Chad's HFI story

[chad]

First when I was a baby I don't remember it, but my mother says I had a bad reaction to penecillain. Maybe I really had HFI even back then.

I missed alot of school being sick, more than most children.

Then in the Army I think it was the stress and all the free soda. The Army doctor told me I needed to grow up. This was 1983 so I kind of don't blame him, nobody had heard of HFI back then as far as I know.

Then when I went to seminary it was the stress I think plus my wife brought home free food from work we normally never would have eaten in portions we never would have made and I was in the doctor's office again. Except this time the doctor was nice and gave me immodium. A bad thing because it didn't deal with the underlying stomach irritation. But I still don't blame him. Even now I understand many doctors have never even heard of HFI.

I got sick of being sick and fasted 30 days after reading a book called fasting and eating to conquor disease. Doing an elimination diet when I started eating again (I fasted with water only thank God, no juice) I realized it was a wheat problem. We had a celiac friend so I acted like it was celiac disease and it helped alot.

However, recently I got really really sick because I slowly went off the gluten free diet and started eating bread. My tests for celiac disease I took in the late 90's all came up negative.

I had one job in 1996 where I could drink all the soda I wanted and pretty much had a nervous break down. I was stuck at a security guard site for 24 hours and just snapped when my car broke down as I tried to go home.

My recent shift from 2003 till now that got me was I used to eat alot of farm salmon. But I heard bad things about it and moved to a vegetarian diet. I was addicted to sweet and those protien shakes. What really got me recently was downing a whole bottle of blue agava over a 2 or 3 week period. I got a wierd taste in my mouth and then some massive GI problems. Now I know that even though blue agave is billed as a health food it is harmfull as a massive amount of fructose.

Even when I was on the celiac diet I always wondered why beans bothered me no matter how much I cooked them, or why rice as a stand alone meal made me feel sick.

I would sit there and eat an 4 ounce thing of dates and wonder why my stomach hurt as it had no gluten.

My experience with the gluten free diet is helping me now, but sadly in some ways HFI is even worse than celiac disease.

[colormist]

Hi Chad,
Have you been to a doctor to get a diagnosis? HFI can consume a lot of varieties of beans and all rice (as far as I know). HFI is a genetic condition, so you have it from birth. However DFI is not a genetic condition and you can develop it over time. If you have HFI, you have a natural aversion to sweets--fruit, pop, juice, protein shakes, raisin bran, dates, agave juice--we can't consume those things. Well, maybe if we were forced to consume them, but I think anyone with HFI would instantly puke this stuff back up. It doesn't taste good and makes us almost instantly nauseated.

I'm just concerned that you might be going down the wrong path and probably should get a genetic and DFI test to make sure.

[chad]

TO Colormist-

Thank you for your concern. I have a stack of papers to sign up with the VA hospital here. But I have been feeling bad and since I had a bad experience with them I have been dragging my feet.

I should have gone the emergency room here but just didn't.

I have a hard time overcoming my anti doctor feelings.

I might have had mild HFI that comes out with stress.

I could eat a little V8 but would get sick from the whole can.

My exersize must have had some buffering effect because as long as I was on a sports team I didn't miss school.

But I wierded out when I missed some sports seasons my freshman year.

Everyone in the house I live with has been under the care of a psychiatrist.

So what I am saying is everyones symptoms are different.

Mine was severe enough to make me think it is HFI.

If I went to the hospital besides the breath test they might have gave me a tone of fructose to see how I react. Well, I already did that.

One one close relative of mine was labeled schizophrenic, then schizoaffective.

They don't fit the normal schizophrenia profile, it is more like an amplication of the irritablity mood swing effect of the fructose.

So I am wondering how I can get the his psychiatrist to give him the breath test.

Everyone in my familly is in denial about it being HFI but my dad has always gotten a red facerash from fructose.

If I go official all it might mean is I can't get insurance since there is no cure or pill they can give me to make it go away.

My destiny is in my hands.

[chad]

My healing Crisis:

I gave you my history of my food problem.

Now I want to focus on the last year and how it slowly then quickly snow balled.

2009 has been like one never ending day. Up and down with diarhea every 2 hours and not much sleep.

At the gymn in december I did cardio but not for more than 5 minutes on each machine. I didn't reailze it was anemia cause it sneaks up on you like the reactive hypoglycemia.

I rationalized it by thinking I was just getting bored.

Part of my problem was economically induced. 2007 and 2008 was slumping and when you have not much money you get cheaper food that has more sugar.

I had a job where I went by a drug store and got sugarated drinks so my pattern changed.

I got chai late protien drink. Tea and soy messes up your protien absorbtion. Add that to the list of my anemia causers like malabsorbtion, distance running and hemroids.

When I got nuked by agave everything was bleading in my intestins.

I had more severe kidney and liver symptoms so I think it might be HFI and not just DFI.

DFI isn't going to mess up your kidneys or liver.

Since my main complaint was tail bone pain I tried squating to go as they say other contries with no toilets don't have hemroids like we do.

This is gross, but you do what you have to do to survive. I realized brown rice was not good because I would squat in the bathtub then lift the feces to put it in the toilet. That would make me know if it was constipated or not. Also, I have levator ani spasms and the only way to Make em go away is a rectal massage with your finger. But getting rid of the hemroids helps too.

I drank tonic water with quinine yesterday and it seems to be helping.

[Tammy]

Hi Chad,
I have to agree with Colormist here in that I think you need to see a Dr. I also would hate to see you going down the wrong path and not getting what you need. You don't seem to fit in the HFI catagory. Fructose may be a problem, but it may be something else entirely, and you could be missing something you need.

[chad]

Hi Tammy- I am not a common sense person. My logic overrules my common sense. So I think I got sick from sugar the whole time. My familly to this day doesn't keep table sugar so it is hard to figure out. I think at least DFI is a pretty good guess. Thanks for all you suggestions here they seem to be working for me whatever it is.

Another wierd thing is I saw that an HFI persons liver has 99 to 90 percent less aldolase B enzyme. So that means if your daughter and colormist are in the less than one percent category there might be people in the 9 percent who slip by in a combination of being overly logical or in a anti sugar family so they don't figure it out till adult hood.

Otherwise how esle does HFI happen as adult onset?

IF mine is just DFI I have a whole lot of respect for DFI.

Or maybe my aldolase b has declined for some unknown reason with age.

I ate Cherios a few days ago thinking it would be OK and it wasn't. It says sugar.

[julienc]

Mar 18, 2009 21:44:37 GMT -5 chad said:

Otherwise how esle does HFI happen as adult onset?

This doesn't happen. People with HFI exhibit symptoms since birth. I wasn't diagnosed until I was an adult, but I have avoided sweets all my life. Since birth I have become sick from eating foods containing sugar. As a baby I wouldn't eat fruit, and thank goodness my mom didn't force it on me.

Those of us with HFI do have varying degrees of tolerances, but it's with very minuscule amounts of fructose. For example, some can eat asparagus, some cannot. "Normal" people wouldn't even think of asparagus as being sweet. So our tolerances are based on very subtle amounts of fructose.

[chad]

Julience-OK, I believe you.

But I am wondering if there might be something in between or maybe more severe DFI.

[chad]

I just figured out the diarhea. It is galstones if there is also clay colored stool. Exactly what I have.

I am skinny and don't eat junk food just mabye too much sugar recently.

I need to eat soy lecithin and fat in nuts and cold water fish and something similar to HFI, NO SUGAR!

Thank you for questioning me and I may end up in the hospital just yet with the most common hospitalization thing in america.

[chad]

Update: I didn't eat ground chia yesterday and my colon feels smooth and not inflamed. I have had tail bone pain for a year and bloody diahrea every hour or two since the beginning of march. Amazingly this went away yesterday evening and hasn't been back. I think it is the phytates that have something to do with fructose. One of the two threads on the internet I saw said that if you eat mostly grains phytates can block out our iron and calcium and magnesium.

Cha cha cha chia! The gift of the incas or montezumas revenge?

[chad]

I forgot to put I started takeing the chia about a year ago. The one pound can of anutra brand ground chia has lasted me till now.

Stupid me for not suspecting it.

[chad]

My dad gets mad at me for eating "wierd" health food. Maybe he is right!