Well, hello!
We've had a busy summer with a cross-country move, visiting with family, getting ready for our homeschool year and celebrating the girls birthdays. I hope your summer was full, fun and your moments were well spent. I am so welcoming this shift into the Autumn mood though, with the mental refocusing and the cooling of the weather!
We celebrated our one year anniversary on GAPS in June with a stool analysis to see how things are going. I really felt that if we didn't see some significant changes in inflammation levels, especially for L that our family was going to transition off GAPS. Let me just preface this update on our resuls by saying, we are still on GAPS!
Inflammation Results
Both girls showed great decreases in inflammation levels, L's most significant. In her two previous tests we always got an interpretation paper discussing IBD. And this one, nothing, her levels are normal! I still feel they are too high so we are staying on GAPS and we are going to keep working on it. N's inflammation levels also came down and we are just going to keep going to give her body continued time to repair. My inflammation levels were the lowest - I told the girls this is because I eat more soup, including the soup juices! And I also got the name of one of my parasites. He is pretty benign and about one billion other people have him, so I am not concerned. He does like to eat starch, as the kind of stuff we are NOT eating, so I'm guessing he might be getting hungry and leaving soon for better pickings. Probably a good incentive not to go getting all starchy for me.
Flora
Interestingly enough, neither N or I have a lactobacillus colony. In our last test, we had a great measurement of them. From this I have learned that inflammation is easier to address, and changing
your inner flora is much more complicated. This is likely why, Natasha Campbell-McBride, author of the GAPS book, says GAPS people can come off the diet, but should always maintain a probiotic
regimine, either through foods or supplements.
None of us showed an over growth of any bad bacteria or yeast. N's yeast was high on the last test and I didn't do anything special for it, except limit fruit and honey (though we didstill use them) which makes me feel as though given time and the right process we will bring balance to the flora in our systems.
So, I am happy with the measurable results we have had with GAPS, but I know that we still have more balance to bring. So we will stick with it!
I have been suggesting to the girls that we should go through "deep healing" again, also called GAPS Intro. They are not so keen on the idea, nor am I, but I think it will be good for us and hopefully get us to a deeper level of healing. I am thinking October, after my birthday and with nicely cooler days, which will be perfect for soup three times a day.
