It has been quite an amazing journey so far with using natural methods to heal my Endometriosis. I am discovering so many interesting things about Endometriosis and how my body works, which is super exciting! I find the more I discover, the more in touch I feel but more importantly…. the more possible the whole idea of CURING myself becomes.
One of the things I noticed a few months ago, was that my healing had somehow plateau’d. Somehow, it didn’t seem to matter how many supplements I took, how much good quality organic food I ate, my healing wasn’t improving to that next level. It just wasn’t quite reaching the highs that I felt it should be – considering how much good stuff I was feeding my body. I mean, I was really giving it to my body! I am talking super, super foods, mushrooms, goji berries, maca, spirulina, chia seeds, aloe vera – you name it, it was in there! I just couldn’t work out, why none of this stuff seemed to be making the dramatic leaps and bounds I really needed.
I also started to notice that my tongue and nails didn’t seem to change. So, even though I was feeding my body all this highly nutritious stuff, it just wasn’t getting to where it needed to be!
I worked it out! My body was either not assimilating all these nutrients or there was a different reason.
I explored further and discovered that there are in fact many different forms of “foreign hitchhikers” that can live in our bodies – without being invited! I always put everything down to Candida. This is a fungal overgrowth which can form quite easily in many of us with Endometriosis. It is an imbalance of a fungus, that is supposed to live in our intestinal wall but when we go on the pill, take synthetic hormones, drugs and eat a diet high in sugars and starches, it becomes unbalanced. When it becomes unbalanced, it becomes systemic and it starts to affect our gut lining and absorption of nutrients. Candida was my initial thought on why I wasn’t absorbing the nutrients.
I have been quietly doing my Candida Cleanse for the last 2 months and it has been amazing! My digestion is dramatically improved and I generally feel fuller and though it sounds odd – more nourished.
While I was interviewing my Naturopath for the new Food Healing Journey Course which I am creating – very exciting! – I asked her about the link with Candida and Gluten and also told her that I was doing a Candida Cleanse. She illustrated to me, that Candida is merely fungal. It is only one potential invader of our bodies and that I should do a Bacterial Cleanse to really get everything out. At the time, I decided to wait and finish my Candida Cleanse first ….. but then….. Christmas came and having spent it in Germany, I inevitably landed up eating larger quantities of meat than I normally eat.
I developed a base case of heartburn and ultimately my stomach was burning for a few days. I got frustrated with it and couldn’t understand why my stomach acid was so low that I couldn’t eat meat. Initially, I thought, this must be an Iodine deficiency. You can read the full article ont his one here.
But, there it was again… that burning question: Why do I have a nutrient deficiency when I am eating all this good food?
What I discovered was that I have been living with yet another hitchhiker! Yip, this one is called H.Pylori and it affects 75% of of the population. It is a bacteria that lives in the stomach lining and this guy, eats away all our good nutrients as well. It also causes our stomach acid to be lowered. What was really scary about this one is that it is super easy to get and that it absorbs some of the most important nutrients we need to heal from Endo – Vitamin B12, Iron and Vitamin C. Check out this website for heaps more info.
So, it was time to really get to work on getting all these foreign hitchhikers to leave my body!
This is what I did:
1. Following a strict Candida Diet – no sugars including fructose. Read more about Candida here.
2. Taking Candida focused herbs to kill off the Candida – this includes wormwood, black walnut and cloves.
3. Taking Oregano Oil and Mastic Gum to kill off the H.Pylori
4. Taking Bee Propolis to give back the lost nutrients and also aid in killing off the H.Pylori. Bee Propolis provides us with all the nutrients and minerals our bodies need. It is the best multi you can get!
5. Adding in heaps of probiotics in the form of fermented foods and probiotic tablets. – my new batch of Sauerkraut has really come in handy!
It is much better already and it has only been a couple of weeks. My digestion is better than it has been in months and my stomach pain is gone. I used to live with this kinda dull ache between the rib cage and thought it was just from having poor digestion – little did I know, this was H.Pylori!
So, this information is HUGE for us Endo Girls. I reckon many of us are living with foreign invaders inside our stomachs and digestive system. These guys are interfering with our mineral absorption and affecting our healing!
If you have any questions on more of the symptoms or want to find out if you possibly have H.Pylori living with you, feel free to ask me in the comments section below.
I am sure excited to have found out about this information. I feel like I can cleanse myself of these hitchhikers and then really start to absorb all those nutrients my body needs to heal.
Hi Melissa, this is such a fantastic article. I’ve read so much in recent times about good vs bad bacteria. It’s quite a hot topic and the discussion is very much needed. We are living in such a sanitized world that we’ve forgotten that we all need bacteria to survive and have a healthy body. Love that you’re talking about this important topic! :)
Thanks Nicole. I had no idea how much this is actually taking over our western world! Scary stuff!
Hi Melissa
I have been reading a book called “The Coconut Oil Miracle” by Dr Bruce Fife CN, ND. He addresses the topic of H. Pylori and according to his book “medium chain fatty acids” or MCFAs (found in coconut oil, palm oil and palm kernel oil) can kill gut bacteria. Naturally occurring MCFAs have been scientifically researched and the results have shown that they are anti-viral and anti-microbial (to the bad microbes).
Coconut oil has had a really bad reputation for years because it is high in saturated fat (through false information thanks to the soybean industry as well as many others!), but saturated fat is now being lauded for its many health benefits as well as being applied to many medicinal uses. A perfect example is that it is used as an ingredient in infant formulas and for premature intubated babies.
Hi Belinda,
Thanks for sharing that. I use Coconut Oil quite frequently already but knowing that, I will certainly use it more :)
Melissa,
I just googled “healing endometriosis naturally” and your blog came up. This post has me in tears. I’ve suffered with endometriosis for 28 years. I’m 38 now. I have a rare severe case and have exhausted all doctors as well as naturopaths. To make a long story short, I’ve had a hysterectomy (infertility as well), and I still take tons of ibuprofen. I had no idea the ibu. was ruining my liver and stomach even more. Two weeks ago I came down with a terribly painful stomach ulcer. I’m still in agony. I’m trying to figure this all out on my own as I feel like I’m feeling around in the dark and my naturopath just wants to keep treating me for candida. YOU have connected all the dots for me in this one single post! Bless you! Once I get this ulcer healed I’m going to start working on healing my liver and I’ll keep up my candida detoxing. Finally, hope. THANK YOU FOR HAVING THIS BLOG! I’m a follower now! You are the first ray of hope I’ve found. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Hi Jen,
It is a pleasure sweets and sorry for the struggles you have endured so far. For the stomach ulcer, I found a high active Manuka Honey – from New Zealand drunk in hot water to be really effective. I used it when I had one a couple of years ago. About a teaspoon of honey on an empty stomach in hot water. It was very soothing. It will spike up your candida a little in the short term but at least your stomach will be healed.
The body is amazing and you can trust in your own intuition on what it needs :)
Thanks Melissa for your encouragement. My naturopath has me using cabbage juice because it kills H-Pylori in about 10 days. That way I don’t have to spike my candida with honey. Cabbage juice 1/4 cup 3x a day. On an ulcer diet though with cabbage juice I started detoxing too fast. So I had to take a break from the cabbage juice. Once my kidneys catch up I can start the cabbage juice again. I’ve spent the last few days reading through all the info on your site and through the free download. I don’t see anything about beans. I know they are hard to digest but I wasn’t sure if you girls are cutting them out or not…. any thoughts about eating/avoiding beans/legumes? Thank you again for having this blog and for all the time you put into conversing here!
Hi Jen,
I like the sound of cabbage juice. I have been eating heaps of home-made sauerkraut and it has the added benefit of good bacteria too :) Really loving it!
I personally don’t eat a huge amount of beans but they would be quite good for you. I tend to get a little bloated from them but eat chickpeas. I think I need to build up my digestion a little more before adding them in – or just cooking them on a slow heat for a long time. I eat legumes regularly – green beans and snowpeas.
It is a pleasure – thanks for your support and comments :)