Lupus?

[rosieredchops]

Ok so I'm new here, I'm 39 and have been suffering with an unknown illness for about 15 years now. It started when I was 22 with what I thought to be constant urinary tract infections as constantly had protein in my urine, finally after 8 years of being pumped full of antibiotics which did nothing, My doctor retired and my new one sent me for further testing and I was eventually diagnosed as having interstitial cystitis, that was the beginning......i then got a virus not long after which was like severe arthritis in every joint and was off work for a month. It seemed to subside but I was never "right" afterwards. Constant migraines throughout my whole life have been something I thought was just normal for me. In my early 30's I started to suffer severe flare ups of my interstitial cystitis meaning I could not travel long distances or use public transport as I would need to visit the toilet as often as every 20 minutes on a bad day. This coincided with severe pain and stiffness in my ankles and underneath of my feet after any form of rest or sitting down causing me to struggle to walk. In my mid 30's I fell pregnant and all of my symptoms disappeared.....I slept all the way through the night for the first time in over 10 years. I felt great. All through the pregnancy I was like a new person then during labour my blood pressure shot up and has never come down even now 3 years later so now high blood pressure is added to the list....after a year of having no symptoms they were slowly coming back.....the aches are now back with a vengeance, I have severe pain in one knee in particular and it seems to be worse when resting, aches in my ankles and feet, lower back pain and sciatica, a severe sinus infection at the moment, my interstitial cystitis is bad at the moment too. Weight gain around my middle even though my diet isn't too bad. Constant tiredness but inability to sleep at night drives me insane. I am reluctant to go to the doctors as I know how hard it is to get diagnoses with anything and took a long time just to get my interstitial cystitis diagnosed. I don't think I have the energy for constant doctor's appointments. Is there any natural ways to try to get this in check if it is Lupus I have. I already omit certain foods and drinks from my diet due to my IC such as anything acidic and try to limit caffeine as it stimulates the bladder. Pineapples are the worst food for me and energy drinks and cola are also not good. I eat a lot of beetroot to try to control my high blood pressure. I'm not a lover of taking medication. Any advice would be much appreciated.

[overnighthearingloss]

Many years of antibiotic use will have caused big changes in your microbiome. A healthy gut microbiome is now considered to be essential to good health.

Here are some hints on what you may be able to do to help restore a healthy gut microbiome.

blog.bulletproof.com/restor...

[rosieredchops in reply to overnighthearingloss]

I last took antibiotics in January this year. Could this still be causing me problems now after 10 months?

[overnighthearingloss in reply to rosieredchops]

Antibiotics work on a bit of a scatter gun approach. Killing beneficial microbes as well as the bad ones.

It is possible that your gut microbiome has not yet fully recovered. This is why it is important to make good dietary choices. Something I keep reading good things about but have not tried yet is bone broth.

For the first time since childhood I have bought some oxtail and will be using that to make some.

[overnighthearingloss]

Watch groundbreaking documentary series INTERCONNECTED - Limited Time

interconnectedseries.com/st...

This online series about the microbiome is due to start soon. They try to encourage you to buy the series but you can get by by taking notes. There's often a lot of good info in these type of series. You might want to check this one out when it starts.