Cheryl

Paleo, Autoimmune protocol, eating for itp, ITP diet, itp eating paleo, low platelet count diet, living with itp, chemical free itp food,

I would like to add to Robert’s story if I may, and tell you about my experience with ITP.

I lived in Australia at the time but was on holiday in New Zealand when I was diagnosed. That was two years ago in December 2012. I was 57 and had a platelet level of 4,000. Before this time I had previously been fit and healthy, although recently under a lot of stress. Over the course of the first year I was on the same roller coaster Robert describes. I had all the tests and infusions. My platelets went up and down, and the dose of Prednisone increased or decreased to try and manage it.

After being on high doses of prednisone for so long the side effects were awful. I didn’t recognise the big moon face staring back at me from the mirror, and my brain was in a fog. Because of this fog I went along with what the doctors were telling me. They had said at the beginning my best option was to have my spleen removed. I resisted for as long as I could, but in October 2013 I finally gave in because I had to get off the prednisone. After the operation my platelets went from 6,000 to 665,000. Things looked promising and I started to reduce the dose of prednisone very slowly. But less than four weeks later they had plunged to 9,000. The splenectomy was a failure and I had to increase the prednisone again.

I didn’t want to accept what everyone says about ITP; that there is no known cause and no known cure. With my platelets hovering between 13,000 and 73,000, over the next two months I wracked my brains to try and think what might have happened in my body to cause my immune system to go haywire. It took all of that time to realise it was actually a chain of events that triggered it. I believe it started with my overuse of Nurofen which I was taking for chronic back pain. Nurofen contains the analgesic ibuprofen, an NSAID. Nurofen is known to damage the intestinal lining if overused, causing a permeable gut. I only discovered this after I had a bleed. I stopped taking it immediately but by then the damage had been done.

With toxins now leaking from my gut into my body, my immune system went into overdrive. This led to an acute sensitivity to salicylates, a naturally occurring chemical found in most foods which I’d had in a mild form all my life without realising it. Now I had IBS in a big way but still didn’t know it was salicylate intolerance. It started very suddenly and at first I thought it was gastro. But it kept happening after nearly everything I ate. I was losing weight fast. My doctor sent me for lots of tests which all came back negative. He didn’t know about salicylates so just said to take antacid when I needed it.

I only found the solution by looking on the internet. So I changed my diet to minimise the salicylate intake. After less than a week all my symptoms disappeared and I have kept to a low salicylate diet ever since. I had got my life back! But then a few months later I noticed I was getting a lot of big black bruises for no apparent reason. I had ITP.

What I believe happened is that my immune system was so stressed and overworked from having to deal with the all foreigners in my system from having a leaky gut that it got confused and started to attack my platelets too. I was sure the key to fixing the problem was by improving the health of my gut rather than just treating the symptoms by suppressing my immune system with prednisone.

My doctors didn’t have much faith in my idea so I searched the internet for an answer.

I found a lady in America, Tracey Eakin who said she had resolved her ITP by sticking to a 100% plant-based diet. She was maintaining her platelet count in the lower end of the normal range, without medication. I didn’t know if it would work for me but I had nothing to lose.

Two days after Christmas 2013 my platelet count on the prednisone was quite good: 149,000. But the prednisone was still far too high. At the start of January 2014 I eased myself into the new diet by cutting out dairy. After a few days I felt amazing! I hadn’t even realised how much my eating of dairy foods had been weighing me down. Straight away my platelets went up to 339,000. Apart from immediately after the splenectomy, they’d never been anything like that since my diagnosis. Five days later they went up to 500,000. By then I was in full swing with my new 100% plant-based diet. It was very encouraging. I reduced the prednisone slowly over the next three weeks but the platelets went down too.

By the end of January they were 47,000. But I wasn’t going to give up. My platelets stayed low. My doctor offered me an alternative drug called Eltrombopag – also known as Revolade, which doesn’t suppress the immune system but increases platelet production, the same as Romiplostin. When I started on it my platelets were down to 13,000 but they quickly went up. But it was just another rollercoaster I was on and I had to stop taking it when they got to 400,000. A few days later the platelets plunged again to 27,000. This happened a few times over the next three months.

I was still sticking rigidly to the diet all this time, hoping I was mending my gut so my immune system would have less work to do and start to recognise the error of its ways. On August 7th 2014 my blood test showed a platelet count of 68,000. Four days later it was 1,015,000. I immediately stopped taking the Eltrombopag. Three days later the platelets were 2,300,000. Three days after that they were 2,700,000. Something was going on! Over the next ten days they slowly went down, and on August 28th they were 967,000. Two days later they dropped to a more realistic 579,000 and have stayed consistently around the mid-400 mark ever since. This is without any prednisone or Eltrombopag. It has been nearly seventeen weeks now.

Since being on the diet I have got my energy back and I can think clearly again. I haven’t felt so good in years! It is quite a challenge to change your diet and it needs a great deal of determination to stick to it. But for me it is infinitely better than the alternative: a lifetime of medication. Of course it is early days yet and I want to get a few more runs on the board before I declare it a raging success. But so far, so good.

My haematologist had told me my ITP was the most difficult case she has ever had. She can’t quite believe what has happened. Now every time she emails me with my blood results there is an exclamation mark beside the number! But finally she does now agree that there might be a correlation between the health of the gut, the immune system and ITP.

Of course everyone is different in how their bodies react to different treatment and medication, but I hope my experience will give encouragement to other ITP sufferers.

I should just add to my post above, that the reason a 100% plant-based diet is recommended for people with autoimmune diseases is that the immune system regards animal protein as foreign and works harder as a result. So with fewer enemies to fight it can get on with keeping the rest of the body healthy. Fewer cancers too, according to various things I have read.

Another beneficial side-effect I have noticed since being on the diet is my arthritis has gone. I had given up wearing rings on one of my fingers because the knuckle was so swollen. It had been like that for years but now it is back to normal. Also I don’t have any of the achy joints I used to have. I don’t feel a hundred when I get out of bed in the morning any more!

by Meg

Meghan Brewster is a writer and blogger. She is an ITP patient and launched ITP&Me in 2011. She is a coffee lover and a try hard dancer. @meghan_brewster

14 thoughts on “Cheryl

  1. lnaude@snowswiss.net'
    Louis says:

    Hi Meg

    I aslo suffer from ITP since 2007 and would like to here more about your diet.

    Can I contact you please, if you don’t mind can I have your details

    Many thanks
    Louis

    • Meg says:

      Hi Louis. I was diagnosed in 2007 too! My diet is mainly Paleo, inspired by the Autoimmune paleo Plan – However I try and eat foods I am craving, foods that are in season and will never turn down a cake made at home with heaps of love. Hope that helps.

  2. mohdkhalilali1986@gmail.com'
    mohamed ali says:

    Hi Meg, Am a paediatrician/Neonatologist from Sudan, diagnosed as ITP on Sep 2013. I have been on multiple drug therapy (prednisolone, IVIG, azathioprine, cyclosporin A, mycophenolate, ritixumab, dexamthazone) but no much improvement. Today my platelets is 6000 and the BM biopsy (taken 1 week ago in Bumrungrad hospital – Bangkok) is showing an extremely very high number of megakaryocytes. Splenectomy has been offered.
    I have noticed that within 30 minutes after taking eggs, fish, chicken, meat, yogurt and cheese, I get bruises and haemorrhgic blisters on the tongue and oral mucosa. 1-2 hours later I get few skin bruises and my platelet count comes down to 3-4000. I need your help because my fellow colleges do not believe that diet has a role in chronic refractory ITP and now i had been scheduled for splenectomy in 3 weeks time which I feel that it would not help a lot in my case

    • lightruled@gmail.com'
      Vishal mani says:

      Well diet does help in the case of ITP. I was diagnosed with it this March when my platelets count dropped to 10. After transfusions of platelets and given solu medrol (prednisolone ) my number came back to 150, but as soon I was discharged they started falling back even when I was on prednisolone (tablets).
      And that was the time I changed my diet.
      In Ayurved, it is recommended eating papaya and papaya leaves (by making a juice of out of leaves). Also a common herb known as guduchi in INDIA. On of the main causes of ITP triggering is Toxins in the body that make immune system go haywire. Removal of those toxins can help you, a better clean diet will surely help. Right now I’m stable at near 170000.
      PS : Vitamin c is also really imp.(gooseberry or kiwi everyday if you can)

      • tammy@shepperdbuilding.com.au'
        Tammy says:

        Hi Vishal

        When you changed your diet, what exactly did you eliminate? I bought papaya leaf extract and have commenced that a few days ago as I had read that this is meant to be beneficial.

  3. valeriejlewis@aol.com'
    Valerie says:

    I am so glad that you left this. I too have been diagnosed with iTP for the past 5 years. My platelet count goes up and down but has stayed between 21 & 38. I have been on prednisone and infusions which spike my platelet count only for them to crash back down. In the past month my symptoms have gotten worse, I have developed purpura and am experiencing bleeds again. I feel like a subject in an experiment lab as my hematologist can’t figure out what to do. I will definitely look into this Paleo diet. Thank you again and keep up the fight.

  4. teresa_untereiner@yahoo.ca'
    Teresa says:

    Hello Meg

    I was diagnosed June 27, 2016 and after all my preliminary testing, it seems that I have primary ITP. (I think ? Still new to this)
    I was feeling very discouraged as I am now on round two with prednisone as my platelets crashed when we tried weaning…. So here I am. Facing It. ?

    I am So Very grateful for this website and comments from your readers ! Thank You !

    • lightrules@gmail.com'
      Vishal says:

      Hey Teresa I will surely recommend you to try Papaya leaves extract.
      Just soak them in water over night and in the morning make grind it and drink it .
      Add a lemon if taste is too bitter.

  5. debbie@asaplogistics.com'
    debbie says:

    Hello Every One:

    I found out I had ITP in 2011 and did every thing from medication to Meat for the protein etc. I found that apple / Apple Cider as natural as you can get it helps 100% to improve your platelets. try it as it has work so well for me a natural and healthy way to improve my platelets.

    • tammy@shepperdbuilding.com.au'
      Tammy says:

      Hi Debbie

      Do you know how long it took for apple cider to improve your platelets? What was your starting count before cider and then after and how much cider etc do you have. Thank you.

  6. tammy@shepperdbuilding.com.au'
    Tammy says:

    Hi

    I was recently diagnosed in April 2017. I have not responded to prednisolone, IVIg or Rituximab (initially I responded to some of these but then just crashed), mainly had counts under 10 the whole time. We are discussing splenectomy but I’m concerned due to it not being 100% and with current low platelets. I have just started papaya leaf extract. It’s great to read some of the foods/diets that work for some as I’m willing to try anything. Has anyone had or consider having a splenectomy?

  7. healthy1908@gmail.com'
    healthy1908 says:

    I would like to share a success story in ITP. Iam myself a general practitioner in India, someone known to me had this disease. His platelets stayed around 30 to 40k generally. 2 years back it suddenly dropped to 15k and slowly even lesser. Hematologist treated him with steroids and immunosuppressants and immunoglobulins which showed improvement initially but again back to low counts. He was frustrated with his illness and he was advised splenectomy as the last option left. Myself and my colleague doctor started to explore other alternative medicines..he tried a few of them without much result. We came across many itp support websites (esp pdsa.org) showing success stories using diet and supplements.. and especially Functional medicine as a cure for many autoimmune diseases, it was hope giving.. he was advised this- avoid sugar, wheat, dairy, packaged snacks, soy etc and add millets, brown rice, lot of fruits, greens, vegetables, nuts, berries. As soon as we started this his counts improved to 30k in 2 weeks, then we introduced turmeric, vitamin C, folic acid, fish oil etc and as he maintained the diet, lifestyle, Isha yoga and good sleep the counts slowly went up to 150k in 6 months and above 250k in a year. Now his counts have stabilized above 200k and doing well..thanks to all the ITP support websites, functional medicine and grace!!

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