Sometimes when someone begins a cleanse (or makes other radical changes to their diet) they can feel unwell for a bit.  This can be confusing and temporarily frustrating. The intensity and what this “unwell” looks like will vary for everyone, being largely influenced by past diet, health history and genetics.  For some, these feelings can be very intense resulting in what is known as a “healing crisis”. You may think “I am eating so healthy, why do I feel so poorly?  Maybe this isn’t worth it.”  Hang on – I assure you it is.

I have personal experience with this very same thing.  I have had symptoms (that I largely ignored) of food sensitivities for many years.  I had become increasingly interested in the holistic health world about 12 years ago and decided to go see a Naturopathic doctor for some minor health complaints.  I felt okay, but knew there were definitely a few things that weren't quite right.  I had been struggling with some hormone imbalances and had decided that birth control pills were playing a negative role in this issue.   Upon seeing the doctor, she definitely agreed that I had food allergies and some hormone imbalances.  She immediately put me on an elimination diet and herbs to help cleanse my liver.  I was a vegetarian at the time and my diet consisted largely of dairy, wheat and soy in addition to fruits and vegetables. Very shortly after I began her regime, I became very ill. Low blood sugar, depression, anxiety, head and body aches, etc and it seemed to intensify my hormone imbalance.  I had never experienced any depression, anxiety or these other symptoms before. I thought that the supplements she gave to me must have made me sick.  I shortly went off her program, but continue to feel poorly for a while.   I regretted doing her program and going to see her at all.

I added dairy and all the other non-elimination diet foods back to my diet.  I continued to have hormone issues.  Although I stopped seeing her, I went to many other doctors, holistic health practitioners, energy workers, acupuncturists, etc because I was feeling so poorly.  I also did a lot of research and had many tests.   What I discovered is that I did have a hormone imbalance and particularly I had burned out adrenals.  Over time I began to feel better through the help of homeopathy, reiki and supplements.

A few years ago I finally had some blood tests to confirm what my food allergies were.  Not surprisingly, I had a very significant dairy allergy.  As soon as I got the tests back, I immediately removed all my allergenic foods from my diet - cold turkey.  I immediately experienced the mental and physical crash I had years earlier - accept this time I wasn't taking any supplements that could explain what I was feeling.

When I contacted my doctor, she explained that because my adrenals were so fatigued that I should have slowly eliminated these foods.   She explained the allergenic food can act like a drug or stimulant to the adrenals.  It becomes a vicious cycle of cravings, adrenal stimulation and crashing. So when you remove these foods that are keeping the adrenals going all at once, it can result in a healing crisis where your already weak adrenals just give up and you feel terrible even though these foods were largely contributing to the issues in the first place.

The body is amazing at survival and will adaptable to most anything.  When you radically change your diet or remove items your body was depending on, it can trigger a healing crisis were you feel significantly worse before your body finds a better balance that is grounded in true health. During this process, symptoms can return of long forgotten conditions such as a flare up of acne or  the return of chronic yeast infections as well as general fatigue or feeling like you came down with a nasty bug. It is not that the cleanse, supplements, diet change, etc causes you to become sick - cleanses don't cause illness - but they can often reveal underlying health issues.  In our culture of treating illness with medication to mask unfavorable symptoms, we are often intolerant to these type of intense feelings, but it can be necessary and very worth it to persevere through this temporary discomfort in order to achieve greater overall wellness and vitality.

I have learned a tremendous amount about my body, nutrition and cleansing since that first appointment.  I have been experimenting with many different styles of eating since then - elimination diets, blood type, Nourishing Traditions, Paleo, Schwarzbein Principle, etc. I have learned very valuable lessons from each. I had my first baby this past year.  He is such a wonderful little boy, but a horrible sleeper.  I am feeling the fatigue on my adrenals once again.  Although I could probably benefit from a CLEAN cleanse right now, I am still nursing so I have to wait a bit.  I am once again figuring out how to use nourishing foods and reinvigorating habits such as meditation and exercise, to find my place of optimal health.  It is always a journey.  Thank you all for inspiring me daily on that journey and for giving me the honor of helping you on yours.

xo

Shannon