Why optimal health can vanish so easily
E53: Surprising modern day obstacles to health
I've been feeling low recently.
I don’t want you to feel sorry for me, though.
What I hope for is that if you read this, and you think someone you know who is living with a chronic health condition could benefit from reading this, too, please share it with them.
It’s also a more detailed, longer article this week because - as you’ll see - optimal health can have many obstacles. So I’m attempting this week to share all the obstacles I can think of as one or more of these might mirror what you’re experiencing, too.
Normally, I know exactly what I need to do when I'm feeling low. I turn to the simple, effective levers that improve our mood and ensure that I'm being consistent with them:
Nutrition: I'll consume bone broth, cut back on the dietary inflammation sources, like gluten, refined flours and sugars, and focus more on whole-food carbs, like root and starchy vegetables.
Optimising intradian rhythms: Double down on sleep by reducing screen time at night and getting outside first thing to regulate my intradian rhythms.
Energy regulation: Supporting my mitochondria by having cold showers and saunas, sitting in front of my red/near-infrared light, and eating whole foods.
Exercise + weights: Going out for a run, loading my biggest muscle groups with some free weights, or some running or bike sprints.
Mindfulness: Noticing more frequently from moment to moment what's going on inside my body, and setting aside time for a 10-20 minute meditation session.
But this time, these weren't the root causes for my low mood.
My go-to formula stopped working
Since the summer, I've had a really bad flare-up of psoriasis. And it's been getting me down because, for almost 30 years, I've managed to keep it at bay, but all my usual ways of managing it have failed.
I wanted this week's Effortless Thursdays to be a way of sharing what I've been experiencing, as I've often found when I've done so and explained the way I've overcome it, it sparks ideas about how they might improve health concerns in their own lives, whether that's losing weight, having poor skin, an inability to sleep, lack of energy, experiencing low mood, or a more serious chronic condition, like Parkinson's disease, dementia or cancer.
I hope you don't mind that I'm sharing this picture of my ankle. Apologies if you're one of my readers who eats while you're reading my newsletter, or if you're squeamish! This is half as bad as it was. I won't go into the gory details.
I discovered I had this autoimmune skin condition when I was at university. If you've read the articles on my website or Substack, you might have heard that I managed to resolve my psoriasis by adopting a paleo-template approach to eating. Over the course of a year and a half, my psoriasis symptoms disappeared and - as is often the case when we feed ourselves with nutrient-dense, real food - my energy soared, I stopped getting brain fog, I could think clearly, and my summer hay fever also went away.
As I've explored this Functional Medicine approach to health and wellbeing, I've also discovered that the levers that help with low mood, are exactly the same ones that have kept my hayfever and psoriasis at bay.
What next when what worked stops working?
But one sunny day this summer, the flare-up stopped me from going hiking in the Yorkshire Dales. It was not going to be possible to do an 8-or-so-hour hike with the amount of rubbing there was going to be from my boots.
Not being able to hike outdoors, or even do some squats at the gym, caused me to lose a fair amount of hope. Why exactly had my framework for optimal health and managing my autoimmune condition failed?
This summer has been a health wake-up call, especially knowing that when you have one autoimmune condition, you're at risk of developing more. I also worried about what was causing my hair loss, too.
I had no choice but to obtain a very strong prescription steroid cream. It's allowed me to hike again and for the skin to go back to normal. But the cream is only masking the symptoms. When I asked the consultant dermatologist what else I could do besides applying the cream if I had a flare-up, there was no answer.
Nothing to do with diet, or any of the levers I knew had worked.
If it came back, I would have to have stronger steroid creams, along with all the side effects and disruption to hormones that come with it.
Because I have a keen interest in how Functional Medicine can help stop, slow down and even reverse our modern-day chronic diseases, I had my root cause theories for why I was experiencing these two major symptoms.
Gluten and alcohol - Sometimes my triggers for autoimmunity creep into my daily routine more often than is ideal.Â
Mould - mould toxicity from flood-damaged or damp buildings can cause all sorts of issues with the proper functioning of our bodies. We had just renovated our house in London and found there was black mould and mildew lurking behind the built-in wardrobes when they were taken down.
Heavy metals - I had mercury fillings as a child and lived in China for six years where crops - even organic ones - are often grown in the vicinity of factory chimneys churning out coal soot or watered with water that contains run-off from chemical processes.Â
Chemicals from renovations - with the recent house renovation, I suspected the off-gassing from the chemicals in the paint on the walls, or the fire-resistant foam in the new furniture might be playing a part.Â
Pesticides in food - these can cause all sorts of problems in humans when the residue is consumed via food.Â
There are some links at the end if you're interested in finding out more about these root causes.
But I needed help. I couldn't resolve these myself.
I'm mould-y, yeast-y and metal-ly
I was fortunate to find someone who could help me work out how to get my hair growing normally again and to sort out my psoriasis flare-up.Â
Nicole Goode is a Functional Medicine Nutritional Therapist who was recommended by Gillian Bertram, the functional medicine practitioner with whom I set up the Healing Circle community for cancer patients.
So what's the upshot?
The blood, urine, and stool testing I've done so far shows I've got a combination of all three of these - mould, yeast and heavy metals - in excess in my body. And right now those are the most likely root causes of my psoriasis flare-up and hair loss.
First to deal with is Ochratoxin A, a mycotoxin that's lurking in my body. In other words, I'm mouldy!
If you read up on that category of mould, it causes a lot of problems. They are carcinogenic, mutagenic (capable of altering your DNA), and oestrogenic (therefore triggering hormonal imbalance) and impair the normal function of the immune system, kidneys, liver, and nervous system. They also can impair gut health.
The sinister thing about Ochratoxin A is that it binds to the albumin in the blood, avoids being picked up by the body's defences, and merrily circulates all around the body going to work causing its damage.
So I'm about to start a 4-week detox to remove the mould from my body through a combination of:
Enhancing my body's ability to detox using its natural pathways - skin, liver, kidneys and gut - by concentrating on eating certain foods and supplementation
Removing the Ochratoxin A with a chelator (something that draws it out from its binding to the albumin) so the body can excrete it
Sauna - we detox through the skin via sweat
Hope
I realise I'm lucky to have access to this approach to help me resolve this flare-up. Not everyone has the means, knowledge or willingness.
This flare-up has been a reminder for me about why health is a foundation for everything, including the success we want in our lives.Â
It’s a reminder about why it’s important not to wait until you’re almost dying to take some simple steps to improve your health and wellbeing.
Links
Heavy metals and chemicals: https://chriskresser.com/environmental-toxins-steps-for-decreasing-exposure-and-increasing-detoxification/
Pesticides in food: https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary.php
Mould: https://chriskresser.com/5-things-you-should-know-about-toxic-mold-illness/
Over to you
If any of you reading this want to learn more, or if you're curious about how a paleo-approach / Functional Medicine approach to your health might help you, I'd be very happy to have a conversation to help point you in the right direction that works for you given your time, way-power and willpower!.Â
Just DM me!
ps If you’re an entrepreneur, a lawyer or another high-flying professional - who’s looking to bring joy back into your work and home life - by building a healthy brain for a career that’s full of success in a way that feels effortless, get in touch and let’s have a conversation.
That’s it for this week!
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To your health and success!
Eric
Sorry to hear about your flare up, Eric. That one looks rough. It's one thing when it's uncomfortable, it's another when it start to seriously impact your ability to enjoy life.
I'm a sensitive guy myself (ha), but my conditions are mostly gut related. I'm usually able to rein in my diet and sleep to improve conditions, but sometimes they're also related to stress/headspace issues as well.
I'll be curious to hear how your functional health remedies work out. I've been considering getting similar tests done myself the past few months, but ultimately decided to wait it out as my conditions were starting to improve. But I did find a great functional medicine provider in my area whom I could work with.
Sorry to hear you're feeling low, Eric. I'm sort of a health freak myself, always on the lookout for the latest and most effective hacks, etc. I'm well into my fifties, and if there's one thing that improves with age, it's the ability to ignore things and worry less—at least, that's what I've noticed in myself. But anyway, I guess it's hard to ignore certain types of conditions, especially if they're making your normal life more difficult. Let me just throw this in, though: have you ever tried simple, organic celery juice? Like, buying a juicer and making it yourself. A friend recommended it a while ago, and it had a strong impact on me. Just my two cents.