During my journey, I wouldn’t say I ever lost hope; I always thought I would find the information that would make me better or just learn to live with it. However, my journey to getting better started one day when I saw that a music producer and writer I liked had released a new podcast episode with someone named Dr. Jack Kruse. Before explaining what I heard that day, I want to preface that Dr. Kruse is an eccentric and opinionated doctor who will not be for everyone. Dr. Kruse, like me, also had a lot of health issues, and when he didn’t get positive results from the treatments done by other doctors, he looked for the answers himself. To summarize his findings and beliefs, he thinks everyone should return to monke. Gen Z memes aside, Dr. Kruse believes that our bodies' adaptations have not caught up to our modern lifestyles. People’s bodies are not used to a lack of daily physical activity, lack of natural sunlight, large amounts of unnatural blue light, and processed foods. All of these factors, in his opinion, contribute to all modern diseases. He equates it to entropy; the more unknown variables added to the equation, the quicker chaos will happen.
I was not convinced, but I was curious to learn more, so I started reading his book Epi-paleo Rx: The Prescription for Disease Reversal and Optimal Health. In this book, he described a physician much like himself, Dr. Terry Wahls, who, unsatisfied with the treatment of her auto-immune condition, Multiple Sclerosis, decided to start looking for answers. Dr. Wahls came to a straightforward conclusion that required a very complex implementation: physical activity, eating the foods her body needed, and cutting out harmful foods were the keys to her recovery.
This protocol is not as simple as cutting out junk food and going for walks, and it took Dr. Wahls a lot of effort and discipline to do it daily. Since Dr. Wahls was wheelchair-bound, she first had to get her “physical activity” with electric muscle stimulation. Also, the part I was more interested in was that she believed our environment plays a massive role in developing autoimmune diseases. What I mean by environment is how we live, where we live, and most importantly, what we eat. Dr. Wahls believes modern diets often lack essential nutrients and are high in inflammatory foods, which disrupt cellular function and gut health, leading to immune system dysregulation. This dysregulation, she believes, can cause the immune system to misidentify bodily tissues as foreign invaders, triggering autoimmune responses. Essentially, she argues that the constant influx of processed foods and nutrient deficiencies creates an environment where the immune system becomes confused and attacks itself.
So the question is, what food should people be eating? Unfortunately, the answer is complicated because human bodies all have their own unique strength and weaknesses. Dr. Wahls has done in-depth research on what people with MS should avoid eating and what foods will provide the nutrients to protect the brain from further lesions, which can be found here: https://terrywahls.com/. Dr. Wahls doesn’t believe that diet and exercise are a cure for autoimmune diseases. She knows she will always have MS, but removing the triggers and supplying the body with nutrients that it's lacking will help slow the progress and even reverse its effects in some cases. Using the protocol of consuming nutrient-dense foods and exercise, Dr. Wahls no longer requires a wheelchair, has re-opened her practice, and can even go on bike rides with her family.
After reading all of this, I knew I had to try and implement it. The key was absolutely no “cheat” days or meals and always dedicating time during the day to complete some kind of physical activity. I started on a stringent paleo diet and honestly didn’t break it for quite some time. I emphasized dark fruits, meat, dark green vegetables, olive oil, and paleo-approved nuts. Since I was physically unable to eat these foods, I will leave it up to each reader’s imagination how these foods were able to be consumed by me. I noticed I started to feel better and more energized, and I even got to the point that I had to stop taking insulin because my blood sugar was becoming too low if I did take it. Progress was happening, but it was a steady grind; there was no overnight “aha” moment cure. I also started running and going to the gym twice a week. Physical activity and going outside in the sunlight were just as vital for me as eating correctly; for many, it may even be more important.
Today, I still falter on my journey to better health. I eat unhealthy foods and feel lazy some days. However, I do all I can do, and that is to give it my best effort. I haven’t taken insulin since January 2024 (I’m hoping to push the need for that off forever, haha), and I can eat any kind of food (not just the soft ones), albeit it is slower than most people. I also find it humbling in the best way possible that I was determined to use my intelligence to cure all my ailments, but really, the information found me and not the other way around. I honestly believe it to be divine intervention. If I had not heard that podcast that day, I again am unsure where I would be today. Even if you don’t believe in that, when looking for answers, I think everyone could benefit from listening a little bit more and doing a little less searching. There’s very little that an individual can actually control, and once this fact is recognized, change can start to happen.