Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.
Most of us have heard of this quote many times before, thought it sounded like a good idea, and then went on about our daily lives popping the headache pills and downing the Pepto! When dealing with minor health issues, it's much easier to turn to the pills than to research what foods might help your body help itself. But what about when modern medicine fails you, or just holds it's hands up in defeat and says it has no cure for your condition? What about when the conventional treatment of pumping your body full of drugs leaves you feeling more sick than your illness ever did in the first place? What about when in order to heal one disease, the medicine you have to take causes other issues, or stops normal body processes from occurring?
When that happens you start to think there has to be another way. That's when you hear Hippocrates' wise words and wonder if there is any substance to them..... if food really could be the medicine that heals you.
It's not such a strange concept. There is rarely a day that goes by anymore when there is not a report on the news extolling the health benefits of a food. We have gone past just breaking foods up into fats, carbs and protein, and now look at the effects of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and enzymes on our bodies. Different organs and systems in our bodies require certain substances to function effectively, and foods provide these substances. If you have issues with your liver, doesn't it make sense to make sure to eat foods that provide plenty of the vitamins and minerals the liver needs to function? Seems like common sense right?
This is where I was going with my thinking as I progressed through my battle with Endometriosis. There is no cure for endo, and all the hormonal medications can do is mask the condition by shutting down the hormonal cycle. While this works to relieve pain and other symptoms in most endo sufferers, it is not a permanent fix to the disease, and also prevents the patient from being able to conceive, again as the hormones of the reproductive system are shut down.
I'm not against the hormonal medication approach to endo by any means- as you'll see if you look at my timeline on the left side of this page, I have undergone Lupron treatment twice, and have taken Letrazole Femara and Birth Control Pills on a continuous basis for quite some time with very successful outcomes. While I am on the medication, I can live a normal life and all but forget the horrendous pain I was in pre pills. But, we want a family.... and hopefully one that we can make ourselves! That would require some hormones on my part, and while I'm medicated I don't have any! So in order to embark on our dream to have a baby I need to find a way to control the endometriosis without the hormonal drugs, to be able to continue to live my life pain free, but also with a functioning reproductive system....
Enter Dian Shepperson- Mills! I first discovered her work when spending hours and hours researching endometriosis when I was first diagnosed. I thought her book looked interesting, and had great reviews everywhere I looked so I took the plunge and ordered it. When it arrived I read it cover to cover and it just made sense. This was in November 2008, I had just had my first lap to confirm I had severe Stage IV endo, and Dian gave me hope that this diagnosis didn't mean a lifetime of pain. At the time though, I wasn't ready to go adapting my diet, taking supplements etc, so we followed the conventional medicine route. Fast forward to 2010, after numerous times on the operating table, and countless pills popped and needles injected, and while I was pain free for now we still didn't have that baby we set out to make in March 2008! It was time to pull out that book again and really take it seriously this time.
So in November 2010, I combined a visit back to England to see family, with an appointment with Dian Shepperson-Mills herself to start my journey of letting food be my medicine!
In my next post I will share my experience with Dian and the personalized food and supplement plan I was given, as well as my experience so far.
Thanks for reading!
Lynsey x
