Final Problems

What I have learned over the last few years is that the symptoms of my inflammation problems disappear when I follow my anti-itis diet, making no exceptions whatsoever.

I eat only fruit, vegetables, roots, and gourds. I exclude from my diet (1) all animal products and (2) all plant foods made from seeds (beans, peas, nuts, grains, and conventional seeds such sunflower).

1. Causes? What I don't understand is what those two groups have in common, if anything.

a. Thanks in part to DianeR in the McDougall Discussion forums, I have uncovered one possibility, but remember that I have no scientific training, so I am flying blind here. Apparently, what the two groups of foods have in common, that might also be a cause of leaky-gut symptoms, is that they both contain a high level of either of two amino acids: cysteine and methioline. Both of these amino acids apparently are high in sulfur. I do not know if the problem is the sulfur as an element or the particular sulfur-laden amino acid molecules as a whole.

b. Further, if my problem is truly a "leaky-gut," then does that mean that these two amino acids appear to my immune system to be an invading virus, which my immune system then attacks, thereby setting off a chain-reaction of effects leading to inflammation symptoms? I do not know.

c. Last, seemingly many of the foods I can eat (such as fruits, vegetables, roots, and gourds) are generally low in fiber compared to plant foods I cannot eat (such as grains, legumes, and nuts). Is that general (but not invariable) pattern a coincidence? Or does the fiber in acid-producing plant foods (grains, legumes, nuts) add to or accompany other elements that cause an immune system reaction? The fiber discussed here is, I understand, technically called "dietary fiber," a misnomer that actually names fiber which normally passes all the way through the gut and is not digested. Could it, in my case, be partly passing through the holes in my intestine and triggering a reaction? I do not know.

2. Cure? The second major question I have not been able to answer is whether leaky-gut syndrome can be cured. I know that careful diet management can practically eliminate symptoms. What I would love to do is solve the problem. Can that be done? I do not know.

Specifically, do the holes in the intestine gradually close up by themselves as time passes? I do not know.

When my budget allows, my next step will be to hire a physician, physiologist, or other researcher to help me find answers (if there are any).

Burgess Laughlin

Author of The Power and the Glory: The Key Ideas and Crusading Lives of Eight Debaters of Reason vs. Faith, www.reasonversusmysticism.com/

1. MY HISTORY OF INFLAMMATION

I am a layman, not a physician or a scientist. The therapy I am describing in these posts helped me. I don't know whether it will work for anyone else. I don't fully understand even why it worked for me.

Below (and continually updated) are the -itis (Greek for "inflammation") and other problems I have experienced, and their year of first appearance (as well as I can remember):
- Bronchitis (c. 1957, age 13), many episodes until about age 25.
- Pneumothoraces, cause unknown (18 episodes, c. 1962-2009).
- Dermatitis: eczema, rosacea, and/or seborrhea (c. 1962); and subcutaneous acne (c. 2000).
- Pollen allergy in spring, early summer (c. 1970), gone about two years after starting anti-itis diet.
- Heart disease (clogged arteries) symptoms (c. 1972 - 1974, ended by very low-fat, omnivorous but mostly whole plant-food, Pritikin diet).
- Iritis and conjunctivitis (c. 1974), gone about five years after starting anti-itis diet.
- Tendonitis (c. 1989), gone about a year after starting anti-itis diet and doing daily posture exercises.
- Bursitis (c. 1994), gone about a year after starting anti-itis diet and doing daily posture exercises.

- Tachycardia and arrhythmia, cause unknown, in four episodes: (1) c. Dec. 1997, age 53, stopped chemically in ER; (2) with atrial fibrillation, Dec. 2010, age 66, stopped with e-cardioversion; (3) with afib, March 2012, age 67, stopped spontaneously in July; (4) with atrial flutter, March 2013, age 68, stopped spontaneously after 9 months (3 months after starting Vitamin D3).
- Emphysema discovered (1995), but probably started 25 years earlier (smoking).

- Gout-like pains in right foot (1997), gone a year after starting anti-itis diet.
- Gum inflammation (1997), gone several years after starting anti-itis diet.
- Arthritis (c. 1998), gone about a year after starting anti-itis diet and doing daily posture exercises.
- Acid reflux (c. 1998), gone a few months after starting anti-itis diet.
- Colitis (c. 1999), gone a month after starting anti-itis diet.

[Began an evolving anti-itis diet, c. 2002]
- Hemoptysis (June 2014), probably caused by coughing (from mild spring allergy symptoms) that ruptured an artery in my left lung, the one most damaged by emphysema.

Some of the -itis problems were episodic (for example, the iritis appeared every year or two in one eye or the other). Some were continuous (for example, the dermatitis). As the years passed, the problems accumulated in number and intensity. By the year 2000, I felt like I was living in a nightmare of -itis problems. In that year, I had arthritis, bursitis, colitis, dermatitis, iritis, and tendonitis. I was shopping for a wheelchair and trying to decide whether to buy a manual or an electric model.

Two physicians (out of five I consulted) have identified most of the symptoms as fitting a leaky-gut syndrome. Apparently the speculation is that holes in the intestine (perhaps caused by antibiotics taken when I was 18, following my first lung surgery) allow substances to leak into the blood stream; the immune system reacts to those substances as if they were viruses; and, while the immune system tries to kill the supposed "viruses," it also inflames various tissues and organs (skin, eyes, tendons, muscles, joints, and colon).

Burgess Laughlin
Author of The Power and the Glory: The Key Ideas and Crusading Lives of Eight Debaters of Reason vs. Faith, www.reasonversusmysticism.com/