Category: Dispatches

In October 2016 I was diagnosed with a rare, highly aggressive, and very deadly breast cancer. I beat the heavily stacked odds against me by throwing everything but the kitchen sink at it, combining ancient medicine with a cutting edge update, and modern medicine tempered with a holistic touch. I am now in remission. This is my cancer story. 

Till my diagnosis with Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC), I was oblivious to the growing trend of otherwise healthy women in their 30s and 40s parting ways with their female bits.

We live in an era where we’re exploring Mars, but one in eight women will develop breast cancer in their lifetime.

85 percent of  women with breast cancer have no family history of it, and 40 percent of 40 year old women are unknowingly living with breast cancers too small to be spotted by mammogram. 

The most extensive genetic testing available (far beyond 23 and Me) yielded not one mutation linked to any cancers, and so I came to realise my career as a broadcast journalist in war zones may have been the driving factor: exposure to to chemical agents used in warfare, radiation, phthalates in water bottles heated in extreme temperatures, military burn pits in Iraq, and of course, extreme stress. 

Stress was recently concretely linked to breast cancer. A study following over five thousand women found that just one episode of major stress lasting a month or more, doubled breast cancer risk.

“Everyone thinks of cancer patients as old, sickly, 10-pack-a-day smokers, but many are super healthy. Cancer blindsides you — one day you’re healthy, and the next day you’re not,” Dr. Joanne Wiedhaas (who discovered the KRAS mutation linked to multiple cancer progression).

According to Michael Greger, M.D., author of the New York Times bestseller How Not to Die, breast cancer can start in the womb. What our mothers ate, or stress they were exposed to (a civil war in my mother’s case), can get the process started. By the time doctors find it, a tumour could have been growing for 40 years or more. But once they pick up steam, they can double in size in as little as twenty five days.

It’s a weird position to find yourself in…

Being a super healthy lifestyle advocate diagnosed with a rare and terrifying cancer.

I delayed treatment (which I now regret) for nearly three months to research and try alternative healing, scouring the many amazing online stories of those who fought naturally and won.

It was later revealed this delay may have halved my five year survival rate.

I consulted naturopaths, acupuncturists, healers, integrative practitioners, and hypnotherapists.

My extensive, obsessive, all encompassing, research and incredibly exhaustive genetic testing revealed many subtypes of TNBC, nearly 20 so far that we know of, plus many genetic markers that the average patient wouldn’t know of. 

The right genetic testing can tell us if a breast cancer patient needs, or would even benefit at all, from treatment after surgery. I fell within the fastest growing and most aggressive type, of the most aggressive type, of aggressive breast cancer, and surgery alone didn’t look like much of an option. 

My father died from lung cancer (not genetic) at my current age, and my mother had spent her entire life panicked she would lose me the same way. So I chose to keep the turmoil to myself as I struggled to come to a decision.

It was important to me to protect my mother, now in her eighties and in poor health, from the news, till I knew for sure it was either the very end, or that I would make it through.

I finally chose to go with the plant based chemotherapy, but I would do it alone in California, far from my mother and family. 

But I had an ace up my sleeve.

I had just found out that Dr. Valter Longo, head of the University of Southern California Longevity Institute, creator of the Fasting Mimicking Diet, was running a breast cancer trial. Women on chemotherapy, for the most part with my crazy aggressive cancer, were testing his Chemolieve fasting mimicking diet program. 

Naturally I joined.

Here’s me doing a headstand after an hour of kickboxing right after my first round of treatment…I’ve switched to water in glass bottles now because phthalates found in plastic are strongly linked to triple negative breast cancer.

The five day plan consists of meals that mimic the effects of water fasting and enhance chemotherapy, empowering the immune system to join in the fight against the tumour. All this while minimising side effects, and sparing healthy cells from damage. Combining fasting and chemotherapy makes the treatment up to 40 percent more effective (according to European trials).

I’ve interviewed Dr. Longo in the past about the higher calorie version of this fast is already commercially available here.

Fasting started three days before treatment and day four was infusion day.

Living on about 300 calories for three days every three weeks, and then every two weeks, wasn’t too much fun, but you know what was even less fun? Doing a treatment without fasting.

I did it once, due to a hospital scheduling mess up.

Yes indeed, I felt the difference, and it was awful. Really and truly just a terrible experience.

How fasting with chemo is different from traditional treatment:

• I effortlessly maintained my weight throughout
• None of those terrifying head in the toilet moments we’re all too familiar with from films, not even once
• White blood cell counts immediately bounced back
• No major infections
• No mouth ulcers or nail issues
• No complications whatsoever from treatment
• Protection of the immune system from long term damage (40% of the immune system is regenerated in just 4 days of the fasting mimicking diet)
• Less exhaustion (but the exercise was also a factor in this)
• I required almost no medications for side-effects of treatment (but I did need some antihistamines because I was asked not to take many blood thinning supplements)

 Here’s me doing a complicated modified tripod headstand a few days after my fifth round…I can’t begin to tell you how shocked people were by how I looked, and the amount of exercise I was doing. 

Fasting has been researched for cancer and other ailments for years…

Most recently Valter’s team found it minimises multiple sclerosis symptoms by killing off faulty autoimmune cells and then creating new ones, leading to a 70 percent remission in symptoms. Valter has also shown that diabetes 1 and 2 symptoms are treatable with this fasting mimicking diet. You’ll find all those studies on the L-Nutra website. 

Though I had used the fasting mimicking diet while living in France a few years earlier, I had failed to be consistent with it. I’m now fasting religiously every month, as well as overnight for a minimum of 13 hours. 

I was an incredibly unhealthy eater for much of my life till my histamine symptoms forced me to change. I know that the dietary and lifestyle change in direction gave me precious years free from a cancer that is diagnosed as early as 25. And I know that this diet, along with the fasting, is what helped me power through eight rounds of chemo while running and doing yoga six days a week, and living a normal life without serious incident, infection, or gastrointestinal problems.

My doctors were Dr. Hoffman at Cedars Sinai, Dr. Kristi Funk at the Pink Lotus Breast Center and Dr. Edward Ray at Cedars Sinai

But it was certainly a shock to be diagnosed just days after getting my US work visa to move to California. 

I had first lived in California at 17, when I was scouted by a major modeling agency. Before I was able to get my portfolio together, I broke out in chronic hives. Heartbroken, I left for Europe.  

This time I put my foot down and refused to leave California.

I might have cancer, but it wasn’t going to beat me, even if it killed me.

Having few friends and no family here wasn’t the easiest thing I’ve ever done.

But I quickly realised chemotherapy side effects involve histamine and mast cells, so foods and supplements I’ve been using (plus the scores I discovered in the last year), and all the dietary changes, helped me have a most remarkable treatment experience.

I beat a cancer that isn’t all that treatable, even with chemotherapy and radiation, or naturally. My heart has not been damaged, and unbelievably, all my blood tests and organ function returned to normal less than a month after finishing treatment.

Here’s me two weeks after round eight of treatment…

I went to chemotherapy alone, picked up prescriptions, cooked, cleaned, and worked, on my own. I came up with strategies like putting a stool in the kitchen so I could cook while sitting down, using an Instant Pot, into which I’d literally dump mixtures of vegetables into for meals, and running/walking using intermittent training protocols.

My breast surgery was tricky because I couldn’t raise my arms and I wasn’t happy to take pain meds for more than a few days (they make me feel funny). So I moved the Instant Pot to the floor before surgery so I could drop frozen veggies and rice into it. I tied string to my freezer door so I could open it with my arms at hip height, trained my core to get in and out of bed, practiced opening the fridge door with my foot, and also getting in and out of my car without using my arms (I have a very low car!). My OCD planning masterpiece culminated in my placing two weeks worth of plates, glasses, and cutlery at waist height on kitchen counters and buying circus clown like foot long bendy straws because I wouldn’t be able to pick up water bottles.

I approached my illness and recovery with the same military-like precision I have my histamine disorder and time as a journalist in war zones.

And it worked.

I’m now in remission.

I don’t know how long for; there are no health guarantees in life.

You’ll find me here plugging away till they literally pull the cord.

As I lay in my treatment chair for round five, trying to block out the sounds of despair around me…

I realised that cancer would beat me if I let it. 

I needed to reach deep within to find the warrior I might have been if I’d been born in a different place, time, or gender.

It’s terrifying and hateful, and I know I’ll be criticised for saying this, but really it’s just another obstacle to be overcome, till it’s time to find peace and acceptance that I’ve done all I possibly can. 

Or, to quote Monty Python, till I’ve shuffled off my mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the ble@!ng choir invisible. 

And so I leave you, for now, with the Dead Parrot sketch.

Enjoy!

Monty Python – Dead Parrot Sketch

——-REFERENCES——-

I’ve been asked at least a couple of times this week if I once reacted to any of the foods I currently eat. Once?? Any?? Blimey, I thought I’d been really clear on that on – I once reacted to ALL foods. And I mean all.

I didn’t know what I was dealing with in the beginning, not even that food bothered me. I’ll spare you my ramblings on that, it’s just too scary to see where my thoughts took me and all the avenues I ruled out. It’s actually just too painful to relive it all, even though in a way I do consider this blog to be therapeutic, for me and for you guys (or am I getting ahead of myself there?).

Once I worked out that food played some role, I began a food diary, which I wrote notes in religiously from 2009 to 2011. Here’s some of the entries (I’ve edited out the excessive punctuation and swearing). I have never had allergies, but despite negative test results, I remained convinced I somehow had them and persisted in calling my histamine/mast cell issues “allergies” and referring to my “acne” which turned out to be urticaria/hives. My most severe symptoms occurred before keeping this diary but I have also edited some out as I don’t want to upset anyone or plant any kind of idea that these are common histamine intolerance symptoms. They are not, which is why I kept searching for answers and then was finally diagnosed with mast cell activation. My anxiety symptoms were not really noted in my diary, because by now it was just a part of my life and I didn’t believe it had anything to do with what I was eating or putting on my skin (which is a huge part of it as I talk about in my beauty book).

CLICK HERE FOR A FOUR WEEK HISTAMINE RESET WITH MEAL PLANNERS, STRESS RELIEF STRATEGIES & MORE

10 Oct 09 Allergy bad today now throat swelling after one clove garlic and one tbsp spring onion. Ear swelled shut since eating.

25 Oct 09 Allergies pretty much gone, ate bell peppers though and throat suddenly massively swollen and painful suddenly, ears swollen shut too, sounds like I’m living life at the bottom of a swimming pool.

30 Oct 09 Ate chickpeas, lemon, olive oil, now horribly dizzy, can’t walk straight.

1 Nov 09 Rice don’t eat it! Bladder issues were resolved till rice. Now so much pain. Help me Yasmina! Do better dammit! Figure this out you stupid b***h!

11 Nov 2009 Lettuce scratchy throat, ear fullness, kidney beans make me SICK and nauseous.

15 Nov 09 Allergies disappeared! It was olive oil, all beans, lettuce and cabbage!

30 Nov 09 They’re back. Spasms, cramps, horrible anxiety. Almost fainted in supermarket today.

06 Dec 09 Miracle, everything has cleared up today on second day of low histamine diet. Skin beautiful.

13 Dec 2009 Dizzy again, anxiety, reacted to many low histamine foods.

17 Dec 09 Feeling almost normal today after the diflucan, must be the candida making me shake.

I was convinced for many years that all my issues stemmed from candida. They did not, it was just another red herring. 

18 Dec 09 Dizziness caused by trapped nerve?

07 Jan 2010 No shaking last night.

09 Jan 10 Fruit makes me shake, don’t eat alone. Don’t eat peppers, they hurt you.

17 Jan 10 Parsley and coriander make me sick.

22 Jan 10 One sip green juice made my lips swell and brought back old symptoms for three days. Don’t try again.

30 Jan 10 Started Dr. Fuhrman’s Eat to Live. I think this might be the answer.

18 Feb 10 Woke up relaxed but loud tinnitus. Have lost 5kg so far. Worried I’m starving myself. Am eating 500-800 cals.  Weird salmon is always ok with me thought fish is high histamine???? I’ll never work this out!!

2 March 2010 Zucchini and olive oil made throat swell shut. Migraine, blurred vision, want to throw up.

4 March 10 Blood sugar crash/hypoglycemia again. Ran to pharmacy next door for fifth time this week, weird, again not registering ANY kind of blood sugar fluctuation. MUST be the candida, took another diflucan.

10 March 2010 Fasting – feeling great!!

11 March 10 Fast not going great. Broke out in horrible itching and spasms, epileptic seizure like again. Eyes rolling back lost control of my body.

7 July 10 Pomegranate made my throat swell shut. Onion making me itch.

13July 10 Feeling great till I ate dates. Never ever eat them again. Promise me.

17 July 2010 Up all night itching from cantaloupe and apple.

19 July 10 Ants are crawling all over my body.

22 July 10 Bananas give me joint pain stop them.

25 July 10 ALL fruits make me dizzy, especially mango.

18 Oct 11 Olive oil and blueberries give me spots.

25 Oct  11 Broccoli and cauliflower make me nauseous.

09 Nov 11 Quercetin makes me sick!!!!! Rice bladder pain, blueberries, butternut squash make me tired and give me spots.

25 Nov 11 Horrible spots from hummus. Stop eating it stupid.

As you can see, I wasn’t very nice to myself in those years. I somehow kept believing that I deserved whatever was happening to me, if only because I wasn’t smart enough to figure out the cause. I was carrying around so much anger at the time – at myself, my family and friends for telling me it was psychosomatic, the shrinks for telling me the same thing and medicating me to the gills. Most of all, the crushing anxiety I was dealing with made me mad, spitting mad, because I didn’t understand how I could let something created by my mind torpedo a career at CNN (it didn’t in the end – that was all in my mind) and stop me from doing something such basic things as drive a car or leave my apartment, or worse, be in my home, alone, without my mind scaring the hell out of me. I am now much kinder to myself. I realised that was the first step, and everything else follows. That it’s incredibly important to surround yourself with those who support your journey, and if there are none, that it’s time to go out and find them.

But, in the end of course, food turned out to play a huge role. Not as most people see it, by being the demon or the cause in this equation, but rather because food turned out to be my saviour. The point of my post today is to share that, like many of you, I was down to just a handful of “safe” foods by the time I realised that was the wrong approach to healing. Like many of you, I reacted strongly to beans, fruits and even the herbs that I now rely on so heavily. I don’t specifically get into it in the food diary, but rather in a separate document where I kept track of all the diagnoses and intolerances I believed myself to have. Among them salicylate intolerance (all the symptoms to all the medium-high sals foods), oxalate issues ad infinitum. Once I stopped basing my recovery on the exclusion of foods, the path to healing opened up to me. You can see my progression and my thought processes change with each of my successive cookbooks. I wrote the first using a food list given to me, before tossing it away in the third. By then I had understood that increasing nutritional intake, even in small amounts from foods that bothered me, was the key.

As was managing my stress. That was a biggie. I’ll write more about that next week, along with sharing my favourite new high protein pancake recipe.

Oh, if it’s not clear from my post, I now eat all the foods that were making me feel sick, as often as I want, whenever I want. There’s hope I promise. It’s not really about the food or the histamine in the end…

Be well xo

You’ll find recipes full of foods with antihistamine and anti-inflammatory properties my books Anti-Recipes and The Anti-Cookbook

CLICK HERE FOR A FOUR WEEK HISTAMINE RESET WITH MEAL PLANNERS, STRESS RELIEF STRATEGIES & MORE

Please remember, even antihistamine and anti-inflammatory foods can hurt us, please always exercise caution and consult a medical practitioner before adding new foods. 

So, I guess this is the moment histamine intolerance went mainstream! First for Women magazine recently interviewed me for a feature on curing tiredness – you can check it out in their March 2nd issue, available in the US at all major supermarkets and Walmarts. Yes friends, this is going out to a heck of a lot of people. Dr. Amy Meyers of the Autoimmune Solution was quoted in the article. The internet tells me they have a circulation of a million or so, so here’s hoping it helps some work out what’s going on with their health.

This is the cover…the feature teaser is on the bottom left hand corner.

More posts coming up soon – I’ve been working on a number of projects I’ll be ready to share with you all soon!

You’ll find a collection of all liquid high nutrient antihistamine and anti-inflammatory rich recipes for days when my histamine bucket overflowed in the new Anti-Detox book. 

The Anti-cookbook, while it doesn’t treat any conditions, due to its high nutrient, antihistamine and anti-inflammatory ingredients, has been instrumental in helping me feed myself on a limited diet. It features a six page list of antihistamine and anti-inflammatory foods. It comes in regular and Paleo. 

The Low Oxalate Cookbook features antihistamine and anti-inflammatory rich recipes. 

Don’t miss the Low Histamine Beauty Survival Guide for non-toxic beauty tips, the skinny on histamine releasing (mast cell degranulating) beauty ingredients, antihistamine and anti-inflammatory beauty alternatives and the top brands natural brands I’ve found.

Take a peek at my other low histamine and antihistamine cookbooks for more high nutrient recipes.

If you’ve found this information useful I’d appreciate your support (at no extra cost to you!) – please check out my online store for your health foods, supplements, kitchen items and beauty product purchases. Affiliate sales through my online store go towards maintaining the website, funding travel to interviews and purchasing all the lovely foods for my free online recipes. You’ll find these items in the “Shop with us” drop down menu on my homepage.  

Please don’t forget antihistamine, pain killing foods can still hurt us, so please always check with your doctor before adding new foods to your diet. 

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

I’m really new to this whole Black Friday thing, but I thought I’d give it a go…

From now till midnight on Monday (EST) you’ll receive a free 50 page ebook of my favourite holiday recipes with the purchase of any of my cookbooks.

Visit my store here or click the photo above. 

Happy Holidays!

xo

You’ll find a collection of all liquid high nutrient antihistamine and anti-inflammatory rich recipes for days when my histamine bucket overflowed in the new Anti-Detox book. 

The Anti-cookbook, while it doesn’t treat any conditions, due to its high nutrient, antihistamine and anti-inflammatory ingredients, has been instrumental in helping me feed myself on a limited diet. It features a six page list of antihistamine and anti-inflammatory foods. It comes in regular and Paleo. 

The Low Oxalate Cookbook features antihistamine and anti-inflammatory rich recipes. 

Don’t miss the Low Histamine Beauty Survival Guide for non-toxic beauty tips, the skinny on histamine releasing (mast cell degranulating) beauty ingredients, antihistamine and anti-inflammatory beauty alternatives and the top brands natural brands I’ve found.

Take a peek at my other low histamine and antihistamine cookbooks for more high nutrient recipes.

If you’ve found this information useful I’d appreciate your support (at no extra cost to you!) – please check out my online store for your health foods, supplements, kitchen items and beauty product purchases. Affiliate sales through my online store go towards maintaining the website, funding travel to interviews and purchasing all the lovely foods for my free online recipes. You’ll find these items in the “Shop with us” drop down menu on my homepage.  

Please don’t forget antihistamine, pain killing foods can still hurt us, so please always check with your doctor before adding new foods to your diet. 

Today, on the start of my 39^th year on this planet, I’ve worn red lipstick, all day, for the first time in four years. This seemingly inconsequential act is the surest sign I’ve had to date that I am done with this condition.

Those of you who have read my low histamine beauty book will know that red lipstick, because it has a higher concentration of mineral pigments, often causes more reactions than nude colours. The last time I wore red lipstick, I ended up looking like Bozo the Clown: balloon lips, hives around the mouth, throat swelling, plus a whole host of other weirdness like severe tinnitus, trembling, nausea, feeling faint, you name it.

A common sight in the small town in the south of Spain that I grew up in, was me, all pouty in red lipstick, making a lap around the beauty store, shaking my head vigorously to see if I was about to develop a migraine. Though but a teen at the time, I already knew some lipsticks made me ill, I just couldn’t figure out the connection between them and why.

Back then I wore all kinds of toxic brands that now make me shiver in disgust.

Just four years ago I was unable to wear make up or use bath products of any kind. None. My eyelashes would fall out, my lips developed unsightly sores, my hair fell out in clumps, and I was covered in hives if I even glanced at MAC counter. As many of you also suffer/ed the same fate, you know how debilitating to the ego it can be to see yourself reduced to androgyny. And so it was that just two years ago I came up with my red lipstick index as an indicator of healing.

It first came up during one of my healing visualisations, as suggested by David Hamilton in his book How Your Mind Can Heal Your Body. I saw myself on a big white boat (why, I don’t know, it just seemed like an amazing place to be), doing yoga and meditating on the deck, then washing my hair with shampoo, really smelling it, luxuriating in it, lathering up my body with shower gel, and then standing in front of the mirror to apply my make up – with the piece de resistance being red lipstick. I was healthy and surrounded by people who loved me, strong, fit, confident and incredibly happy. I stepped into this person at least twice a day for years, allowing the emotions to really seep into my present day.

In my mind, the day I was able to wear red lipstick would be the day I was healed.

Sadly, my day-to-day life in those years was far from rosy. While excited with the progress I was making, a few niggling symptoms were still making it difficult to truly feel I had arrived somewhere I was happy to hang out for a while, but more importantly, my personal life was making me miserable. It’s not my intention to delve into any gory details here – all I can say is that when I love, it consumes me body and soul. I will walk through fire, willingly give up my life for theirs and forget I exist as a separate entity in order to truly merge souls.

All well and good, but sometimes we make a wrong turn.

I wrote this a few weeks ago:

“So what happens when those who committed to be the ones to lift us up to meet these seemingly herculean challenges are not who we thought them to be? My psychotherapists and psychiatrists over the years struggled to come up with the answer to why I put myself, time and again, in the hands of those who appeared to derive a great deal of their strength from sucking mine dry. I was primed for those who sought to further unravel the loose ends of my self-esteem. I was easy pickin’s for troubled, seemingly loving mates, friends and mentors who sought nothing less than complete submission to their terms. At the time they did not yet know that I was already slave to a far more fearsome taskmaster (illness), but they soon learned, and discord reigned free and hard in our reality.

The last few years have been pretty rough. Though I finally managed to get myself on the path to healing, I neglected a few really important pieces of the puzzle: happiness and safety/security. While preaching stress relief, meditation and re-wiring the brain, I refused to believe that I had other housekeeping to do on my end, convincing myself that the twisted life I was living was totally normal.

It wasn’t.

Eventually things ran their course and, with the support of the most amazing therapist I have ever known (read my interview on using the mind to heal the body with my Buddhist psychotherapist Dr. Miles Neale here), I was finally made to understand that I needed a safe environment in which to finish my healing. Dr. Neale pointed out that I had come such a long way, and this was the final hurdle to clear.

Thankfully I was finally able to walk away. Still madly in love, completely crushed, thinking I would never meet anyone as wonderful ever again, “knowing” that this incredible connection I had made was a once in a lifetime deal. I truly felt that no one who hadn’t known me before my illness would accept me the way I was: broken, still struggling with my health, having to make special provisions for travel, not able to get as physical as I would like to (due to various lingering issues), my meditation schedule, the fact I no longer find dining out as fun as I used to, someone willing to ignore the ruin I had allowed my physical body to become.

I truly believed all this.

The thing I hadn’t counted on, was that once I stepped away from the toxicity, I was a different person. Still broken, a little lost, technically homeless (though excited to be), but simply, unstressed, and no longer miserable. The hours of daily shouting, of living in fear, melted away from my being, leaving me floating on clouds. Suddenly I was free of oppression, free to live my life as I saw fit, free to be the person I had become years ago, but whose skin I had not yet been able to inhabit, for fear of shedding the shackles that had accompanied me for so long.

I knew how to keep the peace, but after a time chose not to. I fought tooth and nail at every turn, pouring gasoline onto the flames. Each passing day saw me sinking deeper into the quagmire, forgetting my strength, losing sight of my sanity. But please don’t get me wrong, I hold myself responsible for the toxicity I brought to the relationship – it takes two to tango and I was carrying a ton of baggage. I ended up putting a lot of work into fixing my end of it, and I am still thankful that this situation brought these behaviours to a head, but sadly, it’s not possible to force another human being into changing for you.

Despite all of this, the healing somehow continued (at a much slower rate than it should have I now know), with every leap I made, a new me began arising from those flames, till finally there was no way I could keep myself contained in the prison of my own making. I always possessed the power to walk away, but chose not to, now I understand there were karmic lessons to be learned and I am truly grateful for them.

We often don’t take the time to appreciate the light if it’s all we know.

But I’ve learned all I need to through pain. My mind and body had to completely break down in order for me to actually pay attention to what they were telling me:  be good to yourself, respect your body, find happiness in the simple things, know that health is not a god given right, but rather a gift we must nurture, and most importantly: find your voice. In the same way that I woke up one day and decided I would no longer be sick (read the Last Best Cure for more), the idea of continuing my personal and spiritual development through happiness finally seemed like a really great idea.

And it’s funny what we attract into our lives when we’re ready for it.

There have been a handful of the people closest to me on this earth that have supported my every move, offering their strength where mine faltered. I count my lucky stars to have them still in my life, but time waits for no one, we’re no longer teenagers, and they’re now happily completely enmeshed in loving marriages and dote on the most amazing children I’ve known.

Feeling just a little sorry for myself as I pondered my next move, the universe sent me a wonderful gift: a new friend just on my wavelength. Someone with their own meditation and yoga schedule, whose very being radiated a love and understanding that completely floored me. A person who, though just newly emerging from a tough time himself, has shown immense compassion and patience in helping me find, and amplify, my voice. And let me tell you – it’s amazing what a little happiness at home can do. Now finally in a safe environment, I’m more than picking up the pieces. I’m becoming one with the empowered woman in my visualisations – I literally bounce out of bed, excited to greet the day, more determined than ever to be well, ready to enjoy all the world has to offer, be it alone, or as a team of like minded individuals (of which I’m meeting more and more), ready to take on the world. I never really grasped the concept of gratitude as a healing tool till BD entered my orbit. It’s now an integral part of my life, almost as natural and frequent as drawing breath.

Day after day I wake to the most incredible news, so many exciting upcoming things to share with you all…

Why am I telling you all this? Healing comes from within, no one can force it from us, but it doesn’t hurt to surround ourselves with those who inspire, and support us, in being the very best version of ourselves. I wish I hadn’t missed the obvious for so long – that the key to healing my body lay in first healing my soul, and knowing when to stand up for myself or surrender control to the universe became all too clear when I listened to my heart.

And now I’m off to celebrate my birthday, red lipstick and all.

xo

You’ll find a collection of all liquid high nutrient antihistamine and anti-inflammatory rich recipes for days when my histamine bucket overflowed in the new Anti-Detox book. 

The Anti-cookbook, while it doesn’t treat any conditions, due to its high nutrient, antihistamine and anti-inflammatory ingredients, has been instrumental in helping me feed myself on a limited diet. It features a six page list of antihistamine and anti-inflammatory foods. It comes in regular and Paleo. 

The Low Oxalate Cookbook features antihistamine and anti-inflammatory rich recipes. 

Don’t miss the Low Histamine Beauty Survival Guide for non-toxic beauty tips, the skinny on histamine releasing (mast cell degranulating) beauty ingredients, antihistamine and anti-inflammatory beauty alternatives and the top brands natural brands I’ve found.

Take a peek at my other low histamine and antihistamine cookbooks for more high nutrient recipes.

If you’ve found this information useful I’d appreciate your support (at no extra cost to you!) – please check out my online store for your health foods, supplements, kitchen items and beauty product purchases. Affiliate sales through my online store go towards maintaining the website, funding travel to interviews and purchasing all the lovely foods for my free online recipes. You’ll find these items in the “Shop with us” drop down menu on my homepage.  

Please don’t forget antihistamine, pain killing foods can still hurt us, so please always check with your doctor before adding new foods to your diet. 

As you may have heard, my trip to New York got off to a shaky start. An amygdala-triggering event on the Heathrow-JFK flight left me emptying the (thankfully) minimal contents of my tummy pretty much the minute I arrived at my cousin’s Upper East Side apartment.

But that didn’t matter, because I was on a mission. I had arrived in New York determined to get some press for mast cell activation (histamine) disorders, and soon an incredible opportunity dropped in my lap. Well, not so much dropped as I fought tooth and nail to get some kind of presence on America’s number 1 medical program – the Dr Oz Show. And get it I did. Sadly, as happens in television, I was bumped.

Sitting just a stone’s throw from the inner workings of the Dr Oz Show was frustrating to say the least, but ever the chipper one, I struck up a conversation with a lovely lady (who I’ll call N) sitting across from me, who might also have been left by the wayside.

And guess what?

Though neither of us was booked specifically to speak about our conditions, it turned out that both of us, strangers to each other, both coincidentally in the same bind, were there for exactly the same reason – to raise awareness for mast cell disorders.

We had an amazing conversation, spanning her bit on the show (chronic pain relief segment) and mine (chronic pain and yoga). It transpired that she had more on her plate than I do; she’s also dealing with EDS/hypermobility – it’s common to many with mast cell disorders. Please check out her website for more information and to learn how to get involved. 

A video she was asked to make was due to air on the show, but it wasn’t yet clear if it would happen. Meanwhile, I wasn’t even sure I’d make it into the studio to make myself, and mast cell activation, known to the guest books/producers I was so desperate to touch base with.

The producer turned up, bearing the good news that N’s video would in fact air, but holding only three VIP tickets for the four people waiting to go on. And my heart dropped. I was the furthest from the tickets, and they were quickly snapped up. As I turned to make my exit out of the building, Nadia quickly pressed her ticket into my hand, saying her video was airing anyway, and that I probably had a better chance of pitching the producers our mast cell story.

I can’t begin to tell you how moments like these fill my heart with a deep gratitude to whichever force guides destiny, but mostly, knowing that people like N exist, goes a long way towards correcting the skewed view I had of humanity for a long time after experiencing the depths of human cruelty in my time as a journalist in war zones and in my early years growing up during a civil war. I’m not ashamed to admit it – a combination of relief and a sense of great responsibility overwhelmed me, and so, after a quick hug, during which I promised to do my best to pitch a segment on mast cell activation disorders (and EDS of course), I ran to the loo and had a little cry.

At this point, I was neither a guest speaker, nor a featured member of the audience, but rather simply a viewer.

Suddenly, out of nowhere came ADM, an associate producer, to let me know she had managed to work me in as a featured audience member! I won’t go into the behind the scenes details of the show – what I can say is that I wasn’t expecting to have the opportunity to blurt out those four little words that turned my world upside down (mast cell activation syndrome) but I managed somehow, dressed in yoga gear no less! I’ve since sent in a pitch for the mast cell segment, fingers and toes crossed, will let you know what happens.

The segment was part of a show called “How to lose 10 pounds before Memorial Day” and should appear online at some point today.

The Anti-cookbook, while it doesn’t treat any conditions, due to its high nutrient, antihistamine and anti-inflammatory ingredients, has been instrumental in helping me feed myself on a limited diet. It features a six page list of antihistamine and anti-inflammatory foods. It comes in regular and Paleo. 

The Low Oxalate Cookbook features antihistamine and anti-inflammatory rich recipes. 

Don’t miss the Low Histamine Beauty Survival Guide for non-toxic beauty tips, the skinny on histamine releasing (mast cell degranulating) beauty ingredients, antihistamine and anti-inflammatory beauty alternatives and the top brands natural brands I’ve found.

Take a peek at my low histamine and antihistamine cookbooks for more high nutrient recipes. If you’ve found this information useful I’d appreciate your support (at no extra cost to you!) – please check out my online store for your health foods, supplements, kitchen items and beauty product purchases. Affiliate sales through my online store go towards maintaining the website, funding travel to interviews and purchasing all the lovely foods for my free online recipes. You’ll find these items in the “Shop with us” drop down menu on my homepage.  

Please don’t forget antihistamine, pain killing foods can still hurt us, so please always check with your doctor before adding new foods to your diet.