Of course I remember you, Joyce! :-) Rice, oats, barley, quinoa and millet come to mind ~ along with spelt, which makes a more recognizable sandwich-y bread dough than rice or millet alone. If you enjoy making breads at home, try mixing a number of flours, including oat flour ~ a flour mill to grind the grain fresh is a nice gadget ~ and experiment with the yeast quantity, liquid, and rising times until you have a good feel for how these flours work. There are also commercial rice, spelt, millet and quinoa breads as well as the sprouted grain varieties. If you are trying to eliminate wheat, sprouted wheat flour or bread is fine, as is spelt ~ but you may find you make better progress resolving the bloat and ovarian troubles if you set grains (and sugars) aside for a few weeks. It will certainly do you no harm, and the hiatus in grain eating will allow you to add one grain at a time later on and see exactly what your reactions are. Good luck, Joyce, and drop me a note to tell me how it's going!

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Type B and PMS My wife (B age 39, and me (O) age 36, have been following the BT lifestyle for 4 months now, with great improvements in helth, energy and weight loss. Anyhow my wife is the cutest, nicest and most lovable woman in the world, 3 weeks every month. BUT, the last 3 days before she gets her period, and the following days, she turns in to a "monster". Aggressive, no tolerance and generally in a bad mood. We both follow Dr. D's plan very strictly. Is there anything you recommend to reduce the "hormone-party" in my wifes body? Geir

Oh, dear, you're having fun, eh? Well, how are her calcium and magnesium levels? Lots of dark green leafy veg, almonds, allowed dairy products? Does she get adequate protein? Additional time on the diet, along with the recommended B-group stress-relief practices such as visualization, meditation, even a nice rousing martial arts class around that time of the month, may be the keys to balancing those hormones. If the problem persists despite the diet and stress-relief regime, she might try the following supplements. I doubt you have access to the BTD Complete Blood Type Encyclopedia there in Norway yet, so I'll transcribe here the suggestions for raging type B PMS: FOR EIGHT WEEKS: Cordyceps sinensis, 500 mg: 1-2 caps 2x/day, GABA (gamma amino butyric acid) 500 mg: 1 cap 1x/day, Inositol, 500 mg: 1-2 caps 2x/day; Schizandra (or "Wu-Wei-Zi") herbal tincture: 15-25 drops 2x/day. FOR FOUR WEEKS (can be concurrent with the above): Chaste Berry (Vitex agnus-castus), 400 mg standardized extract: 1 cap 2x/day, Raspberry leaf (Rubus spp.) tincture: 15-20 drops, twice daily, Motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca) tincture: 10-15 drops 1x/day; black currant seed oil, 500 mg: 2-3 caps 1x/day. Let me know what you choose & how things proceed! :-)

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Heidi, two of my children have very high cholestrol levels at a very young age. My son was 10 and my daughter was 4 when they were routinely tested and were found to have cholesterol levels near 400, and their HDL/LDL's were not very good. They are otherwise extremely healthy, thin, muscular, active, good students, etc. They are now 11 and 17 years old. My pediatrician keeps trying to get me to go to specialists for the last 7 years but my husband and I don't want them put through all kinds of tests and live the "patient" life from appointment to appointment, test to test, blah blah...especially when there is so much contradicting advise, medications, etc. which brought me to BTD in the first place. I have always suspected that it was something with their diet and their heredity so in the past I struggled to find out what would help them until 2 years ago I found ER4Yt. I have been on the diet since Feb./01 and have been feeding my kids right as best as I can, my daughter is very compliant, but my 17 year old son cheats every chance he can get even though he has seen positive results in the way he feels, and acne clearing up, and athletic performance levels when he eats right. My daughter is type 0 and my son is type B. I have stopped trying to discuss any of this with the MD, since they don't agree with the diet and think I should persue consultants and specialists and possible put them on lipid lowering drugs. I haven't had them retested since I don't want to involve MD in this any more. My concern is should I be doing more for them ? Is there any way to monitor their progress or lack of progress ? I just don't know what to do and I am sort of burring my head in the sand and just hoping and praying that the diet will do it's job and just pretend that I never found out that their cholesterol was so high in the first place. ( we never even knew about such things 20 years ago anyway). Any advice you could give would be greatly appreciated . Thank you. Suzanna

Hi, Suzanna ~ hey, you're in a stressful situation there, and I understand how scary it can be when you're so worried about your kids you don't want to THINK about it anymore! :-} Let me suggest an approach that might take the mental pressure off you without making your children live-ins at the MD. If the cholesterol levels started out that high, I'd test them twice per year (then forget about it until next time). I suspect this may just be a condition that runs in the family, but don't despair! There is a SAFE natural alternative to the specialists and the drugs called Red Yeast Rice. Before you run out and purchase a bottle from the HFS, I'd like to recommend that you get the best RYR available -- highest levels of cholesterol-lowering compounds, and government-certified against any harmful elements. That brand is from Jingxin ~ here is their webpage and the phone number to call in the U.S. is 732-257-8844 -- it's in New Jersey. Each batch comes with its own chemical assay and certification. "Michael" is the person I spoke to when I ordered my kilo (2.2 pounds) package. The prices vary, and when I purchased it they did not offer capsules - only bulk - but it can be stored in the fridge for a year and used in smoothies or stirred into pineapple or carrot juice for the kids. A teaspoon a day will do it! It works within weeks, rather spectacularly. If you have any questions about this, please write again. Take charge of the situation, and you'll sleep better at night, dear! Take care!! Let me know how this works out!

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Thank you all for writing!!!