A Healing Crisis

     If you have chosen like I have to eliminate processed foods, sugars, breads and wheat  (gluten), then you may be experiencing moderate to extreme symptoms of "letting go" or withdrawal side effects of that choice. This is known as a healing crisis.  Your body has had processed sugar, high fructose corn syrup, MSG (natural flavorings) and gluten fighting against its natural state of health for as long as you have been eating processed foods. For many that's a lifetime. In fact these foreign "foods" have melded to become a part of your bodies chemistry, in a sense.
     Now, you've decided to eat for health, banning these or at least cutting way back on their intake. You may not even realize that many of your day to day ailments like allergies, fatigue, headaches, sinus problems, mucous, sleeplessness, constipation, diarrhea, rashes, congestion and a host of other things that make you sick, are caused by these unnatural "foods."  They can cause terrible reactions in your body when you are no longer supplying them in your daily diet yet, your body is hard pressed to want to let them go.
      It may take a week or three before your body uses it's reserves and then recognizes you are not furnishing the "fix" of these substances anymore. Even though you have replaced the junk food with real whole foods, live foods, and your body appreciates that, a period of confusion will most likely occur. That is what happened to me last week. 
    

For three days my body went though withdrawals in the form of the worse Migraine headaches that I've ever experienced. So severe they kept me up 3 nights and days with only a few hours where I dozed off. Frequently the pounding in my head was so intense I threw up. I had heart palpitations,  blurred vision and extreme brain fog. I could not lay my head against a pillow because the throbbing was so extreme. Submerging my head in a bathtub of water, so there was no pressure was the only small relief I got.  I was exhausted. 
     I took magnesium because it's known to help migraines but, I could not keep it down. Finally on the 3rd day when the ban around my head loosened slightly I took several magnesium and asprin to get some control of it. Through out the day I took more magnesium and 2 asprin every 4 hours through the night.  I needed some relief and was willing to do the OTC drugs to help my body feel better. By the 4th day it was over however, I was left exhausted and tired.
    Withdrawing your body off sugar, gluten and MSG cold turkey can be tough. It can make you miserable for a few hours or several days. It's similar to the withdrawals from powerful drugs.  I believe that's why many fail to do it.
    The pain, whether in body aches, joint pains, headaches, stomach cramps, horrible gut pain, moodiness, crying jags, overall flu like symptoms and whatever else, it is just too much for some to handle. It seems easier to grab a source of "junk-food"  (for the comfort) giving into the craving withdrawals, than ride it out, cleansing the body of dozens of toxins that are keeping you sick, probably overweight and not feeling very good. 
    Another one of our blog readers wrote how her arthritis and joints became so inflamed, it was hard to walk. It was excruciating for her to move. Stairs were nearly impossible. The pain throughout her body was intense. She had not heard of a healing crisis. Had she known, it may have made it easier for her, knowing it was temporary. 
     This is why I am telling about it today.This is not to scare you from continuing the journey of cleaning up you eating habits.  It's to show that many of the things we choose to eat are as powerful at changing who we are, inside and out, as many hard core drugs. Just because they line our supermarket shelves, does not mean they are good for us. We MUST educate ourselves and then, apply what we learn, to treat our bodies as they should be treated, as a temple. But the changes are not easy. But to know the crisis is only temporary and you'll be feeling better than ever soon, may give you strength to work through it.