Why am I still sick, even though I eat 100% gluten-free?
The current medical research shows between 30%-60% of Celiacs who are on a strict gluten-free diet still have symptoms, intestinal damage, nutrient deficiencies, and elevated autoimmune markers. You have an inflammatory autoimmune fire raging in your body that won't stop simply with the removal of gluten. Your microbiome has become imbalanced and won't change for the better unless you tend to it.
Let's uncover why you developed an autoimmune disease, in the first place and help you correct the underlying imbalances to turn off the inflammatory fire and heal your gut!
You can reverse Celiac Disease and get your life back!
I am living proof.
Allana's Story
Twelve years ago, I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease. That's not to say that's when my symptoms began. I was a sick baby, toddler, kid and young adult. I had such a laundry list of symptoms it was ridiculous. They ranged from extreme food allergies and sensitivities to asthma, eczema, pneumonia, fungal skin rashes, acne, abdominal pain, gas, bloating, constipation, back and neck pain, joint pain, headaches, being underweight, being cold all the time, restless leg syndrome, PMS and chronic exhaustion.
I don't know when the Celiac symptoms began because I never felt well. What I do know, is things got monumentally worse the year leading up to diagnosis.
I had a few 'abnormal' PAP Smears in my life that I corrected with diet and supplementation. 1 year before the Celiac diagnosis, my PAP came back 'pre-cancerous'.
I had horrible headaches and pain all over. I was so exhausted, it got difficult to stand. I would wake up and go try to teach yoga (my job), but I would break down in tears. I had daydreams of being checked into a hospital and put on morphine, the pain was so bad.
I wanted to give up.
Despite my misery, I kept going. I was hopeful things would get better, and they did, for a short while.
I remember being in an advanced yoga class 1 year post diagnosis and having the realization that I FELT GOOD! Not only did I feel good, I felt better than I could ever remember.
I had some time where I continued to feel good. All of my symptoms weren't gone, but they were not front and center anymore.
I got married, got pregnant 6 months later- after the first try. Luckily, my body knew how to conceive! I had a great pregnancy and gave birth to a beautiful, baby girl. Life was awesome....and then we had 6 months of extreme sleepless nights and the exhaustion set back in.
The joint and body pain, fatigue, rashes and digestive problems began to creep back. I thought I must be getting gluten contamination from somewhere so I began throwing away pots and pans and scouring my spices, but I never found any hidden gluten and my efforts didn't help.
Once I addressed the root causes and took action to get rid of the infections with herbs, heal my gut, support my hormones and stop the inflammatory response causing continued autoimmune attack, I got healthier on a level I had never known before. I got my energy back, my pain and stiffness went away, I slept deeply, I no longer had gas or digestive upsets, and my brain fog lifted. Now, I enjoy my healthy lifestyle because I see the results of my hard work!
Most importantly, I am happy again and have regained a zest for life and a passion to help people, like you, overcome complex autoimmunity.
Hallelujah!
This life journey has confirmed that there is a reason I didn't get better, despite eating gluten-free. It showed me that there are answers out there, despite what your doctor or negative lab results may tell you, and to never stop searching.
I passionately educate about the limitations of a gluten-free diet and the resulting unresolved gut damage. The medical community has many of us thinking that autoimmunity is a life- sentence of suffering and pain. They didn't have the answers I was looking for.
What I know as truth is that you can reverse your autoimmune disease by finding the factors that created it in the first place. When you address diet, lifestyle, detoxification, food triggers, the gut, infections, and toxic exposures, your body can heal and you can turn off the inflammatory fire.
Thanks to a Functional approach to health, I have my life back and so can you!
My doctor performed a Leep where they surgically remove the bottom of the cervix. It sucked! But was pretty quick. It was supposed to be no big deal, but I bled for a week afterwards. On day 7, I ended up in the ER with heart palpitations and dizziness from losing so much blood.
This marked my rapid deterioration. I lost weight, had extreme joint and muscle pain, horrible, daily headaches, abdominal pain and the exhaustion reached an all-time high. Later, I realized I was extremely vitamin K deficient from Celiac and that led to the uncontrolled bleeding.
Around this time, I got engaged. I was elated, but also fearful because my health had gotten so bad.
2 months later, I was diagnosed with Celiac. I was simultaneously relieved to finally know what was wrong with me AND so bummed!
How was I going to stop eating bread?
I was eating it every day and my diet was already quite limited, being allergic to peanuts and tree nuts and sensitive to eggs, soy, dairy and corn.
To add to the misery, when I cut out gluten, I felt much, much worse! I lost so much weight I looked emaciated and as if I was undergoing chemo treatments. I weighed 90 pounds at 5' 8".
When my daughter was 3 1/2, we welcomed another baby girl to the world. Unlike my first pregnancy, where I felt great, this pregnancy was full of strange abdominal pain, exhaustion, shortness of breaht, weakness and anemia.
As the years ticked by, I began feeling worse and worse. I felt like I was missing my kids' childhood because I felt so miserable. I tried to stay positive, but deep down, I was depressed and worried I would get more sick as my 40's approached.
The reality is, even with all of the alternative healing modalities, eating a stellar whole-food, gluten-free diet, taking supplements, doing yoga, and reading every health book, I never found the underlying causes of my illnesses. No one ever asked why I was sick (even as a baby) or how all of these symptoms were related.
In 2015, when I began my Functional Diagnostic Nutrition® training and began running the lab tests on myself, it was eye opening! I learned my cortisol levels had bottomed out, my hormones were imbalanced and I was estrogen-dominant, I wasn't digesting protein or much of my food, my liver was taxed, I found H. pylori (bacteria in the stomach), Blastocystis hominis (parasite), SIBO (small intestine bacterial overgrowth), a Candida overgrowth, a dysbiosis in my bowel, multiple food sensitivities, mineral and vitamin deficiencies, leaky gut and a genetic mutation, called MTHFR, where my body doesn't use folic acid or detoxify properly. I also had very low secretory IgA, an immuno-compromised condition making me more susceptible to gut infections.
Learning all of this, I got very depressed, but I also felt relieved because I finally had answers. I realized that no amount of lifestyle interventions or perfect diet could overcome the myriad infections and depletions I had.
Additional Targeted Training
B.A. in Sociology, University of Santa Cruz, 2001
The Gluten Summit hosted by Dr. Tom O'Bryan, 2014
The Autoimmune Summit hosted by Dr. Amy Myers, 2014
Digestion Sessions hosted by Sean Croxton, 2014
Certified, Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner, 2016
FDN Advanced Oxalates Module with Dr. Lisa Pomeroy, ND, 2016
The Chronic Lyme Disease Summit hosted by Dr. Jay Davidson, 2016
The Detox Project hosted by Drs. Davidson, Hardick and Minich, 2016
The Thyroid Sessions hosted by Sean Croxton, 2016
FDN Advanced Mold/Biotoxin Illness/CIRS/Tick Borne Disease Workshop with Dr. Sandeep Gupta and Dr. Lauren Tessier, ND, 2018
Certified Gluten Practitioner, 2018
