I am just feeling the effects of my mast cells going beserk. Under arm sweating, fingers tingling, scalp “lifting” mouth swollen, ears burning, throat closing face going pink and “crawling”, brain fog and anxiety and that’s just my head! Wow! Oops now I feel my skin lift, go red and itch like crazy and I can only be “glad” that this time, at least it is not my throat closing so that I am choking. A small mercy.
Welcome to my world.
Mast Cell Activation Disorder
is an immunological condition in which mast cells inappropriately and excessively release chemical mediators, resulting in a range of chronic symptoms, sometimes including anaphylaxis or near-anaphylaxis attacks. Here is a photo – well so I think as I didn’t take it ( LOL!). Here is also a link to some information on Wikipedia.
My Condition Update
I used to live with this on a daily basis so I am very thankful that I do not have these “attacks ” very often now. I do know that a lot of you good people out there have to deal with this everyday and I feel for you.
If you read my About Su page you will see that I was diagnosed with Histamine Intolerance and then Mast Cell Activation Disorder in 2009 confirmed later by my doctor. I also see a brilliant skin specialist regularly to check my condition.
I realised in 2009 that I had always had times where I had unexplained symptoms. Now since 2009, I have become expert in my symptoms and managing them – well , most of the time anyway! But it still sucks! I do feel for anyone of you who goes through it on a a daily basis.
I now feel so much better and I am now living well again and travelling extensively. I have so much energy and I run and exercise on a daily basis. My hair is so much thicker, my body works well and my skin is great. It has taken time and effort but it has been worth it.
Cautiously I say now that I am “lucky” that my condition came to light and that I was given this opportunity to sort my health out in such a positive way. You might say I have made friends with my condition and I am, by and large, at peace with it. Never ever thought I would say this but it has helped me (forced me) to get really well!
Thank you to so many people who are continually writing in about my diet. I feel privileged that you continue to come and ask while I have not been present on my website.
Some of you have asked to know how I did it I promise I will share it all soon. I followed a very strict diet under the guidance of Dr Fuhrman and I take no tablets whatsoever. Yes, No Antihistamines.
My very dear friend ,Yasmina, who was diagnosed at the same time and who set off with me on the path to get to grips with our condition decided to research it big time. . Please See her website for further info. Sadly Yasmina passed away recently from cancer but her work is her legacy.
I am really back this time. I am now a “travelling vegan” learning how and where to eat as I go. I have been off on my travels since soon after my mother died, after her long battle with Alzheimers and left me some money. I decided to spend it in the way she would have wished and to travel the world a little. Currently I am mostly travelling with a photographer friend.
My husband is doing well and has 24 hour care at home. He no longer notices if I am not at home all the time. My neighbour who has Alzheimers also has care giver who I oversee. All good.
“A Travelling Vegan” is born.
So far, and since last April (2017), I have been to Italy, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Georgia (country), Armenia, Philippines, North Finland and I go to Namibia, next week. Being a vegan, eating in these different countries is sometimes difficult but I have had some very pleasant surprises too. I will writing about it on a new blog “A Traveling Vegan” coming shortly.
Huskies.
My Health
Thank you for all the enquires about my health. I still stick by and large to my strict vegan diet as prescribed by Dr Fuhrman and I certainly know it when I don’t manage it. I never knowingly eat meat or any animal products.
I am very well in myself. If fact I am better than I have been for a long time and certainly fitter now, with running and weight training, than when I was in my 40s. I am very thankful that I am so well and that I can now travel. During those long days of illness I couldn’t manage to travel on a train without having an increase in symptoms, let alone on a plane. Thank you Dr Fuhrman for setting me on my path back to health. I will say more about this in my next post.
Feeding reindeer with reindeer moss. I have not put on weight! I am just wearing many layers of clothes to keep warm!
Please remember to look out for my new website ” A travelling Vegan”. I will let you know when its up and running.
My thanks to James Strachan for allowing me to use these photographs of me in Lapland, Finland.
https://thereluctantrawfoodist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Su-traveller-resized.png252378SuSu2018-05-01 19:42:132018-05-01 19:42:13Update On A Now Travelling Vegan
I have taken time out to help to nurse my mother who was being nursed at home having Frontotemporal dementia. When she died in June 2016 my brother and I arranged her funeral. I also lost my dear auntie to Alzheimer’s a month later. My husband who suffered 3 strokes at the ages of 60 and 61 is now 75 and requires continuous care at home. He is now doubly incontinent and has vascular dementia. My neighbour, who has lived in the house just next door to mine since 1981, is now 88 years old old and has ever worsening memory loss. She is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Even the cat seems to have some dementia. I am surrounded!
Memory loss and brain aging due to dementia and alzheimer’s disease
Dementia is actually a collection of diseases that cause a long term and often gradual decrease in the ability to think and remember that is great enough to affect a person’s daily functioning. It is a terrible issue to live with and to deal with as a carer because , it appears that the loved one disappears over a period of time. For more information have a look at this link back to Wikipedia. See also my own post on dementia. For those in need of urgent information there is a lot of information available on the web generally but it does pay dividends to look at several websites . Here is a link to the Dementia Society of America and here is another link to the Alzheimer’s Society here in the UK.
Over the last 7 years, of necessity, I have become quite knowledgeable about caring for loved ones with dementia and I am thinking that maybe I will set up my own website with information for those with dementia and information about looking after the carer.
Back to what this blog is about!
Thank you all the lovely people who has sent me such kind messages. I have been overwhelmed by all the care. Thank you Thank you! I have also been going through some changes. I became 60 recently so a new decade! I have been amending my lifestyle to look after myself more and I have been dealing with some grief issues. I will say more about all these soon.
I have been finding life as a carer exhausting and have been meaning to come back here for some time but I never find the time so I am having to make my writing time a priority.
So I am now going to get back right back to it! See you very soon! 🙂
Lovely food!
https://thereluctantrawfoodist.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/welcome-back-resized.jpg265396SuSu2017-01-08 16:34:512017-01-08 16:34:51I’m Back! Thank you for all the lovely messages!
How not to Die? Hmm intriguing title! Latest on Immortality? With the book beside me as I type I have already had someone say that we all die eventually and ask so what is this all about? This is Dr Greger’s excellent life changing new book and it packs a big punch right up front by informing us that there may be no such thing as dying from old age. Apparently current research shows that we actually die from diseases rather than old age! Think about it! Of course, the book is really about how not to die prematurely from diseases and how to live as healthily as possible. This is my dream book! I was very lucky to get an advanced copy. Mine is on order.
https://thereluctantrawfoodist.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/How-not-to-die-Dr-Greger.jpg265599SuSu2015-12-04 13:01:452015-12-07 20:12:25How Not To Die… What we didn’t know until now!
Given that both my mother and my husband have quite advanced dementia, I have had to think and research about the possible causes of Alzheimer’s disease and the other kinds of dementia, and my research has led me back to a whole-food plant-based diet as being the best way to prevent brain decline in later years. Literally food for thought. By way of background my husband had a minor stroke in 2001, followed, in 2002. by a massive stroke from which I resuscitated him. Read more
https://thereluctantrawfoodist.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/food-for-thought-cropped.jpg265600SuSu2015-11-07 14:17:282015-11-07 21:52:51Dementia – Food for Thought?
Give me my daily salad anytime! Wow! Never ever thought I would love salad! Growing up, I didn’t like my greens but then when I was a little girl, salad consisted of lettuce, tomato and cucumber with sugar sprinted over the lot! Yuk! I used to think that salad was a punishment food! Cabbage tended to boiled to death in salty water and then served smothered in butter. I feel a bit sick when I remember this now. Small wonder then that I didn’t make salad/ green veggies my first choice of foods later in life.
Wild Food Café in colourful Neal’s Yard, Covent Garden, London, is my very favourite place to eat when I am in town. Go into Neal’s Yard and look up! Wild Food Café is above your head on the first floor.
Wild Food Café, the much loved creation of Joel and Aiste, is a raw-centric, vegan / vegetarian eatery where magic food is created every day.
Why canal boat tales? Last week I purchased a secondhand canal boat. It is moored on the River Thames and will be there over the winter. It is going to be my retreat from all my caring duties. For those of you who do not know, I currently am responsible for 3 teams of carers and also do some personal care myself. My husband had debilitating strokes some 15 years ago and although he can still walk with a Read more
Rubbing shoulders with death? Why on earth am I writing about this? Do I hear you say “wacky”? 🙂 Yup, maybe, but bear with me and maybe, just maybe, I can convince you that a quick shoulder rub occasionally will make you feel more alive than ever before. Please read on and decide for yourself… Read more
https://thereluctantrawfoodist.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/8-bit-pixel-retro-game-over-cropped.jpg265600SuSu2015-09-23 19:11:462015-09-25 07:24:59Rubbing shoulders with death…..
Typical supper salad recipe for me. This is what I ate last night so it is hot news. Well, except that of course it was raw! LOL! Making it took me about 5 minutes if that.
Mast Cell Activation Disorder – “Making Friends?”
/0 Comments/in anti inflammatory, autoimmune disease, General, Histamine Intolerance, Mast Cell Issues, Personal /by SuMast Cell Activation Disorder – Update
I am just feeling the effects of my mast cells going beserk. Under arm sweating, fingers tingling, scalp “lifting” mouth swollen, ears burning, throat closing face going pink and “crawling”, brain fog and anxiety and that’s just my head! Wow! Oops now I feel my skin lift, go red and itch like crazy and I can only be “glad” that this time, at least it is not my throat closing so that I am choking. A small mercy.
Welcome to my world.
Mast Cell Activation Disorder
is an immunological condition in which mast cells inappropriately and excessively release chemical mediators, resulting in a range of chronic symptoms, sometimes including anaphylaxis or near-anaphylaxis attacks. Here is a photo – well so I think as I didn’t take it ( LOL!). Here is also a link to some information on Wikipedia.
My Condition Update
I used to live with this on a daily basis so I am very thankful that I do not have these “attacks ” very often now. I do know that a lot of you good people out there have to deal with this everyday and I feel for you.
If you read my About Su page you will see that I was diagnosed with Histamine Intolerance and then Mast Cell Activation Disorder in 2009 confirmed later by my doctor. I also see a brilliant skin specialist regularly to check my condition.
I realised in 2009 that I had always had times where I had unexplained symptoms. Now since 2009, I have become expert in my symptoms and managing them – well , most of the time anyway! But it still sucks! I do feel for anyone of you who goes through it on a a daily basis.
I now feel so much better and I am now living well again and travelling extensively. I have so much energy and I run and exercise on a daily basis. My hair is so much thicker, my body works well and my skin is great. It has taken time and effort but it has been worth it.
Cautiously I say now that I am “lucky” that my condition came to light and that I was given this opportunity to sort my health out in such a positive way. You might say I have made friends with my condition and I am, by and large, at peace with it. Never ever thought I would say this but it has helped me (forced me) to get really well!
Thank you to so many people who are continually writing in about my diet. I feel privileged that you continue to come and ask while I have not been present on my website.
Some of you have asked to know how I did it I promise I will share it all soon. I followed a very strict diet under the guidance of Dr Fuhrman and I take no tablets whatsoever. Yes, No Antihistamines.
My very dear friend ,Yasmina, who was diagnosed at the same time and who set off with me on the path to get to grips with our condition decided to research it big time. . Please See her website for further info. Sadly Yasmina passed away recently from cancer but her work is her legacy.
I wish you well on your health journey.
SuUpdate On A Now Travelling Vegan
/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by SuI am really back this time. I am now a “travelling vegan” learning how and where to eat as I go. I have been off on my travels since soon after my mother died, after her long battle with Alzheimers and left me some money. I decided to spend it in the way she would have wished and to travel the world a little. Currently I am mostly travelling with a photographer friend.
My husband is doing well and has 24 hour care at home. He no longer notices if I am not at home all the time. My neighbour who has Alzheimers also has care giver who I oversee. All good.
“A Travelling Vegan” is born.
So far, and since last April (2017), I have been to Italy, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Georgia (country), Armenia, Philippines, North Finland and I go to Namibia, next week. Being a vegan, eating in these different countries is sometimes difficult but I have had some very pleasant surprises too. I will writing about it on a new blog “A Traveling Vegan” coming shortly.
Huskies.My Health
Thank you for all the enquires about my health. I still stick by and large to my strict vegan diet as prescribed by Dr Fuhrman and I certainly know it when I don’t manage it. I never knowingly eat meat or any animal products.
I am very well in myself. If fact I am better than I have been for a long time and certainly fitter now, with running and weight training, than when I was in my 40s. I am very thankful that I am so well and that I can now travel. During those long days of illness I couldn’t manage to travel on a train without having an increase in symptoms, let alone on a plane. Thank you Dr Fuhrman for setting me on my path back to health. I will say more about this in my next post.
Feeding reindeer with reindeer moss. I have not put on weight! I am just wearing many layers of clothes to keep warm!Please remember to look out for my new website ” A travelling Vegan”. I will let you know when its up and running.
My thanks to James Strachan for allowing me to use these photographs of me in Lapland, Finland.
I’m Back! Thank you for all the lovely messages!
/0 Comments/in anti inflammatory, autoimmune disease, Health, Lifestyle, Personal, Uncategorized /by SuI’m back!
So sorry to have been away so long! 🙂
What has been happening?
I have taken time out to help to nurse my mother who was being nursed at home having Frontotemporal dementia. When she died in June 2016 my brother and I arranged her funeral. I also lost my dear auntie to Alzheimer’s a month later. My husband who suffered 3 strokes at the ages of 60 and 61 is now 75 and requires continuous care at home. He is now doubly incontinent and has vascular dementia. My neighbour, who has lived in the house just next door to mine since 1981, is now 88 years old old and has ever worsening memory loss. She is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Even the cat seems to have some dementia. I am surrounded!
Memory loss and brain aging due to dementia and alzheimer’s diseaseDementia is actually a collection of diseases that cause a long term and often gradual decrease in the ability to think and remember that is great enough to affect a person’s daily functioning. It is a terrible issue to live with and to deal with as a carer because , it appears that the loved one disappears over a period of time. For more information have a look at this link back to Wikipedia. See also my own post on dementia. For those in need of urgent information there is a lot of information available on the web generally but it does pay dividends to look at several websites . Here is a link to the Dementia Society of America and here is another link to the Alzheimer’s Society here in the UK.
Over the last 7 years, of necessity, I have become quite knowledgeable about caring for loved ones with dementia and I am thinking that maybe I will set up my own website with information for those with dementia and information about looking after the carer.
Back to what this blog is about!
Thank you all the lovely people who has sent me such kind messages. I have been overwhelmed by all the care. Thank you Thank you! I have also been going through some changes. I became 60 recently so a new decade! I have been amending my lifestyle to look after myself more and I have been dealing with some grief issues. I will say more about all these soon.
I have been finding life as a carer exhausting and have been meaning to come back here for some time but I never find the time so I am having to make my writing time a priority.
So I am now going to get back right back to it! See you very soon! 🙂
Lovely food!How Not To Die… What we didn’t know until now!
/0 Comments/in Health, Lifestyle, plant based, Raw Food, Uncategorized, vegan /by SuHow not to Die? Hmm intriguing title! Latest on Immortality? With the book beside me as I type I have already had someone say that we all die eventually and ask so what is this all about? This is Dr Greger’s excellent life changing new book and it packs a big punch right up front by informing us that there may be no such thing as dying from old age. Apparently current research shows that we actually die from diseases rather than old age! Think about it! Of course, the book is really about how not to die prematurely from diseases and how to live as healthily as possible. This is my dream book! I was very lucky to get an advanced copy. Mine is on order.
Read more
Dementia – Food for Thought?
/0 Comments/in Health, Lifestyle, Personal, Raw Food, Uncategorized, vegan /by SuGiven that both my mother and my husband have quite advanced dementia, I have had to think and research about the possible causes of Alzheimer’s disease and the other kinds of dementia, and my research has led me back to a whole-food plant-based diet as being the best way to prevent brain decline in later years. Literally food for thought. By way of background my husband had a minor stroke in 2001, followed, in 2002. by a massive stroke from which I resuscitated him. Read more
My daily salad! ….
/0 Comments/in anti inflammatory, autoimmune disease, Health, Histamine Intolerance, Mast Cell Issues, plant based, Raw Food, Recipes, Uncategorized, vegan, Weight loss /by SuGive me my daily salad anytime! Wow! Never ever thought I would love salad! Growing up, I didn’t like my greens but then when I was a little girl, salad consisted of lettuce, tomato and cucumber with sugar sprinted over the lot! Yuk! I used to think that salad was a punishment food! Cabbage tended to boiled to death in salty water and then served smothered in butter. I feel a bit sick when I remember this now. Small wonder then that I didn’t make salad/ green veggies my first choice of foods later in life.
Read more
Wonderful Wild Food Café and excellent course….
/0 Comments/in Drinks, Health, Lifestyle, Personal, Raw Food, Uncategorized, vegan /by SuWild Food Café in colourful Neal’s Yard, Covent Garden, London, is my very favourite place to eat when I am in town. Go into Neal’s Yard and look up! Wild Food Café is above your head on the first floor.
Wild Food Café, the much loved creation of Joel and Aiste, is a raw-centric, vegan / vegetarian eatery where magic food is created every day.
Read more
Canal Boat Tales………..
/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by SuWhy canal boat tales? Last week I purchased a secondhand canal boat. It is moored on the River Thames and will be there over the winter. It is going to be my retreat from all my caring duties. For those of you who do not know, I currently am responsible for 3 teams of carers and also do some personal care myself. My husband had debilitating strokes some 15 years ago and although he can still walk with a Read more
Rubbing shoulders with death…..
/0 Comments/in General, Lifestyle, Meditation, Personal, Uncategorized /by SuRubbing shoulders with death? Why on earth am I writing about this? Do I hear you say “wacky”? 🙂 Yup, maybe, but bear with me and maybe, just maybe, I can convince you that a quick shoulder rub occasionally will make you feel more alive than ever before. Please read on and decide for yourself… Read more
Supper Salad Recipe
/0 Comments/in Gluten free, Histamine Intolerance, Mast Cell Issues, Personal, plant based, Recipes, Uncategorized, vegan, Weight loss /by SuTypical supper salad recipe for me. This is what I ate last night so it is hot news. Well, except that of course it was raw! LOL! Making it took me about 5 minutes if that.
Read more