Gluten isnt something a lot of people think about. Many people presume Im gluten-free for weight loss reasons, despite the fact that I weigh 130 pounds.
The real narrative I tell people about why Im gluten-free typically shocks them. Indeed, I was shocked about it too when I first discovered that I was gluten intolerant.
Why? Because prior to being gluten intolerant, I supposedly had dermatomyositis.
Dermatomyositis is an autoimmune illnes that affects the scalp and the muscles. I experienced severe muscle pain and weakness as well as a skin rash. Oh, and also an is no way to swallow my food, stroll short distances, or basically do anything by myself.
I invested the coming four and a half times in and out of hospitals, on chemotherapy, heavy dosages of steroids and anti-inflammatory medications. I likewise wasnt able to walk the summer I was diagnosed, which was a week before my seventeenth birthday.
I was determined to do something different after four years of this.
I was 21 and had my whole life ahead of me. I wanted to be a carefree young person , not some sick overweight girl needing hospital visits every couple of months. I supposed, No, this is not “peoples lives”. This cant be my life. I told no to the madness that was modern sickness.
And this is what I found out.
My Body Has an Inflammatory Response to Gluten
The last physician I learnt for my illness looked at me and told me that I would be on chemotherapy for the rest of my life.
I left her agency the working day and seemed as hopeless as Id ever seemed. I was throwing up in the rain from chemo, I was dizzy and nauseated all the time. Id gained weight from the steroids and had acne and feeling sways. On top of everything, my muscle pain was excruciating. I remember the sky being gray and seeming like the world was falling apart.
That was when I decided that I was not going to invest the rest of my life on chemo.
It took me a few weeks and a lot of bellows, but I ultimately detected a herbalist in the area who would find me. On our second visit together, she told him that she belief gluten might be making me sick.
I told her she was crazy. Medical doctors at the best hospital in the two countries couldnt figure out “whats wrong” with me. Why did she envision she could?
But her mind stay with me. And the more I read, the more I felt like this could be it.
How I Was Reacting to Gluten
When our torsoes cannot process a certain food, they can have autoimmune reactions. This will not happen for everyone, depending on your unique genetic makeup and the kinds of meat you eat.
Our torsoes can develop reactions to any meat at any given time, which explains why I abruptly woke up one morning and detected I couldnt walking. Since I was eating gluten and my torso had, quite literally overnight, developed a reaction to it, my torso was assaulting my muscles and I was in extreme pain.
When we eat meat, the components of that food broken up into our belly and carried in all areas of the blood to nourish all parts of our torsoes. When gluten was entering my bloodstream and being used to nourish my muscles, my torso was attacking it as if it was an interloper; this is considered an autoimmune response. This is where the symptoms of the dermatomyositis were coming from.
I moved gluten-free the next day, unable to keep eating something that was supposedly making me so sick that I needed to be on chemotherapy.
I Feel Completely Different
Within a week, all of the symptoms of my dermatomyositis disappeared.
I had more energy, my muscles stopped hurting, and I seemed more alive and healthier than I had in years. After three weeks of being gluten-free, I went off all my drug, feeling that it was stimulating me sicker rather than making me better.
I experienced no side effect after I went off the medication except that I seemed better. I stopped seeming nauseous, my moods returned to normal, and I lost weight.
For the last six years, Ive been pain-free, drug-free, and seeming great. I run ten miles a week, I lift weights, do yoga, walking, and I dont eat gluten.
Sometimes its hard explain to people what happened to me because the world doesnt understand food as medicine, they simply see it as gasoline. But I know the truth. I know what meat can do to us and to our bodies. I experienced firsthand being so sick that I felt as if I was dying at the age of 21 from feeing bread, of all things.
Being gluten-free is a choice for me. I have a choice to be sick or to not feed bread. Some people ask me if being gluten-free is hard. I typically respond with, Well, its easier than being on chemo.
The Role Food Plays
Many people who suffer from gluten sensitivity, gluten intolerance, or celiac illnes experience digestive problems. This is a common behavior for the body to express that it has a problem with gluten.
However, gluten can cause many more adverse symptoms in the body, from attacking its own organs( lupus ), the brain( ADHD, depression, schizophrenia ), and skin( acne ). Gluten isnt the only meat causing troubles for people with sensitive torsoes. Other top allergens include dairy, soy, corn, eggs, nuts, and nightshades( potatoes, peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes ).
Some people dont have meat intolerances, but for those of us experiencing adverse health symptoms, food may play a greater role in “peoples lives” than we ever imagined. Its good to be informed about our bodies, our health, and what we eat.
Eating the right meat can help us seem our best, and I seem amazing, in spite of the fact that feeing bread threw me in a wheelchair ten years ago.
Its been ten years since I was diagnosed with an autoimmune cancer that I dont actually have. Going through all that was an insane, insightful excursion. Its one that I can only seem grateful for today, despite everything thats happened.
The gluten-free diet has a bad reputation these days. From friends to doctors who dont take you severely, lets not assume that someone is doing a diet for a specific reason. Lets assume that they know more about their own bodies and their own health than we do. And this can only be a beneficial thing for them.
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