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Challenge Self-Care

The chewing challenge: Reduce Bloat, Taste More and Eat Less

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Join this simple 28-day chewing challenge and unlock better digestion, enjoy food more, and even experience effortless weight loss!

This powerful self-care practice is surprisingly simple: just chew your food more.

Do you remember someone — a parent, teacher, or grandparent — reminding you to chew your food properly? Turns out, they were absolutely right.

(It’s funny how childhood advice catches up with us at the dinner table.)

It’s amazing that such a small habit can bring such big results. I hope you’ll join me in this fun, gentle but truly effective self-care challenge.

Do you need this chewing challenge?

Wondering if something as simple as chewing could make a real difference to your wellbeing?
Here are some signs it might be worth a try:

  • You struggle to control your food portions.
  • You’d like to release some weight without completely overhauling your diet.
  • You eat quickly and rarely taste your food.
  • You often feel too full after eating.
  • You experience heartburn, acid reflux, bloating, burping, or gas.
  • You have dental or gum issues, or jaw tension.
  • You’ve noticed signs of nutritional deficiencies (low iron, B vitamins, magnesium).
  • You experience low stomach acid symptoms such as fatigue, indigestion, or undigested food in your stool.

If any of those sound familiar, this challenge might surprise you with how much better you can feel.

(And if your family catches you chewing extra slowly, just tell them you’re conducting very important digestive research.)

Tip: Before you begin, describe and score these areas of your health — then compare again after 28 days to track your progress.

Jump to Recipe

A Bit of History: Being Young at 60 by Horace Fletcher

I have a soft spot for the Old Time Healers — the original self-care pioneers who practiced long before the internet. One of them was Horace Fletcher, who published Fletcherism: What It Is and How I Became Young at 60 back in 1913.

His discovery? That easy weight loss and renewed vitality came simply from chewing your food thoroughly.

Fletcher’s ideas were so popular that even American Presidents, British Prime Ministers, J.H. Kellogg, and King Edward VII reportedly took up “Fletcherism.”

And before you wonder — yes, there’s some modern research to back up this 100-year-old wisdom here, here and here

Why Chewing Matters

Chewing: The First Step in Digestion

When you chew, you signal your stomach, gallbladder, and pancreas that food is coming — “get ready!” This allows your stomach to produce the right amount of hydrochloric acid for digestion.

Chewing Produces More Saliva

Saliva is amazing. It contains enzymes that help break down carbs and fats, binds food together for easier swallowing, and even helps clean your mouth by washing away harmful bacteria.

The Problem With Not Chewing Enough

When food isn’t properly chewed, large particles reach the stomach undigested. This causes bacteria to ferment the food, leading to bloating, gas, and indigestion.

On top of that, the stomach doesn’t get the full “digest now” signal, meaning less acid is produced — and that means less nutrient absorption.

Whew! Your body truly is incredible when you let it do its job.

Eating Less (and Enjoying More)

Chewing slows you down.
When you eat more slowly, your body has time to send signals to your brain saying, I’m full!

Many of us eat while scrolling, working, or watching TV (guilty as charged), and before we know it — we’re uncomfortably full.

Mindless eating also robs us of enjoyment. Chewing more brings you back into the moment. You taste your food, you feel satisfied, and your portions naturally shrink.

And when you slow down and truly taste what you’re eating, that second biscuit might not seem so tempting.

What do you think? Worth exploring?

How to Do the 28-Day Chewing Challenge

In my clinic, I found that chewing every single mouthful until liquid was too much for most people. It’s ideal — but not always realistic.

So instead, here’s a gentler, more doable approach that still delivers real results.

The 28-Day Chewing Challenge Plan

  1. Assess your health and digestion before you begin.
  2. Chew the first mouthful of every meal until liquid.
  3. Pause and focus: What does it taste like? How does it feel?
  4. Track your progress daily (it really helps!).
  5. Invite friends to join you — self-care is better together.

Then, each week, build on your habit:

  • Week 1: Chew the first mouthful of every meal.
  • Week 2: Chew the first two mouthfuls.
  • Week 3: Chew the first three mouthfuls.
  • Week 4: Chew the first four mouthfuls.

That’s it — simple, mindful, and easy to remember.

You might want to set a reminder so you don’t forget, especially in the early days.

Chewing Challenge Tips

  • Start small — focus on just the first mouthful if that’s all you can manage.
  • Take smaller bites to make chewing easier.
  • Don’t take another bite or sip until you’ve swallowed.
  • Sit in a calm environment.
  • Avoid eating when stressed, angry, or sad.

After 28 days

Time to compare your before-and-after scores.

  • Did you eat less?
  • Bloat less?
  • Slow down and actually enjoy your meals more?

Reflect on what changed — and what made the challenge difficult.

If you didn’t notice much difference, that’s okay! You can always repeat the challenge or move on to another self-care focus.

Conclusion

Congratulations on completing your 28-Day Chewing Challenge!
You’ve taken one of the simplest — and most surprisingly powerful — steps toward better digestion, more mindful eating, and improved overall wellbeing.

At first, it might have felt strange to slow down and actually notice each bite (especially if you had an audience at the dinner table), but those moments of awareness are where real change begins.

Keep going — because the longer you practice, the more natural it feels, and the greater your results will be.
Many people also find that as they chew more mindfully, their portion sizes naturally adjust, appetite feels calmer, and weight begins to rebalance — all without effort or restriction.

Over time, chewing well becomes less of a challenge and more of a quiet ritual — one that helps you savour food, support your body, and enjoy every meal just a little more.

“It turns out your grandmother was right — good things really do come to those who chew.”

Well done image in Make Self Care Simple brand colours – completion of self-care challenge

Take the First Step…

We’ve all done it — promised ourselves we’d start that new healthy habit “tomorrow,” and felt oddly proud of the plan… until tomorrow never comes.

The truth is, self-care doesn’t need a perfect day — just a small, curious step today.
Your body learns from action, not intention.

The Self-Care Start-Up Toolkit helps you turn what you’ve learned into action — so your self-care finally becomes real, simple, and yours.

Free Self-Care Start-Up Toolkit


Turn inspiration into action — with a simple system that helps self-care finally work with your body, not against it.

If you’ve been reading along and thinking, “I’d love to try this myself one day…” — you don’t have to wait, or wonder where to start.

The Free Self-Care Start-Up Toolkit gives you the gentle structure to make your first challenge easy, personal, and effective.
It’s the same step-by-step approach I use when following the challenges alongside you — so you’ll feel supported every step of the way.

Inside, you’ll find:
🌿 A gentle Before Assessment to pinpoint what your body truly needs — so you can stop guessing and start seeing real results
🌿 Step-by-step guidance (plus short video walkthroughs) to choose the right self-care challenge for your needs — and actually complete it.
🌿 Printable planners, reflections, and trackers to help you stay consistent
🌿 Access to our private community (coming soon!) — for gentle accountability and encouragement

You’ll also receive:
💌 Weekly self-care reminders, new challenges, and encouragement in the Make Self-Care Simple newsletter
🪴 Access to our free private community — where women share progress, celebrate wins, and remind each other we’re not alone

👉 Send Me My Free Toolkit
(Part of the Practical Self-Care Pathway — build habits that support your body’s natural balance.)

Real self-care is about listening to yourself.
Because being healthy isn’t always easy — but it can be made simple.

Free Self-Care Challenge Toolkit

Make Self Care Simple shares general self-care education for inspiration only. I’m not providing medical advice — always check what’s right for you with a qualified health professional.

©2025 Make Self Care Simple.

Save or Print a handy ‘summary’ of this challenge in the ‘Recipe’ below.

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28-Day Chewing Challenge; Reduce Bloat, Taste More and Eat Less

Join this simple 28-day chewing challenge and unlock better digestion, enjoy food more, and experience easy weight loss!

Notes

Instructions

1. Assess before you start:
Take note of how your digestion, energy, and appetite feel. Write down any symptoms (bloating, heartburn, cravings, fatigue).
2. Week-by-week plan:
  • Week 1: Chew the first mouthful of every meal until liquid.
  • Week 2: Chew the first two mouthfuls.
  • Week 3: Chew the first three mouthfuls.
  • Week 4: Chew the first four mouthfuls.
3. Focus:
As you chew, notice the flavour, texture, and how the food changes in your mouth.
4. Swallow fully before taking your next bite or sip.
5. Track your progress daily.
Make notes about digestion, fullness, energy, or cravings.
6. Invite a friend to join you — shared challenges build accountability and fun!
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Challenge Self-Care

5 Minutes to Feel Good in Your Skin

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Learn how dry brushing can support lymphatic health, reduce bloat, and refine skin texture in this simple 28-day routine for beginners. Your glow starts here.

The Skin You Forgot You Had

As the weather warms and the winter layers come off, there’s always that moment — you catch a glimpse of your arms or legs and realise you haven’t really seen them in months.

It’s not about vanity; it’s about rediscovery.
For most of us, the skin on our face gets all the attention, while the rest quietly hides under jumpers and jeans, waiting its turn.

That’s why this month’s challenge is all about remembering the rest of you — your arms, legs, shoulders, and back — all the skin that’s been patiently waiting for a little care.

For me, this started as a spring ritual — part reset, part reunion — a way to literally brush off winter and wake my body up again.
(And yes, dry skin brushing really does make you glow — even before the holiday tan.)

This simple 28-day practice takes just a few minutes a day, yet it leaves you feeling more alive, energised, and at home in your own skin.

Jump to Recipe

The very first question to ask is…

Will this Dry Skin Brushing challenge support my well-being?

Is Dry Skin Brushing something that could support your wellbeing needs?

Here are some signs that dry skin brushing could benefit you. 

** Dry skin brushing is not performed on the face

  • Your skin looks dull – has lost its glow
  • Your skin is dry and flaky
  • Skin is more oily
  • Poor skin texture (feel & appearance i.e. skin bumps) and tone (colour)
  • Visible pores and clogged pores
  • Ingrowing hair
  • Skin breakouts
  • Fatigue and tiredness
  • Bloating, puffiness & water retention
  • Frequent headaches
  • Recurring infections such as UTI or colds
  • Constipation

**These are good areas (symptoms) to assess and score before you start the challenge

When to avoid skin brushing

Speak to a health professional first if you are currently undergoing immune-system  treatments, have ongoing skin infections, psoriasis, eczema, open wounds, burns,skin growths or take topical steroid creams.

What is Dry Skin Brushing?

Full disclosure: There are no scientific studies to back this self care practice.

Claims about reducing cellulite have not been proven…

Now that is out of the way – what do we know about dry skin brushing?

Dry Skin Brushing has been practiced for thousands of years – all around the world

  • In Ayurvedic medicine it is called Garshana and traditionally uses a raw–silk or linen sock.
  • In Japan it is called Kanpumasatsu and uses a dry towel
  • In Chinese Medicine it uses dried fruit fibres such as a Loofah
  • The Greek & Romans used copper Strigils
  • In Native American medicine it used corn cobs
  • In Polynesian cultures they used crushed seashells 
  • And the Turks and Russians used the popular body brushing method.

Dry Skin Brushing is performed before a shower when the skin is dry. Use a dry towel, brush or loofah and brush over your skin causing a pleasant friction. You only need to do this for a couple of minutes and use a firm but not hard pressure. Then follow with your regular shower routine.

The general rule is to brush towards your heart.

** If your goal is to reduce lymph congestion (Puffy skin) see links below.

Because Dry Skin Brushing can be stimulating it is recommended to do it earlier in the day. Especially if you have sleep issues.

Honestly it is very simple to do (full instructions below) and feels great.

How Does Dry Skin Brushing Work?

When you brush your dry skin, you loosen dead skin cells, so that they can be washed off and reveal new, smooth and brighter skin cells. 

Dry skin brushing is a form of exfoliation speeding up the process of shedding old skin cells. It is thought that regular exfoliation improves skin texture and tone i.e. pink bumpy skin and enhances body lotion/product absorption.

Another aspect of detoxification is your Lymphatic system. This is like a slow moving canal carrying waste out of the body – that relies on body movement to squeeze it along the body . Old time healers believed dry skin brushing encouraged movement of the Lymph. 

Dry Skin brushing can be helpful as a regular practice if you are unable to be active most of the day. This might result in relief of puffiness and water retention much like massage.

Dry Skin Brushing also activates nerve endings in the skin which is what creates that pleasant tingling and invigorating sensation.

Preparing for your Challenge

Luckily this self care practice is simple to prepare.

You can use any of the following;

  • An existing body towel (not too soft!) long enough to do your back
  • A Dry Skin Brush with natural bristles (detachable handles are handy!)
  • A Loofah

Optionally you can dive deeper in which type of Dry Skin Brush to use HERE

dry skin brushes

You will also need to capture details about your before and after assessments and tracking sheets to help you stay consistent.

If you haven’t already, grab my FREE Self Care Starter Pack which includes printables and walks you through the whole process.

How to do the Challenge

For the challenge you only have to do the basic routine at least 3 times a week for 4 weeks (28 days). * You can choose to skin brush every day

Assess and score your overall well-being – especially those areas mentioned at the start of this article – before you begin and again when you complete the dry skin brushing challenge. 

Remember you can use either a dry towel, special dry skin brush or loofah

Basic Routine

  • Start from your feet and brush upwards in long sweeps along the front, back and sides of your legs. Include your buttocks. Medium pressure.
  • Then go from your hands to your shoulder in the same manner. Don’t forget the back of your neck!
  • Use a circular (anticlockwise to mimic the colon and aid the process) movement across your abdomen and then for your armpits.
  • When it comes to your back, I always go upwards in short strokes from the base of my back and downward strokes from my shoulders. Don’t forget your sides under your arms which I do in short strokes.
  • I go very gently if at all, over my chest area and avoid my face

It should take less than 5-minutes.

I have never followed a set number of times to brush each area or complete the routine – my routine is more intuitive. 

Once is fine but if you intuitively feel that you want to do more – do! Remember the benefit comes from repeating the routine 3 times a week for 4 weeks.

Start with a mild pressure – this should not make the skin red and irritated.

Notice how you feel when you have completed your dry skin brush. It should feel good!

Then have your shower as normal.

Tweak the Dry Skin Brushing Challenge to Your Needs

Following the basic routine 3 times a week is enough to see results.

You can also choose to dry skin brush every day. I would not do it more than once a day.

You can also tweak the routine to your needs. If dry skin brushing makes your skin very irritated try a softer pressure or material.

There are detailed routines that work more closely with your lymphatic system which a naturopath might advise to support specific health conditions.

 And of course you can leave out certain areas of your body if you need to.

Advanced Skin Brushing

What if you want to focus mainly on your lymphatic system with dry skin brushing?

I like to combine dry skin brushing with a manual lymphatic drainage routine to open up my lymph nodes first ** Simple challenge coming soon.

You might find it interesting to check out this dry skin brushing technique for lymph movement HERE

Drinking enough water and daily movement will work really well with dry skin brushing.

Assessing your Dry Skin Brushing Challenge Results

At the end of the 28-days you complete another assessment.

What differences did you notice? Write them down. 

I just like how good dry skin brushing feels and how soft my skin feels afterwards and I also know I am helping my body detox better.

How about you? Is this self care practice something you will include in your regular self care menu?

Conclusion

Congratulations on completing your 5 Minutes to Feel Good in Your Skin: A 28-Day Dry Brushing Challenge!

I hope you’ve found this practice helpful, energising, and maybe even a little bit joyful.
After all, it’s not just about smoother skin — it’s about remembering the rest of you that’s been hiding under those winter layers.

And remember, one month is only the beginning.
Self-care — like glowing skin — builds with consistency. So keep brushing, keep noticing, and keep showing up for your body in these small, simple ways.

Because feeling good in your skin isn’t a quick fix — it’s a relationship that gets better the more time you spend together.

Well done image in Make Self Care Simple brand colours – completion of 28-day self-care challenge
Well-done! You have completed another step towards making selfcare simple

Take the First Step…

We’ve all done it — promised ourselves we’d start that new healthy habit “tomorrow,” and felt oddly proud of the plan… until tomorrow never comes.

The truth is, self-care doesn’t need a perfect day — just a small, curious step today.
Your body learns from action, not intention.

The Self-Care Start-Up Toolkit helps you turn what you’ve learned into action — so your self-care finally becomes real, simple, and yours.

🌿Free Self-Care Start-Up Toolkit

Turn inspiration into action — with a simple system that helps self-care finally work with your body, not against it.

If you’ve been reading along and thinking, “I’d love to try this myself one day…” — you don’t have to wait, or wonder where to start.

The Free Self-Care Start-Up Toolkit gives you the gentle structure to make your first challenge easy, personal, and effective.
It’s the same step-by-step approach I use when following the challenges alongside you — so you’ll feel supported every step of the way.

Inside, you’ll find:
🌿 A gentle Before Assessment to pinpoint what your body truly needs — so you can stop guessing and start seeing real results
🌿 Step-by-step guidance (plus short video walkthroughs) to choose the right self-care.
🌿 Printable planners, reflections, and trackers to help you stay consistent
🌿 Access to our private community (coming soon!) — for gentle accountability and encouragement

You’ll also receive:
💌 Weekly self-care reminders, new challenges, and encouragement in the Make Self-Care Simple newsletter
🪴 Access to our free private community — where women share progress, celebrate wins, and remind each other we’re not alone

👉 Send Me My Free Toolkit

(Part of the Practical Self-Care Pathway — build habits that support your body’s natural balance.)

Real self-care is about listening to yourself.
Because being healthy isn’t always easy — but it can be made simple.

“Instant access—start your challenge today.”

Make Self Care Simple shares general self-care education for inspiration only. I’m not providing medical advice — always check what’s right for you with a qualified health professional.

©2025 Make Self Care Simple.

Print or save a summary of this challenge in the handy Challenge ‘Recipe’.

dry skin brushes
Print

5 Minutes to Feel Good in Your Skin

28-day Dry Skin brushing Challenge

Equipment

  • 1 Towel
  • 1 Dry skin brush Optional
  • 1 Loofah Optional

Notes

How to do the Dry Skin Brushing Challenge

For the challenge you only have to do the basic dry skin brushing routine at least 3 times a week for 4 weeks (28 days).
Assess and score your overall well-being – especially those areas mentioned at the start of this article – before you begin and again when you complete the dry skin brushing challenge. 
You can use a dry towel, dry skin brush or loofah.
Basic Dry Skin Brushing Routine
  1. Start from your feet and brush upwards in long sweeps along the front, back and sides of your legs. Include your buttocks. Medium pressure.
  2. Then go from your hands to your shoulder in the same manner. Don’t forget the back of your neck!
  3. Use a circular (anticlockwise to mimic the colon and aid the process) movement across your abdomen and then for your armpits.
  4. When it comes to your back, I always go upwards in short strokes from the base of my back and downward strokes from my shoulders. Don’t forget your sides under your arms which I do in short strokes.
  5. I go very gently if at all, over my chest area and avoid my face 
 
Assess and score at the end of 28 days.
How did you get on?
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My Long Covid Histamine SIBO Journey

Week 4 – New Symptoms with my SIBO & Histamine Diet

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Week 4 of my Long Covid, Histamine & SIBO journey I discover that the combined low histamine and fodmap diet can cause new symptoms – and that one of them might be good news!

New Symptoms on low Histamine & Fodmaps Diet

My restrictive low fodmap (sibo) and histamine diet definitely helped improve the uncomfortable bloating, gas and stretched feeling in my upper stomach.

Although there is still a fullness and slight swelling in that area – I guess housing all those bacteria requires extra room?

And I know from experience that my histamine reactions would be far worse and more frequent if I didn’t avoid the high histamine foods.

So I am definitely confident the diet is supporting my histamine and sibo symptoms while I work on healing the root causes.

However I did start to notice two new symptoms which I think were caused by the diet.

Please note this is my personal journey, not medical advice

Just landed on this page?

You can start from the beginning HERE or Week 3 HERE

Starving Intestinal ‘bad’ Bacteria through Diet

The diet is designed to starve the bacteria of the foods they love to feast on – carbohydrates and yeasts. ** There is no scientific proof of bacteria starving but it feels real when you go through it!

Bacterial signalling is when the bacteria signals your brain that it needs and craves sugar – it can make you feel desperate and emotional – but is really just the bacteria controlling you..

Anyone who has struggled with candida overgrowth will recognise this situation.

Between weeks 3 and 4, I really started to notice cravings. Random images of my favourite past treats – chocolate – kept popping into my head with the emotion of ‘its not fair’ being triggered.

To be fair my diet had been low sugar for quite a while as any refined sugar – even natural stevia, maple syrup, honey, xylitol, and coconut sugars caused horrible skin rashes and boils over my face.

Luckily I am just vain enough to be horrified and quickly remove as much sugar as possible.

** Strangely enough Agave syrup did not cause a histamine reaction – but am sure it is high fodmap and feeds those pesky bacteria.

Instead of succumbing to chocolate (remember the boils!) The cravings sent by the bacteria strengthened my resolve.

I was glad the bacteria were starving, getting weaker.

Because bacteria robbing me of all my nutrients meant I was also getting weaker.

This can slow your Gut Motility (Sluggish Bowel)

The combined low fodmap (sibo) and histamine diet includes resistant starches such as potato, rice, quinoa and oats.

Oats

Resistant Starches are considered beneficial for people with Sibo and IBS as they bypass the small intestines and feed the good bacteria that you need in the large intestines. They are also said to improve the gut barrier and reduce gut permeability.

This is all great.

Just be aware that resistant starches can slow your gut motility – slow your bowel transit time or even cause constipation.

I had enjoyed eating sweet potatoes but the 75g portion size (cooked) had felt challenging to stick to and if you go above this amount sweet potato becomes high fodmap and feeds the bacteria.

Same with oats, I love them, but have noticed that my portion size can creep up.

My typical low fodmap (sibo) & histamine meal plan included one resistant starch and a protein with some of the limited vegetable choices at each meal 

This combination of starch and protein caused my normal transit time to slow right down.

Now for some people a slower bowel transit time would be no problem at all!

But I needed a good transit time because of a crucial new remedy I was keen to begin using. This remedy was known to slow the bowel transit time and yet to work effectively needed to not hang around in the colon for too long.

**More on this new remedy in week 5!

This week was spent exploring how to ease constipation and sluggish bowel naturally – especially when you can’t tolerate or take the usual OTC medications and remedies. It proved so helpful that I turned it into a simple challenge you can try yourself – see HERE.

I almost missed this Obvious Tactic!

In between encouraging my bowel to work better and dealing with bacteria signalling I almost missed an obvious tactic.

DAO  – Diamine oxidase – is an enzyme that breaks down histamine in the stomach. About 9 months ago I started taking one capsule each morning and it acted like a miracle in reducing the intensity and frequency of my reactions.

As I mentioned before, there is only one brand that suits my body, and honestly it is quite expensive.

As I was searching for more solutions and answers I suddenly realised that maybe I needed to take a 2nd DAO capsule before my evening meal?

Sometimes we almost miss the obvious!

Medical Patient Drug Care Concept

Why More is not always Good

Reducing my intense histamine reactions was a big relief – because the constant reactions impacted my energy levels, cognitive ability, general weakness not to mention potential damage to my eye-sight and vagus nerve. 

However the fact that I needed more DAO was not great news 

One negative was that I would need to order double the amount of expensive tablets!

The other negative was that needing a 2nd DAO Enzyme indicated that my digestion was getting weaker.

This made sense as my diary shows that I was having histamine reactions 4 – 5 days a week and those reactions were to foods/scents etc that previously I had been able to tolerate.

On the days that I remembered to take this 2nd capsule my reactions were milder. I kept forgetting to take them before my evening meal and they don’t work after you’ve eaten. 

My daughter got fed up with her forgetful mum and took action

So now if you meet me late afternoon and hear angry barking – it is just my mobile phone reminding me to take the blasted 2nd DAO!

Summary of week 4

  • Bacterial Signalling – shows up as cravings – and is a positive sign that your diet is starving the bacteria.
  • The restrictive low histamine & Sibo diet can mean that your meals include a larger % of resistant starches with protein which in some people can cause a sluggish bowel
  • Needing to take more DAO Enzyme is a sign that my digestion is getting weaker
  • In order to prepare for a new remedy I need to ensure my bowel has every support I can provide (and tolerate)

Interested in Natural Self-Care?

Hope you found my own (far from perfect) journey helpful on some level – even if it’s just reassuring to know you are not alone on the ups and downs of caring for your body and health!

Why not discover how I use Self-care to support my own journey and explore all the free support that’s included?

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My Long Covid Histamine SIBO Journey

Exploring Root Causes of Histamine & SIBO – week 3

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Discovering the root cause of Histamine & SIBO

This is week 3 of my personal long covid, histamine & SIBO healing journey, including how I respond to self-care setbacks and challenges. This week I explore root causes, how my body got out of balance in the first place.

I’m not going to lie – I felt pretty low after reacting to the Oregano capsules.

I think the SIBO test coming back as positive gave me hope and confidence that I was close to figuring out some answers.

I had spent years dealing with increasingly worse symptoms but the drs could find nothing wrong with me. 

Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) described me exactly but here in the UK the hospital told me they do not recognise the condition. And fobbed me off with a general Long Covid label and nothing they could do.

But SIBO (Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth) was starting to be known in the UK and was increasingly being linked to Histamine Overload (or HIT Intolerance) and MCAS.

In theory, if I killed off the bacteria in my small intestines that was causing my immune system to go into overdrive, then healing was in sight? 

I thought I finally had the start of a healing plan.

But if I couldn’t tolerate the medicine – Oregano essential oil capsules – then my plan couldn’t work.

The Dr Calls

My GP called me as I had sent him my SIBO results. He mentioned that I had 10x the amount of bacteria in my small intestines than I should. I have no idea how much extra bacteria other people have with SIBO?

We discussed why so many of my symptoms are only on my right side.

He felt it was nerve damage – Vagus Nerve.

Vagus nerve support was already on my radar – more to come about this.

Because symptoms on my right side were getting worse we discussed b12 being deficient. B12 supports the nervous system and the Vagus nerve.

The bacteria overgrowth in the small intestine block B12 from being absorbed along with many other crucial nutrients – which is a frustrating feedback loop.

Histamine overload is made worse when you are deficient in nutrients (for many important functions) and SIBO makes you deficient in nutrients.

B12 is tricky. I have been low in it before, but the supplement can and does cause reactions when I try to take it.

My GP offered antibiotics and antihistamines if I needed them. And I am grateful to know he will support me should I have no other choice.

A Strategy and Plan B

So I had stopped everything except the DAO, Boulardii and Vitamin C. I kept my diet and environment clean to reduce reactions.

I also started the B Complex (turns your wee yellow) as my body can tolerate that and at least some b vitamins are getting in.

Once I have had a big reaction – my body goes on hyper alert and reacts to tiny things.

It was a tiring week.(few years actually)

But I was curious. What else could I do if essential oil capsules made me react? Was there another natural remedy?

Was SIBO the real root cause? Why did I have SIBO?

Maybe SIBO was just another symptom of a deeper imbalance and root cause?

I was back on the trail of the root cause – which I needed before I could form a strategy and plan B.

 I came across this interesting video about the many root causes of Histamine Intolerance (Overload) which I thought was worth sharing with you.

This video explains why this condition is so complex and if you suspect histamine might be causing your allergies and food intolerances and other random symptoms it is well worth watching to understand possible causes.

I suspected low stomach acid and leaky gut (gut permeability) and the covid viral infection as my main causes of SIBO and Histamine Overload. Contracting Covid after a few years of high level Stress probably impacted Vagus nerve function which directly impacted digestive function.

Discovering my root causes, the reason why my body had become so unbalanced that it was screaming for help through such intense (Histamine & SIBO) symptoms, felt like a huge step forward.

Digestion/Immunity and Vagus nerve/Adrenal stress were where I needed to focus my self-care alongside reducing the symptoms of bacteria in my small intestine and soothing those histamine reactions.

There is no doubt this is a complex condition, made worse because it is not recognised by most health professionals at the early stages – which is why I am sharing my journey.

Herbs to the Rescue?

Herbs of course are a huge passion of mine. Should I try oregano leaf tincture as a much weaker alternative to the essential oil capsules that my body might tolerate – not to mention adding Oregano to every meal?

Having been a herbalist for over 20 years this was something I could explore – if my body could tolerate the remedy. Herbal teas** had been fine so far and a big part of my personal self-care. But to kill bacteria would need a strong tincture.

I would also need to work on the root causes at the same time. Would my body tolerate so many (beloved) herbs and remedies?

I knew this gentle plan could take longer, like months and months on a restricted diet and lifestyle. With the risk that the bacteria blocking essential nutrition and continual histamine reactions could damage my nervous system even more.

** Many healing and wonderful herbal teas are either high histamine or high fodmap – meaning they can make your symptoms worse until you resolve the underlying cause.

Was I being realistic?

Or was this time to see my GP? And if I did would my body cope with various antihistamines? A childhood spent taking endless rounds of antibiotics that had weakened my health 30 years ago, made me wary.

What would I decide to do next?

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My Long Covid Histamine SIBO Journey

First Steps after Testing Positive for SIBO – Week 2

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In week 2 of my Long Covid Histamine SIBO Healing Journey I talk about my first steps after testing positive for SIBO

Have you been diagnosed with both Histamine overload/intolerance HIT (allergies, inflammation, skin issues, food intolerance, MCAS, fatigue) and SIBO (bacterial overgrowth, candida, IBS, bloating, digestive problems, fatigue) issues?

There is a long list of common symptoms which you might be ‘living with’ or ‘managing’ with long-term medications that can be linked to a condition called SIBO (Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth)

Below I share what my first steps were after being tested positive for SIBO in week 2 of my own Long Covid, Histamine & SIBO healing journey.

Just found this post? Start from the beginning HERE

Please note this is my personal journey, not medical advice.

The SIBO Test Result Practitioner Feedback Video

I had paid to not only have the SIBO test but also have a personal practitioner video (7 minutes) explaining my results and suggested next steps.

In the UK SIBO is not easy to get tested for by your local Dr which is why I paid to go private.

The gist of my message was that it was not good to stay on a restricted diet for any length of time (completely agree) but that I would have to combine low histamine and Sibo diet guidelines and find what worked for me to start with. They provided handouts for both, listing which foods I could eat. 

There were very few foods on both lists.

The reality is that I was having daily histamine reactions, my upper stomach was painfully swollen and I just wanted to get better – fast.

Which is why I chose to start with a very strict and limited diet of both low fodmap (sibo) and low histamine diet.

And to be fair this tactic has helped reduce my bloating. See HERE for details of my low fodmap and histamine meal plan..

My suggested SIBO Remedies

When it came to my SIBO remedies my practitioner was careful to highlight that when you have Histamine Overload or MCAS you have to go carefully and see what your body will react to.

This I have found is a repeating theme.

While both Histamine (MCAS) and SIBO (small intestine bacterial overgrowth) are commonly found together to fix one often causes issues with the other.

I was already taking DAO (Diamine oxidase) an enzyme that breaks histamine down – something that really helps me although if I take more than one capsule my stomach feels weird. It is also expensive. If I know I might be going to eat something that might release histamine I take an extra DAO.

I also take the probiotic Saccharomyces-Boulardii every evening as this helps with Histamine, inflammation and digestive issues as well.

Along with Vitamin C, D and B complex supplements.

Why I take so many Supplements

Yea I spend a fortune on supplements but have taken breaks and researched and tested and these all seem to help my body. In fact I went a couple of months without supplements in case they were causing histamine reactions (common) but actually slowly started to feel worse without them.

The bacteria that shouldn’t be in my small intestine (SIBO) can stop nutrients from being absorbed by the small intestine so you quickly become malnourished.

And being low in vitamins and minerals make it harder for the body to deal with inflammation and histamine or killing off bacteria.

This makes you feel exhausted.

Why I take so many supplements

Are Oregano Capsules as good as Antibiotics?

The general opinion (from various research trials) found that essential oil of Oregano kills off ‘bad’ bacteria as well, if not better, than antibiotics when it comes to SIBO.

So this is what my practitioner suggested for me. Along with a prebiotic that encouraged good bacteria.

I was told to start slowly and build up and see how my body reacted.

Massive Reaction to Oregano?

I did start slow with 1 capsule.

All fine.

So the next day I added an evening capsule.

And then I had a massive histamine reaction that lasted days.

Not only did I have swelling around my eye, but I had dizziness and felt faint every time I stood up, my whole body ached from head to toe, my eczema went crazy, my skin erupted on my face, my stomach hurt and my bowel stopped.

In fact the constipation (a new symptom for me) was distressing.

I could not function for 2-3 days.

Being honest, I probably went too fast with the capsules. Maybe one a day for a week or more or even start on alternative days.

Lesson learned.

If you read this and have allergy-type Histamine issues as well as SIBO you might be fine with Oregano Capsules just learn from my experiences and go very s-l-o-w.

Die-off or Reaction? Is the Big Question

Friends asked if it was just Die-off symptoms – a common reaction when you start to kill bacteria, who release chemicals as protection which can give you unpleasant symptoms.

Maybe it was.

But I feel it was a reaction as I am not sure how many bacteria would be killed off with just 3 capsules over 48 hours.

Also essential oils are something I personally often react to – so putting them inside my body was probably not such a good idea?

I was gutted.

But every instinct told me not to take them again.

So back to the drawing board for week 3.

Final thoughts on week 2

I do think that Oregano capsules can be very effective for killing off bacteria in the small intestine (SIBO)

I definitely got impatient and went too quickly – big lesson for the future.

 I think that as I seem to have reactions to anything that contains essential oils it makes sense that I would not tolerate ingesting essential oils – even with highly tested capsules. 

Read week 3 next!

Discovering the root cause of Histamine & SIBO
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My Long Covid Histamine SIBO Journey

What I eat on a combined low histamine and fodmap diet – week 1

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This is my personal journey to heal myself from both SIBO and Histamine Intolerance that were part of my Long Covid diagnosis. In this blog post I share what I did next after recieiving a positive test for SIBO. Including what I could eat on a low fodmap histamine diet.

I was so relieved to finally have a concrete diagnosis after taking the SIBO test. After years of being told my results were ‘fine’ and ‘normal’, even though I didn’t feel fine or normal a positive results for Hydrogen SIBO felt like progress.

Of course I couldn’t know what was ahead of me – but I remember feeling positive and hopeful.

Histamine intolerance – really overload – (reactions) causes me various unpleasant and unexpected symptoms and SIBO explained a new uncomfortable swelling in my upper stomach – both conditions are linked to each other and Long Covid – you can read more HERE

The private test I paid for included not only the test results, but a 7-minute personal video and healing plan.

My results took about 2 weeks to come back and I made the most of this time.

I spent a lot of this time researching and making lists of foods that are low in both histamine and fodmaps (SIBO)

There is a LOT of information about foods, diet and recipes for low Histamine OR FODMAP but very little about what to eat when you need foods that are low in both!

My low fodmap histamine foodlist list was not very long.

Blueberries are about the only fruit. The only sweetener I could find was pure stevia drops (which I reacted to) or tiny amounts of Maple Syrup.

Nutbutter is essential for many of my recipes and the allowed list includes Pecan (quite bitter) Macadamia nuts (lovely!) and Hemp and Pumpkin seeds.** Check amounts and individual sensitivity. This is enough to enjoy milks, dressings, smoothies and treats!

Potatoes, parsnips, swedes, courgettes, broccoli, carrots, lettuce, kale and cucumber are the main vegetables. Onions are problematic, you can test just the green part of spring onions and leeks, and garlic olive oil.

Rice, oats and quinoa make up the grains. I struggle with rice.

Plain cook from scratch meat, fish and maybe eggs are OK – but if they have anything added they are not allowed. Also you have to freeze and defrost just before you cook. No left-overs hanging around. I had to avoid eggs and my weekly shop included (plain) roast turkey, chicken and salmon. With occassional red meat.

Olive oil and Ghee are both acceptable to cook with. I did get myself some garlic olive oil but had to only add drops to avoid any reaction. I read that full fat Mayonnaise is OK in small amounts ? – I found a brand that I tolerated (thank goodness) watered down to start with.

Vinegar and lemon juice are high in histamine and fodmap and after a lot of research I got myself Verjus** – sour unripe grape juice which in small amounts might be tolerated and tastes like a mellow vinegar.** Update I started to react

Many spices are high histamine and some herbs are high fodmaps so you have to proceed with caution.

Ginger is your best friend for flavour and to soothe your symptoms, to this you can add Turmeric, Cardamom and Lemon Grass.

Chamomile and Hibsicus and many other herbal teas are not allowed. But a pinch of dried herbs as seasoning I think is ok.

Is low histamine and fodmap Foodie Hell?

When I was researching how limited my food choices were – it did feel like foodie hell.

But I decided to focus on what I could eat and how I could adapt traditional recipes.

This was definitely a time to work on my mind-set because any hope of healing was on the other side of weeks/months of this diet.

They call it delayed gratification, go without now so you can enjoy later on.

This was not my forever food plan.

Aim for 90% Clean Eating

I aimed for 90% Clean. I included 2 weak cups of green tea, also a dash of almond milk twice a day in my rooibos tea. Once a week I had a Thai green curry and took an extra DAO capsule as I had already found that my body did not react to this. To start with I had watered down full-fat mayonnaise.

The problem is that I was reacting a LOT to things like body products, scents, chemicals, pollen and supplements.

Which wiped me out and while the diet is hugely beneficial it does take effort which you might not have in the beginning

Which is why, despite not being a good cook at all, with questionable taste buds, I have decided to share my recipes.

My Low Histamine/Fodmap Weekly Meal Plan

So here is my simple weekly food plan that is BOTH low histamine and fodmap – suitable for those suffering Histamine overload allergies and intolerances, MCAS, SIBO, Bacterial overgrowth, Gut Issues, with Fatigue

**I’m not a cook – so no measurements or detailed instructions!!!

Oats with Blueberries

Low fodmap histamine blueberry macadamia nut oats

I make an overnight oats version that only soaks for a couple of hours or heat gently and serve

  • I soak the oats and blueberries in ginger tea
  • I add macadamia or Pecan nut butter
  • Swap oats for rice flakes or quinoa
  • Add Stevia or maple syrup to taste

**I can’t tolerate stevia, and find macadamia nut butter sweet enough – but will add a tiny drop of maple syrup with Pecans which I find bitter

Blueberry Smoothie

More or less the same as oat recipe but I replace the oats with allowed greens such as lettuce, cucumber, kale.

Simply blend with cold ginger or mint tea.

This is very useful if the bowel slows down.

Salad, Protein and Potato

Low fodmap histamine spanish egg frittata

This is low fodmap histamine Spanish frittata – eggs and potato with lots of herbs **If you can tolerate eggs

I have potato/protein most days with a large salad!

  • Potato can be oven chips, jacket spud, new potatoes
  • Protein can be allowed plain poultry, meat or fish, frozen then defrosted in portion sizes.
  • Eggs – if tolerated
  • Salad is lettuce, shredded cabbage, cucumber, grated carrot

Finding a low histamine/fodmap salad dressing is almost impossible! I found that I can tolerate watered down shop-bought mayonnaise. You can use extra virgin olive oil with salt and pepper (helps with constipation). All vinegars and citrus are high histamine – some people can tolerate apple cider vinegar or distilled white vinegar. And most fruits are high fodmaps.

** Fresh lemon juice will be one of the first foods I ‘test’ back into my diet

Vegetable & Protein

So the goal here is to eventually find a gravy or sauce that you can tolerate.

Protein is again from the allowed plain poultry meat or fish list – frozen and defrosted in portion sizes. Eggs if tolerated. My choices include chicken, salmon, turkey with occassional lamb or beef.

My vegetable choices, which I mix and match include:

  • Broccoli and Carrots
  • Parsnip mash
  • Swede and Carrot mash
  • Sauted Cabbage
  • *Kale – to be included
  • *Roasted Radishes – to try!

If tolerated you can add ghee or drizzle olive oil. I season the vegetable water and add herbs and then save some when I drain the veg to make the mash or as a ‘jus’. Or you can save your protein juices as a ‘gravy’. I have found that I can tolerate shop-bought stock and gravy – after first taking a break and then ‘testing’.

Low fodmap/histamine Pesto/dressing

I didn’t want to leave you without sharing this idea! Parmesan and lemon juice are not low histamine or fodmap, nor is yeast flakes.

A low fodmap/histamine Pesto made with:

  • Fresh Basil, Mint, Parsley or Coriander (Cilantro) leaves
  • Macadamia or Pecan nut(butter), or Hemp seed or Pumpkin Seed
  • Extra Virgin Olive Oil or garlic infused oil
  • Seasoning (Opt chopped green onion leaves or chives)

Blend everything except the oil, which you add slowly. This can be adjusted to use over salad or meat and veg. When I’ve experimented a bit more I will share better details!

Simple Selfcare Tip!

Cook in bulk and freeze in portion size. There will be days when you feel too poorly to cook. Or days that go wrong when you have no time. Trust me it’s worth bulk cooking on ‘good’ days.

I plan to add more recipes but hope this provides ideas to get you started.

Next find out what my first steps were after testing positive for SIBO in week 2 HERE

If nothing else I hope this gives you an idea of what to expect if you suspect Histamine SIBO is the cause of any of your symptoms. Check the start of my journey here.

Developing a self-care practice around my personal healing journey was not only a powerful tool but incredibly empowering. Why not let me help you create your own menu of self-care practices?

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My Long Covid Histamine SIBO Journey

My Journey Back to Health

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In the early Spring of 2019 I ‘caught’ Covid-19 and by 2022 my symptoms put me in the ‘Long Covid – unexplained’ box at my local health centre . Since then I have been on a long journey back to health.

My experience of ‘Long Covid’ became the catalyst for creating the Make Selfcare Simple blog because simple self-care gave me the strength to get through each day.

This is my ‘Long covid’ story, it’s messy, I make mistakes, wrong choices, but also have breakthroughs, gain insights and slowly find answers for myself.

My story includes Long-covid, Chronic fatigue, SIBO/IBS, MCAS/Histamine/Allergy, Asthma, Skin issues and lots of ‘perfect test’ results that don’t help at all.

Honestly I am not sure how helpful sharing my story is, maybe reading my story will let you know you are not alone on your journey?

START your Challenge!

This is longer than I expected!

Why did I get Long-Covid?

I qualified (Master Herbalist & Natural Healer) way back in my early 30’s and went on to improve my well-being (I’d been poorly all of my 20’s) consistently for over 25 years until my mid-fifties.

So how come I was left with Long-Covid?

The answer is simple – Stress. I went though a difficult divorce and then my teenage daughter became very poorly (umpteen hospital appointments)for the next 5 years, I lost my dad suddenly, a new business venture had the plug-pulled and we moved home 7 times in 5 years.

I remember feeling this crushing responsibility.

Long-term Stress switches off your repair and maintenance systems.

My Long-covid Symptoms

I was quite poorly with long-covid, typical flu, breathing issues, and gastric flu symptoms all at once. But it passed and was over within a week.

But from that week my health has never been ‘right’.

Including 15 months of recurrent episodes of debilitating gastric flu and chest infections.

Gradually I started to have increasing random symptoms:

  • IBS – various and changing
  • Itchy ears – ezema inside my ear
  • Increasing Sinus infections
  • Asthma that started and finished very quickly
  • Weird skin rashes, from painful acne to rashes on my skin and inside my mouth and throat
  • Increasing joint pain, weakness and swelling
  • Hair loss one side of my head
  • Sinus swelling behind my right eye (extremely painful)
  • Feeling dizzy light headed in the head but my legs felt like lead
  • Low Blood Pressure
  • Fuzzy head and poor memory
  • Extreme Fatigue

Unfortunately this was during Covid. I still had to work and look after my daughter (single mum) and my local heath centre were unable to help.

The tests came back ‘good’ or as my GP told me, my tests were actually perfect for my ‘age’.

But I didn’t feel perfect.

Eventually my GP diagnosed me as having Long Covid because my health before and after Covid was so different.

Diagnosing Myself

The remedies I had used successfully for 25 years couldn’t help me this time

For a while I used my usual herbal remedies, essential oils, homeopathic pills, supplements and dietary changes. Remedies that had worked perfectly for the last 25 years based on supporting my inherited constitution.

And I seemed to get worse.

My local surgery offered me steroid inhaler for my asthma, steroids for my sinus, anti-histamines, Pronton Pump Inhibitors (PPI) and even HRT to ‘see’ if they ‘helped’.

I used a nasal steroid for my swollen sinus face once – but the next day the swollen face was gone and replaced with my right eye looking like something from a horror film. The ‘sinus reaction’ had escaped to the sinus area behind my eye.

I already had a long history of ‘reacting badly’ to normal medications and wasn’t convinced ‘testing’ by medication was the right path for me.

By this time I was worried and frustrated.

Without a concrete ‘diagnosis’ I was stuck in the dark.

I knew from my practitioner training that I needed to find a ‘root cause’ – but Long-Covid is cloaked in mystery.

The one ‘strange’ but consistent symptom pattern was waking up in the early morning with a ‘reaction’ usually sinus/skin rash/itchy ears which then developed into feeling faint, dizzy light-headed, followed by IBS symptoms and then joint pain/swelling and extreme fatigue.

This was a consistent pattern (70% of the time) – whatever I did during the day, my reaction seemed to happen between 3 – 5am the next morning. Weird right?

(Apart from quick onset asthma to chemical fumes/scents which were frightening)

I got tested for autoimmune which came back as negative.

Eventually I came across Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) which finally seemed to describe me!

Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS)

According to the WebMD MCAS is “Mast cell activation syndrome, also called MCAS or mast cell activation disorder, is a condition that causes mast cells to release high amounts of chemicals into your body. This chemical release causes you to have many symptoms.

I spent almost a year researching MCAS. There is a lot of information online. But here in the UK after waiting months for an appointment an Allergy consultant told me ‘ we don’t recognise it here in the UK’. And shoved me out the door in under 10 minutes.

Yes I still feel bitter about that.

The harsh truth is that it is difficult to test for MCAS or histamine intolerance – unless and maybe even if you go private.

By this time I had no social life (apart from work) and had to leave at least two jobs because I reacted to something in the work place. By this time I was having sudden scary reactions to chemicals, perfumes and scents including essential oils – so I went into recluse mode.

Through trial and error (and many reactions) I confirmed foods high in histamine or histamine liberators were an issue for me.

Even healthy foods, herbs, essential oils and supplements can be high histamine.

A low histamine diet really helped. So did taking Diamine Oxidase enzymes and Saccharomyces Boulardii.

Some people follow a histamine bucket approach where they can strategically include a few higher histamine foods if they keep their overall lifestyle low histamine.

Other people take various anti-histamines but there is conflicting information about the long-term impact of switching off the bodies alert signal from the immune system. *With conditions like MCAS you may need to take both H1 & H2 blocking antihistamines and at much bigger dose.

Call me stubborn, but I still wanted to find the root cause and heal myself.

Insights from Living with MCAS / Long Covid

I firmly believe that the most healing diet is when you can eat a full varied diet. The low-histamine diet on top of my existing dairy and gluten-free requirements was incredibly limited.

Turns out that I could eat chips and plain crisps with no reaction – and boy did I make the most of this!

I spent hours researching ‘alternative’ recipes which was my inspiration for creating the ‘Nourish‘ Challenges. My beautiful kind daughter was very tolerant of my experiments and meal time choices

And if I ‘cheated’ or accidently ate a food that was high in histamine or an histamine liberator I was ‘punished’ with painful and weird symptoms.

I would wake early morning in agony with one red swollen eye and an unhealthy ‘pressure pain’ behind my eye. I would boil a kettle and grab a bowl and towel and steam my face. My eye would stream thick clear gunk and there was revolting post nasal drip. After this I could open my eye and see, but the whites of my eye were blood red. Nice. I would repeat steaming and use a heated eye-pack and my eye and the pain would slowly return to normal within 2-3 hours.

Then would follow various strange symptoms, sometimes I had a tight chest and lost my voice, I often felt dizzy and light headed and ‘wobbly’, and worse for me was that my head felt fuzzy and muddled. There would be pain in my neck, hips, and knees and sometimes my hands and feet would become swollen and painful. And for ‘days’ I would feel wiped out. Just in time for the next reaction.

I share this because so many people said they also suffer with ‘hay-fever’. This was not the same as hay-fever although hayfever may be linked to histamine overload.

I had a lot of problems with supplements and ‘natural’ remedies that also caused reactions. DAO (Diamine Oxidase) which is a miracle support for me, but when my supplier ran out (!) I reacted to each alternative I tried.

Let’s talk about my hair!

I quickly found that hair products including shampoo caused really big reactions. The more often I was reactive the more I noticed hair loss and just on one side of my head!

Honestly I spent a fortune on trying different ‘natural’ shampoos. If I didn’t react to the shampoo then it didn’t suit my hair. Call me vain but hair like straw is not a good look. Yes even the no-poo curly hair shampoo caused reactions. So did organic ones made with essential oils.

In fact it is very expensive having a reactive body! In the end I found an inexpensive unscented shampoo bar. It was the same story with all my body and cleaning products. Many essential oils trigger a reaction.

Reacting to Nature!

I also reacted to nature! As a former natural therapist & herbalist the irony is not lost on me. Grass and tree pollen were problematic and so was any time spent in my garden or walking my dog (RIP my beloved Sox).

Symptoms-body-wisdom-make-selfcare-simple
Replacing lawns with beefriendly plants

My home and street is surrounded by grass – that needs regular cutting. I did remove almost all of my lawns and just prayed that the replacement plants were kind to me. I also gave up my dream of walking holidays and permculture forest gardening.

Most ordinary people would by now have taken all the anti-histamines!

I will try to explain.

Call it intuition, pig-headedness or dilusional thinking but I 100% believe that if I can find the root cause then I can find a healthy way to support my body to recover and repair.

And that was the problem with a MCAS or Histamine reactions or Long Covid Diagnosis – none of them gave me a root cause I could work with.

Whole Body Healing

Diet and supplements are never the whole picture when it comes to healing.

I include (where possible) many self-care practices in my daily routine.

Pssst my regular newsletter is where I share more details about my current self-care practice.HERE

Close family and friends are my life-line and are incredibly important to my whole body healing. I am still at the time of writing this, pretty much living like a recluse.

The enforced isolation that you can experience on the healing journey is one reason I would like to create an online self-care community.

I recently lost my beloved dog Sox, and know first hand how healing our pets can be and how real the grief of losing them is.

My beloved companion Sox – big part of my healing journey

Something else that I believe is that the body mind and soul are all connected.

Specifically I think that past experiences especially trauma links the mind to physical illness. So I was aware that my set of symptoms directly linked to fear – the world literally felt unsafe for me.

I am not a worrier by nature. But in iridology I have the golden eye which is linked to kidneys and fear. I deal with my fear (of histamine reactions) by controlling my situation and avoidance.

Which in one way is prefectly normal and practical.

So another part of my healing journey is to look at fear. I scheduled therapy sessions which were really helpful and have noticed that recognising my fear pattern is helpful in reducing my symptoms.

This is where Journal work has also been helpful.

Dealing with trauma or past experiences that impact your current health, is a work-in-progress for me.

However I am also cautious about getting stuck in your past – while its helpful to identify previous causes and patterns – please know that the focus should be on creating a better future.

I also try to avoid blame in all its forms. Tricky because it is so satisfying to give the blame to someone else.

Instead I try to ask:

How am I now going to respond to this situation?

What new and better choices and decisions will actually improve my future and bring me inner-peace?

Light at the end of the tunnel?

magical summer sunrise

Whew well done if you’ve made it this far!

I had a bit of a ‘red herring‘ in that both my daughter and father had genetic Haemochromatosis (Iron overload) which interestingly can display many similar symptoms to what I experienced.

It took months to wait for tests and results – and I was hopeful that I’d found my root cause.

But no surprise my liver came back as ‘fine’ and blood tests confirmed I am just a carrier.

I am sure many of you have been in this strange situation where you almost want a test result to show something!

If my story does nothing else, it highlights the frustration of test results!

New Symptom – Upper Stomach Swelling

Anyway earlier this year 2025 I noticed a swelling in my upper stomach.

I thought it might be a flare-up of diastasis recti (caused by having C-section complications 20 odd years ago) and started following the exercises. NB I do think I have DR

However my stomach swelling quickly got larger and more painful despite me eating less food. It was a strange ‘stretched feeling’.

More tests and examinations followed all showing as fine!

Grrrrr

My GP was really pushing for Omeprazole – which conflicts with DAO – so I had a dilemma.

But for once my attention was on my IBS not my histamine reactions.

Honestly my IBS symptoms were much easier to deal with except now I had a painful swelling I couldn’t ignore.

Handy reminder to myself that ALL symptoms no matter how small are important

Long story short I started to consider SIBO Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth.

SIBO can cause painful upper stomach swelling reduces DAO from being made in the body – ding dong! And there is a direct link between SIBO and Histamine intolerance (MCAS). AND Omeprazole can increase the risk of SIBO.

I couldn’t get tested for SIBO on the NHS so I went private.

My test result was positive for Hydrogen SIBO!!

Taking a rest!

Which brings me to the end of this mammoth post.

And the start of a brand new post.

This was my personal story about stubbornly holding out to find a root cause, probably a bit extreme to most people.

If you only take medicines to reduce/hide symptoms – without addressing the root cause – the body will keep giving you new symptoms

I quickly discovered that being tested positive for SIBO was just the first step and that there is very little free support/guidance for when you have both Histamine/MCAS and SIBO together.

So that is what I will share next – my journey to address my root cause!

Self-Care

What I haven’t talked about is my regular daily self-care practice – which has been a crucial part of my whole journey.

I do not think I would have survived this last few years without a self-care practice supporting my poor body each step of the way.

Join my newsletter to read my current experiences and adventures with self-care as I follow along with you!

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