-----Original Message-----
From: Susan Trout <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wednesday, November 03, 1999 5:19 AM
Subject: Food chemicals in the brain? Play ball.
Hello Susan from Erika,
Thx for your very informative post.
>OK, I'll play.
>
>There seems to be some truth to what you wrote.
>
>I'll start with the comments on ADD and hyperactivity since I have ADD, PD
>and am Bi polar; and all three are dopamine related. My 22 year old
daughter
>is severe ADD with hyperactivity, and my 13 year old son is ADHD (same
>thing, different terms due to the year of diagnosis and term change.) ADD
>occurs both with or without hyperactivity. Hyperactivity also occurs
>independent of ADD. Hyperactivity can be physical, mental, or both.
Wow. And you're out there dealing with this. My hat off to you!
>Refined
>sugar and some food additives have been shown to cause hyperactivity in 50%
>of ALL children regardless of ADD, ADHD, hyperactive, or "normal".
The refined sugar is an interesting question, as the team at The Royal
Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney came to the conclusion from their tests,
that it was not the refined sugar on its own that caused a reaction. They
found that the substances that the sugar is combined with were the culprits
e.g. the other ingredients in cookies, sweets, drinks.
The tendency to substitute raw or brown sugar or honey or as sweeteners for
health reasons made things worse, as they are high in salicylates and dried
fruit is high in salicylates and amines.
Our own experience confirmed this.
>
>What I have found that seems to cause negative changes in the PD is gluten.
>I think there is a great need to read all drug (OTCs and Rxs) and food
>labels, from ice cream to reduced fat cheese; anything that is a prepared
>item that you do not create yourself. The MSG you mention is gluten
related.
>(More specifically it is the gliaden protein in the gluten in wheat, oats,
>barley, rye, and millet). Try eliminating these grains, and products made
>from these grains from the diet. Gluten can be found hiding in MSG, food
<snip>
Yes its surprising what is found in what, when you start reading the labels.
It was my own sensitivity to milk that started me on that track and to my
horror I found that there seemed to be hardly anything on the supermarket
shelves that did not contain milk or milk derivatives. The up-side :-) is
that shopping became quicker, I could skip whole isles.
>
>A year ago a friend, who is very well positioned in a (non US, non
Canadian)
>pharmaceutical company and has regular contact with researchers, doctors,
>scientists, and attends many symposia each year in Europe, Central, and
>North America, told me she heard that PD is thought to (somehow) be
related
>to mad cow disease; she thought is was said to be possibly through
ingestion
>of (infected/contaminated?) meat, people get PD. (She is a meat and dairy
>user, too.) I have read in either the Washington Times Weekly or the
>Spotlight weekly within the last year, that mad cow disease has already
been
>in the US for some time, just it is being hushed. But, don't believe
>everything you read, as the saying goes.
>
PD by means of mad cow? I thought PD has been around a lot longer than mad
cows
so a bit doubtful that one. Though meat itself does contain amines, beef
at the low end of the scale, pork, salami and other processed meats at the
high end.
>Another friend told me to try the Hallelujah diet. After the two months I
>was sticking with the diet, I saw the neurologist who said I looked like I
>did not have PD; incidentally, I felt better and had more energy. I
dropped
>off the Hallelujah diet because of the squabbling it caused in my family.
(I
>have also kept the gluten out of my diet for 2 years now). The Hallelujah
>diet is a drastic change from my husband's dictated standard diet. (We've
>fought over diet for 25+ years. Hubby acts horrrrrrible if he doesn't get
>his way where food is concerned.) At the next visit after I had been off
the
>diet my neuro said I needed more medication to free up my arm movement.
>Anywise, I don't know if it was the diet change or "all in my head" because
>I wanted it to work, but I'm going to go back on the diet anywise.
I sympathise with the family squabbles situation Susan. Just when everything
settles down and you are about to find out if this diet really works they
decide that they will eat what takes their fancy and the whole test is out
the window. And really who can blame them. We cherish our freedom and what
we eat is such a basic freedom.
In the end we can only keep ourselves on a diet, lest we become tyrants of
the family table.
I have not had a chance yet to check out what the Hallelujah diet is about
and am quite curious to see how/ or if it ties in with the Royal Prince
Alfred Hospital's findings.
I'm hoping to contact them by snail-mail to see if any thing has been
studied or found by this team on neurological disorders or in particular PD
in relation to natural foodchemicals in the time since the studies on
foodsensitivities and hyperactivity were done.
Good luck with the diet Susan and let us know how you are keeping.
Sorry being once again so long. Any comments very welcome, FBOFW (for better
or for worse) With kindest thoughts to you all, Erika.
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