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I always thought that my constant WD was due to something I ate, but the Gastroenterologists I saw told me I should be able to eat anything. I didn't believe them, so I kept tweaking my diet, but to no avail, since I never eliminated gluten. Anyhow, when I tested at Enterolab 8 years ago I discovered that I was reactive to gluten, dairy and yeast. When I eliminated these items, I immediately felt better, but was never totally "cured".
Over time, I kept experimenting with my diet, but never got it quite right. However, I felt well enough to lead a productive, relatively healthy life until 1+ years ago when I started having episodes of Aphasia and was diagnosed with Vasculitis (inflammation of the blood vessels in my brain). This sure made me take notice and start rethinking my GI condition, as I think inflammation anywhere in the body is connected. My last colonoscopy (6 years ago) showed that I no longer had the markers for LC, but I got the new diagnosis of Mastocytic Enterocolitis (histamine related).
Back to today. Because of the Vasculitis I started focusing back on my diet to try and eliminate any inflammation in my intestines. I stopped eating out altogether close to half a year ago. This helped a lot, but I was still not where I wanted to be. My next step was to test for the 11 antigenic foods at Enterolab, thinking that I might be sensitive to beef and fish. Well, imagine my surprise when the results showed that I am sensitive to all grains and white potato
.This was a difficult result to accept, but I'm determined to get to remission, so I immediately adjusted my diet accordingly. This is now about 4 weeks ago. I can't say it has been easy, but it is amazing how much better I feel. I have been reading up on the Paleo diet as I'm eating pretty much along those lines. Since the test showed no sensitivity to any of the meats, fish or nuts, I have been varying my diet more and cooking delicious meals.
If anyone had told me that I would be able to eliminate all grains from my diet, I would have said no way. I was eating a lot of gluten free bread and tortillas, so rice and corn was a big part of my diet, as was white potatoes.
Bottom line: I'm not sure that this is the final step in my food journey, as we all know that MC keeps hitting back in unexpected ways, but I'm extremely encouraged and believe that remission is close at hand!!! A special thank you goes to Dr. Fine and his lab - I believe in his procedures whole heartedly. If any of you are like me that you can't quite get there, I would encourage you to look into testing to see if anything you are eating regularly causes a reaction.
Wishing radiant health to all of you!!!
Kari
P.S. I can't end this post without thanking you for keeping up this forum Tex. You offer a sense of security and sanity to so many of us. Even though I don't post often, I frequently come on here to read.
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