Self-Health: From Pain and Exhaustion to Living Well in My Body

This mini-episode is the short story of my most recent health journey, including how I resolved my troubles with digestive distress and joint pain, how I lost some of the excess weight that was making it hard to keep up with my child, and what I've started to learn about health and wellness in our modern environment. You'll also learn why the focus of this podcast is on exploring individual stories about well-being in a world that feels chaotic.

Books I talk about in this episode:
The Healthy Deviant by Pilar Gerasimo
Eat to Beat Disease by Dr. William Li

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Transcript

I wanted to start this podcast with a short episode to let you know why I started the podcast and also to give you a sense of what you can expect to hear each week. So, I thought I would start with a little bit about my own story and how I got here. 

About two years ago, I was struggling with some extra weight, and it was making it very hard for me to keep up with my very active little one. And around the same time, I started having painful digestive issues. 

So, I would go to bed at night, and I would start to have acid reflux. And then, I would start to have gas and burping, and it was so painful that I couldn't sleep. On the nights that I could sleep, I would wake up with horrible joint pain. Because this was all happening during COVID, the first thing that I did was visit a doctor via telehealth.

Since we were kind of limited in the testing that we could do at that time, he told me to start with the simplest explanation, and he put me on Omeprazole.

I tried that for a few days, but it didn't seem to do much. And I had some concerns about it because I've read that omeprazole can cause more issues with your digestion.

Once I was able to see my regular doctor, I went to her and we discussed all of my symptoms and did the lab work. But she didn't have many answers for me. It was kind of a mystery for her, too. So, she sent me to a gastroenterologist, which makes a lot of sense.

Unfortunately, he dismissed me. At least, that’s the story I told myself at the time. There were about 6 months between getting my referral to see him and having the appointment. In the interim, I had lost a little bit of weight and wasn’t having the gastro symptoms as often as I had been. The inflammation was still there, and the joint pain was still raging, but the stomach-related issues weren’t bothering me as much. 

While waiting in the exam room, I could see and hear the doctor in his office because the nurse had left the door open. I saw him sit down, open my file, and then sigh heavily. As someone who is driven to keep peace and harmony in my interactions, I did not advocate for myself well that day. 

Because I downplayed the severity of my symptoms, said they weren’t bad all the time, and only briefly mentioned the joint pain, he focused on the acid reflux. He asked me if I was taking my Omeprazole correctly. And he said, you know, most people don't do it correctly. And he told me to go back and do it again. 

Well, I knew in my heart that acid reflux wasn't the main issue. That might have been a symptom,  but there was a lot more going on with me. You know, my body was inflamed. I was having joint pain. I felt like crap, and my body was pissed off.

Plus, I didn't want to take the Omeprazole. It just felt like I was covering up what was really wrong. So at that point, because I was convinced traditional doctors weren’t going to be able to help me, I decided I was going to have to do some investigation on my own.

I had already been seeing a lot of stuff online - things from Dr. Mark Hyman, for example, about how food is not really what it should be these days, that the standard American diet is just not good for us. It may be something that we see as normal, but it's not healthy. I also started asking myself questions like, what does it take to be healthy in this crazy mixed-up world?

So, I Googled that very question, and I stumbled upon the work of Pilar Gerasimo. She's the author of “The Healthy Deviant,” and that book changed my mind about a lot of things. Her point was that what passes for normal these days is not healthy and that we have to do something different. We have to be rebels in order to take care of ourselves.

As I continued looking into healthier foods and healthier lifestyles, I came across the work of Dr. William Li. In his book, “Eat to Beat Disease,” he talks about the different systems of the body that are meant to heal us and protect us from environmental threats. He talks a lot about the recent research into specific foods and how they affect those systems. 

Around the same time that I was reading all of these books, I was also experimenting with intermittent fasting, which to be honest, was very helpful for getting rid of that extra weight. And while it's not something that I would necessarily do as a regular practice, it was very helpful in getting me over that hump. I went from 247 pounds down to 227 pounds, and that was amazing. But, you know, it didn't necessarily fix the problems I was having with my digestive system.

I mean, I felt a lot better, but I was still having those painful nights where I couldn't sleep. So, I know that my digestive system is a little bit more sensitive than some people's. I already eat a gluten-free diet because about 15 years ago, I went to a doctor having some milder, but similar, symptoms, and he said, why don't you try a gluten-free diet? He tested me for Celiac Disease and it wasn't that. That test didn't come up with anything, but he told me to try the diet anyway, and it did alleviate those symptoms at the time. 

So, for these new symptoms, I thought, okay, maybe there's something else that's triggering the problems. 

So, what I did was an elimination diet for 30 days. With the blessing of my regular doctor, I did the Whole30 program. The Whole30 program showed me that I was reacting and becoming inflamed because of dairy. So, by eliminating the dairy, those horrible digestive issues and my joint pain were resolved. And I even went on to lose more weight. Of course, I can't sit here and tell everyone to get off dairy to solve all of their problems. That's obviously not how it works. Not everyone has problems digesting dairy. We're all individuals with a wide range of health and wellness concerns. 

There's a concept called bio-individuality that, if you stick with me for this podcast, you are likely to hear more about. But on some level, because we are all individuals, we have to be our own advocates if we want to live vibrant, healthy lives, no matter what age we get to.

 So, as I was going through these health issues, I was learning a lot about functional medicine and how it attempts to figure out the root causes of a person's health problem instead of covering up the symptoms with pharmaceuticals. And this made a lot of sense to me given my own experience going to the doctor for help.

And everyone I talked to about it seemed to have a similar story or the consensus seemed to be that our healthcare system and our food system are a complete mess. But those issues seem so large and so unfixable by the individual person, even though I know there are really well-intentioned people out there trying to solve the problems with healthcare and insurance. 

But to me, I wanted to take on the issues of the individual. I wanted to get to the heart of what we can each do in the environment that we find ourselves in today. That seemed like a manageable piece of the larger puzzle.

 So that's why, for this podcast, I'll be interviewing people about their journeys toward better health and wellness. Through their stories, you may learn about concepts or ideas that you've never heard of, like autophagy or integrative nutrition, but I also hope that you'll hear practical advice about things like making mindset shifts or coping with anxiety.

Thank you for listening to the short version of my journey to better health and wellness. I hope you enjoy the upcoming episodes. And if you like what you hear, please subscribe and leave a review of the podcast. If you'd like to be a guest on the show, you can email me or DM me.