Repeat; It's the Uric Acid, it's the Uric Acid

You know, sometimes we doubt our choices.

A couple of weeks ago I started questioning my choice to become a vegan. My legs and ankles were swollen from mid morning until I went to bed. Now, I take Lasix for heart failure, but it hasn't ever seemed to work very well for me, but the constant swelling was something new. I started getting worried...was I getting enough protein on this vegan diet? I read that protein deficiency can cause swollen ankles and legs...and started thinking...ooohh, maybe that's what my problem is...too many carbs, not enough protein.

And sooo, a couple of days later wouldn't you know I began to eat meat. When I say meat, I mean animal protein. A lot of people refer 'meat' to be red meat, but to me meat is all animal protein. I bought some haddock, as well as some skirt steaks, and I even bought 2 tiny lamb chops. I really thought I was doing the right thing, but deep inside I knew...KNEW! this was not going to be the solution.

Well, the results are as follows.... After I ate the lamb chops, I was overcome with a bone crushing depression and cold spell that lasted for a few hours. I literally sat on the sofa and bummed. Next day I tried the haddock, which sent me into a paroxysm of coughing and the RLS that night was terrible! Yes, the lamb caused the RLS too.

And then the final frontier; my CBC results...when they came back I couldn't believe it; my counts were LOWER than all the time I have been tracking them. Really bad!!! On top of all that, the meats cause me to be terribly short of breath, each time. It too was scary, and it really helped me clarify things.

After all that, I decided to forgo the whole meat thing....except for one last little attempt at eating meat with the skirt steak yesterday. I awoke this morning with 2 blood blisters in my mouth, after a night of dancing around the living room with RLS.

FINAL ANSWER??? My first choice was the right one; becoming a vegan has improved me and my blood counts; maybe small amounts, but I was able to skip a few infusions while I was a strict vegan. I'm back on track again. Proof once again, that you can't argue with success. As for the swollen legs and ankles, I think a combination of the warmer weather and food sensitivities( I'm working on that)is making that happen. We'll see. Thanks for reading.

I'm Full of Beans ( not!!!)

Sometimes, it's best not to ramble, because if you do and hit the wrong button or what ever I did, your whooole post goes away, never to be seen again! That's what just happened. I don't know what I did, but one second it was there, the next it was gone. Gone, I tell ya! And it was a good post, too.

Maybe I was rambling a bit too much. Let's see if I can remember some of what I was writng about, and condense just a wee bit!

The subject today is beans. Beans are supposedly good for you; all that protein, fiber, b vitamins, what's not to love about beans? In fact, Purines. Uric acid.

All foods contain some purines from what I understand. But, too many purines in the diet create uric acid to form in our bodies, making them acidic. Ever heard of Gout? One of the by-products of an overindulgence or accumulation of uric acid. What foods contain high levels of purines? Animal protein; Fish, beef, pork, poultry...whatever, they all are high in purines. Also dairy products...and beans. How do I know this and why am I writing about beans and purines?

As you know, the reason for this blog is to see if I can improve my condition of MDS with my diet. Notice I don't say cured; it'd be nice if it happened, but I am presently just hoping to improve a little bit. Since my last post I still have no spots on my legs, nor blisters in my mouth, so I must be doing something right...but today I'm gonna write about what I've been doing wrong. And that something involves beans.

Since becoming vegan ( diet only...not a PETA member! ) I have been on the lookout for good protein sources. Months ago, before I embarked on this diet, I ate a high protein diet ( not Atkins; I'm not that stupid!) Lots of beef, turkey, chicken, and take out fish on Fridays. (No, I'm not Catholic, but I always kind of liked the idea of the fish on Friday deal.) I believe the high protein diet contributed to my condition today. And I also believe my low protein diet will help improve it.

With the high protein intake I developed Restless Legs Syndrome. It is when you awake at some point during the night and your legs seem to be doing the cha-cha or whatever they do. They twitch, wiggle, and it often drives one to hop out of bed to walk around for relief. Sometimes, as in my case, it lasts for hours at a time, and I'd get up, walk around, then sit until the twitching forced me to get up and begin walking again. Have I said for hours?

I'm not sure how I got onto the whole purine/uric acid thing, but I found an article about gout, and how it's caused by uric acid from too many purines....in our high protein obsessed diets. I read some other stuff from a guy who goes on for pages and pages about the evils of purines & uric acid. And he listed symptoms from a uric acid overload. That was me! Eureka!

I stopped eating high protein at that point. Within a few days I was sleeping without RLS. That's when I became a vegan. But, there I am a couple of months down the road, and I'm looking to improve the protein in my diet.

Ah! Enter beans. What about beans, I thought, completely forgetting that they can be high in purines, which got me into trouble to begin with. But I thought to myself, a few beans now and then, what could it hurt? I began by making lima bean hummus, and eating refried beans, and making lentil stew. Not too much, but kicking up the protein in my diet was a good thing, I thought.

I had RLS a few nights...a couple more...and then I went in for my most recent CBC count. All the numbers were down. Down? How could that be? They were going up slowly when I behaved myself eating the good stuff and,..wait a minute...weren't beans the good stuff? Protein, fiber, all that? Oh, yeah...it seems I had forgotten about the purines. Purines make uric acid in your body, and it was happening all over again, this time with beans! It had taken a couple of weeks to show up, but uric acid had caused damage again. I determined to stop the beans. It will be interesting to see what my next CBC says...I'll post the numbers next time.