When Your Medications turn on You

So things aren’t any better.  I’m still home bound, but this really isn’t a surprise to me.  My poor health has been many years in the making, it just so happened to all come crashing down within the last couple of months. Sigh.

Now, about doctors, meds and such . . .

Because I think most people like to hear traditional diagnoses when they know someone is sick, then I’ll provide you my list.  Some of you may also be suffering with these conditions as well. These diagnoses used to provide me with a false sense of comfort until I realized some of them meant little in application because they were simply a diagnosis of exclusion and none of them have a cure. Over the past 11 years, I’ve been diagnosed with: Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), Interstitial Cystitis (IC), Endometriosis, Secondary Infertility, Temporomandibular Disorder (TMD), Gastro Esophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) w/ Hiatal Hernia, Chronic Insomnia, Osteo-arthritis of the shoulder, and Candida.  Additional problems I experience, but never sought an “official” diagnosis of include: chronic neck & shoulder pain/tightness, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) and occasional migraines. 

I no longer give a lot of credence to diagnoses like IBS, IC, TMD, Chronic Insomnia, CFS, MCS and migraines because I tend to believe most of them are connected to larger root causes.  Each is a compellation of symptoms thrown together with a name slapped on.  Please know, I’m not at all making light of their severity, but think about it: “What exactly is Irritable Bowel Syndrome?  What in the heck does that even mean!?”  “Are my bowels angry with me?  Are the staging an attack!?” To me, IBS is code for: “We scoped you ever which way but where & we have no freaking idea what’s wrong with you.  Sorry.  Here’s a nice diagnosis and some pills to help with your awful symptoms.” 

My personal feelings on 11 years of treating my symptoms and not the cause:  See, you feel like crap, but at least you got a diagnosis, perhaps a recommended diet and a prescription. You don’t feel like you just wasted your time, do you?  Yes, you’re still in pain, but those meds kinda help, right?  So you just go on.  Or maybe you keep fighting and continue to try to find out WHY this is happening to you.  I worked very hard with a number of doctors, specialists and alternative health practitioners trying to combat all of the issues listed above, but I just got sicker.

When I found out I was allergic to corn, I discovered that ALL of my medications and supplements were off limits.  “No more covering up those symptoms, MizCastle! It’s time to face reality.”  The reality is the vast majority of doctors know next to nothing about a corn allergy.  EVEN the allergists!  A corn allergy is not well studied or understood.  It’s simply not on their radar.  My allergy has virtually impaired them from helping me.  The office itself is loaded with things that can render the corn allergic to have a reaction.  What do you think is in those hand sanitizers they have stationed everywhere?  Or the pad they wipe your arm with before drawing blood/injecting a needle?  CORN based Ethyl alcohol!  And be wary the latex gloves.  Do you see powder? Cornstarch!  Those are just a few examples.  Anything they could offer you is likely to contain corn. As one of my corn allergic friend’s stated: “You’ve tied both of their hands behind their back.”  Doctors, exam rooms, hospitals, etc. are something akin to standing in the middle of a corn field for the corn allergic.  Actually, if I had to choose between two evils, I’d take the corn field.  At least the corn field isn’t administering corn directly into my veins by way of a dextrose laden IV.  Unfortunately, traditional doctors are not usually able to do a lot for someone with a corn allergy.  Though I’m sure there are physicians who have tried and continue to try.  And likewise, there are also a few lucky corn allergic people who are helped by them.  I, however, am not one of them.

“Okay, well what about alternative health?  You mentioned a homeopathic doctor in a previous blog.”

Yes, I did.  As much as I would love to sit back, relax, and totally put my life into the hands of my well qualified homeopathic doctor, unfortunately that isn’t a complete reality either.  To her credit, she’s gotten closer to what I believe are some of the underlying causes to most of my pain.  She is the one who diagnosed my corn allergy after years of symptom band aids.  But homeopaths must use medications, supplements, dietary aids and herbs to cure.  (Hey, they’ve got to use SOMETHING.)  Also, she doesn’t know much about the complexities of a corn allergy.  Again, it’s not on her radar, so I have to educate her about this ubiquitous allergy.  She recently diagnosed me with a condition called Leaky Gut Syndrome.  That sounds about as pleasant as Irritable Bowel Syndrome, doesn’t it? Some medical professionals don’t believe this phenomenon even exists, but there are now tests that can be done to prove it.  Given my current condition, no one felt it would be in my best interest to put me through what would likely be another corn allergic experience.  Also, I am considered to be a very classic case.  To best explain this condition, I will borrow some text from a book I’ve been reading: “Improve Your Digestion: The Drug-Free Guide to Achieving a Healthy Digestive System” by Patrick Holford. 

Dr. Holford says:

“Normally healthy foods can also become toxins to the body if they are not digested or absorbed properly.  We are designed to digest our food into simple molecules that can readily pass through the digestive tract and into the bloodstream.  If, however, a person doesn’t digest their food properly, or if the gut wall becomes leaky, incompletely digested foods can enter the blood.  There they are likely to alert immune ‘scout’ cells which treat them as invaders, triggering an allergic reaction.  The ensuing battle results in a complex of chemicals that are themselves toxic and need to be cleaned up.”

“The integrity of the gut wall is therefore critical to our health and bodies work hard to maintain its proper permeability in the face of considerable ‘assault’ on a daily basis.  It is now recognized that this permeability, while remarkable in its complexity, is vulnerable and subject to change, depending on the integrity of the gut wall and the substances it is exposed to.  Increased permeability, far from enhancing the transport of nutrients, allows the entrance of toxins and improperly digested food particles which can give rise to a number of health problems associated with ‘leaky gut syndrome’.

Symptoms and conditions associated with leaky gut syndrome:

·        acne	·        eczema
·        arthritis	·        fatigue
·        autism	·        food/chemical sensitivities
·        childhood hyperactivity	·        inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn’s, ulcertative colitis)
·        chronic fatigue syndrome	·        irritable bowel syndrome
·        chronic pancreatitis	·        psoriasis, dermatitis
·        celiac disease	·        urticaria (hives)
·        depression, mood swings	·        viral, bacterial or yeast infection
·        diarrhea/constipation

There is only one chapter on leaky gut, but entire books have been written about this condition.  My homeopath is very familiar with it.  Curing leaky gut can be a long  process even for a non corn allergic person.  And of course, there are no guarantees.  But are there really any guarantees in life?  A regular, non-corn allergic person, would proceed to take a variety of probiotics, digestive enzymes and a whole slew of vitamins to aid in their healing.  Dietary changes would also be required.  The dietary changes can be hard for many to master, but they are even more difficult for the corn allergic because we even have trouble finding safe, corn free, healthy food, like produce, for example.  With the exception of sweet potatoes and regular potatoes, I can’t even buy produce at a regular grocery store because it has all been gassed and waxed.  Spring will be a better time nutritionally for me.  Probiotics are an extremely important part in healing the gut because they restore good bacteria.  Unfortunately, finding a corn-free probiotic is like finding a needle in a hay stack.  Finding supplements and vitamins in general is incredibly difficult for the corn allergic.  Many of the inactive ingredients used as aids or fillers are often derived from corn.  The capsule and container can be made from corn and cornstarch can also be used as an aid in the manufacturing process.  To stress just how difficult it is to find corn-free supplements, please know some corn allergic people must have their vitamins made by a compounding pharmacist. Should a corn allergic person find a bottle with a label stating the vitamin/supplement is free from corn, they are wise to be leery and should always contact the manufacturer.  Often times, after a call or an e-mail to the manufacturer, I’ve discovered the corn free claim isn’t true.  “Well how can that be?” you ask.  To some manufacturers, using a chemical (i.e. micocrystaline cellulose, L-leucine, etc.) derived from corn means the product no longer contains corn because the “protein has been rendered out.”  This statement gets bandied about a lot by supplement and vitamin manufacturers.  Sadly, a very allergic to corn will still react to derivatives of corn.  I’ve read hundreds of posts/blogs from people stating they have had reactions to corn derived chemical additives or aids.  I am among them.  Even when a corn allergic person finds a supplement that is proven to be safe, they must never let their guard down. One woman I know had recently been taking a probiotic she had confirmed with the company to be corn free.  She had been taking this product for some time, started a new bottle and began to notice allergic symptoms.  When she couldn’t pin them down to anything in her diet or environment, she contacted the company again.  As it turns out, the company changed the product to make it dairy and gluten free, so now the fermentation medium contains carbohydrate ingredients, which includes corn.  So even when someone has gone to great efforts to find a corn free supplement they desperately need; it can change at a moment’s notice. This happens to corn allergic people EVERY SINGLE DAY.

When I decided to start this blog, I couldn’t decide if I should even make corn the focus.  I knew there was a much bigger picture involved in the process of my health.  A part of me really didn’t even want to get into everything else.  “Who wants to hear about 11 years worth of someone else’s medical history?”  I certainly didn’t want to appear as someone looking for pity because I’m not. If anything, I hope to help others. But the catchy “My So Corned Life” title (borrowed from the one season hit from my youth), won out.  In all seriousness, I gave corn center stage because corn isn’t on ANYONE’S radar. I felt it deserved to be the main attraction.  People need to know what it is like to avoid it and try to live in a world where it simply won’t go away. People need to know what it’s like to be sick and discover your medications and supplements contain one of the very things that make you feel so awful.  This is happening to more and more people today as food and environmental allergies are growing rapidly. 

Healing has begun and healing will continue, but it takes itty, bitty baby steps as I go through the life changes both in body and spirit and deal with the uncertainty and back tracking that is part of My So Corned Life.