Over 20 years ago, an onset of seemingly unrelated health concerns led me to ask why me and why now?
The answer changed my life, but not only for the reason you may think.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is often a diagnosis of exclusion by ruling everything else out. The exhaustion was very real; the cause, not so well understood. Same happened with my onset of chronic pneumonia, my incorrect diagnosis of bronchial asthma and my rapid heartbeat found to be Mitral Valve Prolapse. All came with medications to treat the symptoms and prevent infections, but no explanations. My doctors all said my conditions were unrelated.
Not so fast.
I read all the books I could find at the time about CFS to understand any possible root cause (the beginning of my extensive plant-based library). One insight stood out. A lack of magnesium was especially common for women in mid-life leading stressful lives and was linked to several of my health issues. And in my case, Magnesium supplements, which I had been taking for my breathing for over a year, proved to make little difference in my bloodwork after all. (PSA – Supplements are not the same as food). I learned that processed foods, which our busy family relied on much of the time, were making things worse and magnesium-rich foods were an easy swap. I had something other than medication that I could at least try.
You may think that my biggest aha was finding my first meaningful connection between food and health.
Yes, and No.
Yes. It was exciting to learn how nutrients in whole food could treat and not just prevent health issues. That did in fact help me start to move in the direction toward food first, over time reverse my own chronic health issues, and is the basis for much of the work I do with clients today.
And no. That connection wasn’t my only aha. Equally important was realizing that no one had offered any diagnosis that included food first. Like Dorothy’s ruby slippers in the Wizard of Oz, the link between our food and health was right in front of us all along, but something else was standing in the way – money.
Why wasn’t a magnesium deficiency considered before the start of medications? Why wasn’t it linked to our unhealthy diets? And given how many, especially middle aged women, suffer from low levels causing a variety of symptoms like mine, why wasn’t that information featured on the news, offered as something to consider by our doctors, or studied by one of the National Institutes of Health (oh, that’s right, we still don’t have an NIH on the topic of Nutrition!)
Why didn’t more people understand that food is medicine?
One insight from my early research stuck with me, even now years later. Much of our general nutrition education was coming not from the medical community at all for the betterment of our health, but rather from the companies and industries that benefit financially. The explanation for why no one knew about the role and importance of magnesium was simple but indicative of a bigger issue.
- The orange growers promote the benefits of Vitamin C.
- The dairy industry reminds us to get our Calcium.
- But Broccoli (an excellent source of magnesium) is not organized.
So you see, the other aha I learned back then was this – to understand the source of much of what the general public knows about food, and sadly much of the misinformation, follow the money.
I guess in some ways I started my business years later to encourage greens, like Broccoli and so many more, to finally have a voice so others will find their own answers to ‘why me’. As Kermit the Frog says, it’s not easy being green.
