Friday 15 January 2016

Sick


Say hello to my little friends.

Nobody likes getting sick.

But when getting sick once means that it will be a snowball of different treatments, side effects and compounding illnesses, it feels like a real pain in the butt.

I've been sick since October. An infection that should have gone away, but didn't. My doctor recommended a treatment that I prayed and thought would work.

It didn't.
I spent Christmas and New Year sizzling in my skin.

The second (different) doctor recommended antibiotics. By now, the infection was ravaging my body and making it hard to function, so I had no choice.
But my heart sank a little. My immune system is pretty poor anyway, but adding antibiotics into the mix would blast away any happy bacteria I had left in my overheated, little overwrought body.

I'm finishing up the course now, with the effects of the infection still present, the symptoms of a virus erupting in my weakened state and my gut having given up the ghost after all this abuse.

I've been reading a lot of information that seems to imply that the health of your gut can have a huge impact on your health in general.
I said in my previous challenge post that I was looking at fermented foods. In this article, Curly Nikki mentioned the effect poor gut and digestive health may have on the hair - and to me, it makes sense. What is the point of taking lots of supplements, if your body can't/won't make use of it by absorbing it properly?

I said I was going to try and help heal my gut by eating more fermented foods.
So far I've got two jars of kimchi in my fridge (one pictured above - it was full at the beginning of this week), in order to help replenish my lost army sacrificed in the terrible battle against evil usurping bacteria any probiotics.
I'm making fruity gelatin once a week to feed these probiotics in my gut till I've used up all my little packets.
I'm bone broth(isn't it basically stock?)-ing my way through this (now) freezing winter, to help feed up and fix my gut too. (I'd been looking at it anyway, but in relation to my teeth).
I've got some fermented ginger and turmeric on the way too, just because you can never have too many good bacteria.


Fighting the good fight! Hoo-ha!

2 comments:

  1. Oh, that's the pits! I sure hope you're on the rebound now. I know that I need to work on my gut health too. Pinterest is flooding my feed with more information than I can stomach (*insert laugh here*). But as you mentioned, how healthy your gut is determines so much more about how your immune system functions. I'm not sure if I can get with the kimchi (except in a Korean dish), but I did make this turmeric tonic that nearly took my breath away to get it down. I guess I should go back to that? I'm pretty sure it'll last forever....

    Here's to good gut health!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know it's bad, but I'm not on pinterest yet - to me, it's still that exclusive crafting destination that you could only access by invitation!
      You're not to the only one to veto the kimchi - I'm the only fan in this household to eat it raw/as is. Turmeric tonic? That sounds promising! Where did you get the recipe from? I'm thinking of a ginger turmeric hybrid, mainly because I have them both languishing in my fridge....

      You'd think that the (potential) secret to eternal life would do a good job of looking after itself, so I would agree with that statement. Cheers! *Clinks cup of kim - er, turmeric tonic*

      Delete

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