Detox diet - Blogging our journey

[Chemar]

[KevinInMA]

Virtually NO tics. I saw one eye-roll today. Probably 8 or 9 coughs ALL DAY and most of those are STILL in the morning.

 

My thinking is that whatever he's allergic to causes him some post-nasal drop (forgive me if I've already said this) and the reason he coughs so much more in the morning is because he's got a good 8 or 10 hours to build up the gunk in his throat. I'm starting to notice that a simple nose-blowing now helps stop the coughs.

 

Still, there's that and then there are the other tics. Why are the other ones gone? Do we have more than one cause for these things?

Lots of questions, but I'm just happy that it's working. We can hammer out the details later.

[KevinInMA]

Okay, Thanksgiving was interesting. Started off the day as normal as he's been for the past week at least.

We wanted to experiment a bit so he had cranberry sauce at dinner with his turkey and then his cake (same one as the weekend). By evening he was rolling his eyes a bit. Today, more eye rolling. Nothing horrible by any stretch but more than we've seen.

 

I'm really leaning toward salicylate with this. No more experimenting for at least a week. Lets see how long this takes to go away.

 

He's also kinda tired today so that could possibly be part of the eye tic too. A few days of monitoring will tell.

[KevinInMA]

Over the span of the last 24 hours or so he's progressively gotten worse. Lots of coughing right now. It's usually worse in the morning but nothing like this. He's going to gym now so hopefully that'll "shake" it out of him. After the apples/applesauce, it took a few days to completely go away. Hopefully it'll be gone by Monday this time and then we'll REALLY know what's to blame.

[Rick43]

Over the span of the last 24 hours or so he's progressively gotten worse. Lots of coughing right now. It's usually worse in the morning but nothing like this. He's going to gym now so hopefully that'll "shake" it out of him. After the apples/applesauce, it took a few days to completely go away. Hopefully it'll be gone by Monday this time and then we'll REALLY know what's to blame.

 

Hey, Kevin, (and everyone else),

 

Above, you mentioned something that stood out for me. You said after the apples/applesauce it took a few days to completely go away. The reason this stands out for me, is I can not figure out how long to assume a 'bad food choice' takes to get through my system. I have been doing great up until 6 days ago. I've had pretty strong vocal tics within hours after having some organic red wine (first alcohol in months). Family was in town, so I wanted to enjoy some drinks with them. the next night, I decided red wine is definitely a problem, so i tried gluten free beer (not so bad actually). that was monday night. it's now saturday, and I'm still having bad vocal tics. I can't imagine it could still be in my system --- wouldn't 72 hours be enough???

 

Then I started thinking it must be something else. (Note: I ate nothing outside my normal diet for thanksgiving -- pretty boring, but ate nothing abnormal)

 

the only thing I can think of is that I've been eating alot of organic ground beef the last week. I found nothing on here to suggest organic ground beef is an issue, but wanted to ask about that, just in case.

 

 

so it really comes down to the alcohol from 5 days ago or the organic beef I'v had every day. Does anyone know if it's normal for a 'bad food' to give you issues 5 days later??? Seems like a long time, but if so, all i think I'm left with is the organic ground beef. I'm baffled right now.

 

either way, I'm back off the alcoholic drinks....

[KevinInMA]

Hey Rick,

If your issue is a salicylate sensitivity then wine is high in salicylate.

 

http://salicylatesensitivity.com/about/food-guide/alcohol/

 

Beer, not so much. But my guess is that the length of time depends on how long your system has been without the trigger and how much you consumed. My son had less than he'd normally have for cranberry sauce. He's been better since this mornings episode. Tonight will be important to observe.

 

May I ask what your vocal tic is? Is it a throat clearing?

If it is, what does it FEEL like to you that causes you to tic?

[Rick43]

Hey Rick,

If your issue is a salicylate sensitivity then wine is high in salicylate.

 

http://salicylatesensitivity.com/about/food-guide/alcohol/

 

Beer, not so much. But my guess is that the length of time depends on how long your system has been without the trigger and how much you consumed. My son had less than he'd normally have for cranberry sauce. He's been better since this mornings episode. Tonight will be important to observe.

 

May I ask what your vocal tic is? Is it a throat clearing?

If it is, what does it FEEL like to you that causes you to tic?

 

Kevin,

I definitely believe the wine was a problem -- beyond salicylates, I've also heard red wine is high in tyramine. I only tried it because it had been about 5 months, and i wanted to see if it was a problem or not. Cleary it is. I just find it baffling that I'm still having hte issue 6 days later. I had two glasses of it. i would have thought 72 hours max before it was out of my system - which is why I was wondering if it was the organic ground beef.

 

and I just realized that I had the 2 gluten free beers on Tues evening - which is still over 72 hrs ago. And, on our way to the store today, I realized that I did in fact have one candy bar on Wed. evening (80% dark chocolate, no dairy, limited sugar) - it's not exactly a great piece of chocolate, but i was a bit desperate for something chocolate.

 

 

as far as the vocal tic, it's not really throat clearing, but actually is almost a barking or scream however, it is important to "feel right" in the throat if that makes any sense. I'm not sure how to describe how it feels beyond just saying that I absolutely feel I must do it and if I don't (ie, surpress it), it will get worse. It's very difficult to surpress. I can't wait for it to go away, as it kicked in the night I had that red wine (Sunday).

 

however, if I'm concentrating, such as now while typing this email, all tics just go away temporarily. which for me, has always been the case. will come back the moment I finish this though.

 

Rick

 

PS It doesn't sound like you believe the organic ground beef is an issue. I am really hoping it is not.

[KevinInMA]

Well, I don't know a lot about this beyond what we're doing here. Beef isn't really supposed to be an allergen. I know personally wine affects me almost as much as other things affect my son. With us, though, it's mostly throat clearing. I wish I had more for you. Maybe Cheri has more information for you. She's pretty smart!

[Rick43]

Well, I don't know a lot about this beyond what we're doing here. Beef isn't really supposed to be an allergen. I know personally wine affects me almost as much as other things affect my son. With us, though, it's mostly throat clearing. I wish I had more for you. Maybe Cheri has more information for you. She's pretty smart!

 

My understanding is that throat clearing is a pretty common one - that was one of the first questions the neurologist asked me years ago when I went in to find a magic cure for this. i don't recall ever actually having a tic specifically about throat clearing (although my tic feels very similar that that to me), but I do recall many years ago that my brother constantly cleared his throat. He was probably around 15 if my memory serves me correct. it lasted a few years (I'd guess about 5-6 years), then seemed to disappear. I have not seen any other sign to suggest he has TS, as I do. He also went through a major hand-washing phase when he was around 11, which I know is classic ocd. that disappeared as well about 1-2 years later. I would love to understand why for him it just disappeared, but I'm sure I'll never know.

 

thanks again for your thoughts - i realize none of us have all the answers, but I just find this forum to be great. i am always talking to my naturopath about what people of this group discuss and find works or doesn't work for them.

 

Rick

[KevinInMA]

Well.... the best thing about this so far is that it SEEMS like it's becoming a little predictable. Obviously it'll take a lot more experimentation to determine but last night was better than the night before and this morning is WAY better than yesterday morning. Now... as long as NOTHING changes I can still start chalking this up to salicylate.

 

 

I want to give it some time before we experiment any more...

[Rick43]

Well.... the best thing about this so far is that it SEEMS like it's becoming a little predictable. Obviously it'll take a lot more experimentation to determine but last night was better than the night before and this morning is WAY better than yesterday morning. Now... as long as NOTHING changes I can still start chalking this up to salicylate.

 

 

I want to give it some time before we experiment any more...

 

Hey Kevin,

 

I was just wondering... after reading through that HUGE list of foods high in salicylates that you sent the link out for, have you found ANY foods that are listed as high or very high in salicylates that are NOT a problem for your son?

 

That may sound like an odd question, but after talking with many of you I am becoming quite convinced that the red wine and tomato issue I am seeing is because of the salicylates as well, however, I have been eating a ton of blueberries (smoothies) as I didn't know they were high in salicylates until now -- and I don't THINK they were an issue for me...

 

In going back through your blog the high salicylate food you have been typically calling out was apples, which is what made me wonder if there was another food high in salicylates that doesn't appear to be as much of an issue as the apples were for your son. Maybe it's a stretch, but made me wonder.....

 

(The other thing that surprised me about that salicylates web page are the list of symptoms people can have - that list was enormous)

 

Rick

[KevinInMA]

Umm... I think the reason I called out apples was because it was the one thing that he really really wanted the most. Plus, it's in EVERYTHING. I hadn't taken salicylate too seriously until the last couple weeks so I need to pay closer attention to that list. The one thing I do know that he has frequently that is relatively high on that list is popcorn. It doesn't seem to bother him...

Most everything else high on the list he's either already off of or doesn't like.

 

The thing that interests me is that dairy is very low on the list and I was pretty sure dairy was affecting him so at some point we'll try that out again and see.

[KevinInMA]

Definitely still not out of his system yet. Not AS bad as Saturday, but still not clear yet.

[KevinInMA]

Flu shot, Hep A vaccine, and chicken pox booster today.

[Chemar]

yikes!

 

not what I would do personally! especially while still in some form of waxing...................

 

if you have to vaccinate, far better to do them one at a time and give the immune system time to deal with the onslaught IMHO