I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. My blood work showed I had high levels of toxic metals in my body, metals such as Mercury and Cadmium. The doctors told me they did not know how to treat mercury poisoning. They prescribed a drug called Methotrexate (this was to treat my autoimmune disease not the mercury toxicity) and told me that I will have to take it for the rest of my life. After reading the side effects, I decided I did not want to be on this drug so I took matters in my own hands and decided to heal myself through diet and nutrition. I was never a junk food eater to begin with so making certain dietary changes was not very difficult for me.
I became a strict vegan for a few years but after careful analyzing and evaluation of my health, I realize that even when I am eating at an optimum level my body was not responding positively. In other words, There is no one size fits all when it comes to eating for your best health.
I was using my blender and my juicer more than I use my stove. Routinely I would juice a bunch of kale, swiss chard, dandelion greens, beet greens, celery and more. Initially my body felt great, and mentally I was feeling like wonder woman, thinking I was doing what’s right. I would make fresh smoothies with raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries etc. All my meals were fresh and unprocessed. My fiber intake was on point and I felt great! (mentally)
You can call me a gym rat and I would not be offended, I go to the gym a minimum of 6 days per week, I lift weights and worked one body part each day and do cardio for 30 to 40 minutes each of day.
After two and a half years of eating strictly plant based my autoimmune flare ups were not going away and I notice other changes in my body that was very puzzling to say the least. I notice my finger and toe nails were no longer growing not only were they not growing but my toe nails would crack and break from the nail bed. My skin was very dry and brittle, I had to constantly dab moisturizer on my face every fifteen minutes. My hair was also extremely dry to the extent that I could barely pull the comb through it. At this point I started to panic, I had no clue what was happening to me. I would break down and cry as I am trying to do the best I can with my diet and it wasn’t working. In December of 2015 I read the book “Kale and Coffee: A Renegade’s Guide to Health, Happiness and Longevity” by Kevin Gianni.
This book gave me insight in the world of Veganism and allows me to believe and accept that just because it’s healthy and raw doesn’t mean that it’s right for me. In this book Kevin travels to many countries seeking the truth about health and research the diets of the longest living people across the globe. His range of research and travels spans from the Seventh Day Adventist in Loma Linda in California, Okinawa, Japan, Nicoya, Costa Rice and more. Each group’s diet was significantly different. And, not every group was strictly plant based. If you are on the fence about your diet and health this is a very good book to read.
During the same month my mother, while talking to me, held on to my arm and said, “for a young girl your arm is very soft, you have no muscle tone”! (You can always count on your parents to give you the unfiltered truth) I was shocked and she was right. Despite the fact that I was working out like a beast in the gym and drinking my plant based protein shake every morning I was losing muscle tone. That was the month I decided that I would slowly reintroduce eggs and fish back in my diet. I also cut back on the vegetables I was juicing.
I started taking the best quality multivitamins (Pro Thera MultiThera, multivitamin/mineral) and fish oil(Omega-3 fat EPA-DHA Extra strength Enteric Coated), and magnesium (Pure Encapsulations Magnesium Glycinate). This is when I notice a change on my skin, I wasn’t running to Sephora to replenish my moisturizer as often, my hair wasn’t 100 percent back to normal but it was definitely getting better and my nails were not as brittle.
I started researching and reading more and more on the possible ways of getting heavy metals out my body. It’s still somewhat unclear to me as to how I got mercury and cadmium in my body. Right now, I am living in remission of my autoimmune disease; I will get flare-ups whenever I eat certain food or if I am experiencing stress.
In my next blog I will talk about the different foods that people with an autoimmune disease should not eat and the pros and cons of juicing.
I bought my vitamins on Amazon:
Pro Thera Multithera - http://amzn.to/2z4Yw1Y
Tangy Tangerine multivitamin - http://amzn.to/2iYltcc
Pure Encapsulation Magnesium - http://amzn.to/2iloPGF
"Kale and Coffee" by Kevin Gianni - http://amzn.to/2yK1l44
Metagenics Omega Genics EPA-DHA 720 http://amzn.to/2GkE796