I’ll disagree with one of the posts because living proof cannot be denied. I’ve been in the clinical chemistry field for 20+ years- yes, that is your labs and how docs use them, what they are not good for, what they are good for, how we develop them, etc. After trips to several doctors, and my own research, a naturopath was the only one who stopped to actually look at everything going on. I knew there was an absorption issue, but didn’t know the cause. I previously had a methacholine challenge, scope, the entire 9 yards of a “give them a pill and you’ll be better” type culture. Eventually naturopathic and conventional medicine need to work together. Yes more labs may be needed, but sometimes it pays to start simple! Food intolerances eventually wreck havoc on your entire system by destroying the stomach wall and letting the proteins cross the barrier lowering your threshold and causing you to react to things you normally would not. Call it leaky gut, food intolerances or whatever you will-of course the conventional medicine in society will call it bogus as they can’t write a prescription when all you have to do is eliminate the culprit. This can lead to autoimmune issues which you were describing. It is simply something to consider if the traditional docs cannot find a cause, I and others I know are living proof that there is a connection between what you eat and good health, how can that even be argued? Four docs later including specialists, countless bills and something has got to give as they simply kept putting “band-aids” on my symptoms instead of getting to the root of the problem. Unfortunately most of health care isn’t getting to the root, to what is causing the problem, they slap on a band-aid, prevacid, lipitor, and on and on.
Sometimes the answers are really quite simple. Our food supply isn’t exactly pure and the american diet is beyond what is considered “food”. Heck, even what is considered nutrition for an athlete isn’t always exactly “food”. Physicians who are not willing to accept this and open up to other ideas are failing our patients. Yes, there are naturopaths who don’t have a clue and then there are some that understand what many physicians will never be able to connect.
Labs need to be taken into context with a patient’s symptoms. Many other things in a patient’s blood sample interfere with the reagents used and many of the tests are too non specific, look up specificity and sensitivity. Physicians also fail to instruct the patient on how to prepare for them. Eg, ordering a celiac panel on a patient who has not had gluten in their diet for months is worthless. Just stating this is all “wrong” is fairly closed minded to those who are proof diet plays a huge role in the inflammatory process and all of the research that is being done out there.
Be careful when you choose a physician, and if you can, there are some who mix naturopathic with conventional medicine. Read up on labs they order so you can do the right preparation if you need to. The elimination diet he had me on was eliminating all processed food, nuts, soy, gluten, rice, corn, dairy as a start. It really isn’t all that difficult once you figure out all that you can eat. I ate a lot of fish, fresh veggies, fruit, eggs, quinoa, sweet potatoes. It took a bit of creativity but it was essentially what we should all be eating-real food! After a couple of weeks I started adding things back and continued on every couple of weeks.
See a rheumatologist to rule out anything severe, they will certainly know that some of the labs they order are “weak” or too non specific, but if they cannot get anywhere, you may need to go down other roads. I hope you get answers soon and that you don’t have autoimmune issues. If you do, eliminating some things from the diet can lighten the symptoms significantly.
