Ok, so DH is finally tired of being sick all the time and hearing me say "Well, if you'd only give up ...... you'd feel better."

And after me reading stuff out of Wheat Belly to him and him seeing all this happening with his family (diabetes, digestive problems, heart and strokes problems, fibromyalgia, arthritis, cancers.....) he's told me that he has a doctor appointment in a few weeks and to make a list of tests he should take.

So here are some of his problems:
- very underweight, always has been
- chronic back/chest pain from a surgery he had years ago. Him, his dad, his brother and sister had a surgery to basically glue their lungs to their chest cavities to prevent them from collapsing. They would get spontaneous pneumothorax from blebs (blister type things) popping on their lungs.
- has typical energy ups and downs of uncontrolled blood sugar
- gets migraines easily (often ends up in ER for IV fluids and meds)
- gets every single viruses flying around and becomes much more sick than anybody else
- is depressed about not feeling well and being in pain all the time
- gets light headed (I think his electrolytes are out of whack since he eats salt on everything)
- gets constipated easily, but also gets diarhea easily
- he's always cold (but has no fat on his body to help, so I think if he solves the weight issue it would help)
- he doesn't eat big portions but he's a hopeless carb addict who will snack all afternoon, be starving at dinner but not eat much and then snack for 2 or 3 hours on junk at night and since he's skinny he thinks it's ok

So, since this will probably be my only chance to do this I want to get a comprehensive list of tests. I know that if I just tell him to get his blood sugars or thyroid or whatever tested that they'll just do the dumbed down normal tests that don't really give you all the info you need to know.

Any suggestions? And if you have any info or links about them that may be helpful too so I could show him.

Thanks!

BTW, I'm hoping that if I can prove to him with any of this that he needs to change his diet, then maybe he will and then when he feels better it will help with his pain and depression.

Well, lots of this stuff isn't going to be identified by taking blood tests. However, the fact he gets sick a lot might point out to a Vitamin D3 deficiency, he should get his D3 tested.

Cold intolerance might be thyroid deficiency. Free T3 and Free T4 should be testing in addition to TSH.

Fasting BG and fasting insulin would be a good idea.

He can get tested for Celiac disease markers but it won't necessarily catch anything, especially if he has non-celiac gluten sensitivity.

You can't talk him into trialing a paleo diet for a couple of weeks if you take charge of the cooking? I'd advise full paleo so he can see if some of his issues are due to dairy products. My dairy reactions are things like excess mucus, sore muscles and such.

He might want to get his B12 tested too.

Does he have a good doctor, and a good relationship with the doc? Sometimes the docs hate it when patients appear to be dictating what tests should be done.

In his shoes I would present the doc with a list of concerns and symptoms that will inspire the doc to run the tests I wanted anyway.

- bodyfat percent - am I skinny fat
- vitamin D levels
- iodine
- B12
- cal/mag deficiency (this comes with carb OD - don't know if it's easy to test)
- fasting BG
- fasting Trigs
- fasting insulin
- liver enzymes (NAFL)

He has several doctors, but he plans on asking his family doctor. He just basically says "See what the other doctor says." in response to everything. (Ex. I told him to ask about Birt-Hoggs-Dube syndrome because of the family history of spontaneous pneumothorax and other family members having skin growths. The doctor just said to ask the dermatologist. Without bringing the subject up, the dermatologist mentioned to DH he should talk to his family doctor about the BHD. When he reported it back to his family doctor he just brushed it off.) So, I think his family doctor just wants to pass the buck on everything and really isn't interested in solving the problems. (Ok, I've never met him but I don't like him.)

If his family doctor reacts negatively to the list I'm going to ask him to talk to his pain doctor. She makes him call and leave voicemails about how he's progressing with different therapies and meds and if he doesn't call in when he's suppposed to she calls him herself about it. So I think she might take more of an interest, especially since if he feels healthier then it would help with the pain management.

Or I'll have him see my doctor. He has no problems with me coming in and telling him "I think this is wrong, this is why I think it's wrong, this is what we've tried at home or this is how long we've waited to see if it's a virus and should I do this to make it better." He says "You make my job so much easier." and tells the kids "When your mom tells you to do something you really should listen. She knows what she's talking about."

I'll have to check his box of meds upstairs but I think he was prescribed vit. D at one point but after a week or two decided it didn't do any good. That was a few years ago but I think he may be a bit more open minded now. (At least I hope.)

OK - I checked and can't find the vitamin D. I did however find:
- 100% Wild Fish Oil Blend with Alaskan Salmon Oil and Fish Oils (anchovy, sardine, and/or mackerel 1000 mg, EPA 180mg, DHA 120mg
- A ton of magnesium glycinate 650 mg (was supposed to use for constipation but didn't work, I suggested he try the magnesium citrate, I never new if he tried it or not but I did find a small bottle of it, so maybe he did?)
- Alpha Lipoic Acid 400mg. One doctor suggested he try this but when he talked to his family doctor he said that doctor is a quack and had him switch to another pain doctor. Nobody knew how he got referred to this pain doctor.

So this is probably about the extent of his trying to resolve stuff "naturally". I think my best bet for now is to try and find anything on the blood tests that can show him a quantifiable number and then try to convince him to fix it with diet. As for Paleo, I'd like him to (and I'm working on me and the girls getting there) but I don't think he'd go for it. It's taken me over 10 years to get him to even consider that a diet can be for good health and well being, not just to loose weight.


BTW, these are tests my sister suggested. (She's a nurse.) Mostly standard and some are overlapping the other lists but I'm just doing a copy and paste:

CBC
Fasting Glucose
Creatinine
BUN
GFR
Lipid Profile (LDP, LD, HDL, ALT, AST, ALP, triglycerides)
TSH (Free TV and Free T3)
RF
PSA

She said she'll check later to see if she thinks he should have anything else.

Good luck! What a nice compliment from the doc by the way. well done

I don't have any specific advice to add, other than agree about getting the Vit D level checked, but there are labs in the US where you can order tests yourself and they have "packages of popular tests". Here's one such lab. http://www.directlabs.com/
Their Comprehensive wellness and Ten Most Important for Men may give you guidance as to what ones to order. Vit D is an expensive test here, so even with insurance coverage, it can be cheaper to do some tests through direct to consumer labs, but I am assuming that is not in issue in Canada.

Have you read Wheat Belly by Dr. Davis?
Or his blog: http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/ Look at the list of categories on the left bar for posts on various symptoms.

With all his symptoms, I would try a complete gluten/wheat elimination diet for one month. The tests so often miss sensitivity when not full-blown celiac, it is worth trying. My DH loved the book and completely cured his GERD after being on a PPI for 9 years.

Thanks, JEY100. The tests shouldn't cost us anything. Some things may not be covered by the province but we also have a good health insurance through his work for anything not covered, so cost ins't really a factor.

I've read most of Wheat Belly already but DH is not the reading kind of person. But I think that reading stats out loud from the book and little sections that relate to his health over the last few weeks is what pushed him to say "Ok, tell me what tests I should do."

He's already agreed to try cutting wheat from one of our DD's this summer to see if it helps her. And since I'm doing it for her I'll do it for the other two also just so it's "fair". (Well, not really, so it's fair. More like because it's healthier but that's what I'm telling him or he might whine that I'm taking it too far.)

I asked him about the vitamin D. He said he has a bottle of it at work and he thinks he is supposed to take 8000 IU daily but he never remembers. I told him to bring it home so I could put it with the girls vitamins and I'd make sure he took it each morning. Don't think he thought I was serious but I'm going to send him an email this afternoon to remind him. My Internet is being wonky today so browsing is hard but I know there is a bunch of Vitamin D threads and links, can someone please reply with a link to the best ones? Then even if my internet only works for few minutes later I can open it quickly so I can read it? I want to know my facts when I push him to take it regularly.

He also said he's had his thyroid tested but doesn't know which tests they did because he's "not a doctor".

I'm no expert on Vit D, but think this doctor has reasonable advice http://www.doctorzaidi.com/vitamindnew.html and his book on Vit D was only $2.99 for the Kindle. He aims for an optimum D level of 50-100 ng, which is the same level advised by my doctors for cancer protection. 8,000 IU/day D3 is a dose sometimes used if one needs to "fill in the hole" when D is low (less than 30) Then the only way to know if supplementation is working is to re-test.

The four thyroid tests in that lab's "comprehensive wellness package" are good ones to request.

Great you are going to cut wheat at home, but to really test if your DH is sensitive to it, he would have to agree to avoid it at work, etc. Complete elimination is the way to find out..and with his IBS issues, it is really worth a try for him. Read one gastro success story from the Wheat Belly blog each day http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/categ...fects-of-wheat/