To me! It was a year ago that I discovered how to nourish myself so that my inflammation, which was rampant throughout my body, manifesting as bursitis, sinusitis, allergies, rashes and more, finally subsided. It’s been a GREAT year, and I feel relieved to know how to finally care for myself so that I am being supported, not damaged, by what I eat!
One of my inflammatory issues was my loss of smell. Yep, for five or more years I did not have a working sense of smell. It was freakish and as someone who likes to cook a lot, really saddening. I was really down about it. I went to see an ear, nose & throat doctor who wanted to do surgery on my nasal passages to open them up (too scary, I couldn’t do it!). No other treatment was offered by the conventional medical community.
And so, within one week of my dietary changes a year ago this week, my smelling was restored. It’s been a year with my sense of smell and it still makes me pinch myself to smell the coffee on my way downstairs in the morning. I am so delighted it’s back–even if I had to endure all kinds of teenage boy smells for two weeks in an RV this summer (can you begin to imagine?!).
In this morning’s Boston Globe there is a disturbing report linking loss of smell to early death (seriously?!). It interests me that there is no mention of what the loss of smell truly is: chronic inflammation. So while there is data about people dying, there is also mention of a higher correlation of death among people with “underlying conditions such as heart or lung diseases.” I believe that is because those people already had a conventional diagnosis of an inflammatory condition. Many others suffer with chronic inflammation, internal inflammation that might not be on the industry’s radar, with things like arthritis, autoimmune conditions, bursitis, and more, like I did. So is it fair to say that loss of smell may predict early death? Well, not really. Better to say, “chronic inflammation may predict early death.” Call a spade, a spade!
In this line of work I’ve had the pleasure of meeting others who have lost their sense of smell and who are on a path toward working toward recovering it. To know we have the potential to minimize inflammation with our food choices is a radical thought.
Consider joining me at Elliott Physical Therapy on Tuesday evening, October 14th at 7 p.m. and/or Wednesday afternoon, October 15th at noon, for a talk entitled, “Ousting Inflammation with Your Fork” where I’ll delve into some of the how-tos of my personal journey to wellness, to help you on your path to quieting the inflammation in your body. Registration is through http://elliottphysicaltherapy.com or 617-506-7210. Hope to see you there!
And maybe next year at this time it will be YOUR anniversary!!