown to have any helpful effects in WOMEN? That the abundant side effects are chalked up to "getting older" and missed?

In the internet Era, being in bed sick only expands research possibilities.🤣

#ActuallyAutistic #Neurodiverse #AutoImmune #Burnout #AuDHD

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/673935#:~:text=Drugs%20aren't%20typically%20tested%20on%20women.

Forgot hashtags. I've been treating my skin, joint, and organ symptoms with the concept of leaky gut. Which explains everything.

This was before they officially discovered the digestive system runs the immune system. Everyone with leaky gut is necessarily malnourished. If we aren't eating foods we can digest, we're not getting anything from them. It's all about the bio-availability.

The autists grapple with more than their share of food sensitivities and the stress of it all. High cortisol shuts down the immune system.

Now we're really in trouble.

#AuDHD #ActuallyAutistic #Autoimmune

I'm on my 12th day of carefully dumping oxalate. I no longer have to battle my hormones in the morning, to get them settled, to start my day.

I've been using a custom program of neurotransmitters/hormones, with a high protein breakfast, to activate my hormones in the morning. It gets them back on track, but then I would have to restrain them in various ways until they would settle.

I haven't had to do that since 10 days ago, which is pretty amazing. BAM. Don't need to.
#Autoimmune #ActuallyAutistic #Burnout #AuDHD

This message brought to you by the good morning I had, without the roller coaster of hormones I usually have to treat like fires to be put out.

The stirred up hormones has been a welcome sign of my comeback, months in the making, and then months of adjustment, which was about cortisol control.

Now I’m following the protocol in the new book “Toxic Superfoods.” It’s been a few weeks, but this is the first morning I didn’t need to adjust cortisol fires.

Yesterday was a pause in my oxalate dumping, which is recommended. This process can be dangerous. Our symptoms can worsen and we think we’re doing something wrong. But that isn’t it, and now I have a better sense of what I’ve been doing wrong.

Not being unable to find a pattern I could correct was putting barbed wire on top of the fence I’m trying to get over.

Dumping lets loose what has been irritating our immune systems allllll alllllllong. But it also activates that immune system when we want it to be calm.

I have to slow roll it, then stop it when it starts getting to be too much. It’s clearly explained but don’t try it without this book. Which, in part, was written to correct rampant misinformation about the subject. It dropped out of scientific sight as nutrition under the food pyramid turned into what they want to sell us.

The author has degrees in nutrition and public health. This is how she is recovering her own.

#Autoimmune #Spoonie #Health #Neurodiverse

When I developed autoimmune, steroids were the standard of care. I was told my autoimmune system was attacking my body because it was confused.

Steroids would suppress the symptoms. There you go. Next!

I was skeptical. I understand there are things we don't understand yet. What I don't understand is science forgetting what we _used to know_.

We've known about oxalates since the 1840s. So why are spinach, almonds, and chocolate now considered "health foods"?

MARKETING. We are being sold to. While being sold out.
#Autoimmune #Spoonie #Neurodiverse

When I developed autoimmune, steroids were the standard of care. I was told my autoimmune system was attacking my body because it was confused.

Steroids would suppress the symptoms. There you go. Next!

I was skeptical. I understand there are things we don't understand yet. What I don't understand is science forgetting what we _used to know_.

We've known about oxalates since the 1840s. So why are spinach, almonds, and chocolate now considered "health foods"?

MARKETING. We are being sold too. While we are being sold out.
#Autoimmune #Spoonie #Neurodiverse

I'm excited about my discovery of how oxalates affect the neurodiverse. Found research indicating the ND system has even less tolerance for oxalate toxin. Removing it creates mood and brain-fog improvements. I'm willing to give low oxalate a try.

The orange vanilla smoothie is surprisingly good. (Most extracts and herbal teas have very low oxalate.) No cocoa at all in this version, yet Hot Creamsicle works for me. Peach can be swapped out, with a dash of raspberry. Hot Peach Melba.

I am calcium buffering with an extra scoop of whey, and now I can handle the extra protein in a single meal. I can get by on three meals a day and stay satiated for longer.

Even when I do make a hot cocoa, I am down to only 2 teaspoons of (special dark) a day. This cocoa has the most intense flavor, especially when paired with a fruit herbal tea. Raspberry Zinger does wonders, as does lavender. A teaspoon of cocoa goes even further in yogurt, for some reason.

#Burnout #Autoimmune #nutrition #Neurodiverse

Autists may have a special sensitivity to oxalates.

I’m remembering that when I went on an elimation diet which did wonders for my autoimmune, the early stages were very low oxalate. I think my dramatic results might have connections to oxalate dumping, and the health benefits of controlling this toxin in the diet.

The autoimmune connections are all over the literature. If we know where to look.
#Spoonie #AutoImmune #Health #Food #ActuallyAutistic
Children’s physical and mental issues resolve with scientific footnotes, below.
https://www.brainstormhealth.co.uk/2020/05/impact-of-oxalates-on-symptoms-of-autism-pandas-and-pans/

My dietary experiment continues, but mostly in the comments moving forward. Because this oxalate issue is the most -complicated- protocol I've tried yet.

Complicated to understand. But it all comes down to Don't Eat That which is its own form of simplicity.

And has done wonders for me before.
#ActuallyAutistic #AutoImmune #Spoonie #Health

Nina Teicholz is a favorite science journalist. This book was her recc for sorting through the confusion about dietary oxalates.

Anxiety? And you had me at autoimmune. Reading the book now.

#Spoonie #ActuallyAutistic #Burnout #Anxiety #AutoImmune

For instance, lists always show raspberries as high oxalate. (NOOOOOOOO! is my reaction. My favorite fruit.)

But then...in the PDF I linked, I see this:

Berries, raspberries black ___ 53
Berries, raspberries red ____15
Berries, blue ____________15

Blueberries are known as low oxalate. They are the same as red raspberries. This is why I read on Pub Med.

Welcome to the confusing world of food sensitivities. Where there are people who live on three foods while they find their way through what they should eat.

And people who don't believe in the concept at all, and almost kill people with "testing pranks."

It's a strange place and I have to survive in it.
#Science #Nutrition #AutoImmune #ActuallyAutistic #Burnout