Shhh… don’t tell anyone
I’ll let you in on a little secret. My gut health is not great. There, I said it. Nutritional therapists aren’t perfect either. Why am I telling you this? Because I’ve had gut problems for a long time. I first noticed something was up in 2010. That’s a whole decade ago and it’s still not resolved. You might wonder why on earth a nutritional therapist has not sorted out their gut in all that time.
Well, I didn’t know about nutritional therapy then. I knew about IBS. I knew it was common. I got checked out and I saw a doctor. I had a colonoscopy. Nothing untoward, just good old IBS. That’s what I was sent away with and no advice on what to do about it, just something to live with.
Then fast forward to 2015, which is when we started trying for a baby. Nothing happened for a whole year. I found out I was pregnant in January 2016. But it was an ectopic pregnancy i.e. it wasn’t viable. We weren’t allowed to try and conceive again for 3 months due to the medication I had to take to end the pregnancy (a cancer killing drug). We got pregnant straight away once we were allowed to try again, much to my delight. But I had a miscarriage at 6 weeks. Lots of soul searching and research ensued.
I came across nutritional therapy towards the end of 2016, but instead of going to see one, I decided to enrol on a course to study it part time - as you do! A matter of weeks before starting the course, I found out I was pregnant again with my now toddler son. It was a fascinating journey - learning all about the intricacies of the human body, the effects of food and the environment and how it all intertwines with our genes and family history. I learned all of this whilst growing a human inside of me and I was hooked.
I had my son, continued on my studies and 9 months later conceived again. I did this despite knowing that I still had some unresolved gut issues. Because I was at an age where I knew I wanted another baby and that it had taken some time to conceive the first time, so I didn’t want to delay trying. I did in fact see a nutritional therapist prior to conceiving but because I was still breastfeeding, I couldn’t do in depth work on my gut. So I was pregnant again. It was a tougher pregnancy - I got quite ill in my last trimester with a horrible chesty cough that caused severe rib pain and got signed off work. Went on antibiotics. Baby girl arrived safe and sound in 2019 and then I was breastfeeding again. I am still breastfeeding more than a year later, so again, I can’t do much in depth gut work.
But I have just received back the results of a comprehensive stool test (I hadn’t done one previously due to the breastfeeding and pregnancies - I wouldn’t have been able to do that much with the results if pathogens were found). And I will now be able to properly start the journey of healing my gut - I will have to stop breastfeeding in order to properly prioritise my health (just waiting until baby is settled in nursery - breastfeeding offers so much immune protection). But that’s a whole decade of unnecessary digestive symptoms - which will have had an impact on both my own health (taking me down a path of potential chronic illness) and that of my children. Both have shown signs of eczema - the youngest showed signs of bad eczema at a very early age. Eczema is linked to asthma which also runs in my husband’s family and we live in one of the most polluted areas in Europe.
So what am I saying? If I was to rewind back 10 years - to my mid-twenties, when children were not yet on the horizon, I was enjoying my London life and city job, I wish I had prioritised my health and known who to turn to for that help and guidance. Not only would it have helped me, it would most likely have set me up for a more straightforward journey to having children and put them in the best health possible from day 0.
Are you experiencing gut symptoms or is anything else bothering you?
Get in touch to arrange a chat so we can explore how nutritional therapy might help you.