I seem to have forgotten that some people actually read this thing, because I forgot I promised to write about the articles I read recently. So I will start with that. The two articles were "Some of my Best Friends are Germs" by Michael Pollan (Article 1) and The Opt-Out Generation Wants Back In" by Judith Warner (Article 2). First of all I must say that I liked the germs one better. The article was fascinating because it was all about how scientists are discovering just how important our bodies bacteria can be, you know, all 100 trillion of them:) I'm in a medical field but there was so much information in this article that I didn't realize. What really got to me was how they are linking what we eat in America and European countries to the death of traditional intestinal bacteria which is probably the reason for the increase in chronic disorders such as allergies, asthma, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease! They think the change in intestinal bacteria is because of the antibiotics in our food as well as how processed it is....not to mention how sterile it has become. Another fascinating point the article made was that you get most of your gut bacteria when you are born and pass through your Mother's vaginal tract. It went on to say children who are born by C-Section are not exposed to those bacteria until much later on, which might be the reason why those children's immune systems may fail to develop properly. This will then lead to more allergy, asthma and autoimmune disorders....gasp I was one of those children! So the author of the article was trying to find out how he could change his diet to help his gut bacteria get back to the traditional flora, but I guess most of the scientists were very close lipped because this is such a new discovery they don't want to end up with a bunch of premature information out there which they could ultimately get sued over. They did admit that a diet rich in whole grains, plant fiber and very little meat was probably the best bet.
I won't say as much about the other article, just a few things. It was basically about women who were excelling at their careers and making a lot of money who ultimately quit to raise their children. Now, years later, they are looking to get back into their fields and are having a hard time. I think what I didn't like about the article was that it pretty much seemed like no matter what you do you won't be happy. The women all seemed happy that they got to stay home with their children, but seem miserable now because most of them couldn't find jobs and the ones who did weren't making nearly the same amount as they were. The end of the article basically said if you can keep your great high paying job, but only work part time and raise your children then you will be happy! Who can do that? Ugh, it was annoying me.
So let's see I started my day off pretty grumpy because I was still brooding about the previous nights discovery of my boyfriends horrific schedule. We had an argument initiated by me and that's just a sucky way to start any day. I can be really difficult sometimes and I think the reason is because I just can't hide my feelings. I'm just not going to pretend I'm happy when I'm not. Anyway, without me knowing I ignored his texts all day because it seems my phone is on a 6 hour delay. I was just cleaning up around the house and spending time with my dog this morning because it's her Birthday. I gave her the present which I bought her, then the present my Mom got her, then finally the present my sister got her. She was very happy!
I'm starting to panic because I'm starting to run low on soap so a trip to Target is going to be necessary. This is the hard part which I wish I could stop....it internally pains me when I think about how much soap I went through in only 2 weeks. To be honest I probably went through more soap than most people do in a year. I have never written that statement before and re-reading it is very sobering. That's what this blog was supposed to help though....putting it all out there so I can visualize just how "not normal" my situation is. A few weeks ago I was giving myself limits on how much soap I could use in an allotted time period and I haven't done that recently. That could be my first step....it's just hard. That's the problem right there....it's HARD. This disorder plagues most of my time already and instead of fighting against it, it just becomes easier to go through the motions. I become a victim to the rituals and obsessive thoughts and any progress I have previously made goes right out the window. I just need to put my dukes up and start fighting it back again. I realize it's never going to go away completely, but I need to try harder.
Maybe I do need to go back to therapy or start taking the Luvox that's sitting on my windowsill staring at me...."take me, take me"....is what it's saying. My PCP gave me a prescription for Luvox CR a few weeks ago because when I was first diagnosed I got a sample pack of that and it seemed to help with very little side effects. Unfortunately my insurance didn't pay for it at the time so I switched to the dreaded Zoloft, which I stopped taking after only a couple of weeks. Now that the Luvox is generic my insurance pays for a pretty good chunk of it, but my biggest fear is the side effects. I was only on it for about 4 weeks before, not really long enough to notice the worst one, which is the fact it could probably make a sex addict celibate if they're not careful. These SSRI's are notorious for decreasing libido and the ability to orgasm.
Work tonight wasn't too bad, but it went by pretty slow. I was almost late for the staff meeting and I'm really glad I wasn't because the boss made a special announcement about how unprofessional it is to be late! Alright, well I'm going to try to get up early tomorrow and get errands done so I won't have to do them Friday morning. That's all for now:)
Excellent entry! Thanks for the info on the articles. I was interested to hear that Michael Pollan wrote the article on germs. I am somewhat familiar with him as the author of The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense Of Food. Have you seen the quote, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants."? It came from him. I think he's a driving factor behind the "real food" movement and he has quite the following in the healthy living blogosphere. I have read some of the excerpts from his books and he has a good writing style. I wanted to tell you that in the Reader's Digest this month there was a similar article that I read called "When Germs Are The Good Guys" and it made me think of you. It did talk about the healthy vs unhealthy bacteria in the stomach and how they thought it was linked to weight gain as well.
ReplyDeleteIn one of Michael Pollan's books he talks about eating 100% grass fed beef because otherwise they feed the cows corn which they can't digest naturally and they give them antibiotics so they can digest it. :( I had no idea! It's scary when you think about how averse I am to taking any kind of drug yet I could be absorbing all kinds of things in my food without even knowing it. No wonder he says to eat mostly plants!!