I guess I have to start with more than the last few months…about 7 years ago I had a hysterectomy. I had quite a few fibroids wreaking havoc on my body so it became time for me to do something about it.
All was well for the couple years following that, I gained a bit of weight, started the Dukan Diet, and was feeling great. Then a few more years passed and all that dieting wasn’t giving me the results I wanted anymore. That’s when I decided, about a year ago, to start seeing Dr. David Allen, an MD that practices alternative medicine, in Santa Monica, CA. I also started taking private Pilates classes from my dear friend Claire at the Body Wellness Center in Santa Monica, CA. I had hurt my knee running all these years and knew if I didn’t strengthen it, I was looking at surgery. So these changes were crucial to my going forward, living a healthier lifestyle.
I was hopeful that finding a new doctor, one that would do more things for me than just prescribe drugs, would help me with some of the symptoms my body was feeling lately. First, my body temperature. It was always hot, not necessarily hot flashes, but just hot. And if I drank a glass of wine, it was that much worse. A friend suggested I go to her doctor but he was way out in the Valley and had a 6-month waiting list. Ugh!
Dr. Allen first checked my blood. Amazingly, (sarcastically), there were quite a few things going on inside me. First, my cholesterol was high. Now, just over 200 doesn’t seem high, especially when my good cholesterol (HDL) was 96, which is awesome. But he told me that doesn’t outweigh the fact that my bad cholesterol was still 125–NOT GOOD. I figured I only had my diet to blame for that. I was eating mucho protein, including a good amount of red meat and dark meat chicken and turkey. For, you see, I really didn’t like the super-lean white stuff anyway.
He then went on to tell me that my Vitamin D was low, 30, which should’ve been between 30 and 90 and preferably much closer to 60, rather than the lowest possible.
My liver enzymes were super high too and even after not drinking the entire holiday season they actually were all higher!
Then, to explain lots that was happening, my hormone levels were almost obsolete.
I couldn’t even deal with the issues that I was experiencing because we had to level off these things before moving on. So, he prescribed some plant-based supplements to get myself up to more “normal” levels. These included a multi-vitamin, bio-identical hormones, Vitamin D and multiple supplements for my liver, inflammation and my lack of good nutrition absorption.
Back-and-forth to Dr. Allen and my liver enzymes were just not going down. Further testing for liver diseases, including hepatitis, all came back negative. Ultrasound didn’t show any irregularities.
About the beginning of May I read Alicia Silverstone’s “The Kind Diet“. I’ve already read many books on vegetarianism and veganism and seen almost every movie on how bad animals are treated for human consumption and just how unhealthy it is to consume them. How bad our treatment of the earth is, how much disease is caused by our environment. It was overnight that I decided to start following a vegan lifestyle. I’ve been a vegetarian many times in my life but not until now have I also given up eggs and dairy.
I immediately started to feel better. My skin looked great, I was FINALLY losing weight, although be it slow, and I went back to Dr. Allen for another blood check. YAY! My liver enzymes were finally back to normal.
Stay tuned for my next steps…
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