My Story

Two years ago I had an awful lot going on. Some of the symptoms listed here I only recognise with hindsight, and many are so common that some people regard them to be normal, I know now that's just not true.

Symptoms

• Gas, diarrhea, painful bloating, belching
• Poor cognition
• Mild depression
• Caffeine dependency and weird food cravings
• Chronic fatigue, poor recovery from training
• Chronic insomnia, tired in the afternoon and wired at night
• Sugar cravings that persisted after eating sugar
• Sleepy after eating
• Non-existent libido
• Seasonal and cat allergies
• Extreme sensitivity to bright light
• Nagging injuries with no known cause
• Cold during the day, sweating at night

I'm lucky enough to have PPO health insurance provided by my employer, so after an extended period of denial I booked an appointment with my primary care physician. Unfortunately this kind of doctor can only help with symptom relief, and each and every visit ended with the prescription pad. Can't sleep? Take some Ambien. Got allergies? Here's some Allegra. Low iron? Try this supplement. Never once did anyone I visited ever question why I had these problems. The situation came to a head shortly after visiting the gastroenterologist. By this time I’d spent a fortune in deductibles on tests and each time the result would come back with confirmation of what I already knew. It was like I somehow had to prove a point before the doctor would believe me. I drew the line at the colonoscopy, a risky procedure that would almost certainly lead to a prescription for an anti-inflammatory steroids.

The words colonoscopy and steroid had clearly caught the attention of my now wife Julie. The gastroenterologist didn’t really question my diet, and being a food scientist, Julie refused to believe there was no link between my symptoms and diet and set about scouring the literature for a solution. Soon after, and luckily just days before I was to return to the gastroenterologist, she found a body of research that turned out to be life changing. At this point we’d both enjoyed some health improvements through a year of eating a gluten-free Paleo diet but this new body of research, known as the Autoimmune Paleo Protocol, took us to a new level. Within a few weeks I felt so much better, and occult fecal blood and C-reactive protein tests came back normal.

The solution always starts with food, but as it turned out that was only half the solution. Inspired by the huge improvement in way I felt eating AIP I developed a voracious appetite for research. I felt empowered, suddenly I realised that genetics were not the only underlying root cause, and that the answers were really out there waiting to be discovered.

Learn more at Align.nbt.ai