Proof that food is medicine

When Hippocrates (400 BC) said 'Let thy food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food' he was really in tune with good medical practise. In this episode we speak with Jocelyn whose thryoid habitually became overactive only when pregnant. The prescribed drugs made matters worse. Her Naturopath made a dietary change that completely resolved her problem and saved the life of her unborn child. 

Transcript

0:02

Jocelyn Bates. Hello. Hello. Now, Jocelyn, you're over on the east coast of the USA. Yeah, yeah, I'm in New Jersey. I live like 20 minutes from New York or 30 minutes from New York City. Jocelyn, you're a yoga teacher and an art therapist? Yeah, I'm a. I do yoga Nidra. So I don't really do like yoga in. I mean, I love yoga but I don't teach yoga like that. I do more of the guided meditation and I'm an expressive arts therapist, intermodal. Though I'm not practising as a therapist, I'm practising as more of a soul art guide these days. Your story is in 2008, unfortunately you had a stillbirth and can you just talk us through the trauma associated with something like that? Oh, yeah. So if. Well, my. I. It was the first time I was pregnant and I was part of the clinic because I was with my husband but we weren't married yet so I wasn't on his health insurance, so I was through the clinic. And just that alone can be traumatising, like feeling like you're not in charge of it any. Be any of your healthc care at all. Just for us people on this side of the world. Through the clinic means. That's like a public health system. Yeah, the clinic is. Yeah, it's like a free. It's kind of like a free clinic through the hospital. I see. Yeah. And so if you're pregnant, you. And then also you. I accessed like Planned Parenthood at the time, like to get. To make sure I was pregnant and then they sent me to the clinic and yeah, I didn't have much say over what was going on and I don't think I was. My voice was not. It was. I don't know how to say it. My voice was not heard. My voice was not heard when I was there. Yeah, so that was part of that situation was being in the clinic and I actually had a stillbirth at 20 weeks. What? I. I was fine and I went in to go find out what was happening to hear the heartbeat at like around or just around 20 weeks. And they were saying. And what they did was they put me in a room and they started to do the ultrasound to set up for the bigger ultrasound at 20 weeks and there was no heartbeat and they left me in a room. They said they just said to me, there's no heartbeat. And then they walked away for 15 minutes and left me alone in the room with the monitor. And so it was. It was like I didn't even know what was going on. I was, you know, my first time pregnant and. And then they ended up bringing me down for labour and delivery. Delivery. And it was in 18 hours that I was there until I delivered. And yeah, they put me like, I was just. I was left alone in a rooms all over the place. And then what happened was I. I wasn't being heard. So I would say, I was saying, you know, I want to know what's going on. What are you. Because I'm a very holistic person. What are you putting in me? I don't understand, what am I going to expect? What's happening? And I didn't get a lot of that. And then finally, as we started getting close to giving birth, I remember I said to the one nurse who came in, I said, the baby's coming and I want drugs and I'm a very holistic person. But I was like, I don't want to experience this. I want drugs. And she walked out and said, you're not having the baby. And then about a minute into her walking out, I had the baby alone with my husband in the room. And then the woman who came in was a doctor's assistant, I guess, and she went to pull the umbilical cord, I suppose she was trying to pull the placenta out, I'm not sure. But, you know, you have to birth that separately. And so in the end, what I remember, and it was. I was in shock, but what I remember is that she had her hand inside of me and she had the cell phone in the other hand and she was saying, I'm inverting her uterus. And they. I. That's all I remember. My husband was like, what are you doing? And then all of a sudden I was out and I had to go in for a dnc. And because they pulled it, I guess I started bleeding. And she was starting to invert my uterus because that happened. I. When they did the dnc, they had to scoop. I say scoop, which is an awful word, but they had to basically poop out a lot more than they would have had to. And then when I came to, like, I didn't even know what happened. And they were just started giving me ice chips and they came out with my son and they said, would you like to hold him? And I was in such shock. I said, I wouldn't hold him. And I was like, one of the decisions I highly regret. But I didn't know what was going on. I wasn't even fully. I literally was just getting ice chips as she walked in with this baby. Um, and so it was really. It was really traumatic. And did you pass out because of the pain or because of some drugs they gave you? They rushed me into a DNC because of what she had done with my. With the umbilical cord and the placenta. I don't 100% know what happened. I don't think I passed out, though. I vaguely remember being wheeled out of the room. So, like, you know, and you're in the middle of all of that. On top of it, I had like the Pitocin or whatever drugs they were causing the contractions and everything. And I mean, this is. This is 16 years gone now since that happened, and I still feel really awful about it. I mean, how do you feel? Well, I. So, because. Because it was the clinic, which is so weird, they told me, don't try to get pregnant again for a long time. They couldn't figure out why I had the still. The stillbirth. They didn't know why. But they did have one test came back that said I had a thyroid, a high thyroid levels. And so I immediately went. At that point, me and my husband got married and I got on his health insurance and I went immediately to a doctor that. A holistic doctor. And she said, no, no, you want to get pregnant right away. Your body is ready for it. And. And then she said, you're going to get pregnant. The first thing we're going to do is look at all of your thyroid levels and then, you know, then we'll work from there. So, yeah, I ended up getting pregnant within three months. But I imagine you had a fair bit of scar tissue after the last procedure, so I'm amazed how quickly you conceived. It was super easy. I got pregnant almost right away when we started trying. And. But yeah, the scar tissue was an issue because what happened was when I got pregnant this. This next time I had placenta previa, the only place the. The egg could implant was directly over my cervix. And I wouldn't know that until I actually just. I didn't know why. I had asked my. My ob GYN at that time, I'm like, why what. You know, what do you see in there? Because I had like this bit, this dnc and. And he had said there's a tonne of scarring that had happened. So he's like that was why I had the placenta previa. And it. Yeah. So jumping forward, you know, 16 years, you ended up with three kids. Three kids. And wow, that's amazing in itself. All three C sections too. Right? Okay, okay. But the, the intriguing part of this story is in between having kids, you went to a specialist doctor who recommended an endocrinologist, I'm guessing, who recommended you go on some thyroid medicines for the rest of your life. No. Well, so what happened was when I first got pregnant again, we did watch my thyroid levels and almost immediately everything went hyper. Almost immediately I was like, you could see and I, and I would start. And now. So I had these things when I was at the clinic and I had said it to them, I had jitters and a raised heartbeat and I had, I had certain things happening, but they didn't say anything about it and they never mentioned any. They. Oh, that's just pregnancy. So immediately that stuff started happening again and I recognised then that that was my thyroid because I started to, to see, to feel it as it was raising. My thyroid levels were like going into hyper. And so immediately I went to an endocrinologist, not knowing that there's some of the most unholistic people and very like compartmentalised in how they think. I didn't know that at the time. I thought I, I just thought I was doing what I was supposed to do. And so immediately they wanted to not. Yeah, they wanted to put me on a, like a hormone for my thyroid to pull, pull it down. And so I did it. I. Against everybody's, everybody. I did not want to do it. Like everybody pushed me to do it and I was like, fine, I'll do it, you know, for my child. And the first thing I remember is everything tasted like metal and I didn't feel right. And so, you know, it worked out for like a week. And by the second week I went to the endocrinologist, he, we did my blood work again. And so like a one in millions chance that you get hepatitis of the liver from this medication is what I had. And because it was so bad and my liver, my liver numbers were so elevated and on top of it, my thyroid levels were not great either. So it wasn't really working the best for me. And I remember sitting in there, my husband didn't go with me that day and he was like, I think we need to, he said, we need to take out your thyroid. So we're going to go in a week. We're going to schedule you in a week or Two, we're going to get your thyroid out. He's like, stay on the medication for a few days, but we're going to. We need to get you to the point of this surgery. And I remember saying, but how? Like, what's the possibility of losing this child? Like, at this point? You know, this is. I don't want to lose another child, you know. And he said, well, it's a 50% chance that you'll lose your child. And I said, well, I'm not. I. And then what happens when I take the thyroid out? Like, what does that even mean? You know, you're going to take my thyroid? And he said, well, you'll just be on medication for the rest of your life. And so I, I was not okay with that, but I didn't know what to. I didn't know what to do. So I immediately left and I got in touch with a naturopath and a Chinese medicine doctor. And so have you experienced natural medicine before? Oh, I'm like a very holistic person. So I have always been to homoeopaths and natural doctors. I had never been to a Chinese medicine doctor, actually, and I had been through acupuncture and chiropractics. All of that was. My whole life has been infused with that. So I had no problem going and like, just telling my whole story to somebody who was a natural or alternative doctor and just letting it loose. And this person came highly recommended from my doctor. So I, you know, I felt very confident in it. And I went to him and he was awesome. He was super curious. And he's like, well, he looked at my levels and we talked a lot, and it was really like he was as curious as I was. And we were just looking through a bunch of things. And at that point, I didn't know this, but I had an aunt who also, when she was pregnant, had hyperthyroid. Nothing else wrong with her thyroid, just only when she was pregnant, which is what I found out. Happens to me. Yeah. And my naturopath said, you know, take. Get off the medication, completely stop taking it. And. And he said, just drink a half ahead of cabbage juice a day. And he knew I was a juicer. So I, I would just every day for that week, I did a half ahead of cabbage juice with kale and apple and celery. Whatever made it taste somewhat okay because it is kind of disgusting. Cabbage juice is not, not fun. And I did it for that week. And he said. And I, and, you know, just trusted me, said they had gon in it and the Gon would, like, would pull down my thyroid levels. And he told me what not to eat and what to eat. And in between, I went like three times to the chiropractor and I was like, just. I was just taking care of myself in a lot of ways. And by the time I went back to the endocrinologist, we had to do a quick blood. Blood work to. To get everything for the surgery. And I remember I sat down with the endocrinologist again. My husband wasn't there, but we sat down with the endocrinologist and he said, oh, wow, you know, your liver numbers are perfect. And he said, your thyroid numbers are perfect. Let's just keep you on that medication. And I was like. And so this is. But me, here I am, I'm like, oh, what if you have other patients who are like me? You know, like, this is how I think. Yeah. So I said, you know, I have to be honest with you. I took myself off the medication and I'm drinking cabbage juice. Like, I. It just seemed. It feels good. I feel good and energised and all my numbers are good. And. And he really cursed me out and he said, you're going to kill your child and I won't be. I, you know, I forget how he put it. Like, I, I won't be the, you know, a party to that, you know, and he kicked me out of his office. Wow. So. So he was unhappy with you stopping the medication without his input. You took the cabbage roots, you were honest with him, and he kicked you out of the office after swearing at you. Yeah, he totally swore at me, I think. Yeah. And. And so I, you know, and here I am pregnant. Right. Really pregnant? Yeah. Like. Like the hormones are racing, you know. How pregnant were you at this stage? I wasn't that proud. I was probably like 12, 13 weeks still, like, not like in that area. Right. Not like. And just crying in the parking lot. And I remember calling my husband. I'm like, I can't do this. I don't know what. I just got kicked out of the doctors. But he was like, it's fine. And I went back to the naturopath and. And he. And I ended up getting through. My doctor would do the. Do the blood work, so I had to keep up with the blood work because I had to make sure the gordogens were continuing to work for me. And I got to. I got an OB GYN who had dealt with stillbirth prior, and it was also recommended by my doctor who was totally not holistic at all but he believed in choice, and so he never pushed me. Like, when I went in, I said to him, I'm like, I am holistic. I totally got kicked out of a, you know, doctor's office. I won't do these things. If it's necessary to have a C section, I will these things. And he totally respected me 100%. And he was. He was Indian, and he would talk to me about different foods and stuff because he knew that it would help certain things, you know, and he. He, after a while, had to end up taking my blood work in his office, but everything was fine. And the only reason I had a C section was because of all that scarring. The egg implanted over my cervix. And so my daughter came at, like, 34 weeks. She had, like, a NICU stay, which, as a holistic mom, was like, the worst for me. Yeah. And then all the. All the kids afterwards, the same thing happened. I had the thyroid thing, and I just started drinking cabbage juice. And then, like, all three of them. And then they tried to tell me for a while I had cray Graves disease. Yep. And so one. One after one of the pregnancies, I was like, fine, stop telling me of my Graves disease. Just take my blood every so often, and I'm going to show you I don't have it. And, yeah, my. My thyroid is fine and perfect for the listeners. Certain plants contain what's called goitrogens and these particular chemicals that can interfere with healthy thyroid function in people with an average thyroid. But if you have a hypothyroid, meaning that your thyroid is overproductive, they can help reduce the levels of the overactivity. And these foods are typically your cruciferous vegetables. So they would be things like your broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, radish, turnips. You gotta eat it raw, though. You can't. You can't cook it. You gotta eat it raw. And that's the downside. Yeah, that's why you choose it. That's why ended up juicing it. They're all pretty horrible raw. I mean, when you juice it, they're nice in salads. But, you know, when you're juicing it because you got it, I guess you have to juice it to get enough of this. Of the chemical to make the difference. Yeah. I had to do a half ahead of cabbage. One day. I did red cabbage by mistake, and that was like, do not juice red cabbage. It is spicy. I remember I was like, I can't do this for. For a Number of people that do drink raw juices from the cruciferous family or crucifix. Cruciferous. Other people pronounce it. It can cause some tummy upsets as well. Did you get any of that? I didn't, I didn't. I mean, I. No, no, actually, not at all. Yeah, I didn't have any issues with it, but I also. I paired it with a lot of stuff and I. I took it specific. Like, always took it first thing in the morning and then ate after a certain amount of time and. Yeah, and. And it wasn't because it was like. And at. No learning later that my aunt had the same exact thing, but she was diagnosed with Graves disease. But I don't think she actually has it either because she hasn't since having kids, she hasn't had any problems. And so I just have it when I'm pregnant. It's just something that my body does when I'm pregnant, which is odd. Makes you special. Yeah. Right. These bodies are amazing. Absolutely. So look, that is in itself amazing. And then you also engage in services of a homoeopath to help you with the C section recovery. What was the idea behind that? Well, I've always seen. I've seen the same homoeopath since I was 13. And I originally went to her because I was like in a weird depressive place for a while and we did a bunch of. We did a bunch of acute remedies and then we got into my constitutional remedy. And it was funny because I was always been an artist and my art absolutely, like, shifted right in that constitutional remedy space. I took it for about. I forget how many months I took it, but she's been somebody who's. Throughout my life, whenever I have anything going on, I go to her. And no, I was so afraid of a C section that I went to her weeks before and she had me on remedies before at. Not during, obviously, but immediately afterwards. And I had like a very strict, like, regimen. And I'll tell you, I was. I was up and going almost like as soon as I had feeling back in my legs from the spinal. And I had no problems, like, at all. When you got to the constitutional remedy, how did your art change? What was the difference? Well, I mean, granted, I was a teenager, so like, things were going on and on in different ways anyways. But no, it was like I. I guess I had gotten to a place. I was in like, awful relationships and stuff. And when I started with her, we did a bunch of. I also had for. When I was young. I had mono. So we did a little bit of work on the mono from, like, not. I guess it wasn't that much younger. It was probably only two or three years prior that I had mono. So we did a bunch of acute remedies to like, clear my system of that. And then. And we cleared a few emotional mental things. And then when we got to the constitutional remedy, I felt like. Like if I could. If you could imagine, like, everything opening up, I felt so much freer in my art. I felt like, more expressive, like more of myself was being put into it. Yeah, like, that's like the, like, almost an opening up of what I was creating. Yeah. So you're talking about mononucleosis or glandular fever, correct? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Well, the kissing disease. But I wasn't going to go there. Yeah. I was too young, though, like 11 when I got it. It was like going around my school and. Did you take any other supplements or natural medicines throughout this time? Oh, I've taken. Yeah. You know, during my pregnancies, I did take us. I forget what it was called. It was a standard process. Just like. It was like a bovine thyroid, just. Just to. Just to support. I took that as well during that time. And I've. I've always. So I'm like somebody. I've never been vaccinated for anything, you know, not even the original stuff. My parents were very, very holistic. So it was rare that I had antibiotics. It was rare that I had vitamins my whole life, you know, and so I've always. I've always gone into the holistic fields. And I've always been. I guess because. Because I wasn't vaccinated. My parents were always strict with chiropractic, so my whole life I've been in chiropractics. Okay. Even my kids, they. We all go like, once a month or once every other month. And, yeah, they've all seen my homoeopath. No. Wonderful. Look, that's great. And how are you feeling now? I feel good. I feel good. I feel good. I mean, now I'm in a new phase. I actually have to go back to my naturopath because I'm in the perimenopausal phase. And he's. He said to me, like, last time I. I went there, like, I just had. Just a funny thing. I had a UTI not too long ago, and I thought I was going to die. I've never had a UTI in my life. And I thought, oh, my God, I'm going to die. This is awful. It wasn't pain. It was more like just uncomfortable. And I, I went to. So I went everywhere. I was like, okay, my friend's giving me B12. I have, you know, I'm the D Mannose and I'm taking all of these things for like this uti and. And finally I'm like, I just have to make sure it's nothing really crazy. So I went to the regular, you know, the urgent care kind of places that we have here. Yeah. And I, they, they do like a. A thing where you can find out exactly what bacteria it is. And I just want to, you know, so. And then they give you this antibiotic, but they tell you they wanted to give me this antibiotic that had crazy side effects for. I mean, I don't know how, but knowing that I go with side. Because I don't often take medications, I'm worried more about side effects for some reason. Yep. And I was like. And then they're like, it won't work for three days. And then they're like, it could be the wrong one. We'll get your labs back in three days. And then, then we'll figure out the right one. And like, why would I do that? So I, I called my naturopath and he's like, yeah, I'll give you. He gave me two. A mixture of two or three Chinese herbs. And I'm like, when is this going to work? He's like, give it four hours. I'm not kidding. Four to eight hours. Everything was gone. I was like 98% better. And I had totally gone by the time they came back with the lab. And. Yeah, like, so. And when I was there, he was saying, he's like, it's time we should do your. We should work on, you know, because you're in. You're at that age. I'm 47 and my mom was fully in menopause at 50. So he's like, let's start working on that. And I'm like, I will. I'll get there. We'll do it. Thank you so, so much. Been an amazing story and I really hope people take comfort from knowing that there are always options out there. But it's brave of you to share a story because these things are quite personal and, you know, but important to get out. So thank you. Yeah. I feel like the beautiful thing is that. And I feel like knowing. Knowing people in the holistic world or knowing that where holistic, you can find holistic practitioners around you or being like, I'm on some holistic groups on Facebook that I can ask any questions. They'll point me in directions like it does settle the mind when something happens. It's a community, isn't it? It's a real community. Settled. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, you can go there. Yeah. Nice to be part of it. And welcome. All right, Jocelyn, you've been amazing, and I really appreciate you sharing your story. Thank you for having me. Take care.