Healing and The Long Road

I believe in spontaneous healing.  I believe in all possibilities and have heard of people who have suddenly and miraculously healed themselves, sometimes of "incurable" diseases.  I hoped that would happen to me.  Twenty years is a long time to go with growing numbers of food sensitivities.  Every time I tried something new, I thought, "This may be it!  This may cure me!"  But I went down that road many times.  So, for whatever reason, I took the long way to healing... long yet very rewarding.

May of 2014 is when I "officially" started GAPS Intro phase and changed my diet to mostly local, mostly organic/natural whole foods.  That means absolutely nothing processed, except for what I've done to process foods (like cooking and fermenting).

I owe my health to a lot reading and research, wholesome foods, a few supplements (probiotics, essential fatty acids, and fermented cod liver oil), detox baths, coffee enemas, and natural personal care products.

In 2012, when I had allergy and food sensitivity testing done, I was given this card, printed with a partial list of foods to avoid.  There was actually over 50 foods that were "suspect."

However, after a year on GAPS, I have added most of these foods back into my diet.  Grains and beans are more difficult to digest, so I haven't added them back yet.  And cow's milk is still questionable, though I am loving my homemade raw goat's milk yogurt!

Gratitude to Ginny Stein at Two Thumbs Ranch for introducing me to GAPS.  That book has changed my life!

Gratitude to Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, the author of the GAPS book (Gut and Psychology Syndrome).  She is one of the growing number of doctors advocating natural treatment for all kinds of maladies.

Gratitude to local suppliers of organic/natural and wholesome foods, including Green Gardens Community Farm, Pleasant Hill Farm, Wooly Acres, EarthSmith Food and Forest Products, Gale Acres Farm, and Long Valley Farm!

Gratitude to ITSAN (the International Topical Steroid Awareness Network) and their website, which I found with the help of my guides, as I was going through the worst of Red Skin Syndrome, a withdrawal symptom from topical steroid addiction.  Yes, my skin had become addicted to topical steroid cream!  You can read about topical steroid cream addiction here, if you're interested.

Gratitude to Penny Kelly, ND, for her encouragement to do coffee enemas!  I know they sound, well, different, but they really work.  They are said to be one of the best ways to detox the liver.  I believe that my withdrawal from the topical steroid addiction would have been much worse had I not already been doing my "coffees"!

Gratitude to all my friends and family, who have supported me during this process.

May health be with you all the days of your life, if you so choose!

Evolving Diet

Before the Ice Age, when the "Tribe of Man" was small, it is said that humanity survived on what they could gather from forest and field, a vegetarian-type diet.  Sensing the approaching Ice Age, Antelope knew that humanity would not survive without their help, and so they approached the Tribe of Man, communicating to them:

"If you kill us, you can eat our flesh and thereby not starve, 

and you can use our hide to help keep warm."

Whether that story is true or not, I would imagine there were times when plant-sourced foods were scare, and humanity had to eat animals to survive.  And so, perhaps, began our journey into an omnivorous diet, eating both plants and animals.

I've also heard that humanity is now evolving away from an omnivorous diet, and will eventually complete the circle by returning to a "lighter" vegetarian-type diet.  A vegetarian or vegan diet of whole, unprocessed foods can be very cleansing and healing for some.  However, some people, myself included, actually (still) need animal products to heal.

Several years of going between a vegetarian diet, a vegan diet, a raw vegan diet, and raw juice feasting, only made my food sensitivities worse, not better.  Back then I "knew" all the reason why everyone should be eating a vegan diet, or at least a vegetarian one.  I had even given an impassioned speech at Toastmasters about the consequences of eating meat, and how it affected both the earth and the animals.  However, like Penny Kelly, the author of the book, "Getting Well Again, Naturally, From the Soil to the Stomach," says, if what you are doing isn't working, then try something different.  And following a vegetarian diet was not working for me; my food sensitivities were growing.  So eventually I went back to eating more of an omnivore diet, and within a few months of focusing upon healing foods, such as homemade meat stocks rich in high quality, nutrient dense meats and animal fats, well cooked soups and stews, and homemade ferments, my long-awaited healing had finally begun.  That was when I started the GAPS diet Intro Phase, a gut-healing diet.

If you are concerned about cholesterol and animal products, please do some research about that.

"The diet-heart hypothesis is the greatest scientific deception of this century, perhaps of any century." ~ George Mann, eminent American physician and scientist

The diet-heart hypothesis has long been dis-proven, and there is actually little correlation between the amount of animal fat a person eats and heart disease.  In fact, if there is not enough cholesterol in your diet for your body's needs, your body will manufacture it.

One-hundred-percent of the animal products and about ninety-percent of the vegetables and fruits I consume are from local farmers and ranchers, people I know and trust, who treat their animals as the gifts to the "Tribe of Man" that they are.  It's the way our ancestors used to eat, before processed foods and factory farms.  They use natural and sustainable practices that actually can help to restore farmland that had been ravaged by previous factory farming practices.  Restoring farmland can be a long process without the gift of farm animals and the replenishing "fertilizer" they deposit upon the earth.

"Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food." 

~ Hippocrates, 460-370 BC

Eating more meat at first worked wonders in healing my gut and curing me of dozens of food sensitivities, something a vegetarian and vegan diet did not do.  Now, about a year after starting the GAPS diet, I am consuming less meat, and use it mostly to "season" my vegetables with, though bone broths and organ meats are still a staple in my diet.  I've heard that when large cats (lions and tigers) kill their prey, they eat the organs first because they know that the organs contain the largest concentrations of nutrition.  Perhaps that is why organ meats are so important in a gut-healing diet.  When the gut is damaged, the body is not absorbing nutrition properly.  I remember before starting on the GAPS diet, my complexion was becoming more and more gray, probably because the nourishment in my food was not being properly absorbed through my damaged gut.  That has changed tremendously now.

Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, the author of GAPS book, states repeatedly that there is no one-size-fits-all diet, that we are all unique in our dietary needs, and what works for one may not work for another, and, what the body needs today may not be needed tomorrow.  That is why muscle-testing and listening to my intuition regarding nourishment has become a valuable daily practice for me and my evolving diet.

I feel that all of life is a gift from Creator, both plants and animals.  What is important is how and why I use the gifts given.  Local, high quality animal products have been a very important part of my healing journey.  However, if what I've been doing stops "working," then I will know that it's once again time for a change.  And I will continue to listen.

Listening, Healing, and Change

Interesting... my last post was on a Friday the 13th, and we just had another Friday the 13th.  Thirteen represents change to me, and indeed, things have changed.

This is a description of my journey into the gap of common medical knowledge; from food sensitivities, to topical steroid use, to real healing.

After twenty years of not knowing why I had so many food sensitivities, and five years of using topical steroid cream to mask the symptoms of  the food sensitivities, I am done with the steroids and well on my healing way.

When eczema first developed on my face, about twenty years ago, I narrowed it down to a reaction to milk products.  For a while, as long as I avoided anything containing milk, my face remained clear.  But then wheat started causing a reaction, then citrus, then...  At some point I lost track of all the foods I needed to avoid to keep my skin clear.  I tried all kinds of things also: different diets, different fasts, different detoxes, different supplements, yet none of it cured the eczema.

Food sensitivity tests showed that I had dozens and dozens of them.  I had even gone to a reputed clinic and all they had to offer was experimental shots at $300 a piece that insurance would not cover and had no guarantee of actually working.  So I said, "No thank you," to that!

A few years back I was talking to the woman selling pasture raised chicken, beef and eggs at a Farmer's Market.  Telling her about all my food sensitivities and using the topical steroids, she insisted that I was never going to get rid of the sensitivities until I healed my gut.  She told me about a book on how to do that, and eventually I bought and read the book.  What a life-changing blessing that has been!

A damaged, or "leaky gut," allows undigested food particles into the blood stream, which causes an immune response because the body looks at those large, undigested food particles as invaders.  For me, the immune response manifested as eczema on my face.  Eventually just about anything I ate caused a reaction in the form of eczema on my face.  That is why about six years ago I started using topical steroid cream, to mask the symptoms.  And I used it regularly for about five years.

Topical steroid cream was a quick and easy "fix," but not without consequences.  Unbeknownst to me, my skin became addicted to the steroids, and when I stopped using it in May of 2014, the withdrawal process was horrendous.  The skin on my face quickly became so bright red and swollen that I refused to leave the house for about two weeks during the worst of it.

About that same time I had started a form of channeling, and I was desperate for answers to what was going on with me, so I asked for help.  My Team lead me to the ITSAN (International Topical Steroid Awareness Network) web site, which totally explained what was happening.  I found out that the "Red Skin Syndrome," as it is called, would not last forever, and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of other people had gone through the exact same process of topical steroid withdrawal.  Despite my flaming red and swollen face, I literally cried for joy when I read about how this condition was only temporary, and was a detox symptom from topical steroid addiction.  It takes about three years for topical steroids to be completely eliminated from the body, I read, but the good news is that the first "flash" is the worst.  Since then, I have had a few recognizable "flashes," but nothing in comparison to the first one.

Back to the gut!  How does the gut get damaged and leaky?  Lots of ways, but for me it was probably a number of things: Lots of rounds of antibiotics when I was younger, plus a few years of birth-control pills, plus stress, plus a huge sweet tooth, and the topical steroid cream use was like the icing on the cake.  Antibiotics kill beneficial microbes in the gut, as do birth-control pills.  Pharmaceutical drugs damage beneficial microbes in the gut also, and I had been taking thyroid medication for a number of years as well.  Plus, I had a huge sweet tooth, and sweets feed opportunistic microbes in the gut.  Opportunistic microbes can damage the gut wall, causing a leaky gut.

Finally, after about twenty years of dealing with food sensitivities and eczema, I had the answer to what was going on in my body.  I had a leaky gut, and needed to heal it.

In May of 2014, after taking my time reading the GAPS book, (GAPS stands for Gut And Psychology Syndrome), and backing my way into the very strict Intro Phase of the diet, I started on my journey out of the gap of common medical knowledge, and into real healing.  And once through the worst part of topical steroid cream withdrawal/Red Skin Syndrome, and strictly following the GAPS diet (also called GAPS healing protocol), my skin looks better than it has in twenty years.  I am now able to eat just about anything, including some milk products, with no reaction!  And for this, I am truly grateful.

Blessings!