Archive for gastroesophageal reflux

“I realized I loved how I was feeling”

By: Kimberly Smith

In May of 2015 I found myself at the ER with a kidney stone. After a couple of weeks, imaging, and doctor appointments, it was determined the stone was too large to pass on its own. I was scheduled for surgery, shockwave lithotripsy. This surgery failed and a month later I had another surgery, ureteroscopy. A few weeks after the surgeries I had a follow-up doctor’s appointment. I was surprised to learn that lab results showed that my kidney function was less than optimal.

This was a little shocking to me. I had always been health conscious. As a nurse I had worked in long-term care facilities and realized I wanted to take care of my health so I could enjoy my later years. Never had I not followed the don’ts of the Word of Wisdom. I ground my own wheat, had meatless meals regularly, and fed my family as well as I knew how. The one health problem plaguing me had been GERD, and I had taken proton pump inhibitors regularly for a while and then off and on for years. Looking back, that probably played a role in my kidney problems.

The advice from my nephrologist rang familiar. He said, “Don’t drink alcohol, don’t smoke, limit your caffeine, eat less meat, and follow up with me in a year.” I walked away from that appointment thinking, “What more can I do?” I’ve never had alcohol or smoked. I haven’t had soda in years and purposefully don’t drink anything with caffeine. I had limited my red meat consumption to about once a week. What I didn’t know was that dairy is essentially “liquid meat.” I had replaced most of my meat with cheese and was eating a lot of high fat meals which was causing weight gain and GERD.

The same week that I had that doctor’s appointment, my then 14-year-old son came bounding down the stairs on Sunday with his scriptures in his hand. He had been reading D&C 89, the Word of Wisdom.  He asked me “Mom, why do we eat so much meat?” I looked at him, he looked at me, and I said, “I don’t know.” Later that day I reread D&C 89 and started researching.

I don’t know which came first, finding Dr. McDougall and watching Forks Over Knives or finding Jane Birch and reading Discovering the Word of Wisdom. It was likely all in the same week. I had taken two nutrition classes in college and was stuck on the concept of needing to eat meat for health. I realized I needed to take it to the Lord. After praying and pondering for a few days, I reread D&C 89. When I read verse 13 I felt the spirit flow through me:

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“God has given me the heart to be a voice for his animal creations”

By: Sarah Rayner Hancock

I took interest in becoming vegetarian around age 17 when I began to recognize the suffering of God’s creatures here on earth. I was vegetarian for some time, then I fell back into eating meat for several years, though I had lost my appetite for beef. That tends to happen when you cut meat from your meals. Eventually, I became pescatarian with efforts to ditch dairy from my diet. The traditional Christmas and Thanksgiving family dinners were events I didn’t want to make difficult for others who were cooking, so I often just ate foods even if they contained dairy. As I became far more educated on the practices in the factory farming industry and its devastating effects on our health, planet and its animals, I chose a plant-based diet.

It was not always easy during these years of transition. I was raised a meat eater and had to learn how to cook again and appreciate new flavors and tastes. I was accustomed to and craved cheese, for example, not realizing how dependent I had become on it for nearly every lunch and dinner meal. I learned that cheese contains casomorphins, a morphine-like compound derived from the protein casein, which is found in a mother cow’s milk at far higher levels than is found in human breast milk. This is the very reason I craved more cheese on top of my cheese, haha! Milk is designed to keep babies, both human and non-human, coming back to their mothers for what is God’s intended purpose, which is to provide the very best formulae for them in their infant stage. With this knowledge, I felt more empowered than ever to ditch dairy.

Eventually, my love for the welfare of animals set so deep in my heart that compassion was of more worth to me than the taste of meat. I figured that if Eden was plant-based, I have no doubt that Zion will be too, and are we not to become a Zion people? Even Isaiah (11:6) saw that the wolf and lamb will lie together and a child shall lead them.

Somewhere along my journey, I don’t recall exactly when, I became aware that the Word of Wisdom seemed to imply a plant-based diet. Or did it? Why was I somewhat confused? Was it tradition that caused me to question? I believe so. Upon further study, there is no denying. The Word of Wisdom is plain and clear that animals are to be used, “sparingly” and “ONLY in times of winter, cold and famine.” However, why during cold and winter times and not summer? What did that mean exactly? “…And it is pleasing unto me that they should not be used” (D&C 89:13). WOW! Now as an animal advocate, no more beautiful a word can be said than when your God himself says such a thing as this!

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“I decided I would put it to the test to see if it could work for me”

By: Dan Thieme

I remember as a youth growing up in the Church hearing many lessons about the Word of Wisdom. Inevitably, these lessons would emphasize that Joseph Smith surely was prophet, for how could he know at the time he lived in to write a document about health, teaching us to avoid alcohol and tobacco, which would save us from the ills of these substances which were so harmful to our physical bodies. I was amazed. I also hardly even noticed, or cared to notice, the other counsel that appears in that section of scripture: That is, what we should eat and not eat. I was never really taught that eating meat sparingly was part of the Word of Wisdom, and if we wanted to please Him, meaning the Lord (who wouldn’t!) that we should eat meat not at all. Has that phrase really been in there all these years? How many lessons and discussions over the years have I heard about the Word of Wisdom, and yet not one of those spoke of that second phrase?

And besides, who would be conspiring to make me eat meat? After all, protein is good for me right? Mom always told me to eat my vegetables, but she never had to tell me to eat my meat. Somehow I seemed to have an innate desire to eat that stuff—it came naturally to a growing boy, and eating lots of meat even seemed to be part of becoming a man. As men, we barbecue, we shoot or catch our own food with our own hands, bring it home and prepare it. Very manly. It seemed a natural part of the old ways that society was forgetting. What could be more healthy? What could be more social? At every family gathering we surrounded a table of the best meat, both from the land and the sea: prime roast, juicy steaks, good old hamburgers, or crab, shrimp, and fish. But even pork, and chicken and other meats are so wonderful!

As I grew, I became more manly and more carnivorous. I ground my own meat, smoked and barbecued that meat, refined my barbecue sauce recipe to perfection and had the best pork ribs you could find anywhere. I knew bacon was not good for me, so I only ate it occasionally. I worked out five times a week, ate lots of yogurt for the probiotics, and ate what I considered a healthy diet—whole wheat bread and lots of fruits and vegetables to go with my manly animal protein. With my health profession education and background as an optometrist, I thought I had a decent handle on what I should be eating, and what I should be avoiding.

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“All these amazing physical blessings began to unfold”

Erik and Wendy Jensen Before and AfterBy: Erik Jensen

Three years ago I was feeling that my health was beginning to slowly decline. I was not happy with the way I felt but accepted that it was probably part of growing older and that there was probably nothing that could be done. I was 60 lbs overweight, cholesterol was about 220, blood pressure 140/90, and I was taking drugs for high blood pressure and high cholesterol. My feet developed neuropathy, painful arthritis was spreading in my fingers, and I had restless leg syndrome for years (about every 15 seconds during sleep my leg would twitch). I also had an autoimmune disease in my eye that would flair up regularly, my knees and ankles would begin to hurt if I ran or hiked regularly, and every morning I woke up exhausted. I had a scary episode hiking in the Sierras when my body just quit.

My wife Wendy has suffered for years with fibromyalgia symptoms. She also suffered with terrible acid reflux, diverticulosis, kidney stones, and allergies. The only way she could control the acid reflux was to take a calcium blocker that would eventually weaken her bones. Her blood sugar was at pre-diabetic level, and she had difficulty with exercise and knee problems.

We were discussing the new stage of life we were entering as our children are growing up and will soon be on their own. We began to include in our prayers our desires to prepare ourselves spiritually, financially, and physically so that we could serve missions and be useful as we enter into the last third of our lives. The answer to our prayers for physical preparation began at Costco one day as we were looking at a product called a Nutribullet. A lady next to us remarked that her brother had bought one and had been able to lose a lot of weight. We bought it and for the next few weeks it sat on our kitchen floor unopened until two of our sons decided to unpack it and see how it worked. We read the smoothie recipes and started to have them for breakfast. Our energy levels increased, we lost a little weight and found that our appetites were somewhat decreased during the morning. I continued to occasionally read about nutrition on the Internet, but it was difficult to figure out what to do since there are so many opinions.

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“The doctor was giddy about my results.”

Dave and Petra HansenBy: Dave Hansen

Having been raised in Idaho in a family that has always been very active in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I was taught about the Word of Wisdom. I was taught that the use of tobacco, drinking of alcoholic beverages as well as coffee and black tea was prohibited. I was aware that other substances were ordained for the use of man by God including fruits in their season, vegetables, and grains. I had been raised to believe that since meat was ordained for the use of man, it was also good to consume. In addition our family took pride in the dairy business that they were involved in, even though my father chose another path of employment shortly after my birth. We believed the commercials that milk “does a body good.”

After getting married and being on my own, I never allowed margarine on my dinner table, only the finest butter. Ice cream was purchased by the gallons and always readily available, as well as cheese. I reveled in some of my specialty dishes; my three egg ham and cheese omelets were a favorite of my family, as well as my pecan pie, grilled New York Steak, and my award winning chili (which was always more carne than beans). In the United States, the LDS culture is immersed in the Western diet that I was so accustomed to. Potlucks, barbeques, funerals, ice cream socials, and all other social gatherings within the Church are centered on a diet of meat and dairy.

On a Sunday morning in the spring of 2013 I woke to a nagging pressure in my chest with radiating pain in my neck and left arm, deep inside. This is a symptom that had been slowly getting worse over the previous two years. At first it was only noticeable when I was involved in extreme exercise, but it gradually showed up when I simply walked up a flight of stairs. This morning I was not doing anything, but it was there. I thought about skipping Church that day and resting, thinking that I may have just overdid it the day before on our motorcycle ride. I was reminded of a talk that I had heard at some conference in the past that if we didn’t want to do something the Lord wanted us to do, then we should really do it because there was something that we were supposed to learn from it, so I got ready for Church with my wife and we went.

During Sacrament meeting one of the speakers relayed a recent experience he had endured when he had a heart attack, so afterward I felt inspired to ask him about the symptoms. He asked me why, and I relayed to him what I was feeling. He told me to go immediately to the emergency room, and to not attend the following Sunday School or Priesthood meetings. Well I, being the stubborn soul that I am, attended Sunday School anyways; however, the pressure in my chest was not getting better, so afterward I told my wife that maybe we should go to the emergency room so they could rule out my heart as the culprit.

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“As a radiologist, I had seen fatty plaque clogging critical arteries”

Chad Harston familyBy: Chad Harston, MD

Our C-130 transport plane touched down in the middle of the night at Joint Base Balad in Iraq. It was 2010, and I had been deployed to Iraq to take part in Operation New Dawn ordered by President Obama. I was part of the crew responsible to keep the base hospital operational during the orderly withdrawal of US Forces. After a few hours of sleep I rolled out of my bunk, put on my battle dress uniform and made my way to the hospital in the 120 degree July heat for my first day of work. An NCO issued me a firearm and another checked my gas mask and chemical protection gear. I sat down to start reading radiographs, CT scans, and ultrasounds generated from combat traumas as well as routine cases like twisted ankles, kidney stones, and pneumonias. At first I only had to work 12 hour shifts 7 days per week. The base was large with over 30,000 military troops and contractors when I arrived, but most of the soldiers were healthy and combat injuries were diminishing every month as more and more troops were sent home.

When the trauma work was light in the middle of the night I finally had time to myself. The frantic demands on my time that I had been dealing with for nearly 20 years came to a sudden halt. After all those years of working and studying 80 – 100+ hours per week, suddenly I found that I had time to ponder life and study whatever interested me. I also wanted to use some of my free time to get in better shape. Fortunately, the Iraqi army had left a swimming pool when they turned over the base to the US Air Force, and the base commander had made it a priority to acquire gym equipment for the troops. After a night shift I enjoyed going to pool or the gym for a morning workout. The only inconvenience was the frequent C-RAM siren indicating incoming rockets and mortars. This required us to jump out of the pool and run for cover. I planned out an ambitious exercise regimen, but as the weeks went on I didn’t lose weight or feel stronger. In fact, I felt progressively worse. I was following the usual fitness precepts: alternating weight lifting and cardio while eating large amounts of protein — mostly meat, eggs, and dairy. Yet somehow my weight was going up while my stamina was going down.

Finally, my frustration reached a peak one night when I couldn’t even jog a slow mile on the lonely treadmill in the hospital basement without feeling exhausted. I walked back through the dark empty halls to my office and opened my scriptures to a well-known passage: Doctrine and Covenants Section 89. Read More→