From a reader … I found her story really inspiring, and I hope you do too.

From: A Reader
Date: November 2, 2011 1:10:31 PM EDT
To: Julia Allison <julia@nonsociety.com
Subject: food allergies - read your blog post

Ok!

This is going to be an Infinite Jest-length email, so bear with me if you can!

When I was in my first year of college I started having these debilitating migraines out of the blue. I had them all through college. One time I had a migraine straight for 32 days. It was awful and I saw a number of different neurologists, tried a zillion different medications, did physical therapy, etc. I tried running, tried birth control, tried whatever I thought would help and nothing did. They eased up a bit, so after college I moved to New York. Everything went well for about six months and they came back even worse. I saw a ton of different doctors in New York, who all prescribed me a bunch of really strong medication: hydrocodone, cyclobenzaprine, this muscle relaxer called Soma, seizure medications, etc. And still nobody could figure out what was causing them…not even the migraine specialists at Columbia. I was having injections in the base of my skull to block the nerves going into my head. Anyway, the only thing that made me feel better were the drugs. So very quickly I became addicted to painkillers. As addiction goes, I was rendered incapable of working. Luckily I worked at this publishing company and my boss was awesome and super understanding.

Anyway, I ended up having to move home to and back in with my parents (yikes). I went to an addiction specialist who was helping me get off of the painkillers and I went to the world-renowned Mayo clinic, but still nobody could figure out what was causing the pain. At that point I was sure I would never be able to have a career, have a family, etc. I gave up the idea of ever having kids; in the event that this condition were somehow hereditary, I would never want to pass it on to my children. In short, this was a major low point. I was totally depressed and was set to go to a drug rehab/pain clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and someone suggested that I see this local doctor who specialized in Eastern Medicine/Acupuncture. I was very, very skeptical at first (there are a bunch of doctors in my family and we have always been incredibly confident in Western medicine, particularly for diagnoses). She had a PhD from Oxford and an MD from some medical school in China, but I still wasn’t convinced. In about 5 minutes she figured out what was wrong with me. She tested my Ph and told me I had too much acid in my diet/yeast in my system and I would have to give up gluten, dairy and sugar. Also, I had to stop eating any raw vegetables (no salad), and I had to stop drinking coffee and alcohol.

I really hated the idea of this. I was a sugar addict, my big weakness was sugary drinks like Coke. Loved candy and cupcakes too, and off course I had coffee every morning (latte’s). I wasn’t a huge egg person, but ate yogurt every morning. 

So I tried the diet, and within 3 days, my migraines were GONE.

I wish I could tell you that the diet doesn’t suck, or there are g-free/d-free/s-free alternatives that are just as good, but there really aren’t. It’s awful. My advice would be that you really just have to mourn the loss of the life you used to know and try to move forward. This sounds dramatic, but it’s true. It’s not cancer, but it’s really disappointing, especially if you love food/cooking, entertaining, etc. Three months before I went on the diet, I had to give up alcohol, which was very, very difficult as well. Again, at the risk of sounding dramatic, giving up alcohol and good food is depressing and very socially isolating. Don’t feel guilty or let anyone make you feel guilty about complaining about it, and if you need to vent, you are welcome to vent to me at any time. :)

The only reason why I was able to stick to it was because I had no other choice and it genuinely did make my migraines go away. I SO hope it works as well for your skin/digestive problems because you have to have your health to motivate you to stick with it.

Another wonderful motivating force that kept me going was that the diet makes you SO skinny. You literally cannot keep weight on because you aren’t eating any fat. Also, eastern medicine doctors will never tell you that you are too skinny. They think Americans are fat, so they have an entirely different standard they are working with. It’s awesome. Plus, it’s easy to defend your low weight when you are genuinely eating really healthy. 

Another plus is that you will never feel that uncomfortable “stuffed” feeling. Without the bread and dairy (cream-based) foods, you just don’t feel stuffed. Conversely, sometimes it is difficult to really feel FULL at first, but eventually you will. 

Hello? Are you still with me….? There are a few more things!

So, what do I eat? Breakfast was easy. I just eat oatmeal with no sugar. It sounds gross, but I got used to it. Dinner is pretty easy too. I eat chicken/fish with a vegetable and usually roasted potatoes or basmati rice. The problem is lunch. If you can have salad, that will be good, except it may be hard to find a sugar-free dressing. Do you know how badly I want to eat a f-ing sandwich? Really badly. Lunch is the worst, but I just end up eating dinner-type food for lunch. I live on these Lundberg rice chips. They are delicious.

Also, my nutritionist allowed me to drink Apple Cider which was a really good substitute for the sugar/sugary drinks. Sounds gross but I got used to it and now I drink it all the time (cold and hot). Also, my nutritionist let me have goat cheese and goat milk (I hate milk, so I don’t drink it), but it is so nice to at least have ONE sugar item or dairy item to eat. It really makes a world of difference. Ask your doc if you can have at least something. 

For caffeine, I drink black tea. It’s not a latte but it does the trick. It is still torture going into Starbucks and ordering a black tea instead of the pumpkin spice latte. FML.

I wish I had a lot of awesome recipes to give you, but I’m a terrible cook and haven’t had much success making great dishes on my diet. I know there are probably some out there, though. I really just reached out to you to encourage you to at least give the diet a diligent effort. I was so skeptical about what a I thought was this quack doctor with a quack suggestion, and she really saved my life with this diet. I still do believe in Western medicine for certain things, but I think for overall preventative/digestive health, the eastern diet is the way to go. If you are like me, you will genuinely feel better all around. I never had skin problems, but my skin looks way better, I feel better, and  my life is back on track - I went from almost going to rehab to being in my 2nd year of law school. Hopefully your problems are solved as well! I have also heard SO many stories about this diet curing all types of conditions. My mom’s secretary had sinus problems and started this diet and they went away entirely. I’ve heard it works wonders for Chron’s disease and ulcerative colitis as well. I never thought my digestive health was connected to my head, and my western doctors never even asked what I ate, but it was!

Oh, I saw someone on your blog say to be skeptical about buying the vitamins. It may seem like they are trying to push these vitamins on you, but these practitioners sincerely believe in their efficacy, so I would at least try them unless they try to get you spend a ton of money on them. 

So I guess that is pretty much it. I hope if nothing else I have encouraged to to stick with it. It sucks at first but overall it is much better. And eventually I have added certain things back into my diet, some sugar, some dairy, but very little wheat. I hope you will be able to do the same. 

Please, please let me know if you have any questions or you want to vent about it. I wish you the very best of luck!!

PS. One more thing, and i hope this doesn’t bore you, but I thought this was so interesting. I spent about 90 days getting sober/clean before I started the diet. As a result, I was as to compare the struggle of getting sober with the struggle of the diet. Of course I thought the diet would be a cakewalk after dealing with substance abuse and it shocked me how similar the struggle was. It really shed light on how much I was “addicted” to certain foods, particularly sugar and coffee. It’s the same biology & psychology behind it all in my opinion. Also many of the social consequences are similar…the same loss of camaraderie you feel when you quit drinking is evident when you are unable to go out to eat and talk about food with people. 

When I got my diagnosis from Dr. Pastore, one of the first people I emailed was Dan (for those who aren’t regular readers, my high school beau and friend of 15 years), who had to go on gluten-sugar-dairy free when he was diagnosed with cancer three years ago.  I knew he would have good suggestions for how to implement the diet.

(BTW, a few people suggested I get a “second opinion.”  Well, actually, Dr. Pastore was my third opinion.  The other two had traditional MDs (one is my new dermatologist in Beverly Hills, Dr. Lancer), and they recommended pretty much the same thing.  Dr. Pastore was more detailed and he did more tests.  Just FYI.)

Anyway, here’s what Dan said … I think it’s really heartening to hear.  Although I still do not plan to eat meat.  I just … I really can’t do that.  I don’t know if there is such thing as “compassionately slaughtered.”

In brief, start eating meat again. Eat organic, cage-free, and compassionately slaughtered animals, but eat them. Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s carry this stuff. Otherwise, take the supplements he recommends. Avoid the allergens he says to avoid.

It’s actually not as hard as you think to avoid gluten, dairy, wheat and sugar. Ask him about low glycemic sweeteners like agave and honey. Don’t use Stevia, it’s useless. 

Next, I suggest you find a cuisine - a traditional diet eaten somewhere on earth - that meets your requirements. A lot of societies basically don’t eat wheat or dairy. Avoiding eggs and sugar is easy at that point. I would suggest you pick an East Asian cuisine - Vietnamese, Japanese or Thai. Gluten free soy sauce is called Tamari, and it’s not hard to go from there (it’s used in Thai food as a matter of course, but you need to buy it or ask fro it in restaurants, and you need to learn to cook this food for yourself). This is basically what I do, except that I can also eat Indian food and some (non-cow) cheese and eggs for breakfast. You can try Indian, which is great for you, but you need to be careful about dairy, which is in a lot of their recipes. 

Your staples need to be: rice and rice noodles, beans, lentils, meat, vegetables and fruit. Once you get in the habit of thinking in terms of mixing those kinds of foods together, it won’t be as hard. 

If you’re actually serious about trying this diet, call me sometime after Thursday and before Monday and I’ll give you some advice about how to do it given my experience.

Remember how I’ve been struggling with skin/acne and digestive issues for the past few months (well, really, my entire life)?

I knew it wasn’t topical - not a skin cream I was using or not using, not having the proper face wash or anything like that.  From what I knew about how our bodies process toxins, I could tell it was an issue with my hormones, or an allergic reaction, or  … something internal. SOMETHING was not right with my health.

So at the advice of my MD, I went to Dr. Pastore (who is a nutritionist, with a phd) on the recommendation of my friend Julia Price.  She had been struggling with severe dairy allergies for years, and no doctor had diagnosed it properly until him.

Dr. Pastore had me undergo a battery of tests: blood, urine, saliva, as well as integrating the analysis from my gastro-intestinal specialist, who had done the intestinal biopsy to determine my celiac in the summer of 2010.

I knew something was wrong …  what I didn’t know was MANY things were wrong.

Today, I’m sharing with you the write-up from Dr. Pastore that I just received a few hours ago, in the hopes that it may spur you to find out what’s going on with your own bodies.  I have a lot of work to do to get myself healthy again, and I’m scared and frustrated, and more than a little sad (many foods I LOVE I cannot eat anymore).

I had just gotten used to never eating gluten (I’ve been completely compliant for almost two months now).  Now I have to get used to this.  :(

I need all the help I can get.

————————————-

Julia Allison Results

1. Severe class 5 delayed reaction to egg, milk and wheat. 
2. Fatty acid analysis reveals elevated DHA levels and high EPA levels. While this sounds like it should be great, it is not when it comes to preventing acne. High levels of DHA and EPA in the blood are linked to an increase in acne. 
3. Fatty acid analysis also reveals high levels of linoleic acid (an omega 6 fatty acid) but it is not converting to the usable form GLA (gamma linolenic acid). This is typically caused by a zinc insufficiency, which is essential for the skin. The lab is recommending 30mg of zinc supplementation. This will be included in an Acne multi I’m recommending.
4. Organic acid analysis reveals low vitamin B6. Such an insufficiency is linked to acne by increasing activity of the sebaceous glands. I am recommending 50mg of the biological form called P5P (pyridoxal-5-phosphate). 
5. Organic acid analysis reveals borderline high 8-hydroxy-2-deoxyguanosine. You are one tenth of a point away from being flagged by the lab. This is a sign for an increased requirement for antioxidants such as vitamin C and vitamin E. 
6. Organic acid analysis reveals borderline high homovanillate, a marker of dopamine turnover. Dopamine is a critical neurotransmitter required for mood, thought, memory and behavior. You are 1 point away from being flagged by the lab. Further a marker that measures stress neurotransmitters is quite elevated (5 tenths of a point away from being flagged by the lab) indicating that you are having a hard time converting a long lasting stress neurotransmitter (norepinephrine) into a short lasting stress neurotransmitter (epinephrine). This can cause an exaggerated stress response which may lead to acne. We need protein to manufacture these neurotransmitters normally. Please see your diet notes for more information. 
7. Organic acid analysis reveals borderline high sulfate. Sulfate is a marker of total hepatic phase II detoxification. Sulfate is an indicator of your liver’s efficiency in removing many drugs, steroid hormones, and toxic compounds. High sulfate indicates that this pathway is very active. Low sulfate indicates the fuel to run this pathway has been used up and the liver’s ability to remove toxic compounds is suppressed. Cysteine, taurine, and salts of sulfate are used to replenish sulfur pathways and restore and maintain the liver’s supply of sulfate. I highly recommend  the acne multiple known as Akne-zyme by Enzymatic therapy (taken as directed in the action plan below) because it contains natural sulfur (along with other nutrients you are low in and that help with acne). 
8. Organic acid analysis reveals elevated D-arabinitol. D-Arabinitol is one of the most well researched markers for yeast overgrowth in the intestine. Many symptoms can result from yeast overgrowth, such as fatigue, sensitivity to carbohydrates or sugar, and “foggy-headedness.” Yeast overgrowth is absolutely linked to acne as well. A very low sugar diet is warranted along with targeted supplementation to normalize yeast levels (Kolorex Professional and Probiotics).
9. Interestingly you had a good adrenal response with normal cortisol secretion throughout the day. The hormone DHEA which can cause acne is completely normal at 2.2 (range 2.2 to 4.6). 
10. Estrogen metabolites panel reveals a very low 2/16 hydroxy estrogen ratio. You are negative estrogen dominant. Your 2-OHE1 to 2-OMeE1 ratio is elevated. This is signifies poor catecholestrogen methylation.

Action Plan
1. Strictly avoid all egg, dairy and wheat products. Attached to this email will be information on each of these foods (gluten for wheat due to your celiac history) and a diet plan to move forward. Regarding the diet plan, I highly advice consuming animal protein sources other than fish due to the elevated DHA you have. Too much DHA equals acne. If we only obtain protein from fish you will only keep this DHA level elevated. Further, going vegan will only result in very poor health and poor skin health. I know this is tough, but it is my clinical opinion that your diet needs a major change. The following documents are attached. Egg Allergy, Dairy Allergy, Gluten List and Julia Allison Nutrition Plan. Please study these documents. Needless to say, all sugar (agave, table, honey, molasses, everything with sugar, dried fruit, soda, fruit juice, carrot juice, etc. must be avoided as it feeds yeast.
2. Targeted supplementation - we need to solve these deficiencies quickly as many of them are effecting your skin. Do NOT take fish oil at this time. Vital Nutrients Borage Oil - 1 softgel once dailyEnzymatic therapy Akne-zyme - 2 capsules daily. Pure Encapsulations P-5-P (pyridoxyl-5-phosphate) - 50mg once daily. Kolorex - 1 softgel twice dailyDr. Ohhira’s Probiotic 12 Plus by Essential formulas - 2 softgels daily.Enzymatic Therapy Estrobalance - 1 tablet daily.
All supplements should be taken with food EXCEPT for the probiotics. The best time is either first thing in the morning or before bed. The one I am recommending is hypoallergenic and does not require any refrigeration. 
Collectively, the supplements above solve the nutritional deficiencies and imbalances described in the summary of your test results.