Aphanizomenon flos-aquae (AFA)

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone,

 

Have any of you used AFA? What did you use it for and what were your

results?

 

I've used blue green algae off and on for many years, but now AFA is

being touted with some pretty amazing health benefits. I'm especially

interested in AFA for depression and other common symptoms of

perimenopause and menopause.

 

Thanks for your feedback. It's greatly appreciated!

 

Michelle

http://www.HolisticMenopause.com

[Guest guest]

, " Michelle " <michelle

wrote:

>

> Hi everyone,

>

> Have any of you used AFA? What did you use it for and what were

your

> results?

>

Dear Michelle,

 

I have used AFA religiously for more than

11 years now. It has been life changing, both

for myself and for my officially ADD son.

 

I quite literally think of life as Before and

After Algae.

 

AFA came into my life in the fall of 1996,

when a friend gave me a bottle of AlphaSun

as a gift. No information, just: " try this " .

 

Let's paint the " Before " picture.

 

At the time I had been battling perimenopause

for several years and was feeling fragile.

 

In late 1992 I had experienced what I can only

describe as a mini-bout of clinical depression.

I will skip the personal details here and give

them to you privately if you ask.

 

In the years that followed I lived in constant

fear of that dark state of hopelessness and

exhaustion coming back.

 

I would get glimpses of it about 3 or 4 days

a week. On those days I'd drag myself through

the day and looked forward to crawling into

bed from the moment I got up.

 

I worked part time as a Home Support Worker,

and needed a nap after a 6 hour workday before

I could even consider cooking dinner.

 

Other miseries:

frequent stiff sore necks that prevented sleeping.

Hair looking dull and getting thin.

Knees barely holding me up when I got out of the car

after a half hour drive.

Hips protesting when I got up after sitting too long.

Scratchy throat and streaming nose when I worked

with soil, which is my passion.

 

A cold progressed to pneumonia in the spring of 1996.

 

And the brainfog! We're not talking about forgetting

names here.

We're talking about things like fridge becoming

stove or " eh....the cold thing with the food. "

Scary. My son, a teenager at the time, once said:

" Mother, who is going to finish your sentences

for you when I leave home? "

 

All this on a fairly healthy life style and a largely

home-grown good diet. I have never been a fanatic,

but I bet our diet was and is healthier than that of

90% of the population.

 

Acupuncture helped. Two sessions of it took care

of excessive menstrual bleeding that had caused severe

anemia. I have struggled with anemia all my life.

But I sure couldn't afford a treatment every week.

 

B vitamins, C, E and a slow release form of

iron all helped for a while. I always stopped

feeling them after a while unless I pulsed them,

some time on, some time off. I dreaded the

off time. Nutritional Yeast helped but it is such

a pain to take.

 

So, that was Before.

 

Enter (trumpet blast please!) the algae.

 

When my friend Gail gave me that small bottle of

green pills my reaction was : " yeah, right,

another pill, whatever " .

 

I took one occasionally, when I remembered.

After a few weeks Gail asked me if I had felt

anything.

" Huh? I'm supposed to FEEL something? "

 

Since then I have seen people with life-changing

reactions after a few days. The most notable one

was a young mother whose postpartum depression

lifted after three days on algae. She had suffered

for three years.

 

But I am a heavy-set slow to budge Kapha.

You have to hit me over the head with a hammer

before I ask if someone knocked.

 

Anyway, Gail encouraged me to take one capsule

daily, more faithfully. I did. For Christmas she

gave me another bottle and told me to try 2 daily.

This is half a gram a day, not exactly a mega dose.

 

But I started to notice changes. My bad days dwindled

from 3 or 4 a week to maybe one every two weeks.

I went to Holland in February to visit my parents

and barely experienced jet lag. This really impressed

me, since the weird depression episode had started

with jet lag.

 

When the second bottle was empty, I was actually

impressed enough to buy one. I told people who

came to see me for Reflexology to get some of this

stuff from Gail if they needed energy.

 

The feeling of fragility, the fear of sinking back

into that terrifying black pit that I had glimpsed

briefly was gone. All this on 2 caps a day.

 

In August I started taking 4 a day, and my energy

went through the roof. I also got introduced to the

whole health program, with probiotics and enzymes,

and started learning more about how natural health

works. I started playing with the cell-wall removed

algae, " Omega " , and loved the sharp mind and mental

uplift.

 

Enzymes are number 2 on my " she's gotta have it "

list. When I take them I feel lighter all over.

My body reminds me to take them because when I

forget, my joints get creaky on rainy days.

 

These days my personal algae choices are Aquazon

from Amazon Herb Company for physical energy,

because I really enjoy the extra tang of the

added Fucus, and Omega for the mind boost

from Simplexity Health, formerly Cell Tech.

 

I enjoy other products from both companies,

never mind that for now. But if I could have

only ONE health product in my life, it

would be any high quality whole AFA.

 

That was long, but you asked!

 

Ien (it rimes with green) in the Kootenays

http://freegreenliving.com (blog)

http://wildhealing.net (Rainforest Herbs)

http://wildwholefoods.net (AFA)

[Guest guest]

I forgot mention that in the AFTER picture, all the other

small annoyances, from joint stuff to hair falling out to

sore stiff necks etc etc, have GONE.

 

I am almost 65 now, and apart from being overweight because

I don't exercise enough in winter I have been fine.

 

Sorry I don't have cholesterol numbers or anything like that,

because I have not seen a doctor for ten years.

If it ain't bust don't fix it is my motto.

 

I must admit that lately hypoglycemia has crept up again,

and my right hip is occasionally doing weird things, just

recently.

The need for weightloss is getting beyond cosmetic, we'll

have to DO something about it. I know the theory, but balk

at the practice.

 

For the last 30 years I have gained about 8 pounds every

winter, and lost about 6 every summer. Do the math, sigh.

Without AFA it would have been worse.

 

Ien in the Kootenays

http://freegreenliving.com (blog)

http://wildhealing.net (Rainforest Herbs)

http://wildwholefoods.net (AFA algae)

[Guest guest]

Thanks for the great information, Ien. I really appreciate it!

 

Michelle