2 Years Since I Didn't Come Here: I Healed All Of My Health Problems

[TripleOG]

Not entirely. Both myself and @Runenight201 have experienced that you can feel great even in a fairly crappy environment and no social life and mediocre job. I myself experienced this a couple times a few years back even though I have no social life and live in a boring city away from my family. I would argue it was his improved cellular energy that allowed him to improve his environment, but that it is true that the momentum gained from this change probably furthered his cellular energy. I'm not speaking for him of course, but that's what I figure happened. It's all a matter of perspective. High cellular energy lets you see the positive in life, even in bad situations... Whereas low cellular energy makes you look at everything in a negative light... even in good situations.

This is one of those things you don't believe until you see it for yourself, so I can understand your skepticism, because most people haven't experienced it, and I wouldn't believe what I'm writing here either unless I personally experienced it.

(But I do agree "the Ray Peat diet" as we understand it has lots of flaws, on this we do agree... I no longer follow a lot of "the RP diet" principles). I put "RP diet" in quote marks because I understand he wants you to perceive think act etc. but that there is kind of a "diet" promoted around here by most people.

Bolded: Was that with or without supplements?

Optimizing an unfavorable environment vs. inhabiting an optimized environment. The latter has a higher health ceiling. That doesn't mean the former isn't compatible with good health.

OP moved to a tropical climate and pursued a career that clearly enriches his life. These are enormous changes lending to well-being, regardless of diet minutia. Combine that with fulfilling, non-irritating foods and it's no surprise why he's doing better. One could argue this change in environment is Peat-esque. Danny moved to Mexico for similar reasons, no?

Three days on a Caribbean island will make me forget I'm hypothyroid. Returning back to cold Northeast US I'm forced to make concerted efforts to manage body temperature, liquid intake, red light/incandescent use, digestion quality, etc. Similar difference between Summer and Winter months. Environment quality is a huge factor, but everyone can't uproot to a better place. We make the best of our situation through other means.

 

[Cirion]

Bolded: Was that with or without supplements?

Optimizing an unfavorable environment vs. inhabiting an optimized environment. The latter has a higher health ceiling. That doesn't mean the former isn't compatible with good health.

OP moved to a tropical climate and pursued a career that clearly enriches his life. These are enormous changes lending to well-being, regardless of diet minutia. Combine that with fulfilling, non-irritating foods and it's no surprise why he's doing better. One could argue this change in environment is Peat-esque. Danny moved to Mexico for similar reasons, no?

Three days on a Caribbean island will make me forget I'm hypothyroid. Returning back to cold Northeast US I'm forced to make concerted efforts to manage body temperature, liquid intake, red light/incandescent use, digestion quality, etc. Similar difference between Summer and Winter months. Environment quality is a huge factor, but everyone can't uproot to a better place. We make the best of our situation through other means.

The bolded was with minimal supplements. I am trying to remember, but I only recall Vitamin C, Creatine, Probiotics, Magnesium, and a few herbs (Spirulina, Cinnamon, Curcumin). I believe I was still taking a multivitamin back then as well. No hormones, no thyroid supplementation. It's funny because probiotics is one of the things really frowned upon on these forums, but I wonder if it was really helping my gut out (Having a happy gut is key to overall health after all). In fact the only reason I stopped taking them was fear mongering from Ray Peat.

I agree with you on the health ceiling. You'll get no arguments here. What I'm just saying the health ceiling in a poor environment is a lot higher than most people think it is. You can actually thrive to a pretty good degree in a bad environment. In fact almost nobody even reaches the health ceiling so it's actually irrelevant. The more interesting thing to note is the health FLOOR. The floor is higher in a better environment. I believe Ray said that someone who is hypo will barely be symptomatic in a good environment, hinting at this point. Is it ideal in a poor environment though? No, I agree it's not. So absolutely, the health ceiling gets even further higher in a good environment. And if I could tomorrow move, I would. Moving my career is not straightforward though, and I've been trying off and on for a year and a half and half a dozen interviews later, no luck =( It's a really good paying job, so I'm not willing to just get a one way plane ticket and get a minimum wage job. I'm not rich or anything, but it's definitely a fairly above-average pay. In the meantime, I am going to start dabbling with the stock market and see what kind of gains I can make to accelerate retirement/moving goals if I can't move my job.

I am basically going back to my roots (the first paragraph) although with some mods. I used to have a disgusting protein shake concoction with all those herbs in it (ughhh, so horrible...) and I'm not doing that again LOL. But I am back to some commonalities like high carb very low fat.

 

[Cirion]

Also worth noting that the guy that coached me to do that way of eating (high carb low fat) was yet another success story of those curing hypo with a high carb low fat diet among others like Haidut, Westside PUFA's, and other forum members. (He now does eat a little higher fat, I've checked in with him since, but that just verifies my other theory that metabolic flexibility / tolerance to fats increases once you cure hypo and obesity / insulin resistance).

Sometimes I question my own IQ lol..., that I let myself get distracted/deluded into thinking mixing high fat with high sugar was a good idea. Could have saved myself a lot of pain. Probably because saturated fat is a little (too) celebrated on these forums.

 

[Makrosky]

@Captain_Coconut you ain't joining the party buddy?

 

[Nighteyes]

Peat often talks about Broda Barnes for example, but did you know that Barnes was using cortisone with his patients so that they could respond to thyroid treatment better?

Really interesting, I did not know that. Former user Gbolduev has stated many times how high thyroid action puts pressure on cortisol and will not be allowed without it. Which is why if cortisol is not firing up for some reason the body goes hypothyroid and with high adrenaline as a backup mechanism. He has many theories and mechanisms as for getting cortisol to work (zinc finger, cysteine).

 

[Pufas Shmoofas]

Also worth noting that the guy that coached me to do that way of eating (high carb low fat) was yet another success story of those curing hypo with a high carb low fat diet among others like Haidut, Westside PUFA's, and other forum members. (He now does eat a little higher fat, I've checked in with him since, but that just verifies my other theory that metabolic flexibility / tolerance to fats increases once you cure hypo and obesity / insulin resistance).

Sometimes I question my own IQ lol..., that I let myself get distracted/deluded into thinking mixing high fat with high sugar was a good idea. Could have saved myself a lot of pain. Probably because saturated fat is a little (too) celebrated on these forums.

How much fat do you currently eat per day?

 

[Parsifal]

Really interesting, I did not know that. Former user Gbolduev has stated many times how high thyroid action puts pressure on cortisol and will not be allowed without it. Which is why if cortisol is not firing up for some reason the body goes hypothyroid and with high adrenaline as a backup mechanism. He has many theories and mechanisms as for getting cortisol to work (zinc finger, cysteine).

Hey Nighteyes that's pretty interesting thanks, I've read some Gbolduev posts in the past but did not remember he mentioned that. Will read some of his messages about this later.

Erratum: Regarding Barnes I was wrong, it was not cortisone but prednisone:

 

[Captain_Coconut]

@Captain_Coconut you ain't joining the party buddy?

What party? I still check this forum because I find all the health breakthrough posts which are contradictory to peatisms to be pretty fascinating. My latest breakthrough on a high carb / high starch / low fat / low sfa / low oil / pufa okay from whole foods / low dairy diet is that years of bad dandruff and scabby sore oily scalp has gone away completely. By a month in to this diet it was very noticeable, my hair also feels softer and feels cleaner even without washing for days, before I could go 48 at most without washing before areas of my scalp would begin to feel raw and infected...

The irony is I used to always blame wheat for this dandruff problem, as I always would notice it spike when I had breads. I now see that it was all that saturated fat I was having with my bread. I never had just bread, it was always bread smothered in butter or cheese.

I have found my diet stays enjoyable and interesting if I include many varieties of bread and grains. Fruit and nut breads, sourdoughs, baguettes, challah, tortillas, different types of rice and pasta, cous cous, cereals. Grain centric meals sometimes with a side of vegetables and sometimes with beans and ocassionally eggs or meat, usually with a glass of juice. I eat high fat meals on ocassion, chinese food (with some supplemental vitamin e), or binging on olives or nuts, but if I do, I make sure to eat extra low fat the following day, this seems to work fine for me. My sleep has been much deeper and more restorative feeling as well. My mind used to race a lot, I lacked gaba, now I have plenty.

A warm baguette with jam, or honey, or marmite, or mustard or a light pesto, or sometimes even hoisin sauce. It is a very fun diet with bread and low fat condiments being a staple, meals take very little effort.

 

[Cirion]

Interesting. This is almost the same diet I am also converging upon @Captain_Coconut . Great minds think alike... Interesting you note that about the hair. I don't even wash my hair anymore either and it remains soft and doesn't get dry like it used to...

It's not really all that anti-Peat since it's still high carb, but starch is definitely unfairly demonized around here for sure. All along starch was the key.

 

[Captain_Coconut]

Interesting. This is almost the same diet I am also converging upon @Captain_Coconut . Great minds think alike... Interesting you note that about the hair. I don't even wash my hair anymore either and it remains soft and doesn't get dry like it used to...

It's not really all that anti-Peat since it's still high carb, but starch is definitely unfairly demonized around here for sure. All along starch was the key.

Go us! LOL

Yes about starch but I also found that adding small amounts of nuts back in to my diet helped me out a lot. Switching from coconut to olive oil last year helped me some, switching to whole food mufa/pufa helped much more. I am convinced now that MUFA and PUFA with sufficient E and all the other nutrients they are found with in whole foods is vital to good health. Studies on fats that ignore the food source or simply used oils as a proxy are not comprehensive enough. The means that we get our dietary fat is very important, health studies on vegetable oil or french fries cannot be extrapolated to vegetarian whole food fat sources.

 

[Runenight201]

Bolded: Was that with or without supplements?

Optimizing an unfavorable environment vs. inhabiting an optimized environment. The latter has a higher health ceiling. That doesn't mean the former isn't compatible with good health.

OP moved to a tropical climate and pursued a career that clearly enriches his life. These are enormous changes lending to well-being, regardless of diet minutia. Combine that with fulfilling, non-irritating foods and it's no surprise why he's doing better. One could argue this change in environment is Peat-esque. Danny moved to Mexico for similar reasons, no?

Three days on a Caribbean island will make me forget I'm hypothyroid. Returning back to cold Northeast US I'm forced to make concerted efforts to manage body temperature, liquid intake, red light/incandescent use, digestion quality, etc. Similar difference between Summer and Winter months. Environment quality is a huge factor, but everyone can't uproot to a better place. We make the best of our situation through other means.

I remember I went on a spring break trip to Costa Rica during my senior year of university. While I was in an amazing environment with friends, I still distinctly recall feeling inflamed and very anxious practically the whole trip. Certainly there were moments on the trip when I was very relaxed chillin on the beach, but there were still so many moments where I was an inflamed mess.

The shift in my thoughts and energy from a proper diet trumps everything, even given my suboptimal environment. I find it interesting how people claim that what you put on your skin, hair, etc... affects our health, and while I concur this is probably true to a certain extent, absolutely nothing is more disruptive to health than improper food consumption. I can have my entire conscious states shift from positive and outgoing to introverted and withdrawn with one improper meal. My clarity of thought, mood, verbal fluency, memory, wit, all substantially increase with a proper diet, and they all drastically diminish when I’m inflamed.

In my more depressive states, I would have thoughts of how my life is going nowhere and how I’ll be battling my sickness and inflammation forever, and while I never seriously considered suicide, I did draw parallels on how if things kept being bad for extended periods of time how some people could entertain the idea. Contrast that now with my much more healthy state, and my thoughts are all consistently positive, and I have this innate sense that I will be successful and that I have nothing to worry about, because I have good energy and my intelligence is sharp and I know what I need to consume to maintain this health state. My environment never changed between the two states, and my only “supplements” would be tobacco, coffee, and sugar. Coffee and sugar are certainly more like foods to me, while tobacco may be my one true vice. I’m not certain it’s actually health promoting, but I just love the act of smoking lol. I may look into burning different herbs to perhaps achieve different effects, as tobacco can sometimes cause some anxiety if I over do it.

It’s all in the stomach. Keep it light, keep things digesting well, have 2-3 proper bowel movements a day, and consume foods that give high energy and strength. Cravings have to be aligned with proper health promoting foods, and then one can rotate between foods as needed to maintain good health, which includes both high energy AND a strong body. In my experience this requires the use of both plant and animal products, and I cycle between them as needed and craved. Starch, dairy, fruit, coffee, sugar, meat, vegetables, eggs, all have their proper place, but it’s critical for them to be consumed within the proper context, with the proper combinations, and prepared properly. It takes great bodily wisdom to know when to use what, but mastering self in this manner leads to some truly vibrant health. A food can be health promoting in one physiological context and extremely damaging in another. It can be health promoting combined properly with other foods in a physiological context and extremely damaging improperly combined or prepared.

Figuring this out takes a lot of self-reflection and honesty with yourself, and it does become challenging or confusing at times, but I found that following my instincts and cravings to be far more fruitful than any amount of intellectual research.

 

[Collden]

- Dave Mayo for circadian related things

Thanks for this tip, really enjoyed his articles about time-restricted feeding and gut health.

 

[danielbb]

I remember I went on a spring break trip to Costa Rica during my senior year of university. While I was in an amazing environment with friends, I still distinctly recall feeling inflamed and very anxious practically the whole trip. Certainly there were moments on the trip when I was very relaxed chillin on the beach, but there were still so many moments where I was an inflamed mess.

The shift in my thoughts and energy from a proper diet trumps everything, even given my suboptimal environment. I find it interesting how people claim that what you put on your skin, hair, etc... affects our health, and while I concur this is probably true to a certain extent, absolutely nothing is more disruptive to health than improper food consumption. I can have my entire conscious states shift from positive and outgoing to introverted and withdrawn with one improper meal. My clarity of thought, mood, verbal fluency, memory, wit, all substantially increase with a proper diet, and they all drastically diminish when I’m inflamed.

In my more depressive states, I would have thoughts of how my life is going nowhere and how I’ll be battling my sickness and inflammation forever, and while I never seriously considered suicide, I did draw parallels on how if things kept being bad for extended periods of time how some people could entertain the idea. Contrast that now with my much more healthy state, and my thoughts are all consistently positive, and I have this innate sense that I will be successful and that I have nothing to worry about, because I have good energy and my intelligence is sharp and I know what I need to consume to maintain this health state. My environment never changed between the two states, and my only “supplements” would be tobacco, coffee, and sugar. Coffee and sugar are certainly more like foods to me, while tobacco may be my one true vice. I’m not certain it’s actually health promoting, but I just love the act of smoking lol. I may look into burning different herbs to perhaps achieve different effects, as tobacco can sometimes cause some anxiety if I over do it.

It’s all in the stomach. Keep it light, keep things digesting well, have 2-3 proper bowel movements a day, and consume foods that give high energy and strength. Cravings have to be aligned with proper health promoting foods, and then one can rotate between foods as needed to maintain good health, which includes both high energy AND a strong body. In my experience this requires the use of both plant and animal products, and I cycle between them as needed and craved. Starch, dairy, fruit, coffee, sugar, meat, vegetables, eggs, all have their proper place, but it’s critical for them to be consumed within the proper context, with the proper combinations, and prepared properly. It takes great bodily wisdom to know when to use what, but mastering self in this manner leads to some truly vibrant health. A food can be health promoting in one physiological context and extremely damaging in another. It can be health promoting combined properly with other foods in a physiological context and extremely damaging improperly combined or prepared.

Figuring this out takes a lot of self-reflection and honesty with yourself, and it does become challenging or confusing at times, but I found that following my instincts and cravings to be far more fruitful than any amount of intellectual research.

Outstanding thoughts and advice. I always enjoy your thinking. I cured life-long depression simply by cleaning up my diet. I've found that starch, for example, is not a problem for me so long as it is "clean" (e.g., wheat only flour, oatmeal, potatoes, rice). Enriched flour causes me to have a runny nose and I found that was linked to my depression. Wheat-only flour has no side effects for me with the one caveat I do not mix my starch with fat. Fat works great for me as well and works best with low-carb things like vegetables or berries. Modern society with its endless food choices has made it complicated due to the endless variety out there. Simple, whole-food sources consumed over time that you prepare yourself (for the most part) will completely restore health. Supplements are basically unnecessary imho. I do however use a Whey-only protein powder that I use in place of meat when I am eating high carb meals. As I posted above, my final tweak that came to me was that even though the individual components of a given meal may be healthy in and of themselves, the mixture (e.g., combination of sugar and fat) can still cause inflammation (e.g., water-weight gain, fat storage).

 

[paymanz]

It’s all in the stomach. Keep it light, keep things digesting well, have 2-3 proper bowel movements a day, and consume foods that give high energy and strength. Cravings have to be aligned with proper health promoting foods, and then one can rotate between foods as needed to maintain good health, which includes both high energy AND a strong body.

Figuring this out takes a lot of self-reflection and honesty with yourself, and it does become challenging or confusing at times, but I found that following my instincts and cravings to be far more fruitful than any amount of intellectual research

Agree , so true

 

[Bart1]

Wow what a great thread. I want to share my personal experience.

I too am still struggeling with my health on a Peat inspired diet. The forum is great to learn more about health problems, for me it's a great source to see what some symptoms mean. However, a lot of people that come here, including myself have serious health problems. Like many others, in my desperation I quickly resolved to radical changes in my diet. In my desperation I did not have the energy, mental clarity and time on my side to carefully study all articles of Peat and other scientific studies, let alone understand all the things and connect the dots for myself. I'm not a alone in this and as mentioned before in this thread, everything is about context and the context is different for everyone. I jumped on taking fruit/sugar and low PUFA, meats etc. My health did not improve I felt more and more fatigued. I started taking thyroid, pregnenolone. Initially I felt great for a couple of days but then something snapped. I lost a lot of muscle mass/weight and got some disturbing neurologic symptoms. Not long after that, the stress became even worse and I started to gain massive in fat and liquid. My libido went down the drain. Whatever I try it's not getting better. I have difficulty now with walking (balance issues and weak legs) and that gives me even more stress because what could that be hopefully nothing serious?!

I still believe in a lot of things that Peat writes about and that's because I can relate with a lot of things he says and I did all the mainstream healthy things like fitness, fish oil, avocado's, pro biotics, intermittent fasting, ashwaganda etc. It did not help and the fasting exaggerated my health issues. But if your not in a healthy state, just jumping on sugar/SFA etc will exaggerate the problem even more I think,.
Like @Cirion mentioned earlier in this thread I also disagree with some things from Peat like the gut bacteria and also starch. Gut bacteria I think are important, especially the right gut bacteria, because they will supply you with vitamins from food digested and help your immune system. However when your sick obviously your gut is not in proper balance and then it's very difficult to turn the situation around. Some forms of starch can be problematic, also when dealing with insulin resistance or gut disbiosis starch will give you problems, however cutting out starch completely and living on fruit/fruit juices and some meat is not the answer and will get you socially more isolated as well, at least this is my experience.

So the quest is what to eat and do, that quest I'm still on. What I've been experiencing is that everytime I try to increase my metabolic rate, some fuse will blow.

For me I think it's improving liver health and gut disbiosis. I have hemochromotosis which they found out 15 years ago. My liver enzymes were very high back then but returned back to normal pretty quickly after rigorously donating blood. They did a liver punction back then and said they could not find I had cirrhosis. My liver functions getting monitored twice per year and just recently one of the enzymes is slightly elevated again... I think the iron did damage and probably I have some fibrosis or just plain liver disfunction. But yeah, that's my story.

 

[milkboi]

It is hard to imagine what a good metabolism is like if one has a poor metabolism. I mean a truly rocking 100% metabolism. I have had one myself twice in my life and let me tell you, it's something else.

I've yet to get it back, but I know when I do, all sorts of things will change - I likely also will move to a tropical climate, quite possibly will start a side business on top of my day job, start powerlifting again - probably start competing etc. I wouldn't believe this change would be believable either if I hadn't experience what a good metabolism feels like.

I used to post on anabolicmen forums before they shut down and this one guy said he went from office monkey to CEO after fixing his health. Seems far-fetched but I absolutely believe it. Virtually everyone has a suppressed metabolism which is also suppressing their ambition, their dreams, their motivation. Once health is repaired, there are no inhibitions and virtually no limit on what you can accomplish.

When your mind is 100% functioning with no brain fog or distractions all of a sudden you crave success and ambition and confidence comes easily. It is a great place to be. To be honest, the only reason I care to live any more is knowing that such a state of mind is achieveable, because right now my life isn't that great, but I know it can get better.

Thanks man, that post gave me hope :)

 

[Cirion]

Thanks man, that post gave me hope :)

No prob man. I know sometimes we need more positive posts around here. The mind can really mess with you when you're unhealthy. I know this better than most. Heck, I've been getting it myself the past few months. I am so glad though that summer is coming. I can already start to feel my mind returning to a better place thanks to the the sun and warm weather. I am once again reminded why I NEED to move somewhere warm/tropical/sunny. I am tired of letting my health be at the whim of the seasons.

 

[REOSIRENS]

I now have strong purposes and goals in my life, great relationships, spirituality, a lot of great and successful activities. I can enjoy sport again, I am overall very happy, grateful, active and have only few discomfort and negativity. I still have things to improve, but I am quite confident as things keep improving exponentially, I discover new paths and ideas everyday.

Enviroment is very powerful It can heal you or lead you to a path of sickness and death... some people here have health issues connected to their own environment and most don't improve because they don't take themselves out of the stressful environment. An individual in isolation or living in complete boredom have weak physiological machinery... and any mild toxin can cause very serious damage.

you cannot heal your body just by poping things(pills)
your body longs for touch... kiss... friendship(companionship)... smile... sense of freedom... purpose... extasy of achieving things and be able to share It... building your own life
If you feel caged your body will be less able to digest food and have low cellular energy to enjoy life and move things forward

Socialization raises dopamine so less prolactin
lack of purpose increases cortisol and gut serotonin

 

[DeepOcean]

@Parsifal thanks for your post. I find that many ppl only post when they have problems and it is always uplifting to hear that someone got better. I have found many truths with Ray's advice/principles over the years, but sometimes you just have to listen to your intuition, too.

 

[jet9]

I like eating low-carb breakfasts (e.g., bacon and eggs), light lunch (e.g., carrot, celery, or berries), and only carbs for dinner and before bed.

Could you provide examples of your dinner ?

I usually find if I eat to much fruits / sugar for dinner I sleep poorly.