Chapter 15 – Rising iron & my SIBO healed

The year was moving slowly but fast at the same time. I was deep in my studies for my upcoming exam and living each day consciously.

It was time for my next round of bloods and to take my stool sample.

My bloods were improving, with iron now at 15 – WHOO HOO, that was enough reason to party in itself. My ferritin (iron stores) had dropped from 53 to 30. 30 was the bottom of the ‘recommended GP range’ which also meant it was low for Brooke, but with my iron level rising it wasn’t something to worry about.

I was still taking iron supplements daily and eating red meat, but the biggest change was to come from cleaning up my gut.

I didn’t know it yet, I was to learn it later in the year when I started a course all about gut health, but the bugs in my small intestine (remember I had SIBO) were eating nutrients before I could absorb them. Iron is one of the mineral they love and they also love Vitamin B12.

So here I am killing off the bad bacteria, adding in good bacteria and all the while, my iron levels are rising and so has my Vitamin B12.

Remembering that my Vitamin B12 had nearly doubled the last time my bloods were taken and they were a similar number again this time.

This was a good sign that things were working. I felt better, and the science was saying I was better.

My copper levels had come down a bit. Still high for my GP but within range.

We had also been monitoring my CRP or S-C Reactive Protein. CRP indicates short term inflammation in the body. For a GP anything above 5 is high and at my first bloods in 2021, they were 10. No one was worried, my GP had seen it over 100 before.

Given my second bloods, in January, were taken after I’d been sick, my CRP was 36. This was understandable, as I’d had a virus (not covid) around that time. Therefore, we were monitoring it.

This time, my CRP was 9. Still high, but it showed my body had recovered from my illness and there was low grade inflammation in my body that needed to be addressed.

When ordering this lot of bloods my Dr suggested I have ESR tested. Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate or ESR, indicates long term inflammation in the body and with my ongoing lung issue it made sense to check that. 

My ESR levels came back at 30. Anything above 12 is considered high. Again, aside from ‘lets do things to reduce inflammation in your body,’ no one was particularly worried.

I added in some anti-inflammatory supplements into my diet and started taking turmeric and black pepper more often. Plus I was already having the Flaxseed oil in my salads.

Note: Turmeric is great for reducing inflammation naturally as it has an ingredient called curcumin. Curcumin is in Turmeric, and is activated with black pepper. So if you ever decide to take turmeric to reduce inflammation, make sure you include black pepper.

Looking back now that doesn’t seem like enough, but it was enough to get started so I could see what happened when I added these supplements and food approaches to my body.

What’s this mucus I keep coughing up?

I also spoke to my Dr about getting the mucus I coughed up tested. In my mind, my body was creating it and I wanted to see what I could do to minimise that creation beyond the reduction of inflammation.

I’d taken a sample of my mucus by spitting it into a jar and dropped it off to pathology when I had my bloods taken. The results showed that I had Non-tuberculosis Mycobacterium Avium (NTMA).

This is an organism that, according to google results, lives in water and therefore that’s how you catch it, so to speak. Through me drinking water it had come into my body. The fun news, not so fun, from a western medicine perspective there is no cure.

Basically, because I’m able to go about my day and get on with my life, with minimum disruption, there’s nothing anyone can do.

Of course I love hearing this, because then I go about doing things differently to minimise the issue, ideally isolating it to a point that I can effectively kill it. More on that later.

Now, let’s come back to the theory on how I contracted NTMA – through drinking water. This could or could not be true, there are many ways (I believe) that I could have contracted it. Let’s just be clear that our lungs are exposed to the outside world, we breathe air into them so just like skin, they literally consume the outside world.

I was the only person I knew who had this, and given I drink the same water as my family, that was interesting. It could have been something within my body that activated this organism, like having Bronchiectasis, or perhaps others were able to pass the organism without the issues I faced. I think there are so many facets to this so it’s important to get to know you, and what works for you or how you can best ‘effectively kill it’ because your journey will most likely look different to mine.

My Thyroid tweaks

My thyroid function was showing up to be a little low, so Brooke asked me to add iodine and salt into my diet and introduce selenium rich foods. I don’t add salt to anything but I also don’t take it away. For example, I don’t buy salt reduced foods, for me it’s like buying ‘low sugar’ or ‘sugar free’ the sugar’s still in there, in another form that our bodies may not be able to process, so I’d prefer to stay with the true, natural form.

I had no idea what adding selenium rich foods to my diet looked like, so Brooke kindly suggested I eat 2 x Brazil nuts a day. Easy, I can do that and I still do.

As my blood tests moved forward, there were tweaks and changes happening. As I evolved, so did my body and therefore it was like doing a dance. The dance was good, because it showed me we were refining things, going deeper, getting to the root cause, and that was exciting.

My SIBO is Healed!!

My stool test came back with awesome results. I no longer had SIBO. In 6 months I had healed that. 6 months of work, taking my supplements regularly, but healed – YAY!!! I still had some work to do on balancing my gut bacteria but the big issue had been dealt with.

I could only fully know this by taking another Stool test, demonstrating the importance of ‘seeing’ what’s going on.

I could now swap out my SIBO supplements for ones that nurtured my gut microbiome and created a gut playground that deeply supported my physical, mental and emotional wellbeing.

 

My next step

I had been wondering how spirituality would come into play during this year, and if it would at all but I had a niggle that it was going to be there. That I couldn’t just heal physically without doing the mental, emotional and spiritual work.

It was fun to be away in a big city, like Melbourne, by myself. Whilst I love travelling with Chris and Teddy, I also love the quiet, spaciousness that travel opens up for me. I only had a few days in Melbourne, and they turned out to be more transformative than even I knew was possible.

You can check out everything about my Project 22 over here and Chapter 16 – Spiritual Awakening.

 

Share with me

Are you going on your own journey in 2022? Then tag me and use #project22 so we can connect xo

 

Disclaimer

Everything shared in this post and across my website is my story and recollection of conversation and events. They are in no way medical or mental health advice, prescription or diagnosis. Should you be interested in what I’m sharing and what this could mean in your life, then I’d encourage you to engage with the relevant health professionals or if you need support please seek out the health professionals that can support you.

In relation to my podcast, the information shared is mine or my guests. Again it is not medical or mental health advice, prescription or diagnosis. If you need support, please seek out relevant medical professionals.