I have been struggling with a health issue for months now! It started in mid-December with itchy toes, which turned into nasty bubbles of infection within a day. A quick trip to Urgent Care revealed that I had developed a staph infection on my toes. I started on some serious antibiotics immediately. I had no idea what caused my infection to happen.
Everyone said go get tested for diabetes, so I did. There was no diabetes, but the infections kept coming even after a strong course of antibiotics. So then I went to get a dermatologist’s opinion. She said she thought it was no longer an infection but had morphed into a strange type of eczema: dyshidrotic which only effects the feet and hands and apparently has no cure.
I could not accept that I would be itchy on my feet and hands forever with no end in sight! Then I remembered my estrogen patches which I had raised the dosage of in mid-December. I called Novartis, the makers of Vivelle Dot patches and asked them what the source of their estrogen was and guess what? It is SOY, the thing I am very allergic to.
I found out about my soy allergy in my mid-40′s when I started eating everything soy to combat perimenopause with phytoestrogens. I broke out in full body hives, itchy, weeping sores starting on the inside of my arms and spreading almost everywhere! It was miserable and took three different types of doctors to finally figure it out. After I quit eating soy, the hives still did not go away for a full 20 days afterwards!
I found out a little over a week ago that I’ve been mainlining soy into my blood stream for months and then wondering why my body doesn’t like it! So I stopped the patch and slowly the itches are receding.
I’ve also launched a study into how people change. I heard about a woman who is writing a book about human change. She has requested that participants in her study change one thing in their lives for 30 days and then report back to her about their experiences.
I have decided to keep a complete food diary for 30 days to gain more awareness of what I eat, and how that might be impacting my body. I’ve started reading every food label to see if it contains even the slightest amount of soy and then notice if it makes my hands itch. I want to change my eating habits and begin to treat my body better, looking less at how much I eat as the quality of the food I put into my body.
I’ll let you know how it goes.
