Rachel, along with our family, learned first-hand the healing (along with the detrimental) power of food. Rachel is my daughter and was diagnosed with Crohn’s, an inflammatory bowel autoimmune disease when she was only 11 in 2005. Our doctor told us there was no known cure but could help alleviate the symptoms with medication. With the use of these drugs came some challenging side effects, which rivaled the disease itself. We followed the traditional treatment that led to using stronger medications as each of the previous ones stopped being effective. After months, Rachel was still getting painful bowel flare-ups accompanied by sometimes worse ailments from the side effects of the drugs. It was at this point that our doctor recommended a hard-line approach and use chemotherapy! We were told that these would suppress her immune system further and, of course, have to endure the even more brutal side effects of this class of drugs.
Was this the only answer? Rachel was so sick from the Crohn’s and zombie-like from all the meds she was on. We needed to see if there were any other options as we were willing to try anything. Another Crohn’s victim referred us to a holistic doctor. He told us about this seemingly “Pollyannaish” theory of healing her body with food that her body craved and eliminating what was weakening her. Yeah, right!
The doctor ended up suggesting that we try to figure out the root cause of Rachel’s symptoms instead of trying to band-aid them with drugs. He determined the foods that weakened Rachel and that might have contributed to her painful flare-ups. He eliminated these from her diet and identified food and supplements that would nourish her body. Within days, Rachel finally started feeling better. We became believers. Her body was finally able to do what any of our brilliantly designed bodies do best when fed the proper fuel- it began to heal itself. It was quite a journey of education and healing. We are proud and grateful that Rachel has been healthy, drug-free and happy since 2007!
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