DYING TO LIVE: Running backwards through cancer, Lupus and chronic illness
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It is a good thing Vanessa and her mother did not read this first — otherwise she would likely be tied to a dialysis machine for life and heading for a premature, painful, death. I find it hard to understand what motivates people, like those from the Lupus Foundation, to make such statements, especially when the current scientific information does not support their negative position.
Lupus is a disease of people living in Western countries, consuming the American diet. For example, lupus is rare in rural Africa — the first case of lupus was described in Africa in ; by contrast, today in the USA, African-Americans have the highest incidence of lupus of any sub-population of people — reflecting the differences in diet in these genetically similar people. Lupus also known as systemic lupus and lupus erythematosus involves the whole body, including the immune system.
Unfortunately, the antibodies do two things that cause problems:. By both mechanisms the tissues become inflamed, eventually die, and are replaced by non-functioning scar tissues. Traditional medical treatments fail to arrest this disease. The same applies to other forms of inflammatory arthritis rheumatoid, psoriatic, ankylosing spondylitis, etc. Even though these results do not occur with everyone, they are typical for people who make the diet and lifestyle changes of the McDougall Program. The last time I wrote about Vanessa she had been diagnosed with lupus. Her first kidney biopsy classified her kidney function at a category four, one category before having a transplant or dialyses.
Her doctor told us it would take years of drug treatment to get her into remission. She was having a cytoxin treatment once a month, taking 60 mg. Two months after her diagnosis we learned about the McDougall diet for health. We had nothing to lose. Four months later her second biopsy showed her kidney had improved to be between a category one and two.
Her doctor had not seen this happen so dramatically. It had improved so much her doctor stopped the cytoxin immediately and began the process of weaning her from the prednisone after only 6 months. She continued coming off the prednisone a little at a time. Her doctor was still skeptical but willing to work with us. Around October of the following year, one year after her diagnosis, she was taken off the blood pressure medicine. She was working full time and people from work would bring cookies and candies and all sorts of holiday goodies. When she got the next set of labs the numbers went the other way.
Her doctor thought it might be because of taking her off the blood pressure medicine and considered putting her back on it.
I was quite sure it might be because of our slack eating habits over the holiday. We immediately went back to square one. The following month when her lab results came back they were better than they had ever been.
"I was diagnosed with lupus, and I've been through chemotherapy. Short for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), lupus is a chronic my joints are aching, and my back is aching from the inflammation in my lungs," Dookie says. In other words, it's not cancer, but it can still feel overwhelming. Instead of. A collection of funny, quirky and inspirational quotes that chronic illness Cancer quotes from a mom who went through it Youre allowed to scream, . Many of us live with invisible disabilities such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, Rheumatoid arthritis, chronic back pain, Fibromyalgia and restless leg .. I hate running.
She is now off all medication. She has been for about 4 months. She will never eat anything other than low-fat vegan the rest of her life. She is afraid it will literally kill her. It is well worth the life change in diet to not take the drugs she had to take. She is now going to college, working and having a great time with no signs of lupus. She has also entered a beauty pageant. This is an incredible feat. One year ago she felt so fat and ugly from the drugs she hated having her picture taken.
7 People on What It's Really Like to Have Lupus - Health
I thank God for leading me to find the McDougall plan. It has saved my daughters life. She is now living in CA with her brother and enjoying her life near the beach. Millions of people suffer from autoimmune diseases and their future is hopeless because they are not told about the curative benefits of a low-fat, animal product-free, plant-based diet — and the medications prescribed by well-meaning doctors never cure the disease and have serious side-effects.
If you know someone with one of these diseases please tell them to give one month of their life to this cost-free, side effect-free, highly-effective potential cure.
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Unfortunately, once the tissues are destroyed they are usually lost forever. Further inflammation can be expected to stop and progression of the disease processes can be halted with a change in diet.
People with autoimmune diseases have everything to gain and nothing to lose from this approach — this is the same diet that cures heart disease, high blood pressure, adult-type diabetes, high-cholesterol, indigestion, constipation, arthritis, and obesity. Savings on medications are astronomical. The diet used is the McDougall diet based on common starchy plant-foods, with the addition of fresh or frozen fruits, and green and yellow vegetables.
Absolutely no animal products of any kind and no added vegetable oils. Fuong comes from a long line of women with autoimmune diseases. But it wasn't until days after her 21st birthday when an lupus attack on her brain and kidneys occurred; blood tests later revealed lupus.
7 People on What It's Really Like to Have Lupus
One of her tricks is adjusting the language she uses, both with herself and with her loved ones. She embraces the word "maybe. But now, by always saying maybe, I give myself an easy out when needed. And I set realistic expectations with friends. She also refuses to use words like "sick" or "tired. Her advice for others: Give yourself a break. I would advise avoiding stressful situations if you can and paying very close attention to your body.
Pushing yourself too hard can lead to much more serious side effects," she explained. If you only look for rash you're missing the boat on a lot of people. Undiagnosed and untreated, Spector went from running marathons to barely being able to walk down a hallway at work. He suffered joint pain, heart palpitations and what he called "brain fog.
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He was told the move to Florida had probably worn him down, caused stress. But he wasn't convinced. As a physician in training earlier in his life, Spector said, "I had worked hours a week in a very intense environment and had never experienced anything like that. I didn't smoke, was an avid exerciser. No family history of heart disease. There was no reason I had anything going on in my heart or brain.
A few months after moving to south Florida, he said the fatigue became profound, "to the point where I could barely walk 10 yards without having to stop. I went from running 10 miles a day to barely walking 20 yards. He began to suspect Lyme, but he was urged to manage stress, so he tried biofeedback, more time outdoors and mediation , but the symptoms persisted. A first Lyme blood test had come back negative for Lyme disease, but when Spector became convinced he had Lyme and read about the inaccuracy of some lab methods for detecting Lyme, he insisted on further testing.
Finally, Lyme was confirmed in He was given powerful antibiotics through an I. He moved to North Carolina in to work on cancer research at GlaxoSmithKline, but serious damage had already been done to his heart and eventually a heart transplant was required. Delayed diagnosis has taken a mental and physical toll on Nicole Greene's health, too. She missed out on some personal and family events, has had to take time off work for a myriad of medical appointments, and had to pay when insurance wouldn't cover some Lyme specialist appointments.
Now, 15 years from when she was bitten, her body is still getting back on track, she said. And changing my diet," Greene explained. I don't stay on any one drug for long periods of time.
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The impact that medication has on your body is tremendous. Because we're in women's health, we are the caregivers. I have a lot of caring," Greene said. Her advice for other patients is to ask questions again and again to get answers that satisfy, and "surround yourself with caregivers, whether it's your practitioner or loved ones. According to CDC experts, research has not shown that patients who go on prolonged courses of antibiotics do better in the long run than patients treated with a placebo.
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It can cause chronic arthritis, encephalopathy [chronic cognitive problems] and heart problems. But I don't want people to think that this is common. It's quite unusual," said Farber, the infectious disease specialist. Spector, now an associate professor of medicine and of pharmacology and cancer biology at Duke Cancer Institute, has been able to return to a more active lifestyle again. While his chronic health issues did not stop him from working on developing a new class of breast cancer drugs and a new medication for children with leukemia, he is happy to be back to other activities like running.
I've been running again. Last year I ran three half-marathons. My cardiologist said at my seven year [post-transplant] evaluation, 'I'm hoping you'll die of something other than heart disease,'" he said.