Food intolerance case studies
Arthritis
Amy
Amy lived in Italy where she adored the Mediterranean diet of fresh tomatoes, aubergines, and sumptuous plump oranges, and she loved nothing better than rounding off the evening with a huge glass of wine or three. Her weakness was masses of cups of English tea - the only thing she missed about Blighty.
Amy came to see us on a trip to the UK last year as she was suffering from arthritis in her hips and knees. In fact the pain had got so bad that she had booked into have a hip replacement in the late summer.
The first thing we did was to book Amy in for a food intolerance test and remove the foods that typically exacerbate arthritis symptoms. Many of the foods she was intolerant to she ate every day including tomatoes and aubergines. We also gave Amy a vitamin and mineral programme to follow. She took digestive enzymes which can help reduce inflammation, and fish oils together with anti-oxidant vitamins and minerals. The slight changes in Amy’s diet and the nutrient programme had a very positive effect on her arthritis. Amy felt so much better that she cancelled her operation and was able to get out in the garden again much to her delight.
IBS
Sam
Sam came to The Nutrition Coach three months ago. She had been suffering from IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) for about seven years and had had to put up with bouts of constipation, griping pain and loose stools - often being caught short and having to make a dash for the loo. She had got to the stage of not really wanting to go out at all - let alone enjoy herself out shopping with a friend. She daren't risk it.
Her baby, Dan, now 18 months, had also added to the demands on the family and on life generally and Sam hadn't been able to shift the two stone that she had put on after he was born.
Our first priority was to see what was lurking in Sam's gut that was causing all the problems. We ran a stool test and found, lo and behold, a parasite. She also had very low friendly bacteria - friendly bacteria help protect the gut against intruders amongst other things.
We managed to get rid of the parasite with special herbs and we built up her colonies of friendly bacteria and meanwhile got cracking on designing Sam a whole new way of eating. We started of with "making" Sam eat breakfast - she had been skipping breakfast as she wasn't prioritising it and thought she couldn't spare the time. What a huge difference that and other small adjustments made to Sam's diet - she no longer has the huge craving she had for chocolate cookies!
Now, three months down the line, running for the loo is no longer an issue. Her gut is totally normal and as an added bonus, she is in all her pre-pregnancy clothes as she has lost a stunning two stone - with in her words, practically no effort at all.
Migraines
Victoria
Victoria had suffered from migraines for as long as she could remember. She used to get a migraine every few weeks - this generally meant at least one day in bed while she rode out the pain and nausea with painkillers. Victoria had tried many different approaches to try and get some relief but nothing really worked, and she resigned herself to a life of painkillers.
When Victoria came to see us we recommended a food intolerance test as food intolerances have been linked to migraines. Victoria’s results showed an intolerance to oranges, wheat, diary and chocolate - these foods often come up in migraine sufferers. We got to work straight away and took these foods out of Victoria’s diet. We recommended plenty of alternatives to wheat and diary so that Victoria didn’t feel like she was missing out.
We also worked on Victoria’s blood sugar - migraines can be triggered when blood sugar levels fall too low. On top of this we introduced a supplement programme which included magnesium and vitamin B6, both of which have been shown to be helpful for reducing the severity of migraines. We also recommended that Victoria see an osteopath as we suspected that a bad back and neck problem, which she had had for several years, could be making things worse.
Although Victoria does still get the odd migraine, they are much less frequent and less severe than they used to be. Victoria has considerably reduced her reliance on painkillers and for the first time in years, her life is no longer governed by migraines.
Severe bloating
Jill
When we saw Jill she was really at the end of her tether – bloating and gas meant that by the evening her stomach was “the size of a balloon”. In fact the day she came to see us, she was very upset as someone had offered her a seat on the tube, thinking she was pregnant. She was suffering from periodic bouts of constipation, followed by periods of loose stools. She couldn’t really tell what made this all better or worse – she’d rather given up but she had booked time off for a holiday and the thought of getting the swimming costume out had driven her to look for a solution!
Once we had done the dietary assessment, we asked Jill to do some biochemical tests and we tested for low stomach acid. It seemed that the bloating was being made worse by low stomach acid, which meant that her food was fermenting as it was not digesting properly. Another clue was that on holidays her symptoms seemed to get a bit better. We gave her another test called an Adrenal Stress Index to look into the function of her adrenals (where stress hormones are made) – it turned out that a prolonged period of stress was not helping her gut. Finally, we asked her to undertake a stool test where we found that the balance of friendly to unfriendly bacteria in her gut was not balanced favourably. A mix of getting her stress under control (and some vitamin supplements to help), getting her diet back in order, and a course of great probiotics has made Jill a much happier lady!
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