My doctor in NYC was the first to bring to my attention the emerging link between autoimmune disease and microorganisms. After 20 years of managing with medicine and hitting rock bottom 2 years ago, he encouraged me to consider drastically altering my diet.
I started eating autoimmune-paleo (like the author) and anti-fungal. The improvement has been dramatic and life changing. I'm now off all medication. I still have a bad day every now and then, and I may need to revisit the meds at some point down the road. But I'll tell ya, after years of feeling hopeless, it's amazing to take control and regain some sense of normalcy.
If you haven't examined your diet, I would strongly encourage you to do so.
Please feel free to reach out to me using the email address in my profile. That goes for anyone here.
Dr. Mercola swears by the eating "pure" approach to solving many autoimmune diseases: no prepared food, no refined sugar, food made from scratch from the highest quality ingredients (organic, or as close to it as you can get). One of these days when my arthritis gets too bad I'm going to give it a shot. It's expensive, and a massive change in lifestyle (no more fast food! Or restaurants!), but I can see why it'd be so effective.
Dr. Mercola being an absolute nut aside, what does "organic" have to do with the composition of the produce itself? I can perhaps understand wanting to avoid antibiotics in meat and animal products, but all organic fruit/vegetable production does is prohibit certain types of fertilizers and pesticides (while allowing others), which don't impact the composition of the final product anyway. It has an impact on the environment, land use, and the cost of food production, but the food is chemically the same. So how would it have any health benefit or produce a "purer" product?
>> It's expensive, and a massive change in lifestyle...
I don't think it's expensive and not so much of a difference in life style. I went on LCHF diet (low carb, high fat). I don't even miss sugar, or pasta or bread, I don't need it. Once I had a cheat day every 10 days, but now I don't need this stuff. I enjoy amazing 0 carb deserts, that are sweet too. Plus I am lucky to have a gf who makes amazing 0 carb cakes. For breakfast I often eat egg omelette with spinach (in leaves), with sour cream and butter. It keeps me full for a long time. My energy levels are through the roof. On LCHF you can also eat out, just don't eat starchy foods, stick to fat and proteins. I think this is the easiest diet to try and tweak later.
I want to echo this advice. One of my closest friends was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease in his teens, having surgery not long thereafter. He began researching for ways to get it under control which led him to anecdotal evidence on the benefit of adopting a revised diet.
He has been vegan for almost a decade and has had no major problems since.
I started eating autoimmune-paleo (like the author) and anti-fungal. The improvement has been dramatic and life changing. I'm now off all medication. I still have a bad day every now and then, and I may need to revisit the meds at some point down the road. But I'll tell ya, after years of feeling hopeless, it's amazing to take control and regain some sense of normalcy.
If you haven't examined your diet, I would strongly encourage you to do so.
Please feel free to reach out to me using the email address in my profile. That goes for anyone here.