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Fibromyalgia Monthly Newsletter
Fibromyalgia Newsletter – February 2005
Brought to you by Jane Oelke, N.D., Ph.D.
DoctorOelke@aol.com
No More Nutrasweet or Aspartame!
It is always amazing to me when I find a food substance that when taken in excess can cause pain the body. And sometimes these foods, and food additives, are supposed to be safe. When I test clients and their supplements, or ask about their dietary habits, or chemicals in their work environments, we often discover chemicals or foods that are probably causing some of their chronic symptoms. When these chemicals are removed, much of their pain subsides.
When I talk to clients I often ask what make the pain worse or better, and if they crave certain foods in their diet. One of the foods I am always listening for are diet soft drinks with Nutrasweet. From personal experience, I have been relieved of constant headaches when I was convinced to stop drinking Diet Pepsi. I was a regular user and once I stopped drinking it, the nagging headaches that I had for a long time totally cleared up. So if you are drinking diet soft drinks, STOP NOW, and see what difference it makes. I have had quite a number of clients feel much better just a couple weeks after abstaining from soft drinks.
Soft drinks have surpassed water as the number one choice of beverage in the United States. Nutrasweet is not the only problem. If you have fibromyalgia you need good minerals, and the phosphoric acid in the dark soft drinks will rob your body of calcium. The sugar version is not better for you either, since sugar stresses your adrenals, especially when it comes in concentrated doses, like it does in any sugar-laden soft drink.
Also all soft drinks are very acidic, with an average reading of 2 to 3 pH. So if you want to have your urine and saliva pH levels stay in balance (in the 6.4 pH range) avoiding soft drinks is very important. Coffee is another acid drink, along with beer. Green tea is the only relatively popular alkalizing drink. Or you can add lemon or lime to your water (without sugar) for flavoring.
Other substances also can cause chronic pain. Fillers, preservatives, food additives and coloring agents in supplements can build up as toxins in the tissues. This often makes it harder to lose weight, and can create pain when these toxins are stored in your tissues disrupting your nervous system pain response. This is why it is important to use high quality nutritional supplements without a lot of fillers. Too many over the counter vitamins and minerals seem to have more fillers than nutrients on the label, and these are the ones to avoid.
Fibromyalgia Newsletter – April 2005
Brought to you by: Jane Oelke, N.D., Ph.D.
DoctorOelke@aol.com
More About Artificial Sugars
In February’s newsletter, we looked at the common pain symptoms of getting too much aspartame or Nutrasweet. I told you that I get headaches when I eat foods containing Nutrasweet, whether it comes in soft drinks, yogurt, or other processed foods. I have also have clients whose Fibromyalgia pain has decreased tremendously when they avoid any foods with aspartame in them.
Now the new fake sugar is called Splenda. Advertising for Splenda says that is made from sugar, so it tastes like sugar. But this is only partially true. Splenda is made by taking out 3 of the 6 molecules that make up sugar, and adding chlorine molecules.
Dr. Janet Hull, who writes an alternative health newsletter, says that eating Splenda is “like ingesting tiny amounts of chlorinated pesticides.” If you are avoiding chlorinated water because of chlorine toxicity, then you should be avoiding Splenda. You are getting chlorocarbons from Splenda that can cause immune system problems, such as thymus gland shrinkage, and other genetic and reproductive damage.
Splenda was by the FDA in 1988 as a sucralose sweetener that tastes just like sugar. But the sugar flavor is artificial, since Splenda is about 600 times sweeter than natural sugar, so the sugar flavor is forced out of the partial sugar molecule. And our body cannot use the sugar in Splenda as fuel for our brains. It does not turn into the glucose we need for energy production. You can learn more about Splenda at www.mercola.com.
Other Toxins in Our Environment
In my new book, “Natural Choices for Attention Deficit Disorder”, I talk about various food additives, especially food colorings. The first suggestion I make to parents of children with attention deficit disorder, especially with hyperactivity, is to take ALL food colorings out of the diet. Sometimes just by getting rid of excess food colorings the child’s behavior improves dramatically, and chronic headaches go away.
This can also help with adults, especially those that are hypersensitive to pain. Food colorings are used in more foods than you think. They are also found in shampoos, toothpaste, and vitamin tablets. Most processed foods have some food colorings. Sodium nitrate is a preservative that is added to hot dogs to maintain the red color of the meat. Otherwise it would turn green. Would you eat a green hot dog? All of these food additives cause liver stress, and lead to metabolic weakness.
Caltrate 600+D is a common recommendation for women who need a calcium supplement. It is a white tablet, but contains blue and yellow food colorings. Why? I don’t know. Also this supplement seems to have more preservatives than calcium, if you really read the label. It is NOT a good calcium supplement, since the calcium is not absorbable and it adds too many toxic elements that the liver has to detoxify.
Choose Good Calcium Supplements
If you need a good calcium supplement make sure it contains calcium citrate or phosphate, that is much more absorbable, and is also combined with other minerals including magnesium, zinc, silicon, and boron. Calcium and magnesium should be in a 2:1 ratio. For example, if you are taking 800 milligrams of calcium, you need 400 milligrams of magnesium to balance the calcium. And if you have fibromyalgia, I recommend at least 400 milligrams of magnesium daily to help the muscles relax better.
One of my favorite supplements that I take in conjunction with my Juice Plus+ Fruits and Vegetables is called Osteo B-Plus. It contains all of the minerals and all of the B-complex vitamins in combination in one easy to absorb supplement. It also contains the antioxidants needed to break down the minerals better, like vitamins C, D, and K. This supplement is explained at my Natural Choices website.
Of course, for fibromyalgia, I also look at adding additional magnesium. The reason extra magnesium is often required is that if there is an insulin imbalance your body uses up magnesium more quickly, and you may have greater tendency toward magnesium deficiency. The best one that also combines malic acid with magnesium is called Fibroplex and is available through my Metagenics website.
New Ordering Procedures and Health Appraisal Questionnaire
I have changed my ordering procedures for a few of the products I have talked about in these newsletters. If you have ordered Fibroplex, EPA-DHA Complex, Adreset, CandiBactin AR, or another of the specialty nutritional supplements I commonly recommend for fibromyalgia, and you cannot find it on my web site, you will now find it at http://www.drjane.meta-ehealth.com At this web site you register as a “patient,” then you can log on and browse the complete online store. These products are high quality, nutritional and herbal combinations that are researched to help in certain symptom conditions.
Also now available is a FREE online Health Appraisal Questionnaire. I will have to personally register you for this health assessment, and the results will be sent to me to be analyzed. Then I will forward to you by email, and regular mail, your results. You will get a graph containing the levels of imbalance in over 20 areas, and a list of recommended Metagenics supplements. You can browse through the list on-line and determine which ones fit your symptoms and/or I can give you some feedback.
If you are interested in doing the Health Appraisal Questionnaire, reply back to me with:
Your full name:
Your age:
Your weight (approximately):
Are you Male or Female, and if Female are you pregnant?
Are you sensitive to dairy (Yes or No)
I will create a login name and password for you when I register you, and then you will get an e-mail with your login information. When the test is complete, I send your results to you.
If you have any questions about this new ordering procedure or the Health Appraisal Questionnaire, contact me at DoctorOelke@aol.com
Jane Oelke, N.D., Ph.D.
Natural Choices, Inc.
"Building Your Health Naturally"
DoctorOelke@aol.com
www.NaturalChoicesForYou.com
www.NaturalChoicesForFibromyalgia.com
1-888-893-7225
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