This post was going to be a comment to a Steemian mom, but then it became so long, it turned into a post. And then it grew into an even bigger post. Hopefully there is information here that can help others as well.
There are various conditions that no amount of good nutrition and energy work will help, but if the condition falls into the broad category of allergies (including intolerances and sensitivities), there is a lot you can do. And you might be surprised to see how many conditions can be caused, or made worse, by reactions to food or something in the environment.
SYMPTOMS
Symptoms that might indicate a food or environmental intolerance, in either children or adults, fall roughly into 6 main categories:
The ones you might notice first might be :
• Eating & Nutrition - eg. Celiac disease / Gluten and/or casein intolerance / Food allergies or sensitivities / Malnutrition, nutritional deficiencies / Fussy eater / Will only eat limited range of foods / Holding food in mouth for long periods / Anorexia / Cravings (sugar, starch, etc) / Pica (persistent and compulsive cravings to eat nonfood items such as dirt)
• Digestion & elimination - eg. Constipation / Infrequency / Holding on / Diarrhoea / Irritable Bowel Syndrome / Gas or Bloating / Acid reflux, heartburn / Leaky gut / Abdominal ache or pain, nausea / Diverticulitis / Crohns disease, ulcerative colitis / Colic / Bed wetting / Cystitis
• Environmental - eg. Chemical sensitivities / Respiratory sensitivities / Hayfever / Asthma / Eczema, psoriasis, skin issues / Gut dysbiosis / Candida / yeast overgrowth / Recurring thrush, athlete’s foot / Headaches
Others that you might not think of as being due to allergies could be:
• Mental & Psychological – eg. Autism / Aspergers (ASD) / ADD (attention deficit disorder) / Hyperactivity, ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) / Dyslexia, other learning issues / Dyspraxia (extreme clumsiness) / Brain fog / Anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) / Depression, bi-polar / Schizophrenia / Substance abuse
• Social & Behavioural - eg. Behavioral problems / Socialisation problems / Difficulties making friends / Lack of empathy / Being too timid / Lack of self confidence
• Physiological – eg. Failure to thrive / Recurring earaches or infections / Chronic fatigue / Adrenal gland disorders / Low functioning thyroid / Sleep disorders / Menstrual or premenstrual issues / Muscle or joint pain / Blood sugar problems (Type 1 Diabetes, Type 2 diabetes, Hyper or hypoglycaemia) / Metabolic syndrome / Autoimmune diseases
CAUSES
For the purposes of this post, I’m going to break them down into 3 broad categories:
• Physical
• Emotional
• Spiritual
PHYSICAL
These are the reasons a doctor will look for, and could include genetics, structural issues, biochemical imbalances, toxic overload or stress on organs and glands. If there are multiple sensitivities, the underlying cause is probably physical.
Some allergies can be caused by structural misalignment, particularly in the neck, and a chiropractor can help with that.
Food allergies can be managed by not eating the problem foods, and some other biochemical issues can be helped by being careful about eating the right ratios of protein, carbs and fat.
But if we look a bit deeper, we might be able to address the actual causes, and get some deeper healing. One very common problem, which can be improved, is gut dysbiosis. This is when the normal gut flora is disrupted. As a result, food is not digested properly, some needed nutrients are not produced in the gut and the gut lining can become leaky.
I often use the GAPS dietary protocol with clients, which aims to:
• Repair the gut lining
• Rebalance the gut flora
• Improve digestive ability
• Gently detoxify
For the purposes of this post, I’m going to use the daughter of two Steemians as an example case, and assume that this is a possible underlying issue. Her mom says that at the moment the only foods she is able to eat are:
• Meats - chicken, pork, reindeer and lamb
• Vegetables - sweet potato, cauliflower, broccoli, carrot, butternut squash, lettuce
• Carbs - corn, Teff-flower (porridge)
• Fruits - raspberry, lingonberry, rose hip, and some fruits (pear, peach, mango, banana, apricot) but only in certain form from a certain brand (ready mashed, no added sugar)
In this case, as she is so sensitive, we would need to tread very cautiously. GAPS has certain healing foods, and we could look at slowly introducing them one at a time. The good thing is that they are different forms of her tolerated foods, rather than new foods, so may also be tolerated.
• Meat stock from one of the allowed meats would be the starting point. Simmer just meat very gently for a couple of hours, and drink the soup, as well as having the meat. Introduce just a teaspoon or so to start with, to test that it can be tolerated.
• If this is tolerated, bone broth from one of the allowed meats would start the process of healing the gut lining, as well as adding more minerals to the diet. It would need to be a short cook, no more than 3 hours. And again, just try a teaspoon to start.
• If the broths, without the fat, are all good, next try adding a little fat from the broth. Animal fats are very stable for cooking, as well as being nourishing.
• Next would be lightly fermented vegetables to start introducing good gut bacteria. Since cabbage isn’t tolerated, the next easiest to ferment is carrots. Again, start with just a tiny taste. The good “bugs” will start to eliminate the “bad” bugs, which creates some side effects. They are unavoidable, but can be minimised.
• If fermented carrots are tolerated, a good probiotic could be started very slowly.
• Also beneficial, when and if they could be introduced, are omega 3 fats in the form of fish oil, cod liver oil or plant oils such as hemp.
Although some of her current foods are technically not allowed on GAPS, she is limited enough already, so we wouldn’t reduce her range of current foods if it could be helped. Usually, as the gut heals, more foods are able to be tolerated. This can take two years, or more.
For more information, see some of my old GAPS posts:
• About the Gut & Psychology syndrome (GAPS) diet Part 1 – Can it help autism?
• GAPS diet Part 2: Foods we can’t have
• GAPS diet Part 3: Foods we CAN have
• GAPS diet Part 4: What if I can’t eat some animal foods
For some of you, my posts about real foods for the sensitive baby might also be helpful:
• Real food for babies – Part 1 – the early days
• Real food for babies – Part 2 – first solids
And one of my previous posts talks more about how you might identify your allergies, and how I treated a couple of mine.
EMOTIONAL
In this group, I’m including mental, emotional, electrical and energetic reasons.
By electrical and energetic, I’m referring to the meridians or electrical pathways running through our bodies. There are a lot of types of natural health practitioners who can help with these types of imbalances, such as acupuncturists, kinesiologists, bach flower therapists or other energy healers.
Emotional causes often include trauma, and are more likely to be the cause if there are only a small number of allergies. This trauma could be anything the body perceives as a stress, and could include pre-birth stress on the mother.
I talk about this a bit more in the post I mentioned above.
SPIRITUAL
This area is outside my area of expertise, but should be at least considered, if nothing else helps. It might include the concepts of karma, ancestoral patterns or family miasmas. Again, an energy healer or some types of kinesiologists might be able to help.
Thanks for reading and don’t hesitate to ask questions
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Thank you so much that you made this post. <3 I will try the meat stock first. We have a problem with the fats since she can't tolarate anything really. Maybe the meat stock would help with that. She is having a really strong probiotic called Vivomixx. It contains 450 billion living lactic acid bacteria and bifidobacteria from 8 different strains. It is used for example for Crohn's disease and irritable bowel syndrome. We are trying to add the dose little by little.
Here's a recipe for meat stock with some good hints:
https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/meat-stock/
She may need to stay on just the meat stock for a while before moving to the next step - no hurry!
I've been having some thoughts about the seizures too, and have started another post. Has she stopped having them, now that she's eating more carbs?
Hi! Sorry about this late response. I seem to have my hands full with the little one. She has stopped having seizures but they continued a long time after she was already eating more carbs. She has still something going on with her eyes and body though, can't quite explain but it's not typical for her.
Thank you once more for posting and thinking about this. I really appriciate. Will start with the meat stock!
This was chock full of info Deb! What a labor of love this must have been for the Steemian mom!
Totally agree with so much of what you said - diet is KEY. Absolutely key. Whenever I fall off the "wagon" and eat things I shouldn't... i do pay the price LOLOL
thankfully it's all still within things that i CAN eat... I don't play around with anything i CAN'T eat. LOL
Yeah, I have things I absolutely mustn't eat, and then things I would be better off not eating but can "get away with" a little of. When a little becomes a lot, it ain't pretty!
@kiwideb - I cannot thank you enough for your help today and it is certainly not "little!" You have given me such a boost and real help at an urgent time of need. I am so grateful for your votes and wallet transfer. You have given my the strength to carry on today. I'm trying hard to keep focused and not panic. I felt utter relief when I saw your help. Whew! Good one!
Reading this post tells me you and I are on the same page about all things toxic that people do not even know about. When I lost "half my size" eight years ago, most of my food changes were about getting the toxins out. Before this time, I did not even know I was eating toxins for all those years. My "best" health idea were actually the worst.
After getting healthy food/air/drink/sleep in, the weight I had carried since childhood fell off in a year. I now stick closely to the AIP diet, which is very similar to GAPS. I was so angry about the lies that keep us fat and sick that I launched out trying to help others do the same. I plan to do so until my last breath.
I have to laugh when you say:
"it became so long, it turned into a post. And then it grew into an even bigger post."
I think we have a lot more in common than bad knees!
Thank you from the bottom of my heart and I will succeed. Your help today makes me know I am on the right path still.
Sharon at fitinfun
Yes, I think we have a lot in common, and I'm happy that I could give you the boost and the strength you needed today. @sift666 did the AIP for a while, and we now mostly follow a cross between GAPS & AIP. A few starches, but no nightshades, which are disasterous for us both.
Hopefully you can get that book out there and selling - so many people need it!
@kiwideb such a helpful post against disease stay healthy.
Any good probiotic you can recommend @kiwideb . I'm in the USA and take
"align'" which works good but always looking for something better. Thanks.
I use garden of life primal defense SBO's. I'm in Canada butnorder them from US. 1 TBLSP of raw sauerkraut has more living bacteria than a bottle of probiotics though, so easy and tasty!
Thanks @bthebest7
As @bthebest7 says, Primal Defense is pretty good. We stock Bio-kult as it's the one recommended by Dr Natasha who wrote the GAPS book, and it has 14 different strains. But beyond getting as wide a range as possible, and changing formulations from time to time, you'd need to have some testing done, to see what you're low in.
Thanks, did primal defense for years when it first came out. Saved my life but I lost all my good bacteria with parasites and then a double dose of antibiotics. Doctors back then had no clue how to help me.
I would try Biokult for a while then. But start with the tiniest bit. Open a capsule and take a pinch. If you have no bad reactions (die-off of bad bugs) gradually increase. That will give you some good bacteria, but you might also be low on good yeasts. You can supplement with S. Boulardii, but would get a wider range from fermented foods as bthebest said. Kefir is great for good yeasts.
Thanks, This has worked for people you know? 14 Strains are a lot in one pill. Won't they compete with one another? Will definitely try it. Will eat dirt if it works. :-)
We have way more than 14 strains that should be in the gut, so they can cohabit happily. No formulation is right for everybody, but a lot of people have very good results from it, so worth a try.
Thanks ....
Thank you. This is really informative. I'm convinced there is a connection to diet and development at all ages.
This post is so comprehensive I will need time to digest it.
I will resteem it for reference^^
Thanks, and hope you find something useful in it :-)
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Great Post glad to see some GOOD sound dietary advice :)
You sound like a woman after my own heart!
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I am a middle aged lady now but my growing up years was a real stress to my parents(God bless them). if I ever was exposed to too much of sunlight, I would end up with a swelling in my tonsils and end up with fever and even rashes, sigh. Eventually, it wore off but only after I was given a lot of pencillin and it destroyed my teeth, a huge sigh
Well written article, shared on twitter