Outsmart the sneaky allergy that 99 percent of afflicted women don’t know they have

Carol Templeton, 33, was bogged down by fatigue and GI woes—until she discovered the surprising reason and the easy fixes that quickly restored her energy

Carol, you forgot another step. Are you okay?’ my coworker, Shae, asked hesitantly with a confused look on her face,” Carol recalls. “I couldn’t believe it myself. We were working on updates for the company website. Normally, I would have done it on my own in no time, but I had been feeling so exhausted and out of it that I didn’t trust myself to do it correctly, so I asked Shae to sit with me. That was embarrassing enough, so when I made yet another mistake, I was mortified. Worst of all, my team knew me as someone who was bursting with energy, focused and able to handle multiple tasks with ease. But instead of motivating them like I usually did, my fatigue and mental fogginess was bringing all of them down.

Utterly exhausted

“Last year it got so bad that I could barely get through the day. Sure, I was busy juggling a full-time job and a baby, but when my son started to sleep through the night, I couldn’t understand why I was still so tired.

“Since my husband worked long hours, family time had always been important to us. But instead of going out to brunch, taking our son to the park or spending time outdoors on the weekends, all I really wanted to do was lie around the house.

“My friends were also new moms, but they had plenty of energy to meet up for dinner on a regular basis. I wanted to go too, but I often missed out because I just couldn’t muster up the energy. I started to wonder, Is this what my life is going to be like? I didn’t feel like myself—it was really scary.

“And fatigue wasn’t the only symptom holding me back. I had a bad case of acne, which I attributed to hormones, and I was constantly plagued by bloat and gas, an upset stomach and irregularity. I also noticed that I often had a runny nose and congestion— even when I didn’t have a cold. None of it made sense to me. I ate a healthy diet, took vitamins and supplements, exercised and did my best to get enough sleep. Something was definitely out of balance and I knew I needed to get to the bottom of it fast.

“My husband wanted me to see my doctor, but I never made an appointment because deep down I assumed it was the new-mom fatigue that

everyone had warned me about, not a real medical issue.

An answer at last

“My turning point came when I decided to ask my boss, Ann Louise Gittleman, Ph.D., a certified nutrition specialist and author of The NEW Fat Flush Plan, what she thought was wrong. After I told her about my symptoms, she said she suspected I might have food allergies. She ran a delayed hypersensitivity test, which looks at the body’s delayed reaction to certain triggers. The test confirmed her suspicions: I was allergic to dairy. Gittleman explained that because I was allergic to the proteins in dairy, each time I consumed it, my immune system ramped up and secreted histamines to eliminate them. This repeated stress caused not only the GI symptoms I was dealing with but the fatigue as well. I couldn’t believe it—I had eaten dairy my whole life and I never would have thought it could affect my health in this way.

“I immediately eliminated dairy from my diet and I started to read labels and ask questions when I went out to eat. I couldn’t believe how many foods dairy was hidden in—things like sauces, salad dressings and soups. Although it took a few weeks to get used to, I discovered delicious substitutions like almond milk, vegan cheese and a plant-based protein powder for my morning smoothies. Within a few weeks, I felt so much more energetic and my symptoms improved. Within three months, my symptoms vanished, I felt like myself again and I even lost a few pounds!

“Now that I’m not sidelined by fatigue, I’m busy spending time with my family. Instead of asking for help at work, I’m more focused than ever and able to multitask with ease. I even took on a new leadership role and I’m busy working on a big new product launch. I’m living my life to the fullest and it couldn’t be better!”

—As told to Julie Revelant