💗 💕 I Found My True Love! 💕 💗

I have spent a good 20 years of my life getting progressively sicker.

As a health- conscious individual, I always took care of myself by eating relatively well, exercising daily, and making a point of getting an annual physical the results of which I kept and analyzed.

I first noticed a problem due to my decreasing performance in athletic activities.

I played soccer in my teens and 20s and became a runner and biker in my 30s. Slowly over time, I noticed that I didn’t have the energy to maintain my preferred pace. I would run out of steam and just muscle my way through. I also started experiencing various aches and pains throughout my body, which I attributed to something I ate. At the age of 38, I decided to look at my blood work over time. That’s when I noticed that all my numbers were moving in a negative direction toward the low end of normal. Of course, my doctor didn’t think anything of it since I was still within the normal range, but I was worried.

When I became anemic, I pushed him to investigate further. I needed a long nap just to get through the evening and my aches and pains now extended to my sleep. I developed debilitating migraines and took Relpax for relief. Overall, I just did not feel right and knew something was wrong. I took iron pills for months, but there was no change in my blood work. Next my doctor recommended an iron infusion, but I went into anaphylactic shock.

Based on my own research, I mentioned that there must be some kind of absorption issue and that’s when it clicked for my doctor. He sent my blood out to be tested for Celiac disease and it came back positive with my antibody numbers off the chart. The solution, it seemed, was easy; I was to stop eating gluten.

I was in heaven for 3 months. After my diagnosis, my energy increased, my runs were amazing, the heaviness in my lower abdomen disappeared, and some of my aches and pains went away as the inflammation in my body decreased. Then it all came tumbling down. Suddenly, I became allergic to different foods. Over a 6-year period I developed adverse reactions to an increasing number of them. I couldn’t eat fish, shellfish, seeds and anything derived from them, nuts, most packaged foods, preservatives, coconut oil, sulfites, alcohol, vinegar, spices, and so on. It was very difficult to eat safely.

I hardly ever ate out, restricting myself to my list of ‘safe foods.’ I became an Advil junkie to deal with my nightly aching joints. I took Benadryl to calm mysterious chest vibrations and gurgling noises at night, which resulted from certain foods. My energy decreased and I would crash in the middle of the afternoon. So, once again, I began seeing all kinds of specialists: three different allergists, two gastroenterologists, and numerous others whose specialties escape me. No one could explain why this was happening! They just kept throwing medication my way. I was in bad shape, sleep deprived, and afraid to eat. My quality of life declined.

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Throughout all of this, I kept reading online hoping that one day something would come my way to explain why this was happening. Finally, in the winter of 2015, I happened to stumble on Sarah Ballantyne’s work and the autoimmune diet. That was it! I had leaky gut syndrome, also known as intestinal permeability. It all made sense.

In January 2016, I began the autoimmune paleo diet to repair my gut. I strictly followed it and felt immediate results. All of my joint pain went away and the strange tingling I felt throughout my body stopped over time too. I no longer experienced a strange gurgling sensation in my chest at night and my workout stamina improved.

I n the course of all my research, I had read about iodine and its positive effects on the thyroid. Luckily, soon thereafter, a wonderful man, Tibor, walked into my life. His positive experiences with using iodine encouraged me to try it. I took my first drop of iodine at the beginning of March and immediately felt a surge of energy, but it was short lived as the iodine detox took over. My mistakes were taking too much too quickly, not taking any of the required companion nutrients, and not salt loading to remove the bromide build up in my body. I endured three weeks of diarrhea, two weeks of never-ending chest phlegm, a constantly-draining nasal passage, and extreme muscle fatigue.

However, I still wasn’t able to eat the foods I loved without an adverse reaction. I also experienced a numbing and dumbing sensation in my head, which I now refer to…. as bromine head. I felt heavily sedated and lethargic. Regardless, my short moments of incredible energy and mental clarity motivated me to stick with iodine. During the last two weeks of March I woke up one day feeling drunk and unable to do anything. I had crashed my thyroid and was toxic.

I went to my doctor to get my blood work done and my numbers were terrible with off- the-chart cholesterol counts, high blood pressure, and weak kidneys. I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism and Hashimoto. In fact, my TSH numbers were so high that my doctor stated he’d never seen such a thing. He immediately wanted me on Synthroid and was afraid that I would develop a goiter. I had then started iodine for wellness and now regarded it as my cure. I didn’t want to go on any medication.

Tibor, who was now my boyfriend, advised me to make my decisions based on how I felt. I took this to heart. After further research, I learned that there…. was an iodine protocol that I could follow to detox safely and absorb the iodine. I joined an Iodine Workshop on Facebook, read the required readings and began to follow the recommended protocol.

I received my next round of blood work numbers in May and even though I was still hypo all of my numbers were moving in the right direction and my antibodies. . . . were coming down. I continued on without thyroid medication. Numerous users of the Facebook group had reported that following the iodine protocol stopped their environmental allergies.

I had been taking Zyrtec every other day for 20 years. I decreased the amount I took to once every third day, then once every fourth day and then I stopped. A week went by and no allergy symptoms. After a month, I was still completely symptom free! I also felt so liberated. My boyfriend believed that a lot of my food sensitivities would also be cured.

So in May, I tentatively tried the foods on my banned list. I started with nuts and experienced no adverse reactions. After two years without a drip of alcohol, I had my first drink with friends to celebrate a birthday. No problems. I tried Indian food, which is full of spices derived from seeds and again, no reactions. I successfully introduced all seafood and shellfish back into my diet. Perhaps the biggest surprise of all, my skin could tolerate gluten.

I work as a teacher and used to have to wear gloves to serve snacks containing gluten to my students because without them my hands would itch and burn terribly. I no longer had this problem. I am now completely drug free and have no environmental allergies or migraines and can eat gluten again, but choose not to. I sleep better and feel sharp most of the time, my energy and stamina have increased. Workouts are like nothing I’ve experienced before. I can lift heavy weights without getting tired and feel like a machine when I do cardio workouts, like I could go on forever.

I’ve also noticed that my night vision is better and floaters in my eyes have decreased.

This journey has brought wonderful things, opportunities, and people into my life. It has now set me on a path to help others. I’m still in the process of treating my thyroid and realize I could still face a few hurdles along the way. Regardless, I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything. I wouldn’t want to forget the best part, I married the man who introduced to me iodine and truly saved my life.

Tibor Pilenyi's photo.