Home sick :)

Hello beautiful people, 

I am sick as a dog, and as such am spending my limited energy on the making and eating of soup, napping, resting, and sleeping. 

I will hopefully be writing again next week... For now, enjoy the archives and have a blessed week!

 

 

Good News in San Francisco!

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the first Integrative Care for Chronic Pelvic Pain Symposium in San Francisco. 

It was an evening event: dinner, presentations on successful examples of integrative care, and brainstorming on how to improve integrative care in the area, followed by networking.

This is a really exciting development! The attendees were mostly physical therapists, but there was also at least one gynecologist, sexologist, another yoga teacher (!!!yay!!!!), a homeopath, naturopath, and a specialty compounding pharmacist.

At the end we filled out forms saying how we would like to continue the group: how often we would like to meet and what topics we would like to learn about. 

I am pumped that this group is starting, and super excited that I get to be a part of it.

For those of you in the Bay Area, I now have more resources to refer you to, yay! 

I'll keep you posted on how this works out. Maybe it could be a model for other cities?

 * * *

In other news, I won't be posting this coming Friday or Monday as I will be at a yoga teacher training. It's on post-partum care, and I'm going because it's one of the few teacher trainings I could find about the female pelvis that isn't about pre-natal classes...eye roll.

Ah well, I'm building on what's out there. :)

Have a great weekend!

Help a girl out!

Hey all, 

I am feeling really crummy today. A couple of different health problems have been playing off each other, v pain among them, and the result is that I am no longer able to bend at the hip - no sitting, leaning forward to wash my hands, etc - without more pain. 

Needless to say this was not the best day.

Help a girl out and share your crappy day turn-arounds in the comments section. Funny cat videos? Favorite books? Inspirational stories? (Or perhaps trashy gossip websites are more your thing?) I wanna hear about 'em!

 

 

 

Does Diet Heal V Pain?

I got this post in my inbox today and it got me thinking...

Does what we eat affect v pain?

There are so many anecdotal stories out there, many like this one backed up by very convincing scientific explanations. (In case you didn't read the above post - she stopped eating dairy and her menstrual cramps stopped.)

Step into the world of research and opinions on health and diet, however, and you are blasted with a million different and often conflicting prescriptions, all of which guarantee you amazing results if only you  _________.

Early on in my journey, I was told that the "low-oxalate" diet would help improve my vulvar pain. The theory was that something called "oxalates" was irritating my skin via urine, so I should stop eating those foods (which included spinach, red wine, chocolate and much more.) 

So I tried it. It didn't do a damn thing.

I wasn't surprised. My pain seemed to be coming from a deeper place, to be different than skin irritation, and I was skeptical that this crazy pain came from peeing. Rinsing with water after urinating didn't help, so why would a low-oxalate diet?

As far as I know the whole low-oxalate diet for V pain has been discredited, but over the past few years public awareness about the relationship between food and health problems has skyrocketed. This has generally taken place in the form of "this specific food causes this specific symptom," rather than "eat a healthy balanced diet." So we have an avalanche of dairy-free, soy-free, gluten-free products filling our grocery shelves and making their way onto restaurant menus.

Back in the day doctors thought my grandfather was dying from stomach cancer. He was wasting away. Turns out he had celiac disease, a condition in which proteins found in grains (gluten) destroy the lining of the intestine, making it impossible for the body to absorb nutrients. Once he eliminated gluten he recovered completely and went on the live another 25 years.

In this regard, I am grateful for the new awareness about food-related chronic disease, and hope the gluten-free craze helps people with celiac get a proper diagnosis.

But amidst this "elimination diet" frenzy there is so much conflicting information. Vegans, vegetarians, followers of the paleo diet, Weston-Price, Dr Andrew Weill's food pyramid, raw food, juicing - all of them proclaim that by simply adding or eliminating X, Y, and Z we will be amazed at the incredible health benefits.

For some people, it works.

But as someone who has gone down just about every dietary pathway, I have also found this hype to be discouraging.

Before I developed v pain, I already had a number of health struggles, and in a search to feel better I eliminated three things: dairy (it gave me headaches,) soy (it gave me diarrhea,) and gluten (felt better overall.) This was 13 years ago, so people thought I was nuts. I was 19 years old, wasn't I supposed to be living off beer and pizza?

I had been a dedicated vegetarian in middle school and high school, but since I had eliminated dairy, soy, and most grains, I started eating meat again to add some variety to my diet. 

With the current elimination diet mania, I feel vindicated for my choices, but also bummed that while I did have some success with dietary modifications, it sure as hell didn't turn me into a picture of health. Post-elimination, I went on to develop all kinds of nasty things, including v pain.

A couple of years ago I decided to revisit the land of elimination diets. I had been resistant, as I knew that food restrictions could be annoying and not completely successful, but I figured that I owed it to myself to give it another try. In sequence, I took out one thing for a few weeks at a time, but I didn't see results. I figured perhaps I needed to chuck more than one item, so what the hell I might as well keep going and eliminate everything at once.

For three months I ate nothing but unprocessed organic pasture-raised meat, some fish, and non-nightshade organic vegetables - the only things that we (mostly) don't blame for health problems. (Regarding my choice of including meat: I had already been a vegetarian, they are not viewed as allergens, I ate only the healthiest meat possible, and I needed to eat something other than non-nightshade vegetables.) 

Everything else: nuts, fruit (because of the sugar,) grains of any kind, beans, legumes, nightshade vegetables, anything processed, went out the window.

It didn't do a damn thing. (I did lose ten pounds, but that was not the goal.)

It took an immense amount of effort and discipline, and at the end I was burned out and deeply disappointed. It did nothing for v pain, didn't help my menstrual cramps - so frequently blamed on dairy - and it didn't even make a dent in my acne-prone skin, and everybody who's anybody blames acne on inappropriate diet.

Following this experiment, I figured if diet didn't change any of my symptoms for any of my health problems, I wasn't going to stress out about eating healthy. Exhausted from months of intense cooking, I gave myself permission to subsist on cereal and yogurt for awhile (the pain meds I was taking at the time eliminated the dairy headaches I used to get.)

I spent a long time subsisting on cereal and yogurt.

Only recently have I started to get back into my old, pre-the-mother-of-all-elimination-diets-diet habit of eating generally "healthy." Ya know, organic meat a few times a week, gluten-free grains, organic vegetables, organic fruit, some beans, organic dairy, pasture-raised eggs. I'll have the occasional chocolate or bag of chips. 

It still hasn't done anything to change any of my symptoms, but I like to think that it is worthwhile self-care, and in my opinion healthy food tastes good. (Except when I burn it or otherwise mess up - I am not the best cook.)

I wish diet was the panacea for all of my many heath issues. Wouldn't that be great? A solution completely within my control, no doctors or second opinions or prescriptions needed!

As it stands, I have not yet reached the promised land.

There are many benefits of elimination diets - its DIY, it can be precisely tailored to your needs, and the proof is in the pudding. There is strong motivation to continue behavioral change when you reliably feel a positive difference.

I'm glad people share their stories of success with any treatment, especially simple lifestyle changes, as such sharing can genuinely help others. 

But I am turned off by the endless theories put forth to convince you that this way is THE way, and the fanaticism and judgment that sometimes goes along with itHuman bodies are so complex, and given the fact that there are currently 7 billion people on this planet it is difficult to believe that one way of eating will "fix" everyone.

My two cents? Experiment, be open-minded, and listen to your inner compass. Theories are not the holy grail. Ultimately, your body's reaction to any treatment is the most important information out there.

As for the theories and fanatics?

Take them with a grain of salt. 

 

 

 

Evidence-based Medicine Part 3: How is this relevant to me?

In Part One of this post I discussed the general background controversy of evidence-based medicine (EBM,) and some examples of how that is playing out in the pelvic pain world.

In Part Two we looked at a big ol' red flag that is not being discussed in the EBM controversy.

In Part Three - that's this one! - I break this mess down and discuss how it applies to you and the health of your lady parts.

* * *

What does all this discussion about the strengths and limitations of EBM  mean for you?

Rather than waiting for someone else to fix us, we have the opportunity to step up and be in charge of our care. Be a partner rather than a patient.

To start, you'll want health care providers who have experience working with your issue. They have a higher probability of following the research out there, and will have the most anecdotal evidence to guide their suggestions.

You can find some of these people through "Find a Provider" pages at the International Pelvic Pain Society, the National Vulvodynia Association, and the American Physical Therapy Association's Section on Women's Health.

If you can't find anyone in your area, you can always try contacting someone close by to see if they have any suggestions.

What if you don't have access to someone with this experience? 

Then you need to be proactive and find the doctor who is most willing to take the time to find what little research there is, and combine their knowledge of your situation with the information they get. You can find great tips on how to do this within the limitations of our convoluted and time-strapped medical system in the book "Healing Painful Sex: A Woman's Guide to Confronting, Diagnosing and Treating Sexual Pain," by Deborah Coady, MD and Nancy Fish, MSW, MPH. (Which you should totally have anyway - in my opinion it's one of the best and most comprehensive books out there for V pain.)

No matter what doctor you have, you will have to be willing to take risks and try new things, and be prepared for some of those things to not work. No need to despair if that's the case. Bring your new information back to the table and keep working on the puzzle.

Since your doctor is going to be more humble about the limits of their knowledge, they are more likely to be open to whatever feedback and research you provide. 

How do you find research? You can access it through the NVA. You can also participate in studies through the NVA, helping to create more research. (FYI they recently overhauled their site, so if you haven't been there in a while, check it out.)

Another way to incorporate EBM into your care is to research information from studies on related topics. For instance, Dr Dean Ornish has extensively researched the impact of lifestyle choices on chronic illness.

If you are interested in trying something that doesn't have evidence behind it, or that is outside the bounds of Western medicine, your doctor may be more willing to support you than a doctor who is used to relying on evidence alone. Your experiment stands to benefit not only you, but others as well; your doctor can add your experience to his or her anecdotal evidence.

* * *

A great example of someone who successfully healed with zero evidence of any kind is Sarah Kennedy.

Faced with painful sex but never getting an official diagnosis, she stumbled upon a technique called Orgasmic Meditation. Invented not for pelvic pain but to enhance one's sexuality, OM involves gentle repeated stroking of the clitoris, alone or from a partner. Boom. Regularly practicing OM healed her V pain and she is now a life coach who specializes in helping women experiencing painful sex and low libido. You can learn more about Sarah's story and her coaching practice here.

Even if you feel like you are running out of options on the EBM for V pain front, there is always something else out there. The world is a big place.

* * *

It's true that we don't have as much evidence to go on when it comes to treatment for V pain. That doesn't mean we can't benefit from EBM. More importantly,

The lack or existence of evidence on treatments for V pain is not the sole determinant of whether or not we get well.

These bodies are ours and no one else's.

And we are 100% capable of taking care of them.