After several months of just drinking water and the occasional glass of almond milk, I decided to buy some premium locally made cream soda made with pure cane sugar. It tasted like vanilla cotton candy, I think due to being made with cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. Unlike most people I don't seem to experience sugar or caffeine highs, but I noticed that by drinking just one soda, I felt incredibly lethargic and began craving sugar again, for about a day. Guess even one is too much for me.
BUT the biggest health difference from my changing my diet has come from discovering I'm sensitive to both dairy and gluten.
I thought this whole gluten thing was just a fad like the grapefruit diet or not eating egg yolks, but I definitely feel better not eating it. I've known for years before discovering this that certain foods cause me discomfort, such as a strong sense of inflammation throughout my body. It feels a bit like having salt coursing through your veins. This happens most strongly with pizza. I assumed that this burning sensation was due to high sodium content at first, but later on I began thinking it was because of an imbalance of omega 6 to omega 3 (which also promotes inflammation). It's not just pizza though. Eventually I noticed that pasta, mostly the noodles, also trigger the inflammation with the added benefit of causing constipation and bloating for several days. The most telling of all, though, is a simple tuna fish sandwich. It was the bread. Simply having tuna and mayonnaise mixed together with nothing else was fine, but put it between two slices of whole wheat and there it was, the inflammation again. I ruled out the omega 3 thing by stopping the supplements to see if anything has changed (it didn't), and I tested my old sodium theory by eating a ton of pickles (I have a jar of small pickles, each containing 260mg of sodium), and again, nothing happened.
I would have NEVER discovered this going to a doctor. Between me, my mother, and my grandmother, we share a boatload of the symptoms of celiac disease. Apparently it's possible to have the condition without any symptoms, and a lot of people are diagnosed because a close relative was. I also read going gluten free can produce a negative screening for the disease, and having gluten just once or twice a month is enough to prevent healing the damage the condition has caused, so I'm going to see if I can get one or all of us screened for it.
I've had unexplained insomnia all my life, I had a period of weight loss and diarrhea in school, my gums have been swollen all my life despite excellent oral hygiene (was told it might be because I could be breathing through my mouth when sleeping, which I don't think is causing this), my eyes get insanely dry, and my mother and Gmother both have autoimmune disorders (which is more common in celiacs). Hormones can go out of whack and mental issues can surface due to celiac disease, in addition to hundreds of other symptoms, some minor and many not specific to this disease. Since stopping gluten I have far less anxiety and mood fluctuations, I sleep a little bit better (no computer use made the biggest difference in feeling sleepy), my tinnitus and popping ears improved dramatically (mother and grandmother both get ringing/poppy ears), and I have a new sense of clarity and confidence.
In addition, by eliminating dairy, my skin complexion on my back and shoulders has improved dramatically. Gluten can cause skin rashes but this was just plain old acne. This is another thing doctors don't know about because it doesn't work like this for everyone.
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This is partly a rant now, but....
Sleep apnea runs on the other side of the family (my grandfather was diagnosed with it despite not being overweight at all and very physically active) so I wanted to be screened for it a couple months back.
Turns out I couldn't simply request a sleep study; I had to get a referral, and when I tried to, my doctor went off into some tangent about me having an untreated mood disorder, called me mentally ill, then tried to prescribe me an anti psychotic to help me sleep (first off atypical antipsychotics have horrific side effects and in my opinion are inappropriate for mild insomnia due to the adverse effects on overall health, and second, I was told never to take atypical antipsychotics again by a psychiatrist because I had severe reactions to every one I tried in that class of drugs, and third, my GP didn't know this and I think he overstepped his bounds trying to prescribe psych medicine, especially because when when I turned him down, he set up an appointment with someone in mental health that specializes in prescribing the very same medication he just tried to prescribe me, which makes me wonder if the guy is an ego maniac or narcissist).
I managed to get the referral despite him not thinking I could have sleep apnea at all. One of the ways he tried to convince me not to have the sleep study done was, even if I did have it, he said he didn't think that I would wear a cpap machine and that it would be a waste, and so I think his argument was that the mere possibility of me not treating my sleep apnea was reason enough to not even give myself the chance to find out if I have it or not. The psychiatrist I saw as a result of the appointment he setup laughed at my doctor for trying to dissuade me from being tested and said it was actually a good idea because a lot of people have it and don't know it.
When I went in to get the machine for a home sleep study (the full study involves going to a motel and having electrodes hooked up to you and strangers observing your every movement via camera while in bed, whether awake or asleep), the group instructor said to us that obesity is only one factor in sleep apnea, and that the worst patient she ever had was a 102 pound Asian woman, and that a narrow airway can be genetic.
I got my results yesterday after waiting for six weeks to hear them (no idea why it takes so long). They said I stopped breathing several times while I was asleep, but not enough to be considered sleep apnea. They recommended more thorough testing though because this is still significant. I lost 20 pounds from when I wanted to be tested to when I actually ended up being tested, so I may have improved my breathing at night enough to go under their threshold.
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Cliffs:
-One sugary beverage a day is too much for me
-I discovered gluten was affecting my health, gluten sensitivity at the least, celiac disease at worse.
-Not eating gluten improved a number of small and big things.
-Going to try to get family screened for it, a lot of health problems that could suggest it.
-Eliminating dairy improved my skin complexion.
-My GP is an ass and listening to him (in the sense that older generations blindly follow whatever their doctor tells them) instead of being actively involved in discovering what works for me have two completely different life outcomes.
Use the damn internet and don't place all your faith in one human being. There's a reason we say they're practicing medicine.
In my case, by being in the mental health system, the assumption was understandably from the start that it was all mental, all in my head, and the very light screening that medical doctors do is far from adequate in catching everything that can present as psychological issues (vitamin, thyroid check, and urine test to see if you're lying about using drugs is all they typically do).
