“At my most hypervigilant, I was putting white wine vinegar up my nostrils to stop mould spores from going up my nose. How does a well intentioned decision to get healthier turn into that level of paranoia?”

At the end of 2023, I decided I wanted to take my health more seriously. I knew I carried two copies of APOE4, my mum’s Alzheimer’s was progressing, and I wanted to understand what I could do to look after my future health.

That decision took me back to Dr Dale Bredesen’s work and eventually into KetoFlex, Apollo Health and ReCODE. What followed was an enormous amount of testing and a report full of results and markers I had never heard of before.

Some were familiar. Others, such as homocysteine and C4a, sent me searching for answers. When my C4a came back at around 19,800, compared with an upper range of around 2,800 on my report, I wanted to understand why. That led to CIRS, urine mycotoxin testing and a high Ochratoxin A result and suddenly I was looking at food, coffee, mould, my house and even the seal around my washing machine completely differently.

In this episode, I share what happened when a genuine attempt to become healthier gradually turned into hypervigilance. I explore what the tests told me, what they couldn’t tell me, the things I tried along the way, and why I've since had to find a better balance between being proactive about my health and becoming frightened of everything around me.

In this episode

• Why I returned to Dr Dale Bredesen’s approach to brain health
• My experience of KetoFlex, Apollo Health and ReCODE
• What happened when my health testing went far beyond standard blood tests
• Why my homocysteine result mattered to me and what happened when I retested it
• The C4a result that stopped me in my tracks
• How CIRS entered my vocabulary for the first time
• What my urine mycotoxin test reported
• What Ochratoxin A is and why finding it didn't tell me where it had come from
• How mould and mycotoxins became an increasing focus
• The changes I made to food, coffee and my home
• My experience with activated charcoal, infrared sauna, dry body brushing and other approaches I tried
• How being proactive about my health gradually tipped into hypervigilance
• Why I eventually realised I needed professional help to make sense of it all
• What I know now, what I still don’t know, and why I’m continuing to investigate

Mentioned in this episode

• Dr Dale Bredesen
• The End of Alzheimer’s
• Apollo Health and ReCODE
• KetoFlex
• C4a
• Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS)
• Ochratoxin A and mycotoxin testing
• Toxic by Dr Neil Nathan
• Dr Jill Crista
• ERMI home testing

Explore Avani Health Hub and discover professionals working across functional, integrative, lifestyle and complementary health:

avanihealthhub.co.uk

This podcast shares my personal experience and the information I have learned along the way. It is not a substitute for personalised medical or nutritional advice.

If any of this resonates with you, I would love for you to join me on this journey, so please subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share it with anyone who might need it. If you have questions or topics you’d like me to cover, send me a message on social media or through Avani Health Hub - I would love to hear from you!

You can also find me on Instagram and Facebook.

If any of this resonates with you, I would love for you to join me on this journey, so please subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share it with anyone who might need it. If you have questions or topics you’d like me to cover, send me a message on social media or avanihealthhub.co.uk – I would love to hear from you!

You can also find me on Instagram and Facebook!!

The Unhealthy Vegan - When Eating Vegan Doesn’t Mean Eating Plants

“I carried on calling myself vegan, but somewhere along the way, eating vegan had stopped meaning eating plants.”

When you hear the word vegan, you probably picture colourful vegetables, lentils, beans, nuts and seeds. You probably don’t picture biscuits, crisps, muffins and Netflix in bed.

After being diagnosed with Graves’ disease, I adopted a genuinely plant-rich, home cooked vegan diet. I looked better, had more energy and felt healthier. Then lockdown arrived and although I continued calling myself vegan, the food underneath that label changed almost completely.

In this episode, I share how a daily walk to Tesco for a 'bag of goodies' became a comforting lockdown ritual, how those habits continued after lockdown ended, and the photograph that finally made me confront how much my health and weight had changed.

I also explore the 'healthy halo' surrounding labels such as vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, organic, low-fat and high-protein. These labels may tell us something important about a product, but they cannot tell us whether our overall diet is balanced, nutritious or genuinely plant-rich.

In this episode

• Why I became vegan after developing Graves’ disease
• How a home-cooked, plant-rich diet initially helped me feel and look better
• How boredom, comfort eating and reduced movement changed my diet during lockdown
• The birthday photograph and holiday wardrobe disaster - that became my turning point
• Why I stopped fearing nuts, seeds, olive oil and other healthy fats
• My move from fully vegan to a predominantly plant-based pescatarian diet
• The difference between vegan, plant-based and nutritionally balanced
• Why processed food is not automatically unhealthy
• What a food’s ingredients list and nutritional information can reveal
• Nutrients that need particular attention in a fully vegan diet
• Why an occasional packet of crisps doesn’t erase an otherwise nourishing week
• The honest questions we can ask about our own eating habits

This episode is not an argument against veganism. A well-planned vegan diet can be varied, nutritious and healthy. It is about looking beyond reassuring labels and asking a more useful question:

What is this food and what is it contributing to the way I eat overall?

Mentioned in this episode

• The End of Alzheimer’s by Dr Dale Bredesen
• British Dietetic Association: Vegetarian, vegan and plant-based diets
• NHS: What are processed foods?
• NHS: How to read food labels
• The NIH study comparing ultra-processed and unprocessed diets

Explore Avani Health Hub and discover professionals working across functional, integrative, lifestyle and complementary health:

www.avanihealthhub.co.uk

This podcast shares my personal experience and the information I have learned along the way. It is not a substitute for personalised medical or nutritional advice.

If any of this resonates with you, I would love for you to join me on this journey, so please subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share it with anyone who might need it. If you have questions or topics you’d like me to cover, send me a message on social media or avanihealthhub.co.uk – I would love to hear from you!

You can also find me on Instagram and Facebook!!