Thursday, April 1, 2010

Heroes and villains: food intolerance, hypoglycemia, candida and the Failsafe diet – Part 3 of 3


Please note: the following shouldn’t be taken as medical advice. It’s simply what I’ve gleaned, and in other cases am guessing because of a lack of accessible information concerning health issues I’m currently facing. If anyone has any relevant information that they think would be useful, please send it to me.

In my last entry I described the Failsafe diet, which was developed for children with physical and behavioural problems caused by intolerances to human-made and natural food chemicals. While I’m a great fan of the diet and Sue Dengate’s website, with my own long history of hypoglycemia I was disturbed that the possible role of sugar in contributing to behavioural problems was being dismissed out of hand. I was also concerned that a controversial medical diagnosis, the so-called ‘leaky gut’ and its associations with yeast overgrowth, was also being dismissed.

With cane sugar (sucrose) no longer a culprit for most Failsafers, what seems like an unhealthy degree of tolerance for sugary foods has developed in the food companies that have sprung up to respond to the needs of children with allergies and food intolerances, as well as more specifically Failsafers and their families. So, as well as using my own experience as an argument for the existence of hypoglycemia, I decided to look at what else was ‘wrong’ with sugar, even if it wasn’t the main culprit in conditions like ADD.

Is sugar good for anybody, especially kids?

Sucrose does occur naturally in fruits along with fructose, but table sugar isn’t really a natural food. Although it comes from sugar cane or sugar beet, it’s extremely concentrated and processed. Our bodies were built to ingest sugars in the form of complex carbohydrates, such as those occurring in fruit and vegetables.

In the small amount of research I did on sugar, I discovered a few interesting things. The main one was that processed sugars rather than fat are now said to be the cause of obesity; the latter has increased in the US during a period when carbohydrate consumption has been going up and the consumption of fat has been going down. Thus, low-fat diets are not necessarily the answer. Sugar has also been shown to be a physically addictive substance that has chemical effects on the brain.

In addition, processed sugar, and, importantly, other forms of concentrated sweetness, have been linked with coronary heart disease; dietary sugar and salt have been linked with the development of cataracts; and one study has found that a diet with a high amount of sugars and carbohydrate ‘may increase the risk of pancreatic cancer in women who already have an underlying degree of insulin resistance’.

But, rather than be a total killjoy and recommend that everyone give up sugar, it does seem, from my very limited knowledge, that there’s some truth to what Dengate says about it: both children and adults are better eating sugar as a dessert than in the form of fizzy soft drinks.

I’d go further and say that homemade desserts and sweet foods are the best way of eating it, and that junk food containing cane sugar or fructose should be avoided.

Fructose, a different form of concentrated sugar made from fruit, seems to be particularly problematic in processed food, even for those without a genetic intolerance. It seems that much of the junk food that is causing obesity in America is sweetened not with sucrose but with corn syrup, a highly processed form of fructose that is cheaper to produce than sucrose, much sweeter and even more harmful; some scientists believe that the body processes it differently from cane sugar and that it’s more likely to cause obesity. ‘Crystallised fructose’ is, apparently, just as bad.

In fact, ‘sugar-sweetened beverages’, which commonly include corn syrup (ie fructose), have been linked with ‘an increased risk of gout, hypertension, and diabetes’, although it’s not clear whether the fructose is directly causing these conditions.

I do think that kids who are benefiting from the Failsafe diet but still aren’t totally well should be taken off all forms of concentrated sugar for a few weeks to see if they improve further. And, partly because of its addictive qualities, I think all kids should only have sugar in their diet in a very restricted way. (In my family, of course, that ain’t going to happen in a million centuries!) As I’ve said, this isn’t medical advice, but just my opinion.

The food intolerance industry

There are a number of websites offering allergy-friendly foods for beleaguered parents; in fact there seems to be a whole industry encouraging children with food allergies and intolerances to eat as normatively as possible. Unfortunately some of the products on offer seem remarkably close to standard junk food.

This website offers coconut ice, chocolate pudding mix and ‘blackberry crunch’ complete with tapioca flour and cane sugar. Meanwhile, this website offers allergy-friendly two-minute noodles. Admittedly these foods are for children with relatively limited allergies and food intolerances, but the Failsafers still get colourless lollies, carob sticks with cane sugar and ‘maggots’ made from puffed brown rice, cane sugar and canola oil. What happened to Failsafers only eating unprocessed food? And why do these companies encourage sick kids to eat heaps of sugar?

The unsavoury fact is that all processing changes the composition of food. As a hypoglycemic (for the moment, anyway!) I react to plain rice crackers made from brown rice without a trace of sugar.

I’m being very cynical here, but it’s obviously easier for the food industry to deal with low-amine and low-salicylate foods (the Failsafe diet) than it is for them to deal with a hypoglycemia or candida diet. In the latter diet especially, you really do have to eat mainly whole foods. But on a diet low in natural food chemicals you can eat plenty of sugar, thus boosting the food industry’s profits.

Of course, all children need treats, and it’s easy for me to pontificate – I’ve observed my sisters using food treats to bribe their kids to be good, and I can’t say that if I was in the same situation I would never do that. Any parent struggling with trying to get an ill child to eat a restricted diet probably welcomes these foods, and I’d assume they’d be a godsend for special occasions.

But common sense tells me that if a kid is reacting to many food chemicals, then unprocessed food with a minimum of concentrated sweetness would be the way to go, at least until the child’s system had had a chance to start healing.

Links between hypoglycemia and food intolerance – a shaky hypothesis based partly on my experience

Let’s assume that hypoglycemia can exist as a separate issue, at least in adults with food intolerances, although perhaps not in the majority of cases. What is the relationship between the two? Where does the whole thing begin?

It was very difficult to find useful information on the web regarding this question. This website by a parent of child with reactive hypoglycemia provides lots of worthwhile information and is keen to promote hypoglycemia as a distinct health issue, but makes no reference that I could find to food intolerance. The Australian-based Hypoglycemia Association does acknowledge food allergies and intolerances, but its information is fairly out of date.

The adrenal connection

Because of my own issues I’m most interested in adrenal fatigue and leaky gut as causes of hypoglycemia. It was extremely difficult to find worthwhile info on the web that linked food intolerance and allergy with adrenal fatigue and leaky gut. I’m convinced there are connections, and some websites seemed to acknowledge that there are, but they weren’t all that authoritative.

When your adrenals are fatigued, you don’t produce enough cortisol. Cortisol is a hormone that has balancing effects on blood sugar, which is why adrenal fatigue can be linked with hypoglycemia. But it’s also involved in helping the body deal with allergies, regulating ‘immune response’ and ‘anti-inflammatory actions’.

This suggests that if you’re under stress for a long time you may be more susceptible to allergies. Some people are genetically unable to cope with food proteins such as gluten and/or casein (a protein in milk). However, food intolerances can also develop.

In leaky gut syndrome the lining of the intestine supposedly becomes damaged, making it possible for tiny pieces of undigested food, toxins, parasites and waste to penetrate the lining, causing the immune system to respond by creating antibodies. This then results in symptoms of food intolerance.

This website says that, according to Dr Sherry Rogers MD, ‘The leaky gut can cause food allergy, and food allergy can cause the leaky gut’. In the case of gluten, ‘gluten sensitivity inflames the gut to the degree that the body will make antibodies to intestinal bacteria and chemical additives in food’. [This is confusing: possibly Rogers is talking about food intolerance when she says ‘the leaky gut can cause food allergy’.]

This medical doctor concurs, claiming that adrenals themselves can be affected by food allergies.

One interpretation of this is: you start off with a fixed allergy with a genetic component (say to gluten or casein) and, perhaps by consuming the allergen, end up with a leaky gut, which then results in all sorts of food intolerances you didn’t have before (eg to food chemicals such as amines and salicylates).

Perhaps at the same time you may be stressing out your adrenals as they struggle to deal with the gluten or other allergen you’re ingesting. And then the adrenals will be less able to cope with the food intolerances you’re developing (if it’s not actually directly contributing to their development). You may also develop reactive hypoglycemia. Perhaps you’ve also got some exterior stresses as well, which are putting even more pressure on your adrenals.

This scientific article suggests that pollen allergy can induce anxiety (which would then presumably have an unwelcome effect on the adrenal system).

This source, not a very scientific one admittedly, seems to suggest that the exterior stress can actually cause a leaky gut via the adrenals, without the further complication of a genetic allergy:
When we are under physical, emotional, or environmental stress it triggers cortisol, a stress hormone to be released. Cortisol raises blood sugar which feeds bad gut bacteria, yeast and other pathogens causing an overgrowth. When the intestinal flora gets out of balance it causes symptoms of gas, bloating, constipation, diarrhoea, and indigestion.

And this scientific article suggests that children are susceptible to stress just as adults are. It finds that environmental stresses in children can contribute to their developing allergies, but that the children who do so may have a particular allergy-inducing response to stress in the first place. (Again I’m not absolutely sure whether the author is talking about genuine allergies here or food intolerances, which seem to be much more variable.)

One possible reading of the Failsafe diet is that once you give up food chemicals, this takes the pressure off the adrenals and they can perform properly, therefore eliminating hypoglycemia.

But if the leaky gut theory were correct, surely you would need to eliminate concentrated sugar for a while (and perhaps fermented foods?) to allow the lining of the intestine to recover.

Children and sugar

The study, cited in my last entry, that seemed to prove that cane sugar played no role in behavioural problems was done on children. Perhaps, for most children, taking pressure off the adrenals by removing intolerances is enough. Yet excessive sugar, inadequate nutrition and use of antibiotics are all considered to be contributing factors in leaky gut. Children’s immune systems also have to deal with the effects of pollution, dust, pollens, pesticides etc. Perhaps a few children do develop a ‘leaky gut’, and need a rest from sugar until the condition resolves.

I grew up with an undiagnosed lactose (or casein) intolerance and a possible undiagnosed gluten intolerance. This could have contributed to a leaky gut. Once you feed sugar into a leaky gut you may be contributing to a yeast overgrowth and causing hypoglycemia.

Perhaps the leaky gut led to the sensitivities to amines and salicylates that I seem to have developed. And maybe that was one reason why I never got better on the candida diet: I was ignoring the amine/salicylate problem.

I’ve finally snagged an appointment with an allergist, and will ask them if it’s possible to take a test for adrenal function – if not, they may be able to refer me to someone. But in the meantime I’ve researched some ways I can support my adrenals. They’re incredibly simple really:

Exercise
Daily meditation
Vitamin C
Vitamin B
Magnesium

Other options are supplements of cortisol and a hormone called DHEA, both of which have been used experimentally to treat adrenal fatigue. But I reluctantly let go of the idea of taking them as they seemed to be unsafe.

I’m not blaming Dengate. I’m incredibly grateful for her website, which has allowed me to get rid of my hives, given me extra clarity about my food issues and encouraged me to go to a conventional allergist for the first time in my life.

It just annoys me that the issue of hypoglycemia is being blindsided, by the food intolerance ‘industry’ as a whole, when there is already so much ignorance about it. There needs to be more research about the links between adrenal fatigue, food intolerance, reactive hypoglycemia, and food addiction; or the research that has been done needs to be explained so that it’s understandable to the average person.

So, as so often occurs in my blog entries, I’m left with a series of questions rather than answers:

What role does fructose intolerance pay in reactive hypoglycemia? Does the role vary depending on whether the fructose intolerance is hereditary?

What role does leaky gut play in reactive hypoglycemia?

Can food intolerance co-exist with a reactive hypoglycemia problem?

Is there a connection between fructose intolerance and leaky gut?

To what extent is food addiction a symptom of hypoglycemia?

If food intolerance can mimic hypoglycemia rather than causing it, as Dengate suggests, can that mimicking itself cause sugar addiction?

Are processed foods inherently more physically addictive than non-processed foods, targetting the reward centres in the brain? Can concentrated sweetness have this effect too, regardless of the chemical make-up of the sweetness (eg Diet Coke)?

What connections are there between the development of food intolerance and the overeating of processed foods?
And when will Blogger enable users to easily insert bullet points? Surely it can't be that hard? (Sorry, may be slightly off topic!)

And, for good measure, here are some useful links on food intolerance and related issues:

SalicylateSensitivity.com

Plant Poisons and Rotten Stuff Community

Environmental Illness Resource

(but this website doesn’t seem to have any info on Failsafe and amine/salicylate intolerance)

20 comments:

  1. Alternative medicine tries to integrate the physical with other states, but doesn't go as far as holistic medicine. Both forms of medicine are valid and useful. However, a holistic practitioner would use them to bring those aspects into alignment while working on others.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A GREAT SPELL CASTER (DR. EMU) THAT HELP ME BRING BACK MY EX GIRLFRIEND.
      Am so happy to testify about a great spell caster that helped me when all hope was lost for me to unite with my ex-girlfriend that I love so much. I had a girlfriend that love me so much but something terrible happen to our relationship one afternoon when her friend that was always trying to get to me was trying to force me to make love to her just because she was been jealous of her friend that i was dating and on the scene my girlfriend just walk in and she thought we had something special doing together, i tried to explain things to her that her friend always do this whenever she is not with me and i always refuse her but i never told her because i did not want the both of them to be enemies to each other but she never believed me. She broke up with me and I tried times without numbers to make her believe me but she never believed me until one day i heard about the DR. EMU and I emailed him and he replied to me so kindly and helped me get back my lovely relationship that was already gone for two months.
      Email him at: Emutemple@gmail.com
      Website: http://emutemple.website2.me/
      Call or Whats-app him: +2347012841542

      Delete
  2. Hi Therapy4help,

    Thanks for commenting. I think I understand the distinction - it makes me wonder why conventional medicine can't be more holistic.

    With a few notable exceptions, I'm amazed at how many GPs, while they're fine for things like routine check-ups, seem uninterested in pursuing new treatments or doing anything but prescribing drugs. They could certainly learn something from holistic practitioners.

    Cheers
    Catherine

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi SN,
    Have you tried seeing a GP from the Australasian College of Nutritional & Environmental Medicine? They can probably fix you up and answer your questions.

    GL.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi GL,

    Thanks for the suggestion - I may do so in the future. I have an appointment at a hospital-based, conventional allergy clinic in a couple of weeks, and I'm very curious as to what they know about the Failsafe diet and whether they look at possible glandular causes of food intolerance.

    I'm also concerned that some natural therapists use herbs a lot, a no-no for Failsafers - but this is something I could query with practitioners.

    Cheers
    Catherine

    June 14, 2010 7:59 PM

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love your blog! You are asking all the same questions that run through my brain at least a billion times a day. I have done the failsafe diet with my son a few years back, but I think that many people with food intolerances also have leaky gut (who knows which comes first...?) and therefore the excessive sugar on the failsafe diet is counterproductive to healing. Both my kids have ADHD, I believe I have systemic candida which I think I've had for at least 7 years, possibly longer (ie. my whole life), my naturopath tells me I have leaky gut and lately I've been having daily episodes of hypoglycemia, which is new and extremely worrying. I'm sure my candida/leaky gut/food intolerances contribute to my irritable/anxious state of mind, but doctors just say it's genetic. It's so confusing. Right now I'm wheat/dairy/sugar free and am running out of things to eat and losing weight (the first ten kilos were great...now it's getting scary). My kids are wheat and dairy free in the hope that it may alleviate their ADHD symptoms...so far no luck (it's been about a month). This is such a minefield!!! Anyway, quite a bit of useless info there but I thought I'd share because it sounds like I'm trying to figure out a lot of the same things you are.

    Kerrie

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kerrie I am exactly the same, it is soooo frustrating, I even went to a hospital dietician, they weren't any help at all. My naturopath/nutritionist prescribed me all kinds of rubbish even though she knew I was salicylate intolerant that I just had severe reactions to. I have been doing my own research forever and am slowly getting better. I am also now studying naturopathy and nutrition. You may be able to find some answers on my blog, best of luck :)

      Delete
  6. Hi Kerrie,

    Thanks for commenting and sorry it's taken a while to get back to you. It's a relief to hear from someone who shares my confusion about what to eat. Although I hated getting the hives, in one way they were a good thing because they were a visible proof that there was something wrong.

    I sympathise with what you're going through. I can't help thinking we're at a stage where the medical profession now accepts food allergy but is really ignorant about food intolerance. The Failsafe diet is quite groundbreaking, but it would also be great to see some new scientific research on what causes people to become so sensitive to ordinary food chemicals, and how it can be reversed.

    Sorry to hear that you're losing weight. I find it really hard to maintain my (too low) weight on this diet - to compensate I eat a lot of cold-pressed oil, at virtually every meal. I also eat cashews once every 3 or 4 days.

    Perhaps you could also eat larger quantities of what you're already eating? Are you able to eat meat?

    I understand your frustation. While I feel better on the Failsafe diet, I think I am a 'super responder' (love that term!) and I'm probably still eating things I'm intolerant of; eg I still eat eggs, although they make my face rashy and swollen, but I need the calcium. The fact is the diet I'm on is a compromise.

    All the best with helping your kids with ADHD. That's a huge task. Don't give up - Sue Dengate's website does have a lot of great info for those who aren't responding to the diet. It's helped to follow my 'gut feeling' when deciding what to eat (sorry about the unavoidable pun!)

    All the best, whichever dietary path you decide to take.

    Cheers
    Catherine

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Catherine, you might find organic, raw pasture fed butter and bone broth soups helpful to put on weight? I was around 40kg and have put on 6kgs using these things and a number of other methods like pure pea protein powder and such. It is so hard navigating all this stuff, it is great that we can help each other out, I have been putting some stuff up from all the research i've done on my blog. All the best to you :) http://thehealthyjessie.wordpress.com/

      Delete
  7. been living this for years and have some health experts who've solved this: check out the book Edgework: the Psychology of Disease. Leaky gut/candida/intolerances are just symptoms. How can people with multiple personalities have completely different health profiles/allergies?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Catherine,

    Just wondering how you got on with the allergy appointment? Would be very interested to hear!

    Since my comment above I've developed hypoglycemia as well...it does seem all these things are so interconnected...and so difficult to treat because one "disorder" needs one style of eating, and the other needs another style of eating. Soon I'll be living on salt and air pretty much...arrggh.

    cheers

    Kerrie

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi Kerrie,

    Great to hear from you, and sorry to hear that you've developed hypoglycemia.

    I'm still struggling with pretty much the same limited diet, and still feeling so-so instead of great, although definitely clearer-headed than before I went on the diet.

    The cold-pressed safflower/sunflower oil I am eating ain't doing me any good, but without it I would fade away, and the conventional oil makes me feel worse!

    I've given myself permission to break my diet every six weeks just to keep myself sane!

    The allergist was horribly disappointing. She treated my case as simply a skin problem and recommended I take over-the-counter antihistamines indefinitely. The information sheet on hives she gave me basically fibbed, saying that changing the diet would make no difference to the hives!

    This allergist more or less knew about the existence of the Failsafe diet, but said such diets were too hard. She ignored the role of adrenals, digestion etc, and told me to separate out my low blood sugar problem from my food intolerance.

    On the plus side, the hospital ran a range of conventional blood tests (including glandular tests) that were all clear (although I don't entirely trust these tests, given how bad my hypoglycemia is). Also, I could have had a lactose and fructose intolerance test -- the latter would have involved drinking a cup of something extremely sweet, which would have knocked me out for a week, so I declined. But I'm considering doing this test during a quiet period, eg in January. It could be the key.

    After this I decided I was pretty much on my own. I've introduced French lentils to my diet and occasionally spring onions (I like to live dangerously!).

    Let me know how things go. From the hits I get to these blog entries, it looks as if many people see links that conventional medicine can't get its head around.

    Cheers
    Catherine

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi Catherine,
    I only just realised you’d replied to my message…could you add “notifications of replies” to your request for bullets to the blog people, please? Lol!
    Your disappointment with your allergy appointment really struck a chord with me (her approach sounds much more allopathic than holistic unfortunately)…I just cannot fathom or believe the lack of knowledge that doctors, specialists and other related clinicians have about this stuff. I went to my doctor two days ago about my annoying hypoglycaemic symptoms. I am seeing a naturopath as well but thought I should go the conventional route also, just to cover all bases. He thinks it highly unlikely that I would be hypoglycaemic without being obese or having diabetes and that it was in no way related to yeast issues or food intolerance. What???? I also got the standard “systemic candida cannot possibly exist unless you have immuno-suppression caused by AIDS or something similar” line that they all trot out. Again…WHAT???? They took some blood two weeks ago and everything came back within normal ranges (clearly the ranges are pretty broad) which, he said, should tell me I am perfectly healthy and to keep doing whatever I’m doing. Just shows, as you also found out, how non-indicative of underlying problems blood tests are. They prove that you’re not near death but that’s about it.
    Catherine, how did you figure out you had a salicylate intolerance? This is always at the back of my mind that I am pursuing the candida route when at the bottom of all of this is a salicylate problem that will always prevent me from treating everything else?? Everything I eat is loaded with sals - I live on coconut oil, herbs, high sal vegies like tomatoes and capsicum, you name it. Not to mention the herbal supplements from my naturopath. How do you figure out what your biggest problem is?? If I were to do an elimination diet whilst being wheat, dairy and low carb, there would literally be nothing left. I’m sticking herbs galore from my naturopath down my kids’ necks in the hope of healing their leaky gut and ADHD issues, meanwhile they’re still not focussing at school and my 10 year old son is still wetting the bed. I do wonder if it’s more than candida and hypoglycemia with them, too. Do you have any thoughts on kinesiology? I’ve had muscle testing before but I do feel a bit sceptical about its validity/effectiveness, but a quick answer as to what we’re intolerant to does seem very attractive! It frustrates me to think that you can sabotage your healing if you’re eating something that you’re intolerant to, but how the heck do you find out what that is? Allergies are easy to test – intolerances not so much and they’re probably more destructive in the long term if not treated.
    And what comes first? The hypo or the candida? Have I been hypo since birth, and all the sugar I’ve eaten (combined with antibiotics and general bodily abuse in my 20s and 30s) caused candida? Or does the candida cause the hypo??? Or did the food intolerance come first, cause leaky gut, which caused the candida?? Or do I not even have candida, only hypoglycemia which shares lots of symptoms (like anxiety – my speciality) with candida?? Or is this all just in our heads?? Arrgggh! I don’t get specific “reactions” like rashes to anything…I just have broad, dull symptoms that do not fluctuate particularly – makes it very hard to figure out what is going on!!
    Sorry for all the questions and this ridiculously long post…it’s just so refreshing and JOYOUS to find someone on the same page. I am so tired of people looking at me like I’m a complete freak because I “don’t eat anything” and am “neurotic and paranoid” apparently. Everyone’s saying to me to eat more sugar if I have symptoms of low blood glucose…but hey….we both know that’s not the answer don’t we ;)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hi Kerrie,

    sorry it's taken so long to reply, and I just realised that your comments were being filed as spam, so no wonder they weren't appearing!

    i'm absolutely flat chat so can't comment in detail but will write a longer reply another time.

    I think it is really worth going to the Failsafe website having a good read and taking your time. If you did decide to do some challenges (and perhaps you could do it at the same time as your boys) you would only need to do one thing at a time.

    I think from memory the site does have info on dietary challenges.

    Also, I'd suggest having a look at the allowed foods. Quite a few vegies are low in salicylates.

    Sorry I don't have time for a longer reply but will write more at length once the deadline madness is over.

    Hope you're going okay.

    Catherine

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hello, I know this post is a year old but I just wanted to say THANK YOU for giving me some sanity while I read your post. I have food intolerances (Gluten, Dairy, Oats, Fructose, Sugar, Egg Yolk, FodMaps), small intestine bacterial overgrowth, lots of stress and anxiety that I can't seem to get under control, and I've also been struggling with hypoglycemia symptoms. This all started for me about 5 years ago and it seems to just keep getting worse. I tried cutting out all sugar, since I was still having pure maple syrup, to see if it helped my hypoglycemia, and it did! I also tried eating Oats again, which I am intolerant to, and I had such a bad hypoglycemic episode that I nearly fainted. I completely believe that eating sugar or eating a food that I am intolerant to gives me hypoglycemia. When I cut out those foods I still don't feel 100% but I feel much better.

    I feel like I am going crazy sometimes trying to figure out what I can and cannot eat. My diet is so boring and bland and I feel like an outcast because I can't go to restaurants and eat with friends and family anymore. Let's all hope and pray that somewhere in the world a doctor will start to shine some light on the obvious connection between food intolerance, stress, leaky gut, and hypoglycemia. A big thank you from Chicago, USA for your blog!!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hi Sarah,

    Thanks for your comment. Sorry to hear about your intolerances. I really sympathise with you getting sick of the blandness of the diet and missing eating with friends and family - I feel the same. I really miss going out to restaurants, and I miss flavoursome foods.

    I'd never heared of FodMaps before your post and I just googled it. I wonder if, even though 'leaky gut' seems to have no official status in medicine (as far as I know), its symptoms are now being included under the heading of irritable bowel syndrome? I have what I see as leaky gut symptoms (bloating, slow digestion when I eat yeasty foods like tofu etc) but I don't have the abdominal pain etc that I associate with irritable bowel syndrome.

    Can't wait for the day when we have a reliable test for food intolerances and leaky gut, and effective treatments that actually cure it! But sadly too many doctors are still accusing their patients of being hypochondriacs because they don't have the more easily testable food allergies (and no doctor I've ever met understands the first thing about hypoglycaemia).

    Hope you can get your hypo symptoms under control. Just wondered if you had cut out caffeine, because in my experience this is worse than concentrated sweetness in causing hypos.

    Cheers
    Catherine

    ReplyDelete
  14. I really think stress and anxiety is a biggie for hypoglycemia. Until you get that under control, the whole show is going to be upset. I was doing okay until we decided to sell our house and move away to a new area. ie. STRESS. With the increased stress and anxiety, back came my hypo symptoms.

    I'm positive that when the adrenals are working hard, everything else will be out of kilter. I am trying liquorice root for adrenal support and trying to learn to meditate. I know food intolerances, candida and everything else have a big part but for me, I think stress management is key.

    Kerrie

    ReplyDelete
  15. Hi Kerrie,

    You're right, stress is a huge part of it, and definitely caused my digestive system to collapse in the first place. Supporting your andrenals makes sense because you're dealing with the cause and not just the symptoms.

    I am definitely going to look into this FodMaps thing and perhaps write an entry on it. Trouble is there is literally nothing left to eat for me if I followed the FodMaps and low salicylate diet simultaneously! it's interesting that Sue Dengate, an expert on the Failsafe Diet, is starting to talk more about IBS (and may in fact be referring to leaky gut?)

    The sooner doctors can cure this so that we can do away with these overly restrictive diets, the better!

    Cheers
    Catherine

    ReplyDelete
  16. Oh my I am so so pleased that I came across this website, I don't have time to read it in total right at this moment as I am in the process of trying to a a BOATLOAD of uni work :/ but I will be very excited to read this further, you may find my blog helpful also, I have salicylate intolerance and have been struggling with candida, all the best and thank you so much for questioning things! http://thehealthyjessie.wordpress.com/

    ReplyDelete
  17. maggie.danhakl@healthline.comNovember 21, 2014 at 6:28 AM

    Hi,

    I thought you might find this interesting. Healthline has compiled a list of the Effects of Low Blood Sugar in a visual graphic and I thought you and your readers would be interested in seeing the information.

    You can check out the information at http://www.healthline.com/health/low-blood-sugar-effects-on-body We’ve had good feedback about the article and we think it will benefit your readers by giving them med-reviewed information in a visual way.

    If you think this information is a good fit for your audience would you share it on your site, http://slightlynuttywriter.blogspot.com/2010/04/heroes-and-villains-sugar-hypoglycemia.html , or social media?

    Let me know what you think and have a great week.

    All the best,
    Maggie Danhakl • Assistant Marketing Manager
    p: 415-281-3100 f: 415-281-3199

    Healthline • The Power of Intelligent Health
    660 Third Street, San Francisco, CA 94107
    www.healthline.com | @Healthline | @HealthlineCorp

    ReplyDelete