It's been a year!

Hello everyone! It’s been exactly a year since I vowed to do something about my health. And what a year it’s been! It was a facebook group that told me about AIP and it was in January 2017 that I, somewhat sceptically, took the plunge. 

The next 12 months proved to be the most incredible of my life. Not even the birth of my son can compare to what happened.

I had many autoimmune diseases: Hashimoto’s, pernicious anaemia, atrophic gastritis, psoriasis, likely arthritis and over 120 other symptoms including fatty liver. I weighed 275lb. But by far the worst were the mental health problems. I had a diagnosis of bipolar 1 and paranoid psychosis and had terrible memory and cognitive difficulties. I’d been hospitalised 5 times because of it. I was also unemployed and broke.

Enter AIP. In just 10 days every single psychiatric symptom vanished! Over the next few months every other symptom went into remission. By the summer I was in the best health of my life and took up cycling and other sports. Today I’m 187lb and in wonderful health. My psychiatrist, hepatologist and endocrinologist have all discharged me. My fatty liver has reversed and my ALT is back in range again. I’m off all meds except thyroxine as my thyroid will never function again.

It appears that I had autoimmune limbic encephalitis, a serious brain injury caused by my own immune system attacking my brain tissue, possibly as a direct reaction to gluten. It may even be an extra-intestinal manifestation of celiac disease. I’m seeing Prof Hadjivassiliou at the gluten ataxia centre next month so fingers crossed he’ll help me figure it out. The good news is my brain is healing and my memory is really good again. My psychologist tells me my IQ has risen 30 points this past year!

So what have I learned that I can share with you? It’s quite simple.

• Don’t let anyone tell you AIP is nonsense. 
• Don’t let anyone tell you gluten sensitivity is a myth (it’s very real and very harmful). 
• Don’t listen to the fad diet fans, the ill-informed doctors or the nay-sayers. 
• Listen to you body as it’s trying to tell you something very important. 
• What you put in your body is as equally important as what you don’t put in. 
• Rest, sleep, supplement and exercise. 
• Advocate for your own health as you are the only one responsible for it; no one is coming to save you.

I lost a great deal due to my illness. I have little memory of 5 years of my life, my career took a nosedive and personal relationships suffered. I wish someone had told me about AIP 20 years ago or better still that they taught nutrition and healthy living in school. 

Today I’m happy to be alive and well; AIP not only saved my life, it gave me back something I lost long ago. Hope.