Jen's Sunday Newspaper - Fitness Pyramid, Give Up The Foods You Won't Miss
Here's what you missed the week of February 27, 2022
How Can I Help You?
I created a Google form to collect anonymous answers. If you have a moment to tell me about your health journey I’ll do my best to create future content to try to help you.
Long COVID Anyone?
I published the story below on Medium this week. My kid took this crooked shot and I thought it was perfect for this article.
When our son came home from school in September 21' with a sore throat and runny nose I assumed it was COVID. I mean, according to the media we seem to have eradicated the flu and common cold so what else could it be?
In my circles of ancestral health, people got excited when they caught COVID because it meant they had natural immunity. Collectively we don’t have comorbidity issues associated with poor COVID outcomes. For most of us, we can say we had a cold and that was it.
There’s been a lot of uncertainty during the pandemic and with my autoimmune tendencies I wasn’t jumping at the chance for a rushed to the market vaccine. I mean, foreign proteins circulating in the body is how autoimmunity develops.
I didn’t know how things would play out but like my colleagues I put my trust in my immune system. Not wanting my kid to face COVID alone I didn’t take any precautions to try to keep from catching it from him.
About a week later I developed a sore throat. My nose produced a lot of snot over the course of a week and I lost my sense of smell for a few days. Then everything went back to normal.
In November seemingly out of nowhere I began to get a sense of tightness in my chest. Since then I’ve experienced moments where I was short on the breath but for the most part, I’ve been normal thanks to one particular friend in my circle. She’s a PA who’s been helping people with acute COVID cases and now she’s set her sights on helping those with long COVID.
We trade research articles. I’ve been performing my own n=1 experiment at home and I report back to her.
People who’ve been vaccinated and those who’ve been infected can both develop long COVID. It’s been an interesting few months because there is no official protocol. The doctors you’d turn to for long COVID ideas are buried in the internet in those places where free thought is still allowed: Rumble, Telegram, and Substack.
What Is Long COVID?
A simple explanation is it’s an autoimmune reaction for a variety of suspected reasons. I give you an example:
“Not caused by one thing”
So far there are more theories than clear answers for what’s going on, and there is good reason to think the varied constellation of symptoms could have different causes in different people. Maybe, in some, the virus is still hiding in the body somewhere, directly damaging nerves or other parts of the body. Maybe the chronic presence of the virus, or remnants of the virus, keeps the immune system kind of simmering at a low boil, causing the symptoms. Maybe the virus is gone but left the immune system out of whack, so it’s now attacking the body. Or maybe there’s another cause.¹
In essence, it’s a challenge to recover from something when there’s no consensus on what actually works and no consensus on what’s really going on. Many of the articles I read are focused on symptom management.
As a person who does not identify with the word sickly, it’s been a struggle physically and emotionally. For one, I hate swallowing capsules and I’ve swallowed my fair share of supplements these past few months. The best way I can describe it is having a small child. You never get to take a break, it’s always in the back of your mind, you have to constantly be aware of what it’s doing, and there is no instruction manual.
These past few months I’ve taken in various combinations: Vitamin C, Vitamin D3 & K2, Magnesium, NAC, Zinc, Turmeric, Quercetin, Bromelain, Mangosteen, Elderberry, Beef Organ Capsules, Hydroxychloroquine, Ivermectin, Famotidine, Aspirin, Willow Bark, Nettle, Pepcid, Melatonin, Niacin, Thiamine, B Complex, Histamine Block Plus, HistaminX probiotic, r-ALA, and I currently have ASEA on the way.
Of course, I have my favorites in the list above. I suspect I might not have long COVID if I would have had some of them when I was sick. I took supplements when I was sick, but not what I now consider the good stuff.
I’ve also done a couple 60-hour fasts consisting of black coffee, water, and salts to stimulate autophagy. Autophagy is your body’s natural cellular housekeeping process.
The past two weeks I’ve buckled down on a low-histamine diet and adopted more of a carnivore eating style. I already know that a lot of high histamine foods don’t work for me so it’s not that big of a deal. Personally, I’ve seen the largest improvement in my autoimmune symptoms following a carnivore diet. Knowing what’s worked for me in the past has helped tremendously.
The other day I took a scroll through a long COVID Facebook group and I’d say I’m doing better than many of the comments I read. I haven’t had to reduce my level of activity. My hair isn’t falling out. I don’t have joint pain or liver or kidney issues. It’s just this random tightness in my chest that I’ve been keeping at bay.
My search is for a way to get over it. I want to be done with it. Hindsight I’m still thankful for natural immunity. There’s no way to know that a vaccine wouldn’t have produced similar results. I’ve read stories of people who are really struggling post infection and post vax.
Wherever you fall on the spectrum just be kind to those you know are struggling. My personal belief is that we should ask more questions besides, “Will this needle fit in your arm?” We’re all unique in our make-up and everyone has made the best decision they could with the information they had at the time.
On The Blog This Week I talk about When Getting Healthy Doesn’t Feel Like A Diet
Below you’ll see the Primal Fitness Pyramid. It’s been my approach to exercise ever since I learned of its existence. In the article I talk about functional fitness and healthy aging and how simple it all is. For decades I think society has been led to believe they need some extravagant bootcamp, mountain of supplements, or over the top program. There’s a common belief that if it doesn’t hurt or suck in some way people tend to believe it’s not working. Let’s face it, telling you to simply focus on real food, clean water, sleep, and taking a walk isn’t a big money maker for the fitness industry, but it’s what works.
