livingtwisted

I’ve been feeling great all week, which I attributed to consistent use of the inversion table and my new body pillow to sleep comfortably at night. But today, I’m not feeling great, despite those things.

The trouble is it’s hard to put my finger on exactly how I’m feeling. I’m generally achy all over to the point where it’s hard to sit still, I can feel the rumblings of what could soon be an awful headache, and there’s pressure in my sinuses. But this is not the start of a cold as it’s a fairly common feeling for me.

The one thing I changed today was my diet. All week I’ve been having fruit & nut bars for breakfast, which aren’t too substantial, but have been doing the trick nicely. But today being “Breakfast Friday” at work, I treated myself to a ham, egg, and cheese croissant. Could that be the culprit? I have gluten-free, dairy-free friends who claim their diet has changed their lives.

I think I will take a Sudafed and see what happens. Ever since moving to LA I have developed allergies and I’ve noticed that when I take Sudafed, it not only helps my sinuses, it helps my joints too. This sounds a little crazy even to me, but if it has anti-inflamatory properties, why not? I think I’ve read of cases where a teen’s acne medicine helped their back pain, so why not allergy medicine?

What requires more investigation is if it truly is food related. I really hope not because I’m not sure I’m willing to give up whole food groups all together.

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Update: Turns out I didn’t have any Sudafed with me at work so I suffered through with Ibuprofen until I got home. I did feel better after taking the Sudafed, but I was also walking around and more active so it’s hard to say.

But after doing some research I have turned up nothing that links Sudafed to joint pain. What I did find is that diet can very much cause or reduce inflammation. I should be limiting my carbohydrates, refined sugars, and fats (all things everyone should do anyway). But also avoid certain “nightshade” vegetables. I’m not ready for a drastic diet change, but I can try to be better about my choices. For one, I am terrible about drinking enough water and that I can change. I am also going to try out two specific changes that will be easier to incorporate:

1. Replacing coffee with green tea

2. Adding an Omega-3 fatty acid supplement to my daily vitamins

Tags: allergies, body pillow, dairy, diet, gluten, inversion table, pain relief, scoliosis