News Flash...

I have two posts ready to go; one about what a Naturopath actually does and one on my first appointment, but I have news I have to talk about first!

You will learn that one of my favorite things about naturopathic medicine is the specialty test.  There are things MDs don't test for because insurance is so limiting, or because they are not seeking the root cause of your symptoms.  NDs will sometimes run labs for things about which you've never even heard!  I dig it.

Enter the Antibody Assessment test for food sensitivity.  I've been having some vague digestive symptoms for the last few months.  You know how sometimes you just feel "funny"?  Or "weird"?  ...like you couldn't describe it more accurately without a thesaurus or a some kind of Avatar port connecting you to your doc?  My ND and I have made some progress on my symptoms but they persist and so the labs were run.

Hold tight while I veer off and tell you  about my sugar addiction.  For me, sugar was the gateway drug to more sugar.  Candy-sugar.  Cookie-sugar.  Any-sugar.  YUM!  I had to have it and then I had to have more.  Even after I was nutritionally educated and very diligent with my diet, this was a beast I couldn't easily tame.  Finally, with a two-sided approach, my sugar cravings are minimal.  1. My naturopath has balanced my various systems to the point where I just don't crave or think about it a lot.  2. I eat natural peanut butter instead.  A spoonful of no-sugar-added peanut butter has enough sweetness, creaminess, & sticky gooey heaven, that it can kill my sweet tooth in one spoon's swoop.

You know what's coming, right?  The news?  Test results! 

                                                      I'm peanut intolerant!!  Arghhhh!  Noooooooooo!

Sigh.  Deep down I had an idea that this might be coming.  I eat it everyday.  And occasionally I've even felt that odd digestive discomfort soon after a happy spoonful (I'd pretend I hadn't noticed a correlation).  But really, you probably shouldn't eat ANYthing every single day aside from maybe kale, which I'm sure is allowed at every meal but isn't gonna replace an Oreo.

For the curious, here's a little info about a food intolerance/sensitivity versus a food allergy.  The anti-body assessment tested my system's response to certain foods.  If the immune system reacts, it's an allergy and typically results in the immediate onset of symptoms.   (Remember, I'm NOT a doctor and if you are experiencing any such thing, see a doc versus trying to self diagnose.)  An intolerance is not necessarily immediately recognizable, or even experienced the same way every time; it results from a specific antibody being produced by your body in reaction to a particular food (like peanuts, dagnabbit).  But again, get the specifics from a professional; I'm against self-treatment based on someone's internet ramblings. 

So goodbye my lovely peanut butter, at least for now.  You'll be missed!  Until we eat again, I will think of you fondly.  (Hm.  I'm amused to realize even as I write... there was an earlier clue that this little legume was maybe too important to me.  My cat's name is P-Nut.  And she's 17 years old; I shoulda seen it comin'.  Har.)  I'll let you know how this turns out....

Find yourself a naturopath, folks.  They may have just the trick or test you need to identify the reason you sometimes just feel a little "weird".