Symptoms of health or disease. The modern medical paradox.
I had a 53 year old client come back to me this week saying thank you for my help and reluctantly wanting to discontinue her nutrition program on the advice of her doctor.
Why? Because she had a period last week for the first time in 5 years. She did bleed heavily during this period and it was very unexpected. He comment was “I know you are all about turning back my biological clock but this is ridiculous as I have not had a period for 5 years!!”
She had been losing weight on this nutrition plan, but no more than 1kg of fat per week.
Her doctor suggested she have a rest from such a strict diet and see how things progress.
The question that I raise, is that ‘were these syptoms she is experiencing signs of health or disturbance?’
The eating plan, whilst an adjustment from the modern western diet in that it eliminates sugar and grains and aims at regulating blood sugar levels is not extreme. FIn fact, fruit and vegetable intake is far more than any eating plan I’ve used – and a truck load more than the western diet (and you only need to look at the wealth of research on this and the positive effects on human health and the immune system to know that this is a good thing).
Moreover, as best we can best tell from genetic, anthropological and scientfic research it far more closely resembles the standard nutrition of our paleolithic ancestors than the modern western diet. In fact, it is aimed to be a plan that has us eat as we’re built or structured to – as our ancestors did given it takes 40,000 years minimum for a change in the environment to be fully assimilated by our bodies (genetically).
My first thought was that this was a revelation. Maybe she had not gone through menopause at all? That her body is re-finding it’s own homeostatic balance. Rediscovering health once more. If this is the case, is resting from this diet just an excuse to settle back into sub-optimal health?
By letting the symptoms settle or go away, is she walking away from a futire of health and vitality?
Perhaps the symptoms would have settled anyway had she continued to eat optimally?
Her cycle may have continued for some time, but the transition into the change of life is generally far smoother and less eventfuk when one is healthy than not.
My suggestion is that she may have had the opportunity to free her self from a reliance on reactive medical care and pharmaceutical medicines. Is that not worth persevering through? What an opportunity for freedom.
It would save her a fortune in later life. That is guaranteed.
Sone interesting questions.