Christmas! The season of fun, festivity… and food intolerance?
More and more people are discovering the true meaning of that age-old saying: you are what you eat. And, at this time of year, many have to think even more seriously about their diet.
This leads me on to introduce you to a wonderful human being called Philippa Parish. For well over 10 years I have been sending patients to her for nutritional support.
As often happens, she was recommended to me by a satisfied patient who had amazing results with her skin condition after working with Philippa, having some blood tests for her food intolerances and taking appropriate action.
Because of her interesting approach to nutrition, I started to refer patients to her and they all came back with similar positive stories. So when my poor little lad Harrison, at just two years old, had constant skin conditions all over him, with obvious links to food, I took him to get the Philippa treatment! Sure enough, the foods we knew were a problem for him were highlighted and a good number of others revealed themselves too.
So with a change of diet and a few positive suggestions about food alternatives, Harry soon got better and has been good ever since. Now he is nearly seven and his food intolerances have really reduced as his gut has matured.
Recently, when an opportunity arose for Philippa to come and work with us at Cleve Chiropractic and Physiotherapy Clinic, I jumped at the chance and now I simply send patients upstairs!
Without my recommendation, a long-standing patient who had GERD – or acid reflux – went to Philippa in the clinic. At his next chiro appointment, he told me that she had cured his acid troubles and suggested I should give it a try, as we have moaned about suffering with the same problem for years.
Those of you who know me well, realise I have suffered with GERD for maybe eight or nine years. Why I haven’t found the time to visit Philippa personally only the part of my brain that writes excuses professionally can tell you! So I went. Actually I went, determinedly, on my birthday in September.
Sure enough, the things that I know swell my belly, like bread and cows’ milk, showed up strongly on my tests but there was more. The two ‘biggies’ were oats and eggs… which was not great news. I was having porridge (complete with oat milk) for breakfast every day – and if not porridge, then eggs! I was a bit shocked but, as I thought about it, if my stomach is rebelling against oats, then imagine what a big bowl of porridge sat there every morning was doing to me.
So I listened to everything Philippa had to say, read all the information she gave me and replaced my normal breakfast with very Scandinavian things like gluten free bagels, smoked salmon and goats’ cheese with sauerkraut and a couple of good bacteria capsules. I have followed the diet religiously and it gets easier each week as I find my way around the supermarket reading all the packets and learning what surprisingly few products don’t contain milk, eggs, oats or wheat!
After about 10 days, as I walked past my bedroom mirror, towards the shower, I noticed how my body actually looked. Not a thing you do often when you are over 40, but I noticed that my stomach had deflated and my little round belly had flattened. I must have been in university the last time I had a flat stomach.
I rushed to the scales and, sure enough, I had lost nearly a stone. I was eating what I would consider a similar amount but I had lost weight and truly felt better physically and mentally. As I take medication twice a day, it’s hard to judge how my acid is doing but, at the time of writing, I can no longer feel the GERD symptoms before my tablet is due. I even went a few hours without tablets for the first time in years the other day because I left them at home by accident.
The programme is designed to be strict for three months to allow the stomach to heal and then we can go from there. So here’s hoping that, as I approach the New Year, I can reduce or even go without the medication.
If you have any stomach/intestine issues, skin conditions, sinusitis or even types of arthritis and auto immune conditions, I would urge you to book an appointment with Philippa at the clinic. All of her packages are on the website but the simple blood test with consultation was only £125, which I now know is a bargain. So please, if you or anyone you know, is suffering in silence, there could be another way.
I have another appointment booked this month so let’s see what advice she has for Christmas breakfast, dinner, pudding, supper, drinks, canapés… Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year from all of the staff at your favourite clinic!
Image by Nicky ❤️???❤️ from Pixabay
