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ALS WINNERS - THE ROAD TO RECOVERY
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April 2017

Dear PALS and Caregivers,
 
We have heard from a number of PALS that indicated that they were going to go off the gluten-free diet in an effort to gain weight.  We realize that maintaining (healthy) weight is important and one thing that PALS have a difficult time doing.  We believe the reason for that is the health of the gut.  If a round of antibiotics has been your method of clearing up infections, you must realize that along with the bad bacteria, the good bacteria has also been destroyed.  That leads to  further health issues.  The bacteria breakdown in the gut should be 75% good and 25% bad.  That provides enough good bacteria to keep the bad in control.  With an impaired digestive tract, nutrition cannot be processed.
 
Just eating high carb foods to gain weight may defeat the purpose of regaining your health because high carb foods create massive amounts of inflammation.  (Then the bacteria gets to you again and you go back to the doctor to get another antibiotic.)
 
Another factor that some feel is causing the nutritional deficiency is what is called a leaky gut and gluten can be one major cause of that.
 
Kim feels one of the most important steps he took was getting rid of the gluten (though he loves bread and sugar more than about anything. Well, maybe he loves me more. Maybe.)  Getting rid of the gluten helped reduce his glutamate levels and the inflammation in his body.  He began breathing better as we worked the fungus out of his lungs.  Anything that creates inflammation also creates fungus.  He did decide that breathing seemed more important than bread and sugar. He stressed over his weight loss for several months and then realized that the weight he lost was junk weight.  It is muscle that you need to maintain, a difficult task with an ALS diagnosis.
 
Deb Wot put the following article up on facebook this week, and it has helped me understand what glutamate is, how it is good and how too much of it is bad.  Excess glutamate is directly related to gluten intake as well as dairy intake and all forms of MSG and chemical toxins.  If you are eating processed foods, you are getting MGS (monosodium glutamate) in addition to some of the 8000 chemical additives that the FDA has approved for our "foods", if you can call them that.
 
http://www.holistichelp.net/blog/how-to-increase-gaba-and-balance-glutamate/

This article is written by Cynthia Perkins who has a real issue with keeping glutamate balanced in her body.  Her research is excellent and she gives excellent suggestions as to how to not get too much glutamate and how to keep it in proper balance with GABA.
 
I will summarize the article a tiny bit, but you need to read it, maybe several times to understand most of it.  Some of it is a bit technical. 
 
Glutamate (which most PALS have too much of) is a primary excitatory neurotransmitter.  Important rolls include stimulating your brain cells so you can talk, think, learn, pay attention and store information.  However too much results in neurological inflammation and cell death.
 
GABA, on the other hand, has the role of calming the brain, slowing things down and relaxing you.  Without adequate GABA, our conversations would consist of lots of run on sentences, slurred speech or loss of speech. (Slurred and loss of speech is a big issue for many PALS.)
 
Glutamate over productions comes from gluten, dairy, stress, and all the toxins we have discussed on this site.  Not enough GABA comes from too much glutamate. 
 
So read and learn.  We continue to learn and you must also.  The body is incredibly complex.  You will get a better feel for that in reading this article.  ALS is not just one thing wrong.  It is multiple issues in the body.  Each has to be corrected, and the corrections that need to be made are different for each individual because we are all biologically different. 
 
With every bit of learning, we hope you are finding hope and the courage to make the course corrections to heal.  You are the captain of your healing journey.  Study and pray for guidance.
 
Kay Cherry
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