November 2012 brought with it an explosion of constant itchiness and sleepness nights at our
house. Not to mention stressful baths. Over the next several months we searched for the natural health guru that helped my dad improve his psoriasis years before. Seeing my dad improve through following this guy's protocol, we knew nutrition worked. My skeptical husband was even on board with this. We could only recall the business name - Better Life Basics – so I started there. Come to find out, Better Life Basics was sold and the owner retired around 2000. This led us to a chiropractor in our area that did something called NAET. It was a series that involved muscle testing to find potential allergens and clearing it from the body which in turn de-sensitized the body to that potential allergen. This was a slow process and helped us uncover more things that bothered her. She was also put on several supplements that helped support her body. In the process, she shed more toxins and her symptoms worsened for a while before they got better. Over the next year, I spent countless hours researching everything I could about eczema, her allergens and intolerances, and searched for recipes without certain ingredients. I kept a food journal, which allowed me to discover the majority of her intolerances, especially those that were well hidden. By eliminating those foods and seasonings for a time, it allowed her body to rest and begin healing. Since there was so many things we had to avoid, it was hard to find recipes that I could use without having to majorly modify. I quickly learned to adapt recipes by making various substitutions and created many things from scratch. I was determined to find suitable alternatives that weren't harmful for her so she wouldn't feel completely left out. During this time we also discovered she was terribly sensitive to corn. We had eliminated a lot of problem foods from her
diet which allowed her body time to calm down. We were coming into summer and fresh corn was coming in. We had suspected corn was an issue for her, but now we would know for sure. Muscadine ate a half an ear of corn, and we waited. After about four hours, she started itching a little bit – which also could have been the time of day. Evenings seemed to be the worst for her. At supper, we challenged her system a little more and let her have a whole ear. Two hours later, there was NO doubt she was “allergic” to corn. She began to itch and scratch uncontrollably. So I checked all her supplements and discovered many of them contained corn – granted it was non-GMO and organic, but it was still corn. These were really good quality supplements, but were not good for her. I also researched everything that was made from corn. I was more than amazed. Corn is in so many things, and is even used to make food ingredients. Trying to avoid corn for her was as bad as someone with a gluten allergy trying to avoid wheat. And since the FDA doesn't recognize corn as a food allergen, it doesn't have to be fully disclosed on packaging like wheat or peanuts. And since corn in some form was in most OTC and prescription medicines, I needed a line of defense in case she got sick that wouldn't make her worse in the long run. My best friend introduced me to the world of essential oils, which quickly became a large part of my medicine cabinet! Since then, we have added a few more items to our natural medicine cabinet. I had the opportunity that summer to meet with another Chiropractor who helped me fill in some gaps nutritionally. We changed her food list some and started seeing some differences. By this time I had found the man I was originally looking for – finally! Actually, the Lord led us to him. That's an amazing story in itself. My mom was at our local Winn-Dixie and was talking with the new Assistant Manager. Somehow, they started talking about “Muscadine” and all her skin issues. Believe it or not, the Assistant Manager was Dr. Bill's son-n-law and by the time they finished talking, mom had his phone number! Dr. Bill Frazier had retired but didn't stay too far from the natural health world. This was another pivotal point in our health journey.