|
Health Makeover - Getting the Point
|
|
|
Toronto graphic designer and mother of two Donna Smith has long suffered from painful bowel cramps, diarrhea, weight loss, insomnia and heartburn, culminating in a diagnosis of extreme spastic bowel. Radical diets worked for a few months, then stopped. After two and a half years, desperate enough to try anything, she turned to acupuncture on the advice of a fellow sufferer. As she tells The Health Journal, she doesn’t know why it’s working, but is happy to report it is.
My mother died while I was pregnant with my second child, then about four months later, my father died. This was a very stressful time. My first symptoms began about a year later—possibly triggered by the stress. My body just stopped absorbing food. Everything I ate went straight through me. I began losing weight. A naturopath put me on a strict diet of fish, chicken and steamed vegetables. I kept to that for about five months. At first it worked. Within two weeks I started sleeping again, my mood swings and my panic attacks were gone. He told me the sugar, yeast and carbohydrates in the food I was eating were just feeding toxins in my body, preventing it from working. I thought ‘So what, if I have to stay on this diet for two years; at the end of it, I’ll be better.’
But after a few months, the symptoms came back. I was now extremely skinny and looked very sick. The lowest I got to was just under 100 pounds, and I’m 5-foot 6-inches tall. Once I hit that weight, I said enough. I began seeing a different naturopath who introduced some carbohydrates into my diet. This worked for a while and then stopped. My most recent diet was called the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. This also worked for a few months, but then the cycle repeated. I have now seen a homeopath, a holistic practitioner, a chiropractor, and a massage therapist (whom I still see).
Then a few months ago, someone I knew with Crohn’s Disease referred me to her acupuncturist. The practitioner started off by asking me hundreds of questions. She examined me and right off the bat said “OK, your insomnia will get better. I’ve have a 100 per cent success rate with that.” Then she said, “Memorize the feeling of that heartburn you get.” That was easy because I have it, to varying degrees, all day long. As soon as I lie down the stomach acid comes up my throat and I can’t sleep, so I have to sit up for usually two to three hours until it settles. Antacids don’t help at all. Then she said “I’m going to get rid of your heartburn.” And I thought, oh no, another quack! But after that treatment, I hardly ever had the heartburn again.
The next week, I asked her what she did. “I reversed your Chi,” (or my energy flow) she told me, whatever that means. But it worked. I go once or twice a week now. She usually puts about six needles in my stomach, some in my wrists, my ankles, my shins. Then she attaches tiny electrodes to each needle giving it a slight vibration. Each session takes about 15 minutes and is very relaxing.
I’m starting to learn what I can’t eat. Doctors were always telling me to eat no fat and lots of fibre. But fibre is the hardest thing for an inflamed system to digest, and I do need some fat. In a way, white bread is better for me than whole grain bread because it’s easier for my body to break down. I don’t eat any dairy products, except lactose-free yogurt that I make myself and lactose-free cottage cheese. I used to be a salad-a-holic. But now I just skip the roughage. I also try to eat four or five smaller meals a day.
I still have the odd setback: usually a week or two where the symptoms return, but not nearly as bad as before. Then, when I see my acupuncturist again, I am much better. She says this is all a part of the normal healing process.
|
|
|
|
