I didn't know the true importance of Gut Health and what that really meant until it hit me smack bang in the bloated belly. It's truly crazy how one day you can have what you thought was an invincible digestive system, never really appreciating all that it did for you, until it decided to stop working.
Looking back on the past 2 years it really is remarkable what ive gone through with my health to get where I am today. During this process I have learnt so much about the holistic approach to healing. I've learnt about the link between our gut and brain, how inflammation in our body is almost always linked back to the microbiome and how truly common it is for women to experience bloating.
To all the girls that have reached out to me with digestive issues, or if you've just stumbled across my page in the hope of answers for your own digestive ailments. I want you to know that you're not alone. I know I'm going through these digestive 'hardships' for a reason. So I can come out the other end a hell of a lot more knowledgable and hopefully with enough life experience so that I can help YOU make sense of your own tummy troubles. By telling my story, diving deep into the steps I took to identify my underlying root cause I hope I can spark something in you to take action and not accept digestive upset as a part of your every day life.
So here it is - The story of my ongoing journey to get my gut health back on track.
Step 1 - Acknowledging something was wrong
It took me about 6 months to come to terms with the fact that something wasn't right. I was getting bloated after meals accompanied with flatulence & stomach pain. My digestion was definitely slowing down, I found my energy was zapped even after a good nights sleep. I would get food hangovers after eating healthy food and even 1 glass of wine would adversely affect me the next day.
I knew it was time to get some answers.
Step 2 - Food Intolerance Test with elimination diet
My first call of action was to figure out what foods were causing me to react. I had a sneaking suspicion it was garlic but after doing an at home IGG test from Pinnertest. I came to find I was highly intolerant to the below foods.
Garlic
Peanuts
Pinto Beans
Spelt
Cashews
I immediately eliminated them and noticed a little bit of a different (especially the garlic) but it wasn't long before the bloating came back, then came the fatigue... and I mean crippling can't lift your arm kind of fatigue. To keep up with my LA lifestyle I would drink coffee first thing for a boost of energy, enough to get me through my workouts but most days I fell short of what I knew my body was capable of. I persisted nonetheless.
In the afternoon, when the superpower effects of my morning coffee would wear off I found myself reaching for something sweet to get me through the rest of the day. This to me was survival mode. I was still eating a predominately whole food, plant based diet but I had no explanation for this complete empty tank that I started with each day. Something was still not right and I made it my mission to get to the bottom of it.
But do you want to know what the most frustrating part was? The bewilderment of my friends and family. 'But you eat so healthy. Why are you so tired all the time?' This was a common question thrown my way, one I didn't know how to answer, and one I often asked myself.
Step 3 - Changing my diet from Vegan to Paleo-ish
I knew I wasn't thriving on Veganism, my body was starting to crave meat. I missed eggs, and fish. I no longer felt great eating tofu or beans. Grains felt heavy in my stomach and was a lot for my system to digest. I had listened to a plethora of podcasts interviewing touted health professionals following the Paleo diet. The common talking point for Paleo was the anti-inflammatory & gut healing benefits.
I have to say, it took me a while to mentally comes to terms with this diet change. I knew this was ultimately what I needed to do at the time. And then came the fear of changing everything my social platform had been about since day 1. I knew there were a lot of people following me that were looking for Vegan recipes and inspiration. I knew I was going to lose followers, support and also get some hate thrown into the mix. At the end of the day, I knew all of this would be temporary, I needed to do what felt right for me and no one else.
If you don't know what Paleo is, here it is in a nutshell:
The Paleolithic diet, Paleo diet, caveman diet, or stone-age diet is a modern fad diet requiring the sole or predominant consumption of foods presumed to have been the only foods available to or consumed by humans during the Paleolithic era.
The Paleo diet is a nutrient-dense, anti-inflammatory whole-foods diet based on eating a variety of quality vegetables, meats, seafood, fruits, eggs, nuts, seeds, healthy fats, herbs, and spices.
Foods you don't eat on a Paleo Diet: Grains, Beans & Legumes, Refined Sugar, Conventional Dairy, certain Vegetable Oils & Soy
I adopted this lifestyle in a slightly loose sense. 90% of the time I would eat Paleo but I still enjoyed things like oatmeal on occasion and wouldn't stress about oils when I would eat out.
Step 4 - Investing in a Probiotic & Digestive Enzyme Supplement
My research extended into supplements. More specifically probiotics & digestive enzymes. I knew nothing of digestive enzymes prior to this and probiotics were just something I knew were good for us but that's the extent of it.
I came across a company called Silver Fern brand. I was instantly drawn to them due to their New Zealand roots, and was quickly hooked by learning of their passion for gut health. They taught me a lot about the importance of Probiotics on building the good guys in our gut so they can deal with the bad guys. Silver Fern also taught me that not all probiotics are created equal. Some are dead before they even make it off the shelf, and many die once they reach the harsh conditions of your stomach.So naturally after learning that Silver Fern brand's Probiotics have 100% survivability rate I knew this was the company for me.
As for the digestive enzymes. The name 'Digestive Enzymes' sounded so sciency to me. It didn't sound like something I needed, and was a little bit intimidating at first. That was until I learnt about their vital role on digestive health.
My own explanation couldn't do it justice so here's some information straight from Silver Fern Brand's website.
Why you need digestive enzymes:
In our late 20’s the number of enzymes we produce starts to drop, and by age 30 we can become quite deficient in digestive enzymes.
As your enzyme levels drop, digestion is replaced with bloating and discomfort.
Your body does not naturally produce the enzyme needed to digest plant-based foods.
Proper digestion of food unlocks vital nutrients for your body and keeps you from overeating.
Why Silver Fern™ Ultimate Digestive Enzyme?
Potency – The effectiveness of a digestive enzyme is measured by its enzyme activity or potency. The higher the potency, the more efficient the enzyme will be at breaking down food for digestion. A large amount of low potency enzymes will never perform as well as a small amount of high potency enzymes. The Silver Fern™ Ultimate Digestive Enzyme will maximize your digestive comfort because it is one of the highest potency you can find.
Spectrum – Most enzyme products fail to work through the entire 20-foot length of your intestines because of the wide pH spectrum. Your intestinal pH varies between a massive logarithmic scale of 1.0 to 8.0 through its length, and most enzymes only function within a small pH range. Silver Fern’s enzyme blend functions in all the pH regions of your small intestines and ensures improved digestion throughout your entire digestive tract.
Use code 'peanuthead' for 15% off all their products.
Step 4 - Leaky Gut & Candida Protocol
The steps I had taken so far were improving my symptoms but I wasn't at a place where I felt like I was thriving. I still had fatigue, my bloating was a lot better but it would still pop up every so often, my sugar cravings were through the roof, I was getting crazy mood swings and my body felt stiff and slow all the time. I knew I was putting all the right things into my body, but there was something going on inside that needed to be addressed.
This is when I identified Leaky Gut & Candida overgrowth as my underlying issues.
The symptoms associated with these and those that I was experiencing were:
Hay fever
Intolerances or allergies to perfumes, odors, fumes, fabric shop odors
Athlete's foot.
Bruising easily
Cold hands or feet, low body temperature.
Cravings or addictions for sugar
Digestive problems - diarrhea, constipation, abdominal distention, bloating or pain, gas, mucus in the stools
Ears - ringing in the ears (tinnitus), sounds in the ears, itchiness, fluid in ears
Fatigue, chronic fatigue syndrome or Epstein Barr, or a feeling of being drained of energy, lethargy, drowsiness.
Glands – swollen lymph nodes.
Heart palpitations and irregular heart beat.
Brain fog, dizziness
Low blood sugar
Irritability, nervousness, jitteriness and panic attacks.
Female health problems - cramps, menstrual irregularities, pre-menstrual syndrome (PMS), loss of sexual drive
Joint pain, stiffness or swelling (arthritis).
Kidney and bladder - infections, urinary frequency or urgency
Lack of appetite.
Mind and Mood - anxiety attacks, crying spells, memory loss, feeling spaced out, depression, inability to concentrate, mood swings, irritability, etc.
Muscle aches and pain, numbness, burning or tingling, and lack of strength and coordination.
Nutritional Deficiencies
Skin – rashes, itching skin, eczema
Stomach –heartburn, indigestion, acid reflux, belching, stomach pains, needle-like pains, food that seems to sit in the stomach like a lump
Sleep - insomnia, waking up frequently, nightmares, restless sleep
I know, awful list of symptoms right? Everyday was something knew and I honestly felt like I was falling apart. I saught advise from gut health guru Dr Axe and followed his Candida, Leaky Gut protocol. Through his program, I adopted specific practices to heal my gut lining.
These included:
- Taking glutamine powder in the morning. This is very healing for the gut.
- Making ACV and water each morning. This fights Candida.
- Eliminating all sugar and starches from my diet.
- Adding Oregano oil to a small cup of water each day. Oregano oil is highly antimicrobial and kills off yeast and pathogens
- Following the below nourishing foods list
Step 5 - Gut Test with Viome
All my symptoms subsided while I was on the candida protocol but yet again, once I got back into living life as usual, all my symptoms would come back.
One morning I was walking on the treadmill at the gym, because that was all my fatigued and achy body could handle. I had a podcast on (shoutout to The Ultimate Health), they were interviewing the creator of a revolutionary gut test called Viome. He spoke about his own battles with his health even though he ate a perfect diet and exercised regularly. He explained that there are certain microbes in our gut that can digest certain foods more efficiently than others and that every single one of us have a different set of bacteria. So to think that everyone can efficiently digest the same foods is just not true. He found out that he was eating avocados that his individual microbiome couldn't digest properly.
I knew I had to get this test, I ran home looked them up online and ordered my test straight away, I was so excited to figure out what was going on in my gut so much that I reached out to them to also become an ambassador and help spread the word about this remarkable test.
What I love about Viome is that they literally list ALL the bacteria in your gut so you can see EXACTLY what's going on. Each bacteria is labeled so you know whether it'd a Virus, Eukaryote (Parasite), or a good guy. They give you overviews on how diverse your gut bacteria is (the more diverse, the more efficient your digestion is), and the balance of the good guys and the bad guys.
This test showed me:
I have a Parasite called Blastocystis Hominis, this causes all the symptoms that are linked with candida and can actually cause candida!
I have low microbial richness
I have low microbial diversity
I shouldn't be eating almonds, hemp seeds or pistachios
They outlineD which foods I should eat in order to build up my microbiome to a richer and thriving environment
Use code PEANUTHEAD20 for $20 off your own kit here
Step 6 - Parasite Cleanse & a round of Colon hydrotherapy
Clearly the next call of action was to find out everything I had to know about this parasite and do a cleanse to rid myself of it. Along with this, due to how backed up my digestive system was, I needed to clear it out so any die of wasn't just sitting in my bowels.
I wrote a blog post about my parasite cleanse and colon hydrotherapy treatments here.
Over the next 2 months, I did a round of Canxida (the parasite cleanse.) during this treatment I got heavy die off systems, nausea being a big one but after that subsided I felt my stomach and digestion was moving along much better! Bloating was becoming less frequent and I felt my energy return! I tested for this Parasite again in July and to my disappointment it was still coming up in my system. I feel as thought I did get rid of a good amount of it, but decided to another round of treatment. I finished that in October and am currently waiting to get my test results back from Viome to see where I'm at.
As it stands I'm feeling MILES better than I did 10 months ago. Needless to say I am still on the road to recovery, and will not stop until I feel amazing and of course the parasite has gone ;)
STAY TUNED FOR AN UPDATE ON MY RESULTS...
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