Bill C-6 is a new scary bill that has passed the Parliament and has now had its second reading in the Senate. The third reading could pass it into law. It is disguised as a Consumer Product Safety Bill but contains sections in it that are unconstitutional and treasonous. You can find out more about Bill C-6 here.

Last week I had called the national television and radio broadcasters about this proposed Bill as I have heard or read nothing about it. I asked them to do a story on this bill as it will effect the rights and freedoms of every Canadian. You would think that such a public interest story would be on the front page of every newspaper and talk shows buzzing with people adamant about how they want to protect their rights and freedoms. But there is no such outcry.

So it is up to you who read this to spread the word via word of mouth, e-mail, twitter, facebook, youtube, stumble upon, digg etc… Now is the time to have your voice heard by writing to your members of parliament and Senate. If you don`t live in Canada and you don`t think that you need to be worried about this, think again. There is probably legislation that is being proposed and passed in many other countries that are similar to this. An example of this is the State of Massachusetts and Senate Bill No. 2028.

If you live in Canada you can find the Senators names and contact information here. Feel free to use my letter as a template. I also used a template that is found here under the title `Contact Senators about Bill C-6`

My letter To The Senators

September 25, 2009

Dear Senator,

I have recently been astonished and frightened at the proposed Bill C-6. It has not been talked about in the media or written in the newspapers.  It will affect the very rights and freedoms that Canadians cherish so much and nobody in the media is talking about. I myself have called the national media outlets (CBC and CTV) and asked them to run stories and investigative reports on this new proposed bill and so far NOTHING has been reported!

Why are Canadian Citizens not being alerted and made aware to such a Bill that will challenge their constitutional rights?

Bill C-6 is unconstitutional: its language violates the provisions of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms as follows:

a. search private property without a warrant;
b. seize private property without Court supervision;
c. destroy private property without Court supervision;
d. take control of businesses without Court supervision;
e. in some circumstances to keep seized private property without a Court order;
f. impose penalties without a Court order.

Anybody who is believed to have contravened a section of this act is deemed guilty by the minister NOT by a court. A person is guilty until proven innocent.

This act also removes the Rule Of Law. We have the government, we have the courts and we have citizens. This act takes away the courts from its citizens and allows the government to intrude against its own people. This is what wars and rebellions are fought over!

No nation will possibly benefit from separating the people from their courts.

A citizen that is found guilty would have to prove themselves innocent before a minister. There is no court. The minister can confiscate property and when the person is found guilty it is the minister who gets to keep that confiscated property. This creates a huge conflict of interest.

There is also the Notwithstanding clause of our charter of rights and freedoms that says that any right enjoyed by Canadian Citizens may be annulled temporarily for the good of the nation!

The government can suspend civil rights because of the H1N1 Flu. This gives the government the power to do mandatory mass vaccination campaign against the H1N1 flu.

These Vaccines contain toxic adjuvents that kill brain cells by causing chronic inflammation to the brain.  Once injected the body starts to attack and fight itself because of the poisons. Auto-immune disorders that are linked to vaccines are Rheumatoid Arthritis, Lupus, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease and Gulf War Syndrome. These vaccines attack the brain and are neurotoxins.

Here is a quote by U.S. Representative Ron Paul (R-TX): When we give government the power to make medical decisions for us, we, in essence, accept that the state owns our bodies.

Well I am sorry to say that as a law abiding citizen of Canada I am not going to hand over the my body (or that of my family) to the Government. My body belongs to ME and not the Government!

Senator McCoy called this Bill C-6 “totalitarianism“. The definition of that word is a form of government in which the ruler is an absolute dictator (not restricted by a constitution or laws or opposition etc.)

Is this what Canada is going to become?

According to Senator McCoy we do not need new legislation. We need more people to enforce current product safety regulation.

You  – as Senators are there to protect us and not to take our rights away.

Just for your information the state of Massachusetts has also proposed a similar Bill that also enforces mandatory vaccinations, quarantine and warrantless searches, high fines and prison and penalties. This Senator Richard Moore who introduced this Bill is now facing impeachment proceedings on grounds of treason.

Vote AGAINST Bill C-6! It is unconstitutional and it violates the provisions of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms!

Sincerely yours,

(your name, address, phone number)

Spread The Word

If the Media will not report on this proposed Bill C-6 it is up to the people to do so. Please help in spreading this message. Write to the Senators, e-mail and use social media to spread the word.

This is about Human Rights and Freedoms.

This post is part of Fight Back Fridays Hosted by Food Renegade!

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For the last couple of days what I have learned has shaken me to my core. I am so angry at my new findings that I have started to call the television and radio stations asking them why the information that I have found out about is not being broadcast in the mainstream media.  I have also asked them to do news pieces on this Bill C-6 and I will see if they will actually comply with this request. Canadian Citizens have to know this information because these laws are going to be forced on us when they are passed. It is time to take action.

Bill C- 6 is Canada’s Version of Codex Alimentarius! Yes you can find out what Codex Alimentarius is here. It is a frightening bill that will be passed and it will affect every person living in America and even those living outside by the horrific trade implications.

Bill C-6 Is Unconstitutional

Constitutional Lawyer Shawn Buckley addresses the issues of Bill C-6:

It abolishes the Law of Trespass, the government can come onto, into your property without being liable or have a warrant. In the Law of Trespass, it is the only law where you don’t have to have proof of the trespass and can be charged criminally and convicted. Normally a warrant is only issued by the courts if there is a likelihood of finding evidence of crime.  Bill C-6 is the Canada Consumer Product Safety Bill. There is no home without consumer products so the Justice can issue a warrant if Health Canada is likely to find something that is regulated under the Act ie. Any consumer product!

• They can use force.
• They can confiscate our goods.
• They have unlimited powers of search and seizure.
• They can charge you for storing the property that they seized.
• They can impose penalties.
• They can destroy your property without a court order.

Anybody who is believed to have contravened a section of this act is deemed guilty by the minister NOT by a court. You are guilty until proven innocent. This act removes the Rule Of Law. We have the government, we have the courts and we have citizens… This act removes the courts and allows the government to intrude against its citizens. This is what wars and rebellions are fought over! No nation will possibly benefit from separating the people from their courts.

You are found guilty and have to prove yourself innocent before a minister. There is no court. The minister can confiscate your property and when you are found guilty it is the minister who gets to keep your confiscated property. This create a huge conflict of interest.

There is also a Notwithstanding clause of our charter of rights and freedoms that says that any right enjoyed by Canadian Citizens may be annulled temporarily for the good of the nation!

They can suspend civil rights because of the H1N1 Flu. This gives them the power to do mandatory mass vaccination campaign against the H1N1 flu.

These Vaccines contain toxic adjuvents that kill brain cells by causing chronic inflammation to the brain.  Your body starts to attack and fight itself because of the poisons that are injected in the blood.  Auto-immune disorders that are linked to vaccines are Rheumatoid Arthritis, Lupus, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s Disease and Gulf War Syndrome.

Health Canada will have the power to destroy the Natural Health Products.  The consumer products products pose little risk to Canadian Citizens and yet the government will be given a lot of power to enforce costly, restrictive and intrusive legislation. Health Food Stores will be raided and products pulled off the shelves. The natural products that can help us get better and heal will disappear.

The big Pharma drug companies have great lobbyist in the parliament.  These companies produce products that pose a lot of risk for the Canadian consumer including death. But the government does not have a lot legislative power to go after these big drug companies.

So not only are our rights and freedoms threatened, the natural health products that we use to make us healthy are at a risk of becoming endangered, but also organic foods and our backyard garden are also under attack (with codex alimentarius – yes it will affect Canadians by trade).

I urge everyone to write a letter to the Senators. I will be doing this this weekend and will post a copy of my letter here.

This post is part of Fight Back Fridays hosted by Food Renegade.

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Lately I have had this fascination about microbes, lacto-fermentation, and healthy gut flora. The other day I was contemplating how people ever survived before the invention of soap and antibacterial products. As I read through the Bible there is no mention of soap. All the washing is done with water (Note: The Bible is a spiritual book with mysteries in it. There are very spiritual meanings to water. Check out Eph. 5:26). Since the creation of man it was water that has kept us clean.

I have to admit that I am a bit of a germ phobic. I sanitize my counters after preparing my meats. I make sure to wash my hands very well and get uncomfortable at public venues.

But really I should not. Here are my thoughts why…

• Earlier this year, we had a deer that got struck by a car across the road from our house. We live in the country and have a neighbour’s dog that runs at large. He discovered this deer a few days after it was struck. This dog had large chunks of fur sticking out of his mouth and running happily home. He came to visit this deer for a few days until it got taken away. This deer was old meat and infested with all kinds of lovely bacteria and as far as I could tell my neighbour’s dog is still quite healthy with no ill side effects.
• My dog decided that he enjoyed living at my mother in law’s farm and she was happy to have him. One thing that he loved doing is eating cow poop. Yum. That is extremely gross but yet again; he had no known unhealthy side effects from it.
• I have known 2 dogs that eat their own poop (both are Labradors… I don’t know if this trait is common among those breeds). Totally gross but they don’t get the runs after doing so.
• This amazing intestinal quality is not just limited to dogs. In my college years I lived with a cat that had a litter of kittens and she would eat her kittens poop too.

In my studies in Environmental Sciences it has been taught to the students that our tolerance for poop bacteria (coliforms and e-coli) is not that high. In fact we get very sick from even the smallest amount. We have to kill these bacteria with chlorine in our water systems. Not only in the water itself but also in the pipes so that bacteria does not grow during distribution.

I know that people are a very different species from cats and dogs, but how can these animals have so much intestinal tolerance from eating solid poop and rotten meat and not die? If a person was to do the same we would get deathly sick, have organ failure and probably die.

How can animals eat decomposing flesh and we have to sterilize our kitchens after handling meat?

Could it be that the good bacteria that lives on us and in us get destroyed by antibacterial products (chlorine, medications and antibiotic use) allowing the pathogenic bacteria to take over and decreasing our own natural immunity.

A good related post to this is What Really Causes Disease by Kelly The Kitchen Kop. This post debates the “germs cause disease” or “immune failure cause disease”.

What about just washing with water? I don’t think I could do it, but it sure gives me lots to think about.

Edit Note: I actually did an electronic search of the word “soap” in the Bible after writing this post to confirm that soap was not used in the scriptures. I found 2 verses containing that word (Jer 2:22 and Mal 3:2). My mistake, Soap IS mentioned in the Bible.

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This will be a series that I will be doing. I have friends who are raising children on a vegetarian and vegan diets and looking from the outside I see health issues in these children. The parents however do not see these issues.

Myself when I was vegan and raising my first baby I was very upset and offended when a holistic herbalist told me that my daughter would have health issues. She told me to just feed a little bit of meat to my daughter. I was in total denial when she said that. But she mentioned teeth problems and low and behold six months later my daughter was having teeth problems. I remembered this holistic herbalist when the health problems started occurring and wished that I had headed her advice.

Vegetarian Health Problem #1

The vegetarian diet is very high in carbohydrates. Whether you are lacto-ovo vegetarian or raw vegan you are consuming a lot of carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are metabolised as blood glucose and contribute greatly to insulin resistance, diabetes and BODY FAT.

What types of carbohydrates do this?

• Grains, Beans, Fruits, Sugars

Through a Vegetarian diet I have become Insulin Resistant. I was continuously hungry for food and never satisfied until I was stuffed. I was feeding myself with bananas, raisins, pastas, breads, cereals, rice, and lots of soy.

Even when I wanted to transition to a more Raw Food diet and eating more raw fruits and veggies I could not understand why I was hungrier! But with eating more fruit I was causing my insulin to spike and then drop and therefore increasing hunger.

There are lots of Vegetarians and Vegans that are not skinny. Many struggle with weight issues exactly like regular folks with insulin resistance.

Vegetarian Health Problem #2

Carbohydrates also feed Candida Yeast.

There are a lot of people who suffer from Candida Yeast and they don’t know it. With the prevalence of antibiotic use in medicine AND in animal products, chlorination of tap water and high carb and sugar intake that there is a definite unbalance of gut bacteria. Yes, we are seeing more products on the market promoting live cultures, but watch those sugars in these products as they most likely have them!

Lacto-fermented foods (ie. Naturally fermented pickles, sauerkraut, kefir and natural yogurts) are not as popular as they once were. These foods used to be eaten at every meal to aide in digestion. Now pickles and sauerkraut are being mass produced and they do not contain any of these beneficial bacteria (due to high temperature canning methods).

What foods feed Candida Yeast?

• Grains, Beans, Fruits and Sugars (honey, molasses, cane sugar, maple syrup)

As a Vegetarian, these were the foods that I was eating every day.

Insulin Resistance and Candida Yeast are very serious health issues.

Insulin Resistance leads to diabetes and Candida Yeast attacks your body from the digestive tract and burrows in and makes holes in your G.I. tract called rhizoids. Candida Yeast has many side effects like bloating, allergies, skin issues and neurological problems.

It took over 12 years for me to actually identify what my health problems were. I would still probably be vegetarian if I had not had children and seen the problems that I had passed on to them. Sometimes it takes being removed from the situation to get the full picture. I have read many similar testimonials to mine.

Being Vegetarian and raising Vegetarian families is not as healthy as it is portrayed to be.

A question for you -

What are your thoughts on this?

Disclaimer: as a former long term vegetarian and vegan I have had some health issues. This is article is coming from my health research and experience and is not meant as medical advice.

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Some days I just want to cry. From the moment I get up till the wee hours of the morning. I visit my doctor and get blood tests done. I get referred to a councilor and get handed a prescription. I know the prescription is not going to fix me. I know the councilor is not going to really help even though her intentions are wonderful and caring. I feel that my problem is physical.

The blood tests reveal nothing really abnormal except some severe iron deficiency and some mercury. I did not think anything about the iron deficiency since I have had this problem for a very long time (probably since I was a kid). The problem is that I have been eating lots of grass-fed organic beef, organic liver, I also eat dark leafy greens almost every day! (visit my Low Carb and Anti-Candida Menus Blog)

So how the heck am I not absorbing all this iron that I am ingesting?

I found out that celiac disease (which is an intolerance to gluten found in wheat and other grains) causes damage to the small intestine and inhibits absorption of vitamins and minerals. Iron deficiency is a sign of celiac disease. Never in my mind have I ever thought that I had celiac disease. I don`t get the physical signs (diarrhea and skin reactions) but on occasion I would suffer from bloating and gas (before going on a low carb diet) – but nothing extreme or excessive.

The thing is that a low carb diet is an anti-candida diet. And Candida Yeast do create bloating, gas and digestive upsets. That could be the reason why I don’t have gas or bloating anymore.

So sticking to my guns I was still researching if Candida Yeast can be the reason for my iron deficiency and low and behold I came upon this research on how Candida uses Iron to grow by taking it from its host and creating Iron deficiencies…

I don’t understand this paper very well. I will take it to my doctor next week and discuss it with him. I did find this from the paper…

So now that I know that the Candida is the probable thief and robbing my body and organ tissues from vital oxygen, I can now understand the true impact of this pathogenic organism.

Not only is it impeding digestion, inhibiting vitamin absorption, releasing toxins,  it is also literally driving me crazy!

I know that I have talked about my Generalized Anxiety Disorder and my experience with taking Effexor. But I have never admitted on this blog to having Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) or from suffering from Depression. But they are all symptoms of Candida Yeast.

I have told my doctor and the counselor that there is something WRONG IN MY BODY that is making my mind crazy. And their response is that that is the reason very reason that they give medicines to control and regulate brain chemistry.

How Has OCD and Anxiety Affected My Life?

• It took me six years to graduate high school instead of 4. I dropped out 3 times and transferred to three different schools
• It took me years to learn to drive because I was so anxious in traffic. I had got my license and did not drive for years. I had to take another road test to get my full license years later and that is when I was forced to relearn how to do it. I am one of those people that you yell and curse at in traffic.
• I have quit several jobs due to extreme stress and anxiety. I even suffered from anxiety serving pizza, cleaning houses, and even writing this blog.
• I am afraid to sleep. Yup, I think the house is going to burn to ashes and my kids will suffocate in their sleep. I check that they are breathing before I can go to bed.
• My marriage is in shambles and my husband does not understand my issues. He is the classic definition of normal.
• My father is elderly and lives quite far from me. When I can’t get a hold of him I jump to the conclusion that he is dead. He lives alone and I always fear the worst has happened.
• I am anxious about God and fear that He has abandoned me and that I am going to Hell.

Candida and Weight Problems

Candida releases many toxins (over 70!)  into the body and blood stream like ethanol and acetaldehyde and can have great affect on the metabolic system and therefore weight gain. Those toxins can also mimic estrogen and have a significant effect on thyroxine (thyroid hormone) and other hormones in your body resulting in excess weight.

Candida messes with your emotions and mental health. Emotional and stress eating is a huge problem for me. When a person is depressed and in the dumps the “I don’t care about anything” attitude creeps in. So why not indulge in the immediate gratification of the sweet tooth? Candida feeds on sugars for survival. So those sugars will look mighty irresistible for Candida sufferers and of course it is sugar that causes that extra weight.

Where to go from here?

I am going to do some more research on the Gut and Psychology Syndrome. I had heard about this a while ago but kind of brushed it off. But I now see how the pieces of the puzzle are fitting and know that the link between everything is the Candida Yeast.

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I have a confession to make… When I was a teenager I was emotionally broken. To get through this part of my life I used to cut myself.

How can cutting help with emotional pain?

Creating physical pain was a distraction for the emotional pain. It is way easier to deal with the physical pain then the jumbled mess inside my head and in my heart. When I cut my arms I felt a euphoric high. I would sit and cry, with a sharp knife or scissors and let my emotional hurt guide the knife across my arms. I don’t do this anymore. It just stopped as I grew older. I did go to therapy but it was not the reason I stopped cutting.

This past week has been a very emotional one for me. My girlfriend lost her 5 year old daughter. There really are no words to describe the pain and grief that all who knew this child are feeling. How is one supposed to handle emotional trauma like this?

My Current Coping Mechanism: Comfort Food

So as to comfort myself I did allow myself to eat. And eat I did. I ate lots sweet stuff and I ate a lot of bread. I ate and I felt comforted.

It is not the healthiest way of dealing with distress, but I did notice a relationship between my cutting and emotional eating. I did them for the same reasons. I ate to distract from the emotional pain. I got a similar euphoric high when I ate some sweet high carbohydrate food. I sat, I ate and I cried.  Just like when I was cutting.

As a result of this emotional eating I gained five pounds in less than a week. It is nothing that going back to low carbing won’t get rid of, but I am amazed at what impact insulin has on weight gain.

One thing I have realized through all the grief is how much women need to support each other. I reconnected with friends that I may only see a few times a year and it felt good to just share… I remember in my early breastfeeding days how important La Leche League meetings were to me. In these meetings there were mothers with young babies just like me going through the same emotional, hormonal and physical issues.

There is power in just sharing your feelings. There is power in knowing that you are not alone on your journey.

Reach out, share, love, laugh and cry.

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I am grieving today. A smile is gone and beautiful blue eyes will no longer shine. A mother’s heart is shattered into pieces like a mirror on a floor never to be put back together again. A child nursed at her mother’s breast and so close to her heart.

It is shocking, horrifying, and tragic. A mother should never bury her child.

“Mummy, Daddy…” never to be heard by that sweet little voice.

On Monday her classmates will go to school to realize that one will never be back. Can a five year old comprehend such a devastating thing?

Five Years of life.

Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal.  ~From a headstone in Ireland

Death can come upon us so suddenly and unexpectedly. Cherish life. Don’t leave love and happiness to chance.

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Getting more sleep has been a challenge for me. I have made no changes to my sleeping habits even though I really had wanted to sleep better. I have finally found my motivator to getting to bed early!

I listened to Jimmy Moore’s Livin Lavida Low Carb Show on sleep with author T.S. Wiley. She is the Author of Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar and Survival. She explains the importance of sleep and how it relates to the function of our bodies and hormones. The bright house lights, computers and televisions that emit so much light can disrupt our hormones. This is the cause of many sleep issues. Cortisol (the stress hormone) increases and Melatonin (the sleep and repair hormone) decrease when our cells are exposed to light. Melatonin is important to our health because it is a powerful antioxidant and we want our levels high.

Right now we are in the dead of winter and it gets dark pretty early (around 5:30pm). T.S. Wiley does mention that we have to follow nature’s rhythm and go into hibernation. Every cell in our body is light sensitive and artificial light in the winter deceives our cells into thinking that it is summer all the time. Animals are more active and store up fat for hibernation in the summer time.  Our bodies are meant to do the same thing, but are in “summer mode” all year long thanks to our bright technology.

Can we really lose fat by lowering our lights and hibernating through the winter?

I think this is the primary reason that I can’t lose the last stubborn 10 pounds.

She also talks about how sleep affects our cravings for carbs and sugars.

It is a very interesting interview that I think everyone would enjoy listening to it.

I never knew how important sleep and sleep cycles are. I will lower my lights and see how this affects my sleep. Good quality sleep affects our mental clarity, physical energy, immune and hormonal health. Insulin
release would be lowered and then I can finally see some fat loss results.

I will keep updating my progress.

Listen to the interview and let me know what you think.

To your health and wellness,

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The economy is in a recession and people are eating even more fast food than in the past! A lot more because McDonalds, KFC and other fast food chains are seeing some massive growth in their sales revenue. I guess what is happening is that restaurant diners are seeking out cheaper prices and finding them at fast food joints.  I guess I don’t have to tell you that this is very unhealthy. Those fries, the jumbo sodas and burgers loaded with sugary ketchup and processed bleached bread are nutritionally bankrupt and spike insulin through the roof.

Is the home cooked meal lost to fast food? In this world of convenience is king, nutrition has obviously gone by the way side.

So how do we get those healthy home cooked meals back?

The day we hit our own health rock bottom. This may be different for everyone, but for me it was the day that I could not suffer any more Candida Albicans symptoms. For someone else it may be a sick child or a cancer diagnosis. But others may still ignore the symptoms that their body is telling them and continue eating fast food.

Cooking from scratch does take time. You do end up with a messy kitchen, there are dishes to clean up instead of throwing them in the trash. Meal planning is something that is recommended and it all takes effort! Your kids may whine and complain that they don’t like your hard cooked meal (mine sometimes roll on the floor kicking and screaming when the mood strikes them – I happen to object to putting artificial flavours and tasty toxins in my home cooking) but in the end it is all worth it.

When I first moved out into farm country there were two restaurants that we could eat at in town. Most of their menu I would say was unhealthy so we hardly ate out. I had to learn to cook. It was very painful. This was also a time when I was going from a vegan processed food diet to a natural meat eating diet. Never in my life had I cooked meat. I did not even like looking at it, let alone touch it, cook it and make it taste good. My poor family was eating dinner at 8pm because I was so unorganized. I was spending hours cooking and preparing. Clean up took a full hour as well and most days it was eleven o’clock before the kitchen lights went out.

I did end up getting better over time.

Working in a kitchen does not have to be complicated, but you do have to have a system. Here are six tips on making the dinner preparation experience a bit easier:

1. Get some awesome free recipes from www.allrecipes.com and set up a recipe box (you can make up shopping lists there too)
2. Know ahead of time what you are going to cook the next day and take it out of the freezer
3. Fill sink up with soapy water, and put dirty dishes and keep counters clear. Once soaked they can easily be put in the dishwasher or hand washed.
4. Prepare meats first (they take the longest to cook) and then veggies and salad (for some reason this was a big light bulb moment for me – It’s all about organizing time).
5. After dinner, have everyone help at clearing the table. My eldest daughter even enjoys wiping down the table and vacuuming under it.
6. While cleaning up think about next day’s dinner.

Save your hard earned money and pass by the fast food joints! Organization and a good list of recipes is the key for your kitchen success. Teach your kids the value of good home cooking. There is a price to pay for convenience food. The true cost is in health care, lost work time due to doctors visits, hospital stays, prescriptions, and disability.

To your health and wellness,

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The past week has been pretty rough for me. I went to the doctor for some issues regarding sleep and anxiety. I have been working on getting better sleep so that I can increase my energy levels and decrease my stress.  Stress increases cortisol and cortisol increases blood sugar levels and then the body responds by increases insulin levels. Insulin is the fat storing hormone and I am working hard at getting rid of this belly fat.

However, I have suffered from anxiety all my life. It is crippling. I don’t know if you want to know all of my hidden anxieties but they are the reason I am who I am today.

Anxiety has crippled me in so many ways… I dropped out of high school three times because of anxiety. If I fell behind in school it was just too much for me to catch up so I would quit. I am not able to be employed because of anxiety. I had chronic neck and shoulder tension to the point that it became painful. I became self-employed by cleaning houses and that was a lot to handle too. I work from home now and still the stress and anxiety does not go away. I have anxieties over safety for my kids. This is a big one because it is constant.

I finally want to be “normal”. I want to be able to fall asleep without worrying.  I would love to not fret over the little things. The lack of sleep definitely increases the volume of the anxiety.

I went to see my doctor over these issues and we talked about it. He recommended some blood work to be done and he prescribed some anti-anxiety pills and sleeping pills. Now, I do not like taking prescription drugs but I thought that the anxiety and lack of sleep were negatively affecting my health. So I filled the prescription.

Normally when you fill the prescription at the pharmacy you get pamphlet that tells you about the drug you are taking. My prescription never came with one. I figured that I should just take the anxiety pill (Effexor) before I chickened out. I took it after breakfast and felt fine until about lunch. That is when I started to feel really bad. I had back and neck tension, my head started to feel tight and my facial muscles became tight. My hands were shaky. My mind went into hyper perceptive mode. And I became agitated.  It was weird! I looked up the Effexor website and checked out their info and found out that you are not supposed to take Effexor if you have been taking St. John’s Wort. Well I had been taking St. John’s Wort the day before! Taking both can cause Serotonin Syndrome which can be potentially life threatening.  I looked up Serotonin Syndrome on Wikipedia and it looked like I had the mild symptoms.

I called the Doctor’s office and they were closed. I called the tele-health phone number and they were closed. I finally called the pharmacist and she finally called me back in the evening after her customers were gone and only recommended weaning off the the St. John’s Wort.  ( I would have gone to the hospital if I was starting to feel worse but the muscle tension was easing slightly throughout the day)

I did not take any more Effexor pills or St. John’s Wort. It took me a full two days to recover.

The lesson learned here is to tell your doctor about all the vitamins and herbals you are taking as well as any concerns you may have. I found through this research on Effexor that it is a drug that is very hard to come off of. I only want to take medication as a short term solution.  This is a concern that I will have to address with my doctor (actually I don’t think I will take Effexor again).

I am looking forward to the results of my blood work so then I can find out why I am feeling so poorly.

To your health and wellness,

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