Help losing weight?

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Hi ChristyA, I have read about epigenetic modulation of MTHFR (and other genes) and find the field fascinating. I am so glad to hear that this has helped you - I have never had contact with anyone who tried this approach & wonder how long it took you to see/feel changes once you began the treatment plan you mentioned. I found the presentation given to the American Nutritionists Association by Dr. William Walsh (a researcher/clinician who has worked with epiginetic studies both actively & statistically for many years) to be very informative as an overview of treatment approaches & the state of the field. That talk is available here : http://www.walshinstitute.org/videos.html I should add, however that after extensive research I decided not to attempt nutrient therapy with the goal of epigenetic modulation because I do not have access to medical support/testing for the process & I do not feel that the field is mature enough to base conclusions (and thus, effective, targeted treatments) upon yet. I think it is close & worth trying if a patient can find good medical support/testing (I could not find a lab close enought to me to test my time sensitive levels - some of the important compounds in the MTHFR activation cycle degrade so quickly that one really needs to be able to get blood tested within hours after drawing for accurate results) ... I think that we are still a few years away from being able to target genetic switching intentionally and specifically enough for reliable therapy to be widely available...but I think epigenetic modulation should be the new forefront of medical science because it holds immense promise.

Hi again Dragonwhiskers & Eric76. Thanks so much for explaining further about package inserts. I definitely don't get those here (Canada) I receive a print-out with abridged general safety instructions/side effect warnings. My reason for wanting the full list of possible side effects is because whenever I take a medication I create a chart with columns for [ - date - dosage - improvements noted - sideffects noted - weight - ] because I heave a very poor memory & would not remember correct dates for dosage change instructions, or frequency of side effects & improvements to report to my doctor if I didn't note them in a very organized way.

With regards to using ketosis for weight loss, I definitely see the potential & find the science behind it fascinating (congratulations on your weight loss Scanner - that's an amazing achievement). I definitely agree with Underwater though, anyone with thyroid problems should avoid low-carb diets because they modulate hormones universally & powerfully, which will only exacerbate thyroid dysfunction. I also decided not to try this approach myself because I feel that sustainable lifestyle changes (diet rich in whole natural foods & moderate, thoughtful exercise) that are designed (based on current understanding of human biology) to support long-term health (my goal) will yield natural weight loss & long term support to my body's functioning.

I'm so glad that yesterday was better for you Dragonwhiskers (shrimp & chips sounds yummy! And at least the protein in the shrimp & fat from frying would slow down absorption of the simple carbohydrates in the chips/batter...so it would have a better impact on your bloodsugar than most bread-based fast food!). I agree that it is so important to have reliable direct coping strategies for anxiety inducing situations. I do the same thing with visiting locations ahead of events to locate restrooms, exits & most direct routes. It really is an awful hassle, but so necessary to my being able to function. Have you ever practiced deep breathing or diaphragm breathing? These techniques have helped me with both anxiety induced nausea & panic attacks because they change the way that the muscles around your stomach and lungs are contracting (which can often relieve my nausea significantly). With practice, one can learn to deep breathe invisibly ... which was my biggest concern when I started. I try to practice while I exercise (pseudo exposure for countering panic attacks & I also practice while in transit to stressfully events...so that I'm primed to use it (mentally & muscle-wise) when I get to the stressful event.

This site anxietybc.com has a really useful self help section (very direct &easy to use) here is their short primer on how to breathe better http://www.anxietybc.com/sites/default/ ... athing.pdf there are also good, clear instructions on YouTube if you search deep breathing or diaphragm breathing. Hope it helps - if only a little.

Deep breathing unfortunately doesn't work well for me. If I ever focus on my breathing, I get scared that I'll stop breathing if I think of anything else. I have a lot of anxiety surrounding breathing and the fear that I won't be able to breathe.

I tend to pace a lot when anxious, and if I can pace in an open, non-crowded area, it tends to help. It takes a lot of pacing though, my pedometer measured upwards of six miles of pacing per eight hours of work when I used to work full time. My urge is usually to "escape", so this partially fulfills the need to run away without actually running away.

Me too, if I am suffering from anxiety, focusing on my breathing only makes it worse. Meditation is not fantastic either.

What I find is that when I am very tense due to stress and pain, exercise can cause anxiety. I have no evidence for this, other than an intuitive feeling that the body tends to "store" emotions as tension, and when the tension is released, I feel a lot of the stress. The solution for me has always been patience and the realization that not all emotions are a reaction to something that is happening right now. So I accept the feeling, but regard it with a certain distance, if that makes sense? It think this is something people do in meditation, but I prefer to keep busy with something.

Oh! I'm super sorry to have suggested breathing exercises if thinking about breathing is an anxiety trigger for you.

I think the reason it worked so well for me is that I have had panic attacks since I was too young to understand them as such (thus, assumed that it was just part of the way everyone felt all the time) so, when I recognized that I was having panic attacks (which I had been instinctively containing/hiding with intentional shallow breathing) it made a big difference to how quickly I could regain control of myself during and after a panic attack when I learned to breathe intentionally.

I understand what you are saying about how focusing on something that you are already anxious about can make it worse. I got a most eloquent bit of advise from AardvarkGoodSwimmer recently: "I know with my struggles with OCD, if I get into the thing where I fear the fear, that's kind of a downward spiral." When I read that, it really made so much sense, not just for OCD, but for other anxiety issues too - the dread is often worse than the experience for me. It makes me think I should try to do more exposure therapy...it works long term...but to me, it is the least comfortable therapy Sigh.

I know what you mean about having the urge to escape. I have the same thing & it is so exhausting to deal with. It is like I am constantly having to tell the 'fight or flight' part of my brain that it can't call the shots all the time. I have never been compelled to pace - I tend to freeze or stim (rocking, hand clenching or tapping seem to come out in response to this type of anxiety). The only techniques that have helped me with this so far are distraction in the moment (to interrupt the negative thoughts that make my panic worse) and exposure response prevention exercises to slowly desensitize me to the situations that trigger this response.

Underwater, when you said "the solution for me has always been patience and the realization that not all emotions are a reaction to something that is happening right now, so I accept the feeling, but regard it with a certain distance"... that just seems like such a calm and intentional way to approach scary situations. I am going to try to put this into practice today - positive philosophy makes such a difference to the way I experience life, especially the negative experiences in life. Thanks for this...I really like it.

It's OK, you weren't aware of the issue when you offered the suggestion. Thank you for offering the suggestion in the first place! I know it works well for many people.

The quote by the other user that you mentioned is really great, and really true. I experience "fearing the fear" quite often. I also have trouble with exposure therapy, too. At one point it actually backfired really badly and I have not been able to address that particular fear for a long time now because of the anxiety surrounding it, though I hope to try facing it again soon.

I'm glad it's ok thanks.

Yah, exposure is never ever easy...and I have had the same experience with it going badly enough to cause the issue being worked on to worsen. Drastically. I abandoned it as a method for a while, unfortunately I kept running into issues (mostly to do with agoraphobia, panic and OCD) that just could not be effectively addressed using other approaches. I haven't had access to much help that takes my autism in to account (I was only diagnosed two years ago & the professional help available is more expensive than I can justify.) I did, however, see an ABA therapist for one session who specialized in OCD and anxiety in autistic people. She gave me several pieces of very usefull advise. The most useful was about how to modify exposure for people with ASD:

- Work on only one issue at a time. Track progress in a dedicated document or notebook.

- Break the exposure-steps into much smaller increments than conventional advise dictates (so small it seems almost silly) and practice imagined exposures before every new real-world exposure.

- Repeat the changed behaviour for several days to cement the change before taking further steps.

- If you have difficulty identifying emotions and describing the intensity of emotions (I do) it is ok to use a simplified intensity scale (1-10 or 1-100 is typical, but she advised 1-5 or even 1-3. The scale can also be simplified and expressed visually as a mark placed on a line between the words 'ME'------'OCD' (could be replaced by 'Me'------'Anxiety' ...etc...) the mark would signify how much control over the experience (thoughts, feelings, actions) I felt that I had vs. how much control my OCD (or other disorder) had during the exposure. I use this visual method because I don't have to over think the nuances of my mental processes in order to rate the exposure.

Those were the most useful bits of advise, but I am glad to expand the list or explain anything that I may not have made clear. The most important thing, I have found, is to approach the process of changing behavior at a *glacial* pace. It has taken me almost two years to reduce my hand-washing compulsion from 200+ washes per day to less than 60 per day...by most people's standards that is still excessive, but it is workable for me & I am genuinely comfortable with how clean my hands are (when I did exposure in the past, I would make 'noticeable' improvements, but they never lasted because I was never comfortable with the changes...slow seems to be the key for me.)

I hope that I haven't pushed too much info at you here...I just have had such an improved experience with exposure since receiving this advise that I thought I'd share it incase it proves useful in the future.