THE DIET DILEMMA

Ever since I was eighteen years old, I had a weight problem. Although I was not heavy, my desire was to be thinner. Diet pills were the latest diet fad in the 50's and 60’s. Our doctors prescribed them along with a diet. The results were remarkable and I was extremely happy along with my admirers.

Through the years I went on and off the pills whenever I gained weight. Whenever I was on them, my body felt as though I was taking uppers and downers at the same time. The feeling was quite weird. Although the pills worked and kept me nicely trimmed, I believe it caused my thyroid to go out of control. Hoarseness, hair loss, rapid weight gain and fatigue were my constant complaints. My condition was called Hypothyroidism.

Although I was committed for life taking Synthroid and other alternative drugs, my symptoms never diminished. Candy was always in my purse for a quick pick me up. My diets went on and off through the years but hard to follow once working on a daily basis and raising a family. Now, at age 73, with the kids out of the house and retired from a busy office, I want to take control and get my body back.

A local chiropractor held a seminar saying endocrinologists and primary physicians are not treating thyroid problems accurately because they are not doing more tests. His testing is enormous, costing about $150 -$300 a month for excessive blood work and consultations. He does not take insurance . But he promised my energy would return along with curing my symptoms which included loosing weight.

The next alternative and in my opinion the best, if you can afford it, or if it is covered by insurance, is to seek out a nutritionist who is a medical doctor. He is the only one who is knowledgeable about chemicals in the body and how it reacts to different individuals.

Desperate to control my appetite, I went to Costco to purchase Sensa as I heard about it on TV. Although the company offers one month free, you have to give your credit card for the following month. If you do not want it, simply call the company for a return label. Otherwise they will ship and charge you every month. I was anxious to get it immediately rather than wait for the mail. When I got it home, I researched on the Internet that the product does work, like most of the fad diets such as "the Cookie" diet. The product has a chemical that tells the brain you are full. So you become committed for life to use it. There is no evidence what it does for you later in life. Once you get off it, as you will be satisfied with your results, the brain reacts differently, your appetite increases enormously and your weight gain is twice when you started.

Someone said something interesting. If Oprah with all her money could not succeed with any fad product how can we? Then I remembered several people who were on the “Cookie Diet” among other fad diets who lost a tremendous amount of weight and looked terrific. As soon as they went off the diet, they put back more weight than when they started. It was a sad horror show. So.. what to do?....

My next issue will reveal the best secret with no cost to you...

PART 2 - KNEE PAIN AND HOW I AVOIDED SURGERY

While waiting for another opinion to have knee surgery, I read about Lime Disease being ramped not only where we lived in New City, New York, but all over the world. The paper mentioned symptoms most of which I had. It also listed Lime support groups in every neighborhood.

My husband and I went to one which devastated us. The room was filled with about thirty people. Some consisted of very young teenagers and adults. They all claimed they had knee pain at the beginning of their disease. Most of them had unsuccessful arthroscopic knee surgeries.

Everyone in the room were in poor health. Most needed intravenous every day because the oral antibiotics were not effective. Unfortunately they waited too long for proper treatment. Each person spoke one at a time in orderly manner telling their story. Most said they could not get out of bed each day. They all had mood swings, poor concentration and felt ill. It appeared a spirochete from a tick or a bite from a mosquito  invaded their nervous system. The teenagers could not attend school and the adults could not go to work or function normally.

My husband and I looked at each other with complete fear that this was going to happen to me. It was too unbelievable as I was always very healthy up to that point. When it was my turn I spoke about my symptoms which were similar to theirs but definitely not as serious. I said, "Tiredness came often with spells which I could not describe. I found it difficult to concentrate on my business, but still tried pushing myself. I  just assumed the symptoms would go away."

When I told them about my planned operation they all gasped at the same time. "DON'T YOU DARE" they said with anger. "The operation will do nothing. You need to be on Doxycycline at once before it is too late. It is an anti-inflammatory as well as an antibiotic. It will never kill the spirochete, but It will put it to sleep for decades stopping them from further damage in the body.. If it should ever wake up and you are feeling pain with similar symptoms, retake Doxycycline."  They all tried other antibiotics of which none worked as well as Doxycyline. "But you must take Acidophilus with the antibiotic to avoid yeast infection", they said

They laid out a map of what I had to do. They all recommended the same doctor who will treat my symptoms rather than a blood test. There were only a couple of those doctors in the country and the one they suggested was not too far away from home.  They told me most doctors would not treat me unless my blood test shows positive. But their doctors said if my blood was positive I would be helpless and too late to cure me.

The spirochete could have been in my body for years. Perhaps as young as an infant, a mosquito bite could have bit me not knowing how severe it would be later on.  Some times we get aches and pains, never attributing it to a spirochete invading our bodies. We think it might be arthritis  How many times have we been bitten by a mosquito which developed into a rash? Who ever knew about ticks until it was broad casted everywhere in the 80’s?

This toxin, bug eats into your tissues. It can attack your knee, joints, lungs, heart, nervous system, kidneys, and heart, whatever it can find. It starts attacking usually when there is stress to the body. Usually the first place it hits is in the knees.

After the meeting I took a blood test which thank God was negative. My doctor refused to prescribe the antibiotic because by blood was fine. Therefore I went to the support group's doctor who treats the symptoms rather than the blood test. After completing a long questioner and an examination, he prescribed 100 milligrams of Doxycycline for 30 days.

When the 30 days were up, I was not feeling better. So the doctor prescribed another 30 days of the drug. After I got the new prescription, I hesitated taking the pills. I waited almost a  week  as I was dubious about taking too much medication.

When the week was up, I was pain free. The full bottle of antibiotics were not used. My original orthopedic doctor told me I was foolish not to have the operation. He said it was like having a marble in my knee whereby the pain would come and go. Eventually if I did not have the operation, my knee would get worse and I would be a cripple in less than 10 years. Luckily I was happy with my decision. I heard so many stories of people who did not have Lyme disease having the surgery.  Unfortunately they still suffered with their knees and eventually had to go for knee replacement. There are cases as well that arthroscopic knee surgery was successful in some patients.

For about fifteen years I was pain free.  I will never know if I ever did have Lyme Disease.  However, the treatment for it helped me. I was well again, playing  tennis and walking three miles every day.  For a few years I stopped playing tennis when I moved to Florida.  But when I started playing again, guess what happened?

Read what my doctor discovered and how my knee pain left me for good.
Next week

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