5258

Sleepless in Palo Alto! I've copied in an email message to Rebecca and her reply. Happy 2008 to all.

My Note
*******************
Hi Rebecca--
Nearly the same late night/ early morning pattern... Had a cup of CALM ES around 8pm... Went to bed around 9:30pm... read for an hour... and started getting more alert... took a dose of flower remedy around 11pm... read some more and nodded off... turned out the light and fell asleep briefly... woke up around 12:30am... Managed to get back to sleep after a while... woke up around 4am with acute shaking... tossed, turned, and got a few minutes of sleep between 4 and 7am when I got up for good...

Shaking at 4am (and for the next 3 hours) was acute... upper arms and shoulders felt tense, numb, and not moving well... hands and forearms tingly and numb feeling... couldn't lay still--had to keep getting up and moving about... Shaking eased up a fair amount after I took a hot shower--not enough energy to do my morning exercises... Waiting now for breakfast to report in (banana, nuts and yogurt)... Starting to shake some as I write this note on the computer...

I still have two doses of Ativan... I'm thinking about taking a dose later today to get some relief (hopefully!)... Should I keep taking CALM and flowers--they don't seem to be affecting things that much? All for now! Ciao!
***************
R's Note Back
***************

Hi Ramon,

Yes, stay on the Flowers. There effect isn't instantaneous. I noticed a shift after about a week. My husband just reported noticing a shift and he has been on his for about a week. The shift is subtle, but real. My husband just remarked to me this morning that he had a thought this morning that he would like to do a particular thing. Then he thought, "that's strange, I have never done that or wanted to do that before." It was an out of character inclination, but one that was good for him. My personal experience was similar. I woke up one day knowing how to solve a problem I had been stuck about for years, and this is very significant for me because I am a very good problem solver in general, but this issue was one I had emotional blocks about. I simply woke up one day and the block was gone and the answer was clear. It was very much a WOW experience for me. I attributed it to the effect of my flower remedy because that was the only thing that had changed.

How much CALM are you using in each dose you take? I am assuming you are using a set of standard measuring spoons as used for cooking.

Try using 3/4 teaspoon. If you are already using that much, go to a full level teaspoon. Keep using it every 4 hours while awake.

If you decide to try the ativan again to get some relief and sleep at night, try breaking it in half. Use the smallest possible dose to get the effect you need.

As soon as possible, I suggest you experiment by taking all dairy, and fruit out of your diet and use no grains except small amounts of brown rice. Eat primarily vegetables (not primarily rice) with olive or coconut oil. For convenience, you can get veggies all cut up and ready to steam or stir fry at Trader Joes. They have them both frozen in bags where you can shake out the amount you want, and they have them all cut and washed and bagged in the fresh veggie section. They have cans of organic beans which you can add to your mix.

You may need to advertise on Craigs list for a personal assistant who will shop for you a couple times a week and perhaps come in and cook if cooking is hard for you now. That person might put together a big pot of vegetable bean soup so it could be in the fridge and you could take out a serving and heat it up as needed. Or, maybe you can accomplish that yourself when the calm period comes in the evening. If you find such a person I will be happy to talk with them if you want me to.

I really have a hunch that if you stopped the dairy and all the sugar sources (fruit, dried fruit, cereal) that you might have a significant drop in these annoying, debilitating symptoms. I think you would start to notice a change pretty quickly and a very significant change after about a week.

Remember way back when you came to see me and had learned to control your tremor by accessing your heart, but that day your tremor was very active and you could not stop it. I said, "what have you eaten today?" It turned out it was all largely sugar based - both your breakfast and your lunch, plus you had walked in with a very large bottle of some healthy looking Odwalla drink which I examined and did the math calculation on the sugars and found it contained some huge number of teaspoons of sugar. I pointed out that you were sending your blood sugar soaring which is a state of emergency to your body. Your adrenals get triggered and adrenaline is released. If you are getting hyperglycemic from the sugars in your foods, you are then likely pumping out too much insulin and then getting hypoglycemic - another emergency leading to more adrenaline release. Hypoglycemia will make you shake too. In the event you are eating things that you have sensitivities or outright allergies to, then you are also triggering your adrenals and your immune system as well. You would have your whole body in a state of emergency, adrenaline pumping. Of course you will be unable to sleep. Of course you will be anxious. You see how much can be going on here? You see why I am urging you to put an immediate halt to your current way of eating to test out this possibility?

"Way back when," you tested my theory the very next day and had immediate positive results. Your symptoms calmed down that very day, and on the second day of your experiment you had to go to some meeting, maybe you had a presentation. It was the kind of thing that would ordinarily be a stressor and lead to shaking, but you had changed your diet and had hardly any symptoms at all!

Ramon, you have been doing REALLY WELL up until you got pushed over the edge by something. I don't think the something is advancing PD. I think it is very likely dietary.

You might want to consider using ClearVite. I think you used this before. Did you do the ClearVite program back when we started doing nutritional work?

ClearVite has 12 grams of protein per scoop. That scoop is 25% protein (rice based) and the other 75% is all nutritional supplements that support liver detox and gut healing. It also includes probiotics. You can mix it up with water or rice milk or in green tea (to get the added antioxidants of the green tea). It now comes in a chocolate flavored version as well as the original version. It is an easy way to get protein and nutrients on board. You can add coconut oil to it, or you can dissolve coconut oil in some warm water and drink that to boost your calories.

You have been living on a largely fruit and dairy diet for a long time. Make a drastic shift from this to healthy, antioxidant rich, nutrient dense low glycemic veggies and I think you stand a good chance of getting some rapid changes for the better.

Hey, remember, this isn't forever!! I suspect you are just way out of balance and we need extreme measures to get the balance back and let healing have a chance. Then some of these foods you love can likely come back, but in a proper mix with other things.

If you want clearvite I can have that in the mail to you right away as soon as you give the word.

Okay, that's my best at the moment and I hope it helps!