Hi there dear Heidi, I suffered a traction injury to my shoulder while receiving a session of massage therapy. The muslces keep on flaring up and I have no peace from the burn and disability. It has been four months.

Although I have been getting physiotherapy and following the anti-inflammation protocols I cannot get any releif. I do not take aspirin because I am type 0 and have thin blood. Do you have any advice. I am wondering if there is a connection to my hormones as I suspect I have adrenal fatigue. Thank you. Ruth

Hi, Ruth! I gather you are taking quercetin early and often?

I know you've been battling this pain for a long time. I have a suggestion over and above diet which may be the key to relief for you. Dr. John E. Sarno has developed a paradigm for understanding injuries such as yours. Other readers here have written to praise this system, and I've used it successfully myself -- so I suggest the book, The Mindbody Connection. Visit this page for that book, and have a look around the site. It's quite a powerful adjunct to the diet and exercise program you're already following. Give it a look, and let me know what you think, dear! I send you great healing wishes! :-D

Hello, thank you for the opportunity for gaining an answer to a question I've searched long & hard for over the internet. I'm a type O & a new comer to this diet. I have been largely vegetarian since I was 15 (now 25) & recently started to include fish in my diet after learning more about type O's & the common tummy aches experienced after eating grains.

My main health problem is that I've had eczema since I was born, although it is no longer irritable, it is extremely dry all over (I have to moisturize within minutes of stepping out of the shower)It has recently shown improvement - partly due to the change in my foods according to the BTD I think & I'm also taking Chinese medicine.

I cannot find any cases of people with eczema or having overcome eczema as a result of the BTD on this site/internet. In ERFYT Dr D'Adamo is unable to offer any solid proof on this topic with regards to the BTD.

Is there any proof of it being beneficial to someone with eczema? Would eating red meat make a real difference do you think? And finally, I'm a very slim type O & have lost a substantial amount of weight already that I'm uncomfortable with - can you offer any advice? Thank you very much for your time Heidi. Sarah :-)

Hi, Sarah! I don't think Peter was "unable" to offer "proof," but I'm a little hazy on what you are asking us. There are all kinds of criteria for what proof is, personally and situationally. Are you looking for verified lab results? Or personal testimonials with before & after pictures? That information I don't have, and Peter could not release that kind of medical data about his patients without their express permission. If you can be more specific on what you're looking for, it would help me.

Since Eat Right 4 Your Type came out in 1996, the seminal work Live Right 4 Your Type and the Complete Blood Type Encyclopedia were released. There are some suggestions there for you. In particular, it may help you to know that Peter treats eczema as a symptom of food allergy. He suggests daily intake of 100 mg standardized Hawthorn extract, 250 mg Vitamin C, 500 mg quercetin with meals (3x daily), and 500 mg stinging nettle leaf with meals (3x daily) to raise the allergic threshold.

I *can* help you if you're willing to do certain things for only two weeks. The proof would be in your own body, which is the best and most convincing proof I can offer you.

Would eating red meat make a difference? For you, Yes. The skin, the largest organ, is the most in need of appropriate protein foods for its healthy functioning. Adding meat to your diet will make a huge difference in your skin, if it is grassfed meat. That is because types O and B particularly require adequate intake of CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) for skin and nerve health. Grain-fed and grain-finished animals carry only a fraction of this vital fat in their muscle tissues that grassfed critters have in abundance.

Lamb (or mutton) and buffalo may be less expensive than 100% grassfed beef where you are -- look around and compare. Neither sheep nor buffalo undergo a fattening (grain-feeding) process, and both are excellent choices for the reason that their meat is high in CLA and very likely to be free of hormones, antibiotics, pesticides and GMO traces from genetically-modified grain feed.

In addition, I'd suggest drinking 1/2 ounce of water per pound of bodyweight daily, with a squeeze of lemon juice and a pinch of gray sea salt in each quart. The skin needs electrolytes like government needs power.

One thing that I've found in hearing the stories of thousands of people: a diagnosis of "eczema" isn't a hard-science conclusion. It can be anything & everything from a symptom of multiple chemical sensitivity, to leaky gut, to high stress levels, to seed allergy. It might be a sign of auto-immune disease, or just a spectacular reaction to tiny avoids (that allergic threshold being too low, again). One lady was at the absolute end of her tether, we were all pulling our hair out trying to figure what was going on with her skin -- guess what, it was the soap she used. ;-D

The key to weight normalization for you is exercise. Build the muscle with strength-focused exercises -- push-ups, sit-ups, heavy (whatever that means for your abilities) weight training, in short, hard doses once or twice every 5 days.

A couple of Qs from personal experience: do you forget to eat? Or, "Just going to get that one last thing done before taking a meal break?" ;-> That "one last thing" has been known to run me along till 8PM on nothing but water & breakfast, at which time it's too late to eat of course, which is No Bueno if you want to retain your muscle mass. Ever happen to you?

Being on the diet means I'm invincible, naturally -- and I naturally may tend in that O-ish way to push my invincible limits like mad on a regular basis, just because there are SO many things to do, and basically because I CAN, until ... I can't anymore. What IS it about Os??? See yourself in any of this?

Do write again, Sarah ~ Tell me what your exercise routine, diet and water intake is like ~~ and check that soap! ;-> I'm sure we can help you achieve your goals. Best wishes! :-D

Hello Heidi: I am an O+ (secretor status unknown) from Spain. My question is: I rely on eggs for my breakfast and usually eat an omelette (3 whites/1 yolk) or 3 hard boiled eggs every morning. Am I doing the right thing? Can I increase my intake? My excercise program (weights and running) is quite tough. By the way, I'm 36. Felix

Hello, Felix! Nice to hear from you!!

Compared to what I eat in the morning, your breakfast is tiny. I don't think I could manage on three eggs until lunchtime -- and I weigh 125 lbs (about 56.7 kilos)!

What I would increase is the meat, vegetable and fat content of your breakfasts. I use ground lamb, onions, garlic, sea salt, olive oil, two large bunches of kale, canned tomatoes, nutritional yeast and spices to make a large batch of a sort of stir-fried stew which I eat most days for breakfast.

This means cooking only once per week, and refrigerating or freezing portions of the stew. And of course, you can substitute other meats, or turkey or dense fish like monkfish or cod, and spice it to your taste. Some hot chilis work nicely. Warm up a bowl of it and top it with an egg or two, and watch your personal best go through the roof. ;->

Breakfast is SUCH an important meal that I'd prefer you do something of this kind. It doesn't require much time to cook per week, and once it's done you have a splendid start to the days going forward.

If this wouldn't work for you, tell me more about your schedule & what you eat now. I'll offer some ideas that may fit your lifestyle a bit better. Thanks for writing! :-)

I started the BTD some time ago, but I guess I got lazy, though I know it made a difference in how I felt. I am considering getting back on it, though I am a bit concerned about the cost of a truly healthy (free-range, blah blah) type O diet. Yikes.

Also, one question - I noticed on one of the blogs, the lady mentioned that she was a vegetarian for a year as a teenager and it wrecked her thyroid. Can this happen?

I was also a veg'n for about 1 year when I was about 17 or something - and sometime later (couple years) I found out my thyroid doesn't work (goiter and everything). It got exponentially worse after my pregnancy - at 200 lbs, I am now 20 lbs heavier than I was when I was 9 months pregnant!! - and 40 lbs heavier than after I gave birth. Evanie

Hi, Evanie ~ Welcome back! Yes ~ for many people a vegetarian diet, especially one that includes daily servings of whole wheat, can do significant damage to the thyroid in record time. Why? Thyroid tissue is a lectin magnet. Particularly for type O nonsecretors, along with Os in general and type Bs, eating 'vegetarian,' which often equates to 'grainatarian,' is truly a severe health risk -- especially during the childhood and teen years.

This isn't a death sentence, though, nor a reason to give up. The body is almost magically able to heal itself once the bad's removed and replaced with the good stuff. BTD'ers in worse situations than yours have resolved their troubles, so why delay? ;->

The O diet is waiting for you, dear! The cost of clean meat is slight compared to the loss of quality of life you've been struggling with. Besides, the poison-free food TASTES so much better, and delivers so many more nutrients per pound, that you'll find you're satisfied with less in no time.

The question now is, no matter what happened before: you have the tools at hand to turn your health around. What will you choose to do? Write back & let me know! :-)