I Took Control of My Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE) and Healed Myself
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I eliminated all chemicals from my foods, created my own diet, and discovered a fourth type of eosinophilic esophagitis.
I Suffered for Twenty-six Years
I love to bake and my husband loves to cook. And we both love that I healed my eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) when I created my own diet — the Miriam Diet — and eliminated all preservatives, additives, food coloring, steroids, antibiotics, pesticides, and insecticides from my food supply.
For twenty-six years I suffered scary food impaction episodes. A couple of these episodes landed me in the hospital for an emergency endoscopy. My most severe episode occurred in September 2021.
Proton pump inhibitors, such as Nexium and Prilosec, prescribed in the past did not work. They made things worse and depleted my body of vitamin B12.
After my severe food impaction episode in September 2021, my new GI doctor prescribed the six-food elimination diet. I was not allowed to eat dairy, soy, wheat, eggs, tree nuts, and fish for six weeks. I had to follow the Oregon Clinic Diet. This diet made things worse. An endoscopy and biopsy six weeks later revealed an eosinophil count of 100. An eosinophilic esophagitis diagnosis is 15.
The Elemental Diet
When the six-food elimination diet failed, my GI offered a new treatment — a topical steroid used with patients who have eczema. I said no because I don’t have eczema. I also have eleven drug allergies.
My GI finally offered another treatment option — the elemental diet. In my twenty-six years of suffering with EoE, none of my previous GI doctors had prescribed the elemental diet, perhaps because it’s a very restrictive liquid meal replacement diet that has only a twenty-percent patient compliance rate.
But the elemental diet has a ninety-five percent success rate. So, I was happy to be on this awful smelling and tasting liquid diet for eight weeks. Eight weeks later, I was happier to learn that the elemental diet healed my eosinophilic esophagitis. My eosinophilic count went from 100 eosinophils to zero eosinophils. My GI doctor told me I no longer had EoE, but that now we needed to find out…
