Photo: Great grandparents at their farm in Blandinsville, IL, with five of their six children .. my grandpa was yet a twinkle in grandma's eye. Stable boy and governess also pictured. Hodges farm, circa 1903-4

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

The Road To Better Health

Three+ years ago I drank 8 ozs of orange juice and developed large hives that tormented me for six months.  Then the large welts were replaced with small hives.  They were unbearable!  I was taking Claritin four times a week .. I tried cold turkey going off the medicine .. but nearly went insane from the hives.  That's when I started rethinking my diet and eliminating processed foods.  The past month I went off the Claritin and have steadily been getting better from changing diets.  It's taken me a long time to detox from the years of preservatives and chemical laced foods.  My family is slowly warming up to the diet changes but more education is needed.  There are so many hidden things to watch for in the way our foods are grown and many places for contamination to take place in the food chain.  This is a eye opening adventure taken one step at a time. 

Mr. & Mrs. Mac with our sweetheart gloves;)

6 comments:

Kathryn said...

Wow. I didn't realize it was that severe for you. Good luck with your coming trip. I do hope it goes well.

Are you able to do fresh squeezed OJ, or eat oranges; is it just the processed stuff you've an issue with, or has this translated into having to limit even fresh foods? (I've been told that folks who develop allergies to GM corn also react after that to organic corn as well.)

Margie said...

I'm surprised how open my daughter is to eating healthy! it really helps! you so inspire me!

Cindy said...

You would be proud of me...I bought organic apples and lettuce at the grocery store! lol

Unknown said...

Are you sure it was just the orange juice causing the hives? Usually once the allergen is removed the hives go away? Or at least that's what I thought.

Mrs. Mac said...

OJ was the trigger. I had OJ hives as a kid from eating too many ... but once they started ... and combined with an excess of stress at the time, they wouldn't subside. The incident was akin to opening Pandora's Disastrous Medical Box.

concretenprimroses said...

I had bad hives years ago and got put on steroids which lessened them but they didn't go away. They made me soooo b*tchy that my dh and dd still talk aboutit. I was evil bad tempered from the steroids. Then I was walking through the coop and a little bottle kind of jumped into my sight it was a homeopathic remedy called "skin" simply. I got it and they went away within 2 weeks. When the woman who cleans our building had bad hives last year I mananged to find the remedy on the internet (I had the old bottle) and I bought them for her and her hives went away too. (She had also been on steroids.) I'm not big on homeo, but this certainly worked!
Good luck. The change in diet is a good idea. Great blog too!
Kathy