Diagnosed, Devastated, & Defenseless

[Pierre42]

Do you mean echinacea and goldenseal are toxic to everyone or just to people with misbehaving immune systems? I don't take them now but have occasionally in the past, before WG dx, and not in large doses or on a regular basis. They had no negative effect that I was aware of.

Goldenseal, Astragalus, Echinacea and Spirulina (and friends) are toxic to autoimmune-patients because they actually increase the activity or efficiency of your immune system (although this is perfectly OK for most healthy people, these foods are likely to induce a flare of your symptoms).

Foods/herbs/Spices (etc) which are anti-inflammatory will most likely be safe and even helpful to us.

• Cloves
• Ginger
• Rosemary
• Turmeric
• Saffron
• Cinnamon
• Oregano
• Marjoram
• Sage
• Thyme
• Blueberries
• Kefir
• Natto
• Kimchee
• Miso
• Tempeh
• Sauerkraut
• Pickles
• Olives
• Shiitake Mushrooms
• Green Tea
• Leafy Green Vegetables

Who knew that suffering a potentially fatal condition could be so delicious?

[annekat]

Thanks, Pierre, that is good info. The one thing about turmeric is that in the literature that comes with CTX, there is some sort of caution about using them together. Since I like to use curry, I thought about that while on CTX, but did not let it stop me from using a little curry. Nothing happened. The rest of your list is intriguing, and I'm going to bookmark the page so I'll have it!

[mishb]

Please make sure that any supplements that you do take, do not interact with your medication. The same as with different herbs, as Anne mentioned above about turmeric and CTX

For example, you should not take a multivitamin if it has folate in it, on the day that you take your MTX.

I also cannot have multivitamin tablets, or something within them, because it causes my LFT levels to increase to a point of doctors thinking that my liver is being affected by WG. I stopped taking the vitamins, and then levels went back to normal.