Life without Serrapeptase/Nattokinase

I must admit, part of the reason why I don't update more often is because I've gotten a lot of page views, but very few comments, which makes me wonder if this is helping anyone at all. But maybe some people prefer to read and not comment. If so, this is for you guys!

March 15th was the day I stopped taking Serrapeptase regularly, since then I've barely taken it at all. It was making me feel like my ulcers were still bleeding, so it definitely had to be dropped from my routine. However, my body still feels good, and I still do take my Liquid Chlorophyll every morning, sometimes in the evening. I also continue to stretch every morning which has greatly helped my body. In the past, the muscle in my right leg between my pelvic bone and thigh was very weak and would sometimes cause me to limp. The muscle would sometimes get so stressed throughout the day that it would get to a point where it felt like it twisted, and then I wouldn't be able to walk for about a week. This, of course, was at times the bane of my existence. Stretching helped change all that. Since I started stretching, I noticed the muscle wouldn't hurt as much when I would walk, and over time it's become more limber and flexible, and it now feels like it works with me, as opposed to against me. All in all, stretching has helped my existence become easier! And it's such a simple thing to do, my basic routine can be done in about 5 minutes, though I'm sure sometimes I take longer with it by taking deeper breaths and just getting oxygen into my lungs. Trust me, it's a relaxing way to help start your day! Experiment with stretches and see what works for you :)

As usual, I have to put a reminder here about eating a diet high in Thiocyanate. It's simple to do once you get the hang of it, I promise! For instance, last night's dinner was beets, lentils, and roasted chicken. It was healthy and delicious! This morning's breakfast was Golden Grahams and warm milk. Variety in the diet is essential so you don't get bored and hop off the wagon like I did when I first started my new way of eating. A good suggestion for adding Thiocyanate filled foods to the diet would be to add a little bit at a time. For example, experiment with different recipes and find what works for you. Over the summer, I would make smoothies out of frozen strawberries and coconut milk ( with a bit of brown sugar and vanilla essence for extra flavor!) The smoothies were delicious, filling, and high in Thiocyanate! There are tons of things you can try, such as fried, baked, or boiled plantains, baked sweet potatoes, stewed lentils, steamed broccoli, raw carrots, bananas, and almonds just to name a few! Try them out consistently and get your Thiocyanate in large  amounts as well as your other vitamins from foods that are as close to their natural state as possible. Try these out and let me know what works for you!

Dangers of Nattokinase

Pretty upset right now. My stomach has been hurting on and off for the past week and a half, it's been doing it more since last night, I actually woke up with a bit of pain last night. Nothing extreme, but enough to wake me up. I mentioned before that I have stomach ulcers, and I think they are what make my stomach so incredibly sensitive to when I eat out, which I've been doing more since last Sunday. It only occurred to me tonight, after I ate dinner and my stomach began hurting, that since I have ulcers and Nattokinase is a blood-thinner, that the Nattokinase is probably what has been contributing to my stomachaches. I looked it up, and lo and behold, the website says, 

"Nattokinase should also not be taken by those who bleed very easily. It should be avoided by those who have recently had a bleeding ulcer, surgery, stroke or heart attack." 

This is all even more upsetting to me because my health has been feeling a bit more poor in different ways as well, and I can't be certain, but I wonder if my elevated heart rate during my work outs was not attributed to the Nattokinase in my system. As I said to a friend last night who said I should live it up more, "my health is a full time job." It gets incredibly frustrating when I have setbacks such as these. I was doing really well on the Serrapeptase and Liquid Chlorophyll alone and I really should have done more research before adding Nattokinase to my diet. It should have popped out at me that it was a blood thinner, but then again, I really wanted to be rid of the clutches of this disease. 

So this is where I am now, my ulcers are once more proving to be a problem when I eat, and it will take several weeks before they heal sufficiently to not bother me anymore. I'm not sure if they will ever heal completely, hence my absolute and essential need to stay away from blood-thinners, Ibuprofen, and anything else that might irritate them. Really can't say how frustrated I am about my ulcer situation, but I gotta press on. My warning to everyone is to really do your research before you add anything new to your diet, please look into the side effects. I still suggest eating a diet high in Thiocyanate and eat healthy in general. Eat as natural as possible because that's always best for your body.

Getting Back Up

I must admit, I was feeling pretty down last night because my body was feeling sore/achey and I needed to take Ibuprofen and Doliprane, which is a French version of Acetaminophen. I had a long day babysitting, and though it's not difficult work, it's a bit tiring, especially having to pick up the baby now and then, which has been making my arms sore. Add to that the fact that my body has just been feeling a bit down in general, I mentioned in earlier posts that I felt tired and it's a feeling that hasn't gone away for weeks. I attributed it to overdoing it at first, too much going out and not enough resting, and then I got back to working after the holidays ended, and my schedule was full. The best way to describe how my health feels is to say that it feels as though I fell a while back and haven't been able to get up since. 

Last night, I rested when I got home and had some Speculoos cookies since I needed comfort food to help me feel better. Reflected on what I've been doing and what I could be doing better, and felt a bit down. Took my painkillers, drank my Liquid Chlorophyll, as well as increased my doses of Serrapeptase, I think I took about 480,000 i.u. last night, and what I like about it is that there are no negative side effects, the only thing I stand to do is gain from taking it. The Serrapeptase reduces inflammation, which is why I took the doses I did, as well as taking my Ibuprofen. Read a bit on the Sickle Cell Warriors page and briefly wondered if I should post about my feeling down because I wasn't feeling well even though I am on a better diet and take my Liquid Chlorophyll and Serrapeptase, and decided against it since I haven't had actual personal interactions with anyone on the page. Talked to some special people, which picked up my spirits a bit. Then I slept and did feel better when I woke up, though not back to 100%. But it has been some time since I have been feeling 100%. 

I'd say that today I'm feeling about 85-90% well. There is still inflammation in my ribs and in the muscles in my upper right thigh, so I'm hoping that inflammation will go down tonight. I don't have a heavy schedule tomorrow, so I'm hoping that will allow my body the time it needs to continue healing. After last night, I also decided that my diet must change some more. I usually eat eggs for breakfast because they are great for energy, are packed with nutrients, and I find that they are a great way to start the day. But after reflecting last night on how I could get more Thiocyanate into my diet, since it is usually my dinner that is based around it, I decided that breakfast from now on will center around beets and lentils, or some other Thiocyanate containing foods, possibly lima beans.

Update!

Hello all, I am finally back for my update! My diet has been treating me well, and I am feeling good, though tired since I've been working six days a week and getting up fairly early everyday, 6:30-7:30 am. My arms were a bit sore/hurting from having to pick up the baby I sit for as well as carrying grocery bags, so I started taking a double dose of Serrapeptase everyday. Which brings it up to 240,000 i.u. a day. Research I did about Serrapeptase says that it eats up scar tissue, but I haven't noticed great differences in my body. What I have noticed is that my stomach is a bit flatter, and the night I decided to double my dose, because I had mild aches and pains in my legs and arms, I noticed the next day that the pains were gone. I do have stomach ulcers, as I mentioned before, so I suspect that the Serrapeptase is working on healing those before it can go on to work on the rest of my body. In any case, there is no harm/downside to taking it, so doubling the dose has not given me any negative side effects, and Serrapeptase is also a natural painkiller, so I will keep up with the double dose. I have also been eating more fruits, as promised. Apples confuse my stomach/hunger signals, so I've taken to eating unsweetened apple/pear sauce, pears, and oranges, along with my trusted bananas (which also lower blood pressure and increase serotonin!). Other than that, I have no complaints, which is great! I hope this blog is helpful to people and that people will find inspiration to how to deal with their Sickle Cell. It is possible to live healthy and with little to no pain! This is my story and it's real! Back when I was in college and high school I had a lot more pain and took a lot of painkillers to deal with it, but now my body has the chance to heal from that damage and be healthier. As with all things, a diet change like this is a lifestyle change, and sticking to it and being patient is the key. For anyone who is ready to try it, I wish you success, and please, if you have any questions or comments, do not hesitate to get in touch with me, even if it's just to talk! I am here for whoever needs :)

My Daily Routine

So for anyone who is curious, here is what my daily routine includes, in addition to eating foods that are high in Thiocyanate. In the morning, I have my tablespoon of Liquid Chlorophyll in a cup of water after I eat my breakfast. I also take about 1200 mg Folic Acid, and a D-3 vitamin that is 5,000 iu. I drink plenty of water throughout the day, and if I don't drink enough while I'm out and about, I usually make up for it when I come home so that there is plenty of fluid in my system. In the evening, usually a few hours before I sleep, I take a Serrapeptase pill, and another glass of water with a tablespoon of Liquid Chlorophyll. I only added the extra tablespoon of Liquid Chlorophyll last week because I was feeling a bit poorly, and it has done me well. (I've had a bit of trouble sleeping since last week, and I'm wondering now if it isn't related to that extra tablespoon of chlorophyll. However, I feel great when I wake up in the morning, and the fatigue is nothing like the Sickle Cell fatigue I suffered in high school and sometimes in college.) 

Besides that, I try to make sure I have time to relax and wind down when I get home. I usually have plenty of time for that. It's important to rest and have time for oneself, and though my week is usually full of either work activity or going out to some place or another, I always take the time to rest by giving myself a day off or a quiet evening. There is also the fact that this work life is much easier than the student life I've been living. In high school and college I had demanding work loads and I find it much easier to just be able to go to work and come home and know that I am done for the day. There it is, in a nutshell, that's basically what I do everyday, and of course I take painkillers when necessary, but I take so many fewer painkillers than I did in the past, and that makes me feel great!

Update of the Week!

The meal planning worked in theory, but I have not actually been following it very closely. This week my body has been in crisis mode, meaning that there were two days when my body wanted to be in a severe crisis, but because of my diet, the pain was very manageable. Here is what I wrote from those days as memos on my phone, they're both from Monday:

7:39 a.m. 

I think I pushed myself a bit too much last week. I mentioned I wasn't feeling top notch a few days ago, and Sunday night into Monday morning my body was in full on crisis mode. I say crisis mode because I had the symptoms of having one - tired, pain in my right leg and various other parts of my body, ribs included, but it wasn't intense or even unmanageable pain. To remedy this, I went to bed early and took 2 sleep aid 500 mg acetaminophen when I felt the pain starting in my leg. As I was waiting for sleep to come, I felt the pain in my ribs and took a Codoliprane. Thankfully I was able to sleep alright and the pain was incredibly manageable. Over the next few days, I will rest and take it easy as much as I can and hopefully it won't turn into anything worse. Sticking to my routine is key, and I haven't stopped taking my Folic Acid, Liquid Chlorophyll, or Serrapeptase, and I continue to eat foods high in Thiocyanate.

3:04 p.m.

It's pretty ironic that my body's begun waging war on me only a few days after I decided to go public with my blog and let people know how my new diet is helping me. I wonder what the cause of the sickness is. Could it be the sea salt laxative I took on Thursday? Perhaps I added too much salt and my body ended up absorbing it rather than having the laxative go straight through me? Or could it be that since I'm eating more spinach now it's making my blood thicker? I'm more inclined to think it's got something to do with the laxative. In any case, it reminds me of the way I was sick the first day I began teaching, with all the horrible back pain I was going through which ended up keeping me out of work. Tomorrow I am starting yet another job, and now I'm worried about the way my body will respond. I'm hoping for the best and yet I fear for the worst. No matter what, I need to stick to my diet. Maybe an extra spoonful of Chlorophyll with my dinner will help me feel better.

So that's what happened on Monday, but it passed and I was feeling better the next day. On Thursday morning when I woke up, I had pain around my left elbow, but it was more like a soreness so I didn't pay much attention to it till later, when rubbing hadn't helped it. I took a few painkillers for it, but thankfully the pain was again, incredibly manageable and did not increase. Since Monday, I decided that I would take 2 tablespoons of Liquid Chlorophyll daily, once in the morning, and once in the evening. My elbow hurt all day on Thursday, but the pain was quite manageable, though it did augment a bit because the day was long for me, as I worked from 12:45-6pm, and had some stressful classes to deal with. On Friday I was feeling almost entirely better with my elbow, and it only started to hurt a bit again when I was at work, babysitting. I quickly rubbed it down with anti-inflammatory gel Voltaren that I purchased here, and took a Doliprane (1000mg of paracetamol) for it. It didn't hurt again after that.

This week's troubles have led me to start taking Liquid Chlorophyll twice a day, which I think is more helpful to my body than taking it once a day. Right now I feel great (besides having my stupid period!) and that is a good sign. I decided to stay home and take it easy today because I had a tiring week and I don't want to forget to rest. I haven't really kept up with my meal planning, and am wondering if I shouldn't go back to writing down my meals again to keep track of what I am eating and to make sure it's all healthy and beneficial.

Serrapeptase Effects?

I haven’t noticed any changes since I've started taking the Serrapeptase, but it's only been about 3 days, so I suppose I should patient. The thing with remedies is that I want them to act right away so that I can start feeling great with no delay, but that's just a false American mindset perpetrated by the media. These things do take time to go into effect, and I need to be patient with the way they work. The body runs in cycles, and my body must be getting used to the Serrapeptase as it quietly does its work. The good thing is that I don't feel any ill effects, so that's already a positive sign. I think that later today or tomorrow I will buy some bananas and start eating them regularly again, and hopefully there will be no nausea when I eat them. Bananas are packed with great nutrients for the body, and can help someone feel more relaxed if they're feeling stressed, increase Serotonin in the brain, and a banana or two a day can also help lower blood pressure! But don't take my word for it, Google it to find out the many wonders bananas contain!

Not Feeling Top-Notch Today

My body's feeling kind of tired and a bit weak today. It also feels a bit hurty today. I wonder if it's because I haven't been resting enough lately. I didn't set an alarm for this morning and let myself sleep for as long as my body needed. Lately I've been eating more spinach, but I haven't been eating as many lentils or even chickpeas, though I've been keeping up with a plantain a day. I stopped eating bananas because I was getting nauseous again after eating them (I have minor ulcers from taking NSAIDs - Aspirin and Ibuprofen - for pain management and I sometimes get a minor urge to throw up after eating, especially when it comes to bananas.) Maybe if I eat them on an empty stomach or right after eating eggs I will be okay and not feel nauseous. I have to make sure to keep up with everything, the Thiocyanate filled foods, the Liquid Chlorophyll, and the Serrapeptase to ensure that my body can function at its best.

Starting Serrapeptase

2 January 2013

Just got my Serrapeptase and took my first capsule. It’s 120,000 iu. I figured I might as well go for the stronger one because from reviews, some people say that they take 2-3 of the 40,000 iu ones daily, and multiply that and you get mine. I’ve been feeling good lately, but that also makes me a bit scared because this disease is entirely unpredictable. Last week I was having the pains around my joints and this week a tiny bit in my bones, but it’s gotten a lot better and much, much less frequent. I suppose that’s a good sign. Today I am going shopping for plantains to round out my diet and make it more full of the bigger Thiocyanate containing foods. I also haven’t had plantains in a few days though I’ve been eating lentils. I am thinking of turning this into a blog, that way other people who have SC can see my progression and my also draw information and perhaps inspiration from it. Hmm.

27 December

I’ve been feeling like there’s a bit of inflammation above my left knee at night the past 2 days and I’m wondering if it has anything to do with the chlorophyll? I am so excited for my Serrapeptase to get here! 

I decided to discontinue purchasing carrot juice (I had purchased it on a whim in the first place). From research I did about carrot juice, it is best to have it freshly juiced as it does not keep well in the fridge. I bought mine from a huge supermarket/department store, and the only ingredients were carrot and lemon juice. However, from research I did, bottled carrot juice doesn't keep as well and may not contain as many nutrients. Perhaps it does have benefits, or perhaps it is more like orange juice (all the oxygen is sucked out and flavour is re-added through flavour packs, so it's just colored water by the end of the process.) In any case, since I don't have enough knowledge about the actual benefits of the carrot juice I bought and based on the research I did, I decided to discontinue purchasing it. Plain old carrots are good enough for me.

A Second, More Informed Decision to Change

21 December

         I have been eating a diet high in thiocyanate, mainly lentils, chickpeas, plantains, and bananas, but I have also been feeling quite tired. I suppose I haven’t been eating enough greens so I will remedy that later today by buying String Beans. I have also been eating a lot of eggs because they are packed with nutrients. Yesterday I did some research[1] and came across a blog where a woman talks about taking care of her son who has SC. I commented asking what she uses and below is what she described.

Hi,

Have you had any crisis while eating this diet? I just find the herbs work so much more better for my son. I give him Liquid Chlorophyll, Nattokinase-Serrapeptase, I get LC from Sprouts or you can also find at Whole Foods. I get the Nattokinase-Serrapeptase from one of the local natural health stores in the neighborhood. I also give him Folic Acid/B6/B12, this come in one bottle and dissolves in your mouth, I get this from the natural health store as well. And lastly the Beet root juice, i get from Sprouts. So LC helps raise hemoglobin, increases oxygen, builds red blood cells, detoxes the kidney and Nattokinase prevents the blood from clotting up and sticking together. It helps the blood to flow in the most natural state, getting rid of all the bad protein and toxins in the blood. the Beet juice is good for the blood and raising hemoglobin as well. I've had GREAT success using this combination. I can rely on only food right now with my son because he's just 4 and he's not going to eat enough leafy green vegetables that will prevent him from having crisis so it's easier to put in his juice, this way I know he's getting all the nutrients he need to prevent crisis. Also we stopped eating processed foods, we eat lots of fruits and veggies but that's good you are eating the foods you are eating by all means still eat those foods but you may need more herbs to completely help the situation..

Take care.

         I don’t know about finding these things in France, but I will try to get my hands on them. I feel like my whole life has been a quest for normal living, and my diet now feels more normal, but I would like to be even more normal. I will keep searching, keep trying, and keep documenting. Natural is definitely the way to go. If I had listened to my doctors, I would definitely have been dead already because the pain is just unbearable at times, and for them to have told me that drinking lots of water and taking painkillers when necessary was the only thing I could do was incredibly false. I should also try to get the word out as much as possible about Thiocyanate and eating a healthy diet because this is changing my life for the better and I want those changes to continue and to expand for everyone suffering from this horrible disease.

         Here’s the plan. Today I ordered Liquid Chlorophyll from Amazon.co.uk. I will add this to my diet and keep it for a month. Seeing how I feel from there, I will look into adding Nattokinase-Serrapeptase to my diet. I will keep record, maybe not daily, but will keep record of how I feel. Right now I feel tired, as if my eyes are half open, as if there is a bit of a strain behind my eyes. I am hoping that will clear up in a few days, and I am sure I feel that way because my diet is not varied enough. With these results in hand, I will begin to share my findings with others who have sickle cell, especially my cousins in Florida who are often sick.

         Today I am adding carrot juice to my diet, and will be eating a more variegated diet from now on. I may keep a record of the foods I eat.

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[1] http://www.sicklecellsupportgroup.org/Dioscovite.html, http://ssnaturalhealings.blogspot.fr/2012/12/hydroxyurea-side-effects.html?showComment=1356075690769