rising--dawn for your free media stan blocklist. Is so classist they can't even see a post pointing out basic fucking observable facts about a book series they like without deciding it means I haven't read the books.
And decides to try and hijack my post pointing out very simple, observable classism, and decides to make it "propaganda" for the books I'm pointing out bigotry in.
Also decides my fucking post, which is explicitly about the books, is somehow about the fucking racist whitewashing TV show that the author is shilling out to Apple for -.-
So, I'm looking at The Shivadh Romances epub on Lulu, but I've noticed Lulu doesn't list DRM status anywhere. Is the epub DRM free? I prefer to read with a third party app, hence my desire for DRM free epubs haha
Man, GOOD QUESTION. I was under the impression that they do not have DRM attached, but it took me a hot second to find out for sure -- according to what I've seen, if you buy from Lulu directly, there is no DRM, they stopped that in 2013. It makes sense because when you buy from Lulu you get a file, rather than having the file sent to your reader app the way it is on Google Play or Kindle or whatnot.
So I'm not sure about some of my older stuff from before 2013, but the Shivadh romances should not have DRM on any of their digital files. Readership, if you've found otherwise, definitely let me know!
Hey! Google is pretty useless - I wouldn't bother you otherwise, but I was wondering if you had any recommendations for electrolyte drinks or how to make your own electrolyte drink that's safe for lots of allergies? I'm off corn and all the sports drinks I've found so far use it as a sweetener, sigh.
I can’t drink any sort of sports drinks, but electrolyte water is a thing and it’s free from sweeteners, preservatives and all the other stuff that cane pose allergen risks.
I drink an alkaline brand cause it helps with my reflux (washes the acid out of the esophagus more easily) but any sort of “smart” water will do, which I think is even one of the brands.
And I did have a recipe for homemade electrolyte water but for the life of me I can’t find it right now. Off the top of my head, I think it was a pint of water, 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda, 1/4 teaspoon sea salt, and then there were ratios for magnesium and calcium but I can’t recall what they were. I think someone on here actually gave me the recipe, so if anyone knows please chime in!
Sorry to bother you, but I have a rather interesting situation. My English professor this semester insists that we must use he/she when writing about a single person, but I am steadfastly in the camp that it's impolite to use he/she of you've never met them, and they/them is polite. Any tips? My strategy so far is to avoid pronouns at all *shrugs*
It sounds like your English teacher has some bigotry issues they need to deal with, because “they” as a singular pronoun in academia has always been acceptable, and indeed any English prof worth their salt should know that “they” as a singular pronoun has been in use since the 1300s.
If they’re going to insist on being a twatwaffle though, avoiding pronouns might be a good way of getting around it.
So, your post(s) about anaphylaxis is making my red flags wave. Would it be possible for anaphylaxis to start, instead of immediately after eating the food, after you've eaten so much your body can't tolerate it? I've had gastrointestinal symptoms for years, but all my specialists just sorta threw their hands up in the air since it doesn't match symptoms for anything else. Hope you're having a good day ^-^
Hey Dawnie <3
I’m going to put this under a cut cause it gets really long, but the tl;dr version of this reply is yes, yes it is.
So the way histamine intolerance works, is that sometimes the person can tolerate certain foods in small doses, but if their body gets overloaded, it builds up and up because people with HIT and damaged mast cells, can’t process it out their system the way healthy people do, (there’s some enzyme we’re lacking in) and it can trigger the mast cells into a degranulation, and then the person may experience anaphylaxis or milder symptoms like itching, or gastrointestinal symptoms. The analogy used is often a “histamine bucket”, in that if something is full, and you keep adding to it, it will eventually spillover. (Although more recently they’ve updated it to “histamine window” as in “your window of tolerance” for something.)
So for example, I eat spinach in moderation every day, which is an incredibly high histamine food, but also extremely high in nutritional value and I desperately need everything it can provide me to deal with my pernicious and regular anemia. The reason my body can tolerate it, however, in small regular doses, is because I emptied out my “histamine bucket” through avoiding all my triggers as best I can, which includes things like other high histamine foods that I do not need to survive (chocolate, tea, alcohol, etc), external triggers like dust, pollen, strong scents, strenuous exercise (due to the hormones released), exposure to certain chemicals, and yes also stress because stress causes your body to create excess cortisol which is a mast cell destabilizer, which is also why they think HIT/MCAS is more common in people with PTSD due to the damage untreated and prolonged stress can do to the endocrine system, but that’s a whole other post I could go into for hours.
Unfortunately, you cannot completely eradicate histamines from your food, as all foods have histamine, just some more than others. But even then we need to eat some of those high histamine things, cause without them we become malnourished. Which is why you’ll find me, trying to put new foods back into my diet every now and then, with my epi-pens out on the table, my phone readily available, and always under the supervision of an adult who knows how to use my epi-pen and to call 911 if something goes wrong. Cause as scary as it is, I’m not about to nearly die from malnourishment again. (Putting foods back in, however, is a thing only to be attempted under medical guidance, and done incredibly slowly and one at a time so as not to flood your system.)
I’m also able to regulate symptoms with antiallergen meds like xyzal, although for some people with HIT (which some doctors now believe to be part of the lower end of the MCAS spectrum disorder, and not separate like previously thought) antihistamines can stop the body from processing histamine properly, which can also lead to further complications, so really it’s the luck of your genetics and the severity of symptoms. For me, I can’t stop it or my PoTS symptoms go off the charts, even though I’ve been taking it for so long it no longer helps with day to day symptoms like pollen or dust. Some people also become reactive to the fillers in the meds over time, which is why a lot of MCAS patients require their medications to be individually compounded to their needs.
There are some other supplements you can take which are mast cell regulators. Quercitin comes to mind as being extremely effective, and there’s some evidence to show that vitamin c can help the body process out excess histamine, but the dosage required can affect other meds so should always be consulted with over a doctor first. The supplements, however, do need to be as refined as possible, and avoiding triggers in the fillers and bindings of pills is probably the hardest part about using them to help your body deal with its shit.
Lack of sleep is also a huge factor because if you’re not sleeping, your body isn’t processing things out the way it should and that can also affect your mast cell stability.Also being low on Vitamin D, as Vitamin D is necessary for healthy mast cells, so if you’re deficient you may find yourself developing new or intensifying allergies as the mast cells start to break down.
I also saw your comment on my other post re: seizures, and while seizures are not a particularly common symptom of MCAS, due to the fact that there are mast cells in literally every part of your body, they can and do affect brain function (as well as the blood-brain-barrier) which can result in seizures for some people. For me, it used to be debilitating migraines that felt like I was going to go blind from the pain. I used to lie on the floor and writhe while clutching my head. Now when I get migraines, they’re still bad, and can really make me ill, but nothing as bad as they used to be in my teens, when, with hindsight, I was dealing with a lot of stress and unfolding trauma.
So, tl;dr reply to your question: Yes, sometimes you can eat certain things in small amounts and be just fine, but if something tips the scales of your balance, it can result in symptoms of MCAS flares and even anaphylaxis if severe enough.
For me, food, environment, and stress are my biggest triggers (so just y’know, life) and I have to take steps to regulate those things as best I can to keep my body under control. If I recall, you already have an MCAS doctor, did they try you on a low histamine elimination diet? Did they talk to you about other external triggers and how to avoid them? Did they mention lifestyle changes and therapy for helping you to manage stress better? If not, they really need to because those all first-line responses to HIT/MCAS (along with appropriate medication) and I’m a little surprised they didn’t tell you about histamine build-up through certain foods!NB for anyone reading this: I’m more comfortable giving Dawnie in-depth info about certain meds and supplements because we are friends and I know something of their situation. If you’re reading any of this and it sounds familiar, please speak to a doctor first before attempting to self regulate or medicate. The treatment for MCAS is almost as dangerous (in terms of high risk for malnutrition) as the illness itself.
