A decades-long quest to quell inflammation

Aisha Sultan, Tribune News Service

I struggled with a sensitive stomach decades before reducing inflammation became the buzzy way to improve one’s health. I believed I was simply prone to gastrointestinal upset. It got significantly worse after the birth of my second child. The recurrent pain got to a point that it forced me to pay attention and figure out what was going on inside my body. A gastroenterologist told me there was inflammation in my gut and prescribed medication — lots of medication. I was in the trenches of caring for a toddler and a baby: exhausted, sleep-deprived and stressed. I didn’t have the bandwidth to do much more than simply listen to what the doctors told me to do in order to function. I still didn’t feel great, though.

Over the years, I wanted to find a way out of dependency on prescription drugs. I started consuming more turmeric, known for its anti-inflammatory properties, exercising consistently and incorporating yoga into my schedule. I wasn’t ready to cut out foods that are known to cause more inflammation in our bodies — sugar, heavily processed and fried foods — because I love things like fries, doughnuts and samosas. As the years progressed, I started noticing signs of wear and tear elsewhere. My joints hurt more. My sleep worsened. I felt tired in the afternoons in a way I hadn’t ever before. Last year, I signed up for a challenge through my gym that required cutting out dairy, eggs, gluten, soy, peanuts, corn and added sugar for two weeks. To my surprise, my joints felt much better. These foods can provoke varying degrees of inflammatory responses, even in people who are not allergic to them. But it was simply not sustainable for me to eliminate all these things from my diet forever. I wasn’t sure how to find out which foods were my personal inflammatory culprits.

Another flare-up of stomach problems led me to a new GI doctor, whose approach radically changed my understanding of gut health. Dr. Faiza Bhatti, with the Mercy IBD and Gastroenterology Center in St. Louis, ran a gamut of tests, including a colonoscopy. Once she ruled out chronic diseases and considered my continued symptoms, she advised me to take some fairly simple steps.

First, she instructed me to remove dairy from my diet for two weeks, keeping everything else the same. Lactose intolerance increases with age. I was also told to keep a journal of what I ate and my symptoms. After two weeks, she said to add the dairy back and eliminate gluten for two weeks — still tracking my food intake and symptoms. While only 1% of Americans have celiac disease, an actual allergy to gluten, up to 10% can be sensitive to gluten. Two weeks feels like a manageable amount of time to make a single change to see if it helps you feel better. In my case, the changes helped ease my symptoms, and I now eat far less dairy and gluten than before. Bhatti also advised me to start a prebiotic and a probiotic to reestablish a healthy gut microbiome — the ecosystem of microbes that live in your intestines. Reducing dairy and gluten and adding these two supplements has been transformative for my gut health.

It takes a shift in mindset to accept that some of the foods we love may not love us back. But rather than feeling like I can never enjoy another slice of pizza or cake, I know I can — just far less often and in smaller quantities. In recent years, there’s been so much research in gut microbiota and their connection to our overall health. These organisms affect everything from IBS symptoms and metabolism to the risks of obesity, certain cancers and depression. Bhatti told me that not everyone benefits from probiotics, and that it’s important for doctors to first rule out other underlying conditions before recommending supplements. However, most people will benefit from adding more fiber to their diets, she said.

Bhatti taught me that sleep is more critical in maintaining gut health than most people realise. I should have been prioritising sleep in the same way I did exercise for so many years. I wish I had made some of these changes many years ago. But it’s never too late to feel better.