[Shawna]

Nice post Patty!!!
Here’s my personal (me not my dog) experience with detoxing. I have issues with the caseine protein in dairy foods. The harder the product the more caseine it has in it — so hard cheeses are REALLY a problem for me. We have opiate receptors in our brains and foods that we are intolerant of can bind to those opiate receptors — which, of course, causes us to crave the food that is an issue (this is true with dairy and gluten at least). And I do crave dairy.. I have found it harder to give up all dairy then quitting smoking (which I did 7 years ago after smoking for some 20 years).

Because of this craving and good feeling from dairy I quit for 2 or 3 weeks but then right back on – sometimes by accident (there’s dairy in SO many foods). The detox, for the first few days especially, can be worse than the symptoms while I’m consuming dairy. Symptoms that have been attributed to my dairy intolerance — weight gain, rash on my scalp with severe itching (to point of bleeding) and thickened skin in small patches, inflammation in upper back and sinus areas, inflammation in joints, brain fog, after long term use of dairy I developed malnutrition along with all the symptoms and issues of that (despite eating a good diet) like hypothyroid due to iodine deficiency and pica due to iron deficiency etc.. I’ve never had digestive symptoms, until about a year ago and then only infrequently — indigestion.

While consuming dairy my sinuses (ears and nose mainly) get inflammed but not mucousy. About the last year or so I’ve been having inflammation in my upper back sometimes with pain that wakes me up at night — I stretch and pop bones in/out even. For about the last two years I’ve been experiencing issues with my lungs. I attributed this to the years of smoking and iron anemia. However, when I quit dairy my back quits hurting, my lungs get better, more energy etc etc. However, the detox is a NIGHTMARE.. The first few days after quitting I get SEVERE sinus inflammation (including headaches and inflammation in my jawline that is so bad my teeth actually become loose). My back gets worse, joints hurt etc. This usually clears up in 4 to 7 days.. After that I start feeling MUCH better but once in a while I’ll still have a “bad” day and the ithy scalp may come back with a vengence or I’ll have a sinus headache with jaw pain for hours. The detoxing is often more intense than dealing with the symptoms while consuming dairy. But, they are always short in duration and after the detox episode I feel MUCH better overall again. Energy continues to increase, lungs continue to feel better (better able to breath and more stamina etc).

I’ve quit and then started back up again enough to KNOW beyond any doubt what symptoms are attributed to the intolerance and what symptoms to expect when I detox..

Our pets must experience very similar symptoms to us. Only they have no control over what foods they are given so craving the food shouldn’t be an issue with them..