I’ve read posts on Facebook from many of you parents looking for help with “Alternative Medicine” or a more “holistic doctors” and I’m here to tell you we have some pretty awesome folks here.
One of my best friend's husband is a cardiologist, and I swear I’m not here to bash doctors. They are quite literally life-saving and I respect their job so very much.
All my life I’ve been a pretty healthy person. I’m not a junk food eater, I like to exercise and take care of myself. So when asthma presented itself 2.5 years ago, it didn’t make sense. Sure, I’ve had chronic sinus infections for about 7 years now and my doctors were led to believe that the sinus infections were causing the asthma. And for you non-asthma readers (I envy the heck out of you), my asthma isn’t necessarily I’m striving for air. It’s a cough that is so persistent, that I sound awful and struggle for just a clean breath of air, not causing me to cough to clear my throat.
And it’s gotten worse this past 6 months. How was this happening? Why? I was a long distance swimmer. I can still run miles and not get out of breath, so how is my asthma doing this!? Too many nights I laid awake, from coughing or having a full on attack. My sleeplessness grew my frustration and the awful cycle of going to the doctor, to only have more steroids and antibiotics had to stop. Then add on that I gained 25 pounds in a the past year and half. This didn’t make sense either. I’m 5’9” so I can more easily carry the weight gain, but the fact that I’ve gained more weight than I did in my TWO pregnancies combined? Come on.
So, this past Christmas, the coughing got to be too much and I knew there was no reason all this was happening without something going on, that no one knew about, including my doctors. We’ve checked my thyroid and my T3, T4, Antibodies and nothing was popping. Enough was enough.
My best friend, whose ultra-thin, swears by food sensitivities. She’s been in my ear to detox, and start adding foods back to see what I’m sensitive to. Sweet, Anna… are you kidding? Not only do I not know how it “reacts” to food and the signs, but I ain’t got time to dance around and play food test every day. I needed answers. Now.
So Dr. Google led me to an at home food sensitivity test that was created on the TV show “Sharktank.” What did I have to lose? I mean besides a small amount of blood and whole lot of coughing, maybe? I was in.
10 days later… my shocking results. I was “Highly” Sensitive to: Brewers Yeast, Bakers Yeast, Malt and Crab.
Holy Smokes.
Brewers Yeast (Wine, beer)
Bakers Yeast (anything that has flour in it)
Malt (vinegars and soda)
Crab (all crustaceans)
I truly was in shock. All my favorite things. I have 3 vices in life: Wine, Coffeemate and Diet Pepsi. Besides the fact, I can eat 20 pounds of crawfish in an hour flat. After picking my heart up off the floor, I called my best girl friends and I think we all shed a few tears for the sad results, but also tears of joy for the beginning of hope.
Now that you’ve read to this point, you’re probably wondering where Oxford comes into play.
With this overwhelming information, I just didn’t know how to process it. My body was literally in shock with pretty much everything I ate. I knew I needed someone to guide me, and I knew my Doctors couldn’t hold my hand thru this. Then I remembered a lady I’d met that was a nutritionist here in Oxford. I wasn’t sure she could help, but she certainly was willing to try.
I won’t bore you with all the ins and outs we have gone thru since this happened 3 months ago, but I can tell you that TODAY, for the first time in 3 very long months, I had a bowl of cereal (bakers yeast, malt) and I have not coughed since. I will sing her his praises for years to come because my coughing has gone down and I’m literally healing from the inside out. Things I never thought I’d be able to say, I am today.
If your student is in need of someone to guide them, check out Sherrie Holland at ReControl Health here in Oxford. She certainly has my vote to help with living a life the way our bodies were designed and capable of being.
