In my first blog post, I talked about when my digestive symptoms began, and how I suffered greatly for years with debilitating stomach pain. I often cancelled social plans, including my special birthday dinners, and travel plans were always up in the air. I had trouble sleeping, and was losing a lot of weight.
In that first blog I also outlined the foods I thought triggered pain and diarrhea. I constantly ate cautiously - while hoping to unlock the mystery behind all my stomach issues and just feel normal again.
I had seen a traditional gastroenterologist who diagnosed me with chronic Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). I was growing more and more frustrated because I just didn’t believe it. It seemed like a catch-all, and some of my symptoms were not consistent with IBS.
I also did not find this doctor to be helpful. I needed more direction, not to mention hope and assurance that I would someday get this stomach trouble under control and live a happier life in my retirement years.
New Doctor, New Ideas, New Hope
My husband and I spend our summers up North, and we have a home in Florida, where we spend the winter months. A local church often offers mini educational courses, which I often attend (depending on how interesting the subject matter is).
One of these was “What Causes Illness,” taught by a holistic doctor. I was so impressed by her. She was likeable, smart and compassionate, and framed illnesses in a way that I hadn’t thought about before. So, I decided to make an appointment to see her.
During my initial appointment with this holistic doctor, she was extremely thorough. She took a health history, asked me many questions, and took time to listen to the details. I could tell she really cared and wanted to help me find a way to manage my symptoms.
This holistic doctor also did not agree with the IBS diagnosis. She was the one to connect my current symptoms back to my food poisoning incident – the one in St. Croix when I turned 51 and eaten leftover pizza with mushrooms.
The mushrooms, she pointed out, were quite possibly the culprit. If I had microwaved the pizza to kill any bacteria that had resulted from the pizza being a day old, I may not have had food poisoning.
Although there was a period after that where I had no stomach issues or pain, she maintained that everything that goes into the body stays within the body – the good and the bad, such as vaccines and effects of food poisoning. Stomach trouble stemming from that initial food poisoning incident was probably manifesting this many years later.
We tried some alternative treatments and injections for my pain, which helped it subside.
But perhaps the most important thing she did was introduce me to a partner in her practice – who was a nutritionist. She made a few dietary recommendations to ease my symptoms. I would eat whole-grain cereal for breakfast often, thinking it was a healthy choice. She recommended I switch to oatmeal and cinnamon, with a few walnuts.
Recommended Natural Supplements
The nutritionist also recommended I take a variety of all-natural supplements, including milk thistle, ginger, and a probiotic – a combination based on my history and the symptoms I was having. I was desperate to feel better, and was game to try her plan.
Perhaps most intriguing was a protein supplement for stomach pain she recommended called Seacure. I had never heard of it before. Seacure, manufactured by a company called Proper Nutrition, is an all-natural dietary protein supplement made from the fillets of white fish. It is hydrolyzed and concentrated in pill form.
At first you would think – why a fish supplement? The answer is simple – for the protein! Protein has healing properties when it comes to the stomach.
Proper Nutrition’s patent-pending process gently breaks down and pre-digests the fish protein into amino acids (the building blocks of protein). This makes it easier for the gut to absorb. The amino acids and bioactive peptides work directly in the gastrointestinal tract to heal inflammation there.
As a result, gut integrity gets restored, and symptoms of digestive disorders are reduced. And as a bonus the specific protein fragments also benefit various physiological systems, including the immune, cardiovascular and nervous systems.
The nutritionist suggested I take six Seacure pills a day. It seemed like a lot, but I wanted to give it a try because the science made sense to me. I took them at bedtime.
And guess what? After about four weeks, my stomach pain started to lessen, my diarrhea started to subside, and perhaps most importantly – I felt hope and a positivity that I hadn’t felt in a long time!
Next time, in my third and final blog, I’ll tell you about all the effects of my treatment plan, which my holistic doctor and nutritionist help me set.
