This is going to be a bit stream-of-consciousness and lengthy, so I'll be quite unoffended by anyone who wants to check out here.
To find out more about what the GAPS diet is, you should watch this 1.5 hour video of the doctor who developed the diet. I probably watched it ten times before I finally realized that this was what we needed. So instead of explaining it on my blog, I highly recommend this video, as well as Dr. Campbell-McBride's book on the subject.
I have always had digestive issues (ahem- gas and sporadic #2). There, I said it. School, car rides, and other enclosed spaces were torture after I became old enough to be embarrassed by gas. After we started drinking raw milk almost seven years ago, and incorporating traditional foods into our lives, this problem has slowly resolved. A few things would set me off every so often (like onions and eggplant), but it was much better. Public places have become much less of a challenge for me.
It wasn't until I read an article about the appendix rebooting the gut with good bacteria, and started thinking about my health history, that pieces started falling into place. At the Weston A. Price convention last November, I chatted with a health consultant and mentioned the newly-discovered function of the appendix. She chimed in, "Oh, yes; people with appendectomies have horrible digestion." And I realized that there was a very clear-cut line from my health history to my current state of things. I listened to Kim Schuette talk about her clients' healing stories with the GAPS diet, and I was finally convinced to take the plunge.
When I was six, I had a severe knee infection that made me unable to walk. There was fluid built up around the knee cap, and my knee wouldn't even bend. The cure was to put me on high-powered intravenous antibiotics and glucose. I was in the hospital for four days, and I recovered. Knees are fine nowadays. But the following year, one evening found me doubled over the toilet with acute stomach pain. My dad's intuition knew something wasn't right, and they took me to the hospital. Out came my appendix, and I was in the hospital for three days.
I'm going to pause this post to remark that I am 20 months younger than my next-oldest brother. In traditional cultures, it was understood that a child spaced this closely to an older sibling would not have the nutrients required to be a healthy child. I was conceived during a brief pause in my mama's nursing my brother when he was a year old. In traditional cultures, to protect the health of the mother and subsequent children, care was taken to space children around three years apart. Obviously, my mama isn't to blame for not knowing this; but it does explain why I, of all of my siblings, would have been the most susceptible to health issues. No one else in my family required hospital stays when they were younger.
And so looking back, I'm realizing that those antibiotics for my knee infection must have really trashed my appendix, which is perhaps why it had to come out the following year. As I was growing up, I had a pediatrician who prescribed a round of antibiotics every time he heard a rumble in our breathing, to make sure the "bronchitis" didn't get worse. There was no appendix to reboot my gut with good bacteria after each round, and probiotic wasn't a household word in our country until twenty years later.
So at the WAPF conference, I was connecting these dots in my health history, and I realized that there really was a reason that I had brain fog, ADHD, and gas. I was classic GAPS (Gut And Psychology/Physiology Syndrome). So I came home, bought Dr. McBride's book, and we started the diet the week after Thanksgiving 2013.
GAPS Post II
GAPS Post III- Bubby's seasonal allergies
GAPS Post IV- Cumberland Island
GAPS Post V- Concluding thoughts
To find out more about what the GAPS diet is, you should watch this 1.5 hour video of the doctor who developed the diet. I probably watched it ten times before I finally realized that this was what we needed. So instead of explaining it on my blog, I highly recommend this video, as well as Dr. Campbell-McBride's book on the subject.
I have always had digestive issues (ahem- gas and sporadic #2). There, I said it. School, car rides, and other enclosed spaces were torture after I became old enough to be embarrassed by gas. After we started drinking raw milk almost seven years ago, and incorporating traditional foods into our lives, this problem has slowly resolved. A few things would set me off every so often (like onions and eggplant), but it was much better. Public places have become much less of a challenge for me.
It wasn't until I read an article about the appendix rebooting the gut with good bacteria, and started thinking about my health history, that pieces started falling into place. At the Weston A. Price convention last November, I chatted with a health consultant and mentioned the newly-discovered function of the appendix. She chimed in, "Oh, yes; people with appendectomies have horrible digestion." And I realized that there was a very clear-cut line from my health history to my current state of things. I listened to Kim Schuette talk about her clients' healing stories with the GAPS diet, and I was finally convinced to take the plunge.
When I was six, I had a severe knee infection that made me unable to walk. There was fluid built up around the knee cap, and my knee wouldn't even bend. The cure was to put me on high-powered intravenous antibiotics and glucose. I was in the hospital for four days, and I recovered. Knees are fine nowadays. But the following year, one evening found me doubled over the toilet with acute stomach pain. My dad's intuition knew something wasn't right, and they took me to the hospital. Out came my appendix, and I was in the hospital for three days.
I'm going to pause this post to remark that I am 20 months younger than my next-oldest brother. In traditional cultures, it was understood that a child spaced this closely to an older sibling would not have the nutrients required to be a healthy child. I was conceived during a brief pause in my mama's nursing my brother when he was a year old. In traditional cultures, to protect the health of the mother and subsequent children, care was taken to space children around three years apart. Obviously, my mama isn't to blame for not knowing this; but it does explain why I, of all of my siblings, would have been the most susceptible to health issues. No one else in my family required hospital stays when they were younger.
And so looking back, I'm realizing that those antibiotics for my knee infection must have really trashed my appendix, which is perhaps why it had to come out the following year. As I was growing up, I had a pediatrician who prescribed a round of antibiotics every time he heard a rumble in our breathing, to make sure the "bronchitis" didn't get worse. There was no appendix to reboot my gut with good bacteria after each round, and probiotic wasn't a household word in our country until twenty years later.
So at the WAPF conference, I was connecting these dots in my health history, and I realized that there really was a reason that I had brain fog, ADHD, and gas. I was classic GAPS (Gut And Psychology/Physiology Syndrome). So I came home, bought Dr. McBride's book, and we started the diet the week after Thanksgiving 2013.
GAPS Post II
GAPS Post III- Bubby's seasonal allergies
GAPS Post IV- Cumberland Island
GAPS Post V- Concluding thoughts
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