January 10, 2009

• You are what you eat …

  ‘kay here’s the deal.  I’ve been whining and complaining for over 6 months about how bad I feel and how sick I am although no one can figure out what’s wrong with me.  The Dr. doesn’t know, I don’t know, the people I stop on the street corner and ask for advice … they don’t know either.  So I decided at the first of the year that I would see a Naturopath to see if she could figure out what was wrong with me.

  I figured based on conversations with the co-worker who recommended this appointment that she would want to do a nutrition evaluation.  The best thing then would be for me to have a log of what I’ve been eating to show her.  Some of you may remember that I used to regularly use (and have recommended) a website called Sparkpeople  (www.sparkpeople.com) where they have the tools available to log your food, fitness, that goal to refrain from spitting when you see that neighbor who walks her dog over to your yard for its daily business … whatever you need to do to have a better life, you can track it at Sparkpeople.

  When I went back to Sparkpeople to start my log, I wondered if in the data base of hundreds of articles they had anything on “edema” that might point me in a direction we haven’t explored previously.  There at the bottom of the page, in the final paragraph I found this “Low protein levels in the blood caused by malnutrition, kidney and liver disease can cause edema. The proteins help to hold salt and water inside the blood vessels so fluid does not leak out into the tissues. If a blood protein called albumin gets too low, fluid is retained and edema occurs, especially in the feet, ankles and lower legs.”

  Hmmmmmm

  Well, we’ve already checked for everything else, what if I have a malnutrition issue? 

  So last Friday, I started adding lean protein to my diet in large amounts.  I’m not eating a lot of extra meat, I’m adding a lo carb protein drink to each meal.  I get 15-18 grams of protein in each one.  Oh, and I’m drinking more water because I know from past experience that higher protein in my diet means I need more water and we’ll just leave it at that. 

  So, between Friday and Monday I had such a serious reduction in swelling that on Monday I didn’t even wear the support socks.  Last night when I came home from work and took off my shoes, my feet weren’t swollen at all.  AT ALL.  These feet have been swollen beyond recognition for SIX MONTHS.  They aren’t swollen tonight at all.  To put that into context, my feet went from a size 8.5 to a 6.5 in seven days time.  My loafers that I’ve been wearing to work sound like flip flops when I walk they are so much too big now.  One week of added protein made that much difference.

  I’m still going to see the Naturopath on Tuesday.  But we won’t be having the conversation I thought we’d be having when I made the appointment.  It’s hard to believe that my problem was malnutrition.  You’d think that would be the last place to look!   It’s not like I don’t eat. 

  Wild huh.      

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  Sparkpeople is completely free.  The data base of articles is found under the “Your Health” section, A-Z.  Medical content is reviewed by the staff of the Harvard Medical School.

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  My little SIMS family has six kids now.  The oldest three just left for college and Dad is sad.  He just bought this big house for them all and now it’s too empty.  Mom is kind of okay with taking a break, but Dad has this way of looking at her that suggests that there will probably be more babies coming …

   

  • 10:51 pm
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