LIVING WITH ENDOMETRIOSIS -AN INVITATION TO KNOW YOUR BODY

I want to help you see that what you put in your mouth also has power over your body. By making small simple, easy choices, you can improve your life and not just physically you will experience emotional, mental and even spiritual shifts.

During my university extremes, I ate what was available and cheap. Nothing was fresh, everything out of package. Around the same time, I was overusing steroids cream and antibiotics because of my chronic candida infections.

My wake-up call was in 2005, I was doubled over with back and abdominal pains again and again, I missed entire class just crawled in a ball on the floor, because the bed wasn’t comfortable. This painful episode came every month with regularity. Until, a doctor did an ultrasound which revealed 4 large fibroids the size of a grapefruit and an ovarian cyst inside my left ovary. Also, she said “Rashida with all these symptoms, I think you might have endometriosis, but we can only confirm with surgery”.  She said since you are under 30yrs old and it is not a life-threatening condition. Under the NHS, we will just give you pain killers to manage the pain, which will stop when you get pregnant.

Fast forward to 2008, I worked with Navy Commander (Dr.) Owolabi during my MSc in the UK and he made me I understand my ailment better. My uterus was inflamed, and endometriosis is fueled by inflammation, then he connected the big dots with my eating habits. I noticed I craved a lot of excess refined sugar consumption like biscuits, chocolates, cakes and I was on the Atkins diet just eating excess protein especially beef. All these caused inflammation, then it hit me “you are what you eat” I just finally processed the truth.

Almost all diseases are supported by inflamed conditions in the body and by making small changes. For instance, once a month I would detox for 3days i.e. 3days of just drinking homegrown herbal teas (morning, afternoon and night) without no sweetener, no dairy/no meat/no fish/no biscuits and just eating local fruits, whole-grains like millet and vegetables. And also increased my intake of omega -3 and omega-9 through supplements just for 3 days before my period and I noticed the debilitating pain stopped. That’s when I decided to fight inflammation with my food and omega supplements. Also reduce my over consumption for meat which as a Nigerian, you know your food is not complete without meat on your plate.

Written by: Rashidat Raji

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