Lower Weight Equals Lower Blood Pressure

BLOOD PRESSURE CHECK (Photo credit: Morning Calm News)I'm in the midst of my second round of hCG drops, or phase 2 of the hCG protocol. I'm down 22 lbs. and 15 total inches. All of this was a huge factor at my last six-week check-up at the Rothfeld Center for Integrative Medicine. Over the past year, my blood pressure had been creeping up over the borderline and into mild stage 1 hypertension, or high blood pressure. My blood pressure has always been on the low side, and I never thought I'd have to deal with this problem. But here I was, faced with the numbers on my home blood pressure monitor, showing me I had a consistent problem. I really did not want to go on medication and I was hoping that losing some weight would help. Luckily, when my doctor took my blood pressure, I was back into high normal ranges!

We also checked my BMI (Body Mass Index) which had gotten as high as 32 and is now 28, which means I'm just "overweight" and not "obese" according to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). At least it's headed in the right direction! I'd like to lose another 20 lbs. and then I'll be in the normal range. Another benefit - it's been fun to go shopping in my own closet. I'm getting back into clothes that I haven't been able to wear in a long time. I'll be going to a wedding this weekend and instead of buying a new dress, I just went to Joy's Closet - a boutique for gently used clothes :)


To see where you stand, check this blood pressure chart:
Systolic vs. Diastolic Blood Pressure Range Chart

HCG as an Elimination Diet

A variety of foods made from wheat. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)An elimination diet is when you eliminate common food allergens such as wheat, dairy, soy, corn, eggs, fish, shell fish and peanuts for several weeks. Then when you reintroduce those foods - one by one - you can tell if your body has an adverse reaction, such as bloating, fatigue, indigestion, etc. Since the hCG diet consists of only lean protein with limited fruits and vegetables, it acts as an elimination diet as well.

A few years ago, I developed an itchy scalp. I tried several different kinds of shampoos and scalp treatments with varying degrees of success. It didn't seem to be tied into the season like other areas of eczema, which get worse in the dry winter weather. However, it went away completely while I was on phase 2 of the hCG diet, but came back on phase 3. However, I wasn't sure if that was due to using an oil-free shampoo on phase 2 and then going back to my regular hair care. During phase 3, I was not supposed to eat any starch, but I cheated a little bit here and there. Then as Passover approached, I was assigned to bring matzoh kugel to the Seder. As I prepared the kugel, I cheated big time and ate an entire piece of matzoh, which is made from wheat flour and water. The next day, my scalp was on fire and none of my usual treatments had any effect on calming it down. I realized it had to be the wheat! My body was reacting to the wheat with an allergic response. I then made a concerted effort to avoid any type of wheat - which shows up in so many kinds of foods - and the itching started to go away until my scalp stopped itching altogether.

I've been avoiding gluten (found in wheat, barley and rye) and dairy since July as a recommendation from my doctor as an anti-inflammatory diet to treat the fibromyalgia. Now I know that wheat not only causes inflammation inside my body, it creates inflammation of the skin as well. I did find a gluten-free matzoh, which was a big hit at the Seder. One guest who had celiac couln't eat wheat at all, and she really liked the gluten-free matzoh. The kids liked it better than the regular kind. Guess I'll stick with the gluten-free matzoh for all my future Passover Seders!
"Holyland" brand matzah, machine-made in Jerusalem and purchased at Trader Joes in the United States (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Related articles

• Elimination Diet, Food Challenge Tools For Patients With Allergies - The Soy Connection - Health & Nutrition - United Soybean Board (soyconnection.com)
• Elimination Diets: Friend or Foe? (elephantjournal.com)
• Could Gluten Be Making You Sick and Tired? (mylifeurge.com)

Lumper or Splitter: Dr. Natelson to Lecture on CFS

For those in the New England area, Dr. Benjamin Natelson will be speaking about his "splitter" approach to research on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome on Sat. April 28 in a lecture co-sponsored by the Massachusetts CFIDS/ME and FM Association. If you're not close by, I will be covering the event for Mass CFIDS and will post my article on their website. I'll be sure to post a link to the article on my blog as well. Let me know if you'll be attending so we can meet face-to-face!

Here is the information from the Mass CFIDS e-newsletter:

  Massachusetts CFIDS/ME & FM Association

Education, Support and Advocacy since 1985

  EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE FOR PATIENTS AND HEALTHCARE PRACTITIONERS Saturday April 28, 2012

 Registration - 12:30 P.M. - 1:00 P.M

Conference - 1:00 P.M. - 3:30 P M.

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Keynote speaker: Benjamin H. Natelson, MD

Director, Pain & Fatigue Study Center, Beth Israel Medical Center, NY

Professor of Neurology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, NY

"CFS Diagnosis: Lumper or Splitter"

Dr. Natelson is a neurologist, with a long history of research expertise in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia. He is specifically looking at the brain as one of the causes of these illnesses and will challenge the practice of frequently "lumping" these patients into one illness category due to psychological factors. He will present over a decade of research proving that CFS and FM are likely separate and discrete illnesses. In contrast to the "lumpers," he takes the "splitters" approach to identify patient subgroups each with its own discrete cause. Based on studies of the brain, he is working to identify a subgroup of CFS patients with brain dysfunction as the cause of their illness.
Dr. Natelson has recently won a federally funded grant from NIH to move this work ahead. Come hear Dr. Natelson speak about these findings and future plans for collaborative research on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia. There will be an expanded Q & A session.

This lecture will NOT be videotaped.

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Lecture co-sponsored by the Massachusetts CFIDS/ME & FM Association and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health 

Register now at www.masscfids.org
Become a member! Members enter free! 
$10 donation for non-members requested 

Location: Massachusetts Department of Public Health
U. Mass. Hinton State Laboratory Institute Auditorium
305 South Street, Jamaica Plain/Boston, MA 02130 

Free parking/accessible by MBTA.
For directions visit www.mass.gov 
Please have a government issued picture ID for entrance to the building.

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Related articles

• News Burst [CFIDS] - Issue of Variability in CFS Research Highlighted (doylestown-fms-cfs.org)
• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) and Biopsychosocial Intervention Strategies (eitheory.com)
• Study Linking Chronic Fatigue Syndrome to Virus Now Retracted (livescience.com)
• Science retracts controversial Chronic Fatigue Syndrome study without the consent of its authors [Science Scandal] (io9.com)

 

Tips and Tricks for the HCG Diet

Image via WikipediaToday is my last day of homeopathic hCG drops. The 55ml bottle lasted 38 days. I'll do two days on the VLCD (very low calorie diet) without hCG and then start maintenance. I lost a total of 18.5 pounds in 38 days and went down two jeans sizes. I've gathered some interesting tips and tricks to make the diet easier and more successful. I'm not sure why some of them work (like why you lose more weight eating beef) but I'm passing them along anyway.

HCG DIET TIPS AND TRICKS:

• Have a mentor, support group or buddy who has done this diet before. It's much harder to get through, especially the first time, on your own.
• Don't eat garbage on the loading days. Stick to healthy fats.
• Not all hCG is created equal, so use good quality hCG drops. Mine were from Cell Harmonics.
• Tap the homeopathic hCG bottle on your palm ten times before taking the drops each time to get your essence/energy into the drops. Keep your drops away from cell phones, computers or anything electronic.
• Take your measurements before starting the diet so  you can track inches as well as pounds.
• Stay away from mint - even in your toothpaste.
• Make lemonade with water, a wedge of lemon and stevia to taste. Helps get down all that water - remember you must drink half your weight in ounces of water!
• Good Earth Original Blend herbal tea is a great treat when you're hungry.
• Dessert ideas:

• frozen organic strawberries, water and stevia in a blender - tastes like sorbet!
• sliced apple, a little water, cinnamon and stevia - cook in the microwave for 2-3 minutes - tastes like apple pie. You can also put cooked apple in the blender for some applesauce.
• Coconut Cocoa tea from The Republic of Tea - use some chocolate flavored stevia and it tastes like a sinful treat!
• broil half a grapefruit - use stevia to sweeten.
• Yummy recipes in The Promise of hCG by Dr. Sherrill Sellman and Frankie Boyer. The curried shrimp and the fish stew are both delicious! 
•  Support your system with a good B-complex, sub-lingual B-12, balanced minerals and adrenal support.
• Get a good food scale and body scale - weight yourself everyday and weigh your protein before eating.
• NO CHEATING! DON'T MISS A MEAL! DON'T MISS THE DROPS - 3x a day!
• Use only organic foods and grass-fed beef.
• The juice of one lemon or one lime is allowed per day.
• Avoid oil, even in your beauty care products, and no massages with oil. A great oil-free moisturizer is called Na-PCA with Aloe. Glycerine based soaps or Ivory soap do not have oil. Use only mineral based cosmetics.
• Vegetarians can use protein powder as a substitute for the meat. Also eggs (one whole egg plus three egg whites) is a good protein substitute. But omnivores will lose more weight, more quickly than vegetarians.
• Eating beef every day will increase weight loss!
• If really hungry: drink cup of vegetable broth; eat some veggies; take 5 extra drops hCG. 
• A piece of fruit for breakfast and for dessert helps to keep blood sugar levels even throughout the day.
• Late spring is the best time to lose weight and keep it off.
• Don't eat shrimp or oranges every day - too much shrimp or oranges can slow down weight loss.
• Grapefruit every day will increase weight loss
• For chocolate lovers - phase 3 only: Coco Polo dark chocolate bars sweetened with stevia
  
  

Related articles

• HCG Drops Diet Plan (answers.com)
• hCG Blog Responds to Popular hCG Weight Loss Myth (prweb.com)
• hCG diet blog ( hcgblog.com)