N.E.A.D Diet and I

Hey guys its me again, Louise here with another blog for you. This time its about my diet, what I’ve done to change it, why I changed it and what I’ve noticed so far. So as most of you will probably know N.E.A.D can make you feel extremely tired and a lot of people who have N.E.A.D also suffer from fatigue. Besides the Fatigue I also found that my immune system has been very low and I seem to catch any bug around. Its like a never ending cycle of being sick and tired, which makes my body get stressed out causing me to have even more seizures than normal. I was finding that no matter what I did on day to day basis I’d be tired and need to have a nap during the day in order to function. Having N.E.A.D is one thing, the seizures are unpredictable and happening with no warning signs. They can last for a few minutes, hours or even the full day, or having half seizures where I have memory loss. I struggle with my speech and even forget which word I want to say. All this is hard enough to endure, never mind constantly being sick and tiered. So I decided to look into my diet, look into my vitamin levels ect and looked into ways of boosting my energy and immune system. I have the mindset of if I can do something to help my energy and immune system even a little, I would happily do it. So where to start and what to do?? Those where the thoughts in my head. So I started researching into what I could do. I researched into energy levels and what causes them to dip and I researched into the immune system and what I could do to help to boost them both. I talked to my doctor for advice and also talked to my friends and family. While researching into it all and the talks I had, I realised that diet is KEY. So I looked into my diet and looked at what needed changing, what foods boost and what can hinder your energy and immune system levels. I found out years ago that gluten was a problem for me, but I hadn't always stuck to a strict gluten free diet. I had always dabbled in it but not gone fully gluten free as I only had a slight intolerance, I don't suffer from celiacs disease and it was mainly bread that caused it anyway. This time I decided that enough was enough and I had to go completely gluten free, no in and out or messing around. I also decided to go completely dairy free. Again this was more of a health benefit than an intolerance to dairy. Although I haven’t been able to drink milk for years because I did have intolerance to something in it. So instead of just getting lactose free milk I decided to go all the way and to go dairy free. I have been gluten and dairy free now for almost two months. In the first month I saw a difference in how my body functioned and my stomach was no longer swollen, however my energy levels where still very low and so was my immune system. So I went back to research, talked to the right people and was told to try taking vitamins and minerals as I could be lacking in them and if it didn’t help then to go back and have blood tests done.So off I went to the shops and bought a months worth of complete vitamins and minerals. I also bought myself coconut milk that had added calcium and added vitamin B12 and Vitamin D in it. I got myself a diary and decided to: 1) Tick off each day when I take a tablet, so I know if I’ve taken them or not and also so I don’t double up on tablets. As my memory can be bad, especially if I have a seizure. 2) To keep a diary of my energy levels, how I feel and if they have made any difference to my energy levels. So we shall see how it goes. Only time will tell if this helps or not, I will keep you all updated. Keep an eye out for other blogs by me and while you wait please read the other blogs on this site as everyone’s experience is different and may help you with whatever is you're going through. Lets stick together and help each other with this N.E.AD!

I'll be back soon, thanks for reading

Louise ☺