I was 22 years old when I became nearly bedridden. My legs were swollen, my muscles hurt, my belly was a balloon, and I weighed only 98 pounds. I was so sick that I had to quit my job and spend all my time and money going from doctor to doctor, trying to figure out what was wrong with me. My white blood cell count was chronically low, so I had blood drawn every other week to monitor my levels. For the next two years, I saw a host of physicians — liver doctors, kidney specialists, vascular surgeons, rheumatologists, hematologists — and none of them had answers. They put me on various medications, from thyroid meds to antibiotics, but nothing helped.
Everyone Thought I Was Crazy
Feeling more sick and tired than I had ever felt, I took matters into my own hands and started researching my symptoms. I surmised that I had something called leaky gut syndrome, a condition that’s becoming more well-known as new research emerges. It’s thought that leaky gut occurs when the intestinal walls become so compromised that they let bacteria and digested food out into the rest of the body instead of staying in the intestine and colon. This, in turn, can cause a host of autoimmune issues, inflammation, and imbalances in the microbiota (gut microbes). But when I went to my doctors and told them what I’d learned, they laughed at me. I might as well have told them I had fairies living in my large intestine. On top of that, my friends, coworkers, and other people in my life started to think I was crazy. As far as they could tell, it was all in my head. But I knew better.
I Was at the End of My Rope
By the time I checked myself into a hospital in Philadelphia, I had developed Clostridium difficile colitis, a deadly condition in which C. difficile bacteria proliferates in the colon and destroys anything in its path by releasing a harmful toxin. This can occur in weak immune systems or in people who’ve had frequent exposure to hospitals (like I did). Though I was able to recover from it after five days of intense treatment, my legs were still swollen, I was still suffering from chronic fatigue, and I was only 95 pounds. The bacteria were gone, but blood work showed that my hemoglobin and white blood cell levels were still off, and my liver and kidneys were still inflamed. After multiple CT scans, MRIs, X-rays, and more blood work, the doctors still didn’t have any answers. I was at the end of my rope with nowhere left to turn.
I Finally Found a Doctor Who Could Help
After three years of this insanity, I finally found a doctor who changed everything: Susan Blum, MD, MPH, founder and director of the Blum Center for Health in Rye Brook, New York. A functional medicine physician, Dr. Blum talked to me for an hour (as opposed to 10 minutes, like many doctors) and asked me about my lifestyle, stress levels, sleep habits, and work. Rather than focus on one area of my body, she wanted to look at the whole picture. Dr. Blum’s testing revealed that I had chronic fatigue, significant bacterial overgrowth, and other abnormalities that traditional testing hadn’t identified. I met with other functional medicine physicians who determined that I also had Lyme disease and polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). All of the medications I’d been taking did nothing for my issues — and may have even made them worse. The bottom line was that I didn’t need more meds. I needed exactly the opposite: a complete and total detox.
I Took Charge of My Health
I did more research and learned that consuming gluten, dairy, soy, refined sugar, corn, peanuts, and more could be contributing to my health problems, so I started to detox my lifestyle, beginning with food. I changed my diet dramatically, removing all processed foods, and focused on eating organic fruits and vegetables. For two years, I got by on vegetables and medical protein powders pureed in a food processor like baby food, because my leaky gut was so bad that I reacted to everything I put in my mouth. To this day, I am gluten-, dairy-, egg-, refined sugar-, corn-, peanut-, and soy-free. Over time, I started to feel better. My legs were no longer swollen, my belly no longer ached, and my color and vigor returned. The symptoms of my leaky gut, chronic fatigue, PCOS, and chronic inflammation eased. All of this was possible because I changed my diet, detoxed my lifestyle, and took charge of my health.
I Wanted to Help Others
When I started to feel better, it occurred to me that I could help others by sharing my journey. So I started blogging at TheHealthyApple.com and wrote a book called Eating Clean: The 21-Day Plan to Detox, Fight Inflammation, and Reset Your Body. My goal is to show people how cleaning up their diets and lifestyles can help them get healthy. So how can you get started? Here are three ways to begin your detox journey today:
- Eat Clean. Focus on eating whole foods and avoiding processed foods, which cause inflammation in the body. Trust me, it can be done! I’ve been doing it for 10 years.
- Fight Inflammation. Reach for anti-inflammatory foods such as raw walnuts and ground flaxseeds, which are rich in omega-3 fatty acids that help fight inflammation. And don’t fear fat! Our bodies need fat to function properly. But it’s important to focus on healthy fats found in foods such as raw nuts and seeds, avocados, and extra-virgin olive oil.
- Heal Your Gut. You can do this by removing foods from your diet that cause symptoms like bloating, headaches, rashes, or tiredness (my cookbook is naturally free of common triggers such as gluten, dairy, soy, eggs, corn, peanuts, refined sugar, and other inflammatory foods). Replace these items with whole foods. For example, in my book I explain how to make spreads and “cheeses” out of nuts and seeds. Amie Valpone is creator of TheHealthyApple.com and author of the new book Eating Clean: The 21-Day Plan to Detox, Fight Inflammation, and Reset Your Body (Houghton Mifflin). For more info on her book and recipes, visit Eatclean.Nowfoods.com.
