Heidi: In addition to asking a question, I wanted to share my horrible tetanus experience. Last summer I fell while running and had a freak puncture wound on my forearm - so deep you could see the bone.

The tetanus shot and the subsequent horrible feeling of having the flu for three days was far worse than the fall or the wound. I felt feverish and generally awful I guess until my body processed the shot. Another athlete friend of mine had a similar negative experience when she had to have a tetanus shot after crashing on her bicycle. I'm o+ for what it's worth.

Now my question: I've recently been eating two or three baked sweet potatos (plain or with some olive oil) at night a couple of hours after my high protein dinner. They are very satisfying and a good bread sub for me, but I'm finding that the next day I feel swollen and rather bloated all over. They also tend to constipate me a bit. Any thoughts? Thanks, Carolyn

Hi, Carolyn! I think that the effects of the sweet potatoes may be due to the quantity eaten and the late time of day, rather than they themselves, but try a different type (perhaps garnet yams, or Japanese sweet potato (also called batata California here), and eat just one rather than two or three. Let me know how that works for you.

Thank you for your report of the tetanus reaction. I spoke to an A and a couple of type Bs over the weekend, and the Bs both said they had a little raised swelling from it that went away in a day, the end -- and the A described just about what you experienced. Hmmm.... I'd love to hear from others on this, as there's probably some clear cause for the differences!

Thank you for writing!! :-D

PRIVATE QUESTION from Tom ~



Dear Tom ~ Have your Dad combine food groups at his meals. Have a little protein, some grain food and some good fat at each meal, along with at least one serving of cooked vegetables.

For breakfast, this might mean organic eggs with one piece of spelt toast and butter, and a small dish of warmed cooked carrots. Or oatmeal with a dab of walnut butter on top, with a glass of vegetable juice... or a rice cake topped with a bit of leftover meat or stew, topped with some mozzarella and broiled for just 30 seconds or so, to melt the cheese.

Lamb & vegetable stew with steamed rice... fish with potatoes & broccoli ... you get the drift! ;-)

Apples, pears, and peppermint tea can also help tone his digestive tract.

It would be best not to eat or drink anything ice-cold. Cool is OK, but closer to room temp than freezer temp is the way to go.

His body is wise, in that it wants to rid itself of the toxic byproducts of his treatment as quickly as possible. The odd thing is that he may actually be constipated. The food group combination technique above should not contribute to that problem, if it's present, but can settle his system a bit while he is being treated and healing. I think he'll find it satisfying and soothing.

The most important thing would be to utterly avoid the avoids, which you are helping him to do. And take a look through the Cancer Prevention and Immune Enhancement protocols in the links at the top of this page.

It's great he's a gym rat! That habit will stand him in very good stead in overcoming the disease and healing. Do let me know how he gets along, and I wish him the very best!! :-D