Elizabeth Yarnell, Author, Innovator, Naturopath, Speaker
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Can Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) Be Helped with Dietary Changes?

Recently I responded to a post on my neighborhood mom’s group listserve titled “Help! Does anyone know about Restless Leg Syndrome!”

My response: “Drinking coconut water can help alleviate cramps and spasms. Restless Leg Syndrome can also be caused by a sensitivity to something you are eating. Hypersensitivity reactions may manifest as long as 4 days after exposure, so it can be difficult to pinpoint the trigger without specialized testing.”

The questioner visited my website to learn more about the LEAP dietary therapy protocols I use, and wound his way along to the MRT food sensitivity testing laboratory’s website. He then came back to me and complained that there were no listings allowing him to find a local practitioner. I responded that my clientele was nation-wide, and you don’t necessarily need a local practitioner for this kind of therapy.

His response: “The reason I mentioned finding local practitioners is that, in our experience, it takes a bit of face-to-face time to build up a good patient-doctor relationship and rapport and empathy and understanding.  I really don’t think that a “virtual practice” done over the telephone with faceless patient & faceless practitioner can be worth much. Thank you for your response.”

My response:

I understand your concerns about face-to-face time, empathy, rapport, and all of that, and if the traditional kind of doctor-patient relationship has helped alleviate your RLS, then it is the right one for you.

My practice differs from a traditional clinic in that I focus in on creating a customized, anti-inflammatory diet based on cutting-edge, state-of-the-art blood and urine tests. These test results can give me a clear picture into what is triggering your body to have an inflammatory response that, in your case, is irritating the nerves in your legs and causing them to spasm. My work takes a scientific analysis of your own bodily fluids and interprets that information into therapeutic dietary protocols that are easy to follow and allow you to continue leading a satisfying life, albeit one without RLS.

No matter how much face-to-face time you might get with a doctor in a 15-minute appointment slot, it would be highly unusual to find one who would spend hours custom-designing eating plans, menus, and recipes that accommodate your body’s unique profile, even if they were inspired to order such testing that does not lead to a medicinal solution.  My typical clients have already seen all the doctors and are still suffering when they decide that maybe they need to try a different approach to find relief.

Most fortunately for my clients around the country and their various ailments that respond to dietary therapies, this does not require us to be in the same room together. I do, however, offer sessions over Skype for those who prefer having visual contact instead of a simple phone call. Isn’t modern technology wonderful?

You are welcome to listen to this recording about how food sensitivities can manifest to learn more about this approach, and I would be happy to set up a free consultation over Skype or phone lines to answer any other questions you might have about how this type of therapy works remotely, or why I believe it can be helpful in alleviating Restless Leg Syndrome and other mysterious conditions.

Like any good doctor who wants to help her patients feel better, if you choose to work with me I promise to be empathetic, sympathetic, approachable, and most of all, curious. I understand your pain because I’ve dealt with my own health issues and those of my family, friends, and clients. If inflammation is at the root of your problem, you will feel better by reducing inflammation through a custom-tailored anti-inflammatory diet.

I look forward to working with you.    ~ Elizabeth

Fragrance Pollution

We are carpooling with a kid whose clothes smell so strongly of Tide detergent that I can smell him the moment he walks through a door twenty feet away. When we are all loaded in the car together, the aroma is so overwhelming I can taste it, and my daughter and I each sneeze several times during the short drive. As I write this 45 minutes after dropping the kids at school, I can still sense laundry detergent on my tongue and my eyes feel scratchy.

Emperor of Scent by Chandler BurrA few years ago I picked up The Emperor of Scent: A True Story of Perfume and Obsession, by Chandler Burr, a fascinating story about the sense of smell and where the fragrances in our modern world come from. Reading it reminded me that aromas are made of molecules, albeit molecules that are invisible. Even though you can’t see a smell, the molecules are still there.

The familiar scents in today’s consumer society are added to products using modified, or “designer,” molecules constructed by one of six massive chemical fragrance companies around the world. These six companies supply the scents for everything from Pine-Sol to Clorox, Herbal Essences shampoo, Tide laundry detergent, Bounce dryer sheets, Glade air freshener, and even Opium perfume.

If something says “fragrance,” “natural fragrances,” “aroma,” or “perfume/parfum,” you can be assured that the smell came from a chemist’s lab at one of these companies. The only safe, natural aromas in products are labeled “essential oils”.

Breathing in chemically-altered molecules can contribute to your body’s overall toxic load, and in today’s America we are exposed to more chemically created fragrances than ever before. They are everywhere you turn. Cross your personal toxic threshold and your body will make you pay in miserable ways. For me, three years of daily hives was one of my wake-up calls.

Many so-called “natural” products use chemical fragrances that fool you into thinking they are really, you know, natural. This makes it even more imperative to read labels carefully. A journalist friend did a story of such “natural” cleaning products years ago and her sources said that because they “claimed” to be natural smelling, users tended to inhale even more of the aroma molecules than with conventional cleaning products, leading to the conclusion that natural cleaning products were actually more harmful than chemical cleaners. I don’t agree, but I do think you should avoid sniffing chemical fragrances as much as possible.

I’m conscious that each fragrant whiff of our carpooler’s clothing sucks chemically-altered molecules deep into my lungs, where they have the potential to get stuck in that mass of alveoli and continue to irritate my immune system. I wonder if his family is using too much detergent with each load, or if this is what Tide would have us believe freshly-laundered clothes should smell like.

In our house we avoid these chemical fragrances whenever possible, using natural laundry detergents like Ecos and Seventh Generation that don’t leave heavy scents on our clothing, and skipping the dryer sheets. We also use natural cleaning products that don’t leave behind chemicals in the air; a “fresh, clean scent” at my house is usually associated with the smell of vinegar, not Chlorox or Lysol.

Without a bunch of chemicals floating around my indoor environment, my sense of smell has sharpened, and my appreciation of foods has increased along with it. But maybe the best effect for me personally is the reality of living a hive-free life for more than eight years now.

I wonder how I can broach the subject with my carpooler’s mom in a delicate way. I’ll welcome any ideas in the Comments below!

Dutch Oven Recipes for Camping: Glorious One-Pot Meals

I often receive questions about using the Glorious One-Pot Meal cooking method for camping, so today I thought I’d share a testimonial as to how well Glorious One-Pot Meal recipes work for campers:dutch oven recipes

I found your book at our library when I was looking for Dutch oven recipes.    My husband and I plan to do some camping next summer, and I was wanting some “good food” Dutch oven recipes as opposed to “camping food” recipes. I thought it would take all year to get a few “special” recipes. So far, we’ve tried three recipes (pork and quinoa, mac and cheese, and rosemary salmon), with very good results.    Your recipes are what I was looking for portion-wise, taste-wise, and flexibility-wise. I’ve been putting our old-school cast iron Dutch oven in our camping stove (we have the smallest Big Green Egg), with very good results. I love the “it’s done when the smells release” theory of cooking.

I plan to buy the book when I have to return it to the library, have already recommended it to a friend, and plan to give it (with a 2-quart Dutch oven) to a young friend who’s getting married in a few months.
~Lyndell R., Portland, OR

Are You Sensitive to Sulfites?

Sulfites are commonly added to foods as a preservative that inhibits oxidative discoloration (browning) and flavor changes. The problem is that many people are sensitive to sulfites and can suffer migraines, weakness, nausea, digestive disturbances, neurologic issues or other uncomfortable symptoms as long as four days after exposure.

You’ll find sulfites under names like “sodium metabisulfite” in prepared foods including beer, wine, baked goods, some canned foods, prepared or cured meats (hot dogs, bacon, etc.), fruit drinks and dried fruits.

Although the FDA has directed restaurants and other food retailers to declare if the foods they are serving have been treated with sulfites, you cannot depend on their forthcomingness. For instance, you should assume sulfites have been added to a container of cut or dried fruit at the grocery store unless it is specifically labeled “sulfite-free,”

You can find sulfite-free wine and beer if you look hard enough, and a good sulfite-free brand for dried fruits and vegetables is the Just Tomatoes series. Whole Foods Market says there are no sodium metabisulfites added to its 365 brand of dried fruits.

How can you figure out if sulfites are the cause of your problem? You can try eliminating all sulfite-containing foods and drinks for at least two weeks and see if your symptoms clear up. This can be a difficult strategy if sulfites turn out to be only one of many substances that are causing your body to react. A faster and easier way to learn what you are sensitive to is to take the MRT blood test that looks for hypersensitivity reactions to 150 foods and chemicals.

While sulfites are toxic to many people, sulfates may be more tolerable. Sulfite is converted to sulfate by sulfiteoxidase, a molybdenum dependent enzyme. If you just can’t seem to avoid sulfites, eating foods high in molybdenum may help reduce sulfite sensitivity. Significant sources of molybdenum include pork, lamb, beef liver, green beans, eggs, sunflower seeds, wheat flour, lentils, cucumbers and cereal grain.

Sulfites can also interfere with thiamine absorption. Thiamine deficiency can result in neurologic issues like Beriberi, Korsakoff’s syndrome, or optic neuropathy. People who consume a lot of foods or drinks containing sulfites might consider supplementing with thiamine (Vitamine B1), or simply adding more mushrooms into their diets.

If you are sensitive to sulfites, you may also be sensitive to sulfa drugs, soaps, and shampoos, so watch for the first sign of adverse reactions and cease use immediately upon swelling, rash, hives, burning, wheezing, etc. If there are signs of anaphalaxis, call 911 and seek help immediately.

Mom’s AutoImmune Disorder Increases Risk of Autism in Babe

While we might suspect vaccinations are contributing to the alarming rise of autism in this country, Moises Velasquez-Manoff, the author of An Epidemic of Absence: A New Way of Understanding Allergies and Autoimmune Diseases, thinks autism might be related to immune responses stretching farther back into the womb. Perhaps even to the mother’s autoimmune disorder.autoimmune and autism

In a recent New York Times column on autoimmunity and autism, Velasquez-Manoff points out that Danish research studying over 700,000 births shows a mother’s immune dysfunction can raise the child’s risk of autism by 350%.

As a mom with an autoimmune disorder, multiple sclerosis, I am particularly interested in learning about this link. Although my kids have aged beyond the autism zone, both show food and chemical sensitivity reactions (inflammation) and I’m certain there is a connection.

Velasquez-Manoff says: “The theme here is maternal immune dysregulation. Earlier this year, scientists presented direct evidence of this prenatal imbalance. Amniotic fluid collected from Danish newborns who later developed autism looked mildly inflamed.”

It all comes down to inflammation.

It all comes down to inflammation, yet again, but this time it appears to be the mother’s inflammatory response during gestation that influences the amniotic fluid that sensitizes the developing child, who later manifests as autistic. Perhaps autism is what it looks like when unwelcome swelling interferes with brain development.

The Feingold Association has a lot of research showing that autistic kids manifest behavior changes from ingesting chemical additives like the petroleum-based, FDA-approved Food Dyes & Colors (FD&C) in so many of our food (or food-like) products.

My goal, in both my own life and in my clinical practice as a naturopath, always focuses on reducing and eliminating inflammation through customized dietary strategies. Autoimmune disorders, like multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, and rheumatoid arthritis, respond so well to personalized anti-inflammatory menus that I started the Fight MS with Food project to gather data about the efficacy of this approach.

Velasquez-Manoff might advocate intentional parasitic infection as a way to combat hypersensitivity that manifests as autoimmunity, but personally I’d rather change what I’m eating than choose to host a colony of parasitic hitchhikers. My theory reverses his: I think that sometimes parasitic infection can cause the inflammation that leads to autoimmune disorders, not cure them.

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