Listening to her gut. Christina Haack has opened up about her chronic pain and feeling “grateful” for her life.
“I’ve suffered on and off since 2016 with extreme stomach pain,” the Flip or Flop star, 38, captioned an Instagram selfie on Thursday, October 21. “It has been written off as stress and doctors have tried to put me on all the pills/meds but luckily I realized masking it wasn’t the answer. I wanted to fix the problem so I really focused on my nutrition and it seemed to get better but then last year it was triggered again and all of a sudden the stomach pain was back [confounded face emoji].”
The HGTV personality further explained that her doctors performed a full endoscopy and gastrointestinal testing for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) to diagnose her pain.
“With autoimmune, anxiety can cause major flare ups and my biggest thing I’ve [noticed] being affected is my digestion/gut health,” she continued in her post, noting her symptoms. “Basically if I don’t eat SUPER clean I get a horrible burning sensation. I finally found the right doctor who didn’t just tell me to take Acid Controllers. … Now just praying everything comes back [OK] and some rounds of antibiotics will kill off whatever bacteria it is that’s damaging my GI tract. I’ve talked to a lot of people about this and just want to advocate how important it is to trust your own health instincts and not ignore things going on in your body.”
SIBO, according to the Mayo Clinic, occurs when there is an abnormal increase of bacterial production in the small intestine, often recognized by appetite loss, abnormal pain, nausea, bloating and other symptoms.
Following her medical procedure and the nerve-wracking waiting game pre-results, the Christina on the Coast host is ready to focus on “getting back to taking care of myself, mind, body and spirit” and spending quality time with her kids — Taylor, 11, and Brayden, 6, whom she shares with Tarek El Moussa, and Hudson, 2, whom she shares with Ant Anstead — as well as “one-on-one time” with fiancé Joshua Hall.
“As I sit here in Tennessee I feel super grateful for where life has taken me,” she explained in her social media upload on Thursday. “I love that we have a home where we get total peace in the woods where it’s just us doing our thing. In the past I’ve let stress and being overwhelmed get the best of me and I’ve ignored what was going on with myself internally.”
The Wellness Remodel author was previously diagnosed with Hashimoto’s disease, an autoimmune condition, and discussed her treatment in a January 2020 Instagram Live alongside the Celebrity IOU: Joyride host, 42, and their son.
“I have Hashimoto thyroid disease and PCOS [polycystic ovary syndrome], as well as skin flare-ups when I eat certain foods,” the California native said at the time via PopCulture, after one viewer asked her about her diagnoses. “After babies, those of us with autoimmune issues — our bodies go into shock [and it’s] so important to stay on top of it.”