Louise

What the doctor doesn't tell you.

For over 20 years I have suffered with a painful back to the point it became my normal mode of 'being', I knew no different. Each morning I would wake up feeling like I had been run over and dragged up the road and then left for dead. My body felt old, heavy and weary. As the day would progress this pain would assist me in feeling like everything was an effort, it formed the basis of my dreary moods and poor general wellbeing.

As the years passed, I started to develop an awareness of stomach pains, and bowel pains, again, despite numerous visits to the GP (to no avail), I began to accept this as the normal, maybe even a progression of my back pain.

My GP, whilst willing to undertake an X-ray, generally put it down to 'muscular-skelatal' and 'too much acid', a term of phrase that really didn't mean much at all as far as treatment was concerned. The treatment offered amounted to increasing amounts of various strength painkillers and antacids. A situation I was not willing to accept on a day to day basis.

I turned to Chiropractic treatment with some element of success, in terms of making the pain tolerable without pain killers.
However, my stomach condition worsened to the point I considered to be life debilitating at times. Frequent visits to the GP resulted in a bounty of more drugs in the form of antacids, a recommendation to stay off acidic fruits and not drink alcohol.....Yay! I didn't drink alcohol at that point anyway. I took up the option of further tests, all of which ruled out anything serious.

I was stumped and frustrated, I ate a healthy vegetarian diet, generally cooked all my own foods, no alcohol, , yet internally I was in agony and quickly becoming depressed.

The lightbulb moment came when I went away on holiday, with no refrigeration, I was not able to access fresh foods, which included dairy in all forms. I also chose to stay away from bread for the duration of the holiday.
During the holiday, I felt fantastic, well, why wouldn't I? I was in a beautiful country, care free, no work, not a care in the world, of course I felt amazing!

Yet, surprisingly it wasn't until the end of the holiday that I realised why I had felt amazing, I had been pain free in my back, stomach and bowel. On arriving home, I tested my theory, and sure enough dairy and wheat contributed to my longstanding pains. For the first time in years I was pain free, let me say that again....... I was pain free! Years of drugs, tests and suffering came down to a simple change of diet.

I do not expect the medical world to place a connection between back pain and diet, but I do expect there to be an obvious connection with stomach and bowel issues. I wonder why it is not the first line of treatment to refer people to dieticians, rather than prescribe yet more pain killers with the triad of side effects that accompanies such treatments.

I am not saying that this is the cure for everyone, but surely there must be many people suffering as I did, who, with the right support and advice could turn their lives around with simple changes to their diet.
I fail to understand why the medical world has put such little importance and emphasis on the connection between diet and the functioning of the human body. After all, without food we will die, does this statement suggest the importance of food to human health?

Don't get me wrong, I do feel the onus is on the individual to take responsibility for their own health and wellbeing. However, people turn to the health experts GP's for advice and guidance on how they can begin to take control. The health service needs to start thinking outside of the box, and realising that their previous methods of care have resulted in a sicker nation with a cost implication that is spiralling out of control.

I have remained drug free and pain-free since my revelation and have now developed a new lease of life