Revisiting Alternative Medicine

I’ve been thinking a lot about (re)focusing on alternative medicine lately as a means of improving my health. I got to thinking about it because of a bad experience at the doctor’s office where I didn’t see the actual doctor but a nurse practitioner who’s “advise” was basically useless. Plus, my anti-depressant medication doesn’t appear to be working anymore and I’m having a flare up with my fibromyalgia with the extreme heat and humidity from last week.

So, I pulled out the diet recommendations from the Alternative Med Doctors I saw last November and December when I got my IgAN and fibro diagnoses. I figured now was a good time to check in and review how I’m doing.

• Gradually decrease the caffeine in your diet. Um…yeah, some days I’m really good with this. Some days, really bad. I have managed to cut out my daily coffee. I try to stick to 1 20oz diet soda, but it usually ends up being 1 20oz and 1 8oz.
• Take out foods with aspartame. Substitute with non-aspartame products. I usually try to buy Pepsi One, which is made with Splenda, but you can’t find that everywhere, so that hasn’t worked out the last few months. Plus, I gave up trying to find aspartame-free yogurt, but then I gave up eating yogurt.
• Use Olive and Canola Oil. I always did that; vegetable oil is too heavy.
• Decrease how often you are eating out down to 1-2 times per week to keep dinners healthy. Doh! I don’t cook at all now. I eat vegetarian or seafood microwave dinners at home and I have tofu-based or fish-based meals from local places around work. One place makes me a fish plate of baked haddock with garlic, black beans, and Spanish rice fairly regularly. I think it’s healthy. I try to eat salads too.
• Add Ginger and Turmeric to foods. Apparently these have anti-inflammatory properties but they take a few weeks to build up in your system. I have thought about this but keep forgetting to do this.
• Substitute Soy and Seafood for red meat and poultry. Apparently red meat and poultry have pro-inflammatory properties. This I’ve been doing. I’ve only rarely had red meat or poultry and now I can really tell if I have them. That night I don’t sleep at all well and the whole next day I hurt all over. It’s really a shame because there are just some places that make really yummy versions of those — Bruce’s Burrito’s has really good chipotle chicken in their burritos and Mad Apple Cafe has a really excellent Beef Tip Salad.
• Increase fruits and vegetables. The goal in anti-inflammatory diets is 6-8 servings a day. This is so incredibly hard, even with V8 Fusion.
• Try adding small amounts of nuts or seeds (especially almonds) for a snack. About a handful a day would be good. Almonds have particularly good anti-inflammatory properties. I forgot about this one. I must buy some nuts or seeds at the store…it’s just so hard to eat a “small amount”.

I think revisiting this list is a good place to start. I’ve been a little too lapse. That cooking at home part is hard. I used to love cooking and right now I’m just not into it. Particularly when the boys at Wild Burrito take such good care of me, making me fish plates and adding tofu to the menu. Besides, there’s clean up and dishes that go with cooking that I’m really not into.

I’m going to have to stock up on Pepsi One and work on drinking more water. I don’t actually snack a lot anymore so I’m going to have to have to figure out how to add seeds, nuts, fruits and veggies into my diet more. Admittedly, if I could find more decent salads around, I’d eat more salads regularly. I dislike your basic lettuce wedge salad. I really like exciting salads with variety and seeds and craisins and cheese and different kinds of greenery and veggies, but you don’t see a lot of restaurants serving those like you used to and when you do, they’re skimpy. I dislike buying that stuff to make at home because I’m one person and the stuff usually goes bad at home before I’ve finished it all. It’s such a waste. It’s all a catch-22.

I definitely think I’m going to order that light therapy lamp because I think it’ll help with both the depression and the sleep disorder, which I now think isn’t insomnia but could be Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorder, which is often misdiagnosed as insomnia and can’t be cured unfortunately. I’ve already seen success with adding 1mg of Melatonin to my nightly routine — I’ve fallen asleep quicker, stayed asleep and felt less groggy in the morning. My next step will be to cut my Ambien dose in half.

Anyway, I want to find healthy medium so I can get healthy without having to rely so much on doctors and prescription medicine.

Tagged as: alternative medicine, Ambien, caffeine, diet, fibromyalgia, healthy eating, IgAN, melatonin