Dr. Crystal's Health Journey
“Discipline is being able to force yourself to do something, in spite of how you feel, over and over until it becomes a habit.” - Kim Brenneman
Diets and food sensitivities can be hard to navigate. There are so many different ideas out there that it can be difficult to know what is the right thing for you. When it comes to diet, it’s an ever-changing journey that needs to morph and grow as you go. It’s not a "one-size-fits-all" approach. I have been on my journey for about 13 years, and it has changed dramatically over the course of time.
When I was 17, I had my first battle with my health. I've always been very active and played sports throughout my whole life. I was a goal-getter and consistently tried to give it my best in everything that I did. I was the typical teenager that seemed resilient to everything I threw at my body. Until one day I wasn’t. I was in my junior year track and field season when all of a sudden my body just seemed to shut down on me. I would be one lap into a two-mile race (12 laps in total) and would have to sit down on the side of the track. I just couldn’t make my body move anymore. With my competitive spirit, I kept trying to make my body work but I ended up in the emergency room twice after passing out on the track. So began the next several weeks and months of testing at the doctor's office. I went through numerous EKGs, echocardiogram, heart monitors, stress tests, and more lab work that I care to ever do again in my life. All to come back as NORMAL.
I was at a loss and didn’t know where to go. I had a friend suggest a chiropractor that specializes in kinesiology, and with that, my world was changed. He told me that I had some variant of leaky gut and was highly sensitive to gluten. With my gut being so severely inflamed, I was not processing any vitamins or minerals out of my diet (which was horrible, by the way), and I was not creating any energy in my body, let alone my muscles. From there, I radically changed my diet, cut gluten down, and took specific B vitamins that were needed to help my body function right again. Over the course of the next several years, I finished my senior year of high school, went on to run competitively in college, and then went through chiropractic school.
Through that time, my body seemed to be holding up well with only a few bouts of sickness and injuries that sidelined me temporarily. I can’t say that I was perfect with my diet during this time either. I mean, what college student is? I let gluten creep back into my diet more than I would like to admit and wasn’t aware of the dangers of sugars and inflammatory grains yet. I would tell people that I was mostly gluten-free, but I wasn’t really committed to doing it 100%. That was until my early 20s when I started getting some skin issues. I was never the child who struggled with eczema or skin rashes, so when my skin started to change, I knew I needed to figure out what was going on. Through an elimination diet, I narrowed it down: every time I would come into contact with gluten, I would break out into a rash. I was so sensitive to it at one point that even a small cross-contamination at my sister's wedding rehearsal left me broken out all over my underarms AND I had to wear a sleeveless dress the next day. Needless to say, I decided to take my diet to a whole new level after that. One thing I love about health and nutrition is that it is ever-changing with new research always emerging. Being the mind that I am, I love to try new things and Guinea pig myself with these ideas. I played around with quite a few different diets and eliminations and came to realize that my body and inflammatory grains did not mix well. I cut out gluten, wheat, corn, rice, potato, etc. for an extended period of time and felt so much better. I had less joint pain and muscle fatigue. My sleep was better, and I was going to the bathroom better as well. I was amazed at what grains did to my body. After about three years of cutting those out of my diet, I felt like I was still adding something into my diet that wasn’t agreeing with me. I had never done a food sensitivity blood test before and felt like it was time to check out what was going on under the hood.
I came across the Food Inflammation Test (FIT) from KBMO Diagnostics a few years ago at a conference I was attending. Several of my colleagues have used this test and have seen great results with their patients. I wanted to give it a try to see how it would compare with how I was feeling. The test is a finger-prick blood draw that tests for both the IgG (one of the most common antibodies found in the blood circulation) and immune complexes of the body. This food test checks the immune response, as well as the inflammatory response, to give a better picture of how food creates reactions in the body. It checks for 132 of the main inflammatory foods and gives you how high or low of a reaction you have to each food.
About 6 weeks ago, I did my finger-prick and sent off the results. About a week after sending off my blood, I got my results back. I was amazed to see what my body was reacting to. Here were my highest reactions:
4+ Reactions-Severe: Vanilla (bean, extract), Banana
3+ Reactions-High: Peppermint, Cola nut (found in some bars and can cross-react with chocolate)
2+ Reactions-Moderate: Broccoli, Sesame, Brewer’s Yeast
Slight Reactions: Cantaloupe, Cranberry, Pineapple, Watermelon, Carob, Cauliflower, Collard Greens, Corn, English Walnut, Candida (Yeast), Dill Seed
With all the experiments that I have done with my diet and routine, I was fascinated by what these results said. I had felt like I was missing something that was still giving me a response in my diet. Having a high reaction to vanilla and peppermint started to make sense. Most of my protein powders, nut milks, the few bars that I was eating, and even the nut butter I was using, had vanilla in it. Peppermint is one of my absolute favorites as well. I love peppermint everything. I use the essential oil, drank peppermint tea and was a sucker for anything flavored with peppermint. These two things alone I had in my diet every other day if not every day. This was going to be a real shift for me. I am 6 weeks into taking these foods out of my diet and I am seeing some good results. Ever since I started getting rashes in my early 20s, I have had this light rash over my liver that will come and go depending on the time of the year. It is worse when my candida is high, which also had shown up on my bloodwork. Now that I have taken out these few high reactive foods over the last 6 weeks, I have noticed that rash starting to go away. I am not as bloated after meals and my joint pain has decreased tremendously. My goal is to take out my severe, high and moderate reaction foods of my diet for the next year and then retest after that. I want to see what changes and what my body will respond to. I am curious to see what the next few months bring in my food journey.
I wanted to share a small part of my story because I get patients who come into the office daily that only see my lifestyle where it is at today. Going through this journey is not always easy. There are days where I don’t want to do it anymore. But, I see this as an investment for me and my health. I know that it will continue to change and I am willing to change with it. I want to be able to do what I want to do and continue to LIVE FREE.
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