Kristina Carlton wrote:

>Well, that's where the leaky gut hypothesis makes sense, but like you I am
>always skeptical about these things.

I sometimes wonder if it matters about *how* it happens. We put food in
and certain symptoms appear. We stop eating those foods and the symptoms
go away. My problem is one of endless curiousity about mechanisms in all
areas of life ;-)

>The problem is that alternative health
>professionals believe in things like leaky gut, but some doctors have
looked
>at me like I was speaking a foreign language when I brought it up and had
>never even heard of it. And then you have doctors that DO believe in it.

In spite of the variety of explanations offered, alternative practitioners
who take us off things like dairy and grains will get results if that's
what's causing our health problems, and that's what counts in the end.

When I was doing an MSc. in Nutritional Medicine I met a lot of working
doctors who were doing the course so that they could better answer the
nutritional questions their patients were asking. Some were very orthodox
(as was the course), but many were open to trying alternative approaches.
I think there is hope for the future. Younger doctors seem less bound by
tradition.

I'm pretty critical about the things I accept as valid, but there are
things I've had to accept without any convincing rational answers. I
nearly died of pneumonia some years ago. I refused to go into hospital as
my ex could not cope alone with my young daughter. A spiritual healer was
called in. I have no faith as such, and I didn't even like him, no matter
believe in him. In short, he cured me, and later became a friend. I feel
embarrassed to tell this story as I love all things scientific. But it
happened and I cannot deny it. My doc and physio, who had come to the
house every day for a month, were stuck for an explanation too.

Equally, I still don't believe in the explanations the healer gives for
his powers, but he has worked more than a few miracles on the island over
the years. Also, he never charges poor people like me a single penny.

>I know from my own experience in the past two or so years that if I eat a
>food too often, like avocadoes which I was eating daily, I can't tolerate
>them after a while. Sometime the symptoms are subtle, sometimes they are
>extreme (to me) like the dairy was. Right now I seem to be reacting to the
>rice protein I would have as an occasional splurge.

I'm trying to rotate my paleofoods to avoid this problem. In the past I
thought I could get away with eating rice. Sadly, it gives me IBS symptoms
too, so it can't be just gluten-containing grains that cause the problem.

>>Our bodies are strange and wondrous things ;-)

>Yes they are, but given the proper nutrition they also have the ability to
>heal themselves and for that I am so thankful.

What a pity our minds listen so rarely to the wisdom of the body.

Several weeks on paleofoods and I'm blissfully unaware of the workings of
my GI tract <g>

Cheers,

Persephone