nutrition
Can what you eat make a difference in your OI?
My wife, an RN, has to report in to her office every Friday morning, which is about a one hour ride in each direction, depending on school busses, garbage trucks and tourists. Therefore she was looking for something to pass the time, that might actually teach her something. Apparently THAT was much harder than ne night imagine.
One friday evening she came home all excited and asked “What do you know about making bread?: OK That seemed a question from far left field, so she went on to explain that she had been following a PODCAST about a woman in South Georgia who tries to cook better for her whole family, AND included a story about it helping a child with OI.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mebY-TBtiRQ&t=1s
Now I have to admit THAT got my attention. The next day while we were driving around town running errands he qued up the podcast and played it from the beginning. As promised it seemed to be the day to day experiences of a mom who in the 1980s had some health issues and determined to feed her family better. Among all the things she determined to change was her use of bread and all the products it involved as well as the ingredients that went in to it. As a woman of faith she found passages in the bible affirming her ideas and implemented her ideas with all the energu and vogor she could msuter.
Fast forward 30+ years and we have BREADBECKERS, a mill, retail outlet and CO-OP member determined to spread her motto “Better food for better health” as far and wide as possible, Sue Becker has authored several books on the subject, ranging from the proper use and techniques of grinding your own flour to Soups stock and other cook at home meal prep.
Her ideas became so popular that she established a company to handle the business end, and became part of a “co -op” so that she could be assured of the food items and vegetables and ingredients se was recommending could be easily sourced from the community. As her community grew she received requests for more and more informatian, details and other assorted questions and answers so she established her PODCAST, that is published each week. Occasionally she will host guests and treat it like a “call in radio show” from the 80s.
During one of her Podcasts Sue had a Dr/ Ben Edwards, from Texas on as her guest and he related a story that had occurred after one of his health presentations in Texas. According to his story he was approached by a Mom with 2 young daughters with health issues, and wanted to let him know how things were progressing after a YEAR of eating this specific wheat and bread mixture.
One of her daughters had Autism with severe seizures and the other had “Brittle Bone Disease.” Needless to say the second daughters story caught my attention
Dr. Ben Edwards episode 206 tells the story of his encounter with a woman who approached him after a presentation on health and eating, letting him know about the effects that this bread and way of eating has affected her other daughter with OI. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZxVi3QkCYU
The very next Podcast was one with a guest that was the kids mom, the link you'll find below.
Kayleah Gregory. Sue’s Healthy Minutes episode 207 - with Kayleah Gregory https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mebY-TBtiRQ&t=1s
I have found that before giving up his private practice Dr. Edwards was a very well respected Physician focusing in Family Medicine for 7+ years, after he sold that practice he used his time and money to focus on the root causes of his patients issues, rather than just treating their symptoms. He know runs Veritas Wellness, a clinic that teaches patients how to eat better for their health. These ideas I believe he gathered from his years in medical school as well as some factual based evidence written in ancient scriptures.
In following up on this information I started with Breadbeckers and the folks there were very kind and provided as much information as they felt they could. I will state that when it was first discussed on her podcast and website, the term for the 2nd daughter that was being used was “Brittle Bone Disease”. As we all know that's a rather outdated term and instead leans on how the issue displays itself, rather than what it is. Point of fact it is NEITHER a Disease or related to Brittle Bones. Medically it is a Genetic Mutation in Collagen and the Bones present as Brittle because of that, being a symptom rather than a cause. Some folks may call it splitting hairs but I call it precise writing. You will note that the terminology has been changed. One of the reasons I contacted Bradbeckers was to determine if they KNEW whether the little girl had been diagnosed with OI or if it was perhaps one of the pther medical issues that 'appears' like OI.
The folks from Breadbeckers could not say with certainty so I did further research and contacted the Doctors Clinic, and then DM'd Miss Gregory directly, just asking the one question. Unfortunately I have not heard from either.
Based on the information that is available about the dietary habits that Sue recommends one of the things that did stand out to me was the idea that bread prepared fom the wheat as she describes would have more Folic Acid available to the consumer, than anything we can buy in the store. This tipped me off in a big way. As far as I can fnd, Folic Acid may have ZERO direct effect on OI or collagen production. HOWEVER it my act as a carrier to allow OTHER bio-available nutrients that we are not currently getting in our diets, to be available and ready for the body of an OI patient.
I did bring this up with 2 of the research groups at the National Conference and both of them suggested that it sounded like a GREAT pathway for me to get into research....
....and they told me that it was MY turn to do the research, so, here's what I found:
Where to start? I Had to find a starting point, so while I was interviewing her I asked Sue Becker what she had found in her food changes, most specificlly her bread products that could have made THAT big of a difference?
She answered very honestly, not being a Dr. Researcher or scientist she suggested that one element that she knew was in her wheat flour that was not in store bought was FOLIC ACID.
I wasnt 100% sure what difference THAT might make but I knew it was important for babies and moms about to have a baby so thats where I jumped off from: