Download a transcript of this episode
Topics:
1. [00:32] Sleeping Pills
2. [4:32] Dandruff
3. [7:39] Shingles
4. [9:39] Systemic Yeast Infections
5. [12:17] Nasal Cellulitis
6. [18:38] Female Facial Hair
7. [22:52] Decreased Reaction to Grains and Dairy
Questions:
1. Sleeping Pills
Doug Says: Hi, I have a question about sleeping pills. My wife and I are 40 and 42 years old respectively. We have twins that are 2 and a half years old. When my wife gave birth to the twins, her doctor prescribed her sleeping pills to help her deal with the sleep deprivation of being a mother of twins. Fast forward two years later, and my wife is still taking the pills. I’m sure this is not good, and is probably messing up her body’s chemical balances. Sometimes, she forgets to pick up her prescription; she then has a crappy night sleep.
How can I help her to get off of these pills? Going cold turkey seems like it’d be too hard core, and I (we, my kids and I) would be dealing with a grumpy mama bear during this process.
This would be a huge first step as she is also on high blood pressure medicine. Her family has a history of diabetes and stroke. I have read your book and continually tell her we need to go 100% paleo, get more exercise, better sleep, etc. She is slowly coming around. She has dealt with weight issues most of her life. She has lost a lot of weight in the last two years, but needs to lose about 30 more lbs. I’m thinking getting off of the sleeping pills and getting better, longer more natural sleep would help tremendously.
Thanks for all you do. Love the blog, the podcast, and all the “extra” commentary between you and Greg 🙂
2. Dandruff
Josh Says: Since starting Paleo I noticed my dandruff problems have come back. When I was vegan and fruitarian this issue resolved and so did many others. Could it be that im eating to high fat or possibly inflammation from something. I did a juice fast (fresh vegetable juice with very small amounts of fresh fruit juice) last week and the dandruff started going away, i was not eating anything else, just juice. Then I went back to eating Paleo and instant dandruff. So bummed. Im gonna go to this new functional medicine Doctor, only one in Birmingham, AL, and check some other issues im having and maybe they are related. Im having some weird pressure, sometimes slight pain, on my lower left side of my abdomen and weird pressure in my neck also in certain positions, and some weird clicking/popping in my middle chest area, im hoping its not serious. Any advice or direction would help, just trying to get some possible ideas to run by the Doctor.
3. Shingles
Matt Says: Recently I was diagnosed with shingles. I’m 30, paleo with the occasional cheat, and active (Programming via OPT). After I got shingles I googled ofcourse to understand what the crap it was. Found out that it’s the chicken pox virus that flares up again later in life. Typically elderly people get it or people with immune deficiencies. Also stress could be a trigger for this. I consider myself a relatively stress free individual. Not much bothers me. I recently had a very uncomfortable shoulder problem that I let get out of hand with a lot of inflammation before resting it, then a couple days later a rash from the shingles showed up on that side of my neck. Asked the doc and she insist it was stress related. Could the injured shoulder possibly trigger this or just one of the things that happens with no explanation? It was also fun walking into the pharmacy to pick up my herpes medication not knowing that’s what I was getting. I felt judged. Later man.
4. Systemic Yeast Infections
Stacy Says: Is this something you are familiar with? I think that I am suffereing from a systemic yeast infection and was curious what your philosophy was on that subject. I loved the book and it has helped me with my symptoms thus far.
5. Nasal Cellulitis
Bryan Says: For the past several months, my nose has been swelling up on and off. It’s not terrible to look at because it isn’t extremely noticeable, but it does hurt a lot. The inflammation occurs at the lower area of the nostrils where all of your boogers and hairs go, on the inside. I know that area of the nose is full of bacteria but normally this doesn’t cause swelling in most people. I think the infections happen whenever there is a break in the skin. When I get a dry nose while sleeping, a tiny cut is formed and then that area is probably invaded with bacteria and I get painful swelling for about a week. I looked up the issue of nose cellulitis online, and I only found references to treating it with antibiotics. Since I am getting this problem every month, I do not want to take antibiotics each time it occurs. There must be an underlying problems in my body that is causing this condition all of a sudden, since we always coexist with the bacteria in our noses and usually don’t have problems. Normal people are also able to have breaks in the skin of their inner nose from dryness and they do not suffer from swelling (I was one of those people until a few months ago).
PS: My doctor said I wouldn’t have so many nose infections if I just kept my finger out of there.
Just kidding. That’s a Ralph Wiggum joke.
PPS: I occasionally use nasal tobacco but the infections started when I hadn’t used it for ages.
6. i am a super hot babe with strange facial hair help
Stella Says: Hi Robb,
I’ve been strict paleo for 6 months, despite a little bit of butter, chocolate, and tequila (duh) here and there. I transitioned from strict vegan to paleo and I’ve experienced all the benefits- weight loss, better sleep, constant energy levels.. the one thing that hasn’t improved is my sporadically growing facial hair… as an otherwise sexy female this somewhat annoying. I saw some improvement with this problem after losing some weight, but recently I’ve been at a loss of what to do.
I’ve tried eliminating all sorts of things from my diet to no avail. Wondering if you have some idea as to what the cause of this could be. The doctors I’ve seen think my hormones are ‘average’ and that this is simply a cosmetic problem… but I can’t help but feel that my hormones are not ‘average’ and something is up.
5’3″ 120 supplement with natural calm, omega 3s and vitamin D. Do sprints and short rounds of interval training during the week, and walk a bunch. Eat a lot of vegetables, lean meat and peaches now that they are in season. Get most of my fat from coconut and avocado, occasionally butter and I eat 1g of protein per pound of lean body mass.
please let me know if you can help!!! also thanks so much its really rad not being vegan anymore, especially since I still live in a vegan co-op! HAH!
7. Decreased Reaction to Grains and Dairy
Carlo Says: Hey Guys!
I’m a strength and conditioning coach and holistic nutritionist out of Toronto, Canada (by the way, thanks for making Toronto one of your stops on the Paleo Solution Seminar tour, it was great seeing you then and as well when you were here the year before through those other guys, lol). I’ll try to make this quick since I don’t want to use up a lot of you time and on top of that, the more that I write the more likely it is that I’ll drive Greg insane with bad grammar.
So I have a client who, believe it or not, actually listens to everything I say! She stopped having grains, dairy and legumes about a year and a half ago, puts Rip Van Winkle to shame when it comes to sleep, exercises smartly and although she was in great shape before she started, she’s in AWESOME shape now! She lost fat, gained muscle and is turning more heads than Dave Castro would explaining what an eccentric muscle contraction is. Following her change, the very rare time she had either grains or dairy, she experienced digestive distress. Now recently (within the past two months), she had both grains and dairy on 3 occasions (she was at functions and didn’t want to offend her hosts), one of them involved significant amounts of them as well. She didn’t experience any discomfort after any of these three exposures. Could this be that her gut has been healing and she is more tolerant to grains and dairy? We’re both pretty perplexed, and that’s the only thing I can think of, so I thought I’d pass this by you guys, since you seem to know what you’re talking about, ;). She’s not looking to going back and having them regularly again, but we’re just curious of what’s going on.
Thanks again for everything you guys do to help make this world and healthier and funnier place.
Great podcast as always, I was having podcast withdrawals ha! and this was such a tease as I think we are all used to 1hr+ ones. I have to agree with Doug; I love all the “extra” commentary between the two of you 🙂
super informative nonetheless and I just wanted to say Im entering my tough months with Fibromyalgia, it has been raining here (CA) for 2 days and surprisingly Im not crawling into a ball and hissing at people, but joints are a tad creaky .. this will be the ultimate test for my Paleo as I know Fall/Winter is usually a bitch to me
Thanks again for all you do!
Hey Robb – on the last question you mentioned issues when eating out at restaurants or at a friend’s house. FWIW I just ran across this product a few weeks ago and it seems to help a little in those situations… http://www.enzymedica.com/products/Digest_Spectrum. While on Paleo I’ve had great luck with the NOW Super Enzymes, but when you don’t know exactly what is in your food and you are sensitive a little extra support can make a big difference.
Great suggestion with the Neilmed nasal rinse – it was the best treatment for my horrible seasonal allergies until I went paleo and the allergies virtually disappeared. I still do the rinse from time to time to flush out the pipes and would add that the saline packets that come with the bottle do not work for me whatsoever (too salty). Instead I use 2 tsp of a mix of 50/50 salt and baking soda. Also, a good hammy stretch where you completely invert your head allows you to do the surfer “brain drain” in a controlled manner.
Josh, in question #2, or someone on Robb’s staff, pleeeeease, tell me who the functional medicine doc is in Birmingham, AL. And, consider adding him/her to the http://paleophysiciansnetwork.com/
Thanks!
Regarding the Neilmed – I started using it semi-regularly about a year ago and I feel like it was a big part of preventing sinus infections over the past year.
I was a regular sufferer of sinus infections, but then started using the Netipot about 4-6 times per week. Keeps me clear and helps fix both congestion and dryness.
Living in the Southeast, our pollen gets out of control in the spring and it helps with this too. Also, any time when I’m somewhere dusty – like mowing the grass – I’ll use it as well.
Hey Robb,
I was just checking out your recommendations on the amazon shop and noticed that you took down the Now Foods Super Enzymes and the Biochemistry Text by Berg. Are you no longer recommending these? If so, why?
Cheers man.
Evan
Hey robb, thanks for answering my question on your podcast ! I have stars in my eyes!
Wondering if you were able to dig up the name of that supplement you were talking about, I want to get a good source of the Diindolylmethane and Calcium whatever as quickly as I can.
Thanks again 🙂
IMO there is one from the company PURE (http://www.vitaminshoppe.com/store/en/browse/sku_detail.jsp?id=JM-1032) they may have changed the product name to “Breast-D” but its the exact same product – that is pretty good. If not and your problem a little more sever you could purchase those supplements at higher dosages seperately and take them together. For instance the recommended dose maybe 2 caps but you require more to detox Estrogen. Basically you may need higher potency.
Hey Guys
Thanks for everything…..you are making a huge difference in so many peoples lives!!
I have been very strict paleo for about 3 months now and have been supplementing with probiotics but I still seem to have some problems with fungal skin infections and other mild skin inflammation. I have not been too low carb because I am quite lean (about 9% body fat), very active and not very heavy so I don’t want to loose any weight. I have been getting the majority of carbs from sweet potato and fruit. Do you suggest going very low carb for a while in an effort to eliminate the skin symptoms??
Thanks again
I wouldn’t go as far to say nicotine intake is alright. Part of the potency of cigarettes in carcinogenesis is the administration of carcinogens AND the metabolic disruption of nicotine in lung tissue. This is somewhat of a poorly understood part of oncology because evolutionarily speaking, proto-oncogenes and tumor supressors are a new phenomena, however metabolic regulation has always been and still is essiential in the control cell cycle/proliferation/differientiation. Shulz in his book, Molecular Biology of Cancer, calls nicotine a co-carcinogen because it promotes a state of mis/disregulation. Sorry for splitting hairs, but just trying to provide some prospective.
Netipots and bacteria
http://nutritionfacts.org/videos/the-risks-and-benefits-of-neti-pot-nasal-irrigation/
Harvey R, Hannan SA, Badia L, Scadding G. Nasal saline irrigations for the symptoms of chronic rhinosinusitis. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2007 Jul 18;(3):CD006394.
Aring AM, Chan MM. Acute rhinosinusitis in adults. Am Fam Physician. 2011 May 1;83(9):1057-63.
Keen M, Foreman A, Wormald PJ. The clinical significance of nasal irrigation bottle contamination. Laryngoscope. 2010 Oct;120(10):2110-4.
People Die From Brain-Eating Amoeba After Using Tap Water In Neti-Pots
http://www.youtube.com/user/MOXNEWSd0tC0M#p/u/168/SyQsNrUw8Xk
To add to the comments from the Boss Man about Shingles:
I’ve suffered from it since I was in my early 20’s. After discovering CrossFit I also discovered that the posterior chain movements could absolutely destroy me and create an outbreak on my left leg and cause significant pain in my sciatic nerve region. The things I love the most, like Oly lifts, back squats and deadlifts, are the things that can cause an immediate reaction.
Through trial and error, I’ve found that as long as I keep those movements in my regular programming I will be fine. It’s those times that I rest for a long period of time or just don’t do them and come back full force that gets me. My muscles can handle it so I won’t injure myself but I’ll have an outbreak, sometimes immediately because my nervous system can’t. There have been two instances that I’ve had an immediate reaction in the gym: One was in CrossFit when I did a long bear complex metcon with a 35# bar (trust me, it was hard) and the second time was when I was coming off a stress fracture injury and tried a 45 minute spinning class where they have weighted wheels on their bikes.
I also get outbreaks when I’m stressed but don’t realize I’m actually stressed. Or when I’m starting to get sick. I consider it my canary in the coal mine. Sucks.
So there’s my $0.02 of information.
Thank you Matt for coming out of the woodworks. I also just recently was diagnosed with shingles. It may have occurred during an O-lifting session last week, when I felt a twinge on the right side of my thoraic and later developed a small rash but wrote it off as a latex allergy until it circled to the front as well. I consider my life fairly unstressed but active and am dead set on curing this MOFO as fast as possible. In the middle of a clean eating challenge, save for the chocolate the doc allowed to prevent a full depression onslaught. Currently on anti-virals, 200,000 IU of beta-carotene a day, 400 IU of vitamin E, and had a shot of 1g B12. The rash seems isolated only to the 1-2 right rib and doesn’t hurt that much, which seems good compared to google searches.
Anything else I should be doing to jack up my immune system and send this chicken pox packing? I’m getting bed rest now but would rather not be sedentary for 2-3 weeks, as is the typical length this rash lasts.
Interested in the Functional Medicine Doctor that you saw in Birmingham, AL. I’m currently looking for one. Any recommendations?
Tonya, After going to that doctor I really did not like his approach. He was not as functional or educated as many other functional medicine doctors. He was also very expensive. I would recommend checking out this clinic in Trussville instead. Very reasonable prices and she uses some of the better labs (metametrix). I’m sure she would use other labs such as biohealth. Here is her link.
http://birminghamintegrativehealth.com/