18d to the GRE

Tuesday morning: Boost, 6mp, levisin, peppermint pill, probiotic.
Tuesday afternoon: Boost, ginger pill, levisin.
Tuesday evening: baked potato, peppermint pill, minus a cup of blood.

Symptoms: nausea (the kind that you get high in the stomach when you vomit nothing but bile for hours on end), fatigue, pain (stomach and intestinal), diahrrea, blurred vision, and an insane craving for Chinese food.

Well, I haven't studied for two days and I'm feeling anxious. But not enough to try to study between running to the restroom every ten minutes. I think I'm still on the right track, though. It can be done. I keep having to remind myself that the reason my scores aren't improving on the practice tests is because I'm not focusing and my attitude is, "I'll do better when I'm more alert"... as if magically I'm going to be more alert and less nauseas 18 days from now.

I plan on taking the practice exams in sections from now on (still timed) instead of all together. This should help the maintain focus. Should. I have no interest in masking this - it's fucking hard. The material is simple, but the task of focusing and blocking out the pain and the malaise and exhaustion is... well, exhausting. Honestly, my motivation to do well at this point is so that once it's overwith I can meet with my prospective mentors in California the following week with pride and purpose.

I'm finding the confabulatory prognostication of failure and defeat to be more harmful than helpful, as usual. Therefore, my goal for the next three weeks is to concentrate on what I'm doing now, and agree with myself that if I study assiduously, the outcome of the test will be indicative of that. Baring in mind that I am not a genius, and, in fact, have other qualities that trump that quality, I can be content with an above-average score... which is usually where I fall academically.

Speaking of research experience (which is my second most attractive scientific asset), I'm actually writing this at work. Truth be told, when my boss is out of town and my coworkers don't even see fit to come in, I have no quams about sitting here writing for the bulk of my time. I feel no obligation to perform above and beyond when my boss is not here. So I'll write, I'll get the critical parts of protocol done, I'll read some journal articles, I'll run to the restroom about twelve times, then I'll catch a bus home and hopefully be able to study a bit during the ride... and not have to get off the bus and waddle to the nearest public restroom and finally find one only seconds before... you get the idea.

This is a bit how my internal pep-rally goes:

I am not an academic prodigy, but... I have intelligent creativity, tremendous work ethic, astronomical ambition, indestructible curiosity, a history of begetting and carrying-out great things, and a unique ability to write and communicate that almost zero scientists that I have met can challenge.

crohn's and coeliac

Sunday morning: 6mp, levisin, peppermint pill, ginger tea, probiotic and oatmeal.

Sunday afternoon: split pea soup.

Sunday evening: levisin, promethazine, peppermint pill, ginger tea... baked potato and spinach.

Now then. Way the hell back in 1984, the two most prevalent instigators of Crohn's were dairy and wheat (Workman et al). However, most Crohnies are told that wheat is the lesser of the two evils and end up embarking on a primarily bread-packed diet, especially when ill. A decade later, there is a notably high prevalence of Coeliac disease in Crohn's patients (Tursi et al 2005). Huh... I wonder how in the world this might have happened.

[note: I reserve the right to use the scientific spelling of coeliac disease, since celiac is meant to be called the disease of the coelem...]

I have two working theories.

1) Crohnies seek out the most mild diet possible, including wheat breads to try to give some kind of nutritional value to the meager gustatory regimen and subsequently develop Coeliac or gluten-sensitivity due to the overload of gliadin and transglutaminases that are the trademarks of gluten/wheat intolerance.

2) Coeliac and Crohn's are actually cohorts.

I like the Tursi study because, unlike many medical case studies, it actually has a pretty thorough methods protocol (yes, I am particularly scrupulous about scientific protocol). When they conclude that all patients should begin a gluten-free diet upon CD diagnosis, this recommendation is sound. Namely, all of their case study patients were diagnosed with CD for the first time immediately prior to being subject to this correlative Coeliac study.

What I would have liked to see is the prevalence of actual villous damage in CD patients with antibody markers of Coeliac. This study, however, looked only at biomarkers of Coeliac, and not at histological damage. If most CD patients with Coeliac disease do not have villous atrophy, it suggests that Coeliac evolved after the onset of Crohn's inflammation, is in early or benign stages, and is the result of an elevated wheat intake (likely inadvertent) in the quest for a "Crohn's friendly" diet.

I would also like to see a study in veterans of CD to see what symptoms of Coeliac they exhibit, which would confirm or reject my working theories. A girl can dream, eh?

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The point of this post is that I'm now trying to modulate (but not eliminate) my gluten intake... just for the hell of it. Coeliac disease has been discarded from my list of contributing ailments by several blood tests, so I'm not really concerned, but it is interesting.

the naturopathic method

What kind of environmental activist would I be if I didn't indulge at least once in the digestive supplement movement?

I've actually tried supplements before, but in a more half-assed and unenthusiastic way. Various enzymes have all made me supremely nauseas in the past, so I turned away from the prospect of non-pharmaceuticals. Ten years later, now that the pressing symptom is, itself, nausea, and because my doctor isn't able to see me until the end of the month (after waiting for two months already), I'm revisiting the realm of botanical medicine. Below is the assemblage of my arsenal:

GINGER. Because the newest and most severe current symptom is nausea, I have been adding ginger chews to my astronomical intake of tea (which I have drastically decreased from eight to one or two mugs). Riyazi et al reported in 2007 that several compounds in the volatile oils of ginger root have antispasmotic effects. They are but one of several instances of this observation. So I will begin with 1-2 chews a day, which equates to ~1/2tbs ginger oil.

LICORICE. I have written before about the digestive benefits of licorice. The deglycyrrhizinated licorice chewable tablets (DGL, fructose free) I'm about to begin taking somewhat deviate from my original suspicion that glycyrrhetinic acid was the more prominent anti-inflammatory constituent. Glycyrrhizin is the sweetening component of licorice, which is helpful if you are using pure licorice root at low doses. However, what studies have targeted the anti-inflammatory benefits in humans (Meletis and Zabriskie 2008) of higher exposure of other chemicals in licorice root. Since these are more benign and helpful in higher quantity, and glycyrrhetinic acid becomes harmful (auditory and visual side effects) had to be eradicated. Licorice is typically a more colitis-esque approach, but I'm giving it a go.

PEPPERMINT OIL. The intestinal mucosal complements of peppermint are far from obfuscated. In fact I'm sure I've written about them, too... somewhere. Peptogest is my new favorite oil tablet because the uncontrolled release of teas and leaves does more harm than good. The timed release of concentrated peppermint (menthol, particularly) is essential to getting the chemical to the intestine without releasing in the stomach where it is a known irritant.

PROBIOTICS, HONEY and GARLIC. My final and key player in this offensive is Ultimate Flora Critical Care 50 Billion. I figure, if you're going to do probiotics, go full throttle. I've heard good things about this particular breed of gram-positives. There is a particular sugar in most honeys (fructooligosaccharides) that helps these little buggars to proliferate. This same sugar is found in garlic. So... honey garlic chicken, honey pancakes, garlic toast, honey garlic potatoes... my boyfriend's going to want to kiss me interminably.

Day 1. Here we go.