my journey

Welcome, Akwaaba

What could be happening

About 7yrs ago I went through a scary health cycle.   It started with dryness of mouth: At first, I thought it was because I had changed my tooth paste, so I stopped using it, but the dryness persisted.   I literally had to keep water in my mouth to have comfort and moisture in my mouth. Next my lips started turning Black, Tingling, and Itchy. 

At this point all I could do was to pray and go see the doctor.  My doctors couldn’t give me answer.  I did all kinds of tests including a visit to the neurologist and allergist.  All the tests came back negative.  The prayers though never stopped.  One day the thought of paying attention to what I eat came to mind. 

My first reaction was I have not introduced any new food into my diet.  I have been eating “these food” since childhood, so then how can the same food be affecting me now.   When these symptoms were happening, I was trying to lose weight, so I was doing the “lemon and honey” thing. 

I would drink a combination of fresh squeeze lemon and honey in the mornings before breakfast.  One morning when I drank it I notice within an hour that the itching in my lips had increase and then there were bumps all over my lips. 

Could this be an allergic reaction, and if so, what am I reacting to?  I stopped the lemon and water for some days and the symptoms reduce, when I went back to the concoction the itching and bumps came back with a vengeance, so I stopped ingesting lemon and honey. 

Then one day I ate some watermelon and by the next morning my mouth was swollen. Experiencing a swollen mouth again made me think of what happened with the lemon hone concoction. So, what is the connection  SUGAR. 

Sugar, how do somebody react to sugar was the question to myself.  Everything that I eat breaks down to sugar. As an African most of our foods are starch base and all starches breaks down into SUGAR. 

I ASKED my doctor is it possible to react into sugar and the answer was NO.  I told myself that since it is my body, I will just stop the starchy food and see what my body responses.

Before all this when people said “listen to your body” I would always frown at it but now I know that when you put something in your mouth, your body will answer you either right away, the next day, or a few days later. 

While I was still praying I stumbled upon the elimination diet. The elimination diet to sum it up is for two weeks you go off what you have eaten all the time and live on greens, then after two weeks you reintroduce into your diet your previous foods that you eat, your body will then let you know if the food you have reintroduce is good for you or not. 

I was not able to eliminate the food I had been eating since childhood, but I drastically reduce it and my body gave me answer.  The itching stopped, my lips went back to normal, no more numbness in my lips.  When I introduce my starchy food back with the quantity I normally ate, the reactions started again.

Conclusion

          To cut a long story short, all the symptoms I was experiencing stopped so long as I was not eating anything with high sugar content.  Recently another symptom appeared Knee Pain; what? Well, this is what my body is doing and I do not know what is going on in yours it might be different and you may be wondering how do I get to the bottom of it. 

I will say start with prayer, then pay attention to what you eat and then listen when your body speaks.  How does the body speak you may ask through Pain, Your skin, Your breath, Your urine, inflammation, Itching, and so many more.

Till we meet again, take good care of this house you are in, and remember whatever you put in your mouth your body answers you back