Snatched Edges Podcast - My Hair Loss Story - A Special Update - Samia, Diagnosis Chronic Telogen Effluvium

April 27, 2023 Untype

My hair loss story mini series I am talking to people who have experienced hair loss and talking about the journey to diagnosis and beyond

Episode Overview

Full episode Transcript

Pepe Phew yo yo yo welcome back to the snatched ended podcast it's your host Ebuni, your friendly neighbourhood trichologist and I'm back with an update on the my hair loss series. Is that what I called it.Yeah yeah yeah alright so, I think this was like episode 2 with a lovely lady called Samia and she has chronic Telogen Effluvium. Now she sent me an email update and when I tell you my jaw hit the floor like I literally was like no call me now, like stop what you're doing we need to talk and umm I thought you guys would enjoy, hearing what she's found out about her hair since because this is like honestly one of the most interesting cases that I've ever come across and I'm like yeah this is ahhh very very very crazy so, I know there was some sound issues but, trust me it is worth gettin to the end of it because we talk about so many things and umm, yeah, I like I can guarantee you did not see what is coming, it's just ahh.

1.07

You just have to listen but quick updates and stuff, umm I've switched my days at the salon so I'm only working on Sundays now through to till the end of the year. still doing online throughout the week and the free consultations are still going. If you go to book and there is no slots available it just means I'm fully booked for now, keep on trying, erm new spots available, become available usually every day but I'd say like check a week later like for the free consultations usually like a Friday is the best time to check but they get snapped up like no man's business but they're gonna be carry on for umm forever asterisk until I can't deal with them anymore. but yeah and also on Monday I'm starting the september healthy hair challenge there's probably like a couple spaces left maybe just a few hours to sign up cos I'm nearly full, I don't want to have it as too many people but it's £25 you get 3 coaching sessions with me. Three, three the number 3 coaching session with me group sessions we have a private Facebook group where we talk about all the stuff that we're learning and a free copy of my ebook the healthy hair handbook. I need to change the name and call it the healthy hair ebook but handbook sounds better annd yeah so if like you are a black woman who's got hair loss and your like oh I really need help obviously book a consultation with myself, your local GP or primary care doctor or a dermatologist that's close to you like try and get help please don't suffer in silence I also have put together a Facebook group called black girls with hair loss so that you guys can like form a little community you can talk about things because it can be quite isolating like you've heard in the series. There are lots of people who have hair loss, don't really know how to talk to their friends and family about it so why not talk to other people who have hair loss. And like the girls in this episode did they made a friend through their hair loss, so I'm just gonna umm dive right in and let you guys enjoy the episode annnd yeah I'll be back soonish alright take care.

3.24

[Laughing]

3.24

ok so this is umm part 2 to our my hair loss story interview, so yeah so from when the episode dropped how is it like listening back to yourself and like hearing you talk about your hair loss journey

3:40

so it's not like I'm really open about my hair loss so it was just like kinda good to get it out there but also because i’ve never been able to find someone with my type of hair loss.

3.51

yeah

3.52

umm, so I thought it was, It'll be good be if someone was listening to it and was like oh that's what my hairs like because I keep saying my hair grows damaged and no one seems to understand what I mean when i say that, but it like, say that you just like I don't know burnt your hair with relaxer or summit like that and your hair is damaged mine just seem to grow like damaged and I had a bit of discoloration at the front as well for a while so it turnt like a rusty colour at the front. That was really annoying it was coming through like that so I couldn't ever find anyone online with that and at one point I was really convinced it was cos of iron deficiency but even though I found like black girls with iron deficiency their hair just still wasn't as like dire as mine

4.30

ummm

4.30

it just didn't seem it was much small and also cos I have this huge area at the back umm and I couldn't remember at the time why that was [laughing] so, so I just thought it would be just be good for someone like you know if they were listening to it

4.42

yeah and you, your episode had such a great response like people really enjoyed listening to your story and I feel like you umm started talking to one of the other girls who umm [tut] who shared her story as well didn't you

4.56

umm yeah we're good friends now, we talk a lot we catch up with each other, yeah so it's been good because umm I think also like people don't really understand like when you're young and you lose your hair like that and you have no idea what's happened. Cos I remember, like my sister yeah she doesn't have any hair loss problems she has a lot of hair, to me anyway

5.12

humm

5.13

and she'll be like oh but you know my hair won't grow and it's like no that's, no that's, I get so annoyed about that

5.17

[laughing] again my problem and your problem there not we're were not mates, were not mates

5.20

exactly [laughing]

5.23

but umm yeah the other girl like she knows exactly what it is and that at one point we thought we had the same thing because we're so similar with how were presenting so it was just really good to have someone that, we literally are the same age and were both Ghanaian so that was really weird as well [laughing] so just

5.39

of course you found your kind of your your your your hair loss twin then

5.43

it's true [laughing]

so yeah it's been good,it's been good

5.47

and so what of kind like support have you guys been giving each other has it just been like mainly hair loss, have you kinda like, has the friendship kinda developed past that now

5.55

yeah so I think in terms of hair loss just like talking about our symptoms and when it started, and what happened and just updating in like cos I'm really kinda like research you know I've I think I've researched so much about hair loss since maybe like a couple of years ago I started getting serious about it. So like anything that I learnt I shared with her I was like oh why don't you try this like have you like done this umm

6.22

what kinda things were you sharing

6.22

what kinda things are you using

6.25

so I was telling her about like iron deficiency and like you know the numbers and what they should be ummm I was telling her a lot of different types of iron umm I think she was actually having some side effects from the iron she was getting from the doctors and I was like ahh is it cos if this. So umm she switched to a food based supplement which is like I think that's been helpful I'm not too sure but

6.47

yeah yeah

648

it hasn't she hasn't got the side effects any more

6.49

definitely

6.50

because the ones you get from

6.51

umm

6.51

I was talking to another client about this today. The ones you get from the doctors like umm can be really really harsh on your stomach and that can stop a lot people from umm carrying on with them

7.00

Yeah I

7.01

cos they are just like horrible to take, so yeah trynna find like umm an alternative, like a gentle iron like I sell one or like finding like a food based supplement like you said can be like make sure that you actually are able to like carry through with that treatment so that's good

7.15

so the episode comes out

7.17

Yeah

7.17

you've made a friend, you're still kinda like cos at the time what kinda like I can't remember exactly where were you in terms of like your own hair loss journey like I know you'd seen like different umm clinics and were getting treatment but I know we still like you still hadn't got down to the root cause of your hair loss

7.34

Umm

7.35

And, but what your diagnosis was Telogen Effluvium it just means your hair is constantly shedding but to kinda get it to stop or to live it out you kinda want to address the reason that causing it and so tell us what happened since

7.48

yeah, so umm with my trichologist they just kept saying to me like oh you know just carry on doing the regiment etc etc and like one thing that didn't make sense to me was that my hair was still kinda coming through damaged I didn't think that any amount of product was going to help it

8.09

Yeah

8.09

Like and the thing is before I went to the trichologist I'm with now I went to another one and every time I go to the trichologist they always look at my hair and they go your hair follicles are great and I was like what even at the back and they are like yeah even at the back what are you saying the hair follicles are intact I was like well that doesn't make any sense to me. Like it can't be something external and no one could ever really explain to me why my scalp hurts as well cos they're like I can't see anything

8.33

Ummm

8.34

but no one ever told me like oh you should go to dermatologist. They were just kinda like oh you must be fine because your [laughing] hair follicles are intact, ermmm soo

8.42

yeah but then couldn't they see the damage, that's what I'm thinking cos they are saying the hair follicles are intact but your saying your hair is coming out damaged can you explain a bit more like what the hair looked like when it came out

8.54

right, when I say come out damaged it's just it's really thin it's really really really thin it's like, it's see through

9.04

See through

9.04

so like it you stretched it's so thin and see through. Yeah it's like if I stretched a bit you can like see through it it's not like a lot of hair it's just like the hair is thin and the density is really really really thin

9.15

Do you know what yeah I thought you meant like the actual stand of hair was like translucent. Like you can look through it like it's a like it's a piece of glass

9.23

no [laughing] nah nah

9.24

E&S

[laughing]

9.26

you just mean that like ok when you like kinda like maybe like brush it to one side you can umm you can kinda see the scalp through it. I was thinking what kinda new new symptom is this like how did I miss that one out when we [ ???] Your hair is translucent

9.40

Laughing

9.41

yeah, it's just it's just very thin and very white like I always say cynthia from the Rugrats, the doll, that's what my hairs like, you know where Angelica just like ruined her hair it's just like

9.50

ahh don't do that don't do that, I saw a picture of that today and I was just like wow this is a real thing you know. [Laughing] cynthia got trichotillomania man and traction alopecia [Laughter]

9.58

Im just like back of my hair

10.00

[laughter]

10.05

[laughter] yeah exactly and my hair wasn't like you know the way people are like oh i’m gonna watch this YouTube video to get my hair thicker my hair has always been thick like naturally

10.12

Yeah

10.13

my hairs thick, strands are thick, density is thick, it’s super thick you can grab it and it’s like oh my god there’s so much of it. So for me it's like its a shadow of what it used to be and i think i’m nine months since in since i shaved it now and umm it’s only just 3 inches

10.29

Yeah

10.30

you know’ it’s only just’ and like coming up to like a year now and it’s like [i dont really ] see it making it to four to be honest cos at one point it wasn't even growing at all its seemed to like stop like for 2 months and i was like [tut] listen i was getting so annoyed. Soo, i think deep down i always knew it was something else because i have a lot of other symptoms as well so i have like serious gut issues, got bladder problem, a kidney problem popped up, i had like heart problems. So there was lots of stuff going on and my friend is a doctor she’s always saying to me like i think you’ve got an autoimmune disease i think like

11.04

Umm humm

11.04

Something is just like attacking your body because cos i’m also very healthy, like i’m that person that doesn't just buy like the fruit and veg but im like soaking it in baking like whatsit [tut] baking soda bicarbonate of soda so the pesticides come out and everything like

11.20

Okaay

11.21

That kind of person like

11.22

So we got past the you know like [laughing] i feel like yeah you turned your life around from when you was at uni you was just like yeah actually let me just [laughing] let me give my self scurvy you no im under im under eating im not eating the right things you was just like ah actually no i know what happens when i do that let me kinda make

11.37

Yeah

11.38

An effort to look after my body and feed it the right things

11.40

Right right and that's kinda like where my stomach problems because i became lactose intolerant and from there cos i had to have alternative alternative dairy products i started to become more like conscious so that was umm two thousand and fourteen fifteen like my last years of the first time i went to uni and i just i dunno i i agreed with my friend i always thought its an iron deficiency it’s some kind of deficiency because that’s the only that thing that would make my hair not come through properly and just

12.12

Yeah

12.12

Thin out like that, so umm

12.15

Had you had like blood test at this time, like were they saying you were iron deficient [samia says something at the same time]

12.21

Yea, right this is the thing it was like a fight with my doctor like he was just always saying to me, no, your a menstruating women your iron level are fine and my other friend she said like she’s shes a doctor and she was like no your iron levels need to be like high like they need to be about 70 and have to stay high for your hair to grow so i don’t know what he’s talking about because this is basic information and i don't know he doesn't know this. And then umm she also said like you have to build up your iron store though because you’re sickly you have a very low iron level you need to build it up first so it’s not just going to suddenly shoot up when you start taking it your body needs to store it for a while and then

12.55

Yeah

12.56

Use it so it’s going to take about, I reckon with you about a year, but just keep supplementing. It got to like the 8 or 9 month point I'm taking like 80 milligrams of iron every day of a food based supplement so by no side effects and then umm the week before i went i just stopped and reduced my dosage to like 25 milligrams and

13.19

when I actually got tested again

13.19

How comes what make you drop it down

13.22

because i thought like ok its been 8/9 months now i don't want to be overloading myself im taking like a really high dosage

13.26

Right right right okay

13.28

soooo, let me just like drop it down to like even 25 is a bit above like you know the daily dosage if your 18 so i just thought let me just like take it down and get tested that will be fine and then when i got tested again it had actually fallen since i like gone like 9 months ago and i was like nah something is not right, because

13.46

yeah how can you be literally like almost ODing on iron and it’s just like nah cuz we aint absorbed none of that shit

13.52

right yeah right right and it felt like because i tried so hard to get it up and i only got to like 50 so when i got tested again it was like nearly 40 so i was just like no. i told i said to my doctor and he was like no your a young menstruating woman there’s nothing wrong with your iron levels i was just like your telling me i've been suffering medicine for nearly 9 months now my iron levels have fallen and there's nothing wrong with that. And he was like, he just thought like this was ok

14.19

Ummm

14.19

And he just kept telling me like it’s normal and i was like no this its not normal somethings going on i dont know whats going on but something is going on

14.26

The doctor is arguing with you saying your a young menstruating women, woman sorry whos whos iron stores are just decreasing for no other reason than periods and

14.38

Yeah

14.38

Even though i'm supplementing it it's still going into negative that is foolishness

14.43

right, so i was getting really annoyed with him and i think at that point he didn't really know me cos i just switched GP’s and umm i had cultural

14.52

Was this still like in the same practice or just like another doctor in that same practice

14.56

So, right so ill initially when all these problems started how i was going to one practice

15.01

Yeah

15.02

And in that one practice all the doctors were just bad, like all of them and that’s not even me just like being like like if you go on their google reviews they have like 1 star and like hundreds of people saying their help and community etc etc i didn't listen [laughter]

15.14

[Laughter]

15.14

So eventually i switched over, [laughter] because they were just annoying me and they just weren’t helping me at and when i said they weren’t helping me you know i’ve got so many things wrong with me i remember i went to an appointment once and i said oh you know, i’ve got this problem and i when i went to get talk about the next thing and she was like no we can only talk about one thing per appointment

15.31

Umm

15.31

and i was like uhh and like [sounds] my stomach, my like my heart, no no you need a separate appointment for separate thing and i was like wow ok so it’s like that so i just left eventually because they were just annoying me

15.43

Yeah

15.43

And umm this new practice it is a lot better umm and i think the doctor does listen more but my doctor that i got the new one we hadn’t we met each other like twice

15.56

Right ok

15.56

Like twice and umm i think he just didn't understand like the full situation

16.02

Ok cos he hadnt had like the background of you coming in for a year but don't

16.05

Right

16.06

they have all notes and see like, you know hopefully they just don't feel like your just a serial attender

16.11

[Laughter]

16.11

It just comes in and complains, you know them ones and they are like yeah yeah this is like your 15th appointment in 10 weeks, what you doing here [laughter]

16.17

Yeah exactly umm i think for him like after i left that appointment i was quite frustrated and umm i found a company i don’t know if i’m allowed to say the name shall i just not say the name

16.30

nah nah nah let’s leave them out let’s leave them out

16.35

Leave it out

16.36

Yeah yeah i don’t want to have to like be beeping im a being lazy with the edit

16.40

Okay okay so i found a functional medicine company and umm they do diagnostic test for like gut health

16.47

Okay

16.48

And i my gut problems i feel like i always kinda knew so something was wrong with my gut and i felt like that was my biggest issue but i just didn't want to deal with it because it was just like i felt it was too big so i had so many symptoms i had like i was bloated 24/7 and i mean like without eating

17.09

umm

17.10

in the morning i wake up bloated umm it doesn't matter what i eat there is always an issue with my stomach so like if i eat something and drink something if i move you can hear like the liquid in my stomach, i have reflux all the time, like really bad gas like, pain i get like abdormal, like abdominal pain, cramping so i have a lot going on i think even like at christmas i was actually like i had to go to hospital and they said like all my intestines were blocked and i was like what!, and umm yeah so it was just like i had so many i still think i thought it was too big i didn't want to deal with it, but then i thought like oooo i feel like i need to just deal with this because this probably is the i probably have malabsorption [and i cant and that why i cant get my iron numbers up

17.56

That it was related to your, Did you think at this point it was related to your hair loss or where you just kinda like my bodys just not functioning let me just try and tackle one thing at a time?

18.04

No like i think, i think i knew it was related to the iron deficiency thing

18.10

18.11

Like i guess inadvertently yeah, yeah inadvertently i was like it must be because my stomach is ma messed up that i can’t absorb anything to get my hair to grow

18.20

Right, right ok

18.21

I did think there was a link to my hair but i just i just thought like its not possible for me to actually fix it cos it’s so dire like its been going on for like 8 years now and it’s getting worse and worse and worse umm so i don’t know if i can actually deal with that issue and i just avoided it but then once i graduated got a job and got money so i was like ok let me go to this company ummm i researched it a lot and i was like ok what’s this function medicine thing and it just seems to operate like how you know you think it should operate when you go to the doctor like they find the cause they treat the cause but i’ve learnt alot like with the NHS a lot of it is symptom management

18.55

umm

18.56

especially with gut health issues they don’t really diagnose they just say its not IBD and its not this so you just have IBS which doesn’t really mean anything

19.06

Yeah

19.06

It just like you have stomach problems and we don’t know why, and they are very quick to do that and that’s because they don’t do comprehensive stool testing which just means they test everything in your like go they don’t test your gut bacteria etc etc they just test for one thing but if they think they know what it is they can do a test for that and they can like take a stool sample from you and if it is that thing great but if it’s something else it wont show up

19.32

Well in your case

19.32

so so much is just missed

19.34

Yeah I guess in your case

19.35

Umm humm

19.36

they did the testing and didn't find anything, so why was there like no further investigation to be like ok it’s not this, it’s not this was it just kinda like it’s either one of these three these, three things we’ve tested for the other two so it must be this

19.48

they just want to sound like give me a diagnosis like cos i know like to even get a diagnosis of IBS they need to exclude everything first

19.55

Okay

19.55

and umm But they just didn't do that with me they literally were so quick to be like its IBS without even like doing a stool test i’d be like can you actually take a sample umm and a couple of doctors did but they are usually testing

20.06

not you just kinda give then your poo though [Laughter]

20.12

Like here take it take it please check

[Laughter ]

20.22

But umm eventually i think because like they had my history so ok you’ve been tested and you dont have IBD which was seriously the only thing they were really testing for and then like ok you dont have cancer either sooo its not those two things and i was in my head thinking there must be other things like that it like apart from those two things they’re must be other things it can be but then and the thing also is i have a lot of friends that have IBS so whenever they were like say oh im having this and this i was like this is not me like this is not IBS wherever i said it to the doctor there just like oh you know IBS present in different ways, im like yeah i know, and like its a syndrome i know what a syndrome is ok im clinically trained as well im not dumb dont talk like [patonise missing in laughter]

Yeah yeah yeah respect my [missing in laughter]

21.07

Literally, i was like don't patronise me, I know what a syndrome is so thy were just kinda like oh you don’t understand that you have IBS that's literally what it was, he actually annoyed me once when i got my medical records once and they’ll just saying she has IBS i was like no i told you i don't have it why don't she

21.22

yeah take that off, Don't type that on my record yeah

21.25

yeah [laugh]So eventually, it's been 8 years and i was like look i know the NHS is fine like that, i work on the NHS by the way so no one come and cuss me out i work for them so i can say what i want [laugh]

21.37

Listen this is constructive criticism yeah

21.40

Exactly

21.41

you can cuss people and still love the service but be like fix up cos you man are taking the piss

21.47

so she was just saying like you’ve had bad health care like full stop, no at this point for the NHS I don't understand how in these 8 years you haven't been tested for an autoimmune disease or that no one has questioned that

21.58

Umm

21.58

and umm also because i was having this kidney thing so i had a umm so with your kidney you have a measure called a gfr and that measures how your kidneys are working and my number is low, it’s like the number it should be when i’m in my 70’s and whenever i said like yo look my kidney, i told my friend about it and she was like you’ve got chronic kidney disease and they won’t give me diagnosis they were just like its just your normal. And i was like excuse me

22.30

[Laughter] it’s just my

22.31

Wait wait wait wait wait again so i’ve gone to you because my iron is going backwards, my iron is literally doing Benjamin Button, when i walk you can hear my stomach fluids swishing around like i’m a wine glass, and my glomerular filtration rate is piss poor no pun intended and you man are tell me that in fine

22.53

yeah

22.53

nah suck your mum, what’s wrong with all of them

22.57

Honestly [laughter] i was you do u know what i was actually scared because the thing is with Chronic kidney disease its like it keeps falling u know until you need dialysis you need kidney transplant

23.10

Yeah

23.10

When i asked my doctor what the plan was he was like oh we’re gonna keep just measuring you every year and i was like that's your plan [laugh] like just keep measuring my blood every year

23.19

so wait your basically

23.19

Like watching the number so i told my

23.21

waiting until i hit the threshold until i'm about to die is that what your saying

23.23

right

23.27

that’s what my friend was like, my friend was like if that's their plan then their just waiting for you to put you on dialysis and she was like its doesnt even need to get to that stage why aren't they testing to find out why its falling cos she was like chronic kidney disease isn't like you’ve been tested and there's something actually wrong in your kidneys something in your body is causing your gfr to fall and i don't see why they are not trying to find that out. So i was frustrated about that i really pushed for it, they sent me for a umm a nuclear medicine test to measure it accurately and

23.54

Okay

23.55

it came out at 82 so

23.57

What did that test involve? in case someone is asking

23.58

soo when i was having my blood test

24.00

so i had to have like a radioactive thing but in my arm and they took my blood over like 4 hours

24.07

yeah to see how much [it] disappears

24.09

and umm basically it like tracks yeah how it filters out of my body, so when i did that test my gfr was like at 82 it was its normal for my age it’s not like 90 but it’s normal for my age there’s no problems but my blood test was like coming out at like 59 and umm

24.23

Okay

24.24

It had been like falling, so when i was saying like okay its falling they were like yeah but it’s stable and my friend my friend was like yeah its stably falling

24.35

[Laughing]

24.36

It's still falling it dont matter if its stable or not it’s going down slowly and it shouldn't be moving at all it should just be stable

24.42

Yeah

24.43

So i don't know cos i now its 82 i was going to get a second opinion from umm this like specialist and i was like ok if its 82 [my nuclears] then that's like fine but i still need to kinda like i don't really trust them because they’re really were treating me like im like there saying like oh patient is a bit anxious i'm like yeah im here i can hear you like i was [laughing] it's not your telling me i'm anxious

25.04

ahh don't do that, this is the white coat syndrome, this cos you man are idiots syndome like

2510

Its honestly, What do you mean im anxious cos your kidneys working fine im sitting here in my 20’s with the kidneys of a 60 year old that’s why you can say that your kidneys are fine like so anyway like that's fine for now but then i thought maybe if i get a gut health test like maybe tell me something explain something to do with this so i did two tests with the company

25.34

Umm huh

25.35

and it cost me like 550 for the test but that also includes like a meal plan, a nutritionist and a practitioner that works with you afterwards

25.45

Ok so it's not just like testing follow up as well

25.45

for like 8 to 12 weeks, it was quite

25.48

no no no no yeah yeah yeah and you can contact them like whenever without having to pay you can pay at the end for like a consultation between you further but like within 8 weeks i had emailed my practitioner a lot he emails back he’s real really cool so it actually like i think it’s quite good for what it is and umm yeah i had my small intestine checked and my large intestine test and i really thought i had this thing called SIBO so have you heard of it

26.12

no no no tell me about it

26.13

[its ] small intestinal bacterial overgrowth so the good thing about functional medicine is like i said it test everything and they are a lot more open to like newer things that have been discovered where as like NHS is all evidence based unless that clinical trials happen they’re not buying any of it there like

26.33

Yeah

26.34

it's not clinically proven, it's not it’s 0.9 significant and everything so that's why i was like okay i quite like this because they are willing to get all possibilities {not willing] because it's not clinically significant. So with SIBO like 80% of their customers who’ve been diagnosed with IBS have SIBO so its

26.53

Okay

26.53

really common like its not actually IBS you have SIBO thats basically in your small intestine there’s over active bacteria and it causes just like havoc having that bad bacteria in your intestine so you get things like iron deficiency because that bacteria literally eats all the iron umm chronic fatigue like so all the symptoms of SIBO i had so i was like

27.13

Umm humm

27.13

i bet i have this i bet i have this

27.16

So the test for that [so] it was really weird i had to like breathe inside 10 test tubes every 20 mins at the day before i could only eat eggs and rice it was horrible

27.25

yeah so You had to eat like what, sorry do you know what yeah

[Laughter]

27.27

I'm trying like take a sip of water before you before you drop the bomb cos I already know whats coming so i'm just like let me not spit out my water all over my laptop [laughing]. Anyway Okay so [missing] so you go in there thinking SIBO yeah i have to what's the test i have to blow into

27.44

Yeah

27.45

A test tube you say

27.47

Yeah yeah yeah so its like its called a hydrogen breath test and basically you have to like change your diet the day before, you drink the solution and then the next you have to breathe into 10 test tubes every 20 minutes and basically it measures like the release of gas in your breath

28.02

And that can tell if you have bacterial overgrowth. So i did that and i got the results back and they were negative and i was like if this comes for me [in terms of ] NHS i swear to god i'm gonna actually go mad because how can it be negative to SIBO

28.15

Yeah

28.15

Then i was like ok but i also got like my lung testing check that came in like 5 minutes after i was like oh ok i forgot about these ones and then i was

28.25

[Laughing]

28.27

im so sorry cos i know what's coming im just scared again im so sorry im so sorry hold on let me compose myself

28.34

[deep breathing and laughter]

28.37

cool

28.37

so there's a lot of things so basically they said i had dysbiosis which just means a fancy word like you know in your gut you have good bacteria and bad bacteria they were just like yours is really imbalanced so you have a lot more bad bacteria and actually you should be able to produce good bacteria and your not producing it because your lacking this thing so umm i had also like alot of damage to my gut lining

29.02

Umm humm

29.02

So i had this thing called leaky gut and they measure it by measuring something called zonulin and i was really high so they were like you’ve got a really leaky gut but then also you have parasites i was like excuse me

29.14

[Laughing]

29.21

i was

29.21

oh my gosh

29.23

i remember i was [laughing]

29.25

Wait what's your reply when someone says you got parasites, what do you, like nah i would start tearing out my stomach you mad ME!!! WHAT

29.33

[laughing]

29.35

I was reading cos it was numbered and everything so i remember there was like 5 things i was like ok ok ok and i was like the last thing and i was like okay no

29.42

no the government sly they were like lets build up

29.42

Cos the thing is with that test right [Laughing]

29.48

Oh my gosh

29.49

I was like noooo, and umm the thing is like with that test that is they’re different types of gut test and that ones called the ultimate gut health test and i wasn't gonna do it because it said like this one is for people that has had chronic problems and you know after bouts of food poisoning, worms and parasites and i was like well i don't need that because i don't have parasites and worms i haven't had food poisoning before i haven't been anywhere so

30.14

Yeah

30.14

But then something in me was like

30.15

but saying that I get food poisoning really easy nah my stomach is turning im so sorry what's happening here

30.20

[Laughing]

30.21

Oooh ok continue continue continue [laughing]

30.25

Soo i thought i didn't need it but something in me was just saying like [do you know what] just do the ultimate one because it will not miss a single thing

30.30

yeah the Parasite whispering to you

30.32

[laughing]

30.36

You know what you know what me and my sister actually been joking about it and we've literally been like just [chewing] kinda like harry potter scenario in my stomach and we were laughing because i was like can you imagine what they are like the host she knows she knows were here

30.50

[laughing]

30.51

you know them emergency button been pressed yeah there like alarms going off all of them are running to the station

30.57

[Laughing}

31.00

we’ve literally like there’s colonies that lead that one parasite the original its master she knows they colonies are talking she knows where here [laughing]

31.11

we’ve just been joking about it laughing oh gosh

31.16

that's so funny thats so funny listen the parasite are having an emergency meeting what should we do what's our next point of action

31.25

[laughing]

31.29

the host she knows

31.30

nah thats mad the host she knows

31.30

31.32

[laughing]

31.33

oh my goodness oh my goodness i'm not going to sleep tonight the host she knows

31.38

[Laughing]

31.40

Cos the thing is i started reading about parasites cos it kept saying in these articles it's like the host i'm like oh my god i am the host i am like the person they’re talking about [laughing] like that is like ahh. I didn't see it coming i was so shocked but i was so happy

31.58

Yeah

31.58

because it just like this just makes sense this makes so much sense because it makes sense like my friend was saying how like i'm someone that exercises, eats, well i don't even drink like fizzy drinks no caffeine like im so healthy and she was saying to have like the amount of nutrition you have in your diet all the fruit and vegetables that i smooth it doesn't make sense where is it all going so its like

32.18

listen the parasites were eating

32.19

yeah the parasites were eating it all

32.20

Lavish like organic premium food you get me

32.24

[Laughing]

32.25

Out here my last post yeah they were eating that shitty diet you get me mcdonalds and all of that it was alright for a bit you know when man steps up your game 5 star host yeah going on yelp reviews [laughing] post like google reviews for you [laughing]

32.45

but do you know what like i started researching the species i have so its called blastocystis hominis, i was actually quite happy

32.51

blastocystis hominis

32.53

Yeah

32.54

okay

32.54

and i was happy that i got tested with this company because with the NHS they dont actually treat it because they have found that some people have and are asymptomatic so there's kinda like or people that have it there must be something else but actually from my own research and the company that i was with its like well that's not true there is different strains of it there's one species

33.16

Okay

33.18

and there is different strains and some strains are pathogenic and some are not. So some people just are lucky they get the pathogenic strain some don't they have it the rest their life and won't even notice cos it don't do anything

33.28

Yeah

33.29

so obviously the one i had was pathogenic and i start researching it and it was just saying how like this parasite like out of all the parasites most common but it loves sugar and back in the day before i started getting healthy like i have a sweeet tooth

33.43

ahh don't say this to me

33.44

so i was thinking [laughing]

33.45

i'm really gonna be sick you know because i was really like

33.47

[laughing]

33.49

all the things your describe, I don't have many symptoms i’m just like ahh you know when you start hearing things i'm just like nah i'm i a host too ok sorry [laughing] [missing] as you were saying back in the day sorry sorry i need to be serious

34.05

yeah yeah i was eating i was eating a lot of sugar cos i've had this sweet tooth but i was thinking now cos it was saying the parasite make you crave sugar was that why i had all the sugar craving because it was them being like we need more sugar [laughing] stimulate the host for sugar like

34.22

you know there like one parasite like at the back of your neck that like just like maneuvering you

34.26

[Laughing]

34.27

you know them ones like how power rangers and they got into their megazords or whatever were

34.30

Literally thats whats its like

34.30

it's the one that Like move you to take your plate to the kitchen

34.33

[laughing]

34.35

like eat that doughnut eat that drink that drink

34.37

[Laughing]

34.39

So i was thinking like cos at one point there was like a peak when my stomach problems got really bad and umm it started to affect my bladder and i think around then i was eating quite a lot of sugar so i'm just like i must have been breeding them at that point maybe that's what that was and umm when this kinda explained everything i started researching it started like looking for people on instagram that had it i realised like that there is this one thing that i'm noticing with all these people

35.08

umm

35.09

and it's just like this massively like bloated gut and i was like that is my stomach that's what my stomach has been like for the past 8 years cos it's not like normal bloating it looks like it will literally like [you've come to term] pregnancy, its huge your stomach goes like it protrudes so large i was like [gasp]

35.25

yeah like have you seen

35.26

oh my god like other people like have this

35.28

like kwashiorkor you know like the little kids in umm the poverty adverts the malnutrition ones

35.33

yeah

35.35

So yeah

35.36

Its like that Yes yeah it's like that it's like a different kind of bloating

35.41

Yeah

35.41

I like felt like good oh my god there's other people have this um and i contacted one girl and shes like quiet a big blogger, it's like kiwi blogger and she got back to me and i was saying but like have you had any hair loss [ner ner ner] and she just said to me like you know what i hadn't really thought about it but yeah my hair is actually thin and my nails are i just never made a link to it being with the parasite

36.05

Umm

36.05

But i think she's got rid of quite a lot of it now umm and that's the other things about parasite it really hard to get rid of and the thing is i was really freaked out at first cos i was like thats disgusting like thats gross there's this flipping like nit looking thing in my gut

36.20

Aghh dont dont dont , I'm definitely im definitely going to google it now you know

[laughing]

36.26

No, but the thing when i google and this is the thing there is such a misconception of parasites cos when i actually look it up it literally is a blob and you cant even see it, you need a microscope to even see it and i found this doctor on YouTube talking about and he was like yeah parasites like in general there are so many different types and the ones that we normally see in patients they are literally they are like organisms and they dont look like

36.48

Yeah like single cell not like the big ones , razor sharp teeth and no eyes just like tunneling through your intestines

36.53

No no no no no it's literally like a blob the one i have it's just like its and it's an an amoeba parasite so it looks like a watery blob

37.02

Ok cool

37.04

And umm, Yeah so it that made it like less like eww

37.09

Yeah i can imagine

37.09

But i was happy so i was just like this is what has caused all my problems and then i messaged my practitioner and he was like yeah yeah yeah like that's that's definitely why you've got hair loss like and that's the good thing about functional medicine cos it doesn't look for cohesion its very much like this is what's happening in you even though you have this parasite it may present differently in someone else

37.31

Yeah

37.31

And that's what i like about it cos they don't end up generalising everything umm and that really was like helpful for me because then it was like were going to do this treatment for you to try and treat it so it's not necessarily about getting rid of all of it because you can actually get rid of all the symptoms whilst still having it, its just now about balancing your gut, repairing your leaky gut and getting like good bacteria and healing everything and strengthening your immune system

37.55

And treating the damage that's been done I guess

37.58

Right exactly, because i think i think its spread because i actually found other people that had it like in the comments like saying they had kidney problems and they migrate umm so i think that's also why i had bladder problems as well cos i've been on treatments for 3 weeks now and my bladder has got better

38.13

okay

38.14

And umm i didn't expect that at all like i was like whoa but i think its because there's no pressure on it anymore

38.20

Yeah

38.20

Cos i think that made my bladder worse because i was always constipated and always just like really bloated there was such pressure on my bladder 24/7 and now its just like calmed down and umm something else i noticed actually like i was my heart palpitations have completely stopped i had a single heart palpitations since i started so i was like oh my god, i didn't think that was linked at all i though i had those heart palpitations because of umm low iron.

38.45