Ulcerative Colitis Healing Journey Part 3 - 2021

Friday, May 7, 2021 - after 9 months of weekly, then bi-weekly appts at Holistic Healthcare, she still has the same symtoms... She went through adrenal support, heavy metal detoxing, parasite detoxing, emotional detoxing and chiropractic adjustments. So in April, I was given a name of an IBD coach by the name of Cassidy Gundersen. I filled out the information to get an appointment to meet with her. She explained a bit of her program. First she goes through phase 1 for 3 weeks: eating Potatoes (any variety), brown rice, tofu, and a few select vegetables like green beans, peas, carrots, celery, and squash (several varieties). She also takes a couple of Dr. Christopher supplements: Lower Bowel and Soothe digestion. There are other suggestions like getting sun exposure for vitamin D exposure, reduce stress, and reduce environmental toxins. She has been on phase 1 for two weeks. She says that the gut pains have greatly reduced. We are still hoping for and waiting for solid bowel movements. Tuesday June 2, 2021 - She has been on this plan for at least a month now. She was feeling really weak and tired. after almost 4 weeks, we had another meeting with Cassidy. Cassidy said that my daughter needed to eat more calories: more potatoes, more brown rice, and now she could include Avocadoes, dates, and bananas. She had to try avocadoes first for two days, then dates for two days and then bananas. None of them made anything worse and she felt a bit better and had a bit more energy. I took my daughter to try out a hyperbaric chamber. She tolerated it well enough, being put into a chamber for 60 minutes being fed 98% oxygen. We want to rent one, but there won't be one available for another month... We also heard about oxygenated water and my husband's brother has access to this device. So we are going to try to work out a system to get some of this water from him. We are also investigating fecal matter transplant. July 8, 2021 On July 1, we met with Cassidy agan. She asked my daughter, if you could compare your bowel movements to a food, how would you describe them. My daughter replied, "like soft serve ice cream.' Cassidy is like, "that is exactly how you DO want your bowel movements to be like!" So now she gets to start implement Phase 2 foods!!! She has enjoyed watermelon, black beans, lettuce, hummus with raw carrots, onions and garlic. She still eats the phase 1 foods that are potato or brown rice based, but with more foods added, adding them one per day. BUT, I recently did another AO scan on her and she had 3 types of parasites come up. She also started another parasite cleanse. I am also running the frequencies on the AO Scanner to kill parasites. Update on previous entry. We still haven't received word on the hyperbaric chamber. We didn't ever get over to my brother-in-law's house to get the oxygenated water. We have an ionizing water machine that puts extra oxygen and hydrogen molecules in water, so she is drinking that water, with a pH of 8.5. Also, sad thing, She was at work and she got stung by some sort of bee. She had a serious reaction. It is so painful. She can’t even walk on it. 1. I put arnica gel on it immediately. And then some nano-silver gel. 2. Then gave her some arnica, Apis, and calendula homeopathics. 3. Then I made up a paste of Redmond clay, activated charcoal, and baking soda and water. I put a large clump in some cheese cloth, placed it over the sting, and wrapped it up. And then she went to bed. 4. The next day, it’s not any worse, but still painful. I pulled out the essential oils. I put 2 drops of basil oil and 2 drops of lavender on it, covered it with a new clay pack, and wrapped it up again. 5. I’ve been keeping her hydrated and nourished with Empowerplus Hydro Stiks. Today she is walking on it and she was able to go back to work. No more bees please!

Healing Ulcerative Colitis in a teenager Journey Part 2

Blogger changed their format, so I can no long add to my previous post. Here I will continue from where I left off. Click here to read Part 1: Monday Sept 21, her appointment was a little different than usual. She used the "EVOX" machine. It's designed to read the energy that you are putting off from your thoughts. Basically, he asked her a bunch of questions about how her life has been emotionally over the past few years and the evox machine would read the emotional energy and then help her release the negative emotions. Monday Sept 28 she had another Homeopathic scan to get a new custom made homeopathic remedy designed just for her. He also gave her a good adjustment. Then we went through all the foods that she eats to rule out any that may bee hurting her. Sure enough, here they are: corn chips, beans, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, cherries, AND he also tested her for her own body cells like hair, fingernails, earwax, blood, urine, etc. She was actually weak / sensitive to her own blood. He did a laser treatment for this. Monday Oct 5, was a double appointment. He put her on the Laser but didn't tell what it was for. She said that she could actually feel it burning. He told her he had it set to anxiety. He adjusted her and then did some emotional releaseing for 3 or 4 different emotional anxieties she has been going through. He rechecked her for her blood, and she stayed strong. Coming up: Monday Oct 10 - another EVOX session Monday Oct 12 - retest blood. Spinal adjustment. addressed heavy metals and emotions. Monday Oct 19 - Spinal adjustment. Her back is looking a lot better. She has a slight S curve and he has been making adjustments to her back to help straighten it up. He also did more cold laser therapy with her addressing stresses un her life, friends, school, etc. Friday, May 7, 2021 - after 9 months of weekly, then bi-weekly appts at Holistic Healthcare, she still has the same symtoms... She went through adrenal support, heavy metal detoxing, parasite detoxing, emotional detoxing and chiropractic adjustments. So in April, I was given a name of an IBD coach by the name of Cassidy Gundersen. I filled out the information to get an appointment to meet with her. She explained a bit of her program. First she goes through phase 1 for 3 weeks: eating Potatoes (any variety), brown rice, tofu, and a few select vegetables like green beans, peas, carrots, celery, and squash (several varieties). She also takes a couple of Dr. Christopher supplements: Lower Bowel and Soothe digestion. There are other suggestions like getting sun exposure for vitamin D exposure, reduce stress, and reduce environmental toxins. She has been on phase 1 for two weeks. She says that the gut pains have greatly reduced. We are still hoping for and waiting for solid bowel movements.

Natural Yeast Waffles

Natural yeast waffles 

2 cage-free pasture-raised eggs
1 T MCT oil or olive oil
1 T honey
¼ tsp salt

1 heaping C sourdough starter

In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil, honey, and salt.

Fold in the starter.

Cook as usual in a waffle maker.

Empower Your Health

Protein Omega-3 Fudge Bombs recipe

Protein Omega-3 Fudge Bombs

½ C almonds, soaked, drained, and peeled
½ C walnuts, soaked, and drained
½ C black beans, drained
½ C butter, softened
¼ C MCT oil or just coconut oil
¼ C raw honey, may need up to ¼ C more according to taste
¼ C finely ground flaxseeds
¼ C organic cocoa powder
⅛ tsp Himalayan salt

Almonds: I soak 2 cups overnight (12 hours). Drain and rinse. Peel them by just squeezing off the skin. Freeze in a ziploc freezer bag.

Walnuts: I soak 1 cup overnight (12 hours). Drain and rinse. Freeze in a ziploc freezer bag.

Black beans: I start with 2 cups of dried black beans. Soak overnight, minimum 12 hours/max 24 hours. Drain and rinse.
Put in a pressure cooker with 2 quarts of water and 1 tsp sea salt. (You can put up to 2 tsp salt.)
Lock it and bring up to pressure and pressure cook on high (the 2 setting or 13 lbs) for 10 minutes. Turn it off and leave it alone to come down in pressure on its own for 15 minutes. Then release the rest of the pressure. Drain off the excess water, but leave a level amount of water to just coat the beans. Let cool and store in the refrigerator. If we don’t eat them up in 5 days, I freeze what’s left in a ziploc bag. 

Butter: I get a gallon of raw fresh milk with the cream on top from a pasture raised cow. I take off the cream, put it in a jar and let it sit for another day. I put a straw in the jar and drink off the milk on the bottom. I put the rest of the cream, about 1½ cups in a Kitchen aid mixer with ¼ tsp salt and mix it until it turns into butter. I drain off the buttermilk and use all of the butter, about ½ cup, for this or put it in a container and keep it in the freezer. It goes tasty fast.

MCT oil: This is known as the healthiest oil to use and consume. It is the medium chain triglycerides of coconut oil. Before I purchased this on Amazon, I just used coconut oil.

Raw honey: We used to get Local Raw Honey from Costco. We recently purchased some from a local distributor.

Ground Flaxseed: it is taught that you should only ground as many flaxseeds as you are going to use right then. I put 1/2 cup in our Vitamix blender to ground. I use half of this, so 1/4 Cup.  I think it’s ok to exclude this entirely if you don't like the texture.

Directions:
In the food processor, put in the almonds and walnuts. Process until it is as fine as they will go. Add the ground flaxseeds first and then add the rest of the wet ingredients one at a time. Process until thoroughly mixed through. You may need to stop it a few times and rearrange the mixture.

In a 8 x 8 dish, line with parchment paper (or plastic wrap). Pour out the mixture and smooth it evenly in the dish. Freeze for 2 hours min.

Remove from the freezer and take out the parchment paper from the dish. On a cutting board, cut the solid frozen 8x8 square of fudge into 1 inch squares and transfer into a freezer ziploc bag. Store in the freezer and sneak out a fudge cube when desired.

Recipe for my Mixed Sprouted Nuts and Seeds Granola (grain-free and soaked)

Mixed Sprouted Nuts and Seeds Granola, Grain-free and Soaked

1 C almonds

⅔ C walnuts

⅔ C pecans

½ C pumpkin seeds, raw & shelled

½ C sunflower seeds, raw & shelled

Put almonds in a glass bowl

Put walnuts and pecans in a glass bowl

Put seeds in a glass bowl

Soak nuts and seeds in filtered water with 1 T raw milk whey, for 8-12 hours to help break up the anti-nutrients / lectins. If you don’t have whey, then just filtered water is fine.

After soaking time, peel almonds. Remove ⅓ of this amount and reserve in a bag in the freezer until later. Chop the rest of them. Chop walnuts and pecans, medium.

Mix all nuts and seeds together and spread out on a cheesecloth on a dehydrator sheet. Dehydrate on a medium heat for 12 hours.

Remove nuts & seeds from cheesecloth and place into a mixing bowl.

Add:

⅔ C sugar-free coconut flakes

⅔ C sugar-free dehydrated banana slices, chopped

Mix all ingredients in a mixing bowl. Optional: take out about ¾ C of it and put it in a food processor to grind into a finer flour, but not into a butter paste. Pour back into the mixing bowl. 

In the mixing bowl of nuts & seeds, add: 

¼ tsp Himalayan salt and mix.

Take the reserved almonds and place in the food processor. Process fine into almond butter paste.

Place the oven wire rack on a higher placement closer to the top.

Preheat the oven to 325°F or Convection Bake 300°F.

In a small pot, put:

¼ C coconut oil or MCT oil if you have it 

¼ - ⅓ C honey, to taste

1 tsp vanilla

(Optional: ½ tsp cinnamon, to taste)

Heat until warmed / liquid-like. Mix together thoroughly.

Pour honey/oil mixture over nuts & seeds mixture and mix it all together.

On a half-sheet baking sheet, place a full length of parchment paper.

Pour mixture out onto the paper and spread it out evenly, breaking it up into chunks. 

Bake for 10 minutes. Pull out the baking sheet, stir the mixture, and return it to the oven.

Bake for 10 minutes. Pull out the baking sheet, stir the mixture, and return it to the oven.

If the mixture looks lightly golden brown, then turn off the oven but keep the mixture in the oven for another 10 minutes with the oven off. Otherwise, if it still looks pale, keep the oven on to bake for another 10 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven, remove paper from the baking sheet, and let the mixture completely cool. Store in an airtight container. We use a ½-gallon glass jar. 

(We now double this recipe)

Amy Heaton

empoweryourhealth.renovaworldwide.com

amyleeh7@gmail.com

Ulcerative Colitis Healing Journey of a teenager

Entry 06/30/2020

My teenage daughter has had one heck of a journey over the past year. In June of 2019 she started having loose stools, rather than normal bowel movements. By November of 2019, she finally came to me about this problem.

 I didn't know anything, so we took her to our family doctor. He visited with her and recommended some blood tests to start ruling out things. The tests for parasites came back negative. The CBC came back normal except that she had elevated white blood cells. This doctor was not taking patients at this time so we had to move on.

Then COVID-19 came about. We couldn't take her anywhere!

Then one day, we received an email from the Family Healthcare that they were starting teleconference calls. We finally got to visit with another doctor (PA), Seth Hurd and he ordered more blood work and stool samples. Again, nothing conclusive. He referred us to a GastroEnterologist.

We then had a visit with Dr. Kaddu. He recommended a colonoscopy and an endoscopy. That happened two weeks later. She was diagnosed with moderate - sever ulcerative colitis. Her stomach was also a bit inflamed.

The doctor recommended that she start taking Prilosec daily, Prednisone for 3-4 weeks, and a long term medication that I never got the name of. He also said that diet won't do anything for this.

I walked out of there totally turned off by this doctor. Don't tell me DIET won't help.

We met with him again, via teleconference. He said he wanted her on the prednisone for 6-8 weeks. I felt like he wasn't being consistent and that's too long and would cause her to be addicted to it.

I agreed that she could take the prednisone for a short time. She took 40 mg for 9 days, 20 mg for 4 days, and then 10 mg for 10 days. She said that she felt 70% better from this procedure.

I started taking her to some different functional medicine doctors in St. George, Utah as well.

I took her to Dr. Robert Gibson. He is a local chiropractor and nutritionist. We talked for about an hour. He said that her #1 issue is her nerves. She has got to be able to calm her nerves. He then adjusted her and put her on an anti-inflammatory diet. We also bought some supplements from him: CBD, Neo Cell multivitamin, and a powder of bone broth collagen. We met with him one more time for a follow adjustment and review the diet. She is still on it to this day.

Dr Gibson told me to make her some sauerkraut. I did. It's ok. She'll eat a little bit sometimes. We need to be more consistent with have her eating it daily. It has the best about of probiotics in it.

We then took her to Dr. Pinkston. He is an NAET chiropractor. He does allergy desensitization.
Here is a list of what was addressed:

03/26/2020  Glucagon, digestive enzymes, gastric juices, sugar mix
03/30/2020  Gut mix, digestive mix
04/02/2020  Bile, live meridian, gall bladder meridian
04/07/2020  Autoimmune mix
04/14/2020  Fear, betrayal, and anger
04/21/2020  Wheat, white flour, modified starches
04/28/2020  Shrimp, shell fish mix, iodine mix, fish mix, saliva, stomach acid
05/05/2020  Adrenaline, adrenals, cortisol
05/12/2020  Biotin
05/28/2020  Night shades: potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, onions, & garlic
06/02/2020  Neurotransmitters
06/09/2020  Parasympathetic nervous system
06/16/2020  Stomach, stomach acid, esophagus
07/07/2020 Fatty Acids mix

Despite all this, she still was still at only 70% better. I believe we did the right thing by addressing these allergies and autoimmune responses.

So next, we took her to Kurt Redmond. He is an acupuncture specialist. He has been practicing for a few decades. He went over her diet and lifestyle. Then he looked at her tongue and felt her pulses. Yes, pulses, plural. I didn't know that there are actually 21 pulses. He said her liver pulse is at a 9.5 because he doesn't give out 10's. He said its about the worse liver pulse he had felt. Then he gave her kidney pulse an 8. He then had her lie down. He felt her stomach. He said that he reads her through the channels in her stomach. The muscles/channels/nerves were all firm/tight and pulsing. He explained that he needed to get the abdominal area to relax. He spent about 40 minutes putting needles through her kidney meridian & liver meridian. She had needles in her from head to toe. We have been back 3 times now. The first time he was able to get her abdomen to relax about 50%, the next time 75%, the next time 80%. She has had weekly appointments with him.

Books I've read:
Medical Medium books by Anthony Williams
Plant Paradox by Steven Gundry
Goodbye Lupus by Brooke Goldner
Breaking the vicious cycle : intestinal health through diet by Elaine Gottschall

Next book I'm getting is:
Fiber Fueled: The Plant-Based Gut Health Program for Losing Weight, Restoring Your Health, and Optimizing Your Microbiome by Will Bulsiewicz, MD

Diet:
I want to make a list of foods that she can eat. Everyone is different in how their body tolerates food.

First she went Grain-free, dairy-free, and sugar-free.

• Sprouted nuts and seeds grain-free granola, I'll make a separate blog with this recipe.
• Pasture raised eggs, scrambled with sauteed mushrooms with cheese. We have chickens.
• She recently added back hard block cheese and she tolerates it well. 
• Homemade 24 hour yogurt with a little raw honey and vanilla
• Grass-fed beef (Costco)  She really likes hamburgers. No Bun. Wrap in lettuce leaves.
• chicken: cage-free, no horomones or antibiotics
• wild caught salmon, and other wild caught fish. We purchase these at Costco
• Steam veggies such as cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, cabbage, onions, etc
• Fruits: bananas, apples, apricots, etc.
• grass-fed butter: Costco carries KeriGold. We have a local source or raw milk with the cream.
• quinoa: soaked for 12 hours, sprouted, and pressure cooked
• black beans, pinto beans, kidney beans: soaked for 12 hours and pressure cooked
• Garden of Life Meal Replacement shakes: chocolate or vanilla chai
• Bone Broth soups: I use this link  (We found that she doesn't do well with potatoes.)

I've recently started experimenting with sourdough. We make sourdough waffles with fruit puree or berry puree. This week I made my first sourdough bread. She make a grilled cheese sandwich and thoroughly enjoyed it!

Homeopathy
A couple of weeks ago, I attended a homeopathy class. This has opened my eyes to a whole new world. I purchase a book called: Homeopathic Remedies Amazon link. I also had a personal consult with the instructor by the names of Neil Schultz. This is Neil. He had me purchase several supplements from Nature's sunshine and he also sent me 6 homeopathic remedies that I purchased from him.

Nature's Sunshine supplements: Link
Aloe Vera juice
Liquid Chlorophyll
Slippery Elm capsules
Food Enzymes
Eleven Elevated (probiotic)
Turmeric / Curcumin
Relief Formula
Intestinal Soothe & Build

If you decide to place an order with Nature's Sunshine and you need a referral number, Here is my referral number: 70043343

Homeopathic Remedies that I purchased From Neil Schultz:

In the morning, I give her 2 drops each:
Vagus Nerve Sarcode
Assimilation
Carbo Veg

In the evening, I give her 2 drops each:
Elimination
Lymph Drain
Calm and Settle

I also purchased some CBD oil from him that she takes every night.

This whole time I have been giving her some specific supplements:

EMP Lightning Stiks Methylated, micronutrient multivitamin with sublingual absorption (Link)
EMP Prosper, a spores probiotic (Link)
Biozyme, a prebiotic (Link)
Liposomal Vitamin C (Amazon link)
Carlson's Cod Liver Oil (Amazon link)

I added: Total Restore by Dr. Steven Gundry

I just ordered: Cellular Tea to detox the body at a cellular level (Link)

THE GOAL: 

• Calm the nervous system
• Cleanse the toxins from the body
• Heal the intestinal tract
• Restore the gut microbiome
• Normal healthy bowel movements

She is still at 70% healed. We are determined to continue the healing process. If I think of anything more to add to this, I will. As time goes on and we take more steps and see more functional medicine practitioners, I will add them below this point.

I hope this helps someone!

Amy Heaton

No Joke.... These are all the supplements I have purchased for her.....

She really likes the effect of the GI Fortify by Pure Encapsulation. We picked that up at my chiropractor's office, Dr. Joshua Carr at Coral Canyon. (Link) It's also on Amazon.

New Entry: July 11, 2020

I took her back to Dr Pinkston (NAET chiropractor) to return the vial. He had her put her fingers on his computer to see if she was allergic to her own energy. Fortunately, she wasn't. So then I asked him if he had a vial for short-chain fatty acids. He then tested her with his vial for Fatty Acids Mix. Sure enough, she was weak. Then he did his treatment and she was strong. She then wore that vial for the next 24 hours.

Then we went back to the acupuncture specialist, Kurt. As he was sticking the needles in her, I updated him what happened at Dr. Pinkston's. He proceeded to put the needles in her all over, covering the kidney, liver, and stomach meridians. He was able to get her abdomen to relax down to 90%. This was a good improvement for her!

A new book and supplements:

Last week I listened to a book called: Fiber Fueled by Will Bulsiewicz (Link).
I learned that there are short-chained fatty acids called Butyrate, acetate, and propionate that are necessary to help heal the gut lining to restore the gut microbiome. I found a study that showed a chinese medicine combination called, "SI JUN ZI TANG WAN" helped this process. I found it on Amazon and ordered. I just started giving it to her a couple of days ago. (Link)

I also give her a couple of other Chinese medicine supplements called Calm and GI Force from Evergreen that I purchased from the acupuncture's office.

I also found another homeopathic remedy that I just ordered and want her to try.
Podophyllum peltatum 200ck. I actually purchased this remedy before but in a 6c. It didn't do anything for her. Then I learned that a 6c isn't really that potent. Then 200ck is much more potent!

Ohhhh, I did some reading about soursop. I found some Graviola Extract on Amazon.(Graviola Extract search). It sounds like an incredible supplement. I purchased some. I tried it. It was fine. I made a tea out of two capsules. I steeped it for about 4-5 minutes, sweetened it with a little honey, and drank it. It was fine. I'm sure it takes more than one dose to create a miracle. I plan to introduce it to my daughter soon. It does say on that bottle for adults use only. I bet it's more of a legal statement that an absolute.

I visited with her last night. Her heart's desire is to be a normal teenager. I bet! She also said that "things" have seemed to be a little bit better this week. I'll take that!

Our Next Step:

Our next step is to do some energy work with her through Healing Through Intuition. (Link)
I've done some energy work with Christine in the past and I really feel like she can help my daughter too. A friend said to me that taking in all these supplements is good, but she needs to release out those past negative emotions that are already in her.

New Entry: 07/29/2020

The podophyllum proved to be not a good idea. It actually magnified the problem, so she stopped taking it.

I took her to see another naturopath Karen Urbanek in Cedar City (Link). Karen did an scan on her called an AO Digital Scan (link). It was VERY FACINATING! We found out so much about what is going on in her body.

These are some of the things we found:

Imbalance in Endocrine glands: Adrenal cortex, Hypothalamus, Pituitary, Uterus

Imbalance in hormones: low in Estrogen and Gonadotropin

Imbalance in Brain Nerve: Cranial nerve 3, Oculomotor and Cranial nerve 10, vagus

Imbalance in Amino acids: Link where I get Amino Acids

Candida albicans

Allergy, sensitive: Corn, Milk, Pork, Poppy seeds

Bacterial disease: Neisseria meningitidis

Minerals / Heavy metals: Antimony, Cadmium, Phosphorus, Platinum

Molds: Trichoderma

Parasites: Babesiosis, Balamuthia, Cercarial dermatitis, Dirofilariasis, Fascioliasis, Giardiasis, Heterophyiasis, Hymenolepiasis, Loiasis, Trichinellosis

She also gave us several nutritional suggestions:

Slippery Elm, marshmallow root, & licorice root together to heal the intestines
Barlean's Fresh Organic Flax Oil, not the seeds or any seeds of any kind
Pure Essence Candex - Natural Candida Cleanse to kill of the candida
Red Fermented Korean Ginseng to help heal colitis
Dysbiocide: Supports Normal Gut Health, Healing of Damaged intestinal Tissue.
Reishi Mushroom Powder
Atrantil: Bloating, Abdominal Discomfort
Pure Encapsulations - DGL Plus: Herbal Support for The Gastrointestinal Tract
Black Walnut and Wormwood: to kill parasites
Pure Encapsulations - GI Fortify: healing and supporting the intestines

We just received all these things from Amazon so we are just starting on them. She still has watery stools and goes 3 times a day. Fortunately, she says there's no pain or blood anymore. Although, she is still gassy with abdominal pressure.

Last week she asked for a Priesthood Blessing from her father. It was a beautiful blessing. I think it gave her hope.

Also, a couple of Sunday's ago, we actually had church. I was out of town at a business meeting. Her brother's forgot to take some sourdough bread for her so she took the sacrament with regular store bought bread. It was not a good day for her. Just that little bit had a negative effect on her. Next time we will be better prepared for her.

I've started reading/listening to a new book: The Wahls Protocol by Terry Wahls.

We continue to pray for my daughter to heal!

Next: We have an appointment at Holistic Health Care in St George Utah. We are looking into Rife treatments. We also are looking into hyperbaric chamber treatments.

NEW ENTRY August 3, 2020

We had a FREE consultation with Dr Marc Lyman at Holistic Health Care. Wow! Just in the initial consultation he went over the AO Scan results and decided that we should start with the Heavy Metal detox. But...

We met with Dr. Lyman today for her fist appointment. He did his own personal scan on my daughter using muscle testing. At first he couldn't test her. So then he put a "magnet" on her. Then she was testable. He said she is getting too much EMF absorption from electronics (her phone & laptop). He said she always needs to wear a magnet whenever she has her phone on her or working on the laptop. He also concluded that her Adrenals are totally exhausted. He is going to have her start taking an adrenal support supplement. So her first priority is to get her adrenals supported along with soothing the stomach.

Then he did a homeopathic Computer scan on her with a QEST 4 machine. Info link. It read her frequencies and then CREATED a homeopathic remedy just for her! How cool is that?! She starts with 6 drops twice a day and work up to 13 drops twice a day.

I created a supplement schedule for her:

Morning:
Lemon water / Celery Juice
Amino Acids
EMP Lightning stik Methylated
Probiotics: Elevated eleven (Nature's sunshine)
Graviola Tea
Homeopathic drops 6-13

Before breakfast: apple cider vinegar 2 tsp

After Breakfast:
GI Fortify 4
Slippery Elm, licorice root, mm root: 4
Intestinal support and build (2)
Vit C 1
Flaxseed oil 1 T

Before lunch: 
L-Glutamine
Braggs apple cider vinegar 2 tsp

After Lunch:
Flaxseed oil 1 T (if she didn't get it earlier)
DGL Plus 2
2 T aloe vera juice + 1 T chlorophyll
EMP Red Raspberry Hydro stik 1

Snack: Green apples for gallbladder cleansing

Before dinner: 
L-Glutamine
Braggs apple cider vinegar 2 tsp

After Dinner:
Sauerkraut 1 T cabbage & 1 tsp juice
Food enzymes 2
Adrenal Support 2
EMP Prosper 1
2 T aloe vera juice

Before bed:
Calm Chinese herb
Si Jun Zi Chinese herb
Homeopathic drops 6-13
Homeopathics: vagus nerve,

As needed:
Atrantil for bloating
Fermented Red Ginseng for flares
Rebounding: bounce while tapping thymus area for lymphatic drainage
Gargle to stimulate the vagus nerve
Chlorine Dioxide
Yoga / walking
Meditation
Prayer

New Entry 08/11/2020

I took her to Dr. Lyman again. He did his usual run through the whole body muscle testing for weakness, which is really impressive. He says her adrenals are stronger than last week. The adrenal support supplement has been doing it job.
He did a spinal adjustment. She has some slight scoliosis.
He then did some cold laser therapy on her to start detoxing out the heavy metals.
Then she did a detox foot bath. While she did that, I met with one of his assistants to set up a treatment plan and a financial plan. We set up a 6 month treatment plan with assessments, adjustments, cold laser therapy with the FX 635 machine, EVOX emotional release treatments, and monthly homeopathic QEST 4 machine assessments. We decided to buy our own Detox foot bath. That way we can all use it and then she can do it twice a week without driving the 30 minutes to get there.

She is 5' 8" When she had her colonoscopy the first of May (2020) her lowest weight was 99.6 lbs. Today she weighs in at 110.8 That is something to celebrate!

New Entry 08/18/2020

She had another visit with Dr. Lyman. He says her adrenals even stronger this week than last week. He did muscle testing to find out that she specifically needs to work on clearing Arsenic and Tin from her gut and brain. He did some cold laser therapy and said to do another detox foot bath. He also said that she should take 3000mg of an omega-3 oil, specifically cod liver oil to help detox the heavy metals. She also taking an adrenal supplement called: Adrenal 100 Cortex 75 by Professional Botanicals, 3 a day.

We purchased an Ionic Detox Foot bath from a local dealer in St. George (Link). A few of us have had a chance to use it. My daughter's water comes out really gross!

She still isn't completely better, but it's manageable. We still have out sites set on 100% better!

New Entry 09/03/2020

We've had another couple of visits with Dr Lyman.

Last week she had a really good adjustment. Her spine had a lot of subluxations. He did another cold laser therapy on her. Following that, she did another session with the homeopathic computer scan and it created another bottle of customized homeopathic remedy just for her issues. Then she did the detox foot bath when she got home.

This week was 2 appointments:

1. She finally got to experience the GX 635 laser therapy. The lasers rotated on her abdomen for about 20 minutes. It is said that this laser therapy helps the cells to heal. She has a couple more appointments set up to do this about every two weeks apart.

2. He had us bring in ALL the supplements that she takes or may possibly take or that we have purchased in the past that she has taken. We had two boxes of supplements, see picture above, with us, at least 30. He tested her with each item: Is this good for her? Is this necessary for her to heal? He eliminated about 10 item that weren't good for her. Then he took the rest to find out what was the #1 top priority for her, up to #6 top priority. He eliminated the rest of it for now.

#1: Omega 3 oil

#2: Heavy Metal detox supplement  Link

#3: Adrenal Support supplement Link

#4: Intestinal Soothe and build Link re: 70043343

#5: EMP Hydro Stiks Link

#6: Custom made homeopathic remedy as stated above from the QEST4 computer program.

I feel like this appointment was worth it's weight in gold, to finally find out what she actually really needs to heal!


Amy Heaton
amyleeh7@gmail.com
empoweryourhealth.renovaworldwide.com

EMP LIGHTNING with THUNDER STIKS: Empowerplus Lightning formula with natural sources caffeine for energy - GRAPE flavor!

EMP LIGHTNING THUNDER STIKS

What's inside EMP Lightning Thunder Stiks? 

EMP Lightning Thunder Stiks are the same great formula as EMP Lightning - containing 36 essential vitamins, minerals, and amino acids - combined with a powerful and healthy energy drink. Mix 1 Stik with 16 oz of cold water for a refreshing drink that fuels your brain and provides you with a long sustained energy to get you through the day!

EMP Lightning

EMP Lightning is a unique and safe combination of 36 nutrients designed to provide nutritional support for the body and brain. Its unrivaled bioavailability and proprietary manufacturing process help it work lightning-fast so you can start to feel better, sooner. With over 34 independent medical studies across 15 universities by 56 researchers and over $30 million independently invested, this is the most studied micronutrient formula ever. This research and the personal stories of those whose lives have been changed are what make this the most IMPORTANT nutritional supplement in the world!

All Natural "THUNDER" Blend

 Yerba Mate Extract 

Guarana Extract 

Caffeine extracted from Green Tea Extract 

NO SYNTHETIC CAFFEINE 

Guarana Extract 

Guarana is a Brazilian plant native to the Amazon forest. Native Amazonian tribes have used this super fruit for centuries for its powerful therapeutic properties. We use it in our Thunder Stiks for the same reasons. Guarana is very rich in natural caffeine. This has shown that it can help reduce fatigue and improve mental focus. Guarana is also rich in antioxidants, which help neutralize potentially harmful free-radicals in the body. Additionally, Guarana has the potential to boost metabolism which may help promote weight loss. There are countless other benefits to this amazing fruit!

Yerba Mate Extract

Yerba Mate is an herbal tea made from the dried leaves of the Ilex Paraguariensis plant, also native to South America. It is typically steeped in hot water and turned into tea, but it's powerful benefits can also be extracted for use in products such as this. Like Guarana, Yerba Mate is also rich in powerful antioxidants and nutrients. Some of these nutrients have powerful anti- inflammatory and cholesterollowering properties. Yerba Mate may also help protect against infections from bacteria, fungi, and parasites. Additionally, it may help boost your immune system and lower your blood sugar. The list goes on!

Green Tea Extract (Read through this)

Green Tea is a popular tea leaf that has been used for its health benefits for thousands of years. Our Green Tea Extract is refined until it is 99% pure caffeine, without any residual trace of the original element. This healthy caffeine helps provide your body with a source of energy that lasts all day, without the jitters and crash that often accompany popular energy drinks today.

Information taken from this link: EMP Lightning withThunder Stiks

To place an order, please go to my website:  https://empoweryourhealth.renovaworldwide.com/

If you have any questions, email me at: amyleeh7@gmail.com

Thank you!

Amy Heaton, Renova Worldwide Distributor #425

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease.

EMP Lightning Stiks Methylated for those with MTHFR

EMP Lightning DTM Stiks Methylated

The most important nutritional supplement in the world

What makes EMP Lightning Different?

EMP Lightning is a unique and safe combination of 36 nutrients designed to provide nutritional support for the body and brain. Its unrivaled bioavailability and proprietary manufacturing process help it work lightning-fast so you can start to feel better, sooner. With over 34 independent medical studies across 15 universities by 56 researchers and over $30 million independently invested, this is the most studied micronutrient formula ever. This research and the personal stories of those whose lives have been changed are what make this the most IMPORTANT nutritional supplement in the world. 

Is Methylated Right for You?

We created this methylated formula for those whose bodies cannot methylate certain B vitamins as most can. Individuals that possess the MTHFR gene expression will benefit most from this product. 

If you are unsure if this methylated formula is right for you, please consult a physician prior to use.

DO NOT MIX WITH WATER

Our amazing DTM (Direct-to-Mouth) technology means that all of you have to do is put the powder directly onto your tongue and let it dissolve. It really is that easy and it tastes great!

Suggested use: Actual dosage may vary, but we recommend starting with 1 Stik by mouth, once per day.

Please order at my website: https://empoweryourhealth.renovaworldwide.com/

Amy Heaton, Renova Worldwide Distributor #425

Note: Consult a physician family with EMPowerplus prior to use if you are taking psychotrophic medication. Pregnant and lactating women and people with serious medical conditions should consult with a physician prior to use.

Disclaimer: These Statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. 

EMP Lightning HYDRO Stiks: A Nutritional supplement in a refreshing drink

EMP Lightning Hydro Stiks

Natural Raspberry flavor

What makes EMP Lightning Different?

EMP Lightning is a unique and safe combination of 36 nutrients designed to provide nutritional support for the body and brain. Its unrivaled bioavailability and proprietary manufacturing process help it work lightning-fast so you can start to feel better, sooner. With over 34 independent medical studies across 15 universities by 56 researchers and over $30 million independently invested, this is the most studied micronutrient formula ever. This research and the personal stories of those whose lives have been changed are what make this the most IMPORTANT nutritional supplement in the world. 

HYDRO STIK vs DTM STIK

EMP Lighning Hydrostiks are the exact same thing as our popular DTM Stiks, only in a drink form. So sit back and enjoy the most important nutritional drink in the world!

MIX THIS WITH WATER

EMP Lightning Hydrostiks are designed to be a refreshing drink you can take whenever you want a boost of nutrients. It is recommended that you mix 1 Stik with 16 oz of ice cold water. Shake thoroughly.

Please order at my website: https://empoweryourhealth.renovaworldwide.com/

Amy Heaton, Renova Worldwide Distributor #425

Note: Consult a physician family with EMPowerplus prior to use if you are taking psychotrophic medication. Pregnant and lactating women and people with serious medical conditions should consult with a physician prior to use.

Disclaimer: These Statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. 

EMP Prosper: Empowerplus micronutrient multivitamin + 4 billion probiotic spores

EMP PROSPER 

Direct-To-Mouth STIKS + EMP Lightning

Cucumber-Lime flavored (Yum!)

What's inside EMP Prosper with EMP Lightning?

EMP Prosper is made up of a unique blend of prebiotics, probiotics, and digestive enzymes. Each of these 3 components plays a critical role in improving the biological environment inside the digestive system of the body. Our DTM delivery method with sublingual absorption makes it easy for anyone to take.

Prebiotic Blend
(Inulin from Chicory, FiberSMART Soluble Corn Fiber)

18-Strain Digestive Enzyme Blend

4 Billion CFU Probiotic Blend
(Bacillus Subtillis HU58, Bacillus Coagulans)

Prebiotic 
Prebiotics are a type of fiber that serve as food for probiotic colonies. Prebiotics typically cannot be digested by the human body, ensuring that they get delivered to the digestive tract where the probiotics live. Naturally occurring prebiotics are found in fiber-rich fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, such as onions, leeks, asparagus, bananas, apples, barley, oats, and cocoa beans.

Probiotic
The body is a finely balanced ecosystem of both good and bad bacteria. Probiotics are often called "good" or "beneficial" bacteria that naturally exist in the body to aid the digestive system. This good bacteria is required for the body to be able to digest and process food and nutrients. Since almost all of the nutrients our bodies need are absorbed in the gut, it is critical to create a healthy biological environment to maximize this nutrient absorption.

Probiotics have been shown to help improve: irritable bowel syndrome, diarrhea, some allergies and skin conditions, and oral health.

Digestive Enzymes
Digestive enzymes are a group of enzymes that are vital to the stomach's ability to break down food. The body naturally produces these enzymes, though some don't produce enough. Naturally occurring digestive enzymes are also found in these popular foods: pineapple, mango, honey, ginger, bananas, avocado. Fermented foods, such as sauerkraut and kimchi, also contain these enzymes.

Lab-Tested Results
The main strain of probiotic found in EMP Prosper (Bacillus
Subtilis HU58TM) is best germinated when taken with food.
It was lab tested and here are the results. The strain:

• Naturally survives the stomach and immediately germinates in the upper gastrointestinal (GI) tract.

• Is well suited for life in the GI tract and colonizes effectively.

• Showed increased saccharolytic fermentation over proteolytic which favors lowered pH (beneficial pH change for the GI tract) and does not produce gas (which can be an issue for many probiotic supplements).

• Produces significant amounts of short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) from carbohydrate digestion. There are a number of significant GI benefits from SCFA production and the quantifiable production by these strains shows great therapeutic value.

• Showed the ability to alter the entire microbiota, which is unique for a probiotic. This has profound implications on the types of claims that can be made as far as the probiotic benefits of these strains.

Why only 4 billion CFU?

Our probiotic is unlike most others in that EMP Prosper is delivered in the spore form. The majority of other probiotics are already alive and active when they're taken. This leaves them vulnerable to the harsh conditions of the stomach, and most don't survive. Since our probiotic spores aren't yet "sprouted," they're protected and arrive safely at their destination in the GI tract. While some probiotic supplements have tens of billions of colonies, only around 2-3% survive. EMP Prosper has 4 billion CFU, but nearly 100% survive and make it to their destination. That's billions more!

The more you get, the better they work.

Information taken from the product information sheet on Renova Worldwide's website.   https://worldvu.renovaworldwide.com/clients/pandora/companycontent/policies/documents/emp_prosper_product_doc.pdf

A Probiotic Unlike Any Other

As most people know, probiotics are tiny living micro-organisms that are vital to the body's ability to digest food and absorb nutrients. Most digestive supplements intend to assist your body's natural digestive process by providing it with additional probiotics. They cram in tens of billions of living cultures into a pill hoping that at least 2-3% survive. EMP Prosper is different. We deliver them as spores so that they are able to survive the harsh conditions of the stomach where they find a home in the upper digestive track, right where they should be. Nearly 100% of them survive So even thought we only include 4 billion in EMP Prosper, you still end up with more than you would with most other probiotic supplements. Amazing! 

Probiotic with EMP Lightning

With 36 different nutrients, 34+independent medical studies, and over 23 years of success, EMP Lightning truly is the most important nutritional supplement in the world. This proprietary blend of vitamins, minerals, and amino acids is powerful, effective, and it works lightning fast! A perfect pairing with EMP Prosper!

DO NOT MIX WITH WATER

Our amazing DTM (Direct-to-mouth) technology means that all you have to do is put the powder directly onto your tongue and let it dissolve. It really is that easy and it tastes great! 

It is recommended that it be taken after a meal for best results.

Please order at my website: https://empoweryourhealth.renovaworldwide.com/

Amy Heaton, Renova Worldwide Distributor #425

EMP PROSPER Bacillus Subtilis HU58 Lab Tests & Results at this link: HERE

Note: Consult a physician family with EMPowerplus prior to use if you are taking psychotrophic medication. Pregnant and lactating women and people with serious medical conditions should consult with a physician prior to use.

Disclaimer: These Statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. 

The Story behind Empowerplus and What's inside the Empowerplus Lightning Stiks

EMP Lightning Stiks are THE MOST POWERFUL RESEARCHED EFFECTIVE MICRO-NUTRIENT FORMULA IN THE WORLD!

 Here is the story behind the Empowerplus formula:

To place an order click on this link: 

empoweryourhealth.renovaworldwide.com

If you have any question, please email: HERE

Amy Heaton, Renova Worldwide Distributor #425

How to get your Renova Worldwide EMP Lightning Stiks

How to get your Renova Worldwide EMP Lightning Stiks

• Go to empoweryourhealth.renovaworldwide.com

You have 3 Choices:

1. Retail Customer:

• Select Products
• Browse products and then Scroll down to Shop Now.
• Select Country USA or Canada
• Do not select: “I want to shop as a Preferred Customer.*”

• This option is the retail price and is for a one-time purchase. If you will only be purchasing one item, one-time, this is the best option.

• Select desired product and follow prompts.

2. Preferred Customer:

• Select Products
• Browse products and then Scroll down to Shop Now
• Select Country USA or Canada
• Select: “I want to shop as a Preferred Customer.*”

*A Preferred Customer purchases at wholesale prices on a recurring monthly basis with an order of 100 PV or more.

• Select desired product and follow prompts.

3. Opportunity:

• Select Opportunity
• Scroll down to Get Started
• Select Join in the US or Join in Canada
• Next you will see United States Join Packages
• Select a Package or scroll down to Enroll as a Distributor and select Join.

• Enroll as a Renova Worldwide Distributor for $25/year
• $25 fee is waived with a 6 item (200PV) or more order
• FREE shipping on the 12 item Fast Start Package

• Eligibility for bonuses/commissions require “active” status
• Receive wholesale price on all orders for the year

Amy Heaton, Renova Worldwide Distributor #425

Renova Worldwide EMP Lightning Stiks

Introducing: EMPOWERPLUS LIGHTNING STIKS

Renova Worldwide, established April 1, 2019, has available a revolutionary new micronutrient multivitamin with Direct-to-Mouth technology. It's like a "Pixie Stick". 

They come in 3 flavors: 
Banana
Tropical Punch
Sour Berry

Click on this link: empoweryourhealth.renovaworldwide.com

Please email me for additional information: EMAIL

Amy Heaton, Renova Worldwide Distributor #425

#stalkthestory
#tonystephan
#autumnstringham
#empowerplus

Amy's Homemade Wheat Bread

Amy's Homemade Wheat Bread

Measure out 6 level cups of wheat and finely grind it. (appx 10 cups of wheat flour)

In a Bosch:
freshly ground wheat flour
2 heaping T Saf instant yeast (has to be Saf brand)
5 C luke warm water (106-108 degrees - use a digital insta-read thermometer)
1/2 C olive oil
1/2 C honey

Mix for about 20 seconds until it is mixed through and then let it sponge until it doubles in size, 15 minutes.

In a mixing bowl Combine:
4 level tsp sea salt (Redmond's or Himalayan pink salt from Costco)
4 C white better for bread flour unbleached
Mix together and add to the dough after it has sponged.

Beat the dough for 8 minutes then pour onto a clean oiled surface

Divide into 4 equal portions appx 1.75 pounds each. Knead dough to get out all the bubbles and form into loaves. Place into greased loaf stone or stainless steel loaf pans, cover with wet bread cloth or oiled plastic wrap and let rise. Dough is up to the edge on all 4 sides and top is nicely rounded on top.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. When loaves have risen, put the loaves in the oven

Bake at 425 degrees for 12 minutes. Do not open the oven.
Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for another 22 minutes or until the dough easily reaches 180 degrees or more.

Remove loaves from the oven and take them out of the pans. place them on cooling racks. Just for fun, lightly butter the tops of the loaves. It makes them pretty!

Let bread cool for at least 10 minutes before cutting into it.
Let bread cool completely before placing in bags. Store in a cool place.

(For convection oven: Conv Bake 425 degrees, then Conv bake 325 degrees, same times.)

My husband's story of his Meniere's disease and how he manages it!

My Meniere’s Disease story

            Early fall 1999.  It was a hot, sunny day in southern Arizona.  We were out of town on a job installing equipment in a cell tower shelter for Nextel.  During the long drive into the mountainous area north of Douglas  suddenly the straight highway appeared to slowly curve to the left, then straighten, then curve, then straighten.  As I was driving this was pretty unsettling.  I knew that the road was still straight, but my eyes and correlating brain area didn’t agree.  I pulled over and let my co-worker drive and I leaned my seat back, closed my eyes and dozed for an hour or so.  When I woke up I was fine and had no idea what had just happened.  My ear felt “clogged” but I figured that it was from the extended, loud driving experience in a heavily loaded, open work van, and the droning cooling fans on the equipment in the cell site shelter.

            A few weeks later I found myself in a room kept at 65°  making fiber optic terminations.  The room was full of racks upon racks of computer equipment cooled with moderately loud axial fans.  As I went through the steps of stripping the fiber, putting hot-melt connectors in the heater, inserting the fiber and letting it cool to be cleaved then polished the room slowly started to seem to rotate.  At first I was able to continue.  I was the only one in our company that had been to the week-long training on fiber optic handling and termination, so there was a lot of pressure on me to do the job and do it right.  No one could come and replace me.  So I walked down the hall to get a drink and ended up leaning against the wall as I walked  to keep from falling over.  I managed to get a drink and make it back to the room.  Then things got worse.  The room started to spin violently in a counter clock-wise direction.  My vision told me the room would quickly spin about ¼ turn counter-clockwise then sort of reset back to straight then spin again in rapid succession.  I have never done well on any sort of spinning or twirling ride at amusement parks, so this was terrible for me.  Very quickly I became nauseated, then vastly more nauseated.  I threw up over and over until my stomach was trying to get rid of even the memory of my breakfast.  All I could do was huddle in the fetal position on the floor and not open my eyes or move.  My neural system began to freak out.  I had cold sweats and then my muscles began to feel as if electricity was coursing through them, causing them to vibrate at about 10 hertz.  All I could do was lie there and pray I would pass out and it would end, which of course I didn’t. 

            After what seemed a long time someone finally happened by and found me.  I could barely speak.  After a quick ambulance ride to the hospital and some sort of injection I slowly felt the spinning (I later learned it is appropriately called ”Severe Rotational Vertigo”) subside.  The shock to my body and brain didn’t go away for a couple of days.  I was to learn that this is a typical aftereffect.  I felt lightheaded, tired, and my stomach had a constant, dull pain. As my concerned wife drove me home, whatever the injection was that I had been given made me feel like I couldn’t hold still and I was going to jump out of my skin.  I had to force myself to exist through it, not minute to minute but second to second.  I suspect it was a combination of the injection and the neural trauma.  I haven’t experienced that sensation since.

            The ER doctor suspected it was an inner ear issue and sent me to an Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialist.  He talked with me, looked in my ears, and did a couple of simple tests and told me I had something called Meniere’s Disease.  He prescribed a medication for the nausea and a diuretic (water pill)  and sent me on my way.  No talk of causes, helpful dietary changes, or anything.  Now, I can’t blame him for not guessing at causes.  After much research I have discovered that many believe Meniere’s shouldn’t be called a “disease” but rather a “syndrome”.  Disease indicates that it is understood and has a known cause and treatment.  This is definitely not the case with Meniere’s.  Syndrome indicates a known set of symptoms and an indeterminate cause or treatment.  This is the case with Meniere’s.  I experience (and every website and doctor concurs)  fullness or pressure in the inner ear (i.e. That “clogged” feeling), loss of hearing (which is degenerative, progressive, and permanent), tinnitus (a low roar and/or high-pitched ringing), and rotational vertigo.  Everyone has triggers, and they are usually quite varied.  Things that trigger one person’s symptoms are totally different for another person.  But one thing we all have in common; when a  rotational vertigo attack hits we need a dark, quiet place to lie down, close our eyes, and not move.  Usually that is in our bed with the shades drawn, lights out, and no one talk to us or jiggle the bed.  You may well discover that it helps to lie down on one side or the other, or on your back, with or without a pillow.  You see, your balance receptor thinks you are in motion, and if you can make gravity agree with what your ear thinks is happening it really helps.  Also, when your ear is feeling that “fullness” and your hearing ability in that ear has dropped you may find an ear plug helps.  Moderately loud sounds can become irritating, and loud noises can actually be painful.  Looking at screens on small electronic devices or a computer screen can make you start to feel dizzy.  Leaning forward and looking down repeatedly to load the dishwasher or do the dishes can bring on vertigo if you are already close.  Only use that last excuse on your spouse if it is true!

            So what had brought this on for me?  Luckily I have a cousin who was in the middle of his residency to become a doctor and he looked to the significant resources available to him for answers.  One of the things he told me was that Meniere’s can be brought on by an increase of blood flow in the cranium that occasions an increase of flow in the inner ear.  While this cause is considered rare and even controversial it made me think about things that I had be doing that were new and different.  What immediately came to mind was a hair cream that I had been using that was “all natural” and therefore “safe” since it didn’t use chemicals but rather stimulating herbs and plant oils.  It turned out for me that these compounds, especially essential oils are my worst and most fast-acting trigger.  Unfortunately, discontinuing using them and avoiding all possible contact with them doesn’t make Meniere’s Syndrome go away.  Once it is initiated it is pretty much something you deal with for the rest of mortality. 

             Now, don’t let this be over-discouraging!  Some people experience vertigo daily, some go weeks, months, or even years without it.  Most get it in only one ear, but some unfortunates get it in both ears.  For those with extreme, untreatable Meniere’s there are surgical options that are drastic, but better than the alternative.  The trick is figuring out your trigger(s).  Everyone has them, and they are very different.  Some can’t have wind blowing across their ears, some can’t have any sugar, some get really bad anytime the weather changes (barometric pressure), and the list goes on and on.

 And then there is a list of things that pretty much apply to everyone with Meniere’s Syndrome.  These are things that all informational websites and good ENT doctors will tell you:  Avoid alcohol, tobacco, coffee, caffeine, chocolate, stress, get plenty of sleep, and eat a low sodium diet.  Most of those you can control, but when you feel your ear getting more pressurized, the roaring in your ear increases, and your hearing decreases, and you know that the world is going to spin soon, your stress level goes up no matter what you try to do!

            So here is what I eventually discovered over the years that has helped me, and I am confident it will help most people who suffer from Meniere’s.

1-  Meclizine.  You can buy it over the counter, but it is much cheaper by prescription.  For most people a 25 mg capsule is best.  It doesn’t treat the problem.  It does mask small attacks, and it makes bad attacks much smaller.  And it helps with the nausea during an attack.  While you are figuring things out this will help you not have the terrible rotational vertigo attacks, or at least take the edge off of them.  You take 1 every 24 hours.  Try not to take it unless you are feeling unsteady and fear an attack is likely coming on.  I have taken it for weeks at a time and experienced no serious side effects, just relief from the vertigo.  It can make you feel slightly lightheaded and “almost unsteady”. I know quite a few people who have taken it every day for years without any bad side effects, but it is much better if you can figure out how to control Meniere’s without it.  When I once tried 50 Mg (2 capsules) at the same time it knocked me down and made me so drowsy I couldn’t get out of bed for most of the day.  Some people get some of that effect from just 25 Mg.

2-  Drink plenty of water.  Absolutely stop drinking soda pop, energy drinks, V8 vegetable juice (it has an atrocious amount of sodium in it!), even be sparing drinking milk (130 mg sodium per 8 oz. Cup)  You can drink some real fruit juice, but mostly drink just water, at least ½ gallon per day even in the winter.  I finally made the connection that my symptoms went away in the summer when I was working out in the heat every day and drinking lots of water and sweating out the excess sodium (notice I don’t just say “salt”).  In the wintertime I would drink very little water and wasn’t sweating and my symptoms would return.  I can’t stress this point enough.  My overall health increased as soon as I started doing this.  I used to suffer from a painful, inflamed hip joint that even in my late 20’s would often become so painful that I could hardly walk.  A good chiropractor told me what I just told you about drinking water and avoiding pop and such and unfortunately I didn’t try it for about 8 years.  When I finally did (because of my Meniere’s) my hip basically healed.  At my current age of 45 I have no pain or effects in my hip joint or any of my joints, and I have recently hiked 22 miles up, across, and back down Pine Valley mountain in one day with no problem in my hip.  I consider it pretty much a miracle.  I am reminded of something the councilor’s at Thunder Ridge Scout Camp would have us chant regularly, “What do we want?-Clear Pee!-How do we get it? Drink more water!”  If your urine is dark you aren’t drinking enough water;  you want clear or nearly clear urine.

            Drinking water brought about a lessening of symptoms for me in only a few days.

3-  Stop eating processed foods, sweet or salty.  The list of bad things is lengthy, but here are a few for starters.  Do not consume:

             msg (monosodium glutamate),

             Fast food, period!  Most restaurant food.  Especially Chinese food.

            Junk food.  Chips, candy bars, Oreos, candy, etc...

corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup (this is what Karo is made of),

cheap fats found in restaurant fryers (olive oil, real coconut oil, and the like are ok) and in butter substitutes (real butter is ok in small amounts, but it has 90 mg of sodium per tablespoon),

V8 vegetable juice, bacon, ham, sausage,  lunch meat, pepperoni, jerky, and Canadian bacon (they are loaded not only with salt but also sodium nitrite and sodium nitrate),

I personally have found it very beneficial to replace white salt with Real Salt and Pink Himalayan Crystal Salt.  I understand that you body treats cheap, stripped, bleached white salt as a toxin and dedicates water molecules to isolate it and try to eliminate it.  I have had less problems with the salt in its natural state with the accompanying trace minerals.  One of the reason given by the medical field as to why you need to lower your sodium intake is that is causes water retention and contributes to the “endolymphatic hydrops”.  Endolymphatic hydrops basically means your inner ear, where the hearing and balance takes place, gets too full and over pressurized with fluid, causing Meniere’s symptoms.  The purpose of the diuretic (water pill) is to try to get your body to release more water and sodium than it normally does, which will hopefully relieve the over fullness of fluid in the inner ear.  I personally have tried the diuretic multiple times and it doesn’t help me, but rather makes me feel lousy in multiple ways.  Some people have better results.  Drinking lots of water flushes out my excess toxins and sodium, and fulfils what the doctors are trying to accomplish with the diuretic.  Eating less of these toxins is indispensable too.

4-  Lower you sodium intake.  It is recommended that most people intake about 2000 Mg (milligrams ) of sodium per day.  Most people get 3500Mg or more, easily.   You may well need to try to only take in 1000-1200 Mg which is still generally safe (I do an average of 600-800 per day, but only do that if your doctor is cool with it).  There is a reason  I don’t say “Salt”.  Salt (sodium chloride, NaCl) is only one source of sodium.  An egg, still in the shell contains about 65-70 mg, so does 4 oz. of natural chicken or beef.  Most chicken has added broth which means 150Mg of sodium or more per 4 oz.  You have to learn to read labels.  A basic rule is you have to prepare food from scratch.  If it is processed or already made, it has too much sodium, and bad sodium (chemical preservatives).  1/4 teaspoon of cheap white salt has 590 Mg sodium, The Spice Lab Himalayan Pink Salt from Costco has 420 Mg sodium per ¼ teaspoon.  Some sea salts have 570 Mg Sodium per ¼ teaspoon.  So even all salts are not created equal!  Baking soda has 300 Mg per ¼ tsp, and baking powder 180 Mg per ¼ tsp.  Canned anything.  Especially beans, chili con carne, cream of mushroom or chicken or celery soup, canned Mexican sauces (enchilada sauce for example), soy sauce.  Again, read the labels.

I mentioned fast food and restaurant food.  This is especially true for Chinese food.  It is, without exception, full of sodium.  They use lots of MSG, and even the sushi has sodium-based preservatives in it.  What happens is it may not taste “salty” but it is deceptively loading you up with sodium.  My wife started making bread for us with less salt.  From the store it can have 120-180 Mg sodium per slice or more.  Flour tortillas have 350- 550 Mg or more, but corn tortillas can be found with only 10-25 Mg for 2 tortillas.  Most cheese has 150 Mg or more per 1 oz., but Swiss cheese can be found with 35-40 Mg per 1 oz.  Even granola bars and Clif bars have 180-250 Mg.  Dairy products all have sodium in them. 

We created our own cookbook of modified or just plain made-up recipes with lower sodium recipes, and desserts with way less sugar in them.  We learned to use 50-80% whole grains in our flour; even in cookies, pies, cakes and muffins, as well as biscuits, waffles, pancakes, German oven pancakes, etc...  We learned that by creating a multi-grain mix we could improve the taste so it wasn’t so overpoweringly “wheaty”.  Most dessert recipes call for 1 cup of sugar per 1 cup of flour.  We generally do ½ cup sugar for 4 cups of flour, and add honey to help sweeten things.  You learn by trial and error how much you can use before things start to taste too “honeyey”.  It is surprising how quickly things come to taste satisfyingly sweet even though they contain 50-75% less sugar.  This is good for most Meniere’s sufferers symptoms, and for everyone’s physical and dental health (most of our seven kids have NEVER had a cavity).

Now, you will need to determine how drastic you need to be in avoiding all of this stuff.  In my experience it changes.  About 8 years ago I started drinking lots of water and stopped the pop.  I occasionally had some junk food, used some canned food to make dinner, and ate out occasionally at Wendy’s or a nice restaurant.  I completely got rid of all of my symptoms for 5 years.  My hearing returned to about 70% of perfect (every time you have an extended bout of this you lose a little bit more of your hearing in the affected ear, permanently.  However, when it goes down to say 30% during a bad spell it will return to almost as good as it was before when the spell goes away).  I was tickled to say the least.  Then after 5 years of no problems we were visiting family down in Mesa and I forgot my usual toothpaste and without thinking I used my wife’s.  Her’s was an all natural toothpaste flavored with real spearmint oil.  My Meniere’s was back full force in less than 36 hours.  I had horrible bouts of severe rotational vertigo every 2-3 weeks, even though it was summer time.  It took nearly a year for the symptoms to lessen and for the vertigo spells to go away.  That is the bad thing about Meniere’s disease.  One slip up can take months to undo.

 I did pretty well for the next couple of years until I ate too much prepared, high-sodium food, nearly every day, for a two-week period.  The vertigo came back with a vengeance for 8 months.  The vertigo was so constant and debilitating that time that I finally was forced to seek serious, professional medical help.  I would have vertigo up to 5 days a week, sometimes 3 times a day, and for hours at a time.  I went to a Meniere’s specialist and talked about options.  The first thing that a good doctor will do it put you through a battery of tests, including an MRI and hearing and balance tests.  They will blow air into your ears, turn you all different ways, make you look at moving, blinking dots inside of blackout goggles, and myriad other things.  The point of all that is to determine if you really have Meniere’s.  There are other things that can cause the same symptoms, and they can do something about those other things.

With Meniere’s however, they can only throw things at it and see if anything sticks.  If something they try can lower your symptoms even 20% it is considered a success of sorts.  There is a good ENT center in Northern Utah.  I ended up seeing doctor Eric Slattery in their Draper clinic.  They have one of the better pages on Meniere’s Disease and treatment found at http://entcenterutah.com/menieres-disease-services/  .  This is one of the better explanations of symptoms and optional treatments available if you can’t control it with diet and lifestyle.  One surgery they don’t list, and one that has reportedly had decent success is where they remove some of the bone next to the inner ear allowing the fluid sac to expand into that space and lessen the pressure.  I haven’t had to progress that far.  They start with the less-invasive treatments first, then work up to more serious ones if they need to.  They can even sever the nerve that is carrying the misinformation from your inner ear to the brain if necessary, but that is drastic and irreversible, and  it is brain surgery.  One nick in the wrong place and bad things can happen.  There is also a clinic in Saint George that seemed pretty good. I think it was the Hearing and Balance Center.  I went there to have some of the testing done, but didn’t see a doctor specifically for Meniere’s consultation.

What I have had done was the Prednisone (steroid) treatment.  First we tried the injection.  That didn’t go well for me (for some people it does).  I began to have “drop attacks”, where you go from normal to full severe rotational vertigo in the blink of an eye. It would last for 10-15 seconds, then pretty much fade away.  Normally I feel the vertigo coming on 30 minutes or even hours beforehand.  And when the attacks come they start slow and gradually build to full out attacks.  This means driving hadn’t been dangerous for me.  Now I didn’t know what to expect.  After talking to my doctor I tried an oral dose of Prednisone instead.  It consisted of starting with a very high dosage for a few days, then a medium dosage for a few days, then a low dosage for a few days.  The first few days were rough.  The higher dosage basically put me out of commission for a week.  I felt groggy, light-headed, and had some vertigo and lack of appetite.  That slowly faded away.  After the full regimen my vertigo attacks started becoming less and less frequent and severe.  I think that the Prednisone helped.  I also hope I never need it again.

There have days when I have found myself in the middle of yet another horrible, repeating attack, and I was ready to go into surgery and have the nerve from my left ear severed and be done with it.  Prayer, faith and an understanding of God’s plan were the only thing that got me through it.  Meniere’s Syndrome has caused me to make diet and lifestyle changes that few could make.  I know people who are overweight, have diabetes, blown knees, and can only get around in a wheelchair and they still won’t kick the junk food and pop.  I have been able to give all that up and more.  Meniere’s is a pretty serious motivator.

For breakfast, I have found that having a meal replacement shake is a great way to start out my day. I use the Garden of Life meal replacement shake, Vanilla or Lightly Sweet. Both are both good. I find them cheapest on eBay. I put in lots of different frozen fruits: peaches, apricot, pineapple, mango, strawberries, wild blueberries, mixed berries from Costco and a fresh banana. I also add 1/2 tsp beet juice powder and a handful of raw spinach and a couple of leaves of kale from the garden. I eat a lot of green salads with lots of different vegetables added and make a vinaigrette without salt. I've learned to cooked and eat vegetables with just a dash of salt. It is Nov 2017 and I have gone a year now without having a vertigo attack by eating a clean diet.