The only place in the world we are forced to live is our bodies. This indicates that health and well-being are prerequisites for enjoying a true quality of life and not a luxury to be acquired. There is nothing better than being healthy on all levels: social, spiritual, intellectual and physical. I tell you this because I had to fight to find it!
Why wait until we become ill to understand the importance of a healthy lifestyle? Do we really have to go that far? It's insane, but that's what we're taught; a little pill here and there, and that's it! It's rare to find a Western doctor who questions the cause of a person's "discomfort." Instead, they offer a solution to mask the problem without trying to understand its origin in order to remedy it. This is why it's crucial to follow your "gut feeling" and "common sense." Traditional medicine doesn't hold all the secrets to full vitality!
Here is my story: just before my third birthday, my mother noticed an unexplained inflammation in my left knee. What she found abnormal was, in fact, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, the possible consequence of taking too many vaccines between the ages of 0 and 3. After failing to take Naproxen for 12 months and no results following a cortisone injection in the knee, my mother (Josée Duclos) immediately turned to several naturopathic researches to try to cure this inflammation. On the menu: a Mediterranean diet including an abundance of vegetables, fruits, omega-3, ground flax seeds, free from acidity (including refined sugar, concentrated juice, tomatoes...). Without being certain of the effectiveness of the natural methods she used, my mother managed to offer me the greatest gift of all: remission.
On the other hand, at 13, another obstacle in my health arose: hypothyroidism, Hashimoto's type (autoimmune). "As if arthritis wasn't enough!" I told myself. I was devastated, to be honest, at most my mother who completely understood what I was going through, since she had suffered from it since the age of 22. Despite the healthy lifestyle I once favored, I felt this overwhelming desire to cure my dysfunctional thyroid. My mother and I listened to reports, read books and studies with the ultimate goal of finding an answer to our famous question: How to cure hypothyroidism?
I then went to see a naturopathic doctor at the age of 14 who suggested that I cut out gluten and dairy products; a response that was no surprise to me after my extensive reading. For three consecutive months, I followed to the letter what he had suggested and it gave me great well-being. I told myself that I was on the right track and on the path to better vitality: I no longer felt as constipated, my energy level had increased. Some time after the end of the three-month trial with this new lifestyle, my pediatrician intervened negatively. The latter had noted a weight loss of approximately 5 lbs since my last visit. She therefore asked me if I had changed anything in my diet or anything else to explain this "worrying" weight loss. I explained to her that I had met with a naturopath who advised me to eliminate the foods mentioned above and that I had, on the contrary, reduced my food intake. However, she blamed these changes not only for my weight loss (which can logically be explained by the cutting out of mucoid foods), but for other problems such as the on and off constipation that appeared since hypothyroidism and my irregular menstrual cycle (another common symptom of hypothyroidism). And there, Bing! Bang! Boom! I was labeled as orthorexic: a person who cares about the impact of the quality of food ingested to maximize their overall health. What followed: appointments with the nutritionist, appointments with the psychologist and more frequent appointments with my pediatrician, a nice cocktail to deviate me from my path to recovery.
It's quite destabilizing to find yourself confronted with traditional medicine. I was beginning to doubt the approach I was using to try to cure my thyroid gland. I even cried because I felt helpless and lost in the middle of these contradictions. I didn't know what to do or who to listen to... When I went to the nutritionist, they told me to eat double, to eat pastries every day to relieve my guilt and gave me challenges like "For next week, you will try to eat a Kraft Peanut Butter toast with white bread"! I made an effort on my part for a period of time to follow some of the nutritionist's recommendations, such as reintroducing gluten, dairy products and increasing my portions even when I wasn't hungry. However, I didn't feel well. There were several times where I didn't have a bowel movement during a period of 2 weeks! In connection with this issue, my pediatrician told me that this is common in many people and that I will probably have to rely on chemical laxatives for the rest of my life. Yes, yes, she really said that to me as if constipation had become the norm! Incensed, my mother then convinced me to stop listening to my doctor and follow my first intuition...
Nowadays, we are afraid to think differently, we have this tendency to conform to the rest of our society for pure fear of being judged. Yet, all I wanted and still want is to regain all the vitality I had before my hypothyroidism! For me, stopping dairy products, gluten, chemical additives is not deprivation. It is a way to get rid of this autoimmune disease. Health + well-being = a real quality of life! There you have it.
NO, I am not the only one who chooses an alternative other than being condemned to medication for life!
Let's listen to the messages our body sends us; that's the key... Our body knows how to sound the alarm when it loses its balance. It's up to us to do everything we can to get it back. But let's stop poisoning our earth with insecticides and pesticides, let's boycott everything that takes a chemistry dictionary to read the list of ingredients in what we eat. At the end of the day, health is everyone's responsibility! Having a healthy body is possible, but we must also keep our earth healthy at all costs. I'll leave you saying that I'm going to do everything I can to find a way to heal myself, and if I succeed, I'll rush to share it with you :) To be continued...
Maison Jacynthe disclaims all liability. All information contained in this article or letter is not intended to replace justified allopathic treatment or to disregard the expertise of the medical profession. It is up to each individual to take charge of their own health, to inform themselves, and to make the necessary changes to improve their condition. Therapeutic supervision by a qualified healthcare professional is strongly recommended.
