MY EXPERIENCE WITH A NATUROPATH: How improving my gut-health cured symptoms I didn't know I had!

Since I mentioned my involvement with a naturopath in my most recent blog, I got a lot of questions regarding my experience, so here it is!

Basically I sought help from a naturopath because I was having a lot of issues with different foods, which I was having trouble pin-pointing. I would experience bloating and pain. When I competed the foods I ate were limited to a select few for a really, really long period of time (over a year). Of course throughout this time I ate foods which weren’t on my meal plan but these were one-offs and often I would feel sick but to be honest I was a bittttt (ALOT) of a binger when it came to these occasions, so I always put feeling sick or having tummy pains down to the fact I ate to much (which im sure was half true). When I was done with competing and I was navigating my own way of eating I was of course including lots of new foods. A lot of this time however, I was bloated and uncomfortable.

Another reason I sought help from a naturopath was because I’ve actually never had a regular menstrual cycle. I’d recently changed over to the Copper IUD as a form of contraception because I preferred to not be putting external hormones into my body, however because prior to the copper IUD I’d always been on hormonal contraceptives my hormones were all up shit creek when I finally came off hormones. So I wanted advice from a naturopath to sort them out too.

And finally I wanted some advice regarding my skin. I have eczema and I also have acne prone skin, mainly on my jaw line and chin which I know is hormone related, so I figured I’d be killing two birds with one stone by sorting my hormones.

So those were, in a nutshell, my presenting complaints.

The first naturopath I saw was in Cambridge, her clinic is called “The Good Health Room” (10/10 recommend, she is lovely! And definitely knows her stuff!) and I went to her because my best friend had been doing a treatment programme with her and was loving the results – so she recommended me!

With Shona I did a full consultation which basically went over all the things that make up my lifestyle, whilst also covering every year of my life weeding out any health issues, previous antibiotic use, my diet, any chronic complaints I had. We also covered things like my exercise regime, possible % of exposure to toxins, the health of my relatives, my bowels (amazing), literally everything that makes up your existence basically!

From this information and the descriptions I gave her regarding my presenting complaints, Shona already had a pretty good idea what was going on, and where she wanted to start! However, first of all I had to undergo testing. I did a hair test with Shona to get an idea of food intolerances.

This hair test took around 3 weeks to come back and when it did I went to see Shona again. On the hair test you get like a ranking system (ill include a pic). This rates your intolerances from the worst ones (high), to the ones which weren’t so bad (moderate). Shona advised me also that some that came up could show particular organs required support, for me this was my liver (AKA nursing school Friday + Saturday night Banrock catching up on me! No regrets).

Right at the top of my intolerance list was DAIRY – not a big surprise! I’ve always been, to an extent, lactose intolerant (TMI?), and this is a super common intolerance for people who have eczema! Even though I saw this one coming I was rather disappointed because giving up halloumi seemed a bit grim!!

Second was sugars, both white and brown. Not a bad thing to avoid I guess!

My hair analysis results!

As you’ll see in the picture, these two were my only “high” intolerances, however I would think that gluten would be right up there also had I still been eating it. Gluten makes me feel like utter shit, there is no two ways about it, but prior to this testing I’d limited my gluten intake hugely, if not gotten rid of it entirely, just as a personal choice. Shona said this is why it probably didn’t show in my test at all.

In my moderate to high section there was nothing I was super disappointed about. Although I was sad that tomatoes included both cherry tomatoes and those big boy tomatoes, because I’m a big fan of the little guys!! Duh Vaida of course it includes both, but I was hopeful!!

The “petrochemicals” is the intolerance which suggested my liver needed support and detoxification.

And lastly the moderate section identified my beloved eggs!

I love eggs! Although I explained to shona that I have this weird thing where if I’m eating an egg and its runny (as opposed to hard boiled), or if i smell it, OR if I think to hard about where they come from (AKA chickens butts) – im literally repulsed and cannot eat them. So basically I have to eat them super fast and not breathe or think!

Its super weird, but Shona explained this could be my bodies way of indicating to me this was an intolerance. I’ve been like that with eggs my entire life – its funny the ways our body communicates things!

You’ll also notice a lot of my intolerances were external! My testing indicated I was a sensitive wee Sally, and since this testing I eliminated most of my products I use which weren’t natural, and have noticed a BIG difference.

At the bottom it indicates that I had a candida overgrowth in my gut, which is actually super common and you can pretty much get through life without really knowing for sure you have it, unless you test for it.

So THAT was my hair test.

I found that experience super thorough, but because im super anal I also wanted to get other testing done, to see what else I could find out about my insides.

I then went on to do a stool test and also I had bloods done.

The bloods I had done were more for allergies. All these results really indicated to me was that I had IgE (immunoglobulin E, which is a class of antibody) specific to dairy products in my blood. This is again super common for anyone who experiences eczema.

Aaaand my stool testing indicated I had candida in my gut.

Neither of these extra tests gave me any extra information, nor were they as thorough and informative as the hair analysis. I did have some doubts about the accuracy of the hair analysis but since implementing the dietary and lifestyle changes as guided by the hair analysis results, I feel they were pretty accurate and would recommend it!

OKAY, so now I knew what I was intolerant to and I knew I had a candida overgrowth.

What next?

So, after taking all my test results to a few different naturopaths and herbalists I decided to take the herbal route to cure this overgrowth. The other route was like a supplement kind of route, think greens powders and using food supplements.. things like that (I don't know toooooo much about it to be honest). The ladies at The Herbal Shop looked after me super well!

We went over all my testing results and then again we did a full consultation like I did initially with Shona, going over all my initial presenting complaints, childhood illnesses, current diet and lifestyles etc. And the herbalists (some were herbalists and naturopaths, which I found super valuable) drew me up a treatment plan which was going to kill the Candida overgrowth and replace the bacteria in my gut with good bacteria. They took into account my hectic hormones, including specific herbs which would help balance those bad boys out, while also creating the plan suitable for me with eczema, bloating and problematic skin!

So this is where the “weeding, seeding and feeding” plan came into action that I talked about in a previous blog (where I showed you my probiotic, I’m purposefully not going to show you another pic so you have to go look hahaha). They girls gave me a regime where the first 3 days I would “weed” – this is when I would take my herbal tonic morning and night to combat the evil candida. The following four days of the week I would “seed” with my probiotic powder (which tastes like utter dirt, but you know, its good dirt). And the “feeding” element was regarding eating a diet which didn’t include any of the foods I was highly intolerant to, and including very minimal amounts of the foods I was moderately intolerant to.

I did two rounds of this treatment plan (around maybe 3, close to 4 months) and the results were more than I could have EVER expected. I didn't even know about half the problems I ended up fixing!

To cut a long story short, my hormones balanced out within a couple weeks of doing the treatment plan. I had a regular menstrual cycle for the first time in my ENTIRE LIFE (22 years to be exact). And I’m talking, R E G U L A R.

I track my periods with an app (Flo, if your wondering) and I would literally get it BANG ON TIME. I had no PMS symptoms, (Seeeeya moody Vaids) it was allllll smooth sailing.

I felt as though my weight stabilised. I didn’t feel like my weight fluctuated much at all after completing the treatment plan. I gained a lot more trust in my body. I also felt like it became easier for me to listen to my bodies cues. Previously I feel like it was hard to decipher what my body really wanted when I was craving something, whereas now I can identify what my body is needing, and I feed it that. I also have no issues around portion control anymore, I eat until I’m full and then I stop.

My skin cleared up SO much! I’d go days without any breakouts (unheard of for me), the texture of my skin improved and although I did still get a breakout every now and then, my skin honestly came leaps and bounds! And since completing my treatment plan, I’ve had no eczema! I don’t even know eczema??! Who is she?

On Christmas Day (not my usual work head-wear). The best my skin has ever been! (With makeup on)

Without makeup! Obviously a photo I never planned to share! (So awkward)

My bloating and irritated tummy went away instantly with cutting out the foods I was intolerant to (which is very understandable). This made me heaps more comfortable in my body.

Other benefits I noticed were my energy levels skyrocketed! When I was going through all the consultations with the different naturopaths and herbalists, a lot of them said to me that so many people function at like 60% - I soon realized this was SO TRUE! I feel like now I just have a much more consistent supply of energy throughout the day, no more peaks or pits, I no longer felt like I needed to come home and down a block of chocolate to replenish my energy stores!

+ I felt like I could think clearly, no more brain fog in the afternoons.

The treatment plan improved my life in so many more areas than I ever anticipated! Since completing the plan I am now on a maintenance probiotic - just a probiotic to maintain good gut health. And although the herbalists/naturopaths said I could start introducing some of the foods I had cut out from the intolerance testing, I haven't. Im not SUPER strict, but I probably only eat these foods 5% of the time. I feel so much better without them.

Before I go I better explain candida and intolerances and how this all interrelates!

Basically (I say that a lot), our gut is made up of all these little microbiome. There are the good gut bugs and there are the BAD gut bugs. The good gut bugs thrive when you feed them a diet which serves you, a diet that is colorful with a good amount of plants. Our bad gut bugs thrive however when we are consistently eating foods which don’t serve us (alcohol, junk food, highly refined foods) and foods we are intolerant to, leading to an overgrowth of bad bacteria, a condition known as Dysbiosis.

Antibiotics completely wipe all the good bacteria in your gut, which is why people recommend taking a probiotic with antibiotics, to combat this.

There are also certain foods like sugar which people believe feed bad bugs in everyone, and however I agree that sugar does in fact feed the bad bugs, I think its important to undergo individual testing to truly decipher which foods serve your microbiome, and which foods don’t.

When we get too much bad bugs our body tries to tell us through symptoms.

Here a quote I found which sums it up really well...

“It ALL starts in the gut! Headaches, migraines, allergies, autoimmunity, weight gain, acne, rashes, yeast infections, hormonal imbalances, fatigue, immune challenges, even the way you sense pain! – They all relate to the condition and health of your gut.”

Hormonal imbalances, like what I experienced can be due to overload on the liver secondary to gut dysbiosis. Basically, our liver is our detox organ, it gets rid of wastes in our body. However it can become overloaded when we are eating foods which don’t serve us (as mentioned above) and hormones which actually need to be excreted, don’t get excreted because the liver is quite frankly too busy dealing with all the other shit (for lack of a better word) you’ve put into your body, which are affecting your gut! So these hormones are instead recycled into our blood stream (not what you want). This is common with eostrogen, which is a female hormone – recycled eostrogen means we can get eostrogen dominance, a hormone imbalance with A LOT of side effects (google it because if I explain it here we will be here for hours).

Another common symptom of gut dysbiosis is problematic skin. Our skin is a large organ from which we can excrete toxins. Leading on from the previous point, if our liver is overloaded and cannot excrete toxins then our liver is like “hey skin, I'm a bit busy, you take the reigns hon!” So then the skin begins to excrete toxins, in an effort to just get them the HECK out of our bodies and well, toxins in the skin leads to break outs. Its not rocket science!

Bloating and gas is another common one, and one that im sure we can all relate to and understand. Eating foods that don’t serve you, or foods you're intolerant to can wreak havok inside your gut, causing an inflammatory response (and to cut a complicated story short), generating that hard bloated belly you feel and are so uncomfortable with.

And the last one ill cover is lack of energy. When our gut is flat tack trying to deal with all this inflammation going on in our gut, it is pretty bloody busy! And it uses up our energy stores! This is why a lot of us function at 60%, because the other 40% is energy used up by our gut trying to excrete toxins and perform all its normal functions, which are just made HARD with an overgrowth of bad bacteria.

There are so many other symptoms of gut dysbiosis, and candida overgrowth like frequent UTI’s, thrush, eczema, cravings for sugar (your bad bacteria craving food), unstable weight, and bad breath.

So, I encourage you to think about your own body, are there any symptoms which you have just deemed as "normal" or "just how you are"? Maybe these aren't in fact a part of your DNA, and are instead a result of poor gut health. Our bodies function so much better when the gut AKA the “powerhouse” is running smoothly!

I really hope this recount of my experience has inspired at least one of you to go and get some gut testing done, I would recommend it to literally anyone and everyone, if you’ve got an extensive history of antibiotic use, I would EXTRA recommend it because antibiotics are so unbelievably bad for the gut (I cringe every time I dispense them at work)! Even if the only thing you experience is some fatigue – IT IS SO WORTH IT, for symptom management and just for your overall health!

Anyway, this one’s been a long one, but I hope its been a insightful one!

I’d love to know your thoughts on my blogs so far, and what you’d like to see more of from me!

Also I’ve made a subscription bar (which only took me like my entire day off to work out how to make, no biggie) which you can find right at the bottom of my blog which allows you to subscribe so you never miss a post (amazinggggg).

Ciao for now!

Vaida