A visit with Dr. D’Adamo

I don’t like to waste my money and time on doctors. I hate that feeling I get in a doctor’s office, when they’re explaining something to me and I’m thinking, “Really, three hundred bucks and that’s all you’ve got? I know ten times more about this from a quick google search I did last night.” So when I do show up at a doctor’s office in a fasting state, ready to drop a pile of cash, it’s because I’m hoping to learn something new and interesting.

Turns out Dr. Peter D’Adamo, author of Eat Right for Your Type was a pretty interesting guy.

I posted last time about the fact that I’m a non-secretor. I’d never heard before that an aspect of your blood type could compromise your ability to fight candida, and increase your likelihood of getting dental cavities. Reading that there was a connection between these two very significant issues for me–the dental cavities that started my mercury journey and the fungal rash that lingers after its end–really rang a bell for me. Would D’Adamo be able to explain why I can’t shake this fungal rash? Or would he shrug and offer another prescription antifungal that would screw up my liver and make me miserable?

My visit to his office began with a very interesting series of diagnostic measurements. My fingerprints were examined, the length of my legs were compared to the length of my torso, a strip of paper was placed on my tongue and I was asked how it tasted (my answer was “nasty!”) All of these measurements and more were plugged into the computer to come up with my individual dietary plan that is a lot more refined than the basic blood type A diet. If you would like to duplicate this process at home, a simplified version of the test appears in D’Adamo’s book The GenoType Diet.

After my individual diet plan and recipe book were printed up, I got to ask Dr. D’Adamo my three big questions. How exactly did being a non-secretor cause my fungal rash? Would I have to stay on Nystatin for the rest of my life? Would I ever be able to eat sugar?

Question 1 brought on a tidal wave of seriously scientific terms that I had never heard of before and couldn’t begin to absorb. I told him to slow right down, and to spell this one: myeloperoxidase deficiency. As a non-secretor, I just don’t make enough of this enzyme and can’t control fungal infections as easily as secretors do.

As for question 2, would I have to stay on Nystatin forever? No, of course not. I just needed to take a supplement that would increase my myeloperoxidase instead. I have to say, I really liked that answer. I don’t like to have to take a drug, even one as mild as Nystatin. Taking a supplement that addresses the root cause of a problem rather than putting out the fire after it has started is a much more comfortable option for me.

We discussed some other supplements I could try to boost my immune function and help heal my digestive tract, but always with the goal in mind to let my body heal and find its balance eventually with diet alone. D’Adamo’s approach is to always let the body find its natural healthy balance, not to fine-tune an unhealthy system to try to erase symptoms.

This all brought me up to question 3–if I was going to be on this diet for the long haul, what were D’Adamo’s views on cheating? Would I ever get to eat a bite of birthday cake, or would that erase all of my good work?

“Cheating is encouraged,” D’Adamo said. “We find that people who follow the diet 80% of the time do better than those who follow it 100% of the time.”

Nice.

But of course the proof is in the pudding–will this dietary shift and these supplements clear up my fungal rash and let me quit Nystatin?

Apparently this whole thing takes six months to a year to really work–so stay tuned. I’ll be checking in and letting you know…