When we think of professional athletes we tend to group them into a separate category than the average nine to five blue-collar worker. We revere their talents, respect their athleticism, and marvel at the feats they accomplish on the field for our beloved teams.
When a story arises that brings to light certain ailments or issues that our favorite athletes have or go through in their personal lives, it allows for the fans to relate to their circumstances more so than when they take the field.
I came across an article on Observer by Howard Altman, that profiled Mets ace Matt Harvey. The article was revealing and brought to light inside information on the 27 year-old right-hander. It broached the topics of his love life, fashion sense, living in Manhattan, and the most recent blood clot issues that gave the NY tabloids a field day at the end of Spring Training.
However, there was a smaller nugget of information near the end of the article that I found most noteworthy, because it was something I have dealt with for the past seven years in my personal life.
Harvey revealed that he has dealt with bad stomach issues for his whole life, and it’s something that he’s learned to just deal with along the way.
“I’ve been struggling pretty much my whole life with a lot of stomach issues, energy levels and things like that,” Harvey said. “I always thought it was just me. My dad always says his side of family always had stomach issues. This and that, things you really don’t want to discuss with people.”
Harvey opened up about his struggles with battling stomach issues and how he went gluten free for a period, but it didn’t resolve the issue. Changes in diet, steering clear of different foods, and keeping food journals are some techniques to try when trying to uncover what might be causing the discomfort.
Like I mentioned above, I too have dealt with terrible stomach pains for the past seven years. Traveling to various Gastroenterology doctors for checkups, having to go through MRI’s, X-rays, blood tests, food allergy tests, and a colonoscopy aren’t common tests for a young, relatively healthy person in their early twenties to go through. The anxiousness of awaiting test results, hoping they identify something to ease your mind went for naught, as I still have not received an answer as to why I get such a nervous stomach.
Now imagine being a professional athlete, where your body and athleticism is your source of income. Speaking from experience of running long distance on a near regular basis, having stomach ailments is such an excruciating feeling when you’re trying to do physical activity. Pitching involves using your whole body, and constantly bending over, which in turn creases your stomach inward, which does a person with stomach problems no good.
I can relate to how Harvey has dealt with the matter, essentially saying that he learned to work around it and try to cope as best he could with it. Waking up each day and not knowing how your stomach is going to respond to certain foods you eat, or at what times it will start to hurt are never fun questions to have swirling in your mind. When your livelihood is based on physical activity, having stomach issues can prevent one from being able to work out regularly, or from competing at the level you’d want. Your mind starts to focus on the abdominal pains, which in turn can take your mind off of the work at hand.
Add in the pressure of having to pitch in front of over 30,000 people in one of the biggest sports markets in the world, and that would make just about anyone’s stomach turn. Actually having real stomach issues to start with just adds even more pain to the matter.
Luckily for Harvey, he finally found some solace this past January while working out at Scott Boras’ training facility in Newport Beach, California. Harvey underwent some testing while out there, and found out that he had a food allergy to eggs.
“It came back that I had a severe allergy to eggs and that was something that I was eating pretty much every day that was basically poisoning my body,” Harvey said.
Harvey has since ditched eating eggs, and said he noticed big changes in his energy level, sleep, and the amount of bloating he once felt.
“I was constantly feeling bad and I kind of got used to it over the years, but now that I’ve been off of eggs, now I know how feeling good feels.”
I’m happy that Harvey has found a solution to his ailment. So many people deal with various forms of stomach issues. Millions of people are diagnosed with IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), which basically just means that one has a weak stomach and issues with cramping, bloating, and constipation. From the International Foundation for Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders website (https://www.aboutibs.org/site/what-is-ibs/facts/statistics), there are between 2.4 and 3.5 million annual physician visits for IBS in the United States alone. Having this condition is tough because there really isn’t medicine you can take, except dozens of over the counter medicines sold at drug stores claiming that they can help reduce the pains.
Much like Harvey had done for most of his life, I too have learned to deal with some of the pains, and try various other remedies to help reduce it. Having knowledge on the subject and talking with professionals on the matter are important to help gain an understanding of certain steps you can take to at least make the pains more bearable, and hopefully work towards getting rid of them altogether.
I’m sure Harvey is much relieved having this issue behind him now, and can focus even further on the Mets quest to make it back to October baseball. Harvey can be an example as someone who never gave up looking for answers on his issue, and luckily got a solution after all these years.
