Alicia's Page - FoodSpark

Alicia's Friends

What about nutrition interests you?: Since I have a digestive disorder, Crohn's Disease, I enjoy finding holistic ways, like through proper diet and exercise, to help prevent symptoms. And I love seeing how nutrition can effect our physical appearance and brain power...

About Me:: My life is pretty perfect~ I enjoy the great outdoors and learning about new adventures. I'm a hard working waitress and a recent graduate (with a BBA from the University of West Georgia). People love me and I love them, God motivates me with the inspirational ways of showing me he exists, I adore spending time with my family and new and close friends, walking my chow, Jordan, biking, camping (when I can), swimming, working out, sunshine, vacations, great hair days and good atmospheres. Pretty much, I'm an open book, so ask me anything!

At 1:51pm on July 1, 2008, Alicia said…: Job hunt isn't going great. I think because I don't really have the skills to do what I really want to do (creative advertising/marketing) so I'm going back for my MBA. Pretty excited about it, it's hard to get everything together before the deadline.
As far as my tests...my hemogoblin, hematacrit and iron are really low and I'm having to do iron drips and B-12 shots. I've read up on iron absorption and, in addition to having decreased absorption levels because of Crohn's, red wine and coffee block the absorption of iron as well (two of my favorite drinks that I consume way too much for my condition). So, in another month after my iron drips we'll see where my iron is and go from there. Wednesday I have a CT scan to test for any infection or abseces. Wish me luck!

At 7:05am on July 1, 2008, Randy McFarland said…: Hi Alicia,

How are you doing. We had spoke a couple of weeks ago about the nutritional isotonic supplements. How did you tests come back. Are you symptoms for Crohn's under control. Hope you are doing great. I noticed you graduated from the University of West Georgia. How is the job hunting going in your career? Enjoy and have a great day!

At 6:01pm on June 23, 2008, Randy McFarland said…: Hi Alicia,

If you are looking at the multivitamin on the website there is only 1 difference, one of them has iron the other does not. They come in a 30 and 90 day supply. With you being so young unless you would be iron deficient you probably don't need the one with iron. I would really seriously consider the strawberry kiwi aloe juice we carry. This will really aid in the internal healing of your GI tract as well as the stomach lining. I don't know if you ever have drank an Aloe juice before but this is the purest on the market and tastes great with the strawberry kiwi flavor. It should help if you get the burning sensation in your stomach. I don't want to overwhelm you with products but this would be a great starting point. A normal serving size is 2 ounces and with your stomach issues you could drink it a few times a day. Another side note on the isotonic line it comes in powder and is mixed with water and self dissolves. I will wait to here how your tests come out.

At 7:40am on June 23, 2008, Randy McFarland said…: Hi Alicia,

The book is called Breaking The Vicious Cycle by Elaine Gotschall. My son takes Digestive Enzymes with Probiotics, Aloe Juice, Omega 3's and an Antioxidant called OPC-3. In addition we have him off of any product with wheat and gluten. We believe he is is Celiac in addition to the Crohn's. You definitely should be on supplements because your body is more than likely not absorbing the nutrients. I don't know what you weight and height are but I would guess very slender which is where my son is. Also other than the Omega's the supplements my son takes are Isotonic (liquid) which gives him a 90 to 95% absorbtion rate within 5 minutes which is very beneficial with his disease. If you are taking Garden of Life supplements and they are in pill or capsule form your absorbtion will be minimal. Your stomach can take anywhere from 45 minutes to 4 hours to break down a pill formed supplement. The issue for you then becomes since you may be flushing things out of your body within a few minutes because of the Chrohns you may be flushing the benefits of the supplement with them. If you want to research the products I have check out www.marketamerica.com/sheran. Look on the website either for isotonics or health and nutrition and check out some of the supplements I mentioned above. Hope this helps and let me know if you have any other questions.

At 7:09am on June 14, 2008, Randy McFarland said…: Hi Alicia,

I have a son who is 18 and was diagnosed with Chrohn's at 14. After spending 2 years under medical care and getting no where except being on large quantities of prescription drugs. We then started controlling it naturally through diet and nutritional supplements. He is now off all of his medications and living an active normal life. Hope you are having the same results. It sounds like you are controlling it with nutrition. If you are having trouble keeping your symptoms under control let me know and I can recommend some nutritional products and a great book that we use for recipes and understanding the disease more.