An update and supplements report

It’s been so long since I’ve posted, which is a good thing in terms of my health. My last thyroid ultrasound in mid-January showed that the tumor had grown slightly to an ellipsoid volume of 111.2, up from 104.4 in October. So a slight increase. It’s funny, though, because the radiologist who has mostly ignored any decreases up until now, actually ignored this slight increase and wrote on his report that the tumor had decreased 10% in volume over the year. This was enough to put my doctor at ease and we agreed that the next ultrasound would be in 6 months (July).

I continue on my spiritual path, which has felt particularly difficult this year. I really hope this is because I am making progress:) My health, on the other hand, has been better than it’s been in years. Our family (me, husband and two children 8 and 9 years old) made it through this winter healthier than we ever have. Far healthier. I think I got one minor cold. And now as I enter allergy season it’s been so far so good. Last year at this time I was wiped out many afternoons, something that has been going on since spring of 2010 when I initially discovered the thyroid nodule.

In part I credit the improvement to figuring out some good supplements. Currently I am taking

• fermented cod liver oil (3 capsules/day)
• vitamin D3 (5000 mg/day)
• NOW magnesium citrate (400 mg/day in evening)
• Pure Radiance C powder (1 tsp/day) I take this rather than regular vitamin C because it’s not a corn derivative, and I have or had an allergy to corn. It’s kind of expensive, but I swear it seems to keep my immune system strong.
• Pure (brand name) Adrenal (1 in am, 1 in pm)
• Thorne Selenomethionine (200 mcg in am)
• Lugol’s 5% solution iodine (1 drop 1-3x/week)
• Celtic sea salt (1/2 tsp) on days that I take Lugol’s, also use it liberally on my food

I was also taking Riboflavin and Niacin for much of the winter, but I began to get stomach aches and when I removed it, they went away. I have to say figuring out the supplements has been very tricky for me. I was using David Brownstein’s book Iodine as a guide, but the amounts of things he recommends have been way too much for me. For instance, he recommends that people with cancer take up to 50 mg/day. 1 drop is 6.25 mg, and the most I have been able to take is 4 drops/week.

My main problem with iodine has been that it upsets my sleep. I have trouble falling asleep and/or wake up as early as 3 am unable to fall back asleep. It’s for that reason that I am taking the Pure Adrenal, which supports your adrenals, which are, I guess, what get thrown out of whack by the iodine for some people. I also think it’s important to take the selenium as that balances out the iodine and supports the thyroid.

I feel like with these supplements, my energy is really good, my sex drive is decent, and my periods are fairly regular.  When I wasn’t taking them (I didn’t start until January 2013) my periods were getting all screwed up, and my sex drive was nil. And I have to say it has taken me a very long time to figure out what is right for me. Sleep being the main problem when things go off.

There is one more supplement I am starting to take (and wonder if down the line it might be all that I need). That is Pure Synergy Vita-Min-Herb for women. There is also a version for me. I think I should probably be taking a multi-vitamin, too. Like all the others I don’t seem to be able to handle the recommended dose so I am alternating taking it with Lugol’s. My rule of thumb is that I have to have had 2 good nights of sleep before taking anything that contains iodine (in case it disrupts my sleep). And this supplement contains iodine.

One more thing about supplements is that I think the organic or whole food versions of them are much more potent than the synthetic ones. So, for instance, I was taking Dr. Ron’s magnesium pills for a while. These are only 150 mg, but one pill was all I needed. Magnesium seems to help keep my digestion going well. Since switching to NOW magnesium I am taking 400 mg. I think the same is true of that Pure Radiance C powder– it’s way less vitamin C than is recommended by Dr. Brownstein, but (I think) it’s been great at keeping my immune system strong. That’s not to say you have to take organic, but that not all versions work the same so you can’t just go by the milligrams.

I think I’ve given this link before, but this is a .pdf guide to supplementing with iodine based on Dr. Brownstein and Dr. Abraham’s research, which is helpful.

So overall I am feeling very good and don’t really believe that I have cancer anymore. I set an intention every night before I sleep for the tumor to dissolve in the most productive way possible and for perfect health to manifest in every cell of my body. I will see what the ultrasound shows in July, but the tumor/nodule doesn’t seem to be changing much that I can tell. On the other hand, it doesn’t seem as visible as it used to.

I am still avoiding corn. I’m not eating popcorn or corn chips or straight corn, but I’m not concerned about getting small doses of it in other things. I believe what I thought was a very strong reaction (crazy insomnia) to it in the late summer was stress rather than corn. Perhaps this summer when the spring allergens are gone, I’ll give corn a try again.

 

Follow-up appointment

I had my follow-up appointment with the alternative doctor two days ago. It was a bit disappointing because he was totally unprepared. He had looked at the results of all the allergy testing he ordered, but hadn’t looked at any lab results– I had a ton of labs done– and seemed to have forgotten everything that he asked me to do– which was a ton of things. I have to pay for the visits out of pocket so I started asking him direct questions, but if I had known he wasn’t going to be prepared, I would have given him a review and gathered all the lab tests myself.

As it was he wanted to order more lab tests without even having seen the first! Anyhow. I am very grateful to him for recognizing that I had a food allergy.

So vaguely what I got out of the appointment was that I can either cut corn completely out of my diet (which is beginning to seem very difficult, if not impossible) or I can do Low Dose Allergen Therapy. The doctor prefaced this by saying that this method meant coming to his office once every 2 months for 2 years and getting an injection that costs $200 and taking supplements and seeing a dietician. He framed it all in a way that was very discouraging, but honestly I have spent already more than that on my two visits with him and and 4 allergy testing sessions. (I realize that I am very fortunate to be able to afford these things.)

You can read more about Low Dose Allergen Therapy here. This is the website of W.A. Shrader, the doctor how developed it. I also came across this site, which has a more succinct description. It actually sounds pretty awesome with what it can accomplish– ridding you of all allergies– food and environmental– but there are some serious restrictions in diet around the time of each injection.

The doctor was very enthusiastic about me starting iodine supplementing and gave me a prescription for Lugol’s, which is the liquid form of Iodoral and doesn’t contain corn. I said, “Doesn’t that taste horrible?” and he said, “It doesn’t taste horrible. It’s disgusting.” He said I should take it with 2 ounces of juice and then follow it with a 2 oz juice chaser because it burns as it goes down your throat. Nice.

Instead I ordered I-Throid by RLC Labs. They say that it’s exactly the same formulation as Iodoral except without any corn. RLC is the same company that makes Nature-Throid, a natural thyroid hormone replacement, so I am optimistic. It hasn’t arrived yet.

In the meantime I started taking magnesium in the form of magnesium orotate. My lab test showed that I am low on magnesium, and the doctor recommended I take Magnesium-Potassium Taurate from Emerson Ecologics.  I decided to give the magnesium I had already purchased this spring a try instead. It was a new bottle, and it didn’t appear to have any corn ingredients in it. It was recommended by someone on the Iodine Yahoo group: “Nutrient Carriers Incorporated, Advanced Research, Magnesium Orotate, 500 mg, 100 Tablets” from iHerb.com.

Bad idea! I started taking it two days ago in a fairly high dose as the doctor had recommended. Nothing unusual happened the first day, but last night I had trouble falling asleep and then woke up at 1:45 and was awake until at least 4:30, then up again at 5:45, my body buzzing and warm. This is exactly what happened when I took Iodoral and Vitamin C. It’s funny– it actually didn’t occur to me that it was the magnesium until this morning. Last night I was thinking it was something I ate. But honestly I seem to have the strongest reaction to corn coming from supplements. One ingredient that is also in the Vitamin C that affected me so strongly is magnesium stearate. I just realized that it’s not listed on the corn allergen list I have been using, but it is on this one: corn allergen list. The other ingredients listed are “Provsolv, Pure Food Glaze, and Avicel.”

I think I really need to just start calling the manufacturer to ask if there are any corn derivatives in the product. One interesting thing that the doctor told me was that many companies use corn products interchangeably with other products, depending on what is cheapest at the time they’re buying ingredients. So, for example, they might list “starch” or “thickener” as an ingredient and that gives them the flexibility to use cornstarch one week and wheat flour another. As far as food is concerned, he said that Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods were the best about listing their ingredients.

So this morning I will order the magnesium he recommended and check that there is no corn in it…  And when I start any new supplement I will take it alone for 3 days to see if I have a reaction before adding in another.

My plan right now is to start taking iodine again as soon as the I-Throid arrives, and take that along with magnesium and the other supplements Dr. Brownstein recommends for a month or two. Also to see how well I can do avoiding corn derivatives.  And then to decide whether to do the Low Dose Allergen Therapy or to get less expensive seasonal allergy shots which I can administer myself.

So really I am back where I started in January, only this time with a known corn allergy.

An alternative doctor and supplementing with iodine again

All that said about wanting to heal through the mind, I am quite happy because I have found an alternative doctor who I think supports iodine therapy, and I have an appointment to see him in two weeks. He specializes in environmental medicine, which I need to read more about. But this includes allergies, which are a major issue for me in the spring and late summer.

I spent a good deal of time (way too much time) this week reading more about iodine and how to implement it. Yahoo groups are great, but I would search the Yahoo Iodine Group for a specific thing like, which type of selenium to take, and I would get over 1000 results. How long do you spend looking?

One thing I downloaded and read was a .pdf file called The Guide to Supplementing with Iodine. You can download it for free from that link. I am going to try iodine again, but this time use all of the supplements that are recommended.  The first time I tried iodine, a couple months ago, I took it with a very high dose of Vitamin C (which upset my stomach) and Celtic sea salt. This time I am going to add in selenium, magnesium, ATP Cofactors, and an adrenal health supporting herb. I got all of these at iherb, which is a good site. I got a buffered version of Vitamin C, which should help with my stomach problems, and I got a version of magnesium that is supposed to be easy on your stomach also.

Here are screenshots of my order in case you want to see exactly what I decided on. I did afterall spend 2000 hours researching the types before I ordered:)

I am excited to start them because a lot of the reviews on iHerb had people talking about what a big difference some of them had made. I’m starting with all the supplements except Iodoral. I will add that in after I talk to the doctor in two weeks.  A lot of the information says it’s best to do tests and monitor things when you’re taking Iodoral.

Just to review my main symptoms now are: low sex drive, more frequent periods, occasional low energy, and occasional unexplained weight gain. I have had low sex drive since the birth of my second daughter 7 years ago. The problems with my period seem to have developed in the last 6 months; the unexplained weight gain has been happening for the last two years– but in spurts, not all of the time; and the low energy seems very related to allergies and has been consistently happening in the spring and late summer. Overall, however, my health seems very good. I run and do sports and function normally most of the time.

I will post again after my doctor’s visit.