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Triggers of autoimmune symptoms

Making no apologies for my selfish passion in researching autoimmune illness, I find myself stumbling over papers that I feel you may be interested in too.

As a crohns disease patient who is pretty well these days,  I still find myself aiming to get to the bottom of many other issues that lurk just under the barrier of health for me.

What is autoimmune illness?

The body can have a response to itself abnormally.  Causing damage and symptoms.
While we can currently list at least 80 types of autoimmune diseases, this is a growing list.
Here are some of the better known diseases:

Ulcerative colitis
Crohns disease
Multiple Sclerosis
Type 1 diabetes
Lupus
Rhumatoid arthritis
Coeliac disease
Endometriosis

We also experience may symptoms of the disease which are not the disease itself. Such as gastritis or chronic fatigue syndrome.

This article lists 12 common triggers of autoimmune illness.  You may not be shocked at many of them but it's good to revise once in a while.

Could food really be responsible?

Can we relieve symptoms by eating specifically for the autoimmune illness?

I believe so yes.  As I undertake research into this hypothesis, I will feed back here on this blog any exciting information or findings I can share with you.

Listen to the podcast here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/autoimmune-diet-and-me/id1023129375?mt=2 Choices of sessions one to one coaching £249.00 GBP follow up session £199.00 GBP set of 4 sessions £950.00 GBP Questions via email only £85.00 GBP
Email to book: lusherlifenutrition@gmail.com

Historical blog - My first week at university

Week 1 of university

Rain, rain and a little more rain. 

Gosh did it rain.  
Such a shame as we had the most amazing welcome planned for us with a beautiful marquee set up on the Pembroke lawn.  Awfully posh.  I felt it sounded just a little Royal.   

Excitedly,  I straightened my hair to its finest smoothness just that morning and was happy to hear that my new found friend Jules has also done the same.  Neither of us with an umbrella. 
Both of us taking cover in the marquee.  Bravely.  As no one else was! 
They were shyly braving the rain!  

Bacon rolls for brunch.  Yum.  Slight issue there with my gluten allergy. I ate just a rasher of bacon.  

Becky sat with me who was another human nutrition student. She was struggling to eat too as she was vegetarian.  Chatting with new friends, all seemed to be going well.  There was so much to take in on this new day.  Imagining this must be what it's like to move into the Big Brother house on channel 5 tv. Everyone getting to know each other while at the same time being on our best behaviour.  Missing my friends from my old university in this week was a huge challenge.  I was so glad Kathy was there. She was a friendly and familiar face from the last university.  
Yet I wished my Muna and Sheyma were here.  My comfort blankets.  That was all. I would have to learn to get along without them.   

The staff we met on this first week all seemed so professional, smart and totally passionate about their subjects and their university.  Buildings all around with beautiful red brick,  steeped in history of days gone by when this was a historic dockyard.  The place is just stunning.  Surrounded by trees and other green life giving forces.  Opening my eyes to see such beauty more and more as I learn details of the science behind life.  I think I'm going to like it here.

What food should you be eating?

The million dollar question.

What should you be eating?  What will suit your body?  Should we all eat the same and follow the same rules?

Great question. It seems few, if any, have the answer.  I don't; that's for sure.


Using my own health and body as an experiment I have been up, down and sleepy all at the same time! Just as I seem to find one answer, another health issue crops up.  Yet there are positives, there do seem to be a few consistent pieces of advice.

Drink water

We all know this one don't we.  Frequently I can be found guilty as not drinking the recommended 2 litres per day.  Yet seldom do you see one diet plan or piece of advice that suggests ignoring water.
So do it.  And see.  

Track your food

A few gurus say just eat.  A few say you can control your weight with your mind.  Whatever you do with your mind, nothing happens without action being taken.  Without tracking your food you are unlikely to be mindful of what is likely to go on in your body.  I always recommend www.myfitnesspal.com to all clients as a great app to pop every single thing that goes into your body on.  You can log weight too! More about that in another post. 

Without tracking you are likely  to eat 'imaginary' or 'invisible' food.  You know, the type that you will away from your hips  - playing make believe that you ever ate that in the first place!

Of course, this is not all about weight loss.  Should you have some symptoms or other, tracking is a fantastic way to keep an eye on what is making you feel really quite lousy.  As an example, I had gone hard and fast keto lately to aim to bring blood sugars down.  It hasn't been working and I have been feeling terrible.  Working with my Dr to see if this is something else or if indeed I need to change my diet, tracking has helped amazingly.

Should you prefer pen and paper, get a jazzy book (small one to fit in your bag) and carry it along with you.

You're welcome :)

Why I could gladly give up on nutrition!

Yes,  you can tell by the title of this blog post I am sick to the back teeth.

Trying to get things right.  The politics of the whole nutritionist verses dietitian does my head in!

Recently there was a show on the BBC called "Clean eatings dirty secrets".  It has hit the headlines all over the place.  The internet is crawling with opinions about this show.  The host was a blogger who interviewed other bloggers and youtubers and then went on to speak to those with PhD in nutrition etc.  There is no comparison in these two types due to the way it was edited.  Which makes me mad!

In actual fact, looking at it from my usual positive angle I will see it like this: anyone who is interested in food in relation to health should all be batting for the same team.

Right?

Doctors infuriate me with their answers of 'take this pill' or 'have this surgery' when both nutritionists and dietitians both believe a lot of health can be improved through diet.  I agree!!!

Anyone who is aware of their body, How it reacts and all in relation to food must, in my opinion, be credited for the fact that they are paying attention to getting to the root cause of the issue and not just putting a sticking plaster over the issue.

A dietitian who I had previously had the utmost respect for (who I watch on YouTube) made a grave error when referring to nutritionists.  She said as they are not regulated, they can say pretty much anything they like.  Now, yes this is true I guess.  Dietitians are regulated by the BDA in the UK and therefore have to play by certain rules.  One of the 'rules' is tell folks not to skip breakfast.  Yet many people believe fasting for several hours works for them.

How can that be? 

Yes, it can be.  If that is what the person believes, then likely that is what will make them feel better. 

Can't go without a coffee in the morning?  Likely you could, but you have the belief it will help.  Yes, me too.  So I enjoy that coffee without guilt of any type!

The truth is that the degree that both dietitians and nutritionists take is exactly the same course!  Yes you heard me.  It has the Same curriculum.  Except, the dietitian course is one year longer as there is much hospital placement work.  This is a truly valuable experience for those who are going to work in the NHS. This is with very sick people who often cannot swallow or digest food as opposed to someone like me who is Celiac and needs to watch certain food intakes due to allergy.  Perhaps that is not the best example to use but I think you can see my thinking. 

Many doctors will not believe in food intolerances.  You try telling someone with a food intolerance that their thinking is total nonsense.  Rubbish.

Where this left me was in a place of feeling worried and angry.  Worried about writing about nutrition anymore.  Angry because I felt my degree (which is crazy hard work) was being ridiculed.

I want to help people.

So do the dietitians.

As do those who believe eating loads of bananas will help, as do those who avoid meat, those who suggest paleo...the list goes on.

Surely, if you try one (any) of these methods and it works for you, the party poppers will come out?

I would love to keep passing on my knowledge and moreover I would love to install the belief in people that they can make a difference in their lives by taking more time and paying more attention to their bodies.

Should I throw in the towel?

Is it all just too confusing now to know what to eat?

When was the last time you ate something with total confidence?

You read so much from so many places and just when you think you might have cracked the code on the mystery that is 'healthy eating' you hear some new bit of research which tells you how wrong you have it.

I'm frustrated.  I'm being honest.


For me, things are a little different as I have both crohns disease and celiac so of course I need to take those things into account.  Yet as a nutritionist (the type without a degree - yet!) I find it's near on impossible to give the right advice to the entire audience.

A dietitian who I previously respected has published a rant about all the type of 'clean living' which is apparently a new fad.  The BBC published this show about the dirty secrets of clean living.  The blogger who hosted it was quite open about what she was trying and the advice she was getting from various fad diet gurus.  After watching it, I had to agree with a lot of what she said, there is a lot of bad advice out there.

Yet something that makes me really cross is how they portray us poor old 'nutritionists'.  
There seems to be a war between the quackary of being a nutritionist and a dietitian who is one to be obeyed.  
In fact, to set the record straight, we take the same degree qualification and the only difference is that Registered Nutritionists do not have to undertake hospital placements.  Generally,  once qualified and Registered with the Association for Nutrition, a Nutritionist will need to practice with as much credibility as a dietitian.  

I started out my degree to become a dietitian.  I changed my mind after 4 months as I realised that I would be tied to a 'one rule fits all'.  Sadly, I had a bad experience with a dietitian and I'm sure this was an isolated incident.  When I was first diagnosed with Crohns and fighting to keep my bowel in tact and not have it removed with surgery,  the dietitian I saw at my hospital knew nothing about adjusting my diet in accordance with inflammatory bowel disease, nor did my gasteroenterologist beleive I could make improvements in my health by changing my diet.

"you can't control your symptoms without medication or surgery, or both."  He said as I cried.
The dietitian advised me to eat from the Eatwell plate which I am sure would have left me in a state of needing the surgery.

I proved them wrong.

I won't go into my advice to you in this blog post. I simply want to  point out that if you believe one way works for you, then it's likely it will.  

However, while we have spent two years studying hardcore science and about to get into the minefield of research to complete our degrees at university, I can't help but wonder if I'm trying to enter an industry that seems to love a bit of politics.

That worries me.  

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I am determined as whatnots to get my bikini body back before a big event in November and it starts in three weeks time!

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