Life Without Guinness?

Life without Guinness? Is such a thing possible? And if it is, is it any life I’d want to live?

I’ve given up Gluten. It was a whirlwind of a romance but ultimately, as is often the case with such things, it proved to be toxic. More things have cleared up, gone away, or improved then I ever realized were wrong with me. You truly don’t know how sick you are until you have a different baseline to see from. A healthy baseline.

Eight months now and I don’t miss it. It helps that there are gluten free alternatives. New Grist is local (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) and a favorite of mine. I have yet to find a GF beer that I don’t like. Greens makes a smooth dark beer that reminds me of Guinness without the stomach upset afterwards. It isn’t precisely the same, as it is a dark ale, but I’m confident that one day I’ll have a GF stout or porter in my hand and all will again be right with the world.

Not that it isn’t already. Saying goodbye to Guinness, and wheat bread and just about all processed foods has given me a new lease on life.

In the eight months that I have been Gluten Free I have seen the following:

• Lowering of Hypo-thyroid meds, from .150 mg to .125 mg.
• Swollen thyroid, or goiter, is now gone.
• Swollen throat has improved significantly overall, by 75%.
• Brain fog has lifted, along with the Depression I suffered from for 17 years (I'm 30). No more little black cloud. :)
• Colors seem more vibrant.
• Heart palpitations have subsided.
• The strange sometimes itchy sometimes zit like Rash on my back and chest went away. 
• Acne on face has cleared significantly.
• No more upset stomach after every meal (I often explained it away as stress or too much butter or sugar or spice.)
• Numbness in my hands and feet and overall circulation has greatly improved.
• Menstrual Cramps are ¼ as bad as they used to be, and they used to be really bad even on Ortho.
• Teeth grinding and pain have receded. No more prescription sensitive toothpaste needed. No more TMJ.
• Night Sweats have become a thing of the past.
• Insomnia has gone away completely. It used to take me an hour to fall asleep. It now takes me 5 minutes.
• Restless Legs are nonexistent.
• Random stabbing pains throughout my body are gone.
• Less sensitive to bright lights and sudden or loud noises.
• Fatigue has improved.
• Anxiety and Panic Attacks no longer occur and I am generally a much calmer person.
• Libido has skyrocketed.  ^_-

Cutting out dairy as well has resulted in improved allergies. I can now breath without nasal sprays and my nasal polyps are shrinking.

I have, for a while now, been wanting to document what is happening with me in the hopes that what I have learned and the improvements I have seen/will see can be helpful to someone else out there in internet land. Giving back to the collective if you will.

My recent trip to California and the Healthnow Medical Clinic has given me the boost I needed to start writing. I want to share my experience with them as well since there were not a whole lot of step by step reviews of them on the web when I was first looking into them.

I intend for this blog to be sometimes silly, sometimes serious, and all the time educational. It is one woman’s account of life without Gluten; life without Guinness.