Cures

Not much to report by way of results but I have continued to research possible cures and continue to be astounded by the wealth of information out there (thank goodness for the Internet age!). It is also quite interesting that there seems to be a lot general concurrence in ideas about physical life, even though the terms or perspectives may change between disciplines/teachers.

The general idea that I keep coming across is that true healing of chronic illness can only come from within. There are three main, very compatible, ideas for creating the conditions for this to happen:

1. Diet: Eliminating "toxic" foodstuffs from the diet (which may be causing the auto-immune reactions which cause the chronic condition). "Toxic" foodstuffs are generally considered to be animal proteins (meat, dairy, eggs) and a bunch of other candidates, like wheat (gluten) and an excess of grains/starch in general.

2. Energy: Chinese medicine has the concept of "energy balance" and "energy blockages", which can be fixed, or brought back into balance, by nerve stimulation (acupunture, etc.) and diet. Reiki is "curing with energy". Meditation is also considered to be able to restore energy flow within the body. I think prayer is probably a form of opening yourself to "universal energy" and so could be included in this category.

3. Pyschological: Removing the pyschological issues (self-dislike, need for attention, etc.) that prevent the body from sending the chemical signals required to regenerate the needed cells, or stop the body sending the signals that are damaging itself.

All of these ideas are basically compatible and, in my conclusion, revolve around the key idea learning to love yourself (and hence avoid cumpulsive habits like eating, overworking, etc.).

Test Results

Another set of test results came back today. I don't think there are any really significant changes. On one hand this is a little disappointing. I keep hoping to see a dramatic reduction in something. On the other hand stability is a lot better than deteriation!

Triglycerides have risen beyond the target level (bad), probably due to eating more carbohydrates (maybe I should be more disciplined about avoiding wheat... it just tastes SOO good!). Uric Acid has dropped below the target level (good), probably due to the medication Xyloprim.

For those who like numbers here are the current results with (target level) in parenthesis.

Serum Creatinine 2.4 mg/dL Ideally this would be below 2mg/dL. Normal is < 1.5mg/dL

Glucose 86mg/dL (< 110mg/dL) No change.

Triglycerides 190mg/dL (< 160mg/dL). Last month 133mg/dL

Cholesterol 154mg/dL (< 200mg/dL) Last month 131mg/dL

Uric Acid 5.9mg/dL (< 7.0mg/dL) Last month 9.2mg/dL (before medication)

Hematocrit 35.1% (> 32%) Last month 36.5 %

Overall the results show a decline in blood quality (after an improvement last month). Maybe it's something that naturally varies. Or maybe it's because I've become less enthusiastic about eating fruit, drinking gallons of water, etc.

The results of the urine test are basically the same as those of two months ago. Proteins in urine was 100mg/dL compared to 300mg/dL previously but I think this number is highly variable in a single sample (which is why I've had to do 24 hour urine collections, fun, fun, fun).