Greetings, Ninjas in Training!
2016 brought me a lot of ups and downs, but there was one up that was the uppiest up of all: a cure.
You heard me right, ninjalings. An actual cure for my citric acid allergy/sensitivity/whatever. Wanna know what I’ve eaten over the past three months, with no resulting anaphylaxis and continually decreasing neurological symptoms?
- A nibble of cucumber
- About 1/8 of an apple
- 6 raisins
- Two whole flippin carrots
- A whole freaking sweet potato
Each of these foods (aside from the carrot) contain 0.1% citric acid.
Wanna know what I was eating before I started my program 4 months ago?
- Not a molecule of cucumber
- Not 0/8 of an apple
- Not anything remotely resembling a raisin
- Not anything that had been touched by a carrot
- Not even sweet potatoes in my sweetest dreams
This is a real cure, guys.
Now, notice I said “a” cure, not “the” cure. Everyone is different. Other ninjas have had success with things that have not worked for me, but those cures and treatments are equally valid. I hope someday to write in detail about those. For now, there is one treatment that numerous ninjas seem to have success with, and that is CoA-boosting supplements. Please check out Milind’s website for a detailed explanation of that!
But now, on to the magical cure that I’m super excited to share with you!
Well, it’s not so much magic as it is neuroplasticity.
What is neuroplasticity, you ask?
This is essentially a concept that tells us the brain can grow and change – it is plastic, not static. You might have heard this term used to explain why children can learn languages better than adults – their brains are more plastic, so they can build new neural pathways better than adults can.
But that doesn’t mean that adults can’t rewire their brains too! Think about stroke victims: part of their brain was damaged, but with incredible determination, patience, and a heck of a lot of repetition, they can build new pathways that enable them to walk and speak again.
As it turns out, this principle can be applied to other types of healing too.
There is a part of your brain called the limbic system that is in charge of a lot of things, including memory, emotions, immediate trauma response, fear associations, general health management, and then some. Look, isn’t it cute?
I’m Blue, da ba dee da ba daa…
This part of the brain can be damaged through physical, emotional, and chemical trauma. And when it’s damaged, it can lead to all sorts of health problems: chemical sensitivity, depression, PTSD, anxiety, chronic fatigue, and, most importantly (in our case), food sensitivities.
Wait, what? Why though?
Remember how I mentioned the limbic system is involved in immediate trauma response? You know how if there’s a bus coming towards you, you will jump out of the way without even thinking about it?
When it’s injured, sometimes the limbic system creates these automatic responses for the wrong things.
A lot of times, but not always, these things were present at the time of trauma, and so your brain learned incorrectly that you need to have an automatic protection response to these things.
(If you haven’t seen Spice World, what are you doing with your life?)
How many of you suddenly started having problems with citric acid after a virus, a round of antibiotics, or a vaccine? How many of you had a great deal of stress in your life preceding your induction into ninjahood? I have heard these stories again and again from countless ninjas who have written me to share their stories.
(A shinobi shōzoku is a ninja outfit, in case you were wondering.)
So, it turns out the root cause of my ninjaness was actually a brain injury. How am I fixing it?
Also, I am using a program called the Dynamic Neural Retraining System.
What is it? It is a series of scientifically-based exercises that help you prune off those well-intentioned-but-harmful neural pathways, and build new ones that dictate an appropriate response. The program also involves some language changes that create the proper chemical environment for neural genesis.
Some of you might be thinking, “It sounds like she’s saying it’s all in our heads.”
Well… technically, your brain is in your head, so.
But no ninjalings, we are talking about physical neurons here. Your brain is the command center for a lot of things; it can and does conduct the symphony that is outlandish responses to foods.
I think I speak for a lot of us when I say that it took me ages to figure out what my trigger was, and even longer to discover exactly what was and was not safe to eat. Lots of this was found out by trial and error before I discovered The List, which then validated the personal list I’d been keeping of foods that made me stop breathing.
I am not crazy. You are not crazy. My silly brain (and maybe yours too!) just decided to pick the wrong target. But there is a way to fix it!
I cannot say enough about this program. It is a lot of work – I must do it for at least an hour a day, every day. But it is worth it.
It is worth it.
I am healing.
I am HEALING!!!!
That’s all for now, ninjalings.
Pretty soon, when life gives me lemons, I won’t run… I’ll EAT THEM 😀
(But definitely still running for now.)
The Lemon Ninja
PS ~ I should add that I have been using homeopathy in combination with the DNRS. I believe both are indispensable to my particular complex needs, and I encourage others with complex needs to look into seeing a homeopath. However, I believe it is possible for many ninjas to benefit from and heal themselves with the DNRS alone. I’m not a doctor, blah blah blah, you know the drill.
PPS ~ Part of the DNRS is not focusing on the things that your body used to respond to poorly, so I will not be giving ninja tips for awhile. Please direct ninja questions to this awesome group on Facebook. I will continue to post recipes (I swear I’m still working on the one from the contest!) and, as I heal more, I may be back with more survival lessons. I sincerely hope some of you will look into this program and will have success with it. Feel free to ask questions about it on this post – I will try to answer those questions, because healing is awesome and important!
PPPS ~ The results of the renaming poll are in: #no1curr. Ok like, 4 people cared, split evenly between yes and no. But the nin-jority is content to continue Googling “Lemon Ninja” to find the site, so we’ll just leave it at that!
PPPPS ~ Please don’t ask me how this post went from Excited Sue to Spice World because I honestly have no idea.
Citric Acid Allergies 