As I dug more and more deeply into the roots of both my illness and Roo's, I kept coming back to the mitochondria. Those tiny organelles that produce so much of our cellular energy are simply so important, that when they are injured, severe consequences can follow. Mercury and other poisons target them and alter their DNA more easily than that of our cells because their DNA is not as well protected. Toxins from bacterial and viral infections can also compromise their function, as well as excessive oxalate levels in the body. Injury to the mitochondria undermines our ability to detoxify, to heal ourselves, our heart, liver and brain function, and can lead to cancer. All in all they are worth protecting and healing, but how?
I came across a book in my studies called Minding My Mitochondria by Dr Terry Wahls, MD that has turned out to be a real gem. Dr Wahls is mostly recovered from very advanced Progressive Secondary MS, mostly through eating a diet to heal her mitochondria. The following video is a TED talk she gave which describes that eating plan in more detail. Below are some of the most notable quotes from the talk as well as my notes.
She was diagnosed in 2000 with MS and received the best, most advanced care that conventional medicine had to offer, but her condition deteriorated until she needed a motorized wheelchair to get around. She began doing her own research and found that the mitochondria were the common link in diseases in which brains shrank, such as MS. She first tried supplementation with fish oil, creatine, and CoQ10. She learned that in order to make healthy myelin (the protective coating around brain cells that is damaged in MS), the brain needs vitamin B1, B9 (folate), B12, omega-3 fatty acids (fish oil) and iodine. She also read that our bodies need sulfur and B6 to make neurotransmitters.
"...it is the tiny mitochondria in each of our cells that will manage the energy supply for that cell. Without your mitochondria, you would be no larger than bacteria."
Discussing the standard amercian diet she says "we, you, are all starving your cells" in regards to how few nutrients most people get from what they eat. She goes on to say "we are alive because of complex chemical reactions. If you're not providing the building blocks, that is the vitamins, minerals, essential fats, those reactions cannot happen properly, leading to the wrong structures being made, or structures simply not being made at all. You set the stage for chronic disease." She relates this to the rapid increase in chronic disease, learning disorders, and behavioral problems that we are seeing now.
So, what diet does she advocate? "For two-and-a-half million years, humans ate what we could gather and hunt...that paleo diet consists of leaves, roots, berries, meat, and fish." She points out that while what hunter-gatherers eat around the world varies a lot, their diets exceed the RDA by 2 to 10 times. "These ancient peoples know more about eating for optimal health and vitality than we physicians and we scientists."
This is her diet, based on paleo but tailored to support brain cells and mitochondria- 3 cups of green leaves, 3 cups of sulfur -rich veggies, 3 cups of bright color, grass-fed meat every day, and organ meat and seaweed once each week. "Yes, it will cost more to eat these beautiful vegetables and berries. But I assure you, you are going to pay the price. You'll pay the price now for food that restores your health and vitality, or you can pay the price for doctor's visits, for prescription drugs, surgeries, missed time from work, early retirement, and nursing home care. The choice is yours."
"I am the canary in the coalmine, here as a warning to all of you. We have a choice. We can continue to eat that delicious, convenient, tasty, processed food and watch ourselves and our children grow steadily more overweight, depressed, and diabetic. We can continue to watch health care costs balloon out of control, bankrupting us individually, and collectively as a country. Or, we can eat for our mitochondria, eating vegetables and berries, grass-fed meat...organ meat...and seaweed, and have more vitality. We all have a choice."
I have been tempted to get her book. So far on amazon everyone has given it 5 stars. I am really fascinated by her story.
ReplyDeleteIt really is a wonderful book, and I recommend it, but it is geared towards people who haven't done as much research as you have, so it may be a bit of a letdown for you. I kept wanting more details of *how* things worked. i also don't fully agree with her dietary stuff (which is somewhat different in the book than in the video above). She doesn't have the oxalate piece which I think is very significant as it is so toxic to the mitochondria in those people who are sensitive to it. I also feel that more emphasis on fats is helpful. All in all it's amazing though, and her story is incredible. I think part of why it is so powerful for people to see is that she IS an MD and got the BEST care that model has to offer and yet turning to food instead made this much of a difference.
ReplyDeleteI have learned that salicylates are a big problem for me. That cuts out most veggies and, fruits for me.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think one of the big factors here that is not included in the talk is that many people with the kind of injuries who benefit from diet change have at least one food chemical sensitivity, such as salicylate, oxalate, histamine or other amine, phenol, etc, so that needs to be taken into account. I personally eat low oxalate so many of the foods she emphasizes are out for me. These food chemical sensitivities are almost all to plant foods rather than animal foods.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that she does point out, that I agree with, is that paleo diets actually varied a lot from group to group depending on what was available to them. I think this means that we have some flexibility here to customize our eating to our own needs and still get the benefits of eating this way.
I also think that plant foods are over-rated...that they tend to be considered sources of many nutrients, because the nutrient is technically present, with no attention paid to whether it is bioavailable. Nowhere in her talk or book does she seem to have knowledge of the significant anti-nutrients that many plant foods have. I think that eating fewer plant foods, but focusing on the ones with fewer anti-nutrients should result in essentially the same nutrient intake.
where can we find this diet?
ReplyDeleteThere are several options. First, she has a book out called "Minding my Mitochondria" that has a lot of details about the diet including many recipes. The details are slightly different than in the presentation. My hesitation in suggesting this is that while her diet is a huge improvement over the Standard American Diet, it doesn't take a lot of other factors into account so I think not optimal. For one thing she is not aware of the oxalate piece, which is very big for mitochondrial health. With that piece the diet does not need or benefit from quite as much emphasis on vegetables.
ReplyDeleteWhat I would recommend is to research the paleo diet, which is in many ways what she is basing hers on, only I think she has a little of the mainstream medical fears around animal proteins and fats that aren't based on evidence. I would do paleo with a low oxalate twist. Actually, that IS what I do. It takes some tweaking and substituting, but can be done. i will do a post soon on Paleo/primal resources for more info.
I think looking into way of prep the food (apricots lo in oxyl but dried are high, broc boiled lo, steamed high...). If heated , aged, fresh, dried , soaked, salted , add probiotics to.
ReplyDeleteHow do you know what foods have trouble w?
If oxylates or salic... or other?
Was helped on SCD and now figuring what else needs adding or paring.
celery gave me joint pain(fresh or stewed), fruit just causes eye irritation and dryness...
Want my brain back.
Thanks
Lynn D
Figuring out if you are sensitive to food categories such as salicylates or oxalates is tricky. What I do, is I look at a person's symptoms and family medical history, and I look at which foods they eat often, what their favorite foods are, and what foods they avoid. Often if you find one category represented often in both foods they love AND foods they avoid, that is a major sign of a problem. Honestly symptoms I think give the most clues. Then, I recommend trying an elimination diet with the suspected foods to check. This is not simple and I am trying top put together a post about it but finding good quality info is really a challenge.
DeleteI think it might be helpful to remember too, that the more inflamed your gut it, the more your will be sensitive to foods that contain gluten, histamine, salicylates, oxalates because the normal processes that cope with stresses and heal you are out of whack. Initially you may have to be extremely strict and help you gut to heal, but once the mucosa have gained their integrity back it is quite possible that you may be able to tolerate quite a few more vegetables from the "forbidden" list. Remember that every one of us is quite unique and that you will be able to notice quite soon which vegetables really don't work for you or which you can tolerate in small amounts.
ReplyDelete