It's time to start blogging again. . . This post has ended up being rather long - making up for lost time I guess. When I moved to St. Louis, the new complexities of my life here took precedence over time spent at the computer. However, over the years I've spent a lot of time searching around the paleosphere, applying these ideas in my life, discarding what doesn't work and refining what does work - and it's still an ongoing process. I really, really wish I had a record of where I've been, what I've done, and what I've tweaked over time. . . That, and occasionally feeling like I stumbled across the golden ticket and should be sharing the wealth, is why I decided to re-open the blog.
My own story, in a nutshell (more in later posts) - I always considered myself 'athletic', moving from jogging and some weight lifting in high school and college into road biking and eventually mountain biking in the years after college. My understanding of nutrition was crude at best and based around the food pyramid/low fat dogma; if it was low fat or no fat, it was ok to eat, protein and carbohydrates were vaguely interchangeable components of all foods and vitamins/minerals could be topped off with a 'One A Day' pill. Following a bad car accident and back injury that curtailed my physical activity, I began gaining weight, and then began having occasional bouts of general 'malaise' and intermittent bouts of diarrhea. About nine years ago, I began suffering from chronic joint pain and fatigue, and eventually got to the point I seldom consumed anything solid at work because about 90% of the time, I would have explosive diarrhea within twenty minutes of eating accompanied by severe abdominal cramping and belly pain (but ironically, I had gained more than 60 lbs at this point). I also developed severe cystic acne over this time, bad enough that I tried an extended course of the drug Accutane (the cystic acne came right back after I went off the drug). I was eventually diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and diverticulosis (likely related to the chronic diarrhea/IBS); my rheumatologist at the time was not entirely convinced that I didn't have Chron's disease or ulcerative colitis, even though full upper and lower GI's didn't show any active lesions at the time. At this stage of my life, I was no longer able to do many of the things I enjoyed doing, was struggling to make it through each work day, in bed or on the couch sleeping through the weekends, and I wondered just where my life was going to end up. I was only in my early/mid-thirties.
After a year or so of taking NSAIDS/DMARDS/biologics to treat my disease, and finding that not only were my symptoms not improving, but that the treatment was often as sucky as the disease, I began to research 'alternative' treatments, and began my journey into the world of paleo. Today, while not entirely symptom (or pharmaceutical) free, my state of 'sick' has improved beyond my wildest hopes and I am living a full life; working full time, and spending a lot of my free time playing hard! An avid mountain biker and roadie in my twenties, I thought that beloved activity was lost to me forever; I started mountain biking again about three years ago! I hike, I lift weights; I am generally able to physically do anything I want to do, without excessive planning around, or stopping my life because of, my disease.
Thumbing through my old posts, I realized again how much I've learned since the early years on this journey. I'll admit that I deleted a number of posts as, lets be honest, they were depressing. The blog was originally more of a place to rant and rave at the injustice of being saddled with an autoimmune disease and a shitty (pun intended) colon. And really, there wasn't a whole lot in those posts that was useful information ;-).
So, my intention for today is to do some housekeeping and in later posts, quoting a phrase some of you may recognize, to outline "what it was like, what happened, and what it's like now".
I will acknowledge that, depending on where you've been spending your time, you may be suspicious of
paleo. Paleo is a bit of an umbrella term that has gotten a bad rap in certain circles. If the only exposure you've had to this paleo thing is an article in the NYT, your image of what this is all about is probably pretty limited. Out in 'public', I tend to simplify things by saying that I eat a whole foods diet and leave it at that. I'm always glad to talk about these ideas and how they've transformed my life, but I've found that most people, even those with severe health issues, just aren't interested. It's familiar/easier/safer to stay mired in the habits that got one to dis-ease to begin with. . . And for those that are skeptical that food itself can have such dramatic results in the way the body functions, next time you go to the gas station, fill up with diesel (no, don't, really! - I worked with someone who's 16 year old daughter did this accidentally with the family car - EXPENSIVE!). Same concept; use inappropriate fuel, fuel your biochemical engine wasn't designed to run on, and the engine may fail (depending on your genetic predisposition).
So, where to start learning about these paleo concepts?
Marks Daily Apple is an excellent place to start. One of the things I really like about his site is how well rounded it is; it's not just about food - changing what you eat is a great (and crucial) beginning, but there are plenty other behaviors that influence health, or lack of health, as the case may be. Mark Sisson offers the
Primal Blueprint, which I think is a comprehensive collection of the essential elements that everyone should consider a foundation of good health - that goes double if your starting point is 'sick'. Spend some time there - there is a
Primal Resource Guide that is very handy in laying out a metric shit ton of information right at your finger tips. I've also provided links to two of Mark's books.
Robb Wolf is another favorite; although you'd never know it to look at him now, he came to the paleosphere from case of the 'sick' himself. He has some
extensive information about the paleo diet in relation to diseases of autoimmunity, and Robb's book (I've provided a link) has section dedicated his specific 'Autoimmune Protocol'. Robb has also worked with one the men that got me started down this road. Watching this
video series of Prof. Lorain Cordain's talks about multiple sclerosis and 'neolithic agents of disease' were one among many of the early light bulb moments for me over seven years ago.
And now to move from the 'general' paleo ideas, to more specific autoimmune focused paleo concepts.
Terry Wahls is a real MD, with a real autoimmune disease - multiple sclerosis. She found, as so many of us do, that conventional medical treatment of autoimmune disease is at best, a way to
slow the progression of disease through pharmaceutical intervention and at worst, a path to continuingly progressive disease with a slew of medication induced side effects. Seven years after her diagnosis, with the best of the medical establishment's available pharmaceutical treatment, she found herself in a wheelchair, and thus began her own journey. By researching the biochemical foundations of disease, and how specific nutrition and lifestyle behaviors can improve that biochemical landscape, she eventually developed The Wahls Protocol. Her
2011 TEDx talk is a condensed outline of her experience, and is also powerfully motivating for anyone with an autoimmune disease, as well as any 'I want better health' average joe.
Most of Terry Wahls work came out during a time (actually, over a period of years) when I was completely buried at work, and mountain biking or hiking every spare moment as a stress reliever; I wasn't aware of the majority of her work until recently. Her Wahls Paleo Plus diet (there ARE less stringent levels) is very similar to the diet I've settled into over time; a ketogenic based paleo diet with a daily 16 hour fast. And I love, love the importance she places on moving the body/exercising as much as one is capable of. Her book (I've provided a link) is a
MUST READ (did I say that loud enough?) for anyone with autoimmune disease. It's chock full of information that is easy to understand, even if you have no background in the sciences - and her writing voice is incredibly powerful and inspiring. Terry has a gift with words; her almost poetic turns of phrase will light a fire in you to take back control of your health!
Peter at
Hyperlipid will blow your socks off with some of the heavy duty science behind nutrition research, high fat/low carbohydrate nutrition in particular. He holds an honorary place for a series of posts that led to some my early internet searches about insulin/inflammation and eventually led to my introduction to the world of paleo. And this
post introduced me to the benefits of intermittent fasting (IF) in relation to autoimmune/inflammation (more about IF in the future, I promise).
So, I've tinkered with setting up my links and composing this post for several days, and it's time to hit publish. I'm heading out week after next for our annual family fall vacation at a cabin in the area known as the Arkansas Grand Canyon (hopefully temps will be cooler this year) and I leave you with a couple of photos from last year and a promise to post again when I get back.
Had to capture this on camera, the rolling hills and clouds and sun intermingled - beautiful!
A break in the shade; last year's vacation weather was hot and humid - Holly and Mikey NO LIKEY!
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