TOPIC:

I have had ITP since 1993 and my counts have never been above 80K since diagnoses. Lately I have been scared because my highest count has been about 50K and consistently decreasing. After doing some research, I decided that I would try wheatgrass. However, at the health food store I purchased a product made by Amazing Grass. It's called Super Greenfood. After using one container, I had my first platelet count last week and my count was 109K. This is a miracle!!!! Over the years I have tried many home remedies, and NOTHING has helped. I know that it is very early on yet, but I am crossing my fingers that this might be my miracle. I can't say that I feel any better...a lot of people take this product for energy, but I don't feel the difference. Also, it is like drinking a glass of grass. But I am sure that other ITPers would agree that drinking a grass is a lot better than low platelets. Has anyone else tried this product? If you do, please post and let me know your results....I feel like I have experienced a miracle!!!! (and no, I have nothing to do with this company and I am not trying to sell their product. I was actually a member of the PDSA when it was itppeople.com! I am just hoping that maybe there is another ITPer out there who might experience the same increase in platelets as I have had. I only wish that I found this product earlier.

Oops...I posted this in the wrong forum. I meant to post in Homeopathic Treatments. Sorry.

Moved.

How is this product better or different from Greens+?

I'm not familiar with Greens+. Is this something that you have tried? I will have to look that one up.

When I went into the health food store, I was really looking for a product with 100% wheatgrass. However, I found this one that has other ingredients that I have heard are good for platelets (I think the spirulina and cholorella)...so I decided to try this one.

Actually, I apologize because when I posted, I didnt realize that we werent supposed to reference specific brands. I wouldnt have posted the specific brand if I had realized this.

This product has wheatgrass, barleygrass, alfalfa, spirulina, spinach, chlorella, brocolli, acai, maca, carrot, beet, raspberry, rosehips, pineapple, green tea, acerola cherry, flax seed powder, apple pectin fiber, and other digestive enzymes and probiotics.

Anyways, I realize that my message sounds like I am advertising this brand...but I am not. I am just so totally amazed that after all of these years, there is something that brings my platelets up without prednisone in it.

My purpose in posting this message is to pass this on to others, in hopes that maybe it will work for others who are suffering. I also realize that I have not had a follow up count, so it might be to soon to tell. However, since I was diagnosed, my platelets have NEVER been at 100K or even near it without the use of prednisone....so something is working for me and this is the only real change in my life that I have made.

ok, so I just looked up greens plus and it is not exactly the same. I was not able to cut and paste the ingredients of Superfoods in order to compare mgs though...also, Superfoods combines the ingredients into total mgs, so it's difficult to say how much of each ingredient it actually includes. One thing that I don't like is the soy in greens plus. I don't like to take a lot of soy because of thyroid issues.

This is very interesting though!

Greens Plus ingredients:

Proprietary Blend of Superfoods and Sea Vegetables
GMO-Free Soy Lecithin (26% phosphatidylcholine) 2238 mg*
Hawaiian Spirulina Pacifica 1356 mg*
Apple Boost Peel and Fiber Powder 1350 mg*
Organic Barley Grass 650 mg*
Organic Wheat Grass Powder 350 mg*
Japanese Chlorella 350 mg*
Organic Soy Sprouts 350 mg*
Brown Rice Flour 350 mg*
Sprouted Barley Malt 350 mg*
Alfalfa (Medicago Sativa) Grass Powder 300 mg*
Six Dairy-free Probiotic Cultures containg: 200 mg*
L Acidophilus L Casei, L Plantarum, L Rhamnosus
B Breve and B Longum with Fructo-Oligosaccharides
Royal Jelly Powder 150 mg*
Montana Bee Pollen 150 mg*
Acerola Berry Juice Powder (Malpighia glabra) 115 mg*
Natural Vitamin E (d -Alpha Tocopheryl Acetate) 118 iu*
Licorice (Glycyrrhiza Glabra) Powder 60 mg*
Organic Red Beet Juice Powder 50 mg*
Dunaliella Salina Algae 40 mg*
Organic Nova Scotia Dulse (Palmeria plamata) 20 mg*
Standardized Herbal Extracts
Milk Thistle Seed (Silybum Marianum) Extract 60 mg*
Echinacea Pupurea (Coneflower) Root (Echinacea angustifolia) 60 mg*
Siberian Eleuthero Root (Eleuherococcus senticosus) 60 mg*
Water (Astragalus membranaceus) 60 mg*
Licorice Root (Glycyrrhiza glabra) 60 mg*
Unique Botanical Extracts
Organic Ginkgo Biloba Leaf 20 mg*
Organic Japanese Green Tea Leaf (Camellia sinesis) 20 mg*
Full Spectrum Grape Seed and Skin (Vitis vinifera) 20 mg*
Organic Swedish Bilberry extract (Vaccinum myrtillus) 10 mg*

I've found a retailer that sells the Superfoods but I'm concerned about the Acai as it's a blood thinner.

That's interesting. I didnt know Acai was a blood thinner. Also, upon further research, I think I might have listed the ingredients of a different greens plus product. The one that I found after posting the ingredients did not have any soy and the ingredients were a lot more like Super Greenfood. Only thing odd about this other one is that it is banned in CA for lead.

Here are the contents of the one we've been taking:

Do you find that this one has been helping your platelets? I really wish that the one I have been taking had a breakout of ingredients by mg. Also, now that you mention the Acai, I wonder if it is counteracting with my results...if I used a product without Acai, maybe I could get even better results. However, I still consider my results a miracle. I plan to go back for another platelet count in a few weeks and I only hope that this miracle is for real.

We've just started taking this again so the jury is still out on whether or not it helps with the platelets. When we've taken it in the past my husband's platelets went up but only slightly. Still up for him (average of 33 to between 38 and 42) but for him that's great!

Sorry, I use "we" a lot - my husband is the one with ITP and I'm the one who does the research and plans our meals.

I guess it's not really beneficial for me since I have an allergy to soy :/

The one that I take does NOT have soy. I avoid soy because of my thyroid issues. I think there are a lot of variations of this green food. The one that I am taking is working, so I guess I will stick with it for now. Although it would be nice to know which ingredient is the one that is working!

So after another month, I went back for another platelet count. Down to 60,000. Oh well, I guess the super green food was not what brought my platelets up to 109K. I really wish I knew what it was that made them go so high. Strange thing is that the day that they were 109K, I had the stomach flu! Also, the only other things that I can think of is that I was drinking a lot of coconut milk (which I have stopped) and I was also drinking a coffee with wheatgrass in it. Maybe I will stop the super green food and go back to just the wheatgrass coffee and coconut milk.

I really wish that there were a way to get my platelets tested any time that I wanted. It is so difficult to know cause and effect when we are limited on getting them checked. Does anyone have a doctor who is willing to test any time?

It could have been the stomach flu. Many of us have platelet responses to being sick - could be either up or down.
Erica

jaschramm wrote:

So after another month, I went back for another platelet count. Down to 60,000. Oh well, I guess the super green food was not what brought my platelets up to 109K. I really wish I knew what it was that made them go so high. Strange thing is that the day that they were 109K, I had the stomach flu! Also, the only other things that I can think of is that I was drinking a lot of coconut milk (which I have stopped) and I was also drinking a coffee with wheatgrass in it. Maybe I will stop the super green food and go back to just the wheatgrass coffee and coconut milk.

I really wish that there were a way to get my platelets tested any time that I wanted. It is so difficult to know cause and effect when we are limited on getting them checked. Does anyone have a doctor who is willing to test any time?

Honestly, you cannot pinpoint cause and effect even with daily platelet counts. My platelets jump all over the place, and there is no rhyme or reason; certainly not related to food.

Thanks for the reply....guess I was just to hopeful!

The reason your counts went high will have been the stomach bug you had. Sadly not something you want to continue having in order to keep your counts up.

Why would a stomach bug do that? I wonder what the correlation is....Usually when I am ill, my counts go down, not up.

Well, the theory is that if you have an infection, your body is so distracted fighting that with antibodies that it leaves the platelets alone. Simplified explanation.

It is true that counts sometimes go down with an infection, but there are no real rules here. The body is an amazing, complex thing and it just does what it does.

For my case when my body is fighting an infection that requires it to produce antibodies, it attacks my platelets too.

Yea, my platelets jump after being sick and after antibiotics.