***Bette’s Excellent Adventure

Mold is my enemy, and it’s everywhere! In fact, it lives in all the soil, in all the world.

Well, you ask, if mold lives in the dirt, how can it jump up and attack? Ah, my little chickadee, it has no need to do anything. The gentlest breeze wafts mold spores into the air where they weasel their way into my body.

At which point my very annoyed body yells, “How many times do I have to tell you I’m allergic to mold?” Excuses about how I couldn’t help it get me nowhere.

And mold, not even close to a one-trick pony, also comes in mushrooms, grapes, fermented anything and many fruits. And it lives in musty basements, working its woes with abandon.

Mold allergies can lead to serious disease, even cancer. And they appear to make you more susceptible to Lyme Disease. To all sorts of things, in fact.

Well, I could go on, but you get the idea. Mold leads a downhill parade.

My mold allergy lost most of its grip once I put a solid vitamin/mineral program in place, but it could still reach out and snatch at me. I looked for answers many times, only to come up empty.

But one day, as I read something that had nothing to do with anything, a sentence jumped out at me and connected itself to clues I had picked up over the years. I decided that if I made the effort to whack computer keys several thousand times and find more research, the answer to mold allergies would be mine.

Things fell together quickly, and by making just a few supplement changes, I was on my way. None of what I read said anything about being an answer to a mold allergy, but it fit what I knew about allergies and about the body.

And my body soon started telling me I was on to something. No big signs, just encouraging little changes.

When I got out of bed one morning, though, I realized something was noticeably different. I felt taller, as if I had sprouted an inch or two overnight.

Well, that didn’t happen, but what felt so noticeably different?

Passing a mirror, I noticed my good posture was back! I had convinced myself, after years of slouching at a computer, that good posture always required effort, but suddenly and effortlessly, I was standing tall and straight. Wowzer!

And all my joints sang happy songs. I even walked with a little celebratory swagger.

Nothing in the research mentioned this “new me” would arrive. Is this victory a part of overcoming my mold allergy (allergies cause inflammation in our bodies, especially in our joints) or is it something else?

I have no idea. Hope springs eternal and all, but I don’t know -- yet.

Here’s why am I writing about this: I tell you to listen to your body, but then I didn’t listen to mine.

My body was yelling that it needed help, and I blew it off. I had to keep nagging myself about my posture -- but never saw that as a symptom of something that could be fixed nutritionally.

And before you start tsk, tsking, you do the same thing. Everybody does.

This listen-to-your-body business sounds weird, but routine medical care is what got you to where you are, and what’s really weird is expecting the same thing that put you into the ditch to get you out of it.

Your body knows all your troubles, it wants to help, and it always tells the truth.

Listen to your body. God is good, Bette Dowdell