The Rollercoaster of Life

Grandma: “I always wanted to go again. You know, it was just so interesting that a ride could make me so frightened, so scared, so sick, so excited, and so thrilled all together! Some didn’t like it. They went on the merry-go-round. That just goes around. Nothing. I like the rollercoaster. You get more out of it”

I always loved the movie “Parenthood” from 1989 with Steve Martin. It cracked me up when the Grandma gives this fabulous quote about the rollercoaster as a a metaphor for life and then proceeds to get in the wrong car.

I think I have certainly experienced every emotion possible in the last 6 weeks or so. I don’t know about you all, but I have travelled through each emotion multiple times each day since Covid 19 started. Initially, I have to admit that I was rather cavalier about the virus, compared to flu statistics and sort of wanted to blow it off. The first wave of reality hit when I went to pick up my daughter from school after one of her first softball tryouts. She came running out frantically to the car. I was ecstatic assuming she must have made the team. Instead she revealed that school was shut down for the next few weeks due to coronavirus. That was the first wave of realization that this shit was getting real. We suffered thru some e-learning growing pains and managed to get into a groove. I even made a daily schedule with a Pinterest flare that quickly made me feel like a failure when we deviated.

The next realization was that I was going to be exposed and then bring it home to them. We started doing 2 week rotations of seeing patients in clinic and then doing virtual visits for the following 2 weeks from home. This was exciting because I can’t imagine a time that I would ever be able to actually work from home. But I had to get thru the 2 weeks without getting sick in order to have that priveledge. Then there was guilt. I thought I should be doing more and offer to work on the inpatient Covid unit. But, if I did that then my kids would have both parents working with Covid patients and then we certainly both die and leave them orphans (yes, a little catastrophic thinking is always where my mind goes) So we agreed that one of us was ok to stay back until it became a necessity.

I said goodbye to my partners and coworkers and we begin the rotations into clinics that were unknown and tried continue to see our own patients via video and phone visits and those for acute visits that were screened “safe” to come in. I had a few patients that had tested positive but were doing well enough to stay at home. I video visited with them and we did supportive measures to help them through. This was the new normal that I settled into until the REALITY hit. On of my patients turned for the worse. He was in his forties and on about day #8 he tanked and wound up on a ventilator. His wife was at home with kids and grandkids and couldn’t even talk to him. She got reports from the physicians and I called her to give her emotional support. I was powerless and he was declining. It was then when I realized how this virus devastated. It creeps in and then changes the symptoms without warning, separating family and leaving patients scared and alone. I sobbed alone, got incredibly anxious, and got irrationally mad. I snapped at my kids and was just downright bitchy. My emotions were all over the place for a few days. I started stress eating and threw in the towel on my daily exercise. I was binging movies since the insomnia had crept in. Then, I immersed myself in Covid world. I read studies on treatment, listened to every daily update from my institution, talked about it constantly and went a little insane. More horror stories emerged, another patient of mine wound up ventilated after contracting it from her husband. Her husband actually passed away while she was in the ICU and her son couldn’t be there to deliver the news after she was extubated. Horrifying!

I don’t share these things to scare anyone. It’s just my journey over the past few weeks and I’m not even including all the gory details of what a rollercoaster this has been. I have so much gratitude that I have a job and realize that so many are out of work right now which makes this all so much tougher. I know you are all going through similar emotions and hope you feel free to reach out to friends, family and physicians if you need help. Feel free to share your experiences here as I really think there is so much to learn in our stories.

As an update, all my patients so far have made a full recovery and continue to improve daily. I can only pray that we are trending down and this won’t surge again. My family continues on a high speed carnival ride of emotion but we are dealing a little better. The nicer weather has helped as we are back to exercising outside. We found some projects around the house and have tried to do some healthy meals again (less comfort food and door dash)

Hang in there everyone!!!

Posted on April 26, 2020 by Angela in Uncategorized 14 Comments

Sheltering at Home/Covid 19

Never in the last two decades of my career as a physician would I have imagined that we would be using the same mask to see patients all day and then sterilizing/recycling them at the end of the day. These are unprecedented and unsettling times for sure. As of today (April 5th, 2020), Indiana has 4,441 positive cases and 127 deaths from the novel coronavirus. The good news is that as of today, Spain has seen death totals drop for the third day in a row. It is possible that New York may be reaching peak numbers and we are about 2 weeks or more behind them (credit to Dr Bryan Sharpe). The demographics show that about 20% of patients are aged 50-59, 16.9% are 40-49 and 17.4 % are 60-69. Only 1.6% of the case are in age less than 19 and 8% in patients over 80. 54.3% are female and 45.7% are male patients affected. These statistics are for the state of Indiana only.

So enough of the somber news and let’s move on to prevention. Most of us are sheltering at home which is a great thing!!! I have seen new people out walking in my neighborhood. Families are Zoom calling friends and having parties. Neighbors are dropping off groceries and goodies for each other as well as decorating windows and front doors with all kinds of special messages. I see people wearing masks/ gloves and social distancing at stores which is great. If you wear a mask and practice good hand washing you have a >90% of not contracting the virus. Check out The Doctor’s Farmacy with Dr Mark Hyman called: Special Episode: Medicine In The Age of COVID 19 And Beyond. They analyze some of the recent data on treatments and answer listener’s questions as well. This is a very helpful podcast outlining prevention and future treatment options that may even include IV vitamin C as well as ozone therapies.

Hopefully, you checked out my previous POST on Coronavirus prevention and supplements to stock up on. I am still taking all of them and really focusing on daily exercise, good nutrition and sleep. This is also a fabulous time to really start zoning in on eliminating sugar since we all have more time to cook at home. It is also a great time to get outside and start a garden, catch up on yard work, and get some simple walks in. It is the perfect time to start meditating (Check out apps like Headspace and Calm).

So what happens if you do start to get sick and think you may have the virus??? First, don’t panic. You can call your physician for guidance since most are doing telephone and virtual visits at this time. They can walk you through a protocol to find out if you need to be tested and direct you on where to go to do so. Our program currently has a virtual hub that will triage patients to designated sites. Please call and don’t got to the emergency room or doctor’s office. The only reason to go the the ER is if you are having worsening difficulty breathing.

One major key it to stay well hydrated. Drink hot liquids like tea and broth regularly. As for fever and body aches, I usually recommend not treating the fever unless it gets dangerously high. I would avoid NSAIDS (like ibuprofen, naproxen also known as Advil and Aleve). I would stick with low dose Tylenol if needed. A fever is the body’s way to respond to infection so it is actually helpful.

So now I’m curious. How are all of you? What strategies are you using to cope? What fun ideas or projects have you come up with?

If you are a current patient, I am available via the My IU Health portal for questions and and also doing virtual and video visits so feel free to call the office and get one set up. Stay strong and this too shall pass. Prayers to all for good health and safety.

Posted on April 5, 2020 by Angela in Uncategorized 1 Comment

COVID 19 Precautions

With the scare of COVID here in the USA now, I wanted to post a little info about boosting immunity to prevent contracting the virus. Here are some important facts about Covid-19

It is spread by contact with respiratory droplets within 3-6 feet.
One person usually infects 2-3 others
Symptoms include fever, cough and shortness of breath
It can progress to pneumonia and about 30% of patients that are hospitalized may require ICU care
Incubation period is 2-14 days but averages about 5 days
The current case fatality rates is unknown still but is approximately 2.3-2.8%. This is lower than SARS/MERS but slightly higher than the seasonal influenza (0.02-0.05%)
Seasonal flu usually causes 30-80 million cases and 30,000 deaths in the US alone per year

Here are some supplements that you can find at your local pharmacy or health food store that you can take daily to boost immunity

N-acetyl cystine (600mg twice daily)
Zinc (40mg daily)
Liposomal Vitamin C (1000mg daily)
Selenium (50-100mcg/daily)
Glycine (15g/day)
Spirulina (15g/day)

Here is my usual recommendation to start the second you start feeling like you may be coming down with a bug (Like when you first feel that scratch in your throat and think “Am I getting sick?”)

Continue all the supplements above but change the vitamin C recommendation to 1000mg every 2 hours while awake. Remember that the limiting factor with Vitamin C is that too much can give you diarrhea so if you get that, start backing off on the dose. I wouldn’t take more that 1000mg at a time to get maximum absorption. Because Vitamin C is water soluble, you really can’t overdose yourself.
Ramp up your intake of probiotics– so double or triple your current dose.
Drink some bone broth (I love Kettle and Fire brand)
Lastly, I like to add 4 drops of Biocidin (herbal antiviral that contains 90% polyphenols, black walnut hull and leaf, multiple oils including raspberry, galbanum, lavender, and oregano oil) twice daily

I order all my supplements from Fullscript which is an online supplement company that ships directly to you. The guarantee that the products are stored correctly/not expired or counterfeit. They also encourage brands to undergo third party certification programs to ensure safety. You can use this LINK to create an account. You can also probably find most supplements other than the Biocidin at your local health food store. (Fresh Thyme carries most). I have found Biocidin available on Amazon as well.

Lastly, Click this LINK to see where confirmed Covid cases are located along with the recovered cases and deaths.

I hope this information is useful and remember that boosting your immunity by eating a healthy diet, getting plenty of sleep, exercise, and sunlight is your best defense at this time. Lastly, the most important step of all to protect yourself above all others WASH YOUR HANDS!!! Remember to sing the “Happy Birthday” song and not stop until you are done singing (hopefully silently or people may think you are Nuts!)

Posted on March 7, 2020 by Angela in Uncategorized 2 Comments

Magnesium-the unloved mineral

Do you remember watching Wild Kingdom as a kid? Did you happen to notice that the animals attacking their prey would immediately eat the organ meats. I never really thought about why until I listened to Morley Robbins explain the importance of magnesium. Magnesium is the Rodney Dangerfield of the mineral world. It gets “No Respect” I have been so remiss in not learning the importance of this underutilized mineral. Magnesium is a mineral found in oysters, must, seeds, almonds, cashews, pumpkin, pistachios, kelp and organ meats. You can also get it from wheat grass. The strange thing about magnesium is that nobody really talks about its importance. We speak ad nauseam about calcium and vitamin D–but magnesium is the missing component in this triad. It turns out that we may be enduring an epidemic of magnesium deficiency.

First a little history, our ancestors lived in a very magnesium rich environment. It was in the water, food, root vegetables and organ meats that we consumed. Around 100 years ago, the environment flipped. It became a calcium rich, magnesium poor environment. It became much more acidic with toxins. We started refining salt from its natural form (sea salt) which contained a natural balance of magnesium and sodium. Sugar cane started being refined which removes all the magnesium. So now, living in a calcium rich environment we have developed problems lack of the stabilizing magnesium particle. Calcium that isn’t regulated by magnesium causes massive inflammation. Hence (spoiler alert) the inflammation forms free radicals and oxidative stress which progresses to chronic disease states –with heart disease being very significant due to calcium deposits on the arteries.

Uses of magnesium:

Stabilization of bones–magnesium gives bones resilience

Regulates calcium in the body

Vital for support for muscles in body (remember the heart is a muscle)

Here is a link to a great tutorial on how to make magnesium lotion—check it out!

http://creativechristianmama.com/how-to-make-magnesium-oil-lotion/

Posted on August 15, 2017 by Angela in disease, Mind, Uncategorized 5 Comments

Happy Thanksgiving

Posted on November 26, 2015 by Angela in Uncategorized Leave a comment

Fat Flush Water

Ingredients per 8 oz serving

Water
1 slice grapefruit
1 tangerine
½ cucumber, sliced
2 peppermint leaves
Ice – as much as you like

Directions
Wash grapefruit, tangerine cucumber and peppermint leaves. Slice cucumber, grapefruit and tangerine (or peel). Combine all ingredients (fruits, vegetables, 8 oz water, and ice) into a large pitcher.

Posted on May 22, 2015 by Angela in Uncategorized Leave a comment

Chicken/Kale Pasta

A big shout out and thanks for this recipe share from Kim:

Chicken/Kale Pasta

1 (16) oz. Gluten free pasta (you could also substitute spaghetti squash or zucchini ribbons)

4 (6oz) skinless and boneless chicken Breast cut into 1 inch pieces (organic/local)

Sea salt and fresh ground pepper (I like Pink Himalayan)

Extra virgin olive oil

Kerry gold butter

4 garlic cloves minced

1 cup (homemade) chicken broth

3/4 cup dry white wine

5 oz kale stemmed and coarsely chopped

2 cups grape tomatoes(halved)

1 cup shaved parmesan cheese

1)Prepare pasta as directed.

2) Season chicken with sea salt and pepper, cook in a single layer of hot oil and melted kerry gold butter in a large skillet over high heat without stirring for 1-2 minutes. Turn chicken: cook 2 more minutes or until done. Transfer chicken to plate.

3) Add garlic to skillet and reduce to medium heat. Cook constantly,for 30 seconds then add homemade chicken broth and wine, stirring to loosen browned bits from bottom of skillet, simmer 6-8 minutes or until liquid is reduced by half. Add kale, stirring until kale wilts.

4) Add kale mixture to reserved pasta. Stir in tomatoes and 1 cup shaved parmesan if desired.

Prep time 25 minutes Cook time 30 minutes

Posted on September 21, 2014 by Angela in Green Living, Nutrition, Organic, Uncategorized, Whole Food Leave a comment

Gluten Free Update

Here’s Superhero Sandy’s latest gluten-free update. It seems it is possible to change and still enjoy food! Here are a few of her recent observations and recommendations. Thanks Sandy–we are all inspired by you!

Sandy Writes:

Gluten free update: I’ve always been one to buy quality name brand products, not the generic store brand stuff that doesn’t taste as good. I’m known among close family and friends as a good cook, and it has always been my contention that good cooking starts with the choices you make in the store. I’m a picky shopper, favoring name brands and top quality fresh food; my motto is “if nobody eats it, it’s not a bargain,” so stay away from the cheap, generic stuff.

Anyway, while driving the four blocks to Kroger from my home one day about three months ago, my phone rang. It was the nurse at my doctor’s office telling me that my thyroid antibodies were sky-high and that I needed to get on a gluten-free diet as soon as possible. I also needed to start taking probiotics, selenium, and CoQ-10 to help combat the catastrophe that was taking place in my intestines and finding its way to my thyroid gland…and who knows where else…probably wherever I felt pain, including my arthritic knees. As I understand it, the antibody issue is separate from the TSH, T3, T4 markers for thyroid disease. This was something different, an autoimmune thing I had going on along with a underactive thyroid gland.

The nurse sounded serious. This wasn’t just a “why don’t you try this and see what happens” suggestion; it was an order. Oh, man. I had a lasagna pan full of semolina pasta covered in meat sauce, cheese, and sour cream…all ready to bake for my grandson and his friends who would be arriving in a couple of hours. I started doing an inventory of what I was planning for dinner that very night that I could and could not eat if I were to actually change my diet to gluten-free. Salad? Okay, yeah. Pasta? Not so much. Bread? Don’t make me laugh. First I panicked. And then I started to solve the problem.

I started changing my shopping practices on that very first trip. Luckily, I ran across some gluten-free pasta, so I bought it, scraped some sauce and cheese off the casserole, cooked up the new pasta, and mixed them together. Not bad. So far, so good. Everybody else ate the original casserole while I ate my gluten-free pasta version. And from that point on, my kitchen only contained gluten-free pasta. You literally couldn’t tell the difference…although you do have to be a bit more exact about cooking time.

Then I started doing research, shopping the out-of-the-way sections of the store: buying organic stuff, fresh fruits and vegetables. I also started going to the local meat market here in Greencastle, buying better, unsullied by hormones and antibiotics meat and milk and butter and eggs.

Now, less than three months later, I just returned from a grocery shopping expedition. I have completely changed, one or two items at a time, what I buy at the store. My shopping list is entirely different from it was not long ago. Here’s a partial list of what I buy now:

Trader’s Point milk (grass-fed, organic, not homogenized, the real stuff my Grandpa Hause used to carry in buckets from the barn to the house)
Kerrygold Irish butter (kind of like the stuff my Grandma churned from those buckets of milk)
Blue Sky free range eggs (I’ve tried several brands of eggs; these have the most golden yellows I’ve ever seen.)
Van’s gluten-free waffles…or pancakes…or whatever. These are better than Eggo. Trust me.
Rudi’s gluten-free “original” white bread (okay, so it’s not quite the same as what you usually buy…but it’s gluten-free and you can make a sandwich with it.)
Izze soda (instead of diet Coke…nothing but fruit juice and sparkling water)
Smucker’s Simply Fruit jelly…again, no sugar, no sweetener of any kind…doesn’t need it…just fruit juice.
Udi’s blueberry muffin tops (gluten, soy, wheat, and dairy free)
fresh produce from local suppliers, including some honey crisp apples from Anderson Orchard, which we picked up yesterday
heirloom tomatoes…don’t fall for vine ripe or Indiana tomatoes…heirloom are the best
100% grass-fed beef from local producers. If I can’t find grass-fed, I will still buy local. If I can’t find local, I buy organic…no hormones, no antibiotics. Sometimes this means there’s no chicken available today, so you have to buy pork instead or you can’t find the cut of beef you want. You have to be adaptable to eat well.
Kemp’s frozen yogurt (because my soul needs ice cream)
Talenti gelato (can’t eat much of this because it’s calorie-, fat-, and sugar-laden, but it is gluten-free, HFCS free, and oh, man, is it ever good!)
Simple Truth gluten-free animal crackers (a store brand, but good)
Quinn’s popcorn (although i don’t use the flavor packet that comes with it…I use the above mentioned Kerrygold Irish butter.)
Pamela’s chocolate chip gluten-free cookies
Glutino table crackers
Ronzoni gluten-free pasta
Muir Glen fire roasted diced tomatoes (I already knew these were the best canned tomatoes and tomato sauces and spaghetti sauces around…been buying Muir Glen for a while now)
frozen corn, peas, green beans, broccoli…whatever I can’t find fresh, I buy frozen. Just the vegetables. Not the kind that come with sauces already in them. I love those ones that you can steam in the microwave.
Maple Hill creamery yogurt (full fat with the cream on top, just like the milk from grass-fed cows…and mostly I buy plain and mix in my own fruit and granola and sweeteners. Trader’s Point makes good yogurt too, but Maple Hill is thicker. I like it better.
organic blue agave syrup
real maple syrup
GiddyUpGo gluten-free granola
Nature’s Path corn flakes
Cheese…I don’t know about cheese. We still have a bunch I bought in Wisconsin last month. I can’t swear that what I have is organic and grass-fed. Probably some is and some isn’t. I’m working on that.

I try to buy things that are sugar-free, but you have to watch that. Most of the time “sugar-free” on a label means that they used aspartame or some other poison instead of sugar. Sugar isn’t good, it contributes to inflammation, but poison is worse. Sugar is also better than high fructose corn syrup.

That’s all I got for you now, but my list is ever-changing, and I still haven’t been able to explore Fresh Thyme as thoroughly as I want to. Look for more updates in the future on my gluten-free lifestyle. Oh, and I just got another blood test last week. My numbers are “a little bit better.” We’re making some adjustments. But I feel better all the time, am not sick as much as I used to be…I’m staying on top of this thyroid deal, and that seems to actually be helping with the arthritis issues too.

Posted on August 25, 2014 by Angela in disease, Nutrition, Uncategorized, Whole Food Leave a comment

Gluten Free Tips from Superhero Sandy

Here are some more great tips from our very own Superhero Sandy that is the gluten-free goddess

Just a little FYI for those following along—here is a quick recap—Sandy sufferers from Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis.

She has followed my recommendations of going Gluten-free to decrease her autoimmune response which is attacking her body’s own thyroid tissue. She has already brought her thyroid antibodies down drastically in the last 6 weeks and has lost about 11 lbs just by going Gluten Free!

She shares these tips for us:

Some food tips for the day:

1. If you are going to buy gluten-free bread, buy the white stuff. I’ve always bought whole wheat, 100% whole wheat bread, which is brownish in color. It’s the healthiest of the wheat breads. But when you give up wheat, but still want an occasional slice of some bread-like food substance, buy the white stuff. It’s made mostly with white rice flour. The brown rice flour that makes brownish colored gluten-free bread does not result in nearly as good a taste.

2. There’s a place in Speedway called Famous Tomato. I stopped there yesterday because I was drawn by the large display of tomatoes out front. I bought two tomatoes, one a vine ripe tomato from Kentucky, the other simply billed as an “heirloom tomato.” I just sliced that heirloom one for dinner tonight, and Oh.My.God. Best tomato I’ve eaten in the past 30 years.

They had dozens of tomato choices from yellow to pineapple to just regular old tomatoes.

Found them on Yelp, here:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/famous-tomato-indianapolis

They also have a whole wall of hot sauces to choose from and a really good-looking salad bar. All I bought on my first foray was a cantaloupe and those two tomatoes, but I plan to go back.

Famous Tomato
www.yelp.com
Farmers Market in Indianapolis, IN

Posted on July 25, 2014 by Angela in Uncategorized Leave a comment

Local Grown Ingredients

It’s funny that people will spend $5.00 on a Starbucks drink but have trouble with the expense of buying organic veggies and fruits. I was certainly an offender back in the day and I absolutely said –“It’s too expensive to eat healthy”. Then, I had an epiphany realizing that everything that I put in my body was either destroying or improving my health. Have you priced cancer or autoimmune disease meds and treatments lately? I can guarantee you that pharmaceuticals are expensive and are only getting pricier! Today I shelled out a pretty penny at the Binford Farmer’s Market and got some amazing healthy food!

I came across a list of all the local restaurants that use local organic ingredients and thought I would share. I’m putting my money towards the farmers and not toward Monsanto’s dreaded GMO’s

The following is a list of Local Restaurants using Local Ingredients—I’m putting my money into my health!

3 Days in Paris

3 Sisters Cafe

Barking Dog

Bee Coffee Roasters

Bluebeard

Brad Gates

Cafe Patachou

Cavemantruck

Cerulean

Circle City Sweets

City Cafe

Duos

Ezra’s Enlightened Cafe

Fermenti Artisian

Goose the Eatery

H20 Sushi

Foundry Provisions

Harry & Izzy’s

Indigo Duck

Ingredients

Juniper Spoon

Late Harvest

The Legend

Liberitine

Natural Born Juicers

Pizzology Pizzeria and Pub

Pogue’s Run Grocer Cafe

Pure Eatery

R-Bistro

Recess

Shoefly Public House

SoBro Cafe

St Elmos

Tulip Noir

Twenty Tap

Posted on July 13, 2014 by Angela in Diet, Nutrition, Organic, Uncategorized, Whole Food 1 Comment

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