Hi Susan,

It sounds like we have some things is common!  Almonds give me arthritis
(and asthma attacks) BIG time.  I have been thinking about the grain-fed
meat thing pretty seriously lately.  Since our kids are celiacs (ages 5,
3.5, and 21 months) with lots of allergies, I've become obsessed with
healthy food!  We can't seem to get any weight on our kids even though we
are as careful as possible with their diets, and I've been wondering if the
grain-fed meat is something they can't tolerate.  The only problem is that
our food bill is already ridiculous, and the special meat costs even more!
How do you do it?
I'm just starting to learn about the formaldehyde, but it is in everything
and in frighteningly high concentrations too.  I have a fantastic book that
I recommend if you haven't read it.  "The E. I. [environmental illness]
Syndrome"  by Sherry A. Rodgers MD.  It has lots of information about all
kinds of allergies and chemical problems etc...  I have mercury fillings in
a couple of my teeth and have considered having them removed.  My father has
rheumatoid arthritis and they took his fillings out to see if it would help,
but it didn't.  I'm sure that changing his diet would help, but he won't do
that and it makes me so mad (and sad).  I'll have a look in the book I just
mentioned and see what she says about mercury.
Chlorine is another thing that does me in too!  I only clean with dish soap
now, and I'm probably going to change to some special cleaner from the
health food store (more $$ again!)
I think it is easy to become deficient in almost any vitamin or mineral
these days.  Certainly, this has contributed to some of my problems, and I
am taking quite a few supplements (including vitamins A and E).  I have
taken them for about a year, and my skin has improved dramatically-in
addition to having rosacea, I am prone to all kinds of dermatitises and my
supplements have made a big difference.  The book I rely on for information
on using supplements is Prescription for Nutritional Healing by James Balch
MD and Phyllis Balch CNC-it is excellent and I highly recommend it.  I don't
follow all of their recommendations, but most.  They have a section on
mercury toxicity which mentions fillings and gives good advice (I can type
it out if you don't have access to this book) and a section on warts which
gives info on natural remedies and supplement recommendations (ditto). The
most important vitamins they list for someone having trouble with warts are
Vit. B complex, Vitamin C, L-Cysteine, Vit A, Vit E, and zinc, so I guess
vit's A and E are important!  Hope this helps!  Thanks for the tip about
grain-fed meat.

Kerry