Trust your gut. Literally. It may sound cliche, but I truly believe that if you take the time to listen to what your body is telling you, with a little bit of detective work you can uncover some very important clues that can ultimately change the course of your health.
Very early on in my diagnosis, I became a detective, joking that I should start going by the name Sherlock. I spent much, well let’s get real, all of my free time, researching and educating myself on the root causes of inflammation and how I could best manage the symptoms. In doing so, I acquired a small library of health, nutrition and self-help books like “Idiots Guide to an Anti-inflammatory Diet” to “Real Foods,” “Clean” and “Crazy Sexy Diet.” I was relentless and ultimately all of my sleuthing paid off. The book that most influenced me was “The Autoimmune Recovery Plan” by Dr. Susan Blum. I decided to try everything she outlined in the book because Dr. Blum herself had recovered from an autoimmune disease.
The most important piece of information that I’ve found over my 4 years of investigatory work, is the connection between gut health and inflammation. That to me is the most important factor in getting to the root causes of inflammation. By following the elimination diet outlined in Dr. Blum’s book, I figured out that certain food groups were directly causing some of my most troublesome symptoms, specifically gluten and soy. When those two food groups were removed from my diet, the systemic inflammation I had been experiencing calmed down greatly and many of my symptoms including joint pain, extreme swelling in my hands, gastritis and chronic fatigue began to clear up.
For a variety of reasons, lupus can have a major impact on gut health. Leaky gut, as it’s sometimes referred to, has recently become a hot topic. Quite a scary way to describe your gut, isn’t it! Having this issue can make it harder to absorb nutrients from foods and can cause major food sensitivities when food particles permeate the intestinal lining. I had a hunch early on that this was going on and so I kept researching even though most conventional doctors, including my rheumatologist, do not believe that leaky gut is a real thing. For quite a while my gut was telling me to stay away from foods like bread, and with the help of Dr. Blum’s book, I finally cracked the code that gluten was my enemy. One of the most disturbing things I’ve learned is that the body can crave foods that are causing inflammation (I’m looking at you, Tofu) so elimination diets are crucial.
Trust your instincts. Your gut is speaking to you for a reason so if you can learn to work with your body and not against it, you can uncover some important truths and begin to heal your body and mind. More on the mind later.
Step 1 Get quiet and listen to what your body is telling you about your particular root causes of inflammation.
Step 2 Find a good functional medicine doctor who can test you for food sensitivities. Also, many supplements can be helpful but best to speak with a doctor first.
Step 3 Continue to be your own detective.
Step 4 Don’t give up!
Very informative. Thank you!