OT: Is it true that Postum has been discontinued?

It's called post-polio syndrome. There's a good book "Polio Paradox" by Dr. Richard Bruno about it.

Interestingly, he theorizes that some cases of CFS may, in fact, be post-polio, i.e., the patient had the non-paralytic version which was written off as "flu". As for those of us who had the vaccine as tots, "nature abhors a vacuum" -- when the polio virus was eradicated, another enterovirus took its place, causing similar problems. (Dr. Ryll observes that in the 30s, they were already aware that polio and ME/CFS travelled in side-by-side epidemics and that ME/CFS patients were later found to be immune to polio; they believed the ME/CFS virus was simply a less-potent version of polio.)

All of which makes sense to me, because the things that were recommended to Sheila for her post-polio also help me.

I play bridge occasionally against a woman who had a promising career as a highly qualified pediatrician in internal medicine. Just as she got started, she had to quit because she suffered from polio flashback. This is now a totally known syndrome.

Just the other day when I asked her how she was doing she said "I have to make choices. Today I wanted to play bridge this morning. I was careful to get a good nights sleep, I am playing now and when I go home I will go to bed. If I am lucky, I will get up around supper time and David and I will spend time together but my life has degenerated to 'one thing a day' - it's a total frustration" - that poor woman is in her mid fifties, what a life.

I see polio in a whole different light, it is very much in our midst today, as it was so many years ago.

The mother of a friend I had in high school was in an iron lung from something -- I was always afraid to ask why, because I was a really shy person back in those days, but I remember her room with the iron lung and going in to say hi when I would go over there.

Post-polio syndrome, right?

I thought chronic fatigue was from Epstein-Barr, or is my memory playing tricks on me?

That was one of the initial theories, but quickly proven erroneous when some of the initial patients tested negative for Epstein-Barr. Nearly a quarter century later, at least one of them is STILL testing negative (which I got from the horse's mouth).

It's actually a case of mixing up cause and result. 99% of adults have EBV in their system. When your immune system is weakened, it cannot keep the EBV under control and the EBV goes wild. Since they were testing for (among other things) EBV, some researchers leapt to the conclusion that EBV was the cause; others (those who were aware that some patients were EBV-negative) suggested that the real cause was a virus they didn't have a test for yet.

Lucille, a friend of mine makes Kahlua syrup. Want me to get the recipe for you? :)

Joan

Oh yeah!! What a thing to have in the fridge, just waiting for ice cream to cuddle with.

Okay, I've emailed her. I'll post it when I get it.

Joan

Thanks. My mouth is watering at the thought of it.

Lucille

ohb0b had written this in response to

:

I just found out today Postum has been discontinued by Kraft Foods. If there was a marketing campaign to try and reveve it, I certainly wasn't aware of it. Because of high blood pressure, I am down to one cuppa joe in the morning to jump start my nervous system. Postum was the only hot beverage with the "body" of a cup of coffee. I am surprised Kraft has pulled the plug on a healthy, low calorie, naturally caffeine free product in these times of health conciousness. In addition to Mormon's whose religion forbids caffeine, many folks drink Postum for health reasons. Cancer patients, migraine sufferers, people with hypertension and gastric disorders. Plus some of us were allowed a cup of Postum as children when the grown-ups were drinking coffee. I hope this turns into the next "New Coke" marketing fiasco for Kraft. As others have posted, it is an acquired taste, but it has a sizable niche following. Even if there is not enough money for Kraft, it would be a nice "cash cow" for a smaller company. I have written and called Kraft to complain, and suggested they sell the brand if they are not interested in turning it around.

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Contact Vermont Country Store -- they like to buy up the rights to discontinued food products.

I had to Google to discover what Postum was - "The ingredients in Postum are wheat bran, wheat, molasses, and corn dextrin". It sounds a bit like "acorn coffee"

That's basically it. It, like Post Grape Nuts, was originally a 'health' food. Postum was to be a substitute for coffee, and there is no caffeine in it.

There was always a bottle of it at home. It looks a little bit like instant coffee.

MargW

And if I remember correctly, tastes like instant mud.

Lucille

Seems to me it used to be kept on hand for people who wanted coffee but no caffeine, prior to Instant DeCaffinated stuff.