Health Update - July 2013

(being a dork out the front of the Sumo Wrestling world championships in Tokyo)

Hey friends! Guess what? My mac died. Errrrrrrgh. The Battery is toast and as I've had my beloved book for going on 5 years now, I think it's time to upgrade. And I haven't had any time to do that yet, so I haven't been able to do any photo editing which means no recipe posts! Sorry about that. But today I'm blogging from my iPhone and I thought I should probably give ya'll an update on my health status.

Last update involved all sorts of scary moments including controversial drugs and a return to my former depressed self. That was super awesome. Thankfully, I'm doing better now. As soon as I got myself off oratane, my HS (Hidrabenitis Suppurativa, for those of you just joining us) flared. Not bad, but definitely a huge difference from the relief I did experience on the drugs. I also noticed a few new areas where it seems the disease has managed to spread (I will save you the gory details!). Given the last 7 months of surgery, medication and being bounced from specialist to specialist, I kinda got fed up and decided I was going to have a break for a little while. While all my doctors have been nothing short of magnificent, extremely caring and sympathetic, at the end of the day there is so little known about HS and it seemed they were all running out of ideas. 

A few months ago my mother, a natural therapies enthusiast, gave me a big bottle of Olive Leaf Extract to try. One of the benefits of olive leaf is its anti inflammatory properties which she thought could possibly help quell my flair ups. I started taking it but i was never really consistent with it and eventually stopped all together. But shortly after my oratane ordeal my bestie noticed the discarded bottle in my kitchen and told me how much her mother and aunty rave about olive leaf. So I thought I'd give it another crack. I've been taking 10mls a day for the last 2 months and have had ZERO flair ups. I hardly even notice my lesions anymore!! 

I can't say with all certainty that the olive leaf is slowling my HS. After all, it is winter which means I'm less active which is probably helping with my arm. BUT, Michael and I recently got back from 2 weeks of summertime fun in Japan (including all the non-paleo meals!!) and I decided to leave my olive leaf at home to see if I noticed a difference, and I just so happened to have TWO flair ups during our trip. Coinsidence? I'm beginning to think not. Providing this all keeps going well, I'm also considering acupuncture as an alternative therapy approach. Again, my darling mother is a huge fan, and it's worked wonders for her recently. Plus I've read so many good things about acupuncture, I figure it can't hurt? 

In other news, if you follow me on twitter or instagram you may have noticed that I've also decided to quit sugar (insert groans of pain here). I'm loosely following the Sarah Wilson 'I Quit Sugar' plan but as I predominantly eat paleo, all I've really had to do is cut out the natural sugars like fruit, honey etc. I'm hoping this detox will help me curb my processed sugar cravings (even cavemen go weak at the sight of a Zumbo Cronut!), but shall keep you all updated as I go. 

Stay healthy, Kids.

KayB xx

(The Cronut. Or Zonut. Heaven in a pastry.)