Okay, so, I briefly touched on something in my last post. If you'll think back to nearly the last paragraph of my last post, you'll remember I spoke of how great I was feeling once I got back to my meating-eating roots; HOWEVER, I threw in there the facts that my hair was falling out, I was having sleepless nights, blah blah blah--recall? At the time you may have thought, "Wait a sec, I thought the meat made you better, not worse?!" Here's the thing, it all went WAY deeper than that. First thing's first--switching back to my carnivorous make-up, combined with the correct way to exercise actually kept me from falling deeper into an endless pit of poor health. Basically you could say that I was clinging to humanity by my fingernails (which is sort of ironic to say since due to all my metabolic issues, they were brittle and frail as all get out!) and what healthy choices I was making at the time were keeping me hanging on.
This was last fall. Rewind back about 5 months to the previous spring. I had expressed a few concerns to my lady doc about some lady issues for over a year and had been refusing her protocol the entire time: the dreaded BIRTH CONTROL PILL (ICK! I hate to even say the words). Needless to say, in a last-ditch effort to "help jumpstart some processes" (using her phrase), I fell for the CRAP and started the pill that April. By October, I was at my wits end with endless hairloss by the hand full, nights of tossing and turning, dizzy spells, etc. I take myself off of the pill and anxiously wait for my 6 month appointment to tell her where she can take that little grey box and shove it! I see her in the winter, around November, tell her the issues I was having and that I took myself off of the med. The only response I got was, "Well, how do you plan on pursuing not getting pregnant?" There was no sense of urgency to help me find the root cause of all that had been going on...that's conventional medicine for ya, unfortunately.
Well, needless to say, my symptoms continued and I began my research into alternative physicians. I had a couple of clients at the studio whom had spoken of one they or a loved one has seen and they all had good things to say about him. I figured it was atleast worth a phone call to his practice to find out exactly what they do and if I'd be a good candidate. To make a long story WAY short, I went (this was early February of this year)...had A LOT of bloodwork, several times through the spring and summer...finally got a diagnosis in June.
Early this year from my first round of testing we discovered that I had pretty much destroyed my adrenal glands, was enduring chronic fatigue syndrome, was severely anemic, had an intestinal tract that was as permeable as a pair of ratty fish nets (a.k.a. leaky gut syndrome), and--worst of all--my thyroid was on it's last leg. My doc even reiterated that my current eating and exercise habits were the only things that were keeping me from just killing over all together. By June--this was my diagnosis month--we determined I had Hashimoto's disease and celiac (which I later learned that pretty much come hand-in-hand with one another).
Of course, since January the TYPE A in me had been researching my butt off about what would be causing my myriad of symptoms and with every set of bloodtest results, I'd push myself to learn more about human physiology and the cause-and-effect nature of food, lifestyle choices, and chronic disease. I won't go into a lot of details because most of you out there probably wouldn't want a lengthy description about how the human immune system can't differentiate between thyroid cells and gluten molecules, thus attack both as if both happened to be foreign invaders--weird, right?! What I will say is my choice earlier to become a grain-fed, bean-eating, soy-loving VEGAN virtually destroyed my intestinal lining, causing my body to not only absorb much-needed nutrients, BUT causng my immune system to basically attack EVERYTHING, including my thyroid thinking that my body was being invaded by ruthless demons day in and day out. It's funny what the body will do to protect itself, yet what's really happening is an endless spiral of deterioration!
So, now what? Well, thankfully I had given up grain since I had read The Paleo Solution by Robb Wolf back last fall (recall me mentioning how this book had changed my life--little did I know at that point how much!). Now knowing I have celiac, that's obviously the best choice I could have made in my life. Turns out that folks diagnosed with Hashimoto's are also advised to go against the grain. That part I have down pat--and I'm loving it!
From this point forward in my blog, I want to focus on the things I've learned about food through my own journey. Each post I wish to introduce a familiar topic, the conventional wisdom surrounding it and then allow myself to let loose on convention and set the record straight. Please keep an open mind and put the pieces together. I'll bet you'll realize how jaded and brainwashed we as a public have become. WARNING: If you're at all like me, you may even get a little PISSED; but that's how we invoke CHANGE in conventional thinking. Now if we can just get the medical community, the government and food manufacturers to start worrying about the health of the nation instead of the health of their bank accounts, we'd be good!
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