Naturopathy is Not Hocus Pocus

Yesterday I mentioned a few things that had been prescribed to me by a naturopath.  A naturopath is a doctor specializing in areas like homeopathy, traditional Chinese medicine, and acupuncture, among other things.  I’ll admit, I avoided going to a naturopath for a long time because it sounded like a bunch of bull, and because I had no idea how to tell which ones were good and which ones were not.

I finally got fed up with traditional medicine after having a laporoscopy with laser oblation, being on Lupron for 3 months, and trying different pain meds (Celebrex, Topamax, and Neurontin) over the coarse of a year.  The only other things that traditional medicine can offer me are a hysterectomy or pregnancy.  Those are both legitimate, widely used treatments for endo, sad to say.  I was all for the hysterectomy, but in about 1/3rd of cases, the disease comes back, and then doctors don’t know what to do because the female reproductive organs are thought to be the origin.  I decided a 67% chance of success wasn’t enough to go into early menopause, so I began exploring other options.

There is one naturopath in my area, Dr. Christopher Hollis at Integrative Health.  I asked the girls at the health food store about him.  They said although they had never been to see him, a lot of their customers are part of his clientele, and they all love him.  I figured I’d give him a shot.  He’s covered by my insurance, I’ve tried about everything else, and it couldn’t hurt.  That was 2.5 weeks ago.

At the appointment, he asked me a lot about my health history and how I feel on a day to day basis.  He took my blood pressure and pulse in both wrists, palpated my abdomen, and looked at my tongue.  He said I have blood stagnation (many women with endometriosis do), hypoglycemia, adrenal problems, probably thyroid problems and food allergies, and possibly celiac disease.  He took some blood to test food allergies, and set me up to go to the hospital for the celiac test.  He said I should eat something every few hours to combat hypoglycemia, and it should include fat, protein, and carbohydrates.  He also said sugar is not good to have on an empty stomach (like alcohol, but for different reasons).

He prescribed me Ease Pearls for the morning, and Moon Pearls at night.  The ingredients lists on both of these are in Latin and Chinese, so I had to look them all up.  Here’s what they include.

Ease Pearls:

Bupleurum chinense (root)–chaihu–thorowax, hare’s ear

Ophiopogon japonicus–maimendong–mondo grass, monkey grass, snake’s beard, fountain plant

Paeonia lactiflora–baishao–Chinese peony

Wolfiporia cocos–fushen–tuckahoe, Indian bread, China root

Pinellia ternata–banxia–crowdipper

Glehnia littoralis–bei shashen–beach silvertop

Scutellaria baicalensis–huangqin–Asian skullcap, golden root

Ziziphus jujuba–dazao–jujube, red date

Angelica sinensis–danggui–female ginseng, Chinese Angelica

Atractylodes macrocephala–baizhu–largehead Atractylodes

Zingiber officinale–shengjiang–ginger

Perilla frutescens (leaf)–zisuye–beafsteak plant, wild basil, rattlesnake weed, purple Perilla

Magnolia officinalis–houpo–Houpu magnolia

Glycyrhizza glabra–gancao–licorice

Moon Pearls:

Aconitum carmichaelii (cured)–fuzi–azure monkshood, wolfbane, autumn monkshood

Paeonia lactiflora

Rubia cordifolia–qiancao–Indian madder, madderwort

Panax pseudoginseng–sanqi–Himalayan ginseng, mountain paint, three-seven root

Atractylodes macrocephala

Zingiber officinale

Equus asinus (gelatin)–ejiao–donkey gelatin

Artemisia argyi–aiye–Argyi wormwood

Angelic sinensis

Sparganium eurycarpum–sanleng–broadfruit bur-red, giant bur-reed

Curcuma zedoaria–ezhu–zedoary, white turmeric

Ligusticum sinense–chuanxiong–Chinese lovage

Glycyrhizza glabra (honey-fried)

I have not gotten a chance to look up what each of these herbs do specifially yet.  I do know that they make me feel better.  Most days my pain is negligible.  I do still have some rougher days, but overall, the herbs have definitely helped.

He also said I should turn the shower on cold at the end, and stand in it for 30 seconds.  The first time I did this I thought I was going to freeze right out of my skin–it hurt so bad I could barely breathe.  Now what I do is turn the cold all the way up, and turn the hot down as far as I can.  It’s still hard to do, but at least I can tolerate it.  This is called hydrotherapy.  The word itself kind of put me off, having watched “Creation” about Charles Darwin’s life, but if you think about it, we know that it works.  Who has not gotten into a hot tub or a warm bath at the end of a hard day, and felt their muscles relax from the heat?  It’s harder to think of cold water as therapeutic, but it is supposed to increase circulation, boost the immune system and rejuvenate the skin.

In addition to the capsules I take every day, I have a powder containing Magnesium, Calcium, Zinc, Phosphorus, and Vitamin D3.  It is orange-flavored (with real orange powder), and while I don’t really care for orange juice, I can at least get it down.  I mix it with a glass of water, shake it up well, and drink it twice a day.  At night, I add a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar to it.  I was adding 2 tablespoons of ground flax seed to it as well, as flax contains omega fatty acids, which are good for all kinds of things.  I think the flax seed was giving me orange, loose stool, because I have stopped taking it and things are going back to normal now.  Bummer, since it’s supposed to be so helpful.  I’ve never had a problem taking flax oil in pill form.

One other thing I have not gotten yet is cod liver oil.  I haven’t been able to find it in the store, and the doctor is on vacation until Monday.  I can’t say that I’m particularly looking forward to cod liver oil, but it does contain Omega-3 in different forms, as well as vitamins A & D.  Dr. Hollis said I could stop taking my multivitamin as long as I keep eating well.  Strange to me, because I always thought I needed one, but I’ve been feeling better so I’m not going to question it.

He mentioned doing acupuncture at a later time–I guess he wants to gradually start new things so that we know what works and what doesn’t.  I am actually very excited about trying acupuncture.  I’ve heard that it helps a lot–both with instant relief, and with helping to relieve pain over time.  At this point I don’t even care if it’s a placebo effect, so long as it works.

I guess I do believe in that mystical hippie stuff after all.

A Day In the Life

Now that I’ve introduced myself, I’d like to go over a typical day for me.  I think it’s important for people to see just how much of my daily life this disease affects.  I’ll get to the more serious parts at a later date.

I usually wake up after at least 10 hours, still very groggy.  I’m not sure if it is the disease taking so much out of me, or adrenal hypofunction right now, but it really sucks to sleep so much of my life away.  I take a shower, and at the end of my shower I have to turn it on cold for hydrotherapy, as per my naturopath.  I can’t stand it on all the way cold, so I just turn the cold up all the way, and turn the hot down as far as I can stand.  It still makes it hard to breathe, and I have to stand in it for 30 seconds.

I feed the cats, feed the dog, and make myself breakfast.  I cannot have wheat, refined sugar, caffeine, red meat, dairy or eggs, so breakfast is a real challenge.  Lately I have found a cereal made with corn called Barbara’s Cinnamon Puffins.  I don’t really like corn, or putting it in my system, but I don’t have many alternatives.  I use Rice Dream rice milk on it, since I can’t have cow’s milk.  The cereal is actually pretty tasty.  I have a container (4 oz.) of Activia yogurt.  This is the only dairy I am allowed, ever, as it has probiotics, so it is thought that the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.  I have a glass of water with my mineral powder mixed in (containing Magnesium, Calcium, Zinc, Phosphorus and D3), and take my morning pills.  The pills include one gelcap of alpha lipoic acid/acetyl l-carnitine, and 4 gelcaps of something called “Ease Pearls”, an herbal mixture to help with the pain, from my naturopath.

I come out to the living room and feed the bunnies, eat my breakfast while browsing on the computer, and check on the snakes.  I spend a lot of time on a forum for women with endo, contributing where I can, and just looking for clues as to how to manage this stupid disease.  At some point I’ll get dressed and take Alee out to pee.

Some days I have errands to run, some days I don’t.  On the days I have errands to run, I generally get hungry and have to break my diet because, quite honestly, there is nothing at a convenience store I am allowed to eat.  I try not to drink anything out of a plastic container, as I don’t know if the container has been in the sun or otherwise exposed to heat, causing dioxins to leach into the liquid.  I drink Nantucket Nectars (apple juice if I can find it, as it’s got no extra sugar), or Snapple.  For food I really have not got much of a choice.  I generally have a Kit Kat or Twix, because at least they are not made with high fructose corn syrup.

Almost every afternoon I am tired.  Some days I take a nap, some days I try to push through it.  On the days I take a nap, it is really hard to get back up even if I have slept for 2-3 hours.  After Sam gets home I start making dinner.  This is where it gets really interesting because of my dietary restrictions.  In addition to everything I listed above, I cannot have soy, alcohol, fried foods, or synthetic preservatives/colorings/flavorings.  I also have to eat organic whenever possible.  I have a recipe book made specifically for women with endo that I purchased online last December.  I am almost done with the book now (averaging 3 recipes per week).  Half of the stuff is not good, but I make everything once because if I only picked what I liked without trying it, I’d only try about 5 recipes.  I recently found out that I’m allergic to bananas, pineapples, asparagus, eggs, and oysters, so that makes my diet even more difficult.

My wonderful husband usually does the dishes for me if I have cooked that night, and we watch a movie.  I feed the cats, dog, and bunnies, and take the dog out to pee.  Right before bed, I have another glass of water with my mineral powder and 1 tsp. of apple cider vinegar.  I was also taking about 2 tbsp. of ground flax seed with it, but I think that was giving me diarrhea, so I’ve stopped taking it.  I take the rest of my pills–vitamin C, another alpha lipoic acid/acetyl l-carnitine gelcap, 4 “Moon Pearls” (which are similar to the Ease Pearls), a Pristiq tablet and a Lybrel tablet.  Lybrel is a form of birth control, and while I have an IUD, I have to take the BC to slow the growth of the endo lesions.

I have to brush my teeth with all-natural toothpaste because regular toothpaste contains horrible chemicals, and the same with all the soaps, shampoo, and cleaning products in the house.  I save money on cleaning products by using mostly vinegar, water, and hydrogen peroxide, but the special soaps I have to buy eat up all of the savings and then some.  I have to make my own mouth wash, floor cleaner, and glass cleaner.  When I do go to bed, it always takes me at least half an hour to fall asleep, usually longer.  After I do finally fall asleep, I get to get up the next day and do it all over again.

I make the best of it, and have made some drastic changes in my life over the past year.  On the plus side, I am eating healthier and have lost 46 lbs.  On the negative, my diet and other aspects of my life have gotten much more expensive.  It is impossible to find coupons for produce, and Shaw’s doesn’t carry much in the way of organic.  I love my local health food store, but they don’t do much in the way of sales.  The supplements I have to take, as prescribed by my naturopath, are not covered by insurance.  There are so many other topics in this post that I would like to cover more in-depth, but I’m afraid I’ll have to do that at another time.  Perhaps tomorrow.