Simona's Nutrition + Brain + Stuttering Blog

The New Forum for Medical Treatments

2009-04-08T16:59:00.000-07:00

The message board that I will be posting my Propranolol experiences on is at: http://medicaltreatments.proboards.com/

I want to encourage anyone else experimenting with medications or behavioral treatments to also post their progress regularly here for the benefit of us all..

xoxo simona

Back with a new forum! And some notes on Pagoclone

2009-04-08T15:27:00.000-07:00

Hi... it's me again. Thanks for all the e-mails and comments during the past year.

I had trouble starting up my "diet experiment" last year because I left the country pretty abruptly. I got accepted into an academic program overseas and had to pack in 4 days... life has been kind of chaotic since.

I was living and studying/working in southeast Asia and just got back to the states last month. I have tried many times to recreate the diet I told you about (that made me temporarily fluent during the winter of 2007/2008) but I couldn't quite capture it again.

Although I try to make the best of it, life has still been a dismal challenge stuttering and not being able to speak my mind.

A few days ago, I went to a screening appointment to take part in the Pagoclone clinical trials with Teva/Indevus. I had been enthusiastic about it for weeks since learning they wanted to see me, but when I got there and was handed a big file of documents to read and sign, I decided it was not for me. I live a few hours from the research site and the risk of getting a placebo for 8 months, while staying off any other stuttering medication, just didn't make it worth it for me. Plus, the confidentiality agreement seemed to allow them to use your name in congressional hearings and other FDA board meetings that are public record. I could be mistaken... but that's how I interpreted it. I am a nobody, but I do value my privacy, so that was a clinchpin for me.

I would rather spend the next few months working out a medication plan with beta-blockers and doing what I can to alleviate my stuttering. I'm the maid of honor in a wedding this summer, and I love the bride so much--it would mean a lot to me if I could get through a heartwarming speech for her without stuttering too much (or crying) and if some other medication can help in a small way, I'm all for it.

The idea of beta-blockers for stuttering is not new. Many people have done it with great success. Just read the "hope document" by rick carney, and search "propranolol" in the stutteringforum. I know my stuttering is a symptom of my brain, and misfirings that affect fine motor coordination. I've met many stutterers over the years. We all have tightness in our bodies and stomachs (even when we don't have to speak), interrupted sleep, and are generally anxious about everyday things and have trouble concentrating. Even though we seem to accomplish great things in life.

So, knowing that there is a chemical/hormonal component to stuttering, I've been wanting to try Propranolol for a long time. I just haven't been able to since I've been abroad and haven't quite trusted pharmacies in the countries that I was living in.

Next week, I am starting 20mg per day (10mg in the morning, 10mg at night) of Propranolol (generic Inderal)... around Apr. 14th or 15th. We'll see how that goes.

I'm still going to be blogging about nutrition and stuttering because I think that's definitely an important factor here. It's not a good idea to go on medication and not exercise or eat right.

Today I started taking only 5-HTP, 2 50mg pills in the morning, 2 at night. The serotonin really buzzed my brain! I didn't get much of a chance to test it out on people with my speaking but I'll write more about that tomorrow.

XOXO
SIMONA

A Breakthrough with Something Else - Want to Volunteer?

2008-02-19T12:51:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone!

Thank you to the people who have e-mailed me about this nutrition project... and I'm sorry for stopping the 30-day nutritional experiment short without an explanation. However, please read on for some good news...

WHY I STOPPED THE SUPPLEMENTS

About 10 days after starting in December, my body started feeling really crappy taking all of the vitamins. The probiotic pills always gave me side pain shortly after taking them, the combination of vitamins continued to make me nauseas, and I had trouble sleeping because of a bloated feeling in my stomach every night. I'm not sure which vitamins were affecting me but I stopped them all, cold turkey, around Christmas. I also read somewhere that synthetic vitamins and nutrients are not absorbed by the body very well and can cause nothing more than irritation.

MY SHORT BREAKTHROUGH

BUT, while visiting my parents over the holidays, I had a breakthrough. And I think it was diet-related...

At the end of 2 weeks staying at my parents' house, they saw that I was trying to eat healthy so they told me to try their new (very specific) eating & exercise routine. They just started this new healthy living last year and they are completely different people--high energy, sleeping better at night. So, I agreed. It was similar to the "healthy eating" I was doing on my 30-day experiment, but there were a few noticeable differences.

So, begrudgingly, after the 2nd day of eating exactly what they ate and exercising twice a day (that was hard), I very suddenly noticed that the contact between my lips, tongue, and palate while speaking were lighter and that I no longer struggled silently with certain agonizing consonants (b, d, k, f, r, etc.). I now got all sounds on the first try with soft contact.

The first time I noticed the improved fluency was about 2 hours after eating dinner. My parents and I were sitting with my sisters, talking and having tea, and I noticed myself feeling free to say a lot of words I have purposefully avoided before. Like starting sentences with "Don't" or "Do You". My mouth seemed totally relaxed and it had such a light, airy touch. No faulty timing, coordination-induced muscle locks, or blasts of air. Just relaxed, effortless contacts and transitions... it felt very weird, like I was drunk, but I wasn't.

So, I tried NOT to scream & jump for joy right then and there. I'm not sure if my family noticed, since I often speak easier when I've had a few drinks or when I'm whispering or talking in a sing-song voice. Plus, we don't really talk about my stuttering... it's very uncomfortable for us.

But, anyway, it didn't make sense--I had stopped taking all of my supplements! I went to my former bedroom (now a guest room in my parent's house) and read softly aloud from of a book, just to make sure I was actually more fluent--and it seemed that I was. I called my significant other, in New York, on the phone and I rambled on for 30 minutes telling him about my day, which I almost never do.

FLUENCY GOES AWAY

But, unfortunately, the next day we went on a trip to another city to visit my extended family--and my newfound fluency kind of drained away within the first day. My parents and I weren't eating our usual dinner. By the 2nd or 3rd day I was back to normal, stuttering speech. So I initially thought it was my vitamins that was responsible for the fluent spell, so I frantically started popping all of my supplements and probiotics again every day... but to no avail.

Then, when I got home to New York, I was pretty devastated and spent the bulk of my time thereafter trying to figure out where I went wrong or--maybe--where I went RIGHT...

I read something in the New York Times about probiotics increasing pancreatic sensitivity and infections in some people (which explains my side pain)... so I stopped all the supplements except my daily multi-vitamin, which still makes me a bit nauseas for about 30 minutes after taking it.

FIGURING IT OUT

I've been thinking a lot about what my parents might have been EATING or DOING that changed my brain function, and I think I may have figured it out. I've been doing testing on my own for about 2 days now and I will post the results here if it works.

For those who keep asking me, YES, I STILL BELIEVE that our "stuttering brains" are missing some type of nutrient that could greatly improve our fine motor function. Maybe not 100% correct it, but greatly improve the neurotransmitter connections.

I also believe that most of the other therapeutic theories out there (including valsalva) address the symptoms of stuttering (not the root cause); the symptoms of how our bodies react when our timing & coordination get thrown off. For example, our breathing becomes irregular and explosive as we try to break through the faulty timing & coordination of our fine motor skills. But that erratic breathing is not the cause of why our timing & coordination is off. I think it's what happens when you keep missing the coordinated contact on a sound.

WANT TO VOLUNTEER & TELL ME YOUR RESULTS?

I AM LOOKING FOR 100-200 VOLUNTEERS who are willing to eat a specific dinner for about 7 days to see if they see a difference, and also to complete a pre & post-survey. I know it sounds crazy, but what have we got to lose? You can use an alias instead of your real name.

If interested, please e-mail me with your gender, age, and number of years you have had persistent developmental stuttering. You can start NOW.

There is no money involved in any way, sorry. I'm just trying to get reports from other people if this works for them.

In the meantime, I will post back here in a couple days and let you all know if I'm more fluent again!

THANKS FOR READING!!

XOXO
Simona

-

30-Day Experiment: Day 10

2007-12-06T10:09:00.000-08:00

Daily Digestive-Supplement-Activity Record

Date: Wednesday, 12-5-08

Vitamins & Minerals:

Multi-vitamin: check!
Probiotic: check!
Calcium: check!
Magnesium: check!
Co-Enzyme Q-10: check!
Selenium: check!
B-Complex: check!
Omega-3 (twice): check!
Vitamin C: check!
L-Carnitine: check!
GABA (twice): check!
Potassium: check!

Food Journal:

Morning:
raspberry/strawberry/banana smoothie
hot oatmeal w/ water
sliced apply
mug of green tea

Lunch:
no lunch!
snacked on pretzels, lemonade, bbq chips

Dinner:
white rice
seaweed salad
teriyaki salmon
bok choy (steamed)
watered-down raspberry juice
green tea

Exercise:
What: walk/jog
When: 9:30 pm
How Long: 20-25 mins

Total Hours Sleep Last Night: 9 hours

How I Felt Today:

Was kind of busy running around, but felt good. I'm thinking of switching the probiotic I'm on to something better. The one I'm using now is only acidophilus, but I read that it may help to take something with many different types of live bacteria. I've also been taking it during meals, but they say your stomach acid is at its lowest levels one hour after a meal, so I think I'll start taking the probiotic after dinner instead.

30-minutes Reading/Speech Comments:

Self-Rated Fluency: 5

My self-rated fluency is on a scale of 1-10 (10 being fluent, 5 being my normal disfluency, 1 being my worst disfluency).

I'll be back tomorrow! Thanks for reading...

30-Day Experiment: Day 9

2007-12-04T17:22:00.000-08:00

Daily Digestive-Supplement-Activity Record

Date: Tuesday, 12-4-08

Vitamins & Minerals:

Multi-vitamin: check!
Probiotic: check!
Calcium: check!
Magnesium: check!
Co-Enzyme Q-10: check!
Selenium: check!
B-Complex: check!
Omega-3 (twice): check!
Vitamin C: check!
L-Carnitine: check!
GABA (twice): check!
Potassium: check!

*I notice it kinda helps to take my vits towards the end of breakfast (except the calc/magnesium which I take at night). If I take the pills just after a couple of breakfast bites, I get a mild stomach ache for about an hour. Not 100% sure if it's the vitamins though.*

Food Journal:

Morning:
oatmeal
raspberries (frozen)
orange sliced
green tea
banana
water

Lunch:
brown rice w/ spices
vegetarian tacos
salsa
chips

Dinner:
brown rice
salmon steak w/ grilled onions
carrots & green beans
green salad
2 glasses of watered down orange juice
green tea

Exercise:
What: short jog to the park and back
When: 5:30 pm
How Long: 15-20 mins

Total Hours Sleep Last Night: 8-9 hours

How I Felt Today:

Normal.

30-minutes Reading/Speech Comments:

Self-Rated Fluency: 4

My self-rated fluency is on a scale of 1-10 (10 being fluent, 5 being my normal disfluency, 1 being my worst disfluency).

Well, it's been over a week with no real change to my speech yet. My body is happier on this new lifestyle though. I feel much stronger emotionally, not taking things as seriously. I feel more physically capable in general. But, I think that just comes with valuing what you put into (and do with) your body.

I'm still waiting for my reading to "feel" better. Tonight I felt like it actually downgraded a little. Maybe I was trying too hard to make normal transition and starter sounds, I was forcing too much I think. I also had to do a lot of "required" talking on the phone today, and stumbled through a lot of it and avoided certain words, which always confuses people and makes them think you're a little scatterbrained... when in my mind my thoughts are totally focused and clear. Frustrating. I think stuttering is like being mentally cut-off from the world in a way. You can hear and think and feel, but you can't speak your mind.

I don't know about you guys, but as soon as Indevus announces who their "outsourcing partner" is, I'm going to be sending them letters thanking and encouraging them to swiftly bring pagoclone to the market. While we sit at our desks, sharpen our pencils, and continuously deconstruct the neuroscience behind stuttering with studies and resonance imaging, looking for answers... I welcome anything that brings us temporary, immediate, albeit partial, 'freedom of speech.'

I'll be back tomorrow! Thanks for reading...

30-Day Experiment: Day 8

2007-12-04T12:23:00.000-08:00

Daily Digestive-Supplement-Activity Record

Date: Monday, 12-3-08

Vitamins & Minerals:

Multi-vitamin: check!
Probiotic: check!
Calcium: check!
Magnesium: check!
Co-Enzyme Q-10: check!
Selenium: check!
B-Complex: check!
Omega-3 (twice): check!
Vitamin C: check!
L-Carnitine: check!
GABA (twice): check!
Potassium: check!

Food Journal:

Morning:
ham, cheese, egg breakfast sandwich
1/2 decaf coffee (i know it has traces of caffeine, but i was on the run)

Lunch:
penne pasta salad & green salad
2 pieces garlic bread
mango ceylon tea

Dinner:
2 tacos (vegetarian meat, regular corn tortilla, sour cream, salsa, lettuce, tomato)
1 apple (sliced)
1 tangerine
green tea

Exercise:
What: mostly fast walking, some jogging
When: 8:30 pm
How Long: 35 mins

Total Hours Sleep Last Night: 9 hours

How I Felt Today:

I used to complain all the time about "brain fog" but I haven't even thought about it in a long time. I just remembered today that it used to be a problem for me. I think I attribute most of the decrease of that to the exercise though, I really think I'm just getting better circulation these days.

30-minutes Reading/Speech Comments:

Self-Rated Fluency: 5-6

My self-rated fluency is on a scale of 1-10 (10 being fluent, 5 being my normal disfluency, 1 being my worst disfluency).

Reading is normal today. Still blocking on certain transitions. I'm trying to focus more on the content instead of how I am saying something, and I went lighter on hard consonants, although that just sounds like a differen kind of speech impediment I guess. :) I learned easy onset airflow technique years ago, and I could have sworn Ann Druyan (the late Carl Sagan's surviving wife) used it when she gave a scientific lecture at my school back in '95. Very breathy... like you're on a ventilator and have to come up for air every few seconds.

I'll be back tomorrow! Thanks for reading...

30-Day Experiment: Day 7

2007-12-03T16:12:00.000-08:00

Daily Digestive-Supplement-Activity Record

Date: Sunday, 12-2-08

Vitamins & Minerals:

Multi-vitamin: check!
Probiotic: check!
Calcium: check!
Magnesium: check!
Co-Enzyme Q-10: check!
Selenium: check!
B-Complex: check!
Omega-3 (twice): check!
Vitamin C: check!
L-Carnitine: check!
GABA (twice): check!
Potassium: check!

Food Journal:

Morning:
english breakfast tea w/ lemon (slept in)

Lunch:
garlic chicken sandwich on ciabatta bread
small olive plate
lime water
green salad w/ tomatoes

Dinner:
4 boiled egg whites with one yolk
brown rice
seaweed seasoning
strawberry-banana smoothie
green tea

Exercise:
What: none
When:
How Long:

Total Hours Sleep Last Night: 7 hours

How I Felt Today:

Felt relaxed in the morning, I think the vitamins and new foods are making a small difference in my body chemistry. I feel less vulnerable on some level. Maybe this is symptomatic of any regimen. But I do feel less acid-y in my stomach. Less nervousness. I'm definitely eating better now that I write it down after each meal... knowing that I have to face myself is incentive to make better choices in the moment.

I ate lunch at a restaurant today and I didn't feel the need to order a big, heavy pasta like I normally do. Small victories.

30-minutes Reading/Speech Comments:

Self-Rated Fluency: 6, normalish

My self-rated fluency on a scale of 1-10 (10 being fluent, 5 being my normal disfluency, 1 being my worst disfluency).

I had to talk a lot today to acquaintences and family, and though I did well, it nothing special. I have to really force myself use those difficult words these days, to see if I feel a difference, because I'm very accustomed to word substitution and I have my word favorites for all situations.

I'll be back tomorrow! Thanks for reading...

30-Day Experiment: Day 6

2007-12-03T16:05:00.000-08:00

Daily Digestive-Supplement-Activity Record

Date: Saturday, 12-1-08

Vitamins & Minerals:

Multi-vitamin: check!
Probiotic: check!
Calcium: check!
Magnesium: check!
Co-Enzyme Q-10: check!
Selenium: check!
B-Complex: check!
Omega-3 (twice): check!
Vitamin C: check!
L-Carnitine: check!
GABA (twice): check!
Potassium: check!

Food Journal:

Morning:
everything bagel w/ light cream cheese
cup green tea

Lunch:
1 orange
salmon fillet
brown rice
salad
3 pieces california roll sushi
2 pieces shrimp gyoza
miso (japanese) soup

Dinner:
leftover from lunch +
vegetarian burrito on spinach tortilla

Exercise:
What: jogged
When: 7:20 am
How Long: 20 minutes

Total Hours Sleep Last Night: 7 hours

How I Felt Today:

Very tired... but alert and ok.

30-minutes Reading/Speech Comments:

Self-Rated Fluency: 5, normal

My self-rated fluency on a scale of 1-10 (10 being fluent, 5 being my normal disfluency, 1 being my worst disfluency).

No diff.

I'll be back tomorrow! Thanks for reading...

30-Day Experiment: Day 5

2007-12-03T15:59:00.000-08:00

Daily Digestive-Supplement-Activity Record

Date: Friday, 11-30-08

Vitamins & Minerals:

Multi-vitamin: check!
Probiotic: check!
Calcium: check!
Magnesium: check!
Co-Enzyme Q-10: check!
Selenium: check! (< made me feel nauseaus)
B-Complex: check!
Omega-3 (twice): check!
Vitamin C: check!
L-Carnitine: check!
GABA (twice): check!
Potassium: check!

Food Journal:

Morning:
french toast w/ light syrup (oat bran bread)
banana-raspberry smoothie
mug of green tea

Lunch:
tuna sandwich w/ celery & cucumber slices (oat bread)
fuji apple
grapes
water

Dinner:
brown rice
vegetarian meatloaf (tofu)
steamed carrots & broccoli
1/2 orange (sliced)
beets
green tea

Exercise:
What: jogged
When: 6:00 pm
How Long: 25 minutes

Total Hours Sleep Last Night: 9 hours

How I Felt Today:

Felt normal, stressed out for the weekend and coming week for job-related stuff.

30-minutes Reading/Speech Comments:

Self-Rated Fluency: 5, normal

My self-rated fluency on a scale of 1-10 (10 being fluent, 5 being my normal disfluency, 1 being my worst disfluency).

Just read the paper and was kind of in a hurry but no noticeable difference felt either way... just the regular.

I'll be back tomorrow! Thanks for reading...

30-Day Experiment: Day 4

2007-12-03T15:51:00.000-08:00

Daily Digestive-Supplement-Activity Record

Date: Thursday, 11-29-08

Vitamins & Minerals:

Multi-vitamin: check!
Probiotic: check!
Calcium: check!
Magnesium: check!
Co-Enzyme Q-10: check!
Selenium: check!
B-Complex: check!
Omega-3 (twice): check!
Vitamin C: check!
L-Carnitine: check!
GABA (twice): check!
Potassium: check!

Food Journal:

Morning:
granola cereal w/ raisins, dates, etc
banana
glass of very-watered down organic raspberry juice
cup of green tea

Lunch:
slice of vegetarian pizza
apple juice on ice

Dinner:
brown rice
tuna steak
steamed carrots, cauliflower, broccoli
raspberry/blueberry smoothie w/ yogurt mixed in
green tea

Exercise:
What: brisk walk
When: 8:30pm
How Long: 30-40 minutes

Total Hours Sleep Last Night: 9 hrs

How I Felt Today:

I noticed in the morning when my significant other and I were talking, I was blocking but was able to get past them with shorter silences. It was a minor difference, but definitely palpable.

30-minutes Reading/Speech Comments:

Self-Rated Fluency: 5-6, normal

My self-rated fluency on a scale of 1-10 (10 being fluent, 5 being my normal disfluency, 1 being my worst disfluency).

I tried really hard not to "read ahead" and just focused on what the words actually meant today. I don't think it necessarily made a difference in my fluency, but it was more enjoyable reading! :)

I'll be back tomorrow! Thanks for reading...

30-Day Experiment: Day 3

2007-11-29T08:55:00.000-08:00

Daily Digestive-Supplement-Activity Record

Date: Wednesday, 11-28-08

Vitamins & Minerals:

Multi-vitamin: check!
Probiotic: check!
Calcium: check!
Magnesium: check!
Co-Enzyme Q-10: check!
Selenium: check!
B-Complex: check!
Omega-3 (twice): check!
Vitamin C: check!
L-Carnitine: check!
GABA (twice): check!
Potassium: check! (<< finally got it!)
Iodide: check!

Food Journal:

Morning:
1 cup oatmeal
1 whole apple, sliced into paper thing pieces and mixed w/ oatmeal (yummy!)
glass of watered down OJ
cup of green tea

Lunch:
tuna sandwich with very little mayo, cranberries, celery, and sliced almonds mixed in
about 2 cups grapes (red)
power c vitamin water

Dinner:
turkey
brown rice
one 5-piece roll of sushi (tuna/seaweed/avocado/rice)
guacamole and chips (handful)
banana, strawberry, blueberry smoothie (no milk)
green tea

Exercise:
What: none
When:
How Long:

Total Hours Sleep Last Night: 8-9 hours

How I Felt Today:

Felt normal, but definitely a slight rise in "morale". I don't have the acidic knots in my stomach that I usually do throughout the day--which gets worse when I have to speak.

30-minutes Reading/Speech Comments:

Self-Rated Fluency: 4-5, pretty normal disfluency today

My self-rated fluency on a scale of 1-10 (10 being fluent, 5 being my normal disfluency, 1 being my worst disfluency).

I notice that historical non-fiction tends to have more hard-consonants than fiction so I'm sticking with that. I'm reading this book about the history of religion, and I noticed it was much more difficult and varied than Jane Austen's Persuasion, which has the same type of words and phrases/names repeated a lot.

I'll be back tomorrow! Thanks for reading...

30-Day Experiment: Day 2

2007-11-29T08:21:00.000-08:00

I'm posting these notes a little late, sorry! I was really busy the last 2 days...

Daily Digestive-Supplement-Activity Record

Date: Tuesday, 11-27-08

I'M STILL LOOKING FOR IODIDE & POTASSIUM!

Vitamins & Minerals:

Multi-vitamin: check!
Probiotic: check!
Calcium: check!
Magnesium: check!
Co-Enzyme Q-10: check!
Selenium: check!
B-Complex: check!
Omega-3 (twice): check!
Vitamin C: check!
L-Carnitine: check!
GABA (twice): check!

Food Journal:

Morning:
1 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup blueberries
glass of watered down OJ
cup of green tea

Lunch:
mashed potatoes
turkey
stuffing
walnuts (about 1/2 cup, not roasted)

Dinner:
steamed carrots
japanese udon w/ onion, rice noodles, egg, carrot shavings, green onion, green chiles
1 orange
1 apple
green tea

Exercise:
What: running
When: 9pm
How Long: 25 minutes

Total Hours Sleep Last Night: 7/8 hours

How I Felt Today:

I felt good, I took the selenium at lunch and it made me feel tight and agitated so I might stop taking it. In general though, I'm getting much better sleep. Didn't feel my usual groginess in the morning.

30-minutes Reading/Speech Comments:

Self-Rated Fluency: 4

My self-rated fluency on a scale of 1-10 (10 being fluent, 5 being my normal disfluency, 1 being my worst disfluency).

I start off reading with my teeth "lightly clenched" to get warmed up and then vocalize after about 10 minutes. A lot of bumps but it's my normal disfluency I think. Maybe a little worse than usual.

I'll be back tomorrow! Thanks for reading...

30-Day Experiment: Day 1

2007-11-26T19:49:00.000-08:00

Daily Digestive-Supplement-Activity Record

Date: 11-26-08

Vitamins & Minerals:

Multi-vitamin: check!
Probiotic: check!
Calcium: check!
Magnesium: check!
Co-Enzyme Q-10: check!
Selenium: check!
B-Complex: check!
Omega-3 (twice): check!
Vitamin C: check!
L-Carnitine: check!
GABA (twice): check!

**I couldn't find Iodide and Potassium at my pharmacy so I'll be adding it tomorrow!

Food Journal:

Morning:
1/2 cup blueberries
3/4 cup millet grain
glass of watered down OJ
cup of green tea

Lunch:
mashed potatoes
turkey
cranberry sauce
orange

Dinner:
a lot of steamed broccoli
1/2 tomato, lightly heated w/ drizzle olive oil
salmon steak w/ teriyaki dressing
mashed potatoes w/ fresh garlic
glass of watered down OJ
green tea

Exercise:
What: Yoga DVD
When: 7pm
How Long: 45 minutes

Total Hours Sleep Last Night: 9 hours

How I Felt Today:

Felt pretty average. The calcium + magnesium combo is pretty sedative so I saved it for after-dinner and now I'm ready to sleep... I haven't exercised in a while too, so that's probably adding to my exhaustion.

30-minutes Reading/Speech Comments:

Self-Rated Fluency: 3

My self-rated fluency on a scale of 1-10 is about a 3 (10 being fluent, 5 being my normal disfluency, 1 being my worst disfluency).

Today I felt my reading was lower than my average, I don't know why. Maybe it's the tiredness from all the activity. I usually read in a semi-whisper because then I can get through it faster and not get bored--but this time I slowed down and tried to enunciate each word. Maybe that's why I seemed especially bad. : )

**Notice that I added 500 mg of GABA (taken twice daily) because I had it in my house and I tried it once before but only for 2 days or something (half-assed). I'm sure you have to keep anything up for at least a few weeks to see results so I'm adding it for this experiment.

PLUS, Pagoclone (the future stuttering drug) is believed to increase GABA activity in the brain, which might help calm down excess activity. From the manufacturer's website:

"Pagoclone is a novel member of the cyclopyrrolone class of compounds and acts as a gamma amino butyric acid (GABA) selective receptor modulator. The Company believes that pagoclone increases the action of GABA in the brain. This may reduce excess neuronal activity and thereby have the potential to alleviate symptoms of anxiety disorders, and may also reduce the severity of other disorders, including persistent developmental stuttering (PDS). "

I'll be back tomorrow! Thanks for reading...

Introduction! 30-Day Nutrition Experiment

2007-11-25T10:54:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone!

My name is Simona and I'm a female in my 20s living in New York and I have stuttered since childhood. This site/blog is intended to track my own personal, experimental study on the gut-brain connection and how food & nutrition might be able to help alleviate my stuttering.

I'll also share new studies on neuroscience + stuttering that I find, since it's something I am very interested in right now and I do daily searches on the topic.

Nutrition & Stuttering

First of all, I must emphasize, I am not a scientist or health practitioner in any way, and this is my own personal experience. Like many stutterers, I just refuse to wait for the science to catch up, I'm trying to be proactive and figure things out. I just want to see if a new diet that is rich with essential nutrients for the brain will help my stuttering since there are obviously deficiencies in the brain of stutterers.

From what I have read and heard about stuttering research in the past year, I believe that my brain, cells, nerves could be missing valuable vitamins and minerals that make it function properly and that maybe if it was getting what it needs, my speech-related timing, coordination, and motor function would improve.

I'm excited about the prospect of Pagoclone improving people's lives (including mine!) when it's approved by the FDA... and I'll be one of the first to try it... but sometimes medication is just a band-aid on an underlying problem. But until we find out more, I'm not at all opposed to medication that helps people speak more fluently.

My interest in the gut-brain connection was sparked by Jenny McCarthy's new book on her son's autism (Louder Than Words, 2007), which I highly recommend to anyone interested in how diet can affect your brain, speech, and motor function. She believes her son's immune system was not able to handle certain vaccines and antibiotics when he was a baby, which caused the gut flora (good bacteria) to practically disappear. Without proper gut flora, certain nutrients are unable to get into your blood and to your brain. Some believe this turns the "autism switch" on, which greatly affects the development of a child's speech and language. It's possible that stuttering could be caused by a very similar problem.

My Background

Stuttering runs in my family but I'm the only one who didn't grow out of it for some reason. As a child, I was hospitalized a few times with minor illness and was given broad-spectrum antibiotics. For most of my elementary years I had speech therapy at school for 1 hour a week, I can't say that it helped in any significant way, I still developed crutches like word substitution. Then when I was a teen I moved around a lot, but had therapy for about half the time, and sometimes I would do intense workshops/sessions on my spring or summer breaks.

I wasn't really aware of my stuttering until my parents put me in speech therapy in the 2nd grade, but they say I had been stuttering for a while. After that I realized I didn't talk like everyone else, and words became difficult to say, including my name, address, school, and anything that required a definitive answer. In school, oral reports and in-class reading became a huge source of agony, and I did whatever I could to get out of them, even if it meant sacrificing my grade--which I did often. I used to accept the fact that I didn't really have a future, and when I thought about being an adult (and still stuttering), it made me cringe. I didn't even like thinking about it. I hated answering the question "what do you want to be when you grow up?" because I felt like I wouldn't really be able to do anything or live a normal life.

I miraculously made it through college and got a bachelor's. I went to a large, state school where lecture halls were 500-seaters and if the professor required a lot of in-class dialogue on the first day, I would just drop it and take another class that filled that requirement. I'm not proud of this necessarily, but the daily anxiety and torment of being forced to speak in class was too much for me to bear. I've always been a people-pleaser and tried really hard to get good grades, but I wouldn't be able to concentrate on any subject matter if I knew I was going to be humiliated on a daily basis. I also chose a major that was somewhat mathematical, so that made it easier to get through the requirements.

As an adult, I'm a freelancer with a pretty good, stable income... I feel like I'm in a positive place where I can really start reading & researching new studies and keep up with the latest.

I'm a little surprised by the lack of studies on possible nutritional deficiencies in stutterers. There was one study several decades ago that noticed offhandedly that majority of their child participants who stuttered turned out to have a magnesium deficiency, but I haven't seen or heard of anything to follow it up--or to explore any nutrient link.

I'm really glad to see brain imaging studies that have come out in the past year, but I feel like there could be an underlying nutrient problem that is being overlooked.

I'm not saying that nutrition can cure stuttering, but I'm wondering if it could provide some benefit to my speech over time.

MY PERSONAL NUTRITION THERAPY FOR STUTTERING [EXPERIMENT]

Daily Nutrients Essential to Brain Function

daily multi-vitamin (women's once a day)

PLUS:

Probiotic
Calcium
Magnesium
Selenium
Omega-3 (fish oil-derived)
Vitamin c
Co-enzyme Q10
L-carnitine
Iodide
B-complex
Potassium ...

... the extra supplements are to fill the daily dosages recommended by Dr. Hyla Cass (Eight Weeks to Vibrant Health, McGraw Hill, 2005), many of which aren't available in a multi-vitamin.

If anyone is interested I can post the exact grams or micrograms, brand, and dosage of each supplement.

FYI, probiotics help maintain the colonies of "good bacteria" or "gut flora" that helps the absorption of nutrients and the production of essential B vitamins.

I chose Accuflora which is mainly acidopholous and it's also dairy-free. I've tried yogurt, but I really don't like the taste or texture, and I've always been a bit lactose intolerant.

In addition, I will also...

Exercise 5 times/week
They say at least 30 minutes of cardio activity almost-daily is essential for proper brain & mental function.

I will be jogging plus doing some nighttime yoga & 10 minutes of meditation when I go to bed. I used to exercise a lot, but haven't had a good routine in a few years.

Keep Food & Wellness Journal

I'll be keeping a food journal which I will post here, and also a wellness journal.

The wellness journal will track how I feel twice a day, my speech during 30 minutes of oral reading, and my emotional state.

Get Enough Sleep
I will try to get 8-9 hours of sleep every night for optimal brain function.

Eat a Good Brain Food Diet
I tend to eat a lot of starchy foods, very little veggies (I buy them but then I forget to use them before they go bad) so I'm going to focus on good brain food for this experiment and avoid anything that might contribute to candida overgrowth.

Basically, lots of veggies, nuts, fruit, whole grains (mostly brown rice), beans, and some fish and meat. I will also have green tea twice a day, which mops up free radicals, plus lots of garlic because it helps to balance good bacteria in the gut. I'm also going to be eating a lot of the 14 super foods recommended in the book, SuperFoods Rx, and they include: beans, blueberries, broccoli, oats, oranges, pumpkin, wild salmon, soy, spinach, tea, tomatoes, turkey, walnuts, and yogurt.

Reduce Caffeine Consumption
Besides my favorite green tea, I'm going to cut coffee and wine out of my diet for now. I'll see what the affect is of adding them back in later. I really love a morning cup of coffee and wine when I dine out ... so it's pretty tough to stop cold turkey around the holidays!

Duration of Experiment

I will do daily journaling here--which I think will help me stick to the schedule and take my daily brain food nutrients. I'll start off saying I'm going to do this experiment for a month, but if I'm starting to see results at the end of 30 days I will definitely extend it for 2 months.

Not a Professional Experiment

I just want to state again, this is not a professional experiment, I am not consulting with a traditional speech therapist. The incidence level of stuttering that I will report with my daily entry will be solely based on my daily oral reading (30 mins) in the privacy of my own home, plus any feedback from my significant other.

I do a small amount of mandatory talking every day in my work so I will be able to notice if my speech seems easier and more natural. My personal goal is 90% fluent speech, so the minor variances is not as important to me as feeling a noticeable gain in fluency.

Please feel free to jump in with your thoughts or comments, I would LOVE to get some feedback from anyone. If you are interested in doing a similar personal nutrition-based experiment, let me know so I can link you and other people can read about it.

Let's not wait for the research establishment to wait for grants to do more research on stuttering--let's do our own! : ) Maybe we can hit on something...

Thanks so much for visiting!

xoxo
Simona