A Regimen for Remission
This log tracks my regimen of attitude, exercise, stress management, and SCD foods. Since I started this regimen in 1997, I've been able to keep my Crohn's in a drug-free remission.

Monkey-see,
monkey-don't
Even though I may have experimented beyond the SCD from time to time, one must remember that everyone is different. Follow the intro diet for 3-5 days, and stick with the SCD until you are completely symptom free for at least one year before experimenting.

Be sure to read:
Intro to Flog
Read Me
Archives
Laura's IBS log
SCD Web Library

Permalinks:
The linked timestamps are your permanent links to individual log entries.

Get the book:
Ready to get your shit together? Got the intestinal fortitude? Yearning for a nirvana of peristalsis? Buy Breaking The Vicious Cycle! Written by Elaine Gottschall B.A., M.Sc., the book includes guidelines for dietary relief and sustainable remission of Crohns, Ulcerative Colitis, and other IBDs.

Feel free to contact me if you still have questions.

Happy New Year! The cava is flowing, the dinner is wonderful...
mhs@20:24

Sunday, December 29, 2002

Dinner: soup of roasted eggplant and red peppers, leftover Hawaiian sea bass in a tomato-basil-Kalamata olive sauce. Dessert: Lucy's cranberry nut bread.
mhs@20:34

Tuesday, December 24, 2002

Merry Christmas from sunny Tucson!!! We're in the midst of several winter storms that made their way inland from California. The result: a dusting of snow on our Santa Catalina mountains last night, and the possibility of more tomorrow. A rare and glorious way to celebrate the holidays in the desert. :-)

Photo by co-worker Greg Wicker.
mhs@16:25

All Things Thurl, is the official page of the voice behind "You're a mean one, Mister Grinch". Here's NPR's description of this classic.
mhs@16:13

Sunday, December 22, 2002

Dinner: my first attempt at a roasted eggplant and red pepper soup was a wonderful first plate, followed by baked acorn squash and red snapper with tomatoes, olives, and thyme. Another recipe for our book!
mhs@20:43

Lick pug, affix stamp, send to friends for the holidays!
mhs@08:58

One of the best things about the SCD is I can have Laura's pecan pie for breakfast! :-) Also, homemade yogurt, homemade applesauce.
mhs@08:26

A New York Times article about moving your laundry room into the living room.
mhs@08:16

Saturday, December 21, 2002

Nothing special to report on the food front. The SCD list is talking about colonoscopies of late; my favorite listserve posts are from Mark Dodson (something about throwing up during an Upper GI series) and a non-SCD piece of non-fiction by author Paul Levine, titled "The Unbearable Lightness of Colonoscopy" (scroll down on the linked page to read it).
mhs@08:52

Tuesday, December 17, 2002

An interesting and beautiful gallery of microscopy images of foods, starches, and bacteria.

Dinner: roasted chicken and veggies.
mhs@19:19

Sunday, December 15, 2002

The holidays are here. What are you wearing this holiday season? Check out this SCD stuff online! Teddy bears, messenger bags, SCD mousepads, and other gifts and clothing items for yourself or that loved one on the SCD.

mhs@08:48

The last stand of the Miami Blue butterfly. According to this article, a wonderful mystery surrounds this butterfly: ...With their extinction, a chance to study one of nature's most interesting symbiotic relationships would be lost. "Maybe you have to be an entomologist to appreciate it, but this butterfly, when it's a caterpillar, is tended by ants," said Mr. Pence. "What that means is that at some point in its life, the ants find it, and any ant worth its salt would probably find a nice little caterpillar like that and eat it up. Not these ants. They hang out with it."
mhs@08:23

Saturday, December 14, 2002

Happy holidays from Mike and Laura! Here's an online greeting for all glassbird.com's visitors.
mhs@20:27

Dinner: sauteed Swiss chard with curry, onions, red peppers; sauteed stingbeans with garlic; silky butternut squash with honey; grilled salmon with walnut-cilantro pesto. Dessert: pear pie.
mhs@19:58

Thursday, December 12, 2002

From the New York Times: research on how butterflies fly.
mhs@06:15

Wednesday, December 11, 2002

Breakfast: applesauce, yogurt, Lois Lang's bread.

Dinner, yesterday: tossed salad, avocado, leftover curried pumpkin soup with spinach and navy beans.

Lunch: leftover swordfish, some sort of artichoke/spinach/egg thing that I bought somewhere.
mhs@06:00

Sunday, December 08, 2002

I have one of these Taco Bell "Feliz Navidad, Amigos" dogs but mine is not for sale.
mhs@20:55

Dinner: curried pumpkin soup with spinach and navy beans, stuffed sole.

Lunch: leftover chicken, butternut squash with ginger, peas, and cranberry sauce.
mhs@20:37

This food log (flog, aka Nirvana of Peristalsis) was highlighted twice in an MSNBC article on food logs. :-)
mhs@09:30

Do you know your SCD beans? Those Canadians sure know a hill of beans about theirs!

Breakfast: homemade applesauce, yogurt, a banana.
mhs@09:14

Saturday, December 07, 2002

Dinner: tossed salad, grilled swordfish. We've started to get our fish from the Rincon Market. Yuri sells the best fish in town and is full of great cooking advice.
mhs@20:33

If one's diet is poor it will usually be reflected in both intestinal health and in skin problems. I wonder if there will be follow-up research with this group of hunter-gatherers regarding incidence of IBD?

"Acne 'myth' was true after all; research points to grains, sugar. Skin of groups who eat none is unblemished, By Bill Scanlon, Scripps Howard News Service:
A researcher might rewrite the books on acne with his findings that candy, carbohydrates and cola play an important role in the skin disease after all.

Professor Loren Cordain of Colorado State University studied thousands of hunters, gatherers and farmers in Paraguay and Papua New Guinea whose diets contained no bread, cake, sugar, soft drinks, potato chips or pizza, and he didn't find a single case of acne. ..."
mhs@09:25

Thursday, December 05, 2002

Tracking events on the "Total Information Awareness" front: www.warblogging.com.
mhs@06:08

Wednesday, December 04, 2002

Breakfast: homemade yogurt, homemade applesauce, Lois Lang's bread.

Dinner, yesterday: a light dinner after a very long day at work. Leftover spaghetti squash, sauteed curried kale, leftover grilled red snapper.

Lunch: leftovers from Thanksgiving.
mhs@06:22

Prior to getting my second opinion from an endocrinologist, I posted a note in the CCFA's Mutual Help Network regarding alternatives to Fosamax. In an effort to share this newfound collective knowledge, here are excerpts from a few of the replies (I've removed the names and addresses):

• An idea would be to also ask you pharmacist. They I find are usually very knowledgeable.
• While I can't offer you an alternative, I can tell you that I went on it January of this year (after hearing similar bad news about my bones - 15 years of that wonderful prednisone will do that to you) and I have had no problems whatsoever with the drug. I have tolerated it quite well and I hear that they are working on giving an intravenous version supposedly that is a once a year thing. Not sure when that will come to market if ever.
• I am being treated for osteoporosis and compression fractures due to prolonged treatment with prednesone. I too am on Fosamax. If you learn of anything better I'd like to hear about it. Do you also take calcuim? Besides that, and excercise, I don't know what else to do for myself.
• I have osteoporises. For a young guy, I've broken quite a few bones. I can not take Fosamax. I wanted to tell you about Androgel.
• Also, since diagnosis, I had begun strength training and adding calcium supplements to my diet and wanted to see if these were helping. With osteopenia, I was not in any immediate danger and so opted to wait a year and have a repeat scan. I now take 1200 mg/day of calcium citrate, the form of calcium recommended by my gi as least likely to produce g.i. symptoms, and 800 IU of vitamin D. I also take a vitamin K supplement because vitamin K is important in bone synthesis and I still cannot eat large quantities of leafy greens, one of the major sources of vit. K. (Incidentally, I began taking vit. K after I was already off the Cipro, but I have since read that antibiotics can interfere with intestinal bacteria that synthesize vit. K.) I have become extremely committed to exercising, lifting weights and running. This isn't easy with job and family commitments and all. The good news is that the repeat scan a year later showed an increase in bone density that my M.D. said would have been considered a good response had I been taking Fosamax. Now, 6 months later, my M.D. has left the practice and my new M.D. was pleased with the improvement but not the actual T-scores, still osteopenia. She did a urine NTx test, which measures the rate of bone resorption in the body, i.e. rate of bone loss, a predictor for the future. Fortunately, that came back very low and so, for the time being, I can continue without adding any meds.

  My g.i. doctor did advise me that, if I did need medication to treat the osteopenia, I should consult with an endocrinologist, who would run tests to determine where the imbalance lies and advise me on the best choice of medication. Also, my old M.D. said that she would be concerned about prescribing Fosamax to a woman as young as I am because it is not clear if it works for more than a decade and I might need it more down the road than I do now. You are much younger than I am, but I don't know if the same advice holds for a male. I was concerned about the possibility of Fosamax adding to my gi symptoms.

• I use a nasal spray called Miacalcin to try to control osteoporosis. I am 55 with Crohn's and have had to use cortisone alot. There is also a new injectable drug that just got approved and should be available around the first of the year.
• I did not know about the loss of bone density [can be] caused by the prednisone which i am very happy to now know about and also very curious as to why my doctor never informed me of that seeing as i have been on and off of prednisone for many years.

mhs@06:11

Monday, December 02, 2002

Survey for Crohn's patients: whether you are on the SCD or not, you may want to share some information over the phone, make $75, and help in research for new treatments. Your sharing may help you or someone else.
mhs@19:58

Sunday, December 01, 2002

Breakfast: pecans, dried figs, and a mango-pineapple-strawberry-ginger-yogurt fruit smoothie.

Dinner, yesterday: grilled red snapper with lemon and dill, tossed salad.
mhs@09:13

Notes on:
Salads
Organics
Yoga
Recipes
Kitchen!

Text Search:

About Glassbird:
Home
Mike
Brainfood
Birdfeeder