I am in the process of setting up my site, organizing what I want to post with a gazillion things running through my head and the title of this post keeps popping in my head… There are so many things that fit this description so where to begin??? Hmmm… Begin – that’s it! The beginning!!!
Hopefully you have read the “about” me or my first post “Well, so it begins” so you have a bit of background that we had a life changing event in our family’s journey. Add to that the many hours waiting in the Emergency Room as it seemed forever before the plane would get here so we could get to Dallas. Then once we were on the plane seemed like another endless hour just to get to the PICU.
Finally we get settled in, monitors hooked up, IV’s changed out, blood draws to keep a close eye on how things are functioning on the inside. Of the entire experience THIS was the most peaceful – the staff seemed to work in harmony to regain a homeostasis in my son’s body. Every blood test they would explain how this interacts with that and what patterns they were looking for – which patterns were signs of improvement and vice-versa. They seemed to have a desire to not just spout off data but teach me, help me to truly understand what all was happening. Needless to say I didn’t sleep at all that night, nor much the next. But, amidst it all there was an overwhelming sense of peace and hope.
As the physicians spoke with me, I kept pondering the bigger picture, the one of our life outside this intensive care unit. What factors in our daily lifestyle [diet, exercise and such] are affecting our bodies homeostasis? After being transferred to a regular inpatient room the doctors, nurses and clinicians kept speaking about “environmental factors” and how they play a role in the onset of this disease.
“Environmental Factors” ??? What are those things??? Well – if you are unsure like I was I strongly encourage you to do a little research – you may be surprised what you turn up… For instance in this article from Stanford Medicine:
…Specifically, in this study, Butte and his coworkers used the technique to identify a previously known association between people with type-2 diabetes and a class of organic compounds called polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, commonly used for many applications until the late 1970s. They also uncovered a strong, but unexpected, relationship between diabetes and high levels of a form of vitamin E called gamma-tocopherol, which is prevalent in fruits, vegetables, nuts and milk.
The scientists are careful to caution, however, that an association doesn’t necessarily mean that vitamin E or pollutants cause type-2 diabetes, and that more research is needed to fully understand these complex relationships…..
“We’ve known for decades that environmental factors play a major role in diseases like diabetes, cancer and heart disease,” said Jeremy Berg, PhD, director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences,
(besides internet searches one of my favorite places to look for studies is PubMed)
This is just the tip of the iceberg. [Sugar gets a little deeper into my journey] And it really got me thinking out of the box. So how do I alter my environmental experiences??? Where do I start? Well, I went out of the box.
It wasn’t too long after getting home I opened our kitchen cabinets and each and every “box” of food was tossed in the trash. We had an entire trashcan full of “food” that I threw away – I couldn’t bring myself to donate it since if it wasn’t going to help put my family on the right health path, then why would I give it to someone else, it just didn’t seem right. So we started our “out of the box” journey. From that point on my children’s bodies consumed nothing out of a box, rather foods I prepared, and for over a year the same with my own body. It sounds so simple, but let me tell you it is anything but!!!
Doable though – ABSOLUTELY!
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