Heidi: Thanks for tips on "fall repair". I'm wondering if you have any other food suggestions besides the broth you recommended. I live in a very hot climate and the last thing I feel like doing in the summer is cooking or eating broth or stew. Also, my tastes are on the simple, even bland side.

I've been eating either salmon or cod every lunch and dinner this week and loading up on veggies and olive oil. I've got celiac so I avoid grains alltogether. Also, I tend to be "acidic" and even more so when I supplement with Vit C, but I think I get a lot naturally in my diet.

I'm using a topical form of the hyaluronic acid you recommended. My skin is very fair so my scars tend to turn purple when they heal (even when I block them from the sun). carolyn

Hey there, Carolyn ~ Making the broth only involves perhaps 15 minutes of 'slaving over that hot stove,' and the rest it does itself. Once cool, you can make chilled soup from it -- blend it up with steamed beets or greens, with cooked turnip, for example, to make a puree, then chill. Ummm... but I guess that does involve more cooking.

Come to think of it, the foods you need most to heal better do require time over that stove -- so if that's out, I'd suggest getting hold of an ingestable hyaluronic acid supp and a food-sourced or buffered vitamin C (most of them are not acidic when digested), along with A, D and (yep), E while you're healing.

The repair of injured tissue requires supplementary amounts of those vitamins, additional minerals (remember the seaweeds), and hopefully some collagens and additional proteins -- so I hope you'll get plenty of the above internally, which is where it counts! :-)

Let me know how it goes, and thanks for writing! :-)

Hi, Heidi! I've discovered enzymes! I had lower body radiation ten years ago, so my digestion is sluggish. Plus I'm an O secretor. I've taken bladderwrack for awhile and decided to try enzymes to improve my digestion. It's a great addition for me. But I'm wondering whether I can take them indefinitely without causing any trouble? Thanks! So glad you're here! Lisa

Hi, Lisa! What kind of enzymes are you taking? Pancreatin? Mixed stuff? Let me know what your product's ingredients are, and I'll be much better equipped to know whether long-term (or at-all) is OK. :-)

I usually mention enzymes in the context of readying the digestive engine for new fuel. Enzymes are helpful when, for example, an O is coming from a vegetarian regimen, or an A is facing bean dishes for the first time. ;-> They're a stopgap to aid the system while it acclimates to the new foods, and generally wouldn't be needed long term unless surgical or other traumatic destruction of some part of the digestive tract had occurred.

What's more likely to help in your situation is an effective probiotic. Are ya taking one?

Write back, dear! and best wishes!! :-)