Your hospital is lucky to have you!!! I know of holistic nurses who work with MDs who are also NDs, and who work in integrative medicine clinics. But hospitals, unfortunatly, may be a decade or two behind the times…. it would be neat to see hospitals getting smaller and more focuses on the whole person. But your nursing background is invaluable as you venture into the holistic side of things!

Birth control pills can cause all sorts of complications. Any kind of hormone replacement therapy will (more on that in a future post). They can cause ovarian cysts, which can lead to abdominal pain. They can certainly contribue to gut dysbiosis. I think I first came across the notion that birth control pills caused gut dysbiosis from Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, MD who is a neurologist with a post-doctorate degree in Nutrition. She talks about this in her book _Gut and Psychology Syndrome_.

Of course, your two patients could have had any number of other issues causing the abdominal pain, but most likely gut dysbiosis was involved and the BC pills weren’t helping the situation!!! Yeah, western medicine really needs to look at the WHOLE picture with regard to the patient because the body is one big system and when something is “off” (i.e. exogenous hormones entering the system) somewhere it can have an effect somewhere else, often not where you’d think (i.e. the small intestine)! Great insights!

Thank you so much for your encouragement! I’m glad you found it helpful!!! Thanks for the great feedback.

Raine,

It sounds like you’re doing just the right thing in spite of your missing gallbladder! Thanks for sharing your perspective because it’s so important for people to see that all can still be made well, even inspite of poor lifestyle choices. Good for you for sticking to your diet!!!

Melissa,

Great point! That is so true!!! Isn’t it AMAZING how truly “all illness begins in the gut”. I think Hippocrates said that….

Carrie

I am going to link to this article in several upcoming posts about treating cellulite. Looking forward to reading your future posts on how we can improve digestion.

I have been living without my gallbladder and appendix for the last 8 years because of poor lifestyle choices I made before I knew better…and because I also had no idea I could have saved this significant digestive organs had I made changes early enough and had a connection with a knowledgeable alternative health care practitioner.

Since I was not afforded that luxury, I now take bile salts, digestive enzymes, and hydrochloric acid with my meals. I used to have problems with diarrhea before I started taking these supplements. Of course, my diet wasn’t good either. So now if I do miss taking them on occasion, I am lucky to have regular bowel activity because my diet remains consistently traditional and healthy. Thanks for this post!

Thank you so much!