I am new to this site. But as I wait for my organic chicken to bake for a Thanksgiving feed with my boyfriend I thought I'd start this blog.
I have found that herbs and other supplements have helped heal a great many of my symptoms along with of course avoiding all gluten. Given my apparent success at healing myself, I have been invited to speak at the Santa Cruz, CA celiac support group. It was suggested there that I start a blog. How easy can this get?
I am hopeful that this topic will be of interest and provide some help to others.
Of course everyone is different. My eldest sister who also has celiac has to limit her herbs since she is allergic to salycic acid found in most herbs. However even for her pao de arco has proved helpful. Plus supplements like enterically coated probiotics, b complex and vitamins C and E.
My favorite herb of all time for healing the lining of the gut is slippery elm. I haven't heard much hear about that in this site so I thought I'd mention it first. It is an old time remedy for healing the lining of the gut and reducing inflammation. You can either take the capsules or cook it up. It is the most effective if you cook it however capsules are good too... The good thing about it is that it is quite inexpensive. just make sure its of good quality and not mixed with gluten!
So what you do is take one tablespoon of the dry slippery elm powder and mix it in a small container like a pyrex measuring cup with a small amount of water using a small whisk or a fork. If you add too much water it resists mixing. Then slowly add water (up to one cup) and put in a stainless steel or undamaged enamel cooking pot. If you want you can add some cinnamon powder too or cinnamon sticks for flavor. Bring to a boil and reduce heat so its at a slow boil, stirring relatively frequently. Cook this way from 5 to 10 minutes. You can then eat it when its cool enough, maybe put some butter on it and/or coconut milk or whatever agrees with you.
According to David Hoffman's Holistic Herbal Slippery Elm Bark "is a soothing nutritive demulcent which is perfectly suited for sensitive of inflamed mucous membrane linings in the digestive system...in Diarrhoea it will soothe and astringe at the same time. ...for digestive problems it may be used with Marshmallow."
Marshmallow is my next herb of choice. This too you can get either in a powder or as a whole herb. One can use the root and leaf. It too is an effective demulcent. You can either add it to the slippery elm concoction or just take capsules or even stir the powder in a glass of water. I often add the whole plant parts to my herbal remedies since it combines well with other things--and the whole plant parts don't requite mixing (i.e., like the slippery elm powder for instance does).
Marshmallow is not only soothing for the gut its also soothing for the urinary system and the lungs. Both of which systems have been problem areas for me since I had pneumonia as a wee thing and often got bronchitis throughout the years.
Ditto with my kidneys which started going out for me when I was a young adult. I was rapidly losing them from nephritis brought on by inflammation. Fortunately my grandmother pointed out food sensitivities could be a big part of the problem like they were for her. Basically she saved my life--unlike my doctors who wanted me to stay on antibiotics forever despite them causing my ears to ring and my brain to feel like it was in the ozone!
So I got into diet and herbs big time as a result. The thing is is that was 44 years ago and I haven't had another serious kidney problem since despite half of my right kidney being permanently scarred. So yes I do recommend marshmallow root as well as uva ursi when the going gets tough for your kidneys.
That's all for now since my chicken is nearly baked but more later on other herbs -- like dandelion root and yellow dock plus the virtues of cod liver oil and co-enzyme B vitamins!
--Yolo
