additions to my supplement regimen

To give my liver some help, my acupuncturist added to my regimen N-Acetyl-l-Cysteine
and Sambazon Acai Powder.

This page suggests the N-Acetyl-l-Cysteine as being helpful for fibroids. Reason is that it's a strong anti-oxidant, and fibroids are a sign of oxidative stress (hadn't heard that one before). Also this page suggests it could be helpful for the ovaries.

I poked around to see if acai has any specific action on fibroids, but did not find anything. It does seem to be the popular superfood lately though, and my acupuncturist mentioned that it's a great antioxidant plus is full of good fats. Also it's a good source of protein which can be helpful for egg quality.

activity record and weigh-in

You may have noticed that I have not been consistent with my exercise reports lately. That's because I have not been consistent with my exercise! My trip to the East Coast last month, and then tons of work afterwards, and feeling yukky taking the birth control pills in prep for my next stimulation cycle, have all conspired to keep me away from my regular routine. I have been exercising, but it's been sporadic. I want to get back into the swing of it this week!

Meanwhile, just weighed myself, and although my weight has not changed my fat % and metabolic age have changed for the worse, so indeed am seeing the impact of not exercising as much. Back to work!

weight 139.2
fat % 35.1%
water % 45%
bone 4.6 lbs
metabolic age 47

new supplements

I've been rather tired lately, my acupuncturist thinks that my adrenals have been getting a bit worn down and that my kidneys need some support. A combo of general stress, plus taking birth control pills to calm my ovaries in preparation for the next stimulation cycle.

I'm adding one small box of Zico Coconut Water per day for electrolytes and potassium. This should help the problem I have been having of waking up early to go to the bathroom.

Going back to some old friends from Standard Process that are good for building up the adrenals
Congaplex (good for boosting immunity)
Trace Minerals - B12 (good for energy)
Oculotrophin (good for strengthening the eyes)

Getting some zinc and vitamin C from Country Life Zinc Lozenges

Continuing to battle my Candida with Klaire Labs Interfase

and another fibroid shrinking story with essiac

http://herbladyisin.pnn.com/articles/show/29631-fibroid-tumors-natural-therapies-avoid-surgery

true story of fibroid shrinking

This woman used Essaic Tea and Pau D'Arco and other supplements (unfortunately not named) to shrink her fibroids. http://www.drmomessentials.net/2009/11/02/how-i-resolved-uterine-fibroids-prevented-more-miscarraige/comment-page-1/#comment-114

BodyTalk Access Course

I've written here before about BodyTalk, an energy healing technique. I've been utilizing it as part of my healing efforts for about the past year and a half through regular sessions every approx. 6 to 8 weeks.

On Friday I was in for a session and my practitioner Lisa told me that she had spaces open in her BodyTalk Access Course today. I dimly recalled seeing a flyer she had sent out about it, but as busy as I am recently I just put it aside. But in this case, with it just a couple of days away, I could say "gee, I guess I could do that." Sounded more appealing to me than the day in front of the computer I would have done otherwise. And Lisa really got me with "Since you're planning to be a mom, you really need to do this, as it's really terrific for helping kids with minor playground scrapes etc."

So I spent today in the reasonably priced ($135) 6-hour session (in my experience, people usually want a lot more of your money for a one day course or to certify you in something...). Now I can see why these sessions have been so popular that Lisa is now holding them regularly, and is being asked to travel to various places to teach them there too. It was fabulous! Here's a link to Lisa's courses, and if you're not in one of the locations she is teaching then you can check the BodyTalk site for Access classes in other areas.

The idea of the class is to help people learn five very basic BodyTalk techniques that they can use on themselves and family members. It's easy to learn and with some practice I am sure it will come very naturally. I really like the idea of something I can do on myself in a few minutes a day.

I have a good friend who is a Reiki Master, who has been telling me for years that I should learn reiki, that I'm a natural for it. And on several other occasions energy medicine practitioners have commented that my hands are special, that they have healing energy. But in my busy life, no time to even contemplate Reiki training. So I'm so excited that after just a six hour class, I am now certified as a BodyTalk Access Technician, and feel confident to do a healing routine not just on myself but also on others (I already told my husband, get ready for me to tap on you!) During the practice sessions today, in the last person I partnered with was a woman who does another energy medicine modality, called Healing Touch, that I have heard of but not tried. She also said I was a natural. When I was working on her, I could feel certain areas felt different and she confirmed that those were the ones where something was going on. I'm very excited to practice now!

But the best thing is, after an afternoon of doing this stuff, I am feeling energetic and radiant. If it will always help me feel this way, I'm hooked! It's not meant to replace deeper treatment with a BodyTalk practitioner who is trained in all the more sophisticated techniques. However I think that if I use the Access frequently I can take care of some of the more basic stuff myself so that Lisa can focus on the harder stuff when I see her.

The last of the techniques presented has a lot of similarities to Jin Shin Jyutsu, which I have been practicing on myself intermittently over the last few months after I stumbled on a reference to it somewhere that caught my interest. I've been using the book The Touch of Healing. I think that having read this book I had some good background that helped me understand the BodyTalk Access concepts more readily. Comparing the two, I think that the BodyTalk Access is a more efficient and easy-to-learn system. The Jin Shin Jyutsu got me a bit bogged down in technical details of "levels" and "projects." However I still want to keep practicing with it, and in particular I like bringing the book along when going on car trips when my husband is driving. Because normally I have a lot of trouble sitting still long enough to do the Jin Shin Jyutsu exercises, but they are perfect for when riding in the car. It's a good way to make otherwise dead time into healing time.

There were also a few similarities to some of the techniques presented in Energy Medicine for Women so that might also be good pre-reading if you are going to take an Access class. Or something else to look at if you have tried Access and liked it.

So in summary, I am very excited about Access and highly recommend that you look for a class near you and give this a try!

breathing exercise for shrinking fibroids

This breathing exercise for shrinking fibroids is based on pranayama. In the "worth trying" category!

participate in a fibroid study

Here is another different opportunity to participate in a research study on fibroids, see this post.

Also mentioned in the theory that progesterone (not estrogen) is what makes fibroids grow. If that's the case, it makes me upset that I used progesterone cream for awhile in an attempt to shrink the fibroids...

statistics

Sorry I have been remiss with posting my activity and statistics. We went to visit some family and I was also swamped with work, so hard to keep on top of it.

I'm getting frustrated with the weekly scale readings, they just seem to be bouncing in between 137 (today's number) and 140 (last week's number). If I had time to plot all the measurements on a chart, amid all the jumping around I think there might be a slight downward trend in both the weight and the fat% but it's hard to say. Noticing that my pants are fitting a bit better though. I was hoping for a bit more positive feedback to help motivate me on my exercising, but so far at least am not getting that.

My period just ended so did some abdominal massage last night, my tummy feels a lot softer than before, which I think is a good sign...

yummy gluten free muffin mixes

Just ordered some yummy sounding gluten free and sugar free muffin mixes at www.appetiteforhealthyliving.com

info from a naturopath on uterine fibroids

Take a look at this section from a book by a naturopath about uterine fibroiods
Lots of interesting information, and also note near the end where she talks about the hypothesis that it's actually progesterone that causes fibroids to grow

new blog on medicinal foods

Found this cute blog, current top story is on eggplants mentioning that they are good for fibroids.

Author appears to be in Chicago, if you are in that area looks like she is teaching a class on eating for fertility on 10/28.

examble of ayurveda shrinking fibroids

This article has an interesting example of ayurveda helping to shrink fibroids.

The description of late nights, too much alcohol, wrong kind of foods does indeed describe my Sex and the City type gal lifestyle for part of the time where my fibroids were growing...

affirmations may not work for everyone...

according to this Economist magazine article (they love to present the contrarian view)

participate in a research study of natural approaches to improved pelvic health

Info is here:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christiane-northrup/a-natural-approach-to-pel_b_293940.html.

Also describes the Center in NY that is doing it -- Laughing Sage Wellness Group -- sounds like the kind of place I was looking for when first was diagnosed with fibroids! It focuses on hormonal balance. They have a great-looking program that you can do remotely even if you don't live in NY -- http://www.laughingsagewellness.com/events_ind_rnh.shtml

changes to supplements

Made a few changes to the supplement regime:

1. Done with the grapefruit seed extract and the burdock root. The former seemed to upset my stomach.

2. Adding back some old favorites I had been taking a break from:

Chlorophyl, now one capsule per day
Theramedix DGX enzymes, with each meal
Fish oil Ultimate Omega, 3 per day
Royal jelly, 3 2000 mg capsules per day

And a new addition, Hemagenics support for red blood cell development, by Metagenics

activity report and this week's stats

I am thinking I am going to need to change my daily goal from 2.5 hours to 2, as 2.5 hours is just not realistic and it's even hard to hit 2 hours daily-- couldn't do so this week although was just off by an hour or so.

Picking up from the last post,
Thursday 2 hr 5 min abdominal massage, meditation, castor oil pack, hula hoop and yoga
Friday 1 hr 20 min self massage, hula hoop, walking
Saturday 2 hr 20 min meditation, walk, fertility bodywork DVD, meditation tape
Sunday 2 hr 25 min EFT and meditation, qi gong, bicycling, situps and stretching, detox bath with relevant reading

As for my stats, I gained nearly 3 pounds but my fat % is down and my water percentage is up, so still heading in the right direction? Plus my metabolic age is even lower.

weight 140
% fat 31.7
% water 47.5
bone 4.8
metabolic age 39

How to find an acupuncturist to help with fibroids

A comment just came in asking about how to find an acupuncturist, and thought I would include the info here as a post too. Note that the first two suggestions are USA-specific, there may be parallel ones in other countries of course but I am not familiar with them.

I would suggest looking at the website of ABORM, the board-certifying group for acupuncturists who specialize in fertility. Those will know the most about how to deal with fibroids, because they are experts in the female reproductive system and it's part of their curriculum. http://www.aborm.org/

If there is nobody in your area listed there, you can go to www.acufinder.com to search for acupuncturists by location.

You can also go to Google and type in "fertility acpuncuture" or just "acupuncture" and the name of your city. Or go to Google Maps and look up your city, then type in "fertility acupuncture" or just "acupuncture" and see what it shows on the map. (Note these two methods often come up with different results)

Also, since many fertility centers recommend the use of acupuncture along with IVF, you could contact a local fertility center and see if they have anyone they recommend.

activity records and this week's stats

Sorry to be so behind on posting. Ok, let's see where was I on the activity stats, very behind. Last week did not end up being as active as I hoped, because I was still battling that cold. I had a ton of mucus. Mucus seems to be my downfall and my acupuncturist and I have a theory that the fibroids are really just a bunch of conjealed mucus. Am currently on Shen Ling Bai Zhu San to try to get rid of the rest of the mucus from the cold, and hopefully it will help my underlying mucus problem too.

So, last week.
Tuesday 1 hour 50 min stretching, walking, meditation and castor oil pack
Wednesday 1 hour 30 minutes hula hoop, qi gong, EFT and meditation
Thursday 55 minutes castor oil pack, eucalyptus steam bath and full body scrub, walking
Friday 1 hour 25 min walking, jin shin jutsu
Saturday 55 min castor oil pack, eucalyptus steam bath, walking
Sunday 40 minutes EFT and jin shin jyutsu

But after that surprisingly on Monday morning all my stats had significantly improved! My best so far on any of them except the metabolic age. I think it may have been from eating less, the cold really wreaked my appetite...

weight 137.2
% fat 32.3
% water 46.9
bone 4.8 lbs
metabolic age 40

Doing ok on the activity levels this week

Monday 2 hours 5 minutes: meditation, self massage, detox bath with relevant reading, hula hoop, chi gong
Tuesday 1 hour 35 minutes walking, meditating, dancing
Wednesday 1 hour 55 minutes castor oil pack, meditation, yoga

The key is to keep up the activity during the week, so that I don't leave it all for the weekend...

natural fibroid shrinking story

This blogger talks about how she shrunk her fibroid naturally. Interesting she used ginger compresses rather than castor oil...

I am always suspicious about people who link to Shola Oslo's stuff, because she has a program where people earn comissions for plugging her e-book and thus there are lots of kind of worthless articles about fibroids out there that have a link to her book at the end. But this one looks like a legit blogger and sounds like a legit story.

activity record for past few days, and this week's stats

I was doing well last week, with a full 2.5 hours of activity on Thursday, then caught a terrible cold and spent much of the weekend in bed! So much for healing activity...

I was feeling better yesterday and got back on track with 1 hour 55 minutes of activity -- meditation, eucalyptus steam bath, Yamauma foot walker, walking, Jin Shin Jyutsu, and stretching.

My stats are also looking a bit better

weight, down to 138.6 (no appetite while sick helped!)
fat % 33.1
water 46.4
bone 4.8
metabolic age 42

I think I was trying to fight that cold off for awhile, and now that I'm almost done with it am planning on bouncing back quickly!