Today, I am writing an update on my life. I am trained as an economist and lawyer. However, during these last eight years living in Dubai, I challenged myself and added different knowledge to my arsenal and had a reset of my life.
I like the process and challenge of learning. I’m happy to learn about anything, from home keeping, like cooking and gardening, to art, like photography and water coloring, to science, like bacteria biofilms, and how to treat them. I like gaining knowledge. But I don’t want to learn things just for the sake of it. There must be a practical application and reason for it.
My health journey
In my childhood, I was a picky eater. Later, I spent my teenage years, my twenties, and well into my thirties trying to fix my gastrointestinal, skin, allergy, and other symptoms. I suffered from indigestion, constipation, and bloating from some foods I ate. In addition, I had allergic dermatitis patches on my face and body and cracked and bleeding skin on my fingers, and I had a blocked nose and blocked years every night. Later in life, I started reacting to sun creams and many cosmetic items and having random rashes on my back and abdominal area.
I read every book and every magazine; tried every diet, every healing program: Keto, Paleo, Vegan, Carnivore, Atkins, Animal based, Gluten-free, Elemental, GASP, PIA, Intermittent fasting – you name it, I tried it; tried the pills, supplements, herbs, lotions, and potions. I read books, blogs, and scientifical papers.
I saw so many doctors, most of whom could not help me at all, and their treatment protocols made me feel worse. One doctor suggested flying the plane to unblock my ears (that was my body’s allergic reaction to too much dairy consumption, which I discovered later). Another was treating my bloating with yucky cabbage and beetroot juice three times a day, making me a hundred times more bloated than I initially was. Many suggested living with it and tried to convince me that this was all in my head. I was even told that my symptoms were typical and were all part of aging.
Don’t get me wrong. There are conditions with which doctors deal amazingly. Emergency situations are some of them. And I am grateful to all doctors for helping my family and me in every health situation. However, while medicine has mastered acute illness, it struggles with the growing burden of chronic disease.
Now, after many hours invested in researching and reading thousands of medical scientifical papers, I know it is not normal to feel bad. I know that there is always a way to fix an issue or at least minimize it. We need to never give up. My unanswered questions and unsolved medical problems by conventional doctors led me to do lots of research and some training on my own.
Life update – Studies
I completed the online training course, the Low FODMAP Diet for Irritable Bowel Syndrome, at the Gastroenterology Department of Monash University for dietitians/health professionals. Thanks to Monash University’s extensive work in IBS area, many IBS and other gastrointestinal patients can take their gut health back into their own hands by managing their symptoms through diet and improve their overall quality of life. Completion of this program, and the knowledge I gained explained lots of my gastrointestinal symptoms. This enabled me to deal with them effectively and confidently.
Then, I enrolled at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and became an officially certified Health Coach. I wanted to increase my skills and learn, in a formal training program, how to live a better life by eating well and taking care of myself and my family. I have received very detailed and careful instructions on counseling others too.
I read extensively about allergies. And finally, after seeing many doctors and doing countless tests, I discovered the cause of my dermatitis, rashes, sensitives to cosmetics, and even my headaches – nickel, resin, colophony, and other chemical allergies.
One day, I started seeing sense, connecting the dots, and questioning everything I thought was true about health. I managed to eliminate most health issues by letting go of all the marketing, health, and medical gimmicks and “truths” told by doctors and pseudo-doctors I have believed for so many years. Now, I focus on what is simple, factual, logical, and based on science. And, of course, I try to be in tune and listen to my body. The moment I simplified my life, stopped using all the powders and pills, stopped doing 7 step skin routine, and stopped eating superfoods and all healthy vegetables, my life started to improve step by step.
What I am up to now
Health is a process, not a destination. I aim to have the best body – the frame that keeps my soul safe. So, I am constantly searching for the best version of myself. And I do it by cutting out the junk, trying to understand the facts, and giving myself knowledge and, therefore, the confidence to go against the mainstream “noise” that confuses health topics.
I have always been interested in health and healing nutrition and enjoy sharing this knowledge with my friends and family. Sometimes, too much. But more and more people I meet are interested in this subject. However, most of them are confused or uninformed, even about simple things. For example, most people do not know that a cucumber is a carbohydrate, too; they think that only pasta and pastries are carbohydrates.
I know it sounds like a cliché, but I really love to help people. That is why I regret that I did not become a doctor. I know that my mission in this life is to help people. We are here on Earth not to market or sell useless products, lotions, potions, superfoods, or supercars. I am also not a nice girl, and I don’t say things to please people or avoid controversy. I am not writing this blog to increase followers and monetize my social media presence. I don’t have affiliate links or paid partnerships. All this is not for me. I maintain my approach to health with logic and common sense. I no longer let every influencer, book, or doctor affect my understanding of what it means to feel good and healthy.
Now, I am enrolled in the Institute of Integrative Nutrition Hormones course. One more missing link to a perfect feeling and good health. Hormones are vital chemicals that enable daily bodily functions like reproduction, movement, metabolism, mood, sleep, hunger, and many more.
I am also investigating deeply small intestine bacterial overgrowth, intestinal methanogen overgrowth, fungi overgrowth, and biofilms. This might be revolutionary in the coming years, letting people finally have flat bellies and forget gassiness and bloat. It is incredible how many new discoveries have been made in this field. However, it is regrettable that, as of today, most doctors don’t know any of this information.
I am also trying to learn about systemic nickel allergy. Nickel allergy is one of the fastest growing allergies in the world, affecting about 17% of women and 5% of men, and apparently causing a plethora of different symptoms, not only rashes and various skin conditions, but many psychological symptoms, headache, urinal tract infections, irritable bowel syndrome and many more.
All these health-related questions and the fact that sometimes the solutions are simple (not very easy, but simple) fascinate me.
This is an update about what I am up to and what interests me apart from all family life. We all have different things that energize us. For me, this life stage is learning all the health secrets and trying to do everything in my hands to feel the best.
I want to challenge you to take a step back from all the healthy movement noise so that you can really start listening to your body and start taking good care of it.
