So many times I told myself that it was all rubbish. That I wasn’t getting the headaches from eating the wrong foods … or the irritable bowel, or the mouth ulcers. I knew a thing or two. Eating the wrong foods could never give somebody anaemia … or aching hip joints … or sinus infections. Even if the Blood Bank nurse did suspect Celiac disease . . . what would she know?

I was convinced I was sick in some way the doctors had not yet discovered. I trusted them to come up with something. I couldn’t let go of that. I had always believed what the doctors said.

More tests, they said. In one year I had twenty two blood tests … (no clear answers); lung capacity tests - same; endoscopy, gastroscopy (without anaesthetic), intestinal biopsy, ultrasounds, MRI imaging, CT scan and others I forget.

More tests, more scans - all looking for something terrifying like thyroid issues, bowel cancers, brain tumours, blood clots or kidney disease. Some days my heart was in my mouth waiting for the phone to ring.

Result? Nothing. It all came to nothing . . . but the misery continued. I realised this whole medical thing wasn’t working for me. I had been at it for forty something years - with no answers and no improvement - and things actually getting worse.

Then I remembered the nurse at the Blood Bank - and realised I needed an alternative view. A different view from the doctor’s. So I took myself back to the books . . . in the university science library.

And this is where it all began . . . my dramatic shift in understanding sickness.

Over weeks and months … in the dusty dog-eared medical journals - I finally found answers. Celiac disease may have been part of it - though I never tested positive. But the biggest problem was letting go . . . of long-held belief in the power of medicine to solve my never ending sicknesses and serial infections.

In my family we were taught to have deep respect for the doctor - and his knowledge. For an appointment Mum would always wear her best coat, and we would wait quietly for ages while he was out doing home visits. When we finally got in to see him - I had to cough while he listened to my chest. It was a world where you NEVER questioned anything the doctor said. And if he couldn’t fix it with medicines … you were directed to surgery. And if that didn’t work - things looked bleak.

I am a naturally curious person. However - it took hard evidence to change my mind: the science - hundreds of peer-reviewed studies; the discoveries and the stunning results when people changed their diet to avoid food toxins.

Now I live in a world where the universal law of cause-and-effect keeps me grounded.

I have read the vast clinical evidence about food toxins - and now understand how - years ago - their effects were gradually poisoning me and generating my awful ailments.

• In the world of medicine - my sicknesses were of ‘unknown aetiology’ … ‘unknown cause’.

• But in the real world where we can all access the latest scientific findings - there is ample clinical evidence to support the contention that - sickness always has a cause.

But we do need to look for it.