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This is a personal story reflecting many years of suffering from inflammation and debilitating muscular pain.
I want to share my eye-opening experience with you so that you may learn from the insights gained in my journey. This journey represents my transformation from a suffering human being to a high performing one, both physically and mentally.
By using many experiments and studies of anatomy, I managed to understand the nature of inflammation. It took many years of hard work and struggle, I finally turned inflammation to a harmless beast in my life. Why do I call it a beast or a monster?
I use the metaphor of a double-headed monster when defining inflammation in my publications and education programs. The one head of it could be good for us, and the other head detrimental, causing us grief and suffering. The good head represents acute, and the bad one represents chronic inflammation.
We need to find ways to tame the bad head of this beast.
Inflammation is inevitable in our bodies. It is a natural healing process. It is the good head of the monster.
However, there are times it can be excessive and cause a myriad of problems for our health. We call it chronic inflammation and it is the dangerous head of the monster.
Let me share my poignant story.
My body was producing excessive inflammation for some unknown reasons. I suffered many years with no proper diagnosis. After further investigations by medical specialists, the main culprit seemed to be rheumatoid arthritis. For many years, it was not detected and caused me immense suffering.
Photo by Usman Yousaf on Unsplash
During those years, I was not aware of the importance of inflammation in my health. Not even considered it a bit like a life-changing factor. I thought it is just a condition my body has and accepted it blindly and with a victim mentality. One of my specialists said there was no cure for it, so I must be on anti-inflammatory medication - particularly Voltaren tablets - for a lifetime. If symptoms increased, they might have considered regular injections to reduce my inflammation.
I was so naïve to have so much trust in medical professionals and institutions on those days. This is a big regret for having such a passive attitude. After discovering a self-managed healing approach, as mentioned in my book Simple & Powerful Life-Transforming Bio-Hacks, I promised myself never to accept mainstream medical advice any more without thoroughly questioning the rationale and looking for alternatives.
My view on inflammation totally changed after witnessing some inflammatory conditions, such as an autoimmune disease in my beloved ones. I understood the critical significance of inflammation in our lives.
My father died at a relatively young age because of an inflammatory autoimmune disease even though he was very healthy from every other aspect and followed the mainstream advice religiously. As he followed a heavily plant-based diet refraining from red meat with the fear of perceptive cancer and cardiovascular diseases, his vitamin B12 levels were found extremely low and sadly it was only detected after the damage occurred to his motor neurons.
Photo by Humphrey Muleba on Unsplash
This poignant suffering motivated me to investigate further the nature and implications of inflammation in our lives. My findings were an eye-opener for me that most of the diseases were linked to or associated with inflammation in the medical literature. Ironically, I found that intolerance to so-called healthiest plants was establishing some root causes of it in my condition.
It is essential to point out that the emphasis of implications on health was on chronic inflammation. The type of inflammation which stays in the body for a long period of time, not the short term, acute inflammation which is a natural healing necessity.
It was clear that acute inflammation is even considered healthy because the body attempts to fix an underlying issue such as a cut or injury. Acute inflammation is a built-in healing mechanism in the human body, so I embrace it, especially after intense gym sessions.
Once I learned about the impact of inflammation, especially the side effects of chronic inflammation on our health, I started learning how to address the root causes of inflammation and consequently reduce those symptoms.
Several of the previously mentioned hacks in my book helped to deal with my inflammatory conditions effectively.
For example, simply changing my diet to zero carbs, tapping into my body fat as the primary energy source, and producing ketones naturally made a favorable impact on my inflammation.
As soon as my body was producing ketones around 1.5 nmol, most of the painful feelings disappeared from my body.
My family doctor couldn’t believe in the progress of my inflammation markers in my blood test, and he even requested further tests. It was my fault I didn’t disclose my zero-carb diet to my doctor as he did not like it once I asked him about his opinion. Despite his disapproval, I adapted a zero-carb diet to improve my health by taking personal responsibility.
My doctor requested several blood markers for inflammation.
For example, I still regularly get checked, my CRP (C-reactive Protein), ESR (Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate and PV (Plasma Viscosity) once every six months.
The biggest causes of inflammation for my case were evident that having excessive carbs such as pieces of bread, pasta, rice, potato and so-called healthy fruit juice in my previous diets.
The bad impact was coupled with inefficient stress management techniques, including broken sleep patterns. Therefore, I pay utmost attention in my sleep quality as mentioned in my article on News Break titled How I Skyrocketed My Sleep Quality With 7 Simple Hacks.
In addition to changing my diet, introducing stress management tools such as dry sauna, bath with Epsom salts, undertaking joyful exercises and improving my sleep quality greatly contributed to reducing chronic inflammation in my body.
I shared my experiences about these solutions in my articles on News Break.
Sugar Was Killing Me But I Found Smart Ways to Beat It
How I Improved My Immunity With Wondrous Epsom Salts
How I Got Fitter, Stronger, and Healthier
How I Trapped Toxins In My Gut And Stopped Bloating Naturally
And taking simple cold showers daily made an amazing impact in reducing inflammation.
Instant Mental Boost With Many Health Benefits for Everyone
With reduced inflammation, I feel younger, happier, and healthier.
After learning how to deal with inflammation, I gained an athletic body with no pain and a sharp mind freed from anxiety. Inflammation was killing me but before it killed me I defeated it with my determination.
Thank you for reading my perspectives.
I will share more of my personal experiments with you.