My Cleanse Results

So I did 7 days of cleansing. And I’m … here. It was a rough week. Brutal, in fact. There was even a day where I had to call in sick from work because I was about to puke. But I hung in there, toughing it out like a badass… I guess. There was definitely some good things happening like clearer skin and my chronic shoulder pain is now gone, but I’ve also had nausea all week and have been extremely uncomfortable, so low on energy I’ve mostly laid in bed. I kept thinking, surely at some point I’m going to have a breakthrough and feel magnificent, right?

And then on the seventh day I was having a conversation with my mom about health issues and she told me about a friend of hers who had chronic issues until finally she discovered she had gluten intolerance. Then once she eliminated gluten, she felt great. Now I’m no stranger to gluten issues, I’ve heard all about it and how it has been discovered to give some people chronic health issues. I even looked it up way back when, but all I saw were symptoms like vomiting or having intense gastrointestinal distress immediately after consuming wheat products. Well that’s not me. But since I was thinking about it, I looked it up again, and do you know what I found? Apparently there is a skin disorder called Dermatitis Herpeformitis linked directly to wheat sensitivity. And the description of this skin disorder matches my symptoms exactly. MOTHER TRUCKER. So I kept reading and learned that although it’s pretty uncommon to have a wheat allergy with the acute symptoms listed above, it’s becoming more common to see people with a wheat intolerance, meaning maybe a small amount can be tolerated, but in larger doses it can cause all kinds of common chronic conditions like stomach pain and bloating, inability to lose weight, frequent headaches, immune conditions like frequent colds, flu, and bacterial infections, proneness to allergies, psoriasis, skin rashes, eczema, chronic fatigue, and unwell feeling. MOTHER TRUCKER AGAIN! I have just about all of these! And because it basically wreaks havoc within the intestinal tract, it creates a poor ability to ABSORB NUTRIENTS FROM THE FOODS YOU ARE EATING. TRIPLE MOTHER TRUCKER! I was ready to drive to my dermatologist’s office and slap every last one of them. You mean to tell me that there is a clear, established link between wheat sensitivity and all kinds of skin issues like dermatitis herpeformitis, acne, hives, rashes, etc., and none of this was ever even mentioned in any of my visits? How do you do dermatology for a living and not know that??? Instead I climbed into bed and passed out. The fatigue has been terrible. I had been eating a new grain mix on my cleanse that had barley in it. (Gluten levels are high in wheat, barley, and rye.) I was also eating a sprouted wheat bread.

I don’t know if I truly have a wheat intolerance, but based on what I’ve read, it’s possible. I won’t be going to a doctor to do any tests. Apparently the tests for it aren’t’ always accurate, and I’m not going to pay LabCorp an assload of money out-of-pocket (I don’t have bad insurance, but they seem to weasel out of having insurance cover the majority portion of their testing – which I’m sure takes all of 2 minutes and costs them $3.25 but they want me to pay $200). So if anyone that works at LabCorp happens to be reading this, you can go suck it. You hear me LabCorp? SUCK IT! Did I mention I was irritable too?

One of the reasons wheat intolerance is so hard to detect is because there aren’t acute symptoms; symptoms generally show up 2 to 3 days later. Which could possibly explain why there seems to be no rhyme or reason for when my symptoms get bad. It also leads many people to target the wrong foods as the problem since when you’re digestive tract is inflamed, then you seem to have sensitivity to other foods too – Could it be that garlic is really my friend? And it could also explain why (COVER YOUR EYES VEGAN FRIENDS!) at one point of being very athletic I focused on eating lots of meat and protein, cut back on carbs, and felt the healthiest I’ve ever been. Admittedly, it might have been less about the meat and more about avoiding breads.

So I’m going to start eating Gluten free and see if symptoms worsen or improve. Here I go. Whenever I can get up enough energy to get to the store.