Hi, Fred
This will
not be a long testimonial because there is so much for me to look up in this
short span of time I have been with the internet right now, but I couldn't help
myself when I saw that my story could help other people. Someday I intend to
compose this much more eloquently but for now, here is the short of it:
When I
turned three years old (consequently, the same time I stopped breastfeeding), I
developed an itchy rash all over my arms, wrists, and on the back of my legs.
Doctors diagnosed me with eczema and there my troubles began.
Until I was
14, I suffered painful itchiness every day. Numerous dermatologists prescribed
everything they could think of to get me well, but their treatments always
involved attacking the symptoms from the outside - steroid creams and allergy
medications to bleach my skin and try to get me to stop itching. One
dermatologist told me to rub vaseline all over myself. Another prescribed that
I wrap my arms in saran wrap over night.
Despite all
of their medical training, I didn't get better. I would claw at my skin with a
hairbrush until it bled, then scratch some more. Dermatologists told me that I
would grow out of the disease by the time I was 8, by the time I was 10, by the
time I was 13, by the time I was 18, by the time I was 21. Gradually, I lost
hope in all of them.
Then, when
I turned 14, new developments ensued. On a trip to
Now, I had
the ugly red pain on my face, neck, arms, legs, chest, and stomach. My face and
neck were definitely the worst, though. I was unable to stop scratching, though
everyone told me to. Even if I had been locked into a straight jacket I would
have found a way to get out of it to scratch my skin, and the result was that I
became a painful, scabby mess for six years.
There were
days when the eczema on my neck was so cracked and painful, I couldn't move my
head to nod or shake it in disagreement or to look from side to side. There
were days when it was painful to smile and breathe from the cracking around my
lips. Not being able to smile was the worst of all. Try not smiling for just
one day. Then think about how it would affect you in a week long period. I
became quite melancholy.
When I
turned 19 I met a girl at my school whose own allergies prompted me to consider
that I, too, might have problems that stemmed from inside me, problems that I
had the ability to control just based on my diet. After a month long
elimination and reintroduction period I discovered some preliminary allergies:
wheat, dairy, eggplant, eggs, tomatoes, peanuts, and citrus.
The eczema
disappeared (mostly) from my face, enough so that I believed I was cured. But
it remained on my arms and legs and my stomach, and didn't really disappear
from my face and neck. It wasn't until I came to
In O'ahu, I
met a woman who saved my life. She took one look at my blotchy skin and asked
if I wanted to be healed. After 17 years of suffering both physiologically and
mentally, I was ready to say "yes" and go all the way with the change
in my diet.
I followed
diet number 7 strictly for 10 days, but even that was not enough to purge all
the poisons from my body. Discouraged, I binged for five days and then shook my
head and tried again.
Diet number
7, for 20 days, with absolutely no cheating, cleared my skin up for good. The
eczema disappeared like magic from my face, arms, neck, and everyone commented
that not even a trace of it remained.
I range
from diet number 5 to diet number 7 now, with occasional freak-out binges on
fruits and chocolate. I used to be addicted to cigarettes (half a pack a day),
coffee, alcohol, and white sugar. Now, none of those problems are a part of my
life.
I consider
myself to be extraordinarily lucky in curing my allergies.
Macrobiotics
makes me feel exceptionally healthy and happy in just about every way. I wish
everyone could find a path to happiness as I did. I now see my eczema as a
blatant map on my skin of which foods do not belong in my body. If everyone
else had the same fortune, no one would need to put up with her mental hell;
the physical hell would be so evident that something would have to be done
about it.
Fortunately
for me, I managed to find the right road because of my disease, and I am now
just at the beginning of exploring the possibilities of a Macrobiotic
lifestyle. I am in love with life. I feel blessed to be alive every day.
Much aloha,
thank you for what you are doing for others...
Brice
*And the time will come when
you see we're all one and life goes on within you and without you*
