Being a PE major in college, I took anatomy and physiology. I studied the body for a whole year. Even with the basic knowledge I had gained, I was still completely in the dark when it came to the damage I was creating in my intestines. I had no idea how horrible I was treating my digestive tract. Through some research, and from much needed guidance from Jen, I realized what was most likely happening in there.
Jen suggested that I take the candida test. Now, first of all, I had no idea what candida even was. Was that English? Turns out candida is just a fancy word for yeast overgrowth. There is a simple spit test that she suggested I do. Now, this test isn't 100% accurate, but it has been proven to be pretty spot on in most cases. I later found out that my dear friend had a doctor who told her do this test, but expected her to pay lab costs! He sent her home with a cup and she had to spit in it and send it off to the lab to get the results! This test is something you can do in your house, without sending anything to a lab! It's a simple spit test. Here's how it works. First thing in the morning, before drinking water or brushing your teeth, spit into a cup of water. Let it sit for a bit and observe what the saliva does. I felt like a little kid with a science experiment. I couldn't stop watching it! Now, it wasn't a good thing, come to find out, that my saliva was moving. Bad sign of things brewing in my belly! The picture explaining it in more detail is below, and if you CLICK HERE it will bring you to the National Candida Center website, where you can read a little more about it.
Now...my saliva was that bad stuff on the bottom. I tried to coach the stuff to stay on the top, to be good saliva, but it clearly had a message for me; you've got some intestine problems! It started out on the top, then it grew legs, and started taking a trip to the bottom of the glass. I hadn't looked into the results or what sinking meant yet, but something told me that it wasn't what healthy spit was supposed to be doing! It appeared that I probably had an overgrowth happening in there. Yikes! Now this overgrowth and leaky gut seemed to go hand in hand. I had no clue what leaky gut was, but I also knew that didn't sound promising either!
Leaky gut is just as it sounds! Tiny holes form in your intestines and your gut literally leaks the contents into your blood stream! EEK! This was the cause of all of the food allergies, or sensitivities that I had been experiencing. It seemed that the list of foods that made my stomach all crazy and made me feel very sick was getting extremely long. Foods that I used to be able to eat were now off limits. It was sort of a Russian roulette every time I ate. I was constantly wondering if what I was eating was going to make me sick. Turns out, it was because of this leaky gut situation! CLICK HERE to read more about the relationship between leaky gut and candida as well as more about both problems! While on this website, I came across a self-test that was somewhat of a checklist (CLICK HERE to take the test!). It asked you to give yourself a point for any of the symptoms you were experiencing. There were 80 symptoms listed. I thought, there's no way I have that many. Wrong. I had 18! More than 10 showed that you have some problems internally...and I almost had double that! I needed some changes, and fast!
The next step was to figure out how in the world to help those holes heal, and to get that overgrowth to settle down. I am currently still working on this. It is a slow and gross process. I needed to supplement my body with the nutrients it was so desperately missing. I was eating, but was actually starving because I was losing all of the nutrients. I needed to pump probiotics into my gut to help it heal as well. I needed to stay away from sugary foods. My biggest help through this process, my savior, has been Isagenix products. They have supplements that have helped keep my body full of vital nutrients, as well as shakes that are packed full of the probiotics my gut needs. My body is unfortunately angry at the changes. I have good days, but I also have many bad days. The good bacteria that I am now sending in there is in a constant battle with the bad junk in there. The bad junk is still winning unfortunately. I am in a waiting game for the good guys to prevail and my body to be back in balance. The foods that I am eating are also helping the process. They are so much more healthy and good for my digestive system, as well as my whole body. I am finally on the path to healing, and I couldn't be happier. I know I have a long good vs. evil battle ahead of me, but I am ready to host that war. I am so thankful for the knowledge that Jen provided me! The imperative knowledge that no doctor had. I am finally headed in the right direction after being lost for so many years!
Another helpful site: http://www.thecandidadiet.com/
Check out my next post for the other test Jen had me do......
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