• I am actively hiring a social media manager who can transcribe the work from Substack onto X/Instagram accounts. This seems particularly appropriate since we will be clipping podcast episodes for other platforms

  • The more I read and research, the more I want to read. I don’t want to waste time trying to figure out how to translate this important work into the formats the other platforms thrive on. Time to evolve!

• I’ve also been recording many episodes in the background, just getting around to editing them has been challenging.

  • Also in the market for someone who can edit/clip the material. If you know anyone, send them my way! Foundationalhealthllc@pm.me

• Future Podcast Guests:

  • Dr. Stu Fischbein - an Ob/Gyn of 40 years who long ago shifted his practice from the hospital to the home. Advocating for midwife-led, low-intervention and home birth approaches. He’s known for supporting spontaneous vaginal delivery of breech and twin births.

  • Dr. Nathan Riley - a young Ob/Gyn who left the standard hospital system to practice more holistic, integrative and autonomy-focused approach to birth. He collaborates with midwives and emphasizes childbirth as a natural and spiritual process, with low-intervention home birth approach.

  • Bryce Hanna - known on twitter as photobiogenesis, and I would describe him as a biochemist above anything else. But, he is unique for several reasons including a deep understanding of nutrition, pharmacology, herbalism, and naturalism. I’m drawn to his work for his attention to detail and nuance when discussing all of the above.

Early full video releases of the podcast are available to paying supporters of this venture. Episodes will be available for all to view on Youtube and Rumble, or in audio on Spotify and other platforms about a week later.

If you want to be present during the live recording as an audience member who can also ask questions of the guests at the end, let me know in a comment below, a private message or e-mail me at rmdllc@proton.me with subject line: seminar.

Conversation with Dr. Deep

On this episode we discuss how Dr. Sandeep Palakodeti transitioned from traditional healthcare to a concierge model that prioritizes patient and physician satisfaction.

Some may scoff at this, but a healthy and happy doctor = a healthy and happy patient.

In the current healthcare landscape, many patients find themselves feeling overlooked and doctors feel trapped by systemic inefficiencies. To fix this Dr. Deep created a concierge digital health confronts the challenges of healthcare professionals to restore joy and fulfillment in practice.

Dr. Deep’s journey led him to establish a nationwide concierge practice, Velocity Health, which aims to redefine patient and physician experiences.

On this episode we discuss:

• His Breaking Point: Transitioning from Traditional Medicine

Dr. Deep transition from conventional practice was driven by a profound sense of moral harm he witnessed in the healthcare system.

• Why Foundational Health Matters

The shift to foundational health emphasizes personalized care rather than generic protocols. Dr. Deep believes that healthcare should be built around the individual, focusing on holistic wellness rather than merely treating symptoms.

• Overcoming Challenges in a Concierge Model

Establishing a concierge practice presents unique challenges, especially in navigating healthcare regulations and financial models. Dr. Deep discusses the corporate practice of medicine laws that dictate how healthcare can be delivered, as well as the venture capital and private equity world that seeks to milk the healthcare cow.

• The Importance of Autonomy and Meaning

A significant theme in the discussion was the autonomy physicians gain in a concierge model. Dr. Deep emphasizes that having control over practice allows for meaningful interactions with patients, which is crucial in combating burnout.

Read more

First, a disclaimer:

I don’t think shift-work is healthy. No matter how good your strategy is, it’s an effort to mitigate the chronic insult on your metabolism that comes with chronic or recurring circadian disruption, and exposure to modern artificial lighting.

In fact, if you can avoid it…don’t do shift-work.

But, people have different goals and priorities. Like I do. I’ll explain.

Background

Over 2 years ago, I made a bet on myself. That I would give myself 5 years to become independent of employment from the mainstream medical industry. Independent means continue to pay off my student loans, support my growing family (3 kids) as well as my extended family, and provide the type of life for them that I didn’t have.

A big ask.

A part of that bet meant taking a job that I find both fulfilling and provides me with ample time off to spend with my family. Our kids are all under 5 years old, and for now while they want me involved in all aspects of their life…I’ll take it!

As anyone who works in the Emergency Room knows, that involves shift-work.

Although I do not condone shift-work…the reality is some of us make these decisions for personal reasons.

Which means that those of us who make such questionable decisions need some help mitigating the damages.

That’s why I decided to share my person strategy that I’ve been calibrating for over 2.5 years.

The Dangers of Shift-Work

To the average person, the impact of shift-work may seem as ‘banal’ as jet-lag. The problem with these terms is that it makes it seem like it’s just fatigue setting in. But there’s more to it than that.

First and foremost, there is the circadian disruption. Which in itself should be a major consideration. Traveling or a long night out are isolated instances of circadian disruption. But shift-work is recurring and chronic circadian disruption. The negative effects compound.

• Shift work is classified as a "Group 2A probable carcinogen" by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)

• Circadian disruption suppresses melatonin secretion, dysregulates the CLOCK and BMAL1 genes, reduces natural killer (NK) cell activity, and impairs DNA repair — all of which promote tumour initiation and progression

• Shift workers face a significantly elevated risk of coronary artery disease, hypertension, stroke, and atherosclerosis

• Circadian disruption is a well-established independent risk factor for type 2 diabetes and obesity

• Circadian misalignment and decreased amplitude of circadian rhythms have been shown to predict the development of Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease

• Disrupted circadian rhythms are strongly associated with major depression, bipolar disorder, PTSD, generalised anxiety disorder, and schizophrenia

A major contributor to the damages of circadian disruption is the ubiquity of modern artificial lighting. Specifically, LED and fluorescent bulbs which can be harmful even during the day, simply by virtue of their physiologic consequences. Their negative effects are magnified in the setting of circadian disruption.

Together, the physiologic consequences of just these two factors are enough to make anyone’s head spin and really reconsider the decision to take on shift-work.

In my own personal experience, I’ve noticed the encroachment of some low-grade problems that could have easily gotten out of hand had I not corrected course. These include:

• Morning crash (which I’ll explain why it is counter-productive from the perspective of my protocol)

• Irritability

• Weight gain

• Poor sleep

• Sweating and faster heart rate at night (in part due to adrenaline, adenosine cycling, and stress hormones)

• Feeling cold and low energy (Thyroid dysfunction)

To me, these are not just standard or acceptable effects of shift-work. These are indicators that I’m doing something wrong, and need to course-correct.

But in the last few months, if my protocol is executed as intended:

• No morning crash

• No irritability

• I’ve been losing weight and waist has shrunk

• I sleep much better and feel rested before my shifts

• Haven’t had any sweating or racing heart during my shifts

Sometimes, I don’t even drink caffeinated beverages throughout the shift.

This very article is being written about 14 hours after I woke up for my last shift! With less caffeine in my body than what I would drink during a normal day.

Without a doubt one of the hardest things about doing night-shift work is transitioning from day to night, and then going back from night to day. I figured out the latter pretty quickly, but the former took me some more experimentation to figure out.

My Night Shift Protocol

Alright, without further ado…let’s get into the details.

I’m going to organize this chronologically, starting from the day before my night shifts begin, and ending with the morning after my last night-shift.

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Recently, I was asked to provide our newly graduating trainees with a lecture on job-selection. Most of the time, lectures on this topic concern themselves with:

• Academic vs Private Practice

• Salary + Benefits

• Vacation Time

Of course, this is in the context of medicine…but many of these considerations translate to other industries. Just replace Academic with “public” and Private Practice with “corporate.”

Regardless of where any of us choose to work, if there is an HR department…we will be inundated with information about burnout and techniques that can be used to mitigate it.

Often times, these techniques involve things that are to be done outside of work.

• Meditative practices

• Social connection

• Time away from work

Don’t get me wrong, these things are incredibly important.

In some industries, they’ve even tried a combination of reducing work hours or increasing pay.

Unfortunately, this has not been very successful. Burnout continues to be a leading cause of attrition in the workplace. Most recent statistics suggest that even radiologists (previously one of the most satisfying specialties in medicine) have a 50% chance of leaving their current job within a 2-year span.

On the face of it, this article is about burnout at work.

But on a deeper level, this is about blowing the fuse in your head - both physiologically and psychologically. In fact, the term burn-out is quite appropriate here…as is the idea of a blown out fuse.

There is another visual that we can keep in mind whilst we discuss the cause and nature of burnout.

Rising load → Compensatory mechanism → Instability → Crash.

Let’s use a couple of common experiences to illustrate.

Have you ever run a graphic-intensive software on a computer? At first it seems like the rendering is going fine, but at some point…things start getting choppy, pixels glitch out here and there. Until eventually…the computer crashes.

Or…you ever found your internet browser has 100+ tabs, and you opened that insanely large spreadsheet from work…only to find that your system is becoming less responsive? All that memory and processing bandwidth has been clogged up. The computer tries to compensate…heats up…and…crashes.

I think you get the picture. But, there is something deeper in these examples that hauntingly echoes what happens to humans under stress.

I emphasize ‘stress’ because often it’s understood from 2 seemingly distinct perspectives. Either physiologic stress (e.g. adrenaline, stress hormones) or psychologic stress (the subjective experience of being ‘stressed’).

What the above examples should hint at…is that there is a direct connection between these phenomenon.

Broadly speaking, depending on how you run your software…you can burn out your hardware.

Before we get into how this manifests, it’s important to understand a few basic concepts about routing and transformation of energy.

First, all of life is the movement and transformation of energy. This energy is used to order the material of our organs and bodies. It’s used to carry out the functions of our body parts. And it’s used to perform the actions or outcomes we desire.

Second, the movement of energy is optimal when it occurs in pulses synchronized to its use and eventual loss. That is to say, if you pump too much electricity through a circuit into a light bulb…the filament can overheat and break. The input was not matched to use and output.

Since energy can neither be created nor destroyed, this synchrony is of great importance.

Finally, we need to avoid recursive traps of energy expenditure for two reasons:

1. We will eventually starve other parts of the system from the energy input.

2. We will overwork the upstream input mechanism.

For example, if I run a bitcoin-mining algorithm or heavy 3D rendering software…I cannot use my computer for any other function. At least not without getting annoyed. Furthermore, if this process runs for too long (and without appropriate cooling off) the computer will crash…and maybe even the hardware will burn out completely. Like a blown fuse.

Let’s take this back to the burnt out human to understand how and why burnout manifests, what it signifies, and how we can hope to prevent it.

Humans In Action

Let’s continue this discussion with the industry I’m most familiar with - medicine.

There are several trends in the medical field that are worth considering, at least in the USA.

For instance, there has been decades long trend of reducing reimbursements for medical services rendered. It’s only a few percent per year, but even across a short 10-year career…that’s a lot. For instance, a 3% reduction per year results in a net loss of 15% by year 10. This loss is also amplified by annual inflation and increased costs of goods/services. But, this article isn’t about finance.

This is one pressure on the job market.

Another pressure on the market is increasing rates of chronic disease and dependence on healthcare services.

Yet another is increasing use of technologies which depersonalize the human interaction (e.g. electronic health records, tele-medicine), and attempt to automate/scale an industry that is inherently unscalable.

What are we left with?

Doctors who:

• Are pressured to make more money to stay still in life

• See more patients because of the above and market demand for healthcare services

• Less-and-less human interaction

Both the increased workload and decreased human interaction are really important.

When workload goes up a few things happen:

1. Doctors spend less time with a patient → less likely to figure out the real problem → even less likely to affect the appropriate change needed to heal

2. This increased likelihood to make an error hangs in their mind for days and weeks to follow

   • “What if I made a mistake? What if I missed something? I hope the patient didn’t get worse…or hurt.”

When human interaction goes down, the doctor also gets hurt.

Whether you are a primary care doctor or someone more introverted (like a radiologist or pathologist)…what is most predictive of work satisfaction?

Meaningful interactions with colleagues and patients. Direct feedback reinforcing the notion that you played a positive role in someone’s life today.

This is simultaneously a reward and a moment to relax - cool off.

Your work has made a positive impact. It has been felt. You can take a moment to breathe it in.

I think you can start to see the picture we are painting.

Recursive Pattern

Remember the analogy with recursive and high-demand software burdening the hardware to failure?

It’s important to understand just how energy demanding the brain is. At approximately 2% of body weight the brain consumes about 20% of available oxygen and requires a similar amount of blood perfusion.

The synaptic transmissions between the nodes of the brain are very energy intensive. It’s not just the autonomic biologic drive to survive and process information which consumes energy.

The landscape of conscious imagery, thoughts, fears, and emotions also drive up energy demands.

Now, imagine you are constantly thinking about:

1. How little time you have for your family

2. How little time you have to take care of yourself

3. Whether or not you missed something with last the patient you saw, because you were rushed.

4. What about the patient before them? And so on?

5. Did you spend all this time and money on education and training so you can satisfy the absurd demands of administrators?

These psychological phenomena and imagery (software) are running recursively in your head (hardware), constantly depleting you of precious energy and bandwidth.

You start losing sleep.

Getting irritable.

Making even more mistakes.

(You are starting to glitch).

And, eventually…you crash.

Welcome to burnout.

Your fuse has blown.

Unfortunately, humans are not a fuse box. You cannot simply replace a blown fuse and continue like everything is ok.

Even the humanoid robots in Westworld had remnants of their traumas haunt them with each new system reset.

Preventing Burnout

Preventing burnout isn’t that complicated.

The problem is that the answer is contradictory to the demands of our employers. Which is why you are constantly being bombarded by HR about the ultimately unsuccessful strategies they recommend.

The solution requires us to approach one of the 4 Pillars of Health: meaning.

Remember, the factor which doctors value most in their jobs?

Meaningful interactions with their colleagues and patients.

Meaning. Depth. Significance.

Not case volume. Not how they got paid.

It is long overdue to tend to the garden of our Souls.

A person’s dynamic with their workplace and employer will be unique to them.

But the common thread is they need to put the value of their soul, and the meaning of their work above all else.

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This may be the perfect opportunity to plug my last interview in which we discuss this very topic: Tending to the Garden of the Soul.

Background

If you are active in the health space, atherosclerosis is the talk of the town. Rightfully so.

How it comes about…and, indeed the downstream consequences is up for debate. But, one thing is for certain. Where there is chronic illness, there is almost always…atherosclerosis.

Like most aspects of the human body, atherosclerosis is also misunderstood.

First, some definitions.

• Atherosclerosis is a subset of arterio-sclerosis.

• Arterio-sclerosis simply means stiffening of the arteries.

• Athero- is Greek for “gruel” or “paste” and refers to “fatty plaque”

Thus, atherosclerosis is the stiffening of arteries in the presence of “fatty plaque” otherwise known as an atheroma.

There are some things you should understand about the terminology used that is already misleading.

First, atherosclerosis is not a disease in itself. Similar to hypertension, atherosclerosis is a consequence.

But, here’s the real kicker. Atherosclerotic plaques (atheromas), are almost entirely blood products, not fat. Not cholesterol. Not lipids.

I know what you are thinking, the above image from the Cleveland Clinic shows atherosclerosis as slow growing fat-deposition, which eventually gets clogged by a small blood clot.

Incorrect.

This is part of the marketing (so to speak), to get both the public and physicians to buy into the framework that athero-sclerosis is the result of fat deposition.

Even a simple Google or PubMed search will reveal the following about atheromas.

• The primary component of these plaque is “fibrous” tissue, ranging from 50-87% depending on the plaque that is sampled

• “Fibrous” tissue is yet another term that can be confusing

  • Fundamentally, this refers to breakdown and long-term clot evolution of blood products

  • In fact, the consequences of hemorrhage account for about 30-35% of the plaque’s volume

• Another 1-15% of plaques are calcium/minerals

• 1-5% are inflammatory cells (yes, there is inflammation here…and we will soon reveal why that is important)

• the Lipid (or fatty) core can range from 5-20% depending on plaque stability - another important concept

  • Furthermore, a lot of the lipids come from broken down cells (20 - 40%)

How much is left to be accounted for by circulating lipids? Very little.

An unstable lesion is one that is actively and rapidly changing. These are usually seen in patients with extremely poor metabolic health, very high inflammatory stress, and very poor vascular health overall.

Thus, it is no surprise that lipid content is higher in this population…as the body is vigorously trying to heal the damage being done to the blood vessel.

The Modern Discourse

If you keep up with the work of the most verbose and public figures in the realm of cardiovascular disease and “lipidology,” you will find a couple of common themes.

First, for these figures it is a bygone conclusion that elevated cholesterol (e.g. LDL, ApoB, or lipoprotein A) is the causative agent of atherosclerosis.

That is to say, it is the necessary and sufficient factor to cause atherosclerotic narrowing of blood vessels.

Every new development in the field of cardiology and lipidology is finding a new canary to blame the plaque on. First it cholesterol, then it was LDL cholesterol, now its ApoB (a part of the LDL cholesterol particle) and Lipoprotein(a) (intrinsically tied to ApoB).

Until you ask some simple questions:

Then, behold as the explanations commence.

The explanations which underscore the truth: that atherosclerotic plaques are not caused by cholesterol or any constituent thereof.

These two facts should slowly but surely shake your confidence in the cholesterol hypothesis:

1. Atheromas are by and large composed of breakdown products of the blood, not fat.

2. Atheromas do not form in veins.

Now we can start answering the question: what is causing atherosclerosis?

A Little History

The idea that dietary fat and blood cholesterol causes atherosclerosis is almost 100 years old now. Starting with the fraudulent work of Ancel Keys, the focus on inflammatory stress shifted toward dietary fats. The basic premise that if you eat saturated fats (like butter, lard, and animal meat) you would increase your chances of atherosclerotic heart disease.

Eventually, even the American Heart Association realized that dietary fat intake does not correlate with blood cholesterol levels.

People could now eat more than 1 egg per day. Hurray!

Then, the focus shifted toward blood cholesterol panels and serum cholesterol profiles. Including things like triglycerides, LDL, and HDL cholesterol.

LDL became the new boogieman. This paved the way for a new class of drugs called HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors - AKA, Statins.

If you don’t know why Statins suck, you can find out here:

Then, as more pointless and circular research was done…people started to realize a few things

1. LDL levels do not predict cardiac mortality as well as we’d like.

2. People who live the longest tend to have the highest cholesterol and LDL.

3. Contributors to atherosclerosis are far more varied than just blood cholesterol

4. Despite the public health and drug campaigns, more and more people still develop atherosclerotic heart disease…

The cholesterol levels of the oldest people on earth:

Invariably, the same old problem was repeatedly presenting itself as a thorn in the side of the a cholesterol hypothesis folk.

Inflammatory and biomechanical stress.

Thus, the formation of atheromas is a response to injury…aptly termd the “response-to-injury” hypothesis. The critics of this hypothesis will state that “there is no definitive evidence in vivo that endothelial injury or desquamation is necessary or sufficient for lesion formation.

In some ways, this statement is true.

In the presence of “injury,” without any blood products to lay down at the site of injury (to heal)…then no atheroma can form.

These critics will also point to evidence that atheromas can form in the absence of visible injury to the endothelium. They often mean tears, or ulcers, or “desquamation” which refers to loss of the lining of the vessel. Which is also true.

Because of these observations, they felt the need to introduce a new framework. Which is Lipid retention. That is…there are some low-grade, not consequentially definitive changes to the nature of the blood vessel…that increase permeability to lipids (and other blood products)…which allows lipids to move through the vessel lining…and maybe, sometimes form atheromas.

The term “leak” is used here. As if it’s purely by accident that the vessel is changing its conformation to allow fats and blood products to move through these walls, even in the absence of clear discontinuity (tear, ulcer, desquamation).

The ultimate explanatory framework they have come up with is the Response-to-Retention model. Their conclusion is:

“…subendothelial retention of atherogenic lipoproteins as the central pathogenic process in atherogenesis.”

In their conclusion they state:

“Although atherosclerosis is a complex and multifactorial process, we conclude that there exists a key pathogenic event, namely, lipoprotein retention, that is both necessary and sufficient to provoke lesion initiation in an otherwise-normal artery.”

To translate, they conclude that “retention” is both necessary and sufficient to explain the presence of an atheromatous lesion, in an “otherwise-normal” artery.

Retention leads to retention. Absolute genius.

What they don’t discuss in their article…as almost all articles on this topic that I have encountered is the following.

In all the in vivo studies they cite, they find that these lipid plaques form in 2 specific locations:

1. Only in arteries.

2. In specific locations in the artery.

Number 2 is where there is some sleight-of-hand used to obscure the truth.

All these studies discussing the Response-to-Retention model cite the work of Schwenke and Carew, who demonstrated the following:

• accumulation of atherogenic lipoproteins within the arterial wall is focally concentrated at certain sites

The field has since termed these sites atheroma “prone” and other locations where atheromas do not form they termed atheroma “resistant.”

That’s it. That’s how they brush this conundrum aside, and why most don’t notice.

This is the part nobody talks about.

If the rate of lipid entry into the prone vs resistant sites is the same…then how are the lipids the problem?

Do you see?

Lipids are needed by all cells of the body…at all times.

So if the same amount is moving into the atheroma prone and atheroma resistant locations…then, why is one retaining the lipid but not the other?

Clearly, the causative agent is not the lipoprotein itself.

The real question is: why is one site prone and one site resistant?

Ultimately, the answer lies in a combination of electrodynamics, circulatory stress, systemic inflammation, and Poiseuille’s Law.

The modifiable factors in this Law that are relevant to our physiology are:

1. Viscosity of blood

2. Change in pressure

3. Vessel diameter

Closely related to all three of these factors, especially viscosity are the contours of our circulatory system, and the charge separation between blood vessel wall and the viscous/non-newtownian blood contained within.

Digging Into The Real Factors

In the near future, I will be hosting a Seminar and Q&A on the nature of circulation, circulatory stress, and all of its consequences including blood pressure, brain aneurysms and atherosclerosis.

If you want the opportunity to partake in the Seminar, submit questions, or just watch segments of the Seminar, hit subscribe and you’ll be among the first to know!

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Key Topics:

• The dichotomy in healthcare: short appointments vs. emergency demands

• Managing nervous system dysregulation after intense shifts

• Practices for recovery and maintaining emotional resilience, including breathwork and boundaries

• The importance of spiritual hygiene to metabolize stress

• The role of purpose and meaning in sustaining healthcare providers

• How to set effective personal boundaries to preserve vitality

• The impact of societal and systemic influences on medical practice and ego

• The dangers of over-reliance on pharmaceuticals and peptides as shortcuts

• The importance of understanding oneself to foster health and happiness

• The cultural shift needed for medicine to serve with compassion and humility

Timestamps:

02:26 - The focus on human connection and personal transformation in healthcare
06:23 - The systemic limits of time in primary care vs. emergency rooms
09:20 - Internal nervous system regulation and spiritual hygiene practices
12:00 - Developing awareness through breath and behavioral tools
15:26 - The garden analogy: tending to different aspects of the self
16:51 - The importance of recognizing and nurturing the soul in health
22:34 - Societal influences, information overload, and seeking truth
29:24 - The impact of systemic and industry incentives on healthcare practice
33:47 - Conspiracy, trust, and the power of collective intention
43:05 - The systemic issues around medical training, ego, and professional identity
49:58 - The risks of pharmaceuticals, peptides, and short cuts in health
66:30 - Balancing modern medicine with foundational lifestyle and spiritual principles
74:38 - The significance of personal sovereignty and understanding one’s true self
78:43 - Embracing the universe within and the importance of self-compassion

Connect with Kaveh:

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This episode underscores the importance of integrating self-awareness, spiritual hygiene, and a grounded purpose into healthcare to foster resilience and genuine healing—for ourselves and our patients.

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UPDATE:

As our paid-supporters know, we have published our first episode of the Foundational Health podcast. Now, it is also available in audio form on podcast platforms like Spotify.

On the morning of March 21st, the full video will be available for everyone to watch on our Youtube Channel.

Background

Ever since encountering the work of Jack Kruse, I’ve been enamored by the relationship between light and life. It’s not simply the contrarian in me gravitating towards another perspective which runs counter to medical dogma.

No.

There’s something about the Sun that I’ve always had a positive relationship with. That is until I started listening to the mainstream and avoiding it.

When I was young, I would be outdoors as much as possible. Under the Sun, playing any and all sports…until it set. Never encountered a problem. That is until our family fell victim to mainstream dogma.

Like most families in the developed West, we started using sunscreen. As I got older, it became “cool” to wear sunglasses. That’s when things took an unpleasant turn.

I started getting sunburns. My eyes were more sensitive to sunlight.

But, ever since I encountered Jack Kruse’ work…my relationship with the Sun was renewed. I realized it isn’t something to fear. If anything, to embrace. Ever since this renewal, I have been sunscreen and sunglass free for over 4 years. No sunburns.

Deeper Than Skin

As I dug deeper into Kruse’ work, I learned that the Sun plays a much larger role than simply regulating sleep and tanning our skin.

As Kruse likes to state, light is more important than diet.

Many, including myself, not only found this hard to believe…but, I suspect do not fully grasp what he is trying to say.

Recently, I picked up a copy of Roeland Van Wijk’s latest book:

In this book, Van Wijk reviews some of the earlier work on the role of photons (more accurately than light) in effecting and regulating metabolic functions. After digging into the basics of the biophysics, I think I have a decent grasp of what Kruse is trying to convey.

That’s what I want to share with you.

From the Basics

I’m talking really basic.

‘What is life?’ basic.

Life is the process by which energy is harvested and transformed to create order from the chaotic potential of the world around us. This is true of plants, single-celled organisms, and humans.

Further, living beings have the ability to harvest and transform energy at will. Not necessarily by conscious will, but by physiologic need.

This is a really important point to consider, because according to the Law of Conservation of Energy…energy cannot be created nor destroyed.

It can only be transformed.

When we talk about health in the modern era, we often talk about things like

• Metabolic syndrome

• Oxidative stress

• Insulin resistance

Essentially, chronic illnesses which are a manifestation of inefficient/ineffective energy flow and transformation.

So the question is…where does all terrestrial energy ultimately come from?

Turns out, this is a bit of complicated question.

On the one hand, all mammalian life ultimately comes from the consumption of plants. Whether you consider the cow grazing on the field, or the wolf eating that cow.

On the other hand, we need to consider all of the metabolic processes that occur in the plant, the cow, as well as the wolf.

For the plant, our dogma already has the answer baked in. Plants undergo photo-synthesis, to make the “foods” (aka energy stores) they need to live and grow.

But, what about the cow and wolf?

What is Food?

Foods, at minimum, have a dual purpose.

1. Foods are a store of energy - think sugars, fats (and even proteins).

2. Foods provide the building blocks of our tissue - lipids/fats, proteins, and amino acids.

It’s not just food that has stored energy. Our own body has stored energy, in the form of complex macromolecules.

So foods are a store of energy, right? Problem solved.

Not so fast.

I give you an orange, packed with energy. Can you just spontaneously assimilate this into your body and use its energy stores?

No. It needs to be transformed. This requires energy.

However, using that explanation to explain the primacy of photonic energy would not only be “cheating,” but it would be incorrect.

Every metabolic reaction requires an interaction between substrates (ingredients) to make something new (product)…with a shift in energy. Either energy is put into this reaction, or energy comes out of this reaction. Often, both happens…with a net shift of energy from one side of the reaction to the other.

Biochemical reactions depend on the ability of electrons to be exchanged between molecules, or used in the creation or destruction of bonds between the ingredients and products.

This is where we enter some basic quantum physiology.

If all life is the ability to harvest and transform energy…then, we must necessarily focus on the fate of energy flow…or electron flow. Because, it is the movement of these electrons which allow for chemical bonds to be formed and destroyed.

Everything from vision, to nerve conduction, to ATP generation by the mitochondria using the electron transport chain. It’s right there in the name. Whether you want to think of it as electron flow, energy flow, or current…it’s all really the same.

The importance is in realizing that a healthy and robust metabolism is one in which energy is transformed, used, and stored with optimal efficiency.

Once you take this perspective on life and energy…you can start to see proteins (the molecules encoded by our genome) in a new light. That proteins are semi-conductors.

Conductors allow energy (electrons) to flow freely through the material, such as a copper wire.

Semi-conductors (like Silicon) introduce an “energy gap” that needs to be bridged before the electron can move from the static (non-conductive) band to the conductive band.

Thus, semi-conductors enable the selective movement of electrons in a tissue/material. Depending on the purpose of the reaction (and protein), the energy-gap that the electron needs to cross varies.

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That is to say, the excitation energy the electron needs to jump from the non-conductive state to the conductive state, is specific to the protein/enzyme involved in the biochemical reaction.

The great insight about proteins in the last couple of decades is that proteins (perfectly encapsulated in the function of enzymes) are semi-conductors.

As such, every protein has a specific band gap that needs to be bridged. This bridging occurs by the excitation of the electrons in the corresponding molecules/atoms involved in the reactions.

Thus, it isn’t enough that I give you an orange.

I need to give you electromagnetic packets of energy - AKA photons, to activate the electrons in the relevant proteins involved in the digestion, harvest, transformation, and storage of energy from that orange.

Once You See It…

Once you grasp the importance and relationship between photonics and electrophysiology, you will appreciate its role in metabolism.

Everything from receptors on your skin, under your skin…in the fat below your skin, in your retina….in your bloodstream…in your mitochondria…it is all photon-dependent.

Here is a list you can use to guide your research:

1. Flavoproteins (FAD/FMN-containing enzymes)

• Example: Cryptochrome

• Blue-light absorbers (~450 nm)

• Central to redox metabolism (NADH/FADH₂ handling)

• Light → circadian gene expression + mitochondrial signaling

2. Cytochromes (heme-based ETC proteins)

• Example: Cytochrome c oxidase

• Absorb red/NIR light (600–1000 nm)

• Directly modulate electron transport and ATP production

• Photon input can displace nitric oxide → increase respiration

3. Opsins (retinal-binding GPCRs)

• Example: Melanopsin

• Use vitamin A–derived retinal as chromophore

• Convert photons → GPCR signaling cascades

• Regulate circadian rhythm, hormones, and possibly peripheral metabolism (skin, fat)

4. Heme-containing enzymes (beyond ETC)

• Example: Catalase

• Heme absorbs visible light → alters redox state

• Involved in ROS handling and oxidative stress

• Light can shift peroxide metabolism

5. Nitric oxide–associated proteins

• Example: Nitric oxide synthase

• Not directly photoactivated, but light liberates NO from heme sites

• Couples photons → vasodilation + mitochondrial efficiency

• Acts as a bridge between light exposure and perfusion

6. DNA repair photoproteins

• Example: Photolyase

• Use light energy to reverse UV-induced DNA damage

• More prominent in non-mammals, but conceptually key

• Tie light → genomic stability → downstream metabolic integrity

7. Ion channels with photomodulation (indirect in humans)

• Example: Channelrhodopsin

• Direct in microbes; indirect analogs in humans

• Light → ROS or chromophore effects → Ca²⁺ flux

• Ca²⁺ shifts strongly influence mitochondrial activity

8. Iron–sulfur cluster proteins

• Example: Aconitase

• Light-sensitive via Fe–S cluster oxidation

• Core to TCA cycle + electron flow

• Vulnerable to photon-induced redox perturbation

It’s Not Just the Proteins…

If that weren’t enough to punctuate the importance of photons in metabolism…we haven’t even talked about the biological molecules which are not proteins.

These molecules are equally as important as the proteins, and are also photon-dependent.

Broadly speaking, these molecules cluster into:

• Conjugated π-electron systems → absorb light (flavins, porphyrins, indoles)

• Isomerizable bonds → structural switching (retinoids, urocanic acid)

• Redox flexibility → electron transfer shifts (NADH, CoQ10, bilirubin)

• Highly unsaturated chains → electron mobility (DHA)

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Here is another list to whet your research appetite:

1. Retinal (retinoids)

• Photon → cis–trans isomerization

• Initiates neuroendocrine signaling cascades

• Drives circadian entrainment, hormonal rhythms, autonomic tone

2. Melatonin (tryptophan-derived)

• Light suppresses its synthesis (not direct activation, but tightly photon-coupled)

• Governs sleep, mitochondrial function, antioxidant status

• System-wide timing signal (“darkness hormone”)

3. Serotonin (tryptophan-derived)

• Light exposure increases synthesis (retina/brain axis)

• Regulates mood, gut motility, vascular tone

• Precursor pool for melatonin → links day ↔ night physiology

4. Nitric oxide

• Photolabile → released by UV/red light

• Rapid systemic effects: vasodilation, blood flow, mitochondrial respiration

• One of the fastest ways photons affect whole-body physiology

5. FAD / FMN

• Blue-light responsive redox cofactors

• Control electron flux through metabolism

• Systemic impact via mitochondrial output + ROS signaling

6. Coenzyme Q10

• Lipid-phase electron carrier

• Interfaces with photon-sensitive ETC components

• Influences ATP production across all tissues

7. NADH / NAD+

• Central redox currency

• Light shifts balance indirectly via upstream chromophores

• Governs metabolic rate, repair, and signaling (e.g., sirtuins)

Is Light More Important Than Food?

Look, food is obviously an important contributor to our tissue and health.

No question.

But, which is more important?

Think about your standard combustion-engine vehicle.

You can think of gasoline and engine oil as the foods of your car.

But…how are you going to drive that car without an ignition?

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As you may be able to tell, this is still a work in progress with respect to recording, editing, and preparation of the videos.

I’m looking forward to hearing all of your feedback, positive and negative. I’ve got a lot to learn about this medium and how to best approach it. So, please let me know in the comments below, private message, or by e-mail at rmdllc@proton.me

Full episode will be available for all to view on our Youtube Channel (@ Found-Health) in about a weeks time.

Dr. Ahmad Ammous is an internal medicine physician based in Boston, who is trying to escape his hospitalist job by taking his interests, discoveries, and non-mainstream treatment approaches to those who seek to truly improve their health without the use of prescription drugs.

I’ve known him for quite a number of years, and am grateful that he wanted to be the first guest on the new podcast.

We discussed Dr. Ammous’ journey through diet, quantum biology, and spirituality. We also touched on the problems with medical education, the broader contributions of society to the decline of medicine, and the role of AI in our own research.

Dr. Ammous can be found on X (@AmmousMD) and Instagram (@Ammous_MD), as well as on his website https://ammousmd.com/

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For those of you who have been with me since the beginning will recall that this publication started as a way to research and write about my findings during the covid hysteria.

For the newer readers, I haven’t written much about covid or viruses in years. The reasons are pretty straightforward.

• I don’t find covid relevant to helping people understand their body and health

• Virology is like a religion…maybe a cult is more appropriate

• Helping people cultivate a vibrant foundation of health is my goal

However, there is a debate that continues to this day…with opposing sides arguing over one another.

This debate is what I call the “No Virus” debate.

On one side of the argument there are people arguing that no viruses have ever been properly isolated, and therefore viruses as obligate parasitic infectious organisms do not exist…at least empirically.

On the other side, you have people straw-manning this argument and accusing the side of being crazy to suggest “viruses don’t exist.” This side tends to believe that “of course, viruses exist. What are you, crazy?”

As you may have intuited, these people are not arguing about the same thing.

In reality, they are both right.

It is true that the process by which viruses are “isolated” is full of holes, and does not hold up to scrutiny. However, this does not mean that viruses do not exist.

For example, there is no Hepatitis C virus out there, somewhere, waiting to infect you. "Hepatitis C” is the label we give a genetic transcription profile most commonly observed in people with chronic alcohol and drug abuse.

But, it came from within.

Can you “isolate” a computer virus? A psychologic virus?

All of these are simply packets of information, parceled and transmitted by different means via different mediums.

Does it mean these things do not exist? Of course not.

Many many months ago, I brought up this nuance and distinction to someone I respect greatly for his humility and courage, Dr. Mike Yeadon.

As I expected, he understood the distinction and agreed it is real. However, as he described it, that is not the battle he is in. He is debunking Virology, as an academic enterprise. Which is a totally valid perspective and argument.

I’m just not interested in that game, any longer.

I want to know how we can use this information to steward our minds and bodies through life in a healthy manner.

I’ll give you the punchline right now: viruses (and virality) exist, because genetic instructions exist.

But, are viruses parasitic or infectious organisms? No.

The real question is, WHAT ARE VIRUSES?

Let’s unpack the following:

1. Basics of cellular information storage and transmission

2. What is the definition of a Virus?

3. How are the #1 and #2 related?

4. The case of a simplest known ‘virus’

5. Clinical significance of viruses

Cellular Information

To understand viruses, we first have to understand how biologic information is stored, expressed and transported.

This is where knowledge of the “central dogma” of molecular biology is important.

You can think of DNA as a long-term biologic information storage system. DNA stores two types of information.

1. The code needed to produce proteins.

2. The code needed to produce various forms of RNA, which in and of themselves can have molecular consequences, without needing to be translated into proteins.

However, the environment of the nucleus, cytoplasm and extra-cellular space is so chaotic and volatile that simple nucleic acid strings (DNA and RNA) cannot exist without some sort of vehicle, or protection.

Thus, cellular life needs a mechanism that protects and accompanies RNA strands until they meet their end-use (either translation into proteins, or interaction with its final target).

Below, we see one such mechanism by which this occurs. In this image, we can see little bubbles (vesicles) which shuttle biologic matter (including RNA) from the Nucleus to other organelles, and out into the extra-cellular space.

Notice the shape and structure of these vesicles. Do they remind you of anything? Below is a diagram of a virus. This virus has a genetic code at the core (RNA or DNA) and is surrounded by some combination of lipid/protein capsules/envelopes. The nature of the “capsomer” and envelope vary from virus to virus. Some have one layer of protection. Some have two. And all manner of combinations.

This is a critical point to understand. But, before we dig a little deeper into this relationship, let’s clear up a few things.

First of all, viruses are not organisms.

Viruses do not autonomously reproduce, grow, and do not have a metabolism. Therefore, viruses are not organisms.

If they are not organisms, then the rest of the commonly used words when discussing viruses are mostly null and void. For instance, viruses are not parasites. Parasites are living organisms.

A virus has two fundamental components:

1. Genetic code.

2. A transport vehicle.

That is it.

The discovery of the simplest virus (Narnaviridae) is very helpful for our discussion. For our purpose, we will stick with one genera of narnavirus found in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

S. Cerevisiae (SCN23 or 20S) is the simplest RNA virus and it only encodes and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase. This is an enzyme which uses a string of RNA code to generate another string of RNA code. Essentially, a process by which an RNA code can be duplicated.

The authors of this chapter, however, rather liberally use the word ‘infection’ in the above description. Because, when you or I think of infection, we think of something from the outside contaminating the cell.

However, this is not how S. cerevisiae was discovered.

Pay really close attention to what is being said here. Commercial yeast strains were exposed to conditions of high stress. These yeast cells subsequently demonstrated aggregates of “cytoplasmic elements.”

Meaning, when yeast are placed in high stress conditions, they began expressing certain strings of genetic code (RNA). These “cytoplasmic elements” were then identified as 20S and 23S RNA strands, and used to give the “virus” it’s correspond names: SCNV23S or SCNV20S, i.e. S. Cerevisiae Narnavirus 23S.

Do you see the sleight-of-hand here?

The experiments induce the yeast to produce unnatural quantities of a string of genetic code, because of unnatural conditions…and then called the result of this…a virus.

They aren’t wrong, technically. But, this depends on the framework.

If your framework is that “viruses are pathologic parasitic infectious agents,” then this is stupid.

But, if you use the framework that viruses are simply packets of genetic instructions…then, it works. Because, that is what they are.

This case of the simplest RNA virus is, in my opinion, a canonical demonstration of a) what viruses are, and b) how they are discovered and labeled.

I guess what I’m trying to get across here is just how banal it is that something is called a virus. You may as well just call them genes, or gene fragments.

But, we don’t. Because often times a viral particle contains more than one gene or fragments.

Once you realize that this is what viruses truly are, it becomes much easier to understand how biologic viruses are very similar to viruses of other mediums (e.g. computer or “mind” viruses).

Furthermore, you also start to realize how futile efforts to vaccinate against viruses are. Because…well…how do you vaccinate against information?

Why do you think people who receive polio vaccines develop paralysis?

Or, those who receive a flu shot get the flu?

Or, those who get shingles from the shingles vaccine?

Because the vaccines contain the instructions!

This is why viral vaccines have proven to be such astounding failures, decade after decade, and billions after billions spent on their development.

Clinical Relevance

Circling back to why all this matters.

How does this knowledge and understanding of viruses help us make informed decisions about our health? When should we be concerned about viruses?

To a large extent, viruses matter because they activate exaggerated or novel response mechanisms. All life has co-existed with viruses since the beginning of time. This is why a large proportion of our DNA are viral gene fragments.

So, what are we to do about viruses?

We must have a robust health, for several reasons.

1. It’s good to be in good health, duh.

2. When we encounter a novel virus, our bodies know how to process this new information without overloading ourselves.

3. We feel confident in exploring and encountering new conditions in our environment, so that we can continue to update our repository of viral information.

Thus, the solution is not to live in a bubble, sterilize every surface, and receive every injection manufactured by Big Pharma. This is a surefire way to get sick.

The solution is building a robust foundation of health.

Foundational Health is where it all starts.

As a final remark, I’m sure some of you are scrambling to let me know that viruses cause cancer.

No, viruses don’t cause cancer.

Just like the yeast that were under high stress…and started focusing on pumping out 1 gene over and over (in oncology terms this is analogous to a monoclonal expansion)…it’s the environment.

If your environment is stressing you to the point that your genetic machinery is singularly focused on making one thing, and replicating/replenishing in one direction. You develop cancer.

But, the response to the stress is not the proximate cause of the cancer.

Background

In our modern industrialized world, thyroid dysfunction is one of the most common health problems. Far more than “data” suggests.

Data can only reflect people who have been diagnosed with thyroid dysfunction. What about people who are not diagnosed? What about people who cannot be diagnosed by standard testing.

What do I mean?

Let’s take low thyroid function (hypothyroidism) as an example. The vast majority of diagnosed hypothyroidism is clinched with a panel of tests looking at various thyroid related molecules, primarily Thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and Free T4 (a thyroid hormone).

Thyroid Panel Normal Range

TSH: 0.4 - 4.5 mIU/L

Free T4: 0.8 - 1.8 ng/dL

In reality, these tests can be useful for overt cases of hypothyroidism.

Then, there is subclinical hypothyroidism. Which is diagnosed with a High TSH but normal Free T4.

Now, what about people with one or a few symptoms of hypothyroidism, but normal lab results? This would require the work of an astute physician who truly understands thyroid function.

But, let’s say you’ve accurately diagnosed low thyroid function.

In the person with abnormal lab tests, the treatment approach seems straightforward…right?

Treatment will be guided by normalizing lab tests. Often, TSH is what is used to guide treatment.

But, what value should you target? A TSH closer to 0.4? 4.5? Right down the middle?

To add more complexity to the situation, what do you target if your lab test are normal?

Understanding the Thyroid Gland

The standard education states that the thyroid is a hormone-secreting gland in the neck, whose function is to regulate the body’s metabolic rate, heart rate, temperature, and overall energy levels.

To carry out its role, the thyroid needs many things not limited to:

• Tyrosine (amino acid)

• Iodine

• Selenium

• Zinc

• Sunlight

That last one is really important.

This article is not about specific treatment of low thyroid function. This article is about temperament and its relationship to both thyroid function as well as using it as a guide for thyroid treatment.

Granted, there are other ways to guide treatment of hypothyroidism. Chief amongst them will be alleviation of symptoms, and a normal heart rate and body temperature.

Infamous endocrinologist and thyroid specialist Broda Barnes makes a strong case for using heart rate and body temperature as a way to guide treatment. They do not recommend using lab tests. The reasons are plentiful. First, these lab tests do not reflect what we believe.

Second, there is no “correct” lab value…since there is a broad range. Ranges of data are great for population analysis, but we are talking about treating a particular person.

Of course, you can get quite far using Barnes’ recommendation - using heart rate and body temperature.

But, this approach misses an important distinction.

If your particular temperament is cold (or hot)…what do you do?

What do I mean by this?

Let’s dig in.

Temperament and the Thyroid

In Unani medicine, temperament is fundamental quality of all things. Including a person, their organs, and even the food they eat.

Temperament is a dynamic balance of two fundamental qualities of all things: heat and moisture. That is, things can tend towards being hot (or cold) and wet (or dry). It gets a bit more complicated than that, with degrees and divisions of various qualities But, this is the basic concept.

As you may have intuited, the thyroid is temperamentally hot. This is its balanced temperament. Similarly, when thyroid function gets weaker, the gland is said to be deranged towards a cold dystemperament.

These are both corroborated by our modern understanding of thyroid, as one that increases energy output, and literal body temperature when functioning normally…and getting colder when its function goes down.

This is why thyroid function is the perfect vehicle by which to understand the importance and role of temperament.

Hypothyroidism is described to be a cold dystemperament. A phlegmatic temperament is one that is cold and moist. Which tracks perfectly with common clinical features of hypothyroidism:

• cold intolerance

• Weight gain

• sluggishness

• Swelling/edema

• excess phlegm

Now, we need to explore the most important consequence of this understanding of thyroid function.

If a person has a cold (or hot) temperament at their normal baseline…how does this guide treatment of thyroid function?

If you don’t want to rely on ancient top-down understanding of physiology…there are some modern studies which shed light on this interaction, and ultimately can guide treatment.

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In recent weeks, there’s been a lot going on in our personal lives and I’ve felt the squeeze on all the things I’m trying to accomplish.

• New baby

• Home renovations and construction projects

• Research and writing for Foundational Health

• Hosting and tending to extended family

• Serving my local hospital

I’d like to think I have these things handled, but one of the first signs that I’m spread too thin is when my body begins to pay the price. One of the benefits of caring for your health is that you also reset the homeostatic barometer which tells you when things are going wrong.

A sore joint. A headache. A runny nose.

All of these are signs. My body is telling me something.

It’s telling me I need to re-prioritize my time, at least for the moment. Which reminded me of another time I had to re-prioritize, but not for the moment…for the rest of my career.

Before the covid episode, I was on a career path that looked very different to today. One in which I would commit more of my time, resources and effort to the industry of academic medicine.

Mercifully, covid happened…and woke me up to the mistake I was about to make. The commitment I was about to embark on. A commitment to an industry that has little regard for both its practitioners and its ‘customers,’ so to speak - the patient.

That’s when I started this Substack. To focus my time, research and continued education on material that really moves the needle in people’s lives and their health. Material based on a framework that really understands the nature of being, and how and why disease manifests. Heck, even what disease is.

This shift in my focus had to be accompanied by a desire to move away from all the corrupt practices of my profession. To stop giving the institution more of my time. To be involved in cases I truly believed will help a patient.

People often say modern medicine is terrible when it comes to chronic disease, but excels at acute and surgical care. To some extent that is true, those are definitely where its strengths lie, if indeed these are traits unique to modern medicine. We won’t argue about that here.

But, this means that if I want to have a conscience while still working in this industry…then I had to shift my focus towards practices which do indeed have a positive impact in peoples lives. Or, at least with the potential to do so.

Enter the emergency department.

In a hospital, the ED isn’t only the ED. The acutely ill and trauma patients which come through the ED are also served by trauma surgeons and critical care specialists.

So, I figured…that’s who I will help. Those patients and those clinicians.

Now, granted…not every patient that walks into the ED and gets some imaging needs my help. There are a lot of wasteful practices, for sure. But, that’s beyond the point.

In the ED, the cases which have the potential for positive impact are far more frequent than in any other clinical setting.

Especially cases in which you can make a real difference in a person’s life, right now. I’m talking about the kind of cases where nobody else but the radiologist can know something of critical importance.

Let me explain what I mean.

This story is from the time that I was a trainee (resident) in a busy NYC hospital. I was on call…and the only radiologist in the hospital. An elderly lady came into the ED with vague abdominal pain. The doctor ordered a CT scan of their abdomen, and so I took a look.

I diagnosed an imminent closed loop obstruction.

What’s that? Glad you asked.

We have a very long small intestine (bowel) that is jumbled up onto itself in many loops.

For a myriad of reasons, most commonly from scarring, one of these loops of small bowel can twist around a neck. This point can serve as a “bottleneck” which prevents the movement of blood into and out of that loop of bowel, putting it at risk of ischemia and infarction. AKA dead bowel.

Because of this twisted loop orientation, and compromised blood supply, the loop can start swelling…and the swelling just makes the strangulation and risk of bowel death even worse.

If left untreated, this can lead to dead bowel…which even in the young and healthy can be fatal.

As I like to tell my trainees, even a monkey can identify a closed loop obstruction/dead bowel after it’s already happened. The way that a radiologist can make a difference is to help clinicians identify these anatomic orientations which are at risk of becoming full-blown closed loop obstructions.

What I saw that night in that elderly woman’s abdomen was not a “textbook” presentation of a closed loop obstruction. What I saw were bowels that were oriented in such a fashion that the swelling and bowel death was imminent…though nothing had happened yet.

So…that’s what I told the team taking care of the patient.

Shortly after, the on-call surgeon walked into my reading room and disagreed with my diagnosis.

“Those findings aren’t convincing. The patient seems fine clinically. Just some vague abdominal pain.”

I walked him through the images and made my cases a little more thoroughly.

He still disagreed…and demanded that an attending (faculty physician) provide a second opinion. Unfortunately, I was only a trainee at the time…and the only radiologist present. But, I knew an attending at a neighboring hospital, and asked him to come by.

Once he arrived, I didn’t tell him anything. He just turned to the surgeon and asked why the patient was here. Then, he started looking at the images himself.

“That’s a closed loop,” he says to the surgeon.

looks at me

What did you tell them?”

“Closed loop,” I said.

Next evening I come in for my night shift, and immediately open up the medical records to see what happened to this patient.

I see a note from that night around 4AM, the patient started feeling a bit worse, and immediately the surgeon realized I was right, and took her to the operating room.

By his report, there was scar tissue everywhere in her abdomen. Which, as a side note…we can’t see on imaging. We can only see the consequences of this scarring.

He found the closed loop I was talking about, and fixed it. There was no dead bowel…surgeon had gotten their in time. Patient went home a few days later.

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Although experiences like this are considered stressful and confrontational by many of my colleagues…it felt natural. More importantly, it set pieces in motion that I realized years later.

For those of you wondering what I do in my day-job…that is it. I help emergency teams identify and care for patients in dire circumstances. It’s fun, rewarding, and helps me sleep at night.

Even if our newborn doesn’t.

So, as much as I would like to spend all my time reading more ancient and medieval medical texts, writing, and experimenting with health protocols…I have a responsibility to some hospitals and their acutely ill.

As this digital business grows, one day I can do this full-time…and leave the modern medical industry entirely.

On that note, you may have noticed some changes to this website. I’ve received the final design package for the logo of Foundational Health. Hope you like the logo.

Things are slowly, but surely, moving in the right direction.

This holiday season has been a bit of a roller coaster for my family. With our third child expected to arrive in the middle of January, we purchased and moved into our first house a mid-December.

Moving in, unpacking, settling, and making the home comfortable for my wife was a time-sensitive matter. In large part because we were planning to deliver at home, with our midwife. This would be our second home birth.

I’m happy to report that the delivery went beautifully and smoothly, thank God.

But, leading up to this we were in an “all hands on deck” scenario. My parents flew in to help, and shortly thereafter so did my grandfather-in-law.

To provide a little context about grandpa, he is one of the most active and fit people I know, especially when you consider he’s pushing octogenarian status. His help would definitely be felt.

The only chronic and serious health concern I know about him, other than his gout, is his hypothyroid status.

A Little History

For as long as I’ve know grandpa, he has avoided red meat quite strictly and alcohol to a lesser extent. In large part to avoid a gout flare-up.

This is the standard recommendation. Avoid these triggers, and take something like colchicine to alleviate flareups.

One of the increasingly appreciated and understood contributors to gout is overconsumption of fructose. But, this starts to beg the question…what is gout?

Is it the red meat? Is it the uric acid? Maybe there’s something more to this story.

Fast-forward to this visit, and we see a somewhat different and more lax grandpa. He is consuming meat, drinking beer, and enjoying the holidays.

What changed?

He tells us that he has started a combination of a B-vitamin complex and morning caffeine. This, he claims, prevents his flare-ups.

Interesting.

One final component we need to consider here, before we build a broader understanding of gout, is that grandpa also has low thyroid function for which he has taken levothyroxine.

Before we dig in, let’s summarize the factors:

1. Diet and alcohol

2. Vitamins and Caffeine

3. Fructose

4. Hypothyroidism

5. Joint pain

At first glance, it’s very hard to unify all of these factors.

So, let’s get started.

A Krusian Perspective

During my many attempts to try and understand Gout, I stumbled upon a couple of articles written by Dr. Jack Kruse on this topic. For those of you familiar, he’s a very large proponent of Solar and Circadian health.

Personally, I find his work astounding and informative. In the past his writing has been very hard to penetrate, and his ego on podcasts difficult to stomach. But, he has been improving.

In any case, this is Kruse’s basic assertion about Gout:

Gout is a marker of impaired mitochondrial energy flow caused primarily by light deficiency, with uric acid rising as a downstream signal and nitric oxide (NO) being chronically inhibited.

Like many aspects of health and disease, Gout (which is commonly understood as a joint problem) is a symptom of a biochemical impairment which is marked by uric acid elevation.

From Kruse’s perspective, the pathway to gout looks like this:

Sunlight → energy flow → mitochondria → waste handling → repair

Without appropriate Solar signals (UV and infrared), the ability of your body to produce and move energy, recycle nitrogen waste, and repair the body becomes impaired.

High uric acid is a warning sign that these energy processing systems are not functioning properly.

Thus, all of the various things which contribute to elevation of uric acid (waste) without recycling of nitrogenous amino acids and compounds…can contribute to gout flare-ups.

This includes factors like:

1. Vitamin deficiency for recycling nitrogenous compounds

2. Fructose overconsumption (relative to sunlight exposure)

3. Purine and hypoxanthine rich foods

4. Factors which modulate xanthine oxidase (an enzyme).

Kruse’s core beliefs are in alignment with this model, including:

• All energy ultimately comes from the Sun

• Food is simply a secondary storage form of Sunlight

Nitric oxide is one of the core players in circulatory health, energy production, and redox balance. In the presence of high uric acid, we enter a low nitric oxide state.

Low nitric oxide → poor energy and poor tissue repair.

Why does fructose matter? It’s not simply that Fructose is producing uric acid.

In nature, fructose is most abundant in tropical fruits. Tropical fruits get a ton of sunlight. If you are consuming tropical fruit, you should typically be under the exposure of the Sunlight. However, if you consume tropical fruit (grandpa is from Colombia) without getting adequate sunlight (as in modernity and in cities)….well, that’s a mismatch that leads to metabolic trouble.

More Than Joint Disease

The natural question you should be asking is, if gout is really a manifestation of something so systemic, then why does everyone complain of joint disease?

Well, this is one of the few felt symptoms of gout.

In reality, gout has several systemic manifestations:

• Hypertension - can’t feel it.

• Atherosclerosis - can’t feel it.

• Chronic Kidney disease - can’t feel it.

• Insulin resistance - can’t feel it.

• Non-alcoholic Fatty liver - can’t feel it.

What can you feel?

• Joint pain

• Fatigue/Sleepiness

• Peripheral neuropathy

Now, if I think back to all of the people I know who have Gout…these association are confirmed. Other’s I know who have gout flare-ups have pretty bad metabolic disease, including insulin resistance, hypertension, and atherosclerosis.

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During This Visit

This visit was unlike others.

We’ve done a lot of work around the house, the yard, and the workshop. Grandpa has been helping as much as anyone else.

Everyone had some sort of soreness, pain or exhaustion from all the work we got done in a short period of time.

One day, grandpa told us his foot hurts. “It’s the gout.”

I thought to myself…are you sure?

I mean…my foot hurts too. So does my shoulder, my forearm, my hands…a lot of soreness. Why is this gout?

Maybe because he’s been consuming meat and imbibing during festivities, he thinks it must be the gout?

Then, it dawned on me.

B-vitamins…thyroid…overworking…exhaustion.

Kruse was right.

It is an energy problem.

Let me ask you, the reader, something.

Imagine you are healthy and fit. You decide to embark on extended period of strenuous activity, in the cold winter, with short periods of daylight. You keep doing it for weeks.

What is the first pain you expect to experience?

If you are like me, the answer to this will be obvious. Musculoskeletal…and most likely joints first.

These parts of our body are constantly in motion, under strain, requiring lubrication and clearance of waste/damaged tissue.

If we overload these processes, we get joint pain.

How B-Vitamins and Caffeine Help

Purines (which are nitrogen containing biological compounds) can either be recycled or degraded.

Uric acid rises when these purines are degraded.

To recycle purines, and prevent uric acid build-up, we need B vitamins, including B2, B3, B9/B12.

Furthermore, other B vitamins helps with inflammation, including B6 and B1.

Thus, a B-vitamin complex is precisely what a person with this energy dysregulation needs.

Caffeine also plays a role. Caffeine acts like a methylxanthine which binds to a mildly inhibits the activity of xanthine oxidase. Furthermore, caffeine is a natural diuretics, which promotes the clearance of nitrogens via urate in the urine.

This account fits perfectly into Kruse’s model. From his perspective, B-vitamins do not fix the problem, they improve metabolic efficiency when the light signal is weak. B-vitamins improve electron flow (via oxidative phosphorylation), improve recycling of NAD/FAD, and overall improve our redox balance.

In the absence of appropriate solar signals, the B-vitamins help minimize the consequences.

Even the caffeine fits into his model, but caffeine somewhat increase nitric oxide signaling (which the uric acid worsens).

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What About Thyroid Hormone?

From the energy balance perspective, this fits in perfectly.

Let’s take Kruse’s perspective here, to keep things consistent.

He would assert that metabolic rate of our body is not created by thyroid hormone. Instead, it is created by sunlight. Thyroid hormone simply acts as the facilitator/conductor of this energy throughput.

So, when light signals are weaker, the thyroid will turn down its rate…adaptively.

Morning UV light lead to nitric oxide production/release. Infrared activated cytochrome C (a critical protein in production of ATP).

When these signals are missing…energy flux slows down. This leads to reduced demand on the thyroid gland.

As is the theme with most of medicine, low thyroid hormone production in this case is yet another symptom. Because of the impact of thyroid hormone on electron flow and energy coupling…since the light inputs are impaired, the body turns down thyroid hormone production to protect itself.

This state also feeds back into gout.

Low thyroid function → Slow ATP turnover → increased uric acid production.

This is the tradeoff. Uric acid production goes up to reduce oxidative stress.

This is why thyroid supplementation temporarily helps reduce gout flares. This is not without its risks. Without getting lost in the weeds of quantum electrodynamics…let’s put it this way.

You can’t crank up thyroid hormones without the appropriate light signals required to drive this higher metabolic state. If the underlying light deficiency is not addressed…

Solar light sets the ceiling on metabolic activity. Thyroid hormone modulates the throttle.

How Do We Fix This Problem?

We return to foundational health.

Step 1: Address morning UV light exposure.

• More exposed skin

• No Sunglasses

• Within an hour of waking up

Step 2: Near-infrared to mitochondria from any source

• Sunlight

• Fire

• Incandescent light bulbs

• Infrared panels

Step 3: Circadian Alignment

• Eat during daylight

• Sleep when its dark outside

• Avoid blue light at night

Step 4: Cold exposure

Step 5: Diet

• Eat during daylight

• Pair fructose consumption with sunlight exposure

• Avoid seed oils

  ---

Since sharing my initial Note regarding grandpa’s gout status, I got ton of feedback with many stories about how people fixed their gout.

Let me know how the above jives with your experiences in a comment below.

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Brief Update:

I’ve been a bit MIA recently, but wanted to share that 6 days ago we welcomed our first baby girl into the world. We had the birth at home in our bath. Everything went beautifully well.

I’ve written about our choice to go with a home birth in the past, and this was our second time.

Everything went even more smoothly this time.

Background

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how we cured my mother’s “essential” hypertension using a combination of minerals, vitamins, and self-care routines.

Not only was the “treatment” (which I like to call caring for yourself) successful, but so too was the article. So, I think it’s worth approaching this from a whole new perspective.

One person who was pleased by my mom’s success was my father. He was very worried for his wife, with how high her blood pressure had gotten. Greater than 190/120 mmHg.

Dad asked me to help put together a supplement stack they could take home with them.

I showed him how to responsibly use ChatGPT, and think of it more like an extension of a Google search, but with more sophisticated language processing and working memory.

Now, I had never done this before myself.

I’ve only recently started using ChatGPT and other LLMs like Manus, to save time in finding the research I want to explore. It has been very helpful when used in this manner. So much so that I am now applying it to other aspects of life for which I have problems that need solving.

In this article, I will use my exchange with ChatGPT to convey two things:

1. Share the supplement stack, and how we went about selecting it.

2. Show how you can use ChatGPT responsibly and to your advantage.

At the end, I will share what I’m currently testing as a daily replenishment drink.

I’ll tell you the secret to #2 right now.

The biggest benefit of AI, ChatGPT or large language models (LLMs), is to save you time. Not exercise judgement or make decisions.

It’s not good at anything creative or spontaneous.

Imitation, on the other hand, it can do great.

You have to understand this about LLMs in general. This also applies to any Google search.

These tools save time.

With that in the record, let’s set up the premise of this supplement stack.

Rationale of Supplement Stack

First, we should clarify that the purpose of this stack is not to provide a source of everything we need. It is to fill dietary gaps.

Food first principle applies.

The difference between which micronutrients you will get from food vs a pill will vary by geography and budget.

The supplement stack I created for my family is based on context specific to my family. There are some things I know we get sufficiently from our diet. Certain fats, and its derived products. Other products that are stored in fat or protein.

I actually had a whole exchange with ChatGPT about this very point, and corrected its interpretation of this first prompt we used on this experiment:

Read more

People love posting the ideal health transformation, the best “bio-hacking” strategy, or sharing the fruits of their own journey.

Perfect labs. Perfect abs.

Perfect skin.

Beautiful bowel movements.

You get the picture.

But, if you cannot afford some of these tests or “hacks” with time, money, or motivation…it can all start to seem a bit unattainable or discouraging.

The truth is we all stumble. We all have constraints on our lives that either make things more difficult or distract us from our goals.

Myself included.

I try to do a lot, and often wear myself out. My wife notices and will remind me that I need to take time for myself. She’s right.

Full-time hospital job. Part-time side-gig (this publication). Two boy toddlers. Third baby any day now. House work and renovations. Hunting and staying active. Plus all the other tedious things that populate our lives.

Today, I want to talk about all my health mistakes/oversight to help keep myself accountable.

1. Getting enough sleep.

People will tell you that you absolutely need to get 8 hours of sleep. Others will say 7 is enough. Some will say they can run on 4.

My belief is that the answer is more nuanced than that.

For example, the amount of sleep you need depends on your temperament (physiologic constitution). This has been known for thousands of years, and is reflected in several traditional medical arts.

From the Unani perspective, sleep is not simply a time to rest. Sleep is an essential pillar of health. During the day, the brain is ON. I mean, really on. Despite having 2% of body weight, it consumes 20% of total energy.

Unani teaches us that this activity generates heat, which makes things dry. During sleep, moist vapors (of the humors) rise to the brain and provide a cooling, moistening restorative effect.

Furthermore, Unani teaches us that the optimal sleep duration depends on your temperament.

Some days, I do not get enough sleep. I should be getting 7-8, but would be lucky to hit 7. Luckily, it’s very easy to remedy this and it’s something I actively try to consider when I’m burning the midnight oil. If I know what time I need to wake up the next day, I just go to bed earlier.

The benefit of staying active and busy (especially with 2 young boys), is that I can fall asleep whenever I decide to hit the bed.

2. Slowing down.

This may be a function of my temperament, or having been raised in a huge city…but I’m always trying to do something. The more productive and harder, the better.

Go, go, go.

One of the things I love about life in some European countries is the daily focus on slowing down, taking time to pause and reflect on life. Interact with neighbors. Let your mind and body walk slowly through the events of life.

This is one of the things I learned from my Uncle as well. Every day he takes long walks. He says it allows his mind to process information and problem solve, at its own pace, while he concerns himself with his steps.

Last night I was speaking with my wife. We have finally settled into our home. I said something along the lines of:

Look at all this. We have wonderful kids, a beautiful home, and the will and resources to achieve anything we like. And, as much as I like the grind and climbing the mountain…right now may be a good moment to stop and enjoy this plateau.

This isn’t just an opportunity to “rest,” whatever that means.

It’s an opportunity to be grateful, to savor, to debrief, to reflect and to re-orient.

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3. Stay hydrated.

Yes, I know. But, as you can probably tell from the above…I often forget about staying hydrated.

And I don’t just mean drinking water. I mean getting appropriate and adequate electrolytes. Magnesium, potassium, and sodium.

Not much more to it. Just remember to make the mix, keep it on hand, and drink.

4. Breathe and stretch.

Whether you want to unravel this from the perspective of modern science and vagus nerve activity, or from a traditional medical perspective…the answer is the same.

Stretch and joint strength improves mobility and posture.

Good posture + deep breathing exercises → optimized energy flow.

As every medical discipline knows (either explicitly or implicitly), stagnant or blocked energy flow is the basis of many diseases.

At this point, both you and I are starting to see a pattern with the mistakes I keep making.

Don’t let my wife see this, but I think she was right about Yoga.

5. Moisturize.

Don’t tell her about this one either.

This is another big for me. When I was young, I knew kids who would regularly use moisturizing creams. But, it never occurred to me. Not because it wasn’t practiced in my household…my parents had all sorts of skin creams in our home.

After learning about the pitfalls of modern skincare and makeup products, maybe it was for the best. However, that doesn’t mean there are not good moisturizing options on the market.

In my case, it’s particularly important for my hands and face. As someone who does a lot with their hands, they tend to get cuts and scrapes, and generally worn out.

On my face, I have recently developed something that apparently my father suffers from as well. A red hot patch of skin between my eyebrows. Looks fired up, and often dry.

I haven’t yet figured out what it is. People will tell me all sorts of things about it, often about how it’s some manifestation of disease.

But, I have a sneaking suspicion it has something to do with an energy center of my body.

The space between the eyebrows is the seat of the sixth energy center, the Ajna (or third eye) Chakra.

The Ajna chakra is associated with intuition, inner wisdom, clarity and spiritual insight. Furthermore, this patch of skin started getting fired up just as my life completely changed course.

A change that started with discarding the grip that modern academic medicine had on my life. When my wife and I both welcomed a new way of living centered on our family, values, and tradition.

It would be foolish to think that this is merely a coincidence. The moment I decide to live a more considered, spiritual and sovereign life…the energy center associated with these functions suddenly revs up.

With skin care we try to keep it simple.

For skin in general, we use a tallow-based balm/cream. We like the products from White Oak pastures, very affordable and consistent quality.

For the face, we add a copper-based serum and infrared light. Bonus points on wrinkles when you combine infrared light with green tea on the face.

What are some of the mistakes you’ve made that you want to avoid?

Background

For as long as I have been in medicine, my mother has had trouble with her heart and blood pressure. In the past, she would mostly heed the advice of mainstream medical experts and rely on prescription drugs to manage it.

As a short-term strategy, this can be of benefit (I use that word loosely). However, it is nowhere near optimal as a long-term strategy for your cardiovascular health.

As it is for many people, short-term is often all they look for.

In more recent years, Mom’s been more amenable to my approach. She’s been reading this publication since the first article, and I think over the years has read your feedback, experiences, and learned enough from the articles to start taking holistic approaches more seriously.

In the last 6 months, my parents had a drastic change in their lives - in the best way possible. They are finally living the life they’ve always wanted. Unfortunately, this change in environment has also been accompanied by a drastic change in my Mom’s blood pressure.

When they arrived for the holidays, I measured her blood pressure (henceforth referred to as BP) and was shocked to find it was floating around 190/120 mmHg. In one reading, we saw a systolic of 197!!

In this article, I will discuss how we got her BP under control without the use of medications.

If you want to first learn my framework for understanding blood pressure, I would highly recommend checking out this 2 part series:

Furthermore, if you want to know why I disagree with the mainstream approach to measuring and treating blood pressure, read this article:

Now, lets dig in.

Dispelling some misunderstanding.

Some more astute readers among you would notice that the highest BP reading we got is ‘dangerously’ high. What’s referred to in medicine as “hypertensive urgency.”

Others have suggested that what I did was dangerous, and that I should have immediately taken my mother to the emergency room.

This demonstrates yet another misunderstanding of blood pressure and its management, which even mainstream medicine is slowly coming around to.

When I was in training, this is precisely the advice I would have been told to give a patient. Since hypertensive urgency used to be associated with a specific BP (> 180/110 mmHg), the standard suggestion would have been to seek medical attention and medically reduce it.

The more up-to-date thinking is something like this:

• Hypertensive urgency is no longer used

• the cutoff used in the past (180/110) is arbitrary

• Now, we identify at-risk patients with “severely high blood pressure” and risk of organ damage

  • i.e. people with congestive heart failure or chronic kidney disease

As it stands, hypertensive emergency is a term used for those who have high blood pressure and evidence of acute organ failure.

Hypertensive urgency is can be used to identify people with “severely elevated BP” and risk of organ failure.

Any way you slice it, the recommendation for urgency is this:

1. Seek medical attention.

2. Slowly, reduce the blood pressure. Ideally over 12-24 hours.

Rapid reduction of blood pressure that high is risky.

As far as I am concerned, we satisfied both requirements.

1. I am medical attention.

2. And, we slowly reduced her blood pressure over days.

Diagnosing ‘High Blood Pressure’

First of all, I don’t believe in hypertension. Let me explain.

The idea that there is this disease called ‘hypertension’ is fallacious.

In fact, it is so fallacious that the medical industry has decided to give it a name: essential hypertension. Sounds very normal and expected, doesn’t it?

Well, you should know that essential hypertension is also known as idiopathic hypertension. Idiopathic is fancy for “we don’t know the cause.”

Which simply means that whoever diagnosed you with essential/idiopathic hypertension was not able to identify a cause.

Imagine walking around with a diagnosis that tells you more about your doctor’s ignorance than what is happening in your body.

If you come away from this article with only one idea, let it be this: blood pressure doesn’t go up without a cause.

You do NOT have hypertension. You do not HAVE high blood pressure.

Your blood pressure is elevated.

Just like you shouldn’t let a psychiatrist lead you to believe “you HAVE depression.”

You are depressed. Those are not the same thing.

Similarly, don’t let any doctor tell you “you HAVE hypertension.”

No. Your blood pressure is elevated.

The difference is that the former leads to “BP management,” whilst the latter leads to “WHY is my BP elevated?”

Now, we are asking the right question.

Finding the Cause.

Unfortunately, identifying a single cause for all cases of high blood pressure is a fool’s errand.

What I’ve tried to illustrate in the 2-part series linked above is that circulation and cardiovascular physiology is very complex. So complex, in fact, you are better off trying to understand how circulation works rather than memorizing a laundry list of possible causes.

Once you can get a rudimentary grasp around circulation, you can start to think about where your body is not having its needs met.

1. The circulatory system exists to provide energy, fuel, and nutrients to your body in one direction, and clear waste and depleted proteins in the other direction.

2. Every organ and body-part plays a role in altering the physical parameters of circulation which ultimately impact net blood pressure, which we measure in the arm.

3. Our lives and the decisions impact our organs, with consequences that determine the state of resistance and pressure that our circulatory system must adopt to account for the needs of the body.

4. What we ‘see’ as elevated blood pressure is the consequence of several preceding steps.

5. Any attempt to artificially reduce the number at the end of the causal chain (i.e. blood pressure) will not solve the problems which caused the high blood pressure in the first place.

Getting down to the basics…blood pressure is just a measurement.

Technically speaking, if you have ever had a doctor take your blood pressure the old fashioned way, the systolic BP is identified when he starts hearing a pulsing sound. This indicates that the pressure of the BP cuff has collapsed the artery (usually in the arm). Then, as the cuff is deflated the sound gets weaker and eventually vanishes altogether. At this pressure, we identify the diastolic pressure.

Thus, your BP is the systolic pressure at which the cuff causes your artery to collapse and the diastolic pressure at which laminar flow returns to the artery.

It is the job of a doctor to help you determine why the changes observed are happening. Not to simply put a label on you, and started prescribing a cocktail of blood pressure-related medications.

Treating High Blood Pressure.

As promised, we will now review step-by-step how we brought my mother’s BP down.

Read more

As the holidays are just around the corner, I try to avoid buying gifts which feed into the disposable consumerist ethos. Whether it’s for my children, extended family, or friends.

As the doctor in the family, I feel a slight impetus to gift items which help my loved ones lead a healthier and fuller life.

At the end of the day, improving your health will require habit change. For almost everyone, this is the hardest part.

So, it would be foolish for me to recommend or gift items (especially consumable items) which are expensive to replenish. This just adds another obstacle for people to overcome.

My belief is that if I introduce them to something which will provide immediate and noticeable benefit to their well-being, at a reasonable price, they are more likely to incorporate this practice into their daily lives.

Then, as their habits and priorities shift, they can spend as much or as little on any given strategy for health optimization.

In this article, I will address two things simultaneously:

1. Which items are the most effective for improving your health?

2. How would I incorporate this item into a modest budget?

I’ll keep a running tally of the cost, so we can see how much our health can improve without having to spend $8000 on an infrared sauna.

We won’t include food here, because it will vary drastically by what’s available and how much effort (or money or time) you are willing to put into eating healthy.

I have a whole other article that summarizes what my family eats.

Light Therapy

If you have been on twitter or instagram in the last few years, and you haven’t seen anything regarding red/infrared light or incandescent bulbs I would be shocked.

The market for this stuff is crazy, and it can all seem really confusing and overwhelming.

Many people will simply go for the items being promoted by the most popular talking heads, like Andrew Huberman and Peter Attia.

It should come as no surprise that most of these products are expensive and in many cases completely unnecessary.

Especially when you consider the difference in effect size.

Let me explain what I mean.

If your diet consists almost entirely of processed foods and seed oils, the health benefit you will gain from simply avoiding these foods is far greater than the difference between pasture-massaged grass-fed cows and any meat from your local butcher.

I don’t have exact numbers here, but hear me out.

Upgrading your diet from processed industrial slop to any source of fresh beef/lamb/chicken and eggs is going to provide a huge health benefit.

However, going from any source of fresh meat and eggs to the highest quality meat and eggs on the market which can cost anywhere from 2x to 5x as much, will likely provide only a marginal benefit.

Same goes for the products being promoted and sold by the most popular health influencers.

Blue Light Blockers

What I said about food and red light panels applies here as well.

Everyone is trying to sell you unnecessarily expensive glasses, usually ranging from $100-200 per frame.

On the lower end, Amazon and Alibaba have frames ranging from $10-20.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve tried those cheap frames and they work better than nothing.

But, the best results I’ve experienced were with red frames from Midwest Red Light. In fact, I use these at work (as a radiologist) especially when I’m covering the emergency department overnight.

Their frames are $40.

They also have frames for toddlers.

They also sell clip-on lenses for people who already use prescription glasses.

I have no affiliation with them, but use their products all the time.

How much does a good red light panel cost?

Personally, I use a light panel from GembaRed. The reason is because they are a no-frills sort of retailer. Their panels have:

• good coverage of different red/infrared wavelengths

• durable stand

• external power-supply to minimize EMF exposure

• very low flicker bulbs (flicker is actually very important)

The panel I bought many years ago was the Beacon, which has since been sold out. They now have updated versions of their panels which 5 different wavelengths.

If you want to stick with a standard 4-wavelength panel (which I think is a great starting point), the Vector is priced at $249.

This is probably all the panel you are going to need, for all sorts of applications.

My family uses it for several body parts and applications with immediately noticeable benefits.

Since our readers have a history with GembaRed, we have a 10% discount affiliation with them.

Buy GembaRed

Total cost of light-related products = $289.

We are off to a good start, I think.

Supplements

The other aspect of the health industry which has exploded are pills you swallow or things you can inject (e.g. peptides and hormones).

I don’t inject any peptides or hormones. I’m open to the possibility, but for now, I avoid them.

First, supplements are a back-up plan for when you cannot obtain the necessary vitamins and nutrients from your food.

Second, when considering supplements you want to make sure that you are getting the real deal. No fillers. No contaminants. No fakes.

The two compounding pharmacies which I believe make high quality products, and use when I can are:

• NOW

• Pure encapsulations

I’m sure there are others, such as Thorne, which people will rave about. But, these are the two I use. Again, no affiliation.

Generally, for supplements I stick with B-vitamins and amino acids. These are very high-yield items, and sometimes provide immediate benefits.

Vitamin B1, B2, B3, B7 and B12 are the heavy hitters. Be mindful what you purchase as a B9/Folate supplement (stick with methylfolate).

For amino acids, my shelf typically has glycine and taurine at minimum.

If you throw in some Magnesium and Potassium support you have a power house supplement stack.

This is a bit harder to price, but let’s try it.

• Now B1: $5

• Now B2: $14 for 2 pack, $7 per pack

• Now B3 $14

• Pure Encapsulation B12: $46

• Magnesium Chloride: $15

• Now Glycine: $12

• Now Taurine: $8

• Now Potassium Citrate: $9

Total cost: $116

Books and Educational Material

I can’t pass up the opportunity to promote this publication ;)

This humble Substack is now approaching 200 published articles. Around half of the articles are free for all to read.

If you haven’t yet subscribed, what are you waiting for?

If you are in the giving mood, you can gift a subscription as well:

Give a gift subscription

Many books on health can be difficult to extract specific solutions to your particular problem. One which I’ve found very useful (and came as a recommendation from a reader) is Dr. Chishti’s Traditional Healer’s Handbook.

There is a section on how to prepare your own herbal/traditional formulations. And several sections that provide therapeutic regimens for specific ailments.

I’ve really enjoyed reading this book, and was able to immediately apply some of the remedies in my own household. This book costs $22.

Get Outdoors

As you know I’m a proponent of going outside and being with nature.

For city-dwellers, enjoying nature and pure wilderness can come with many mental hurdles.

Where do I go?

What do I need?

Who can I talk to?

Where can I get more information?

Things you can purchase or gift others include local excursion guides, maps, or tickets to outdoor events.

Gift Basket Items

With office holiday parties in full swing, it’s difficult to show up to a colleague’s house empty-handed.

So, my wife and I started custom making gift baskets.

In these gift baskets we include consumables and food items. We try to pick things which we consume on a daily basis, and belief is good for our health.

The cost here will vary quite considerably depending on what you have available locally, so I cannot provide reasonable estimates.

Reader, you’ve got some legwork to do.

Items include:

• Raw local honey

• High quality sea salt

• Cold pressed olive oil

• Coconut oil

• Selection of tea for various times of day and needs

• Real cacao chocolate

This kind of gift basket starts at around $100, but can get much more expensive depending on your taste.

I think this is a good starting point, both as a way to jumpstart your health or give the gift of a healthier lifestyle.

Excluding costs that are hard to estimate/predict, let’s run through the total:

• Light-related products: $289

• Supplement stack: $116

• Educational: $22

• Consumables/Gift basket: $100

Total cost: $527

All things are relative, but compared to what is promoted in the industry, this is good value for a comprehensive “biohacking” stack that can provide tremendous benefits (depending on your baseline health/habits).

Of course, some of these costs are recurring. But, in 4 years I have not had to replace my light-related or educational products.

This total is still coming in less than the influencer-promoted red-light panel, and I can guarantee this stack will be more beneficial than any 1 product that is promoted by these influencers.

Merry Christmas!

Background

Since the early days of this publication, the most consistent feedback I’ve received from readers is that they appreciate the way I explain complex and seemingly impenetrable medical concepts.

Feel free to correct me here if I’m wrong, but I think I was one of the first writers warning the public that the covid injections would induce variable and widespread ‘autoimmune’ dysfunction. I didn’t buy the argument that it was only kids experience “transient” myocarditis.

I enjoyed writing this article because it’s at the pinnacle of impenetrable and convoluted biomedical mumbo-jumbo that is used to prevent people from engaging with and thinking critically about the problem…and the proposed industry solution (covid injections).

That’s all to say that from both my analogue and digital experience, the thing which people appreciate the most seems to be the explanatory power of my writing.

Secondly, the other consistent feedback I get are requests to discuss and explore specific health concerns/topics that are relevant to their health.

Admittedly, I have fallen short of this simply because my best work (whatever it may be) comes from exploring things which interest me. Selfish as it may be.

But, I have a proposition that can combine the needs of the readers, what I enjoy doing, and plays to my strengths.

The Health Renaissance Seminar

The word renaissance means re-birth. It dovetails nicely with what this publication has been concerned with for the last couple of years.

Specifically, to think critically about our understanding of health and disease, explore the modern scientific literature, and synthesize it with medical wisdom which has survived for millenia.

In my opinion, science has long been converging on “new” findings which corroborate what we have known and practice for thousands of years.

The Philosophy of the Seminar

My favorite part of college were not the courses that everyone took, with hundreds of students and one professor.

My favorite part was the seminar.

These were intimate, collaborative, and productive sessions.

High level knowledge, collaborative synthesis and problem solving.

These consisted of a lecture room with 10-15 students, a graduate student (teaching assistant) and a professor who was so committed to his field that to call them a PhD would be an understatement.

One of my most memorable seminars had an instructor with a Doctorate of Science. A degree/designation awarded after a lifetime of contribution to a given field of study.

These were stimulating, insightful and highly interactive. Everyone came out of it with a better understanding of the natural world, and sometimes even the professor with new questions to ponder from the small class of dedicated and inquisitive students.

This is how I’d like to run the seminars.

The goal of this is for both the audience and myself to come out of it with a better understanding of the problem.

Frankly, this is how I feel about any medical consultation, patient visit, or podcast conversation.

If the parties involved come out of the interaction with a better understanding, or more concrete direction of exploration than they did before the session…then, in my opinion, that is success.

The Structure

The structure of each seminar will be rather simple.

1. I will provide a lecture on a given health topic (e.g. heart disease or high blood pressure).

   1. First, clarify the problem.

   2. Second, review and critique the mainstream medical understanding.

   3. Finally, provide my interpretation of the disease process and how to approach solving it.

2. The audience will ask clarifying questions so that everyone is on the same page.

3. Then, the fun begins. People in the audience can provide their own personal experience, questions, or contentions.

   1. Not everyone will accept or agree with what I present, and that to me is the best part. It means I will learn something too.

4. Together, we will work on improving all of our understanding and hopefully we can come out of this session with a better idea of how to take care for ourselves.

The first session will be sometime in January (hit subscribe to get notified). I hope that it will be after we have finished moving in, but before my wife delivers our third child.

How to Attend LIVE

I haven’t yet hammered this out, but here is what I am thinking. You let me know what you think.

Not everyone will be interested in every topic. So, I don’t want to force anyone to commit to all of the seminars or none at all.

For this reason, about a week before the seminar, I will open up registration for a very small number of attendees. There will be a fee. Think of it like buying a ticket for an event.

Attendees will have the option to ask questions, take part in the collaborative problem solving, and provide their own personal experience/insights related to a health problem.

Feel free to share as much or as little personal/identifying information as possible.

How to Watch After the Event

Since these are intimate sessions in which people share personal experiences, I won’t be posting the entirety of the session for public viewing.

Instead, I will cut clips here and there which provide a critical insight that everyone else may benefit from, whilst preserving and respecting the privacy of people in attendance.

I have considered the possibility of allowing paid supporters to access an archive of these sessions, but I think this will have to be determined in collaboration with the attendees of the live sessions.

Definitely open to your input here.

First Seminar Topic

The topic of the first seminar will be heart disease - specifically, atherosclerosis.

This is a big topic, since it has implications for widespread testing, prescription drugs and surgical interventions that almost everyone is being offered these days.

To get notified of the date and the opportunity to register, hit subscribe!

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On the journey of uncovering our lost medical traditions, I found myself tangentially exploring the history of alchemy.

The standard alchemical conundrum is how to make gold from other elements, such as lead. Unfortunately for us, alchemical texts are written in relatively impenetrable prose and lingo.

But one thing that stuck out to me was the relationship described with the Sun. Almost as if the Sun is an integral component of this recipe to make gold.

According to a quick search, it seems that the presence of sulfur deep in the earth allows for gold to be dissolved and transported to the crust as gold ore deposits, rather than be dispersed through magma and hydrothermal fluids below.

Now, I could be way off base here, but this lead me to think of the Sun in many ways. Sulfur and sulfation seems to be one of the common threads throughout biology, as it seems to be with mineral deposits.

Sulfur and Sulfation

Sulfur is the 5th most common element on earth. It is essential to all life in more ways than one. It plays a role in structural, communication, metabolic, and endocrine functions.

Its properties lend it to form flexible, reversible, and redox-sensitive bonds. The importance of sulfur can be seen at many levels of organization within living matter.

You can think of life as consisting of carbon (which gives structure), nitrogen (which forms amino acids), and sulfur which gives life the ability to respond to its environment and needs.

For instance, the amino acids cysteine and methionine must contain sulfur. The “-thiol” groups indicate the presence of sulfur. But it’s not just these amino acids.

Glutathione (GSH), which is implicated in diverse anti-oxidative processes including liver capacity to process toxins, also has a critical sulfur group.

Coenzyme A, which is important for metabolism, especially of fatty acids, must contain sulfur. Additional it is important in production of ketones and steroids.

Sulfur can form disulfide bonds which stabilize proteins, and lend itself to the structural importance of sulfur. The disulfide bond allows proteins to fold, unfold, refold and undergo redox-related changes to its conformation.

Sulfation is the process of attaching a sulfate group (SO4) to a molecule, and it is catalyzed by enzymes in the sulfotransferase (SULT) family.

It’s a major pathway by which the body regulates hormones, shapes structure of tissue, maintain extracellular integrity, and detox substances.

For example, sulfation is involved with deactivation of estrogen or dopamine. It activates thyroid hormone from T4 to T3 via recycling. It modulates neurotransmitters and catecholamines. It also plays a role in bile acids.

Skin, Hair and Vitamin D

Hair (amongst other structures) is formed by keratin, with cysteine as a major amino acid constituent of the protein that makes up hair. If you recall, cysteine has a sulfur group.

It is the oxidation of these cysteine residues which catalyzes the di-sulfide bridge that forms between strands/loops of hair to give it structure, strength and shape. This oxidation occurs most naturally by sunlight, likely facilitated by UVB.

Thus it is the energy of the Sun which not only leads to proliferation of hair follicles (via Infrared/UV combination), but also to the shape and strengthening of the hair by disulfide bridges.

The degree to which the hair can have these properties depends on temperamental differences between individuals. For example, sulfur is thought of as a hot/heating/metabolically active constituent of our bodies.

People with hot temperaments (e.g. choleric) may indeed have a higher sulfur load. This can manifest in the presence of more cysteine residues in hair.

So, if you are of a hot and dry temperament, the combination of the cysteine residues and appropriate light exposure can lead to curly hair. Which is precisely what we observe in the stereotype of this temperament. And, is also expected in people with more sulfur bridges within their hair.

More cysteine → more bridges → more curls

The relationship between Sun and Sulfur don’t end there.

For example, it is well known that naturally produced vitamin D requires sunlight. But, people are under the impression that by simply taking a vitamin D supplement, they can reap all the benefits of this crucial vitamin.

This is not true.

The Sun and UVB enact two parallel pathways which ultimately lead to the production of biologically active and useful Vitamin D.

Our skin has a very large store of cholesterol sulfate, and sulfates in other conjugated forms. When these stores are hit by UVB, the target is oxidized, which then releases sulfate radicals. These radicals stabilize somewhat by formation of SO4 (sulfate) ions.

The other role of UVB is in the activation of Vitamin D production. UVB light converts 7-dehydrocholesterol to pre-vitamin D3. This unstable form then rearranges to Vitamin D3, which then becomes sulfated by that which was liberated above.

Together, these reactions form the original and physiologically potent form of Vitamin D3. Without the Sun, this is not possible.

Sulfated Vitamin D3 is unique in that it is able to enter the bloodstream and circulate freely. There is no need for carrier proteins or structures, such as LDL cholesterol particles. Unsulfated vitamin D3 needs these carriers.

Furthermore, sulfated Vitamin D3 is also more stable and can act as a reservoir of vitamin D3, when needed by the body.

Interestingly, this leads to a reinforcing positive feedback loop:

• Vitamin D boosts our bodies sulfation capacity as 1,25-D3 upregulates the activity of

  • Sterol (cholesterol derived) sulfation

  • GAG (glycosaminoglycans) sulfation

  • detox by sulfotransferase enzymes

Even with normal blood levels of vitamin D (as reported in lab tests), without sulfation the expected beneficial effects of vitamin D are limited.

I believe this is one reason why we see conflicting data when trying to observe relationships between sunlight exposure and presence or absence of certain diseases. Because often times, when researchers are looking to gauge a participants sunlight exposure, they resort to blood Vitamin D levels.

However, many people take oral vitamin D…so even if their tests show higher levels…the effects of this vitamin D is limited, and the benefit isn’t appreciated.

This actually limits our understanding and appreciation of the role of vitamin D in many disease processes. One of which may be the confounding data on brain aneurysms:

Vitamin D, Cholesterol and Heart Disease

As the image above clarifies, the relationship between cholesterol and vitamin D is tight. In fact, the only difference is that in the presence of UV light, that single-bond in the bottom ring structure is broken.

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Putting the nature of blood, blood vessels, and blow flow aside…you can start to see how the relationship between Sun, circulation and cholesterol is more complex than “cholesterol = bad.”

For starters, it’s important to know that just like sulfated vitamin D there is a difference between free cholesterol and sulfated cholesterol (or esterified cholesterol sulfate). As you may imagine, the same class of enzymes which sulfate other proteins and compounds also sulfated cholesterol.

Moreover, cholesterol sulfate is synthesized in the skin upon exposure to sunlight. In fact, it happens in similar locations and pathways by which vitamin D is formed by sunlight exposure.

Skin cells (keratinocytes) express SULT2B1b, the sterol-related sulfotransferase. Similar to vitamin D, the UV triggers the formation of sulfate radicals, and this radical is then attached to cholesterol.

Free (unsulfated or unesterified) cholesterol is an interesting topic. We are finding that atherosclerotic plaque are relatively rich in free cholesterol.

One reason that may be the case is that free cholesterol crystalizes. When the amount of free cholesterol in our body (and tissues/organs) gets too high, such that the process of esterification or transport is overwhelmed, these crystals mark the phase transition of fluid cholesterol to solid crystalline cholesterol.

Once they are formed, these crystals can accumulate in the subendothelial space and become the nidus of atheroma/plaque formation. These cholesterol crystals themselves are thought to be pro-inflammatory.

Thus, simply the presence of this form of cholesterol can have a feedback mechanism by which plaque worsens and eventually ruptures.

This is the best case argument in favor of the lipid hypothesis that simply high blood lipids are the causative agents of heart disease. As you can tell by the information above, this is obviously not the root cause. It is but one bystander process by which metabolic dysregulation leads to atherosclerosis.

For example, simply intake of oral vitamin D can lead to upregulation of lipoprotein particles (such as HDL or LDL) to carry this unsulfated vitamin and other unsulfated cholesterols in the bloodstream. These then deposit their payload into areas of high endothelial stress (which is independent of the presence cholesterol), and start the formation of atheromas or atherosclerotic plaques.

Signs of Low Sulfation Capacity

From a medical perspective “sulfur deficiency” isn’t really a thing. Because the amino acids which carry sulfur are abundant, it isn’t a diagnosis we tend to be concerned about.

However, that doesn’t mean that our metabolic pathways which depend on the presence of sulfated proteins do not become insufficient to deal with the needs and stresses of our daily lives.

Generally speaking, highly processed/refined foods are low in sulfur containing amino acids.

To complement the sulfur intake aspect, there is also the demand on sulfur and impairment of sulfur recycling.

Modern developed and industrial life tends to expend sulfation capacity. Whether it’s from environmental toxins, inflammatory stress, high estrogen load, or over-the-counter tylenol.

Furthermore, the recycling of sulfate requires:

• oxygen-dependent metabolism

• functional mitochondria

• robust supply of glycine

Glycine is crucial in making/recycling Glutathione (GSH).

To assess if you are deficient in sulfation capacity there are lab tests you can perform (including GSH, homocysteine, and taurine levels).

However, a functional assessment may also be used:

• Dry and fragile skin

• Cracking along the heels

• weak nails

• thin hair

• poor wound healing

• joint stiffness

• tendonitis/tendonopathy

• Food irritability

• Intolerance to tylenol

• Mood lability

• Poor stress tolerang

• Estrogen dominance

Correcting the Deficiency

SUNLIGHT and foods rich in sulfur.

Sulfur Rich Foods:

• Organ meat

• eggs

• Garlic and onions

• Seafood

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If you are up-to-date with the latest health guru advice, then you’ve probably heard of two commonly discussed concepts:

1. Blue-light blocking

2. Red-light therapy

Based on internet trends, you may even think that’s all there is to it. Red light good. Blue light bad. A similar reductive mistake is made when discussing LDL and HDL cholesterol.

As I’m sure you instinctively knew, the use of light and color is one of the oldest treatment modalities in human history.

I don’t just mean use of colors of light. But colors of stones, gems, and textiles as well. In fact, deep within the specialized world of Unani medicine is more than mere herbalism. The form of pharmacopeia reserved for the most learned of these physicians is the use of gems like rubies in the formulation of medicines.

Use of light as therapy has been documented as far back as Ancient Egypt and evidence of this is also found in the Ebers Papyrus (1550 BCE).

About 2500 years after the Ebers, Avicenna wrote about use of light and colors in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. He was the first to systematically use color of a person’s body and excretions (e.g. urine) for diagnostic purposes. He took this a step further and insisted that colors can be used therapeutically (or, can cause damage). Famously, he wrote that if a person has a nose-bleed, they should not look at things which are of a rich red color.

Lo and behold, some 1000 years later, Pollack proved the role of red/infrared light in the circulation of blood.

More recently, the likes of Edwin Babbitt, Faber Birren and Dinshah Ghadiali have written extensively on the role of light and color in health and disease.

Babbitt’s The Principles of Light and Color (1878) is one of the most comprehensive and elaborate works on chromotherapy ever written. Babbitt saw color as an integral component of the physical (and probably metaphysical) universe - as indeed he viewed the whole of the universe as a collection of vibrational energy.

Like the contemporary health gurus, he viewed the effects of color as a duality, but with far more nuance. He divided colors thus:

• The “Thermal” Colors (Stimulating/Electrical): The red, orange, and yellow end of the spectrum. He associated these with electricity, heat, and stimulation. They were expansive and exciting forces.

• The “Frigorific” Colors (Calming/Magnetic): The blue, indigo, and violet end of the spectrum. He associated these with magnetism, cold, and sedation. They were contracting and calming forces.

• Green as the Balance Point: Green, being in the middle, was the point of balance and harmony between the two extremes.

Babbitt knew that red light promotes blood flow. He also knew (as did Avicenna) that blue light calms and cools (and slows blood flow).

It’s actually this very quality of blue light that makes overexposure to 24/7 and artificial blue light so toxic! What happens when your tissues experience chronic exposure to blue light? Chronic slowing of blood. This leads to low-grade ischemia, for example. Every organ from the retina in your eye, to organs inside your abdomen are impacted by this pathophysiologic phenomenon.

On the other hand, reduction of blood flow to calm/cool your body can have benefits as well. As Babbitt points out, this can be used to relieve pain. More on this later.

Interestingly, Babbitt also noted the role of Yellow in treatment of liver disease/stasis. Avicenna prescribed flowers and waters of yellow colors to treat biliary disorders (which is part of the liver).

All of these assertions have been replicated by several people from around the world and across several centuries.

From a scientific perspective, one of our most recent discoveries is the role of green light in health and disease.

Notice what Babbitt said about green: used as a general tonic for the nervous system, to soothe and to reduce tension without being overly cold.

Enter Green/Blue Light Therapy

Although Babbitt credits blue light as a pain reliever, modern research reveals a bit more.

First, experiments on pain/withdrawal with animals have consistently demonstrated that although both green and blue light reduce pain…but, green light is a bit more potent in this respect.

In humans, the research has been promising. For example, clinical trials in patients with headaches and migraines have been eye-opening. Use of green light in a regimen similar to red-light therapy has been shown to reduce the frequency and severity of headaches preventatively. It has also been shown to reduce the duration of a headache when used therapeutically.

In addition, it reduces anxiety, improves mood, and improves sleep quality. The mood improvement may be directly related to the fact that blue/green light is necessary for the formation of the neurotransmitter, serotonin. The latter effect is likely a result of reduced pain and suffering.

How this differs from red light therapy is that blue and green light are shorter wavelengths of light. This means they penetrate less than red and infrared.

In animal studies, this manifests in an interesting though predictable manner. For instance, pain thresholds in rats go up with the use of green light (i.e. they are less sensitive to pain). However, if you block light from entering their eyes, the pain-relieving effect of the green light is lost.

So, with red light you can target a tissue directly. But, with blue/green light…at least for the purpose of pain relief…the effects seem to be dependent on the visual system.

Another interesting finding is that the maximal effect of the green light is observed at low intensity of light. The above linked study shows that 4-lux of green light intensity (which is very low) was sufficient to effect the maximal pain-mitigating effect. The highest tested intensity (330 lux) provided little if any benefit.

More recently, human clinical trials have been performed on patients with fibromyalgia. This disease entity is notorious for its overlap with mood disorders. Thus, the efficacy of green light therapy that has been observed in this cohort may be a testament to the dual effect of green light on both mood and pain. Especially since things like anxiety are extremely potent modulators of pain.

Further Reading

If you, like many, still find this hard to believe. You probably need to dig a little deeper into the fundamentals.

To help with this, I wrote an article some time ago:

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Background

Gastrointestinal distress and inflammation is one of the most common ailments people carry with them in the modern western world.

We have a tendency to fractionate this category of disease, which makes them seem less common or distinct from one another.

• Heartburn or GERD

• Indigestion or dyspepsia

• Esophagitis

• Gastritis

• Enteritis

• Colitis (including inflammatory bowel disease and Crohn’s)

In reality, these organs are all hollow tubes connected to one another in a continuous gastrointestinal tract. The assumption that you are causing harm to only one of these parts and not the other is simply an artifact of how we sense and report our symptoms.

Secondarily, it’s also an artifact of how doctor’s conceptualize and diagnosis disease. Both these factors bely the reality that gastrointestinal distress is one of the most common complaints.

In my family, amongst my friends, and even in my own personal case…gastrointestinal complaints are the most common. I suffered from Ulcerative Colitis myself for about 4 years, while one GI specialist after another mucked up trying to “manage” this disease.

Eventually, I cured it. Symptom free for almost 4 years now.

What’s Harming Our Bowels

The comprehensive list of factors contributing to this harm is quite long, including everything from water supply to posture and breathing habits.

The most concerning contributors would be the most obvious: things we put in our mouthes.

Some of you are probably thinking: but my doctor says my IBD is genetic or autoimmune and not related to diet.

I know, I know…I’ve been there myself. I was taught this song-and-dance as well.

But, think about it this way…

Would you believe me if I told you that the quality of the air you breathe has no impact on your lungs? That stale or polluted air has no negative impact on your airways?

Of course not.

Same reasoning applies to your gut.

Our gastrointestinal tract has dual duties:

1. Extract energy and nutrition from the external world.

2. Eliminate the waste so it does not build up in our bodies and cause us further harm.

My gastrointestinal specialists told me that as far as diet is concerned, avoid red meat and focus on more vegetables. Don’t worry about spices, or alcohol, or grains, etc.

This didn’t work. In fact, it made things worse.

So what about our diets should we be concerned about?

1. Energy and nutritional density.

   1. The more work our gut has to do to unlock and extract energy and nutrition, the more it is depleted of its own resources.

   2. This includes things like preservatives, which have the primary function of preventing biodegradation of food products. Guess what…digestion is the biodegradation of food products. So preservatives in food necessarily exhaust and even harm our gut.

   3. Fresher foods are superior, since they come with many of the enzymes needed to digest them.

      1. If we consume foods that are depleted of enzymes, then our body and gut has to deplete itself to produce the necessary proteins needed for digestion.

2. Waste, toxins and un-digestibles.

   1. When people consider diet, they mostly focus on what they eat. There needs to be more attention paid to how they eliminate waste, and how to best facilitate this process. Retained waste is harmful.

   2. Diets high in plant fibers (greens) can harm the gut. They literally scrape the lining of our gut. In small amounts, this can be positive and promote healing and mucous production. In large amounts, this can cause disease.

   3. Pesticides, preservatives, and the like are everywhere in our primarily mass-produced dietary landscape. Yes, including glyphosate. Yes, it’s bad for your gut.

3. Allowing the dysfunctional parts to rest.

   1. This has dietary implications, since different foods vary on which part of the tract it primarily gets digested in.

   2. Furthermore, due to the temperamental differences of the food (and your body), there are interactions that can be harmful or beneficial.

      1. A general example would be that a person with a hot temperament would need to indulge in cooling foods to balance the stress on an overheated organ, and vice versa.

4. Finally, there are foods that interact or impede the work of other foods and parts of our body.

   1. An example I like to discuss is the relationship between spices and the anti-inflammatory effects of melatonin (including the melatonin you consume, and the melatonin made by your gut.)

   2. Doctors typically tell people with heartburn to avoid spices, assuming that its the spices impact on the sphincter between the stomach and esophagus.

   3. What doctors don’t know is that melatonin exerts some of its effects by interaction with capsaicin receptors, which also bind capsaicin (the painful part of spices). Which means, if you eat spicy food, the melatonin’s anti-inflammatory effect is dulled or negated.

There are other things which harm our bowels (and the rest of our body), and some things which help our bowels, which have nothing to do with what we eat…and more to do with how we live.

Including activity, habitat, and how we feed our souls. These are all considerations in the 4 pillars of the foundational health model. All of which rest on understanding your temperament.

How I’d Treat Inflamed Bowels

For this example, I will be using the colon (or large bowel) as the target of our treatment. But, many of these techniques can also be applied to other parts of the gastrointestinal tract, with modifications.

This is going to be a multi-modal approach. I will also make the assumption that the target of our treatment has a hot temperament. At the end, I will mention a few notes on how cold temperaments may differ in treatment.

First, stop the harm.

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Over a year ago, someone from Twitter reached out asking:

Can you be my Doctor over the phone?

I wasn’t running a consultation service at the time, so I had to decline. Regardless, when people reach out like this, I always try to see if there’s something I can tell or point them towards that can be of any (if small) benefit.

It’s hard to describe. I don’t really know what we need. My wife is depressed. Our oldest has Type 1. And just left for college. Type 1 is brutal. For the kid and parents. And she misses him a lot. She has gained weight and going through menopause, I think. She is not very healthy. Mentally or physically. I don’t know if she would talk to you. I want her to. I don’t know what you could do. Or if prescriptions are needed. I don’t know!

Clearly, the man just wanted his wife to get better.

Then, he shared some more:

I have gotten in shape and started eating healthier…I have gently tried to recommend these strategies and she wasn’t receptive. I don’t trust doctors after Covid.

Does this sound like a situation you think you could improve?

Before I get into my response and what happened thereafter, it’s important to dwell on some things here.

First of all, there has been a major shift in this couple’s lives. Their oldest who recently left to college has Type 1 diabetes. For those with personal experience, you will know how involved a parent must be with a child’s day-to-day eating/drinking, glucose tracking, and insulin injecting. Careful attention to this child can mean the difference between a happy undisturbed life, and rapid hospitalization or worse.

And this child just left to college.

Then, there’s all the other concerns that come with having your first child leave the nest and go to college.

Then, there’s the hole that is left in the parent’s life when this child leaves to college.

You see all the layers here…

Secondly, there was the follow-up statement describing how the husband has improved his own health and life by following the advice of a collection of internet healers…to great success, by the sounds of it.

However, how does this leave the wife? First isolated from their child. Now, seemingly on a path that is diverging from the state of her partner. Whether this divergence is physical, psychological, or purely imagined…it doesn’t really matter. These are all real forces in the psyche of this person.

At this point, the only thing that her doctor prescribed was an anti-depressant. As if that would solve all the problems in this woman’s life.

You should start to see what I’m getting at here. Depression (and other mood disorders) is not a manifestation of factors that exist in one person.

Rather poetically, it wasn’t even the person with the depression diagnosis that reached out to me. It was their life partner.

So, what did I tell the husband?

Depression is a challenging one, because experience tells me that the way out is not with drugs and doctors - these are temporizing measures.

What some need is a combination of love (from others and for themselves) and step-wise demonstration of their own capacity for productivity and meaning.

As you can imagine, this is very difficult for an outsider [doctors] to provide. But, that doesn’t mean there aren’t low hanging fruit. Such as improving sleep habits, diet, outdoor activity, etc.

Honestly, I didn’t expect to get much back so soon.

But, within 5 minutes the husband hits me back with this:

Wow. That last one cut deep. I have fallen short in that respect. It’s complicated. But love from her husband (me) wasn’t shown properly.

I will try and see if I can “help” heal her a little. To get her to you. I’m not an ally in her mind at the moment. THANK YOU SO MUCH for your time. Professional medical advice that’s trusted is hard to come by. It might seem simple to you. But it helped. I’m more at fault than I would like to admit.

This is the type of resonance and response I am looking for in anyone I try to help.

The purpose of my work is not to solve some diagnostic algorithm so I can prescribe a drug or surgery. Indeed, this is not what real doctors are supposed to do.

This is what industrially trained drug-dispensers do.

Real doctors, like good teachers, should primarily be focused on showing people how to lead a healthy life. And, once recognized, how to go about adjusting their lifestyle and habits.

With that goal, the response I received from the husband gave me confidence that some positive changes would follow.

So, what happened in the following months?

What lesson did I learn?

How does this help you?

Finally, I’d like to expand on the title of this article: Doctors should not treat depression.

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