About six months ago, I began experiencing dizzy spells. The vertigo was accompanied with nausea, migraine headaches, fatigue, brain fog and indigestion. The dizziness started when I woke in the morning and continued throughout the day. I googled the symptoms and what came up was GERD, Gastroesophageal reflux disease. This didn’t track since I didn’t have heartburn and wasn’t coughing up acid.
I have Obamacare health insurance but it’s not great. There was a two-month delay for a doctor’s appointment due to high demand and a shortage of physicians. I made an appointment and then decided to wait out the symptoms. The dizziness and fatigue grew worse. I’ve always been a ball of energy but suddenly I had difficulty taking stairs or going on mountain hikes. I drove to a CVS pharmacy where they had a blood pressure machine. My blood pressure was normal.
I started a daily journal noting when symptoms appeared and how long they lasted. The dizziness was worse when I was hungry. Eating made me feel better temporarily but an hour later I’d feel lightheaded and tired. To me, this indicated two things. I was having issues with blood sugar and digestion.
I continued my daily job as an art and writing teacher. I turned to deep breathing when symptoms appeared. Once, while driving on the freeway, the dizziness was so bad I had to pull over. Another time I almost fainted during a printmaking class.
My hypochondria led to fears of cancer, diabetes or some other awful disease. In one of my writing classes, a 75-year-old woman was experiencing vertigo herself. Her doctor diagnosed Arrhythmia, an irregular heartbeat. My anxiety hit full freakout mode. I feared I was on the verge of a heart attack. I remembered something my meditation teacher taught me years ago. He said, “Food is medicine. When you don’t feel well, change your diet.”
I’d done this years earlier after experiencing a constant runny nose and congested sinus. I replaced my morning cow milk yogurt with goat milk yogurt and stopped eating cheese. This took my sniffles away and cleared my sinuses. I also removed sugar and alcohol from my life as a way to reduce migraine headaches. The headaches continued (I’ve had them since age 16), but they decreased in frequency and magnitude.
Perhaps it was time to change my diet again. But how? What foods should I avoid and what should I add? That’s when a series of intriguing events happened. My friend Peter Arpesella told me he’d written a memoir. The book was about Peter’s lifelong battle with diabetes and how he learned to change his diet to maximize his health. In Peter’s case, he became a pescetarian (mostly vegan with some fish). I wasn’t ready to make this leap since I was a big chicken and turkey eater. But pescetarian-adjacent was something I’d be willing to try.
I also had a dream where I was visited by my mom and grandfather, both deceased. They were worried about me and checking on my well-being. Both my mom and my grandfather had suffered through diabetes. This fact, combined with Peter’s story, made me think I might have diabetes.
When my mom was alive, I paid a nutritionist to devise a diabetic nutritional plan. She never followed the plan but maybe this could help me. Then a third thing happened. While shopping at the market, I was searching for the coffee section. I cut through the cereal aisle when I came upon a special-needs child throwing a tantrum while his mother looked on helplessly. The boy was opening cereal boxes and spilling the contents on the floor. The two boxes I noticed were Wheaties and Rice Krispies. I recorded the incident in my journal but didn’t recognize the significance until weeks later.
I often believe our waking life is like a dream. If we can interpret the symbology of our experiences, as if interpreting a dream, then we can glean clues to our lives. What if that special-needs child was offering me a hint as to my own health? The boy dumped Wheaties and Rice Krispies on the floor. Could this mean I should eliminate wheat and rice from my life?
I decided to give it a shot. I threw away all the bread and rice in the house. My wife wanted me to get better so she agreed to go along with the experiment. I cooked quinoa instead of rice. For sandwiches, I used romaine lettuce instead of bread. It was tough at first. I had an intense craving for carbs, particularly naan (Indian bread) and fresh sourdough bread. I yearned for Asian food, especially the dumplings and fried egg noodles from the local Singapore noodle house.
When I felt a carb carving, I guzzled water and ate hummus with carrot sticks. This helped but didn’t take the craving away. I seasoned the quinoa with red and green onions, parsley, red peppers, chick peas, feta cheese, cucumbers and lemon. This worked. It was similar to eating rice and satisfied my cravings.
Then another thing happened. My brother traveled to Sri Lanka and sent me a gift of raw cinnamon sticks. Was this something I was supposed to incorporate in my diet? I simmered the cinnamon sticks in water and drank the concoction as tea. I didn’t add sweetener but the tincture was sweet and soothing.
I consulted the google machine and learned that cinnamon tea contains polyphenols that help stabilize blood sugar, soothe digestive issues, reduce inflammation and combat bacterial and fungal infections.
I found the diabetic nutritional plan I’d made for my mom five years earlier. The program included plenty of salads, meat and fish with lots of leafy green vegetables, cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, kale, brussel sprouts) and fruits like apples, berries and peaches. Between meal snacks included carrots and celery with guacamole or hummus as well as walnuts, almonds, pistachios and cashews.
My wife had urged me for years to drink apple cider vinegar with water in the morning. I finally took her advice after reading that apple cider vinegar regulates blood sugar, aids digestion and makes you feel satiated. It promotes a healthy gut microbiome and neutralizes free radicals. I also cut my daily coffee intake in half and stopped drinking it after one p.m.
I eagerly took to my new diet. The results came almost immediately. By the fourth day, the dizziness began to wane. The nausea disappeared as did the burping and indigestion. After a week, I no longer experienced brain fog. Even better, my energy returned. Once, while at the I market, I ran up a set of stairs two at a time, like my old self. I hadn’t done this in months.
I wrote in my journal each day, noting symptoms or the lack thereof. After a month, I realized something amazing. I hadn’t had a migraine headache in weeks. A miracle. I’d suffered migraines since I was 16. I’d grown used to planning my life around periods of intense cranial pain. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d gone two weeks without a headache.
Was my diet the problem the whole time? Most of the foods in my new nutritional plan were things I loved and already ate. The most difficult part was giving up bread and rice. But the carb cravings vanished after a few weeks. Most importantly, I was feeling great. I also lost weight due to the decreased carbs. I slept better and my energy was incredible. I wasn’t feeling anxiety anymore.
In early May, it was finally time for my long delayed doctor’s appointment. I told the doctor what I’d been going through and he took a large number of blood panels. The results were all normal. I didn’t have diabetes. I wasn’t even pre-diabetic. My heart was fine, no sign of Arrhythmia, increased heart rate or murmurs.
The doctor asked me to describe my diet. He smiled when I told him. He said I should consider a new career as a nutritionist. I asked if he could provide me with science as to why I was feeling better. He shrugged and said, “Whatever you’re doing is working. Keep it up.” He was particularly impressed with the apple cider vinegar. “I’ve tried that myself but I can’t stomach it.”
I’m now feeling better than I’ve felt in years. I no longer crave bread or rice. I recently joined a friend for dinner at a Thai restaurant. He ordered Rad na, flat rice noodles topped with gravy. This was one of my favorite dishes in the past but instead of craving a taste, I associated the noodles with dizziness, headaches and nausea. This made it easy to skip the choice.
3000 years ago Hippocrates, the father of medicine, was credited with saying “Let food be thy medicine.” I’m now living it. And I’m grateful for the advice.