Since I was born I have always had numerous health challenges. These had progressively worsened into my teens and early adulthood, when whilst I was at university I had decided to try and find my own solutions to my problems, that made lasting effects.
When I was just three months old I had suffered numerous bouts of chronic constipation, which was there for a long period of time and then subsided. It reared its head again when I was 8 years old, when I had severe pain in my lower right abdomen and was rushed to hospital with suspected appendicitis but as it turned out, I had indeed got severe constipation and my large colon was in fact full. The medical solution was to give me suppositories which “in my opinion” is a short term solution and doesnt even come close to finding out the real cause of why my body was behaving in this way.
It wasnt until I was 14 years old and all of a sudden I had stomach cramps and intestinal cramps that were really prolonged, and I could only go to the toilet once every month at best, and it was a terrible affair, and a very emotional time centered around the toilet and whether I would be able to pass or not. I tried to stay away from suppositories, but sometimes I would have no other solution. We did also try natural laxatives, such as linseed and ortisan cubes (which are packed full of dates and figs, and other natural fibres). This lasted mostly into my early twenties.
When I was seventeen I was diagnosed with Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), where are patient suffers cysts on the ovaries, and the menstrual cycle is very irregular, even to the point where you wouldn’t have a period and also at worst when you dont even ovulate. After an ultrasound, it was discovered that both my ovaries had many many cysts on both sides, my periods where irregular, and when I did ovulate, it was so painful I couldnt bend my hip, and had difficultly walking down the street due to the pain on the side I was ovulating.
When I started university, I decided to try lots of diet alternatives, irradication such things, as soya, gluten, diary, wheat, meat, even to the point I was only eating fresh fruit and vegetables, with some grains and beans and legumes. I remember a period of time that I did this for 3 months, but whilst my constpiation wasn’t as bad, my PCOS, had not altered much, and emotionally I was finding it very difficult to sustain. I incorparted a few things back into my diet and carried on hiding things for a few years, until my constipation really flared up again.
When I left university, I went to go and visit a lady that carried out colonic irrigation. It was facinating to me when she told me that she could only fill my colon up half full, that there must have been so much tension in my intestines that they just werent allowing the water in. It took 6 visits before she could fill my bowels up all the way. During the sessions I could feel my bowels becoming more and more open, and to my surprise I started to become a lot more regular as well! I finally felt like I was getting somewhere. After I had stopped going to see her, the constipation started to come back and I had felt that something was keeping my bowels tight, and making them tense and not want to work.
There was definately a link missing that was keeping my bowels tight, so I started to look at the way I behaved, and whether or not that made me tense my stomach and abdomen. I realised that when I am with other people I find it very difficult to be myself, and I notice that I suck my tummy whilst talking to them. This was a very interesting thing to become aware of, as it told me that I was tensing that part of my body myself. Whenever I get nervous around other people I hold my tummy in (as a way to protect myself).
I set about working on becoming more at ease with others, whilst I was with them and talking with them, and helping myself physically to be more relaxed in that part of my body, whilst in that situation. It did take a lot of effort initially, as I had assumed that I had developed this pattern over years, and I was having to undo years of learning, and create a new pattern in my life. I was quite interested when I started to reaslise that I was a lot more bubbly and fun, not so serious and scary, and generally I felt more myself when I was becoming more relaxed.
Even now I do occasionally catch myself tensing it that area, but I am very aware of it now, and I have the choice to change it or not.
As a result, I started to get feedback about the foods I was eating, and that some particular foods really gave me a lot of bloating. This made it so easy to cut foods out, as when I ate diary, I would spend the next 3 hours in pain, so it made sense to me not to eat it. I now not longer eat red meats, and diary. The next thing I am working on cutting out is gluten, and then working up to wheat (although these food groups definately have less effect on me, although I do have a lot more energy when I dont eat them).
It has definately been a journey, and I am still making progress all the time, getting healthier, fitter and stronger.
More than anything I would like to try and demonstrate that sometimes its the patterns we have in society that dictate how we hold and build tension in our bodies, and that when you become aware of these patterns, its easy to discover what effect this has on your body, and how to create something different for yourselves. That will then lead on to making other healthy changes for yourself, like changing which food groups your eat, and how much fittness you take, putting your focus into where you have a lot of energy, and doing more of the things you love, and as a result getting back the life you want, and the life you deserve to live!
I graduated from Welsh Insitutue of Chiropractic in 2011, and have since opened three chiropractic clinics specialising in a unique work called Network Spinal Analysis. Whilst I love this work, and it has helped my tremendously on my jounrey, I want to be able to provide strategies for others, even though you may not financially have the means to have alternate treatments, and just provide an insight into your own body that could highlight important information about how you present physically, so you can create and make the shifts you need to get the life and body you want!
