My personal health journey
My journey with gut health started when I began experiencing constipation in my early 20s. Moving out at a young age had meant poor diet choices and irregular lifestyle habits. However, with my newfound interest in fitness, I started to appreciate the way food impacted my body. This sparked my interest in health, leading me to pursue a degree in nutrition.
However, it wasn't until I experienced a series of stressful events that the full spectrum of digestive issues began to unravel. From enduring chronic constipation, struggling with congested skin, observing elevated liver enzymes to sporadic hives outbreaks - my health journey was beginning to feel like a downward spiral. I remember one year I ended my birthday in the ER, leaving the hospital the next morning with an EpiPen and a food allergy suspicion, which didn’t exist a year prior to that.
In the months that followed, I started to collect a multitude of symptoms; flare ups of constipation, random body rashes, weight that was hard to shift, brain fog, intense sugar cravings, poor recovery from exercise, and bouts of abdominal pain which led to a few more painful nights in hospital with no explanation other than ‘colitis’ to go on.
For too long, I accepted these discomforts as my normal, mainly because no health professional had suggested otherwise. It wasn’t until the final year of my nutrition degree that I started to connect the dots and realize the link between all the symptoms I had thought were separate and unrelated. Discovering more about the gut microbiome, I learnt about the existence of conditions like SIBO and microbiota dysbiosis. I also started to consider the possibility that these conditions might have been affecting my family, given the prevalence of H. pylori infections and gastric and intestinal cancers in my family. It was time for a change. My gut health could not be taken lightly.
I experimented with elimination diets and made some big changes to lifestyle along the way to manage stress. While I noticed minor or temporary improvements in symptoms, I still felt far from well. It got to a point where I felt so confused about what to eat that food had become more of a source of fear and confusion than one of health and nourishment.
My perspective shifted when I discovered functional testing. Lab test results showed I was positive for methane SIBO, C.diff toxins, a parasitic infection, yeast overgrowth, low gut immunity and pancreatic enzyme function, and elevated intestinal inflammatory markers.
It was this knowledge, pinpointing the precise imbalances in my gut, that marked a turning point in my health journey. Recovery required patience and consistency, but through it, I found my pathway to wellness. I learned to embrace evidence-based natural protocols for those specific imbalances and slowly worked out of a restrictive diet to rebuild my relationship with food. Now, I embrace food diversity instead of avoidance, and feeling less anxious in social situations is a huge relief.
As a health practitioner, I hope to share my knowledge and personal experience with my clients. I aim to offer understanding, empathy, and evidence-based strategies to those who feel overwhelmed and confused about addressing their gut health symptoms. A future without constant gut discomfort is not just a dream, but an achievable reality. It would be my privilege to guide you on this journey!
