People come to me daily with ailments of all kinds.
My first words are usually: "What are you eating?"
Most look at me very strangely asking, "What does that have to do with it?"
EVERYTHING!
If you go by Hippocrates statement, "Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food," you must start there.
Every bite you take is a chance to enhance or hinder your health.
I find that most peoples' imbalances come from food allergies. And I say allergies, but it may be sensitivities. It may be something you notice immediately, like hives, or it may be something subtle like a stuffy nose or an achy back.
You can tell when you feel good.. you have energy, a bright mood, and a spring in your step- this is how your body should be always. Like a kid- without a care or ache in the world.
The thing is that these ailments creep up on us. All is good... until it's not. You can deal with a little ache, a little itch and brush it off as a temporary ailment... but then it builds to a mountain and it's no longer a molehill.
So my first reaction to a customer with an ailment is: "What are you eating?"
Make a food journal. Write down what you eat. ALL THE INGREDIENTS. Then also include how you feel 30-60 minutes later. Usually something will change. Maybe it's your energy, an ache, an itch, plugged up nose, headache, etc. From there you may be able to pinpoint what may be altering your health. If it's difficult to track, make your meals simpler, with less ingredients and eat from home so you can control what ingredients you're adding.
About 10 years ago, I started along this path. Finally realized it was leaky gut and many food allergies came up.
I took my findings to an allergist to confirm what I had found. At the time I knew I couldn't do soy, wheat (gluten) or dairy. I had logged everything. The most noticeable one was soy. I would eat it and about 10 minutes later, my hand and arm would break out in a very painful rash. But I wanted confirmation from a doctor. So I went to an allergist.
Amazingly the allergist said I don't have ANY allergies!! I said, "How can that be? I eat soy and then the rash appears."
She said, "Well, you may have a SENSITIVITY, not an ALLERGY".
Well isn't that interesting? So an allergy would mean I'd break out in hives or worse, have anaphylactic shock. But a SENSITIVITY, could mean small changes in the body like a rash, a headache, etc. Well that's helpful.
My concern is that doctors aren't saying the second half of that sentence: "It may be a SENSITIVITY." That leaves people thinking they're out of their minds. Like they are imagining things.... But you're not!
So write it down, see how you feel and how the foods affect you.
Let me give you an example of differences I feel with different foods I eat:
Corn Sinus itching, sneezing. Plugged up and can't breathe.
Diary Mucous in my throat & mouth. Plugged up sinuses.
Rice Itchy back, feels dry and needs to be scratched. Also, makes mid-back
achy.
Tomatoes/Potatoes (nightshades) Itchy throat. Dry skin.
Citrus (mostly lemons & oranges) Tongue breaks out with rash
Nuts Headache right above my eyebrows & tongue gets rash
Fatty foods Temple headache
Caffeine Traps (muscles at the base of my neck) gets stiff and hurts- creating a
tension headache
Gluten Skin rash & acid reflux
Sugar Blurry vision & hands fall asleep when I'm sleeping at night
MSG Every joint in my body aches
Beef Body aches all over
Chicken Sinus stuffiness
*note: allergies from animals may actually be allergies to what they are eating like corn feed. Also watch out for foods listed on a package saying, "Processed in a facility that also processes soy, nuts, etc." It may not be an ingredient in the food, but the cross contamination in processing may be in the food.
All of these foods that you may be allergic to (or have sensitivities to) are giving you a histamine response --> which creates inflammation and any inflammation in the body is pain and disease creeping in. For my family who has a history of high cholesterol and heart disease, these allergies are feeding the disease if I don't avoid these foods and work to fix my gut.
So log it. Narrow it down. Once you have a good list, avoid those foods. Then it's time to rebuild your gut. Rebuild your gut with fermented foods: yogurt, kefir, kombucha, raw sauerkraut, fermented vegetables, kimchi, & sourdough breads and crackers. Alternate the different fermented foods as they will feed the gut with different strains of good bacteria.
This isn't an overnight fix. If you think about the fact that it probably took YEARS to get here, it's gonna take awhile to get back to health.
Just remember: every meal is a chance to nourish, or hinder your body. Give it nourishment. With that, your body will heal itself :)
Items to consider that Monarch Herbs offers to help enhance your healing powers:
Quell Tea or Quell Tincture to reduce inflammation in the body.
Cease Tea or Halt Tincture to help with allergic reactions and bringing down the histamine response.
Orbit Tea for digestion
Quench Pills for acid reflux/GERD
Align for nausea
Tummy Tamer to calm upset stomach (safe for kids, too)
Sources and references:
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