Chapter 2 – My Health Baseline

I knew that Health was my focus, and to get started, I needed to understand my baseline of health, where my health was right now.

I went back to my list of health from Chapter 1:

• Lungs issues
• Increase strength
• Increase agility
• Better management or eradication of urinary tract infections
• Low energy
• Low iron
• My periods
  • Heavy on day 2/3
  • Brain fog day 2/3
  • Low iron
  • Low energy
• Better management or eradication of cold sores
• Reduce or reverse hair loss
• Fix low blood oxygen level around the 1 minute mark when exercising
• Assess if I’m peri-menopausal and if so, manage it appropriately

Then I looked at what I’d included in my health group:

• Physical activity
• Home cooking
• Home environment
  • Decluttering
  • Dressing
  • Finish property improvements
• Joy
• Spirituality

 

Based on this, I explored what I was already doing:

• I was walking/running 4-5 times a week.
• Our home cooking was great but I was still reward eating – albeit healthy options plus some amazing local pastries! 
  • Side note, when you’re in Hervey Bay, head to Cake Bake and Brew for lots of amazing pastry treats and to the Howard Bakery for more amazing pastry treats – just a handy local tip!
• I was also taking supplements. They were from the supermarket or other companies that I respected, but it was more a scatter gun approach rather than targeted.

 

I pulled out all the supplements I was taking to check out what they were actually for and what was in them. I was on:

• Iron
• Calcium
• Vitamin D
• Magnesium
• Lung Tincture
• Kidney & Bladder Tincture
• Parasite M Tincture
• Parasite G Tincture
• Multivitamin
• Omegas
• Cellular support, and
• Collagen

When I write that list I think ‘oh that’s a lot’, and I guess it can be. I’d gotten into a great routine around taking my supplements, each morning I’d make a green juice, which included my collagen, and I’d take the rest of my supplements then too.

 

My Approach to taking Supplements

About 6 months earlier, I wasn’t taking any supplements, aside from the occasional iron one. I had a whole pile in my cupboard (the list above) and I though, let’s start taking them, because the alternative was to throw them out and that seemed silly. I started slowly, taking my iron regularly. I then added in the multivitamin, omega and cellular support. Then came the Calcium, Magnesium and Vitamin D. Next the Tinctures.

The tinctures were a late arrival (they came a couple of months in to taking my supplements regularly) and a recommendation from a medium I’d been seeing. I wanted to do a gut cleanse and she’d suggested these as part of the work I do with her – not the gut cleanse specifically, but I thought they could help. I ordered them, and after they arrived I took them the following morning – 1 dropper of each.

OMG, my head nearly blew off and I was gagging ha ha.

I looked at the contents, and they had between 20 and 30% pure alcohol – I hadn’t expected that and I didn’t expect they’d taste so foul. I contacted my friend who also goes to our medium and is also a naturopath and told her about my experience. She laughed – and said ‘that’s nothing compared to some of them’. Tinctures are plant extracts, and in this case, preserved in alcohol.

I’d been taking the tinctures one dropper at a time, thank goodness for my Naturopath, she (unbeknownst to her) changed the way I took them and changed my life.

I found my slow approach to taking my supplements really supported me. Taking one supplement, then 4 then 7 etc. helped me build a habit and I felt like I was achieving something, it didn’t overwhelm me and I could look forward to what was to come – yes more supplements, but I’d created a sustainable approach which worked for me.

 

Iron levels and my Lungs

My iron levels have been low since I was in my 20s. I’d had regular conversations with GPs (General Practitioners – Medical Doctors) about it. They’d recommended supplements and I’d gone on my merry way.

I’d taken iron supplements on and off for years, and I’d even brought meat back into my life, after being vegetarian for 19 years, to help increase my iron levels, and therefore energy levels.

At no stage had a GP mentioned iron infusions to me, and to be honest I wasn’t interested because I could manage my energy through food and exercise. I’m generally not interested in taking anything that could compromise my overall health. What I mean by that is, I don’t take medication for medications sake. However, I did get caught in an antibiotics cycle in the attempt to minimise urinary tract infections.

Interestingly, I was taking an antibiotic after sex for a few years, and it was another GP who told me that we needed to look at this approach. At this point I didn’t understand the impact antibiotics could have on our bodies and I was, at the time, in the middle of a urinary tract infection so my response was ‘give me the bloody antibiotics’ and I never went back to see him. Maybe my eyes would have opened sooner if I had.

In 2015, when I had bronchial phenomena, my GP had request blood tests. I got a call after my blood test results arrived on her desk and I was in her office that afternoon talking iron levels. They were very low (I can’t remember where I was on the scale at that time), much like they’d always been, and she wanted me on an iron supplements from the Pharmacy, plus eating meat 2-3 times a week. I did that but never had a follow up blood test – that I can remember. Regardless to say, I felt better because my lungs were also healing and I started running the following year. Which in essence means – if I was healthy enough to run, I was healthy.

In 2017, my bronchial phenomena came back, which I got treatment for at the time. Then in 2020, when the bushfires were going through NSW, Victoria and the ACT, the smoke haze in Canberra was worse than Delhi, India. It was during this time that I began to cough up blood. I’d been coughing pretty much since 2015, and this time I took myself to a Functional Doctor. In her terms, she wasn’t in ‘standard land’ aka where GPs are, she goes deeper.

She had blood tests done and a series of tests on my lungs, long story short she diagnosed me with Bronchiectasis (widening of the bronchial tubes) and referred me to a lung specialist, plus my Ferritin (iron stores) levels were a 11L (ug/L), my optimum, at the time, was 15 – 200. Needless to say she put me on an iron supplement.

 

My Naturopath

I wanted to make sure I went deep on my health journey and get a true baseline of my health, so I researched Functional Doctors in my area. Unfortunately none came up. I’d been speaking to some women I played netball with and they recommended a Naturopath in the area. I also put a post on my local Facebook Mum’s Group and they gave me 2 recommendations. I looked at both and booked in with one of them.

The purpose of going to see a naturopath was to work with a person who was trained to look at all aspects of my health e.g. sleep, nutrition, water, movement etc., who was trained to look at the numbers and understood how those numbers worked together/their flow on effect to other numbers, and to work with someone who could support me during my Project 2022. What I knew was, my list above would evolve and, as I write this, it certainly has, so keep an eye out for Wee Tracking, Hair Tests and SIBO in future chapters.

Getting health support from a naturopath was also going to tackle most of the items on my list. The remaining 2 – strength and agility – were all about fitness and I knew what to do in that area. I’ve create a separate chapter dedicated to this, because there is a lot of unpicking to do there and I think it’ll be a valuable conversation to have.

The Next Step

My next step was my first appointment with my Naturopath. One simple conversation can change things quickly, and that’s exactly what happened.

You can check out everything about my Project 22 over here and Chapter 3 My Naturopath.

 

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.