juliannenason

Don Self has been posting here in a way that makes my scam-detector
wobble, so I did a little (I mean a LITTLE) research on the topic of
his posts.

The LEAP people run a typical scam website full of anecdotal success
stories and recommendations, mostly from their own staff. No prices
are given for the testing and treatment they recommend. Quite possibly
it will not be covered by your health insurance, so if you buy into
this, get some questions answered first.

As far as I can tell, the whole business of the "oligoantigenic diet"
is based on a very small studies done in the 80s. Contrary to what the
LEAP people imply, no blood testing was involved. You can test
yourself any time you are willing to educate yourself about the very
limited diet and follow it rigorously. I've done it, without any
success other than losing 11 pounds while eating as often and as much
as I pleased. I guess after a few days, it just did not please me to
eat very much of so few things! Look up "elimination diet" on the Web
and get a detailed description of what's involved.

Now, Mr. Self has declared he will not profit by your trying LEAP out,
and who am I to doubt him? I am sure he is perfectly sincere. And,
unlike many migraine treatments (including many prescribed by our own
doctors), this one will probably not hurt you and might actually help.
What I'm saying is, it is not necessary for you to line the pockets of
LEAP in order to give this idea the old college try. How about that?
Something for nothing.

Here is a summary of the research. Sorry I can't be bothered to
reformat it.

Good luck to all my desperate heads. --Julianne

Headache Research Report
328
Appendix O
Elimination Diets
Considering the significant literature (historical and modern) linking
headache to digestive
system, it is reasonable to provide an initial assessment to determine
whether the headache
patient fits the profile for intestinal etiology. A food/symptom diary
is a simple tool for
evaluating the role of diet in migraine. The patient is instructed to
record food and beverage
consumption which is compared to migraine episodes. The patient may
already be aware of food
triggers that can be easily do***ented in a clinical interview. An
elimination diet is another
valuable assessment tool.
Egger et al. Elimination Diet
In a double-blind controlled trial of oligoantigenic (limited food)
diet, Egger et al. (1983)
reported the recovery of 93% of 88 children with severe frequent
migraine. The oligoantigenic
diet consisted of one meat (lamb or chicken), one carbohydrate (rice
or potato), one fruit (banana
or apple), one vegetable (brassica), water and vitamin supplements. An
optional diet consisting
of none of the foods in the first diet was offered to patients who did
not respond to the first diet.
After 3 or 4 weeks, patients who had no headaches or only one during
the last 2 weeks of the diet
were reintroduced to excluded foods one at a time in a double-blind
format to verify that the
foods were causing the migraine. 26 (70%) of 40 patients experienced
migraine challenges to
the reintroduction of provocative foods. Interestingly, in most of the
patients in whom migraine
was provoked by non-specific triggers (such as flashing lights), the
provocation no longer
occurred while they were on the diet. Also, associated symptoms (such
as abdominal pain,
behavior disorder, asthma, eczema) improved in most patients.
Mansfield et al. Elimination Diet
Mansfield et al. (1985) studied food allergy as a cause of migraine.
Skin testing, elimination
diets, double-blind challenges, and measurement of plasma histamine
were performed on 43
adults with recurrent migraine. Thir**** subjects experienced 66% or
greater reduction in
headache frequency while on a diet free of milk, egg, corn and wheat.
Double-blind challenges
in 5 of 7 patients provoked migraine whereas placebo challenges
produced none. The authors
concluded, "In patients with chronic recurrent migraine, evaluation of
the role of foods in
causing their disease appears a worthwhile undertaking." (p. 129)
References
Egger J, Carter CM, Wilson J, Turner MW, Soothill JF. Is migraine food
allergy? A double-blind
controlled trial of oligoantigenic diet treatment. Lancet.
1983;8355:865-869.
Mansfield LE, Vaughan TR, Waller SF, Haverly RW, Ting S. Food allergy
and adult migraine:
Double-blind and mediator confirmation of an allergic etiology. Annals
of Allergy. 1985;
55:126-129.

don self, css, bfma

Julianne is 100% correct in quite a bit of what she posted. In fact, I
agree that "it is not necessary for you to line the pockets of LEAP in order
to give this idea the old college try" as she said. If there is ANY way of
identifying which foods, food chemicals or normally ingested products cause
your blood to release the mediators they are releasing, without IgA, IgG or
IgN testing - that's the best way to do it. We know that RAST and ELISA is
not the answer due to the reproducibiity and relaiability - as you've
already researched. I've not seen a way to test this on your own through
trial and error - but if it's out there - by all means - try it. The
tought thing is that (as you probably already know), food allergies (IgE
related usually shows within 4 hours and non IgE may be 48 hours before it
shows up. How do you identify if it was the noodles, the spagetti sauce,
the garlic salt, the bread, the butter, the polysorbate 80 in the butter,
the yellow food coloring, the blue food coloring in the noodles, the msg in
the seasoning, the tea you drank with the meal, etc..... or perhaps it was
the breakfast you had yesterday instead of the dinner the night before. I'm
not being facetious, I promise. If there is a way, I don't know of it
that is reliable other than blood tests and there are only 3 companies I
know of doing anything similar, but there may be others.

I'll address a couple of questions and then I won't bother you folks anymore
except to answer questions you may ask - that I "may" know the answer to.
I'm on the marketing side of the program to physicians (I sell and teach
physicians how to use it) and I'm not a chemist, nutritionist or doctor. As
to the question about insurance paying for, the majority are paying in full
for it. They realilze it's less expense for them to pay the doctor a couple
of thousand than to continue paying an average of $5,600 a year that they
normally pay for patients having daily or weekly migraines.

As to whether it's a scam website, I can only answer for my own (as a
physician consultant) and while it's full of a lot of humor and forms that
doctors use to get paid (I'm primarily a reimbur*****t consultant to
doctors - and do sell LEAP to docs for income for them and benefits to
patients. In fact, I first started out with LEAP because insurance carriers
pay doctors for it and I'm being converted over more to the care side than I
am on the reimbur*****t side because of the results I'm seeing with
patients. No- I'm not ready to go to medical school yet because I enjoy my
job teaching seminars and consulting and I make more than most doctors so I
don't want to become a doc yet)

As to my profiting from LEAP, you're right. If you get it from Signet (the
lab) directly - I don't make anything. I only make money when the doctors
I've sold and trained on LEAP perform LEAPs or when one of the docs my reps
(I have about 40 folks around the country work with me) sold do one. Oh
yeah - another thing about myself. I've taken LEAP away from two doctors
(one in Denton, Texas and the other in Lufkin, TX) because they were abusing
the system and doing LEAPs on patients that didn't really need it. They
were doing it for the money. Neither are allowed to do LEAPs anymore. One
of them did LEAPs on patients that had migraines once or twice a month.
LEAP doesn't help those folks because that seldom means it's not food
sensitivity related. Another was using it anytime patients got diarrhea and
called it IBS. IBS is a chronic condition and not one that pops up every
couple of months - and he too was warned to not abuse it. I also told a
patient two weeks ago in St Louis that her 12 year old daughter should check
with her own primary care doctor about hormonal tests instead of LEAP since
her migraines started when she started having her period. I doubt that hers
was food sensitivity related. So - yes - I police the doctors as I won't
be involved in any kind of scam. I'm read by more than 170,000 docs every
month on reimbur*****t issues and all it would take to ruin my reputation
I've spent 16 years building is for me to be involved in something unethical
or illegal. It's not worth it.

So - I'll shut up and just answer questions on here or you can email me
direct at
donself@donself.com

By the way - I like the way you do your homework, Julianne and I promise you
I took absolutely no offense to anything you said. Just the contrary.

--

Don Self, CSS, BFMA
305 Senter Ave Whitehouse, TX 75791
mailto:donself@donself.com
website: http://www.donself.com
Ph. 903 839-7045 fax 903 839-7069

Texas Confidentiality Notice: Ya'll are advised that this here message is


warned that we have our own way of taking care of things. That goes for
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"Julianne" <juliannenason@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:a882f2a.0401110857.4b7a6809@posting.google.co m...

kadee_did

My husband has severe food allergies but no migraines. With his help,
I have tried elimination diets. With the possible exeption of food
items which can not even enter our house, I do not have food allergies
or sensitivities. My migraines are triggered by odours.

With an elimination diet (as with introducing foods to children with a
family history of allergy) you introduce one item at a time and wait
well over 48 hours (4-7 days is often suggested) to observe any
reaction.

You would not introduce a whole meal as above. You start with the food
items which you suspect to be least troublesome and add one new item
at a time. A person should follow a diet of foods considered to be
"safe" for two to four weeks prior to beginning this.

If a person has good reason to suspect a few items, it is easiest to
eliminate those foods for about 2-4 weeks and then try a small amount.
Observe any reactions over 48 hours.

Ayone suspecting food triggers should keep a carefulfood diary.

Kadee

don self, css, bfma

This is an excellent suggestion, but to start - you really need to start
with the cave man diet and then when you do add a food - make sure it is
either an unprocessed food or one that has not other ingredients. I've seen
one person believe that coffee was a trigger food for headaches and then
when we performed the blood test, discovered it wasn't the coffee. It was
the polysorbate 80, which is an emusifier that goes in non dairy coffee
creamer. Unfortunately, I use a tablespoon of creamer in my coffee, along
with sugar and my Polysorbate 80 was off the scale on my test. No - I don't
have migraines (but about once a year and that's preceeded by an aura so I
can usually head it off with aspirin), but I do spend about an hour in the
men's room every morning, with the cramping (I didn't realize what IBS-D
was, but I have a very non severe case of it) - but I choose to be non
compliant and eat what I want and pay the consequences. If I were like alot
of you folks on this group - I'd probably be compliant as some of you have
daily or weekly pain that would put my foot (that's in a cast with torn
tendons and ligaments) to shame. Anyway - back to the subject - when you
add something - make sure you know what's in it - or what food coloring (my
partner's wife has migraines and her reactives are msg, blue food coloring,
spinach, yeast and corn).

By the way - did you corn is in Equal, ketchup, booze, bacon, ham, and about
40 other things? Be careful - but if you can do it as Kadee recommends -
that's great and as he/she says - keep a food diary. You'll be surprised
at what you actually eat when you look back at it. I've had patients SWEAR
they were compliant the week before and their diary shows some of these
things you find corn in - and their faces are predictable.

--


Don Self, CSS, BFMA
305 Senter Ave Whitehouse, TX 75791
mailto:donself@donself.com
website: http://www.donself.com
Ph. 903 839-7045 fax 903 839-7069

Texas Confidentiality Notice: Ya'll are advised that this here message is


warned that we have our own way of taking care of things. That goes for
O'Sammy Been Logging or Sodamn Insane too. Be aware that we use Texas tools
made by folks like Colt, Remington, S&W and more and we know how to use
those tools. So, we're "confident" that we got our message across. Don't
mess with Texas and Don't mess with America. You have been warned. End of Confidentiality Statement
"kadee_did" <kadee@inorbit.com> wrote in message news:inu300hhlnic9dkb5c3c423v3l5r20u0ag@4ax.com...

kadee_did

When you are dealing with family history of anaphylaxis, you learn to
read labels carefully. My kids have become quite adept at recognizing
chemical names.

Corn is also often used as "filler" in tablets including
antihistamines. If they do not use corn starch, they use lactose. It
is almost impossible to find a "safe" antihistamine for those allergic
to corn, lactose and other ingredients. Making friends with the
pharmacist helps as they will check all nonmedicinal ingredients and
call the manufacturer if confirmation is necessary.

Eating nonprocessed fods is essential for those with a long list of
allergies. This is essential for the elimination diet to. I also
followed a very careful diet while pregnant and nursing in order to
prevent sensitization.

Kadee

don self, css, bfma

Wow - Kadee - that does help me alot. I did not know that about corn, but
it sure makes alot more sense now to me. I have a family practice client in
north Dallas that has been having alot of success with chronic sinusitis
patients with our program and I did not realize that the antihistamines used
corn as a filler. I'm definitely going to pass this along to Dr. Shugru as
she will want to know that (in case she did not already). I didn't know
it - but she may already - but then again - she's a doc and I'm just a
salesman and medical reimbur*****t consultant.

Thanks again.

--


Don Self, CSS, BFMA
305 Senter Ave Whitehouse, TX 75791
mailto:donself@donself.com
website: http://www.donself.com
Ph. 903 839-7045 fax 903 839-7069

Texas Confidentiality Notice: Ya'll are advised that this here message is


warned that we have our own way of taking care of things. That goes for
O'Sammy Been Logging or Sodamn Insane too. Be aware that we use Texas tools
made by folks like Colt, Remington, S&W and more and we know how to use
those tools. So, we're "confident" that we got our message across. Don't
mess with Texas and Don't mess with America. You have been warned. End of Confidentiality Statement
"kadee_did" <kadee@inorbit.com> wrote in message news:bb4900l1gdl07c3mtj8ch7gdnq1kioeuni@4ax.com...

kadee_did

Liquid antihistamines would not likely use the corn or lactose filler
but they may use other ingredients that allergic individuals may have
problems with. We discovered the problem after realizing that certain
reactions occurred even though antihistamine had been taken. Reaction
was consistent with lactose so I asked the pharmacist to check details
on the non medicinal ingredients. That antihistamine had worked for
years but lactose reaction had built up until none could be tolerated.
Pharmacist said that there was not a "safe" tablet form that could be
declared to be free of corn or lactose. We did discover a liquid brand
after some trial and error.

BTW, lactose is using as a browning agent so fries are often dusted
with lactose. We discovered this when fries by themselves gave a
lactose reaction.

Hubby is an expert at recognizing his reactions and will take
something which he knows will create an opposite reaction if he
accidently ingests something. Often he can tell as soon as something
touches his tongue. He has had a number of near death experiences and
been in a coma for days due to anaphylaxis so has had to be proactive.

He has helped me recognize which of my symptoms are allergies though
my allergies are not food related - mainly odours. The kids are odour
sensitive too and we carefully introduced foods. They have not
suffered food reactions if they avoid onions, tomatoes, citrus,
peanuts and most nuts. Those foods don't come into the house anyway.
Son also must limit the amount of sugar but has never had a sweet
tooth.

Kadee

don self, css, bfma

Kadee,

You keep talking about allergies, but you realize that I don't deal with
allergies at all. We deal with food sensitivities, which are much much
harder to diagnose or pinpoint identify since food sensitivities may not
cause a mediator reaction in the blood for 24, 48 or even up to 72 hours -
which makes it kinda difficult to tell if it was yesterday's dinner,
breakfast or the lunch the day before that is causing the problem you've
having today. That is why non IgE testing is having such success with
patients where IgE tests did not identify reactive agents.

I still like to know about the lactose and other allergies as I'm learning
constantly and while I'm not playing physician, it's exciting to me when I
seeprimary care physicians who were having no success with pharmaceuticals
get immediate success when they identify what was causing the problems and
remove them from the patient's diet. Hey - it's better to remove the cause
than to just treat symptoms, but sometimes diagnosticians don't have the
luxury of being able to do so on so many chronic conditions.

Anyway - thanks again and please feel free to pass along anything you think
will help me. When I pass along something you've told me, when I'm talking
to a caregiver and they use that to help folks - you're helping people in
need.

--


Don Self, CSS, BFMA
305 Senter Ave Whitehouse, TX 75791
mailto:donself@donself.com
website: http://www.donself.com
Ph. 903 839-7045 fax 903 839-7069

Texas Confidentiality Notice: Ya'll are advised that this here message is


warned that we have our own way of taking care of things. That goes for
O'Sammy Been Logging or Sodamn Insane too. Be aware that we use Texas tools
made by folks like Colt, Remington, S&W and more and we know how to use
those tools. So, we're "confident" that we got our message across. Don't
mess with Texas and Don't mess with America. You have been warned. End of Confidentiality Statement
"kadee_did" <kadee@inorbit.com> wrote in message news:rcib00pujah3i0qbnbjt3iredlc2sa4pig@4ax.com...

dan adams

Don,

Do you have much data on Red 40 sensitivities? That one is the death knell
for me.

Dan

don self, css, bfma

I see that gelatins, puddings, dairy products, confections, beverages and
condiments for Red 40. How did you determine Red 40 was your reactive?

--


Don Self, CSS, BFMA
305 Senter Ave Whitehouse, TX 75791
mailto:donself@donself.com
website: http://www.donself.com
Ph. 903 839-7045 fax 903 839-7069

Texas Confidentiality Notice: Ya'll are advised that this here message is


warned that we have our own way of taking care of things. That goes for
O'Sammy Been Logging or Sodamn Insane too. Be aware that we use Texas tools
made by folks like Colt, Remington, S&W and more and we know how to use
those tools. So, we're "confident" that we got our message across. Don't
mess with Texas and Don't mess with America. You have been warned. End of Confidentiality Statement
"Dan Adams" <dan.adams@@hp.com.no.spam> wrote in message news:4006c6b1$1@usenet01.boi.hp.com...