When I was 21 I was told I had arthritis and would be wheelchair bound by 30. You’d think this would be enough for me to take stock and think about how to prevent this… no, I ignored the diagnosis and threw myself into life..
I was drinking a lot. My husband and I were having a thoroughly good time, going out 6 nights out of 7 - Sunday was our day off for chores and detox.
Then my husband’s job changed and we no longer went out as often. After many years believing we couldn’t have children we were surprised and delighted to find out we were expecting our daughter. I stopped drinking while I was pregnant and Heidi was born a month before we turned 30.
My drinking habits then changed dramatically, going from 6 times a week before I was pregnant, to infrequent social bingeing. I would drink anything - vodka, gin, JD, rum, as long as it came with Diet Coke. I continued with the bingeing for the next couple of decades.
My back pain started to get much worse. I spent time with physiotherapists and osteopaths, and did Pilates. Nothing was working and I still hadn’t made the connection with alcohol and inflammation. It was starting to take me up to 45 minutes to get out of bed in the morning, I was struggling to exercise, and even swimming was too painful. I felt much older than I actually was.
One day I was listening to a podcast about inflammation and suddenly everything made sense - I’d ignored my arthritis diagnosis from 30+ years ago but I needed to listen to my body.
I cut out all inflammatory foods and drinks and had an immediate positive response. Going from severe pain, taking painkillers every day, to a slight ache that I could manage without painkillers. After playing around with what causes me inflammation and what doesn’t, I settled on excluding wheat, sugar, and alcohol and have lived like this for the past 3 years.
Apart from the huge benefit of reducing my back pain, I’ve since completed a Life Coaching and Counselling diploma and now operate as a life coach. I don’t believe I could have done this if I was still drinking.
My studies and practice has taught me to understand the reasons why I drank e.g. to relax, to wind down, to relieve boredom etc and I have other outlets for all of these. The biohacking community has grown over the past few years and I see many synergies to the way I live. I’ve always enjoyed cold water and I am in the sea or my local Lido as often as possible.
