Leaky Gut

Isn't that the most disgusting way to diagnose a problem with a small intestine? Leaky Gut. I'm embarrassed to even say the word. But, the truth is, I was diagnosed with it about a week ago.  Basically the walls of my small intestine have broken down and now I have small holes and whatever I eat leaks into my bloodstream. My body reacts to this invasion of proteins by attacking my body, mostly my Thyroid and wreaking all sorts of havoc.

My symptoms were not anything major. I honestly didn't even notice how bad they were until this past week when I've had to completely change up my diet.  I was dealing mostly with some uncomfortable bloating after eating some meals. I was struggling with depression and anxiety from time to time. I would randomly get very tired after eating.  My hair wasn't as healthy as I knew it could be. I would wake up in the morning with a flat stomach and by mid afternoon on some days I could honestly pass for a 3 month pregnant woman.  I couldn't lose weight no matter what my diet or exercise routine was. I know a lot of people when they hear that last one always say "you don't need to lose weight". And I agree, I was fine with the weight that I was BUT I also knew that my body was capable of more. I knew that with the workouts I did 2x's a week and the amount of running I was doing 4x's a week that there should be some type of change. I understand metabolism slows down as you get older etc...  But I just knew something else was up.

I considered myself a healthy eater. I really was. I always tried to buy organic fruits and vegetables. I can't even remember the last time I had any sort of fast food. I was very aware about food dyes. I knew what healthy portions were. Always Organic Peanut Butter, mac and cheese, cage free eggs, only organic milk etc... I knew how to count calories and how to get enough protein etc... In the past 6 years of this journey I had learned a tremendous amount food and I feel like I have so much  more to learn.  So how could this happen to me?

I was diagnosed 2 years ago with Hypothyroidism.  Nothing uncommon now and days. Seems like everyone I talk to is on Thyroid medication.  It runs in my family so I wasn't really surprised. I was a little taken back because I didn't have any of the typical symptoms but I shrugged it off and started taking my Synthroid everyday to control my levels.  Fast forward to the last 6 months and a lot of my symptoms from above were getting worse and I had this nagging voice in the back of my head saying that it wasn't normal. Ok, the nagging voice was really one of my sisters letting me know that it wasn't normal. Thank God for her!

I made an appointment to see a Homeopathic doctor. I know, I know, I'm sure that some of you are reading this and thinking that they aren't real doctors. But I assure you they are. They are doctors that are in the know of what is really going on in today's world and not just prescribing meds and recommending a surgery make the symptoms go away instead of dealing with the source. Anyway, I did blood work and found out that I have something called Hashimoto's disease. It's an autoimmune disease that attacks your thyroid.  Hence giving me all of the symptoms I was having above. BUT, I was also dealing with a lot of gut issues as well. My allergy blood work came back with a list of food items that I am allergic too. How is that possible? I've never been allergic to anything in my life.

What was happening was that because I have holes in my small intestines, the food that I would eat on a regular basis was getting into my blood stream. My body recognized that those proteins shouldn't be there and would attack my thyroid or other parts of my body causing all of the symptoms I was having.  So now my body is allergic to a lot of foods, all foods that are good for me, and I need to keep them out of my diet for the next 6-12 months. I'm talking about chicken, beef, turkey, avocado, gluten, banana, coconut and the list goes on. AND the biggest of all....CORN. If you didn't know, corn is in absolutely everything. It's actually in the Synthroid medication I was taking on a daily basis.

For the last week or so I've carefully planned out all of my meals and snacks for the day. I need to make sure that I'm not eating certain foods more than 2x's a week. I also cannot have certain foods at all until my gut heals. I have a new part time job. It's researching what I can and cannot eat and then standing in the kitchen cooking for hours!  It's a lot of work BUT...I am already seeing results. I've been off gluten 3 weeks and notice a HUGE difference.  Yesterday, I ate "gluten free" chips...thinking they were ok...and I immediately got irritable and very fatigued. My brain couldn't focus on what I was doing. I was getting anxious.  I ended up falling dead asleep on the couch for 30  minutes. Mind you, I had plenty of sleep the night before.  I looked at the back of the chip bag and sure enough, there was maltodextrin in it. Which is made from corn.

Ok, that's my whole sob story. And I'm dealing with it all day by day. BUT, it has really gotten me thinking about how can someone who is relatively healthy have these issues.? And I'm not happy with what I'm starting to realize. We are being lied to about our food. I could go on and on about all of the lies being told to us but I'll save that for another post.

I just watched a video called Genetic Roulette. Feel free to watch here: GMO Documentary.  I'm just amazed at what is in that video. Genetically Modified Soy and corn was introduced in 1996. Since then, has anyone else noticed a rise in a whole ton of medical problems? The gluten intolerance/celiac issues? The infertility issues? Autism? Gut problems? It's amazing to see the connection. I strongly urge you to spend a few minutes watching it. Seventeen years they've been feeding us this stuff all the while knowing what it does to us. It's not war that is going to kill us. It's the FDA and Monsanto. In my opinion this is far more important than gun control but yet of course gets very little coverage.

Now I'm officially a crusader against this stuff. I don't want my kids growing up with this stuff in their bodies and I'll be doing my best to keep it out of mine and theirs. Please, educate yourself about what we are being told is fine for us to eat. If your food is not in it's whole form or you aren't making it yourself....be very careful. You'll save yourself a lot of money by spending the time and money now to take care of your body.

This is really just my official warning that my status updates on Facebook are probably going to become a little annoying to people as I'll be sharing a lot of articles I've been reading about this issue. I've held myself back from doing that because I don't want to come off as a judgmental person saying to everyone to stay away from soda and fast food (but you really should) But I realize that it's more important for people to be educated about this stuff then to be left in the dark any longer. So if it annoys you...hide my status updates :)