Many people have a Before and After story, but in my case I seem to be lacking a strong Before. As long as I can remember I had some health issues, starting with hip dysplasia when I was a toddler. I was an extremely shy and anxious child, very quiet and introvert. On photos I look absent. I started to develop very early on red puffy cheeks (which everybody thought was very cute - except that it wasn't). I felt awkward and clumsy, and terrified of social situations. Looking back, I can clearly see some autistic patterns in my behavior, and I always felt I had been very much on the edge of the autistic spectrum.
Teachers in elementary school noticed how little body language or facial expression I showed, that I was not interacting much socially. And then everything got worse around age 9. I spiraled down into a deep cloud of brain fog and even more autistic behavior. I stopped completely participating in class at school, because I felt too frozen to say something and have all the attention on me. I developed strange ritualistic and almost obsessive behaviors. I didn't communicate much, I felt frozen inside, I couldn't look people in the eyes, I couldn't focus. My intelligence hadn't suffered that much as I could understand and follow the teachings at school, and in written exams and especially logical tasks I was still doing well. In fact, I spoke and acted like an adult or a little nerdy professor. But my social interactions had dropped to zero.
Added to that came the physical issues. The red flushed cheeks and a puffy face. Constant throat and ear infections. Bronchitis all the time with never ending coughing fits. In puberty I developed keratosis pilaris on my upper arms and the first signs of hormonal imbalances. My period was extremely irregular. I later got diagnosed with PCOS. I often had extreme belly ache and had to leave school early because of the pain. Chronic constipation. Eating disorders. Extreme sugar cravings. Bloating. Low muscle tone and clumsiness. Heavy sweating. Very high heart rate. Hypothyroidism.
Later came the panic attacks. Suicidal depression. Auto-aggression. Heart palpitations. Immense anger and irritability.
I didn't know much about health and just took it as it was. The diet of my family wasn't super bad but also not great. A lot of processed foods, and my mother, severely sick and depressed herself, was addicted to sugar and sweets. I joined her in that addiction, and in my teenage years went from food restriction to uncontrollable sugar binges.
In my early to mid twenties I finally decided to eat healthier, and discovered a whole world online about Holistic Health. This would become the center of my life for the next decade.
Teachers in elementary school noticed how little body language or facial expression I showed, that I was not interacting much socially. And then everything got worse around age 9. I spiraled down into a deep cloud of brain fog and even more autistic behavior. I stopped completely participating in class at school, because I felt too frozen to say something and have all the attention on me. I developed strange ritualistic and almost obsessive behaviors. I didn't communicate much, I felt frozen inside, I couldn't look people in the eyes, I couldn't focus. My intelligence hadn't suffered that much as I could understand and follow the teachings at school, and in written exams and especially logical tasks I was still doing well. In fact, I spoke and acted like an adult or a little nerdy professor. But my social interactions had dropped to zero.
Added to that came the physical issues. The red flushed cheeks and a puffy face. Constant throat and ear infections. Bronchitis all the time with never ending coughing fits. In puberty I developed keratosis pilaris on my upper arms and the first signs of hormonal imbalances. My period was extremely irregular. I later got diagnosed with PCOS. I often had extreme belly ache and had to leave school early because of the pain. Chronic constipation. Eating disorders. Extreme sugar cravings. Bloating. Low muscle tone and clumsiness. Heavy sweating. Very high heart rate. Hypothyroidism.
Later came the panic attacks. Suicidal depression. Auto-aggression. Heart palpitations. Immense anger and irritability.
I didn't know much about health and just took it as it was. The diet of my family wasn't super bad but also not great. A lot of processed foods, and my mother, severely sick and depressed herself, was addicted to sugar and sweets. I joined her in that addiction, and in my teenage years went from food restriction to uncontrollable sugar binges.
In my early to mid twenties I finally decided to eat healthier, and discovered a whole world online about Holistic Health. This would become the center of my life for the next decade.
So why did I get so sick? Toxins.
My mother had been pretty toxic already when she was pregnant with me. She had many amalgam fillings, and she struggled all her life with severe mental health issues as well as extremely bad eczema, digestive problems and allergies.
So I was born with already a pretty high load of metals and imbalances (as the mother's toxins pass over to the unborn child). I wasn't breastfed which is disastrous for developing a healthy gut flora and immune system. I got vaccines (aluminium and mercury). And then I got amalgam fillings. That was the final drop when my already fragile health spiraled down.
For my irregular period they put me on the birth control pill (which leads to more toxicity and depletes nutrients).
To top it off, I got 4 hepatitis B vaccinations when I was about 15 years old, as well as more vaccines at age 18 and 20.
A bad gut flora enhances heavy metal toxicity, and heavy metals kill the good gut bacteria and enhance parasites and bad bacteria - a vicious cycle.
I had a colleague at work who had studied naturopathy and offered me a free kinesiology session which revealed that I was super high in heavy metals. Back then I didn't know much about this. She prescribed me chlorella and cilantro, which was the worst thing I could have done. Cilantro is a super powerful mobiliser of heavy metals, and since I was extremely toxic, this stirred things up massively and crashed my adrenals. I felt like an 80 year old woman. I could hardly walk to get my groceries. Really bad times.
So I continued my battle and studied studied studied. I learned about autism and asperger's and found myself very much on the spectrum (I tried to get an official diagnosis in my early twenties but even though I scored high on the tests, they refused to give me the diagnosis because I was able to make eye contact, something that didn't come naturally to me but I had to learn), and I read that heavy metals can cause it and that many kids respond very well to a gluten- and dairy free diet. After one week being off gluten and dairy the brain fog lifted for the first time and I felt like a new person. I added in some grapefruit seed extract to kill off Candida and felt even better.
Since then I have done many (MANY) things and methods of natural healing and detoxing. Whatever I could afford I tried. Whatever diet was out there, I tried it. I got better and better, and then I thought I had found the holy "heals all" grail Raw Veganism, and I ate raw foods only for 2,5 years. I had left my home country Germany to move to Spain. I felt good, and stopped all other detox methods and just soaked up the sunshine and nature and ate raw foods.
But some symptoms remained, and I also depleted my body of nutrients with this way of eating. I finally realized that my lack of sex drive, my brittle hair and my weak muscles told me something. It's quite brain washing following veganism and raw veganism, and it puts a massive load on your copper toxicity because most plant foods are high in copper and low in zinc. I started eating cooked foods again and later on animal products. I gained a lot (LOT) of weight but I slowly recovered, gained back some strength and lost most of that weight eventually.
I moved to Italy and later to Malaysia, not really focusing on detox, as I was stable enough to just live my life.
Still, I wasn't at my optimum health, and during a travel around the world in 2017/2018 I met up with other detox folks in California (check out Josh Macin) which brought me back to my healing journey. I realised that I still needed to do the detox work because heavy metals don't leave the body by themselves really, especially if your gut is still compromised. I learned about the things I had been missing out and how to detox in a safer way.
I dedicated my life to detoxing, healing my gut, taking plenty of nutrients, supporting my adrenals with adaptogens, meditating daily.
These days I am not depressed anymore (although I do have short bouts of it when I overdo the detoxing, but they get less and less). I have energy and am able to build muscle. I learned that I have the MTHFR 1298 mutation which can reduce the body's capacity to detox. I found gentle and effective ways to chelate the heavy metals from my body and slowly getting better and better.
My heart goes out to autistic and vaccine-injured kids and their parents. Even though I had never full-blown autism, I feel I had been on the edge, and I will forever support those parents who take action to help their kids recover.
Heavy metal toxicity and poor gut health are the two big causes of many mental and physical ailments.
I do believe that trauma too of course has an effect on your mental health, and it might be a vicious cycle - toxic people behave toxic (narcissistic, violent...) and can cause trauma in their partners, children, family members. Trauma and resulting energy blocks lead to an accumulation of toxins. I believe one has to address both.
My mother had been pretty toxic already when she was pregnant with me. She had many amalgam fillings, and she struggled all her life with severe mental health issues as well as extremely bad eczema, digestive problems and allergies.
So I was born with already a pretty high load of metals and imbalances (as the mother's toxins pass over to the unborn child). I wasn't breastfed which is disastrous for developing a healthy gut flora and immune system. I got vaccines (aluminium and mercury). And then I got amalgam fillings. That was the final drop when my already fragile health spiraled down.
For my irregular period they put me on the birth control pill (which leads to more toxicity and depletes nutrients).
To top it off, I got 4 hepatitis B vaccinations when I was about 15 years old, as well as more vaccines at age 18 and 20.
A bad gut flora enhances heavy metal toxicity, and heavy metals kill the good gut bacteria and enhance parasites and bad bacteria - a vicious cycle.
I had a colleague at work who had studied naturopathy and offered me a free kinesiology session which revealed that I was super high in heavy metals. Back then I didn't know much about this. She prescribed me chlorella and cilantro, which was the worst thing I could have done. Cilantro is a super powerful mobiliser of heavy metals, and since I was extremely toxic, this stirred things up massively and crashed my adrenals. I felt like an 80 year old woman. I could hardly walk to get my groceries. Really bad times.
So I continued my battle and studied studied studied. I learned about autism and asperger's and found myself very much on the spectrum (I tried to get an official diagnosis in my early twenties but even though I scored high on the tests, they refused to give me the diagnosis because I was able to make eye contact, something that didn't come naturally to me but I had to learn), and I read that heavy metals can cause it and that many kids respond very well to a gluten- and dairy free diet. After one week being off gluten and dairy the brain fog lifted for the first time and I felt like a new person. I added in some grapefruit seed extract to kill off Candida and felt even better.
Since then I have done many (MANY) things and methods of natural healing and detoxing. Whatever I could afford I tried. Whatever diet was out there, I tried it. I got better and better, and then I thought I had found the holy "heals all" grail Raw Veganism, and I ate raw foods only for 2,5 years. I had left my home country Germany to move to Spain. I felt good, and stopped all other detox methods and just soaked up the sunshine and nature and ate raw foods.
But some symptoms remained, and I also depleted my body of nutrients with this way of eating. I finally realized that my lack of sex drive, my brittle hair and my weak muscles told me something. It's quite brain washing following veganism and raw veganism, and it puts a massive load on your copper toxicity because most plant foods are high in copper and low in zinc. I started eating cooked foods again and later on animal products. I gained a lot (LOT) of weight but I slowly recovered, gained back some strength and lost most of that weight eventually.
I moved to Italy and later to Malaysia, not really focusing on detox, as I was stable enough to just live my life.
Still, I wasn't at my optimum health, and during a travel around the world in 2017/2018 I met up with other detox folks in California (check out Josh Macin) which brought me back to my healing journey. I realised that I still needed to do the detox work because heavy metals don't leave the body by themselves really, especially if your gut is still compromised. I learned about the things I had been missing out and how to detox in a safer way.
I dedicated my life to detoxing, healing my gut, taking plenty of nutrients, supporting my adrenals with adaptogens, meditating daily.
These days I am not depressed anymore (although I do have short bouts of it when I overdo the detoxing, but they get less and less). I have energy and am able to build muscle. I learned that I have the MTHFR 1298 mutation which can reduce the body's capacity to detox. I found gentle and effective ways to chelate the heavy metals from my body and slowly getting better and better.
My heart goes out to autistic and vaccine-injured kids and their parents. Even though I had never full-blown autism, I feel I had been on the edge, and I will forever support those parents who take action to help their kids recover.
Heavy metal toxicity and poor gut health are the two big causes of many mental and physical ailments.
I do believe that trauma too of course has an effect on your mental health, and it might be a vicious cycle - toxic people behave toxic (narcissistic, violent...) and can cause trauma in their partners, children, family members. Trauma and resulting energy blocks lead to an accumulation of toxins. I believe one has to address both.
