Hi Heidi, Happy New Year!

I've been saving up my questions while you were away, and I finally have a few minutes without children trying to climb on my lap and type, so here goes (I hope it comes out with a blank line between the questions - I can't seem to get them to stay when I enter the text):

1. When, many years ago now, I was eating the Standard American Diet, my cholesterol went up to 200. By going on a vegan diet, with a heavy reliance on grains, it went down to 137. Now I’m back (as a B, secretor status being found out next week) to eating dairy and meat again, and am a little concerned that it’s going to go back up again. Any thoughts?

2. My 5 year old son (AB-), who has celiac disease, has been taking Freeda vitamins, but they contain Mannitol, Sorbitol and natural flavors (which are always suspect for gluten contamination). Do you have any suggestions for supplements for children that are gluten-free?

He does need to take a supplement as he still doesn’t seem to absorb everything he needs, and gluten keeps popping up in the things you would least expect (he actually has Dermatitis Herpetiformis, a form of Celiac Disease where the morning after consuming gluten, he starts scratching – so we know when he’s had some), so he probably still has some damage to his small intestine.

3. Celiac’s often have several deficiencies, and I have an appointment with a holistic physician, but it’s not until April. Until then I am on my own. I determined he was lacking in zinc (there’s a questionnaire at http://www.zinc-deficiency-risk-test.de/), so he is taking a low daily dose in the form of a zinc lozenge. I’m really hoping this will stop his chocolate cravings!!

However, I think that is now bringing out another deficiency, as he is suffering from insomnia – waking between 2 and 4am and not being able to get back to sleep for over an hour. This has happened for the last four days, and needs to change as school starts again next week.

I’ve re-read your recent responses on insomnia, and am trying to add some magnesium, and will consider the alternate nostril breathing. Do you have any other suggestions?

4. I am still confused as to how the Tier 1, Tier 2 tables work, even having read several of your descriptions. Having re-read the book, it seems to me that Tier 1 contains the most beneficial foods, along with most of the avoids. Now if you are maximizing your health, where does Tier 2 fit in?

For example, assuming I’m a B secretor, banana is in the Tier 2 table as beneficial. Do I still eat them? Surely everything in Tier 2 applies regardless of your health level, or is, for example, coconut milk worse for you if you are sick than just trying to stay healthy? Now if I’m trying to overcome disease, do I just eat the beneficials from Tier 1 and 2, and very few neutrals? Thanks for your time Heidi, Ann (B+)

Hello, Ann ~ glad you had a moment twixt kiddles to get your Qs in! ;-)

Let me know your cholesterol levels the next time you're tested. Flax is wonderful for normalizing total cholesterol and optimizing HDL/LDL, and the right kinds of meat in the proper balance with the rest of your diet should improve those readings.

It sounds like your son is waking during the high-energy point of the liver cycle - scroll down this page to "chinese clock" to see the organ relations. I'd like to suggest using the Polyvite AB multivitamin for him - just one capsule daily. Send an email to NAP to confirm with them that there is no gluten in the formula -- I am fairly certain of that fact, but do double-check this with them.

If you let him have any chocolate at all, of course it should be organic and absolutely corn-sweetener-free. A little high-quality chocolate is better and more satisfying that a lot of the very sugary stuff. Better still is to keep him away from sugar entirely - it's very powerful and quite harmful for kids with digestive or neurochemical disorders.

Review of Tier 2: It's useful only for secretors. Nonsecretors follow their column -- they use the values shown as the deciding factor, no matter which tier that food appears in.

Tier 2 avoids may be considered Neutral if you are a healthy, happy secretor. If you have any health challenge of any kind, including overweight, those avoids are to be avoided, and the Tier 2 beneficials should be chosen over neutrals -- in other words, you'd be eating Tier 1 beneficials and adding Tier 2 beneficials whenever possible, before choosing from the neutrals to 'fill in' with.

I'm looking forward to hearing your secretor test results! ~ and I hope your son is doing better now! :-)

I would like to know if I can take pure natural royal bee jelly and if Dr. d'damo has done any work on it. I have looked every place to fine out any information on it Any thing you could tell me would be helpful. I am 0 type. Thanking you in advance. Joan P

Hi, Joan! Its an unknown - we have no rating for it. So, if you have any health concerns it would be wise to avoid royal jelly until such time as you're healthy enough to experiment with unknowns. Best wishes, dear! :-)

HELP! I'm a B non-secretor and my husband is an O secretor. We've both been following LRFYT since April 2003 with excellent results and we're very committed to this WOE. This past Monday we both started taking Deflect (the right kind for each one, of course). We each took 2 caps with dinner on Mon, Tues & Weds. All three days we had a lot of gas and flatulence. This is unusual for us since we're not normally "gassy" people. Also, he had bloating and fullness all three days. I had some fullness, but not as bad. We didn't eat any new or unusual foods, and given our BT and personal preferences our meals are different from each other as well, so I can't attribute it to a particular food. Today, we didn't take the Deflect and have no bloating or gas. Is this is just a matter of getting used to it? Any suggestions? Thanks so much for your very informative and helpful column! Carmen

Hello, Carmen ~ It's not unusual to experience intestinal changes when starting Deflect or Polyflora. Both will start healthy changes in the GI tract -- with some people, this means gas for a few days -- and as the flora & fauna settle back down, the bloating should fade away. So, yep - it's really a matter of getting used to it, for some folks. Thanks for your note, Carmen, and give it a go for a week -- experiment with taking it away from the meal with plenty of water, instead of with a meal, since it will work well that way, too --- and let me know how it goes! :-D

Dear Heidi, I am O+ secretor and would like to take a form of fiber as I tend to get a little constipated from time to time. You have suggested ground flax seeds but I am hesitant to try them because whenever I take Flax Seed Oil for several days in a row I develop cyst-like acne along my jawline, down my neck and behind my ears. I get the same reaction when I eat nuts or pumpkin seeds. Actually, with those my ears start to itch too.

I saw an applied kinesiologist who thought that maybe this was a detox reaction. I am not sure it is a detox reaction or an allergic reaction. It is a shame because the nuts, seeds, and Flax Seed oil do help keep me regular and I know the fats from them could be very beneficial. I just want to get your input on this. Have you ever heard of this reaction before? Does it sound like a detox reaction or an allegic reaction?

The applied kinsiologist kept saying that people are rarely allergic to Flax Seed Oil so she didn't think it was an allergic reaction (we didn't discuss the fact that nuts and pumpkin seeds do the same thing). I tried staying off Flax Seed Oil for a while and the acne went away and then I added it back and it started up again.

It doesn't come out all at once, I will get a lump on one side then if I continue to eat the nuts/seeds or take the oil another will appear and within a week I will have quite a few along the jawline and then working their way down my neck. Any input you could give me would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance for your time, you have helped me more than you know with your daily answers to other's questions. Thank you for all that you do for us. Best regards, Joan M

Hi, Joan! I suggest getting hold of a small quantity of gold flax seed - say, 4 ounces or so. Use a teaspoonful, ground and soaked in warm water, and stay away from all the other nuts/seeds for that time period. See if the cyst activity starts up. Let me know, OK? I have a feeling it is not allergy, but a fat digestion problem you're experiencing.

First, start juicing -- fresh vegetable juice, like carrot/celery with a little beet greens or wheat grass or barley grass. The greens will start boosting the magnesium, which along with the light amounts of fiber in the juice will stimulate the bowel. Second, have a large salad of lightly steamed fibrous veg (like broccoli, bamboo shoots, kale) mixed with lots of fresh greens. If you do these things daily, you should have no need for additional fiber. However, I'd definitely consider a gallbladder flush or two, as a measure to improve your fat digestion. Read back through some of the columns on these subjects, and let me know how you'd like to proceed. Warmest wishes, and a prosperous new year to you! :-)