I’ve been putting off writing this post for a long time. But when I read that Gordon Ryan is retiring from competition due to stomach problems, it reminded me that I have a responsibility to share what I’ve learned. Stomach problems, even when not life-threatening, can be debilitating, painful, and drag on for years. If I can help even one person recover from gastritis more quickly, it’s worth sharing this post.
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The Fountain of Youth by Lucas Cranach the Elder
My interest in anti-aging goes back as long as my interest in health and nutrition, but in the past year or so I’ve done a deep dive into the topic. I’ve just turned fifty, and I’d very much like to live at least another half-century. I have long lists of things I’d like to both accomplish and experience, and I’ll need time to do that. I became a father on the later side, so I’d like to be around for my daughter’s adulthood. And for the most part, on most days, I greatly enjoy being alive. Why end the party early?
For the past few months I’ve been dealing with gastritis and gastric pain, which has put a real dent in my mood, productivity, and general quality of life. I’m recovering, slowly, but this is one of the tougher health challenges I’ve faced.
My gastritis started after a “tummy bug” … some kind of viral or bacterial infection. The more acute symptoms resolved after a few weeks, but despite dietary changes (giving up coffee, booze, and spicy food), I was left with nagging gastric pain. The pain was rarely severe, but it was constant enough to be distracting. My mood worsened, my anxiety increased, and my sleep was often interrupted by burning or even stabbing sensations in my stomach. I tried a number of natural remedies (including turmeric and black seed, both of which have traditionally been used to treat gastritis and ulcers), but nothing was helping much. I’d had similar bouts of stomach pain after a stomach bug in the past, but they’d resolved on their own within a couple weeks, and the pain hadn’t kept me up at night. Time to see the doc’.
Collage of mixed fruits and vegetables, MRI, by Wellcome Images.
Cancer. It’s one of the few diseases with a personality. The F*ck Cancer meme is much stronger than the F*ck Heart Disease meme, even though both kill a similar number of human beings. While both diseases can develop with no obvious warning signs, cancer is perceived as a sneakier, meaner disease.
Maybe that’s because cancer is mysterious. There are more than 200 different types, and risk factors and causes are multitudinous: genetics, chemical exposure, radiation exposure (including sunlight), age, certain viruses, smoking, alcohol abuse, lack of exercise … the list goes on.
But cancer isn’t a death sentence. As several of the older members of my family have experienced in the past few years, cancer can be successfully treated. Though my family members used both conventional treatments and lifestyle changes, sometimes cancer goes away with lifestyle changes alone.
About half of people in developed countries will be diagnosed with some kind of cancer in the course of their lives. 100% of middle-aged or older people will have small pockets of abnormal cell growth — microcancers — most of which will be either too slow-growing to ever cause a problem, or will be eliminated by the immune system. And if you get cancer and beat it, the only way you know for sure you are “cured” is when you die of something else.
Nobody is totally safe from cancer, but there are things we can do to improve our chances of not developing the disease in the first place. While genetic risk factors play a significant role, so do environmental (lifestyle) factors. The clinical research is there to prove it. We can prevent cancer (or at least improve our odds) in at least seven ways:
Supplements are confusing. Research supports both taking and avoiding them.
In this post I’ll cover the case against supplements, why I take a select few supplements anyway, which high-nutrient foods I eat, and how I design my supplementation program and introduce new supplements.
I’ll also disclose which supplement I take that is also used as a psychiatric medication, and the herbal supplement that makes me go a little nuts if I take too much.