Good News Again
Stable:
Since April of 2016 my treatment regimen has been Pomalyst (pomalidomide) and Darzalex (daratumumab), with dexamethasone in the early months. That combination brought my IgG and M-Spike down to the lowest levels seen since diagnosis 14 years ago. M-Spike has not been above 0.5 g/dL since August 2016, and it was 0.5 again last Tuesday. IgG was 536 mg/dL, about where it has been for more than a year. This is wonderful.
The Darzalex protocol (with Pomalyst) calls for infusions once per week for 8 doses, then every other week for 8 more, and finally once per month " until disease progression. " ...
Source: Myeloma Hope - September 18, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: acid reflux daratumumab Darzalex GERD PET scan pomalidomide Pomalyst thyroid Source Type: blogs
Thyroid Testing — Is your doctor missing something?
Similar to the gas pedal in your car, the thyroid controls the “speed” of your metabolism. It fine-tunes the function of virtually every tissue in the body, from the lowly cells responsible for creating fingernails to the nerve cells in the brain that guide memory and thought.
Your thyroid hormone level has to be just right. Too high and you are anxious and lose weight despite eating like a horse. Too low and no matter how meticulous your diet or how many calories you cut back, you fail to lose weight or gain weight. Just right and your efforts are rewarded by natural weight loss when nutrition is managed properly. Thy...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - May 30, 2017 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: Thyroid disease Undoctored Wheat Belly Lifestyle energy fatigue healthcare insomnia Weight Loss Source Type: blogs
Is Your Thyroid Really Running the Show?
A while ago, I wrote to you about thyroid function and the role it plays in managing your metabolism. This is so important that I wanted to mention it again. If you are taking the proper steps, and have removed all of the toxic grains from your diet, but still aren’t losing the weight you desire, maybe you should consider having your thyroid checked.
Is your little thyroid sensitive?
The thyroid gland sits on the front of your throat like a miniature bow-tie. Of all endocrine glands, the thyroid gland is the most susceptible to autoimmune damage. When the immune system is unable to distinguish proteins in th...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - August 20, 2016 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: Dr. Davis News & Updates Thyroid disease Weight loss Wheat allergy Wheat Belly Lifestyle blood sugar diabetes grains Wheat Belly Total Health Source Type: blogs
On taking an excellent history
The art of eliciting the medical history requires medical knowledge, cultural knowledge, and many “people skills”. History taking is not science, but rather art, because it requires interpretation and clarification. Patients with the same symptoms express them differently. A major feature of the art of medicine involves learning how to interpret different descriptions of the same phenomenon.
A few examples might clarify these concepts.
The patient tells you that they have chest pain. At this point you really know very little. What are they really describing? How might they characterize the pain?
A p...
Source: DB's Medical Rants - June 22, 2016 Category: Internal Medicine Authors: rcentor Tags: Medical Rants Source Type: blogs
Everything you need to know about iodine
What if your diet is perfect–no wheat, no junk carbohydrates like that from corn or sugars, you are physically active–yet you fail to lose weight? Or you hit a plateau after an initial loss?
Think iodine.
Iodine is an essential nutrient. It is no more optional than, say, celebrating your wedding anniversary or obtaining vitamin C. If you forget to do something nice for your wife on your wedding anniversary, I would fear for your life. If you develop open sores all over your body and your joints fall apart, you could undergo extensive plastic surgery reconstruction and joint replacement . . . or you could just tr...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - March 31, 2016 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: Wheat Belly Lifestyle gluten grains iodine minerals nutrients supplements Thyroid Weight Loss Source Type: blogs
Wheat Belly: Self-Directed Health?
Director chair, film slate and load horn.
Here’s a proposal for you: If, by following the Wheat Belly lifestyle, a long list of conditions are reduced or reversed at no risk, almost no cost, reversing even chronic and potentially fatal conditions . . . does that mean that the notion of self-directed health might be on the horizon, i.e., putting control over health back in our own hands?
I think it does. No, we will never implant our own defibrillators or take out our own gallbladders. But so many chronic health conditions afflicting modern humans recede that I believe that it is entirely reasonable to start talking a...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - February 16, 2016 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: Wheat Belly Lifestyle arthritis autoimmune diabetes eating disorder gluten grains Inflammation joint Weight Loss Source Type: blogs
From health disaster to health success
Andrea endured a lot of health problems, never receiving any real answers from doctors, although plenty of medications were prescribed. Then she stumbled on the Wheat Belly lifestyle:
“I learned in 2005 (27 years old) after having my 2nd child that I was hypothyroid. I was put on Levothroid. I complained often to my doctor that I felt no different a few months after starting this prescription. They ordered some labs and adjusted my dosage. Still no changes. I still felt extremely forgetful, sluggish, unable to concentrate. Instead of losing weight, I gained weight very easily. This went on for years!
“I was ne...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - February 10, 2016 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: Wheat Belly Success Stories eczema fatigue gluten grains hair loss rash Thyroid toenail fungus Weight Loss Source Type: blogs
Rebecca’s journey to health and youthfulness
Rebecca shared her photos and experience living the Wheat Belly lifestyle:
“Eliminating wheat has made such a huge difference in my health and, surprisingly, my appearance. I am 42 and have Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. I’m also a single mom of four and was told that it was ‘normal’ for me to be tired. But I was miserable. I was so tired it hurt despite having thyroid levels that were in the normal range. I also had brain ‘fog,’ anxiety, depression, and trouble sleeping. Doctor after doctor kept prescribing me more medicine: medicine for my mood, medicine to help me sleep. And despite a...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - December 3, 2015 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: Wheat Belly Success Stories anti-aging anxiety Armour autoimmune Depression hashimoto's hypothyroid Inflammation insomnia leaky gut sleep Weight Loss youth Source Type: blogs
Symptoms of Unknown Origin – The Prevalence of False Diagnosis of Disease
This study only raises the question, “How common is the error of assigning a false diagnosis of a disease?”
The literature is surprisingly silent on the prevalence of false diagnoses. I can find only one dated study of the prevalence of false diagnoses in a population. In 1967, Berman and Stamm studied over 100 children in the Seattle school system that carried a diagnosis of heart disease. (2.) Rounding off the figures, only 20 percent were found to have heart disease on careful study. Eighty percent did not have heart disease. The most telling finding was the presence of severe psychological and physical disability i...
Source: The Health Care Blog - September 16, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: THCB Source Type: blogs
What is the diagnosis in this woman with an enlarging neck mass?
Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians.
A 78-year-old woman is evaluated for a rapidly enlarging neck mass that has been present for 4 weeks and is associated with neck discomfort, dysphagia, and hoarseness. The patient has had Hashimoto thyroiditis and hypothyroidism since age 24 years and has been taking levothyroxine since that time.
Physical examination reveals an older woman in severe distress. Temperature is 39.4 °C (102.9 °F), blood pressure is 145/75 mm Hg, pulse rate is 110/min, and respiration rate is 16/min; BMI is 23. Pulmonary examinati...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - August 15, 2015 Category: Journals (General) Authors: mksap Tags: Conditions Endocrinology Source Type: blogs
The OTHER 99%: It’s not just about celiac disease
I want to take this issue head on, since popular “wisdom” is that problems with consumption of wheat and related grains begin and end with celiac disease. The Wheat Lobby, for instance, frequently argues that, if you do not have celiac disease, you have no business avoiding wheat and related grains.
Defenders of wheat, such as those cited in this New York Times article, argue that celiac disease affects 1% of the human population, but that the other 99% of people not only can consume wheat with impunity, but can actually do so and obtain health benefits due to fiber and B vitamin content. They say that eliminat...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - August 13, 2015 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: Wheat Belly Lifestyle ataxia autoimmune diabetes gluten grains Inflammation iron neuropathy skin rash Source Type: blogs
There’s more to wheat than celiac disease
I want to take this issue head on, since popular “wisdom” is that problems with consumption of wheat and related grains begins and ends with celiac disease. The Wheat Lobby, for instance, frequently argues that, if you do not have celiac disease, you have no business avoiding wheat and related grains.
Defenders of wheat, such as those cited in this New York Times article, argue that celiac disease affects 1% of the human population, but that the other 99% of people not only can consume wheat with impunity, but can actually do so and obtain health benefits due to fiber and B vitamin content. They say that elimin...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - August 13, 2015 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: Wheat Belly Lifestyle ataxia autoimmune celiac glutten neuropathy Source Type: blogs
Chrissy fell off the Wheat Belly wagon . . . then returned
Chrissy shared this update on her Wheat Belly lifestyle. You may remember her, as she shared her early Wheat Belly experience from 2014:
“I went grain-free in February of 2014 after seeing the picture of myself on the left. Although I was not extremely overweight, I was swollen, soft, and just downright unhappy. I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis in 2008, gestational diabetes in 2009 when pregnant with my son, and type 2 diabetes in 2011. I never knew how much ‘healthy grains’ were contributing to the demise of my health. I’ve been grain free for 11 months and have lost 20 pounds. I...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - July 19, 2015 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: Wheat Belly Success Stories bloating diabetes gluten grains joint pain Thyroid Weight Loss weight regain Source Type: blogs
Denise is not gluten-free—she’s grain-free!
Denise shared her photos and comments chronicling her first few weeks on the Wheat Belly lifestyle:
“In February when this first pic was taken, I had been just gluten-free for 2 weeks. My endocrinologist introduced me to Wheat Belly.
“The progress pictures are from today after strictly following Wheat Belly just for the past few weeks. Overall I’m down 21 pounds. I’ve lost 6 in the past 2 weeks! I have Hashimoto’s and am finally starting to have more energy and not feel as bloated.
“I’ve even got my husband on board (reluctantly) but, even though he hasn’t been as strict as...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - July 8, 2015 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: Wheat Belly Success Stories gluten grains Hashimoto's thyroiditis Weight Loss Source Type: blogs
