hi
Ride-on l had a great birthday. But l had a terrible sleep that night. I had 2 glasses of champagne. During the night l woke and my heart was pounding so hard, l thought it was going to jump out of my chest and l had hot feet again and hands. But then on Sat night l went out to dinner at friends, and l had 3 glasses of white wine, and l was fine that night. Go figure. I am not as anxious now as when all this started 2 weeks ago, so l am getting there. Probably also because l am seeing Neuro on Wed and l know its not to far now to actually see if l have PN or not.

Dr Smith, l do keep a diary and have so for quiet some time, since l had my dizziness episodes. You were saying 30% of patients the cause cannot be found. Wifes neuro told me the opposite she said that 70% of patience the cause of PN cannot be found. So now l am completely confused.

Also you were saying to treat the symptom, but if the cause can be found, you can then treat the cause of your PN?
I also don't blame the doctors entirely.


mrsD-l guess when you first find out you have PN, you need to rely on somebody,and that someone is the doctor. If l didn't have this appointment coming on Wed, l think l would break down. I need to think, that there is hope, and that he may be able to help me. Like you said there is always research being conducted to find out more about this, so we have to at least hope they find something, and then put our trust in them. Otherwise what is the point of going to them in the first place. My neuro, is the only one who can probably diagnose me, so l have to trust him. The thing l dislike about doctors is they are so quick to give meds. I am not one for meds and usually have to be in immense pain to take any kind of meds. I am not saying Natural is always the best either, as l have adverse reactions to natural vitamins and minerals as well. I think diet and lifestyle are the main things we should look at. Which l have done most of the time, but have let loose here and there, and probably pushed my body too hard at times. i have learnt so much from all of you, and l suppose l won't stop learning. Its not always easy to find time, with twin girls, but l need to do this for myself and my family. I have been a pain for them in the first few days of this, but now l am back to normal, l still have it in my mind all day and night, but l am more calm. This has definitely made me more aware of my drinking and eating habits. As l have suffered with a bit of an eating issue all my life and that will too much wine, the body can only take so much. My body is probably nutrient deficient, and wine would make it even worse. So now l am eating regularly and more food in general. i don't care if l gain some weight, l just want to be healthy again. I have been slim all my life, but l have had to go hungry most of the time. Most people comment on my figure and say l look great, but at what cost? I may have ruined my health, for vanity. Just not worth it. So now l am trying to eat breakfast and lunch and dinner each day, even if l not hungry, so l can try and get more different foods in my daily diet. I want to eat more beans, legumes, sweet potato and seeds, and more yogurt as l don't eat enough of these kinds of foods. I usually just stick to protein and veggies, in one meal per day. Done this for years and ran 3-4 times per week. Many times l was starving but didn't eat. My body is trying to tell me something, and this has been my wake up call. Not to mention the message l was sending my girls. I did eat more on weekends but still waited till 5pm to eat each day. Not normal is it? Scared to eat that was my problem.

I feel much better now, my symptoms have settled down. If they stay like this forever, l can live quiet happily. I can only think for today, and not worry too much about tomorrow, as long as l keep clean living and eat healthy and not drink too much and stress l think l will be fine.

Thanks again, you are fantastic, l love this forum so much. This has really helped me regain control.

Sue

I also said it depends on who you ask. It doesn't surprise me that there are considerable differences. Individual doctors could/may be referring to cases they have seen personally. Some statistics could be old, and with the aging of the baby-boomer generation, and a general increase in environmental diseases, it wouldn't surprise me if the percentage of idiopathic neuropathies is climbing too.

Yes, that's a given - if there is a treatment for the cause. I was referring mainly to the idiopathic cases, but even with some cases where a cause is known, they still do not have any treatment other than to treat the symptoms.

It's ok to get second/multiple opinions, and if a doctor isn't a good "fit" for your team, it's ok to find one that is. As I mentioned, I went through a few neurologists, and I still haven't found one I really have confidence in (for PN). If I feel I need one, I'll keep looking.

Concerning doctors being quick to give meds, that's what they're trained to do. Our western doctors are (in general) taught basically two modalities of treatment - medication and surgery. They don't have a lot of education/training in nutrition, supplements, alternative therapies, or holistic views. They have been trained to value the concrete and precise, and dismiss the intangible (difficult to define or describe, but nonetheless perceived/real). So if a problem can't be dealt with by either medication or surgery, they're apt to pass it on, ignore/dismiss it, give up, etc.

Doctors are also individuals like us, so not all are going to strictly conform to the above.

A very wise person once told me, "You don't find time to do it (whatever); you make time."

Diet/nutrition are important, but that doesn't mean you have to eat ginormous portions; small portions are usually enough to provide the nutrients we need. The restaurant/fast-food industry have conditioned us to "super-size" and consume portions large enough to feed some small nations.

Hang on to that, Sue.

Best wishes,

Doc

One meal a day? That would make it very difficult to maintain adequate blood sugar for your body. If you blood sugar is very low
for most of the day, (evidenced by your hunger), you could be starving your cells, and nerve cells would be included.

In between meals our livers release glucose from stored glycogen if there is any. If not, the liver creates glucose from amino acids. This is called gluconeogenesis. So the liver works hard when you only eat once a day.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluconeogenesis

There is a difference between champagne and other wines.
Champagne is fermented in the bottle and as such has things in it that wine does not.
The byproducts of fermentation remain in the champagne more so than wines. But all wines have some. They are called congeners.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congener
Congeners are often aldehydes and people who cannot metabolize alcohol well, react to these. The drug Antabuse and one antibiotic Flagyl, block the metabolism of aldehydes in food and drinks, and create a very sick condition. Flushing and vomiting and many other nasty symptoms. Antabuse was once given to alcoholics to encourage them to refuse alcohol. But some of them became so ill, they almost died. But it illustrates the point that alcohol for those who cannot metabolize it well, as I have posted earlier will cause many symptoms.

This explains the aldehyde reactions in more detail:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disulfiram

what got me started on this kind of lifestyle eating plan, is l read some studies being done on animals to show if we calorie restrict by 30% per day of our normal food intake we could have remarkable increases to our health and live a longer life.
It is called The Calorie Restriction Society. They are not sure if fasting is without risks or side effects, but numerous studies l have read, have shown that actually fasting can be quiet good for glucose/blood sugar. They also say, whether it be eating more often or once per day, as long as less calories are eaten that is the main key to longevity and health. When l first started this about 10 years ago, l ate twice per day, and then l challenged myself to eat once per day. At one point l did get quiet thin, but l healthy. In this past year, since have been unwell, l have actually up my calories and eat more often, as l have realised that maybe l wasn't getting all the nutrients my body needs.
Tried to copy the link here, and still learning. I worked before but now l can't get it to work again. If you Google, Calorie restriction Society, it will come up.
They have a great message board with all the latest scientific research. Much of it goes over my head, as its all medical/science talk.


Also, when l Googled intermitted fasting and glucose, there were many articles referring to fasting as a very positive marker for all kinds of things including blood glucose.
What do you think?


Sue

I think that you probably limit fats, in your calorie restriction.

Essential fats, provide insulation for the nerves and brain.
They make up our skin and mucus membranes.

I've been reading this author, and researcher today....
Here is what she says about "fats" in the diet:
http://people.csail.mit.edu/seneff/a..._fat_diet.html

BTW I added Omega-3's to my son's diet over a decade ago because he had severe ADHD... and this reversed it. He was able to attend college and get a good job, which we didn't think was possible at the time.

I attended a seminar last Thursday, on brain nutrition. The PhD dietician said that only about 2/3 of studies on rats or animals ever pan out to be effective in humans. So one has to be very careful extrapolating rat studies to people. She said we should never become so hungry we are "ravenous".... this skews all sorts of signals from the gut (hormones there) and brain.

Amazing article, mrs. D. Thank you. I refused to consider medication for my boys, the oldest (27) has Aspergers, the third one (17) seems to have ADHD and mild depression, and I have often wondered if I did the right thing. It seems so foolish to medicate children with these heavy hitting drugs when their moods are so changeable and their lives so stressful compared to when we were children. Clearly other factors are at work. Very interesting. I do look for full fat yogurt for him, but it is hard to find. Since he is the one with the genetic predisposition to diabetes I try to edge him toward fats and proteins and away from starchy and sugary carbs.

My son used Ritalin and a TCA imipramine the first year.
Ritalin alone for 3 more yrs, and Ritalin + clonidine for the last year.

He was never very happy or felt right on the Ritalin. He'd get headaches, tense neck muscles, short temper, etc. He had meltdowns when the Ritalin wore off. That was when I started looking around on our new computer...our first. It opened doors for me I never expected! Changed all of our lives in our family for the better! Removing transfats also was instrumental in his and our improvements. That was back in the late 90's.
Now we know what terrible things transfats do to people. But back then it was only in the research.

--and while I think it is an idea worth pursuing, I think, given the way our metabolic systems work, it would be better consuming small meals over the course of the day, not just one meal a day.

A lot of the calorie restriction material has come about simply because over the last hundred years or so overcalorization has become so prevalent in modern societies. Food got cheaper, and daily activity was much reduced for a large majority of people, so for the first time in recorded history obesity became widespread. (There were VERY few obese people, beyond occasional royalty, before the latter part of the 19th century. People simply had to work hard and there wasn't a lot of surplus food.)

It can be argued that our bodies did evolve in a "feast or famine" environment--long periods of scarcity punctuated by feasting after a big kill. I do remind people, though, that humans were foragers as well as hunters, and likely ate small amounts of food throughout the day as it was found. Big feasts were rare.

We'd probably all be better off if we ate a little bit less than what was available, unless participating in a strenuous job, or in ultramarathons (like my constantly hungry spouse).

I'm not sure we have to go back quite that far. More recent cultural/ethnic/genetic factors seem to have more influence on what we can (and probably should) eat.

Google: dieting ethnic background

Doc

What about doing a mixture of both. Some days l eat more often now and sometimes l give my body a break and fast till dinner time. It has always kept me shape.

Thanks for the tip, will go land google ethnic eating. I am from European culture so we will see what it brings up.

Sue