[claar]

Sure, I could write a book.

She presented with the most useless of symptoms: fatigue, caused by nearly every disease ever according to her specialists. She also had GI symptoms, but she's had those most of her life, though they got worse when the fatigue hit after child #4. GI specialist (and every other specialist) gave her a clean bill of health, not celiac disease or a known autoimmune disease, though she had a positive ANA.

Years into this, she went gluten free. That helped a bit. Then she went dairy and egg free. She saw a nutritionalist, and took out several other foods. More improvement, but still so fatigued that 3+ days a week she was out of commission.

She saw a naturopathic doctor who ran quantitative tests (stool and blood sample) and advised my wife to do what the tests indicated (food sensitivities and candida, another quack diagnosis according to traditional medicine). My wife continually got better over the next two months. Today, she's active in the family again with only the rare flare-up -- less than one day a week.

[claar]

> What were the toxins?

Fantastic question, actually. Besides removing the test-indicated food sensitivities from her diet, she also went to eating "real food" -- as much as possible, pure fruits, vegetables and meats. Without additives -- preservatives, anti-caking agents, food colorings, and processing.

Of course, with this many variables changed in her diet, it's impossible to know whether she's feeling better due to removing foods she's sensitive to, the various additives (toxins?), the medicine for the candida, or psychological changes. Humans are complex things.

[mod]

What were the toxins?

I see gluten listed, and I know it's commonly believed by some to be a toxin (I don't hold an opinion fwiw), and otherwise it looks like diet changes.

Glad to hear she's feeling better, though.

[canvia]

A lot of gluten in foods comes from GMO wheat which is grown using chemicals. Maybe it isn't the gluten so much as the chemicals from the wheat that the gluten is from that are causing the problems.

[pavel_lishin]

> GMO wheat which is grown using chemicals

I think this comment in particular is getting downvoted because it doesn't say anything. Every food we eat is genetically modified; we've bred it to produce more over the past thousands of years. And "chemicals" is literally everything you, food, and most of the universe is made of.

[canvia]

There's a pretty big difference between selective breeding within an existing species and injecting foreign DNA from a different species.

[o_____________o]

What? If you're not trolling, what wheat is grown without chemicals? Sincere question.

[canvia]

Certified organic foods.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_food

"Synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers are not allowed, although certain organically approved pesticides may be used under limited conditions. In general, organic foods are also not processed using irradiation, industrial solvents, or synthetic food additives."