Success markers for Micki Rose’s barrier plan for multiple food intolerance

07/08/2012 By 1 Comment

Many of you will have followed Micki Rose’s long search for a way to deal with her own (and many of her patients’) devastating and debilitating food sensitivities which has culminated in her ‘Barrier Plan’. There is an in depth explanation of her theories, and her plan, on the Foods Matter site here; but, in essence she believes that, in those with multiple sensitivities, the body’s natural ‘barriers’ (the gut wall or gut barrier, the skin barrier, the blood brain barrier and the lung barrier) have broken down and become permeable, allowing all kinds of allergens and other ‘foreign bodies’ into the blood stream and into organs in which they have no business to be.

These foreign bodies can cause allergic/sensitivity reactions and inflammation which, if it becomes chronic, may lead to a disruption or deregulation of the immune system and, in time to the dozens of autoimmune conditions which seem to afflict 21st century – coeliac disease, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, MS, Parkinson’s, motor neurone etc etc etc.  Her approach is two fold – first eliminate all the allergens (a lot easier said than done) and then rebuild the barriers.

Her theories, her elimination protocol and her subsequent barrier rebuilding are all described both in the article on our site mentioned above and, in much greater detail in the Plan itself (available, along with hundreds of supporting documents/research,  from the Pure Health Clinic shop – and an absolute snip at £65…..).  But what is fascinating is the success that both she and those following the plan are managing to achieve.

There are posts scattered through her Truly Gluten Free site (she promises to put up a testimonials page very soon…) from followers of the plan who are already feeling hugely much better on the first stage elimination diet but here is the post on which she logs her own migraine scores over the last six months since she has been following her own protocol.

She scored her migraines from 1 – 12. As she says:

‘The migraine used to score about 8-10 on the pain scale. The average one now is about 2-4, with an occasional 6. They used to last 4 days and now last 2 days – almost on the dot of 48 hours, it just goes and then I need to sleep.’

She then totals up the scores for the months which, before she started the plan in January, were averaging out at around 200 a month. Since January they have run as follows:

January 64.5
February 56.5
March 51.5 (we had carpets fitted and I suffered more migraines as a result)
April 57.5 (an ongoing gum problem flared up, a reaction to something, still working out exactly what)
May 55 (still had gum problem and was mightily fed up :(  )
June 29  Yes, 29!!! (gum problem pretty much gone, most days.5-1. PLEASE God or whoever is looking after me, let it stay gone!)

And that is just the migraines. As all sufferers from multiple intolerances know only too well, it is not just the severity of the symptoms that is so disabling it is the multiplicity of them. But, as one improves, so, on the whole, do the others… Which suggests a very encouraging prognosis for those following her plan…

For an introduction  to the barrier theory, the barrier plan diet and the barrier supplement protocol see Micki’s article; for the plan itself got to the Pure Health Clinic shop here. 

Filed Under: Allergies, Alternative/Complementary Health, Dairy-free, Food, FreeFrom Food, FreeFrom Skincare, Gluten, Gluten-free, Nutrition, Nuts Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Obtaining ‘freefrom’ prescription drugs

06/15/2012 By 3 Comments

A couple of months ago we ran an updated version of an archive article on obtaining prescription drugs whose excipients (non-active ingredients such as fillers, capsules and colourings) were free of lactose, starch, corn, azo dyes, sugars etc – a major problem for those with severe allergies or intolerances to any  of these ingredients. (This is not only a problem with prescription drugs but with nutritional supplements – see Micki Rose’s article on trying to get corn/grain-free supplements, for example.)

The re-visit to the subject was triggered by Jackie Broadway’s struggle to get pain killing drugs (after a hip replacement) that were both corn and sugar free as she is acutely allergic to both. In theory there is a system through which you can access such medicines, via companies who can make up the drugs specially for you in a format that you can tolerate. The problem is that this is, understandably, an expensive process so Primary Care Trusts, and now, once again, GP’s are reluctant to fund the ‘special’ drugs unless they are absolute forced to do so. In the event, although Jacquie got one prescription via her GP, she ended up by paying for the repeat prescription needed to get her through to the point at which her hip was healed.

(One might well ask whether, given the ever growing numbers of those who are either allergic or acutely intolerant to these substances, it might not be worth drug companies’ while producing ‘freefrom’ versions of the most common/popular drugs – or even leaving out some of the less desirable ingredients such as azo dyes/colours altogether…)

Jacquie was fortunate in that, although she deeply resented having to pay for her ‘special’ drugs (why should she? If people who ‘self abuse’ by over-eating or generally failing to take care of their health can get free drugs for their resulting diabetes or heart conditions, why should she have to pay for drugs she needs through no fault of her own at all?) she did at least have the means to do so. But such is certainly not the case for everyone.

I have, for example, just had an email from Julie Cox who had read the original article, who has had serious allergies since birth and who needs on-going medications. I have no idea of Julie’s circumstances but unless she is Soros-rich she is not going to be able to afford to fund her own ‘special’ medications on an on-going basis. I am printing her email below and if anyone has any thoughts, helpful or otherwise, please post a comment.

The only even vaguely helpful suggestion I could come up with was to change doctor – and to be sure to interview any prospective new doctor to ensure that they would be more sympathetic. (You are quite entitled to ‘interview’ a doctor before signing up with them, although they are usually rather startled by the request to do so. I would suggest that it was a sensible move for anyone who suffers from allergies/intolerances to make sure that you are going to get a reasonable hearing.)

I have been having medicines made by ‘BCM Specials’ free from lactose, wheat starch, azo dyes, colours, flavours and preservatives.
This has worked very well after a lot of initial effort getting it set up by me but …… all of a sudden my helpful lady doctor is off for months and will may be not be returning and an unhelpful doctor has been appointed prescribing lead and has refused me any more prescriptions of the free from medicines.
I am using OUT OF DATE MEDICINES at the present, but I really need to find a resolution to this as each week goes by they become more out of date! Now GPs manage their own funding they seem to look at you with £ signs in their eyes instead of it being a caring therapeutic relationship as it ought to be! I don’t think I am being unreasonable. My condition has not changed, so why should I suddenly be expected to tolerate lactose, wheat starch, azo dyes, colours, flavours and preservatives!
I have had allergies since birth and was covered in inflamed eczema as soon as cows milk and wheat were introduced. I come from an atopic family with food allergy (type 1), hay fever, eczema, migraine, photosensitive skin, and asthma, affecting many family members through the generations. All generic medicines contain different colours, azo dyes, artificial flavourings, preservatives, and fillers like lactose and modified starches which can be wheat based, all of which have the potential to cause me severe reactions.

These reactions can affect me in terms of asthma, angioedema, throat mouth and tongue swelling, anaphylaxis, eczema, or further irritating of my already sensitive and inflamed digestive tract.

Do you have any ideas? or any contacts that might help me? including other patients on specials like Jackie in the article? I wonder how she is faring?
Filed Under: Allergies, Chemicals, Conventional Medicine, Dairy-free, Eczema, Food/Health Policy, FreeFrom Food, Gluten-free Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Dr Briffa on ‘flu vaccines and conflicts of interest

10/30/2011 By Leave a Comment

While on the subject of medical newsletters – you can see that this is a Sunday clear-out of my email in-box. Two posts from Dr John Briffa (another oasis of good sense in a sometimes non-sensical medical world).

The ‘flu vaccine. He had noted, as have I, the ‘roll up, roll up for your vaccine’ banners flapping outside our local GP practice. As anyone who has read the material on the FoodsMatter site on vaccinations will know,  I am not a great vaccine enthusiast. Yes, I do believe that vaccination has a place in medical care, but I also believe that it is grossly overused, over hyped and under-safety tested. Certainly, nothing that I have read about the ‘flu vaccine would persuade me otherwise. Dr Briffa is certainly of that opinion. And if you want to know why take a look at his post of 27th October and his rather longer and more detailed post on 25th November last year.

And if you are wondering why he is so dubious about government inspired ‘advice’ you might also want to read his post earlier this month about ‘conflicts of interest amongst those setting diabetes and cholesterol guidelines’. If you wish to dig deeper into the unreliability of medical ‘research findings’, read the FoodsMatter report of the BSEM conference last March: ‘A tablet a day keeps the patient at bay: the health hazards of prevention – vaccinations and pharmacoprophylaxis.’

PS  Continuing my clear out of my in-box I found a note of two other sites I had looked at with reference to the ‘flu vaccine.
One was a link to the ‘Ingredients of Vaccines – Fact Sheet‘ on the website of the US Centers of Disease control and Prevention. Under ‘Additional Facts’ it lists some of the ‘common substances’ to be found in vaccines. This is a pretty scary list if you are thinking of it being injected into an adult; a great deal more scary when you think of it being injected into week-old or, in the US, even day-old babies….
The second was to a site quoting a Dr Hugh Fudenberg, the eminent, if now elderly director of the Neuro Immuno Therapeutics Research Foundation who claimed, as far back as 1997, that his research on flu vaccinations between 1970 and 1980 showed that, thanks to the mercury and aluminium to be found in all flu vaccines, if a person had five consecutive shots during that time, their chance of developing Alzheimers was 10 times greater than if they had had one, two or no shots.

PPS More on vaccines… Yet further down my ‘in-box’ were two more vaccine related links:
One to a WorldNetDaily  article from the beginning of October over the controversy unleashed by Michelle Bachmann’s questioning the policy of forcing all teenage girls to be vaccinated against the HPV virus.
The other was to a 2007 review of Scary Medicine; exposing the dark side of vaccines (from the same publishers).

PPPS 31st October.
I have just been reading a report in the pharmaceutical industry magazine, PharmaPro, on the decision of the  US Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ to recommend Gardasil, Merck’s vaccine against the HPV virus, for boys. Note, conspiracy theorists, that it is only Merck’s vaccine that is being recommended (at $130 a shot) rather than the other vaccine that is available.
Given that this report is in a pharma industry magazine, its lack of enthusiasm for the vaccine, its efficacy and its popularity is quite striking. Let us hope that boys’ parents prove as resistant to the ‘recommendation’ as girls’ parents have been…

 

Filed Under: Conventional Medicine, Food/Health Policy, Politics Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
« Older Posts