Hi Lovelies,
It’s been a while since
I’ve posted on my blog. But today I felt compelled to do so. Nonetheless about
my personal health related problems. As you may or may have not read a few post
below I was diagnosed with gastritis a few months ago and changed my diet which
was composed of mostly fruits and vegetables. This holistic approach healed my
stomach and aided me in weight loss which I was able to maintain for several
months. However, once the holidays came around I started dabbling in “past”
binging and eating habits. Because of this I gained 12 pounds and got a really
bad acne/rash all over my face. At first I thought the acne/rash was from a new
moisturizer I was using and when I switched that and it didn’t go away I was
stunned. I began to eat more fruits and vegetables as I was doing in the past
and was even more surprised when my acne/rash didn’t get any better. In the
mornings I was eating oatmeal and at lunch ramen noodle soups. My face just kept
getting worse and worse. My body was also swollen and bloated even though I was
only eating half of what I was used to. My acne/rash began to get bigger, hurt
(burning sensation) and get itchy. I was desperate, so I did some research on food,
digestion and acne/rash before getting medical advice. What I found out is that if you have problems
digesting gluten and you consume it your body will have an allergic reaction in
different ways, one of them being this acne/rash that I was having.
After this I tested out this
theory for my acne/rash and went gluten free for a week, which meant no cake,
no bread and definitely no oatmeal. I was pleasantly and surprisingly stunned.
After the 5 day my face started clearing up. Can you imagine the shock I felt
when I discovered that I had celiac disease and could not eat anything with
gluten in it and that I was able to self-diagnose this myself through a little
research and testing? I was like “what?!” “No way!” Not because I love eating
bread but because I do love a nice warm bowl of gluten filled oatmeal in the
morning or the occasional slice of cake. I am no longer able to dabble in these
treats even thought I know there are gluten-free alternatives out there. I will say it did feel good to know that I was
in harmony with my body and able to
help myself.
Now some of you might say
how can you self-diagnose yourself and declare that you have celiac disease
without getting a professional medical opinion? You’re not a Doctor! To that I
say here is how: first of all I know my body and pay attention to it. When
something doesn’t feel right I start researching and investigating until I find
out exactly what it is. I will give you two examples. First example: When I had
gallbladder stones I had a chronic pain on the right side of my mid-lower
abdomen. It was usually right after eating greasy food. I would also get
nauseas and a bunch of other symptoms that were associated with this. When I
could no longer take the pain I went to the Doctor (who wanted to waste my time
getting blood test and labs etc.) and I had to tell him that I believed that I
had gallbladder stones. I was so aggressive about it that they finally did a
CAT scan and did in fact find and diagnose me with gallbladder stones and my
gallbladder was removed a few weeks later.
Second example was when I had gastritis. I was also able to diagnosis
this before getting a professional medical confirmation. I researched all the
symptoms and when I finally went to get checked they confirmed what I had
already self-diagnosed.
Please do not get me wrong I believe in going
to the Doctor and getting yourself checked out and properly treated. What I am
saying is that if we really wanted to we can diagnose our symptoms with the
right research (I like a more holistic approach) and then have a Doctor confirm
or not confirm our diagnoses. I believe I helped my Doctors and myself out
because I took out the guess work for them. I was a prepared and educated patient
and that my friend saved me a lot of time (and money) running test and labs
trying to figure out what was wrong with me. Besides I only get one body. I feel it is my
duty to take care of it as best as I possibly can and that includes personal
medical research.
Back to my
self-diagnoses, again I was still shocked that I had celiac disease and that my
body was responding beautifully to being gluten free. I of course had to
re-test the theory (I can be a little stubborn) and so the following week I ate
eat some gluten filled cookies, small portions of bread, cereal and oatmeal. I
quickly discovered that after a few hours of eating these things 1. I had ridiculous
stomach pain 2. I was nauseous, bloated and 3. My acne/rash started coming
back!
I have now been
officially gluten free for about 6 weeks and my face has cleared up completely.
The rash has gone away and my skin is even staring to glow again! I no longer
have these horrible stomach pangs or feel bloated after I eat. For more information on Celiac disease please
visit their website http://celiac.org/ or speak with your Doctor.
Thanks for reading and
being part of my life journey.
Be blessed and inspired,
Ruthy
Xoxo
