Ever since I was little, back before I even started school,
I had bathroom issues. Now before you start thinking this post is going to be
full of TMI (which is probably true) Keep in mind that I’m just trying to be as
honest as possible, to see if anyone can identify and possibly make the necessary
changes need be. In other words, I’m just trying to help. Okay, let‘s continue,
I have IBS, this stands for irritable bowel syndrome, it’s also known as mucus
colitis . IBS is quite common and is becoming more so.
Anyway, let me start
from the beginning. As a child I was always very nervous and anxious. My
stomach always felt as if it was in knots, I worried about everything and was always
awaiting an impending doom. I strongly believe that our gut is like our second
brain in that it actually physically feels our emotions.Visits to the bathroom usually took a long
time as I was dealing with constipation on a regular basis, suppositories
were no strangers to my bum. At the age of four I was taken to the doctor for
either a flexible
sigmoidoscopy or a colonoscopy, I’m not sure which. What I am sure of is that
there was a tube stuck up my butt and that no amount of balloons or praise of
my bravery afterwards was enough to make me feel better about it. My mother was
advised to feed me more fiber in the form of vegetables and other than that not
much more could be done. Later on the constipation was less frequent but the
cramping and upset tummy were always a problem.
Skipping ahead to my twenties. Things weren’t much better, in fact they
were worse. My diet /lifestyle sucked, it consisted of Kaft Dinner, hot dogs,
canned soups, sugary cereals, alcohol, coffee, minimal exercise and a bad attitude.
If you eat like crap, you’ll feel like
crap. If you eat like crap and feel fine , you most likely don’t know what feeling
good really feels like. Bold statement,
I know, but I believe it to be true. Funny thing is, I never took any of this
into consideration at the time. I just continued to eat and live the same way
and needlessly suffer. Constipation was no longer the only issue, lucky me, it
was now taking turns with diarrhea laced with mucus(I warned you about the TMI). At 29 years old I had cut out the alcohol but
all symptoms remained. I made an appointment with my doctor and what do you
know, another tube makes an acquaintance with my butt. The doctor tells me I
have mucus colitis, and it’s an inconvenience that I’ll just have to live with.
I felt hopeless.
Two years later, a group of friends and I decided to try a detox diet. Basically the diet was meant to rid the body
of candida but our purpose was to lose weight, fast. For ten days we were not to have sugar, meat,
dairy, eggs, yeast, wheat, coffee or alcohol. It gave a list of foods we could
eat, some of which I had no idea existed, quinoa? Millet? Kale? totally clueless.
However, I was eager to learn and jumped in with two feet. The first few days
were tough. My body reacted to the sudden lack of caffeine, and I’m sure the withdrawal
from sugar and animal products wasn’t making things easy either. But
interesting enough, at the end of the ten days, I felt good. I had energy, and
regular bowel movements. I was thrilled.
I did a bit of research and discovered dairy was a major cause of IBS. That
right there was enough for me, I would continue to eat healthy , cutting out
all animal products, coffee and sugar. I was cured…or was I?
I felt good for a while and praised my new way of eating, veganisim to
be specific, for being my cure. Unfortunately it wasn’t long before sugar and
wheat weaseled their way back into my diet. Things started to go downhill again
and I wasn’t willing to look at these two likely culprits. That is until two
years later, when I had had enough. I did as much research as I could and got
lots of conflicting information. A high fat diet is good, a high fat diet is
bad. Carbohydrates are good, carbohydrates are bad. Fruit is good, fruit is
bad. Sugar and gluten are bad, period. I decided to play around with different
ways of eating all the while maintaining my veganism, by this time I was now
vegan for not only health reasons but for ethical reasons as well.
Finally giving up after not being able to pinpoint exactly what was
causing me all the problems, I made an appointment with a naturopath. I wanted to be tested
for food sensitivities as I felt this was my last hope. I was introduced to kinesiology
which is a form of muscle testing to detect sensitivities. I was skeptical but desperate
enough to try just about anything. I learned I had a few sensitivities, some of
which surprised me. Wheat was the number one problem with corn and soy coming
in at a close second. Cashews, lentils, millet, sunflower and pumpkin seeds were
to be avoided too. A strict diet and a couple tinctures later, I was feeling
good again.
Although sugar, corn and soy have a small place in my diet today,
wheat/gluten has never re- entered. Corn
and soy still leave me feeling crampy and bloated so I try to take it easy on
these foods. As for the sugar, I stay away from the refined stuff, sticking with
maple syrup ,majool dates and stevia as a natural substitute. I have also not experienced
the diarrhea laced with mucus and constipation like I had in the past and I’m
pretty sure I owe that to the absence of gluten.
As I had mentioned earlier, I’m a firm believer that the gut is like a
second brain. I’m still that anxious, nervous, worry wart of a person I was as
a child. These feelings still affect my gut and my bowels. I’ve come to accept
that that’s just the way my body handles stress. The trick is stress
management, meditation and dialectical behavior therapy, which I’m still learning
more about. When my head is out of the funk, so is my gut. It all takes
practice, and I may never be 100% better but at least I know what I need to work
on, what I need to eliminate and what I have to be grateful for.
NOTES:
I've lost and kept off 8-10 pounds since ditching gluten. That's a pretty cool added bonus!
If you want to learn more about wheat/gluten, check out the book Wheat Belly.
http://www.amazon.ca/Wheat-Belly-William-Davis/dp/1443412732
You can learn more about IBS and kinesiology here:
