Other Health Issues

I thought that I had, through a different type of medication( for bipolar, and not just depression) and a new doctor that I had gotten the disease under control. Well, I had always said that if I had to have pain that I would rather have physical pain and not mental.
Well, now the two are combined and that is a blow. But I have also learn in the depressed times in the past that if I get my mind off of the depression through, say, singing along with positive songs on the Christian radio station, the depression will lift. It does work.
I think that singing along with positive music does two things:

• Makes you come out of the current thought pattern(s) that you are struggling with and

• focuses your thoughts on the bigger issues in life. Like peace and the light that is in life inherently. It is there, whether you can feel it in your thoughts or not.....

Medication can make you see this more clearly. But there is a stronger presence in believing in something bigger than you.  Depression when viewed bigger than you will win over you. Ask Some One (God) to take away that pain (depression) by giving it every minute to HIM. Every time the problem (depression) comes, look towards the light and just believe that HE has taken the discontent onto HIS shoulders. HE is bigger than you. HE can handle anything. Some times it takes years to realize this. Faith wavers. Depression will come and go because it is the way you have always reacted to the situations that your life is full of. THINK ON THIS. At least it will be a different way of thinking, and depression is a selfish way of thinking. I know I still have the pattern of depressive thoughts haunting me, and it is hard. When the problems wash over me I have to give my thoughts to HIM, let HIM deal with it.
Whether you are religious or not, you have to know that there is a larger thing out in life that can lift you. You did not make nature, God did, you are selfish to turn away from what is true.

Well I know that was a rant on God, it deserves to be looked into. There is something bigger than your problems.

Fisher Wallace Laboratories: New Hope?

I found an interesting article in The Wall Street Journal that details a device that I have heard of sometime ago, but that is now gaining momentum, CES.
Cranial Electrotherapy Stimulation (CES), which sends very weak microcurrent into the brain, was widely used in Russia in the 1940s as a sleep aid. Several battery-powered CES devices won FDA clearance to treat depression, anxiety and insomnia in the 1980s and 1990s, largely because they were similar to other grandfathered devices, and some have been quietly selling to home users ever since. Electromedical Products International Inc. has been selling its Alpha-Stim devices for both pain relief and anxiety and depression since 1981. Many users are military veterans.
Then the bit about Fisher Wallace Laboratories that really got me:
Last fall, a newcomer in the field, Fisher Wallace Laboratories, launched a YouTube campaign lampooning the side effects of anti-depressants and promoting its cranial stimulator as an alternative. Powered by two AA batteries, the device was sends 1 milliampere of alternating current—1/1,000th the voltage used in ECT—through a patient's head via small, wet pads placed at the temples. The company recommends using the device 20 minutes once or twice a day for 30 to 45 days, and several times a week afterward.

The company, founded by electronics entrepreneur Charles Avery Fisher and Martin Wallace in 2007, says the device works by boosting endorphins, serotonin and dopamine and reducing cortisol

Does it work? Columbia University psychiatrist Richard P. Brown says he has used the device with 400 severely depressed patients and that more than 70% find relief—about twice the rate of anti-depressants. "I'm seeing some patients smile for the first time in 20 years," says Dr. Brown, who, like other doctors interviewed for this column, has no financial ties to the company.

Other neuroscientists are wary. "In my assessment of the literature, the level of evidence to support those kinds of claims is not sufficient at this point," says Dr. George. I believe that this is the doctor that I either emailed or spoke to before the VNS was put into my chest.

Dr. Mayberg adds, "It's not a great idea to be exposing your brain to electricity of any type without medical supervision."

Much of the clinical data supporting CES devices is outdated; a few small placebo-controlled trials of the Fisher Wallace device are planned at Harvard, Columbia and the University of Toledo.

"I think a lot of people who use it will tell you it can be very helpful," says Andres San Martin, a Columbia psycho-pharmacologist who says about 50 of his patients use the device, along with antidepressants. Some use it just half the year for Seasonal Affective Disorder, and some have found it helpful in quitting smoking. "But I am looking forward to the double-blind placebo-controlled trials," he says.

Research on Singulair and Xyzal

Dear Herb, 

I have stopped the Allegra, but continue on Xyzal, Singulair, and Wal-dryl (a generic form of Benadryl).   As the allergy shots increase in effectiveness  the need for the antihistamines will go down. What does your wife use to control  her allergies?The allergy doctor is at the present trying to reduce the amount of drugs that I am on. My psychiatrist says that environmental toxins,ie dust, dust mites, pollen, grasses etc. can cause depression and after a round of allergy shots that I should be able to reduce, or stop the antidepressants. 

Right now I have a huge anxiety problem with it and am taking risperdal to counter that. My job is outside and I almost panic to go outside for long periods of time. One day at a time. The shots are to reach their effective stage about March 16th.

Any suggestions?

I am now looking up Singulair and found out that it can cause suicidal thoughts and depression. I stopped it today and will monitor the results. I also see that Xyzal can cause anxiety.

Post Hospital-Again

I was in the psychiatric ward again. The cymbalta was not doing the whole job. The stay was from 12/27/11 to 12/31/11. They gave me risperdal at .5mg twice daily. This was wonderful at first. But as I reentered the outside world, my sleeping took a nose dive. The anxiety increased 10 fold and the allergies magnified. I checked the air filter in the AC system and it was filthy and I replaced it last night.
At one AM I had not slept again for the second night. I went  to Walgreens and got some melatonin product that is called Sweet Slumber made by Schiff. This did pretty well until I woke up with a racing heart about three AM. It took about 5 minutes for it to calm down and I went back to sleep. This is scary enough for me to seek medical advice. I took the Sweet Slumber because the pharmacist said it would be alright to do so after I told him about the antihistamines and antidepressants. When I got home the inside label said that depressives should not take the product.
I want medical advice. I need sleep and the allergies are keeping me up, agitated and irritated. I will go to the allergy doctor to day for a shot and I will move the next appointment to the next available date. I must have relief! 

Lock Up Blog-CFBH log

11/4/11
I have come to a mental hospital by Seaworld.  Scary at first. Very,very scary. locked in. Every door is under lock and key.
Residents are all sitting in a line of chairs in front of the TV. Some zoned out, other more alert and attentive.
Tough night, and possible wheat or aspartame reactions in the morning from the juice,which was .a crystallite or HONEY NUT OATS  I had for breakfast.
11/5/11
Dr. Hasheez put me Effexor .75. Dr K put me on Xanax .25x3, the singular 10mg, Xyzal by allergist.  I will cancel the allergy shots for now. It-the shots were to start the eight if Nov....I have postponed the Chiropractic for now. The chiropractor was adiment that I not take drugs. That could not not be possible and hold a job. So let that be. I suffered enough. I will maintain about as healthy a life style as I can.
11/5/11
I pray that I have a job to go back to when I get out of here. John says that he would like to help us with our finances, and wants to review how we spend our money. That sounds good right now. Eases the worry.

Poor David, he has seen the down turn in my health,  and now the separation that this lock up causes. Visits are only twice a week for one hour, phone calls are limited to only when others are not using the two phones that are set out when phone access happens three times daily. The access is shared by about 16 women.

The pencils are short golf pencils so people can no use them to stick them into themselves or others. The night I saw a TV show there at the lock up on how someone did that,  well it almost liquidifed my innards.
They won't allow me my watercolor brush, so I wrap a small piece of cloth around the tip of a pencil and use that.  With it my art survives.......it will always help me to survive.
They dose me up on the antihistamines and Ambien to help me sleep. Only thing is these antihistamines don't induce sleep.

I find that when I have a stressful allergic day, as in cleaning, the lymph glands hurt and the VNS does not keep me awake as much.   It is as if the toxins in the body are slowing the effect of the VNS. It does not physically stop it, just slow the affects on the body.  When I am away from the house with all of its dust mites, and then come to the house to sleep, then it has the affect that it gives me too much energy...as if I  drank a lot of caffeine in the late afternoon.  So I am going to try this strategy : cut it down as I can remember during the day, let it decrease it's affects during the day when the body has less to fight and then let it rip at night when I am at home.  The magnet will let me do this. It shuts off the device for that one stimulation and the device will pick up again two hours later. That is how it is set up.

11/6/11
I upped the VNS before I came to this lock up.  Thank God, for it has really helped me in many respects. I am realizing that I must come at this from a different aspect.  They have offered me to visit the therapy program that is attached to this facility. I will do it, if we can do it with out incurring more costs.  It would involve 5 hours of therapy-group therapy.

11/7/11
We work with affirmations here at the PHP side of the lock up. It is a mirror reflection of what is happening to me.. I was locked in my location in the other area in this facility, locked in the depression, hopelessness and anxiety. Here it seems that I am unlocking thoughts that caused some of the depression.


11/8/11
Most of the TV shows that are shown here in the lock up are extremely violent. Amongst the constant bouts of dramas on the phones, residents attacking staff, people in constant hideous emotional states, if one wasn't unstable when they came in,  they are now.  What ever I was going through at home, it was far less than what is going on here. Abilify started at 2.5 mg.

11/9/11
Meds now:Abilify upped to 5mg


11/10/11
Knowing how to stop the automatic negative thoughts that I have programmed into the brain over the years. ANTeaters : thought reprogramming to stop the negativity.

Super Sensitive

Nov.1
I am super sensitive to many things as evidenced by what happened yesterday here in hospital. For the first meal I could only eat the carrots. The breaded chicken, mac and cheese, cake had to be sent back.
In the mean time the jello-(fake colored and aspartame) and the instant tea caused a type of anxiety. The anxieties came on shortly after consuming the foods and cleared about one half hour later.
The new medication, Xytol , was given to me as antihistamine. I did research to determine if I could get a cheaper source for it. I found it listed on a Canadian pharmacy as a psychotropic drug affecting mood. This coincides with some comments made by Dr K. and other information that I have found. Antidepressants are commonly used to control allergic reactions.

Depressions are from Mold and Airborne Pollutants

Letter to Edna:

I have learned that the depressions I suffer are triggered from food sensitivities, and airborne ones. Mold, dust, pollen are some of them. I am being tested for these as you know. I am taking homeopathic tablets for now. And wearing a mask at times. Looking into filters to wear in my nose. I just don't really want to take the medications  like Allegra, or Benadryl. Just might have to in the future, but after having half a life full of antidepressants, I really hate to get involved in another round of drugs, no matter if just over the counter.

I will keep the job for now and be on the lookout for a new one. But I love the one I have, just the out door conditions are the pits for now.

A woman at John's job is going through gluten problems. Now he wants me to give her information about what I am going through. I think he is finally believing that I have a real problem with what I have going on with me. I have been praying for his eyes to be opened to see the situation from a new point of view. Thank God!

He had a leak in his bathroom that let water flood into his study. I mentioned that I was greatly bothered by the moisture in that room last week. I itched greatly for the few minutes that I was in that room. He took great care to clean and dry that room out and today I could at least move in the house with out the same itchy skin problems. I did not dare go into the room yet. But the house smelled different, not moldy like last week, but not totally clean either.

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Testimony with updates

 Taken from the blog www.mylifemyreflections.blogspot.com

My Testimony 

by Janet Matthews

This was originally written in August 2010 and published in YFCC's newsletter.

                                                       

                                                               My Testimony August 2010

Dr. Dan is presenting his Extreme Make Over Series again. Amazingly, he is teaching all new information.The Extreme Make Overs occur about every six months. At the last EMO ( January 2010), I was just coming off my medications. At that time, I was taking 3 antidepressants, a thyroid medication, and a cholesterol medication. Now I have been off of them for six months. Over the past 17 years, I have taken, I believe, 17 or 18 different medications. Although I always desired to rid my body of these awful drugs, I couldn't go a day not taking them without severe withdrawal symptoms. These chemicals literally kept me imprisoned and were destroying my life. Over the last 6 months, I have seen incredible changes all through chiropractic care, nutritional modifications and a cutting edge detoxification program supervised by Dr. Fernandez. We must remember tho rid the body of the internal chemicals that cause harm. Sugar is a problem for me because it increases the yeast and molds in my body.

Chiropractic care brings the spinal bones back into alignment, and as a result, the brain can send those critically needed healing messages to the body.  When I first began my care, I had no curve in my neck(the arc of life).  It is supposed to have a "C" curve in it. Because it didn't, the lack of curvature was stretching the the brain stem down into the spinal column and literally pulling the brain down into the spine. OUCH! That cut off blood and information coming from the brain to the rest of my body. Because of the interference, my body suffered greatly.

Then the doctors found that I was toxic with lead along with other metals. My drinking water had to many chemicals in it as well.  Chlorine was a big problem.  Chlorine kills even the good bacteria in the intestines.  As a result, the intestines are unable to digest food correctly.  Purchasing a water filter was my first smart step and has made a big difference.

I learned how to cook with all the right foods - the ones that detoxify and reduce inflammation. I learned that garlic, onions, and cilantro are some of the most powerful healing foods that can be consumed.  Fennel also possesses incredible healing properties,one being the ability to kill mold.  Sage, rosemary, and All Spice all contribute to the production of serotonin in the brain.  This is the amino acid that lifts depression.

No strategy to heal my body worked prior to my coming to YFCC. I was poisoning myself with sugars daily. High amounts of bread, pasta, and fruits in my diet severely elevated the inflammatory process in my body and created constant suffering and pain.  My psychiatrist told me the depression would never go away. Well, of course it would never go away if I depended on him.  He wants my money.  So do the drug companies!!  Yes, let's keep the patient ignorant of the real CAUSE of their problems.  And while we're at it, let's keep their money. too!

However, the real problem is sickness and dis-ease in the body, and my depression was a symptom of the sickness.  The causes of my sickness were interference by subluxation, inflammation, yeast, molds, acidic foods, and environmental factors such as chemicals, preservatives, and additives in various foods that polluted the body.  My brain reacted to this flood of contaminants with anxiety, depression,  and allergies. I know in others the contaminants cause ADHD and a host of other brain dis-eases.

I thank God that I have my life back.  Thanks to YFCC, Dr. Dan and his entire team, my quality of life has been restored and life is enjoyable again.  Living without drugs, pain, and a dis-eased body is more than I ever dreamed possible.  I am thankful to be alive and well, and I look forward to making the rest of my years the best of my years. Thank you for my new found freedom!

New Stresses

Updates that have brought back the depression, and coming out of it again.

5/5/11

I was in a car accident May 5. I may have some whiplash.

 I called Dr.Hernandez at Thrive from the accident scene. Funny that I would consider him first among everyone. But Chiro has become that much of my life

now.

When I was doing my taxes for 2010, I noticed that I had been in the

hospital in the Spring in 2009 and 2010. I was adamant that I was not

going to end up there again this year. I was almost to the point of

glee when I found myself in an ambulance yesterday afternoon. I am

here again?!  God you have a sense of humor, or maybe trying to tell

me that You are in control:) 

5/11/11

As an update to the above:

Over the weekend I started to notice medium brown floaters in the

lower quarter of my vision. That would put it across my breast area.

Now with eating a lot of oils lately, I thought that it was just a

blouse that needed pretreatment  (lol), but no, it has to be the

occipital bone out of alinement again.  There has been an increase in

depression over this last weekend.

Shock to the body, misalignment of the spine is what brought it on.

5/31

I have been in and out of depression more often since the car accident.

Before the accident I would go into depression perhaps every other week. A mild depression, to be sure, but now it is getting to be daily. I thought as the body healed from the bruised and sprained back and neck, the depressions would be less. So far not. But I am hopeful that if I can get a grip on the reality of the situation, that I will get better, that I can have the happiness that I had before.

I had no target before my past improvement. I did not know what happiness could be. I had surrendered to the depression because I knew nothing else. Now I know I have been happy just last month.

I will get better.

God says that he will perfect all that concerns me. I have to keep this in the forefront as I heal.

There is more to life than depression. Most people would say duh. But when it is in your face 24/7 you get so deep into your pain that you can not see around it. Replace thoughts that are depressive with thoughts of God's love and the depression lessens.

11/20/11
I believe that the above accident has brought on severe allergic reactions that have put me out of work for nearly three weeks. I have gone back on medications, two allergy medications and two antidepressants. Check blog posts around this date.

Update post medication stoppage

I have been off medications now for 2 months. The going has been tough. But through support of supplements and the staff members at Yachter Chiropactic I have made it this far. I went off of the antidepressants cold turkey. After about one month the brain was getting very stressed. I called Dr. Dan Yachter and left a message. He called back within 2 hours and started the support that he said he would give. He got me in to the nutritionist as soon as possible and had Dr. F stop whatever he was doing and work with me to give me the support that I so desperately needed at the time.
Never have I been given the support to get off these drugs before. I have tried to do so six times since 1993. Once ending up in the hospital after reducing gradually for one year.
I have the implant still and it has saved me many times. But that is all that I am on, and the supplements. No drugs. I am chemical free at this time. No thyroid, no cholesterol medications either. Truly drug free.
Doctor Dan holds a series of lectures called the Extreme Make Over. I went off the medications before the EMO but with the support of the lectures and the culture of support that surrounded me I was able to come off the drugs. I know that I am not out of the window of danger yet. I have to prove to myself that this will work. So far it has. The following is an essay that I wrote at the end of the EMO.
I knew I would not lose a lot of weight on this EMO because I am toxic in lead and until I get some of that pulled out the weight can wait. But what I wanted to write about was the fact that I went off of all my antidepressants all at once, just before I started the EMO.
I had been on the antidepressants for eighteen years and on seventeen different ones during those years. Every doctor that I had during those years told me that I would be on the drugs all my life.
Only that no matter what drug I was on or combination of drugs I was unstable emotionally. Constant depression hung on me even when on three or four pill cocktails. I was told that there was no other way. I had to take the pills and maybe a little exercise would help. When one is that depressed one does not fill like moving any part of one's body. I would go to work half alive, sometimes contemplating suicide. I never got past the contemplating to the planning stage because the support that my husband and my art gave me, kept me going.
In 2008 I received a VNS implant. It stimulates the vagus nerve as it goes into the brain and causes serotonin to be produced. It was the first time in my life that I experienced joy. I a mean I experienced it at a different level than I had ever felt it before. Now I had something to fight for. Now I knew what life could be. But it took a mammogram finding a cyst in one of my breasts to shock me into trying even harder to lose weigh and get my health back. So I started correcting my diet. I lost 40 lbs in 6 months. I went gluten free and pulled other things out of my diet, But the depression was still there. Even with the VNS and three antidepressants.
Then a relative suggested Dr. Dan. He looked at my x-rays and determined that the curvature of the neck that he calls the Arch of Life was not curved at all. This in itself would have caused my depression. So we started the adjustments.
At the same time Dr. F started the detox from lead. I was feeling so good that I went cold turkey off the antidepressants. I did not tell any one. I lasted about 4 weeks until I had to call Dr Dan and said that I might have to go back on the drugs. He got me into Dr. F, who put me on some great supplements to balance the brain as it needed it at that time. I came back to near normal faster than any antidepressant had ever done for me. I have up and down days, mostly up now and with out the drugs that have ruled my life for eighteen years. When I needed support to just get through those tough days when coming off the antidepressants. the staff, and especially Dr. Dan were there to tell me I would, I could, do it. This support has meant the world to me. No doctor has supported me in my quest for health as he has. I know that I have come home to where God wants me to be with my health.
The next battle is the Candida (a yeast ) that I believe that I have. It causes depression and many other health problems. But I know that I will be able to conquer this problem with the guidance of Dr. Dan and his staff.
I received the results from the candida test and it was negative. I am still going to do the protocol for the yeast infection for I have information that leads me to think that the blood test is wrong. The spit test.
When on gets up in the morning, and before anything is put in one's mouth one spits into a clear glass of clean water. If the spit clumps and then strings downward or becomes cloudy one has candida. Mine did. For three days straight. Since I am so sensitive to every other problem (gluten,soy, milk,) I think that even just a little bit of the yeast would cause a problem. I can't eat even a little sugar, good or bad,without getting severely depressed even now.

Letter to Edna

Hello from Orlando.
Mom (89 years old) had a problem with one of her heart medications because it caused severe hives. We are working with her doctor to rid her of this problem and still cover her heart problems. She is getting depressed that she is stuck out at John's and we are working with that. She will be brought into the city at least once a week to connect with the friends and church buddies she has. Right now I am leary of giving her money, certainly no credit card. She forgets everything so easily now and then gets up set with herself. Her memory is going. at least short term memory. One day at a time.
Booger, our feline companion, is slowly losing the battle with cancer. But we will be with him until he is in too much pain to bare. Then we will end it. He has been a wonderful little person to be around.
Dave is still plugging on, he is wonderful in his support for Booger and for me and mom.
I ended up in the hospital overnight as I had an adverse reaction to the prep meds that I was taking for my colonoscopy. Good news, they did the colonoscopy in the hospital and I do not have colon cancer! Just a routine check up.
I have had a blood test that indicated increased levels of alkaline phosphatase . I was taking cinnamon as I was fighting a high sugar level. Cinnamon can do this response increase the levels of alkaline phospatase . Only thing is it is an indication for cancer, breast or colon. I go for a mammogram,, on June first.
One day at a time.
I have gone back up on antidepressants to help fight the stress.

The Reason for the Migraines

Spoke to a pharmacist last night and found out that migraines are caused by a lack of serotonin. So I need an adjustment to the device or go back up on the medications. This is only logical. I will contact  Dr. Riveria, and if necessary, Cyberonics to see what we can do to get relief from the headaches and a small amount of depression.
Another thing that is causing the stress is the amount of illnesses that I have had.
First the teeth and then the water in the ears thing. Since July I have had issues of the teeth and then the infection in the ears.
The teeth are healed, but I will go back to the dentist in Jan. to have the crown put on the tooth. The tooth that I am speaking of is the second one since July. It is drawn out do to healing time and money. I will need perhaps two more teeth fixed in the coming year. (It ended up being my entire set of teeth, upper and lower were filed down and capped with porcelain crown.-editor)
Doctor Rudiman, my gastro person, has seen blood work that he is concerned about and wants me in to take a CT of the liver. The liver enzymes again.We will work on this in Jan. (The antidepressants were constantly causing the liver enzymes to fluctuate.-editor)

To Edna about daughter Elaine.

About Elaine:
Mysterious aches are probably not in her head. She maybe very sensitive to stress and the stressors bring on the depression, moodiness, irritability and This is biological in nature. Her body and mind maybe trying to adjust to the stressors, but she may not have the amount of serotonin that she needs to soothe over the aches and pains that she has from the stress. She is not crazy. Just let her know that no matter what is wrong with her that I still believe in her. What she perceives as pain is real pain and is coming from her ability to be sensitive to aspects of life that the rest of us can't even perceive. This point must be brought up and discussed. It is, if I am right, a disease that will carry on for life. It is how she is. Period.
If I am right, she should be on a steady flow of antidepressants. Or she may be able to change up her diet to help. But just diet and exercise may not be enough.
That's all for now.

(Elaine passed away October 12-13 2010, unknown causes-editor)

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VNS Therpy for Depression

I am beginning to look into Vagus Nerve Stimulation for my depression. Today I tried to call the Cyberonics Corp. to get more information on their device. I am fed up with the run around with the antidepressants that I am on. When they are changed constantly because they are not working, I am unable to deal with the decisions necessary to take charge of my depression. Aetna, the ever present watchdog of the medicine cabinet does not let me have what I need when I need it. They deny the increase that is prescribed, and I am left out in the cold. I feel so cheated. Cheated of the dignity of being mentally competent to deal with fighting the insurance. I would be forever in debt to any procedure that would let me stand tall and drug free. But because I can't do that because of the nature of the disease, I remain frustrated. Pause: Stop, think, live.
Every day I fight. I fight my own mind. As I write this I keep thinking to even mention this problem to myself, or to others, has become boring, passe and nerve wracking. Depression sucks. But hey! There is always the fight, the fight to remain suicidal thought free. I want to try anything, or procedure that is available that would let me have a deep feeling of true joy and is legal. Also it would have to work on my memory. I have very few memories of joy. I have a good life, and I am treated well by all around me, but my mind treats me like a piece of crap.  Hey enough already, I am bored with myself.

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