My health story isn’t something that has necessarily been fun for me, but I am thankful for it. It has actually opened many doors for me by allowing me to learn and grow and in turn, share my knowledge with others! I have had numerous friends and many of you ladies on IG reach out with questions about changing diet or trying natural alternatives. And while I’m always bummed to hear that people are struggling, I’m so grateful for the opportunity to help!
Over the past two years, I have shared bits and pieces of what I have gone through (and what my girls have gone through), but I still get questions and decided a blog post is the best way to go. This way, I am able to point people here when they have questions.
Before I begin, I want to clarify a few things. I don’t think certain foods (that I mention) are good or bad. I actually struggle with and get symptoms from quite a few “healthy” foods., but I do believe that certain foods can impact different people in different ways. Do I think everyone should be gluten free? No. Do I think gluten or dairy are “bad foods”? Nope, not at all. In no way am I promoting a certain way of eating by sharing this post. I am not a doctor or nutrition expert, I am simply telling my story. I want to encourage you to seek help or support from the amazing natural health professionals in your community!
Let’s start from the beginning…
Growing up, I was an “average” kid! Mostly healthy, not sick very often, and could eat whatever. I was very fortunate! This continued into my adult life all the way until a year or so after I had my girls. I was 27 years old. Before I get into what exactly what happened, I want to explain WHY I believe everything started and it goes back to my pregnancy.
The first half of my pregnancy was smooth! (I found out at 10 weeks I was having identical twins!) No morning sickness, just tired for the most part. At our 20 week ultrasound, we found out that the girls had Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome. My pregnancy could be an entire post in itself, so I’m going to link you up to a blog I wrote for Madison Mom back in 2015! It summarizes our experience. What it doesn’t go into detail about, however, is just how hard the pregnancy was on my body.
How pregnancy impacted my body and my health
While I was pregnant, I had an in utero surgery to correct the TTTS and I was also on more medications than ever before in my life. I was on blood pressure medication for Ella’s heart, I was on medication for my cholestasis (which usually happens in late pregnancy but started for me at 20 weeks), medications to stop pre-term labor, supplements, multiple rounds antibiotics at various points, and then steroids when I went into preterm labor. After all of that, an emergency c-section, trauma and stress… my body changed. There were no obvious symptoms right away, but about a year later, I started having some health issues.
When things started to change
It was around Christmas time when I first started noticing them. I began to experience extreme brain fog (to the point where I felt like I couldn’t drive), numbness and tingling in my hands, feet, and scalp, headaches, and just overall fatigue. It was horrible. I could hardly function. This went on for 2-3 weeks and I knew something was wrong. After a few visits to primary care, I was referred to a neurologist. He ended up telling me that he thought I could have Multiple Sclerosis, and wanted to do a full body (2 hour) MRI to see what was going on.
Besides a cyst on my ovary, the MRI came back clear and the neurologist told me I was “fine”. While I was extremely thankful to not have MS, I knew I wasn’t fine. I was at work one day a few weeks later (struggling to make it through) and one of my coworkers (Tina- love you if you’re reading this!!) told me about a friend of hers who had recently had similar issues and ended up giving up gluten and feeling a lot better.
What’s Gluten?
I had no clue what gluten was, but I was desperate and past the point where I was willing to try anything. So I remember going back to my desk and googling “gluten”. I found a video with Dr. Oz and Dr. Amy Myers that opened my eyes to what it could be doing to my body and as they listed the symptoms… I went “yep, check, check.. yep”. This was me. So then and there, I decided to eliminate it.
Well, guess what? After a month and a half or so of fatigue, horrible brain fog and numbness… I gave up gluten and within a few days (a few days!!) was feeling back to my old self. I waited a few weeks and tried to reintroduce it. Immediately, I needed a nap and felt fatigued and decided to not go back. I’ve been gluten free since.
So what’s the connection?
How did giving up gluten make me feel better? I wish I knew all of the details, but to my best understanding, the medications, stress, etc. messed with my gut health and microbiome causing leaky gut and ultimately causing symptoms. I also believe that I was struggling from a lot of inflammation and gluten is inflammatory, so by cutting it out, I was able to reduce my overall inflammation.
Heartburn
Fast forward a few years, and I was doing great. But after a while started having issues with heartburn/reflux and allergies. I don’t want this blog post to go on and on, so I’m going to try to make this quick. The heartburn came first. It started at a time when I was extremely stressed. I was working full time, hosting an exchange with students and teachers from Costa Rica (one teacher stayed at our house for 10 days), and I had two 3 year olds. I had never had reflux before, but it was HORRIBLE and I felt terrible. It went on for a few weeks, and I remember making an appointment with my primary care doctor.
I remember going into my appointment and specifically saying, I really don’t want to just take a medication, I want to figure out why this is going on. Five minutes later, I walked out with a prescription. I took it for a few days, and wasn’t finding much relief, so I made an appointment with a Naturopathic Doctor to get to the bottom of it. She was SO helpful and recommended a food sensitivity test. It showed that I was having issues with potatoes (weird, right?! that’s the beauty of testing) so I gave them up. Within a few days, zero heartburn. I was strict with it for a year or so, removing everything from straight up potatoes to potato starch as an ingredient. But I felt great, so the hassle was worth it!
Just because you remove a food now, doesn’t mean you won’t ever be able to eat it again.
A year later, I slowly started reintroducing them and now I’m able to eat potatoes again! If I eat too many or eat them without other food, I do notice it comes back, but now that I’m more aware of it, it’s an easy fix! I just take it easy for a bit and wait to eat them again until I’m feeling better. My body just has a hard time digesting them (and starches in general).
So instead of taking acid blockers, which can have long-term (side effects) issues when taken for long periods of time, I was able to adjust my diet. This past fall, I had the same issue with dairy. I was having heartburn, tried some different things, paid attention to my body after eating and ended up cutting it out for a while and got better almost immediately! After a break, I’ve been slowly reintroducing it on occasion and doing fine.
I think my biggest take away is just learning to listen to my body. The first thing I do when I am struggling is modify my diet to see if that helps. It’s not the only tool in my tool belt, but it has always worked for me – so I usually try it first! It’s also important to note that just because you are removing something from your diet at a specific time, does NOT mean you won’t ever be able to eat that food again. This has happened to me multiple times.
Allergies
The last part of my health story is one I still struggle with and may be something I deal with for the rest of my life. I have an overactive histamine response or Histamine Intolerance. In short, my body does not break down histamine well and causes a number of issues. My main symptoms are hives, itching, and a stuffy nose. I also have chronic hives with extreme temperatures (hot or cold). So when I sweat or take a hot shower? Hives. When I am outside in the cold for long periods of time? Hives. At random times on my face and body? Yep, hives.
My symptoms are more manageable, but it took some work. After some oral responses (throat swelling, etc) to walnuts and other foods, I started to take my issues very seriously. At that point, I was on OTC antihistamines daily, and hated feeling dependent on them. I actually think I had taken them so long they were starting to cause vision issues. So I finally made an appointment for IgE allergy testing and also an appointment with a Naturopathic Doctor.
Histamine is like a bucket
My Naturopathic Doctor was the first person who told me about my histamine intolerance. We looked to correct some issues with my gut and started some supplements to help heal, but I also started a low histamine diet. He explained histamine like a bucket. The more things I added into my body that are high in histamine, the more I fill the bucket. Once the bucket is full, it will start to overflow and the “overflow” is when we start to see symptoms. It’s more than our body can handle. So my goal is to reduce them as much as possible to give my body a better chance to deal with what is there.
Most of the time, I feel great. I get fewer hives than I used to, I have been off medication for years, and I know what to do when I start noticing symptoms.
Takeaways
I told you my health story was long. Have you stuck with me? I’m going to wrap this up by just sharing a few of my takeaways after dealing with all of this (and now my girls’ health issues) for years. I will share my girls’ story someday, but I have mentioned this before. It is not my story to tell, and I want to respect their privacy. They do both have an autoimmune condition that we are able to manage mostly with diet (so many of our M&K recipes are or can be made df/gf by the way!) and supplements (they are on one medication that helps autoimmunity).
- There is a time and a place for Western Medicine. My dad and brother are doctors, my mom used to be in the medical field. My sister in law is a nurse. I believe in science and medications. Without it, my girls would not be alive today. The mindset shouldn’t be Western Medicine OR natural medicine. There is and must be room for both.
- Food is medicine and what you eat matters. But with that being said, there are several “healthy” things I don’t eat because they are high in histamine and I also eat ice cream, chips, and brownies when I want to! I don’t think there is one specific way everyone should eat, which is why I don’t think “dieting” (as people typically think of it) works. I believe our bodies are unique. In our family, we try to eat as many whole/unprocessed foods as we can, but we also allow ourselves to live and enjoy life within the context of what works for our bodies. Brett can eat almost anything and feel fine. The girls and I have to be careful because we are more sensitive.
- Get to the root cause! That is what the Naturopathic Doctors I have worked with have taught me. In 2022, we want quick, easy fixes. Everything is so fast paced these days and everyone is busy. It’s hard to put in the time and effort that it takes to make lifestyle changes. It is HARD to change your diet… trust me. I know. But it WORKS. It may not solve the whole puzzle, but it’s absolutely one of the important pieces. I have seen it in my own life and the life of my girls and it’s powerful!
