So… I’m most likely gluten intolerant. And guess what… you probably are, too.
I’m now 29 years old and I just figured out on my own that I
am gluten intolerant. How come no doctor
out there ever said, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome?
Fibromyalgia? Cut the
gluten. When I “failed” the gluten test
my boyfriend was shocked that “I figured out my pain.” “How did you know it was gluten?” he
asked. I’m finally ready to share my
experience in how this realization came to be.
A lot of you may know me from my facebook page Yoga for
Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and Fibromyalgia.
If you are familiar with the page then you are more than likely familiar
with the blog/story I wrote on Tumblr. I
thought my posts were going to be an ongoing thing… like a blog usually
is.
The blog became more of a story and I kept getting the
feeling “Leave it as it is.” So, what
next? What next, was the exact question
world renowned yoga instructor, Rainbeau Mars, had asked me during my one on
one consultation with her. As the story
explained I won a Special Offer Contest to have a One on One Consultation with
Rainbeau Mars. The experience will
forever remain something very dear to me… but the experience with her helped
lead me along my way to this gluten free path.
Rainbeau was trying to get a clearer understanding as to
what Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome is. Where is
my pain? “Ya know, if you had asked me 2
weeks ago I would be giving you a completely different answer than what I’m
going to give you now. I would be asking
you questions about my joints and this and that. But, do you know anything about fascia?”
This fascia had been MY word for 2 weeks. You see, I had recently ordered and received
the book: The Key Muscles of Yoga. As I
read I found a great respect for the design of the human body. This joint is designed so it can rotate like
so and this one so it bends. “Movements
are determined by the varying forces acting across the joints. These forces are produced by the
muscles…” I realized how important
strengthening is for someone with E.D.S.
I continued reading until I felt that I had read enough. Just as I was about to put the book down I
had the thought pop in my head. “Just
keep looking!” Okay, I might as well just feather through and look at the
pictures. My eyes fixate on the phrase
“connective tissue.” Hmmm, what’s this
about? I read about a “connective tissue
sheath” that encapsulates the muscles and organs. “A thin layer of body fluid coats these
sheaths, facilitating the gliding of muscles over neighboring structures. This fluid is apparent in the shiny
appearance of muscles and organs during surgery.” I’ve seen that stuff in surgery videos…
that’s the same stuff that you cut through when you’re cooking a chicken
breast. Interesting, I thought this was
only going to be about muscles! My eyes
scan over to the facing page and I yell out, “That’s my pain! That’s my pain!” My boyfriend looks confused. “You know how a picture speaks a thousand
words… I’ve never been able to explain my pain to any doctor… look at this
picture, within the extremities, that’s where my pain is!”
“Fascia- The fascial planes are lattice-like matrix of this
sheets of connective tissue that cover the organs and muscles. Sensory nerves are found throughout the
various fascial planes and are stimulated by stretching the fascia in Yoga
postures. This nerve stimulation can
evoke emotional and energetic releases during the practice of Yoga.”
I spent weeks looking up this fascia. It seems as if this fascia is only a recent
revelation. We were just slicing through
it during operations like it was nothing.
This is a highly conductive system of connective tissue with sensory
nerves. Even in researching, it wasn’t
like I was coming across endless information.
People are just starting to sail the seas here. I watched a video in which a word I was
already familiar with surfaced.
Tensegrity. The word was coined
by Buckminster Fuller, the same man whose book Synergetics inspired me to start
the facebook page. Hmm. My ears perk.
Try to visualize this fascia as a “connective tissue casing” in your
body. It surrounds your muscles, it
encapsulates them. It acts completely as
one unit. So if you were to have tension
in your fascia in one part of your body, that tension would then pull and
create tension lines. So hypothetically
the point of tension that is in your chest is pulling on your hip joint causing
hip pain. I think, I have a connective
tissue disorder. I always looked at my
condition as my “joints”, because that is where I felt the pain. Maybe the joint pain is from the faulty
collagen affecting my fascia.
So I ask Rainbeau, “What can you tell me about fascia?” She cocks her head so slightly, “You mean
like fibromyalgia?” I explain, “Well, I
was diagnosed with that, too.” But I had
always overlooked the fibromyalgia.
Maybe I shouldn’t. She guides me
in visualizing myself as an egg, with many layers. She explains that the fascia layer needs to
be able to give and take, it needs to glide around. She
continues with how important food is here.
She explains that greasy foods, fast foods are a no-no. I think to myself, I eat pretty healthy. Avoid fast food? Already doing that. But I tell myself, just listen, keep an open
mind. We talk for a half hour about
health. She explains how most diseases
are caused by toxins in the environment and how important it is that we do
everything to keep from ingesting these toxins.
And not only should we avoid them but we need to detoxify our bodies of
them. She asks if I drink
smoothies. I said, “I used to all the
time, I’m really big into that, but I got off track once winter rolled
around.” She makes me realize this is my
medicine. Fruit smoothies and vegetable
juices. I need to detoxify my body and
then nourish it with instant absorption.
I need to be getting trace minerals into my diet. I pick up my bottle of Trace Mineral Drops,
she suggests Celtic Sea Salt. She drops
that I should look into thermogenic herbs, the herbs and spices that create
heat within your body; they get your circulation moving. Lastly, she comments, that people she knows
with fibromyalgia have felt great by eating a raw diet.
Thinking that my encounter with her was going to be her
showing me some ra’yoKa I was delighted when I realized I was going to have a
one on one chakra meditation. This
experience was so intense that it left me flying high for days. I was riding out this elevated state, this
“Rainbow Surfing”. I see why she charges
$500 an hour! But as I settle back into
reality a question of hers arises. She
asked me, “What now? What are you going
to do now?” I have never been one for
wanting things. This question of hers is
really starting to dig away at me. I
rattle out of myself… I like how she made me feel! I want to give that to other people! I want to be a healer!
Within a day I’m asking my boyfriend, “Can you find any
videos about healing?” He presents me
with a 20 part series on healing. Each
chapter is a different lecture by a doctor who incorporates all areas of
healing. The chapter that caught my
attention was the one on food sensitivity.
She lists the symptoms of food sensitivity.
Fatigue
Trouble sleeping
Mental fogginess
Mood changes
Skin irritation or rashes
Arthritis & joint pain
Muscle stiffness
Irritable bowel syndrome
Sinusitis
Hmmm…. Minus the rashes, all of those sound like
Ehlers-Danlos Syndome. And the last one
sounds like my mom.
The doctor continued with:
The 6 Common Food Sensitivity Groups
Dairy
Gluten
Corn
Soy
Peanuts
Egg
She concluded that the best way to figure out if you have an
intolerance is to do an elimination diet.
Remembering what Rainbeau said about fibromyalgia I admit to
myself that maybe E.D.S. and fibromyalgia are a lot alike. Maybe the fascia is affecting our joints or
nerve pain. I look into The Fibromyalgia
Diet.
Avoid-
Aspartame
MSG
Sugar
Caffeine
Gluten
Dairy (casein)
Soy
In talking with my mom on the phone she spoke of a gluten
free diet.
I type “Gluten Intolerance Fibromyalgia” into google. There’s a connection. For some reason it took me a couple of days
to type “Gluten Intolerance Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome” into google. I find a thread on EDNF from 2012. I search more. Going back to 2008 I find comments such as
this:
“Hopefully you will
have the same result I have. I have been gluten-free now for over 5 years and
don't know if it is a coincidence or not but for the last 4 I have seen a great
decrease in my subs and dislocations. I used to have to relocate my ankles
every morning and was often woken up by them dislocating. That almost never
happens anymore. I have noticed that after the excess fluid reactions from
gluten and soy have left my body the chance of dislocation has decreased. About
the only time I dislocate sleeping now is when glutened. I do have to still
watch how I stand up and stuff to keep the knees in line, mine bend backward,
but the out of the blue instances of dislocation are now few and far between. “
At this time all my signs are pointing heavily to a gluten
intolerance. Rainbeau’s right. It’s a toxic environment. But I’M creating this toxic environment.
Within just 2 days I’m throwing myself head first into the
diet. My gut is just screaming, “You’re
probably gluten intolerant! Just try the
test!” The test… 3 weeks NO GLUTEN! Reintroduce gluten into your diet at the end
of 3 weeks. If your symptoms return,
guess what, you’re gluten intolerant.
As I researched further I thought to myself, “This makes so
much sense. Gluten is in practically
everything. And if we are all ingesting
it here and there without even being aware of it, no wonder we have flare ups
and constant pain.”
Gluten. Also known as
wheat. A.K.A. flour. Not only will you find this “filler” in
breads, cakes and cookies but this little bugger is hiding in a whole bunch o-foods. A whole bunch that your best bet is to eat
“whole foods”. Cous-cous? Gluten.
Soy sauce? Gluten. You mean I can’t eat Breyer’s Chocolate Chip
Cookie Dough ice cream?!?!?
When I first started “testing” my boyfriend who was very
supportive commented, “I hope you’re not gluten intolerant. You won’t be able to have birthday
cake!” The man knows I only go to
weddings for the cake. I snap back, “Are
you kidding me! I hope I am gluten
intolerant! If I can have my pain
decreased, I don’t care what it is, I’ll do it!”
My stomach issues that just started to arise have
disappeared with the gluten. My
breakouts that have plagued me my whole life, gone. The constant screaming inflammatory pain from
these humid days…. poof. Gone. Fatigue… I’m more radiant than ever. I’m not completely cured but I feel
noticeably better. More so that any pill
could provide. But in going the gluten
free path, there is A LOT to know.
So, that’s where I stand.
I’ve been building a recipe collection day by day. I’ve been creatively whipping up new
breakfast ideas and awesome dinners. I
don’t think my boyfriend minds that I’m gluten intolerant because now I’m
cooking more! And even more importantly,
feeling better. So I’m willing to share
my gluten experience. I kept a food
journal, found some great websites and I’m documenting it all. And more than anything, I hope that you, too,
can feel more radiant than ever.
