Hi Liza May,

>By the way - my edema is not severe.

>I definately notice it though.  I can see and feel it in my fingers (sometimes
>my rings won't even get past the first joint, wheras other times they are so
>loose they fall off my fingers); I can see and feel it in my knees and ankles
>(even Genie studying  hard can't see the difference) yet I find that its hard
>to bend my knee because it feels uncomfortably swollen up with fluid - sort of
>like the swelling after you sprain an ankle, and, if I press hard with my
>finger, an indent mark is left in that spot for a while. Last of all, and most
>obvious to me,  is swelling in my eyes - the upper lid gets so puffed out that
>I can actually see it if I look up. And my eyes look very noticeably smaller
>and puffy, and bloodshot. Sometimes - perhaps only following long fasts - I
>seem to have some edema in my abdomen as well.

Because of the exercise program you have described as part of your daily
schedule, other factors probably come into play. Fluid retention can be
caused by many factors but it all boils down to compensation by the body to
maintain a balance of specific gravities between intra/intercellular
fluids. NaCl, sometimes subtly hidden in processed foods, is often the
culprit. For myself, beef / chicken stock, miso and MSG caused my fingers
to redden and swell until the skin around my joints cracked and bled if I
tried to make a fist; it became painful to grab a door handle.

The Japanese have typical winter dish called "nabe", a communal stew of
assorted vegetables, tofu, seafood and meat simmered over a portable gas
range. My friends and I often ate vegetarian nabe but the combination of
the soup stock and the dipping sauce caused me to suffer from edema of the
extremities (as well as abdominal bloating). When I canned the nabe, my
fingers returned to normal. When I ate the same vegetables raw without the
soup base and dipping sauce, I remained unaffected. Therefore I gave up the
soup base and dipping sauce and any meal which utilized them. Kinda tough
on the social scene at parties but I learned to hover around the decorative
fruit displays assuming that people wouldn't notice the diminishing
platter, my swiss army knife and somehow not link the two together. ;)

More recently, the Braggs Amino Acids occasioned similar reactions. This
product was dumped from my shopping list a few months ago.

Love and Abundant Health,
Jo