I've Been Poisoned: The Health Edition Part 1 - Issue #43
It took me far too long to take the information I'm about to share seriously enough. Because it's hard to admit that you've been doing mostly everything wrong. It's hard to admit that your healthy food is making you sick. But the last big health flare forced me into a reckoning, and I'd like to share what I know, because I don't want anyone else to suffer in all the ways I have. So...let's get down to it.
Oxalates are naturally occurring plant toxins. They are undigestible by the body and must either be discarded or stored by the body to keep them from killing you. They are microscopic shards that mechanically shred tissue, much like diatomaceous earth shreds the bodies of common pests and kills them. They are a huge factor in the formation of kidney stones. They are present in extremely high amounts in the most popular "super foods." Spinach, swish chard, dark chocolate, beets and beet greens, sweet potatoes, russet potatoes, soy, almonds, and most grains, legumes and nuts contain the most oxalates. Spinach is the highest. Spinach is poison and you shouldn't eat it. Sorry folks, but Popeye the Sailor Man was propaganda.
My Health Story
I've spoken of my health struggles before, so this will not be an exhaustive story. Here's a quick recap:
Strep-induced PANDAS at 8 years old
PANDAS triggered OCD
Contracted Lyme--not properly diagnosed until over 20 years later thanks to the CDCs outdated testing protocol
Horrifyingly painful monthly cycles starting at 12
Musculoskeletal pains of all sorts starting in childhood (not at all normal)
Excessive fatigue from puberty on
Gut pain and IBS beginning in early 20s
Insomnia beginning in late 20s
Once married, inability to conceive
Extremely painful acid reflux leading to esophageal spasms
Upper left quadrant gut pain and inflammation of unknown cause
UTI several years ago that led to Interstitial Cystitis
And the above list contains just the big stuff. Gulp.
My dad was diagnosed with Lupus when I was just five. Due to his health issues, and later on, my mom's health issues, healthy eating was high on the agenda. We were also poor. This combination produced a diet rich in whole grains, legumes, lots of peanut butter (sans sugar), tons and tons of vegetables, most of which we grew ourselves, and not a whole lot of meat. Meat was expensive and beans were cheap. When we had meat, it was most often in soup or pasta sauce to stretch it out farther. We were about five degrees away from being complete vegetarians. Mom was very militant against sugar and processed foods in our house, which I am now extremely grateful for, though it was considerably annoying at the time. Almost everything we ate was cooked or baked with our own hands in the kitchen. We ate large quantities of dark leafy greens, beets, beet greens, potatoes, pinto beans, black beans, and for quite a while, Mom made our own soy milk from scratch.
In short, we were crunchy before it was cool. Why, then, did we feel so doggone rotten all the time!?!
Fast Forward to 2017
I had been feeling terrible for a long time only two years into my marriage, and then I got the worst UTI of my life. And it just wouldn't go away. Yes, I stopped testing positive for bacteria in my urine, but still had almost all the symptoms in addition the extreme pelvic floor dysfunction that came with it. I had bladder pressure, bladder pain, bladder spasms, and I couldn't sleep at night. Imagine trying to sleep after you've had to get up every ten minutes to pee, but the feeling that you have to go never leaves. And it hurts and it burns and there is no posture that makes it go away. I was depressed from sheer exhaustion and constant discomfort. It was the straw that broke the camel's back for me.
Jonathon and I sought out the help of a Lyme specialist. Up to that point, I suspected that I had Lyme, but I never tested positive on ELISA. (Western Blot is only indicated, thanks to CDCs recommendations, if two or more bands are positive on ELISA.)
Most of you who follow me on Facebook know the rest of this story. Thank God, my doctor didn't fool around with ELISA and went straight to Western Blot. I was, in fact, infected with Lyme and who knows how long I had the little buggers in my system wreaking havoc. Many things were revealed in quick succession. I had multiple food sensitivities as a result of gut lining damage, I had antibodies to Candida, I had several other tick-transmitted illnesses in addition to Lyme, a more comprehensive urine culture revealed that I had two low-grade bacterial infections in my bladder, I had mast cell activation syndrome, and sky-high histamine levels.
Gradually, I began to get better with treatment, but two things would not resolve--the upper left quadrant gut pain and the bladder issues. Upon further investigation, an OATS test revealed I had higher than normal oxalates in my urine. It was then my doctor broached the topic of oxalates with me. She gave me a list of high-oxalate foods and told me to eat fewer of them.
And I did. But after all the medical trauma and rapid fire dietary changes, the fallout from Lyme treatment (the treatment makes you feel horrid), the sudden crashing of my thyroid...well, I just had a hard time making yet another change. I did cut out spinach since that was the highest oxalate food, but I still ate quite a few potatoes and had my nibbles of dark chocolate, and I didn't bother restricting any other moderately-high oxalate foods. The bladder flares continued at regular intervals, but seemed to be kept somewhat at bay by keeping an eye on the big oxalate offenders and shunning stevia, of all things. Every time I ate or drank anything with stevia in it, major symptom tragedy was around the corner. (I now know that stevia is very high in oxalates.)
But for a While This Year...
...my bladder flares vanished, as close to completely as I had ever experienced in this whole miserable nightmare. And it was lovely. The gut pain remained, but I could live with that. About that time, my doctor wanted me to get started on a prenatal vitamin in preparation for a pregnancy that I'm still praying for but not quite convinced is actually going to occur. But, keep hope alive...
Anyway, when it arrived in the mail, I looked at the label and it's rainbow array of touted super foods--kale, spinach, beets, carrots, and blackberries among other things. All of them containing either super high or moderate levels of oxalates. And in the back of my mind, I was thinking, "I wonder if I should run this by the Doc once more and ask about the high-oxalate ingredients." But then my self-doubting, minimizing voice chimed in, "Oh, don't be such a hypochondriac! Your bladder has been fine, and you can probably do oxalates with no problems now."
And so I started taking them and didn't think about it anymore. Two weeks later, the bladder symptoms commenced. First quite mildly, then increasing by the day. I was scheduled to sing in a two-hour choir concert at the end of that week, and things had gotten so bad, I was seriously wondering if I would be able to stand on stage all that time without an accident or have to disgrace myself by dashing off stage in the middle of the concert to find a bathroom. Two days before the concert, I had an epiphany.
The only thing that had changed in any way was the new prenatal vitamin. I told Jonathon and asked, did he think the vitamin might, possibly, perhaps be causing this? And he said,
"Uh, YES! Stop taking it!"
"But it's just one little pill."
"Yes, and it's super concentrated. Stop taking it!"
So, I did. And the flare slowly dulled, faded and two months later, is nearly gone.
Two months.
From two weeks of vitamins.
My Doctor confirmed our suspicions and apologized profusely for not noticing the "super foods" on the label. She then did a bunch more research on the topic of oxalates, and I have started on some supplements that have really helped me feel better. More on that in part 2.
This letter has gone on far longer than usual, and I apologize if I'm boring you. But I wanted to tell you about this, because perhaps you can avoid some suffering if I don't keep this to myself. I am finally coming to grips with the fact that a life time of a diet high in "healthy foods" which were extremely high in oxalates has contributed in a big way to my illness. (Mom, I do not blame you at all. You were just trying to give us a better diet and followed the health advice of people who probably should have known better. And maybe they were just acting off of the limited knowledge they had.) Of course, there were many other factors at work, as there usually are in chronic illness, but oxalates not only contributed, but probably helped cause many of my issues.
Next week, I am going to detail my dietary evolution over time. How, in an attempt to fix one problem, I swapped out problem foods and ended up using high-oxalate foods as substitutes. (Almond flour bread as a gluten substitute, anyone?) I would also like to share a link to a fascinating article which helped me put the pieces of this puzzle together, point you towards resources that will help you understand the problem, and tell you what my diet consists of these days. By the way, don't chop all oxalates out of your diet today. You will get really, really sick if you do that. More on that in part 2.
Meanwhile, here's a video interview with Sally K Norton, educated in nutrition at Cornell University, sharing her wealth of knowledge on the subject. She's fabulous, and this interview will give you a good introduction to oxalate poisoning.
I know that was a slog, and I thank you if you've read all the way to the end. I hope you all have a lovely, restful, day of Thanksgiving this week. Eat all the food, because life is short. You can think about oxalates after Thanksgiving. : )
Until next time, folks...