Hi guys,
I'm totally new to the forum and just discovered the existence of raw paleo and I have some questions. I've read a lot of posts already and I am continuing to learn.
First, a little bit about me - I'm 20 years old and have been on a gradual downhill slope health wise for 3 years for totally unknown reasons. It all started my freshman year in college a little over 3 years ago. At first I was very healthy weighing about 155-160 pounds and 8% bodyfat, doing bodybuilding and my diet was mainly lots of rice protein shakes, legumes, salads, a little bit but not much animal meat (back then my mom convinced me that all animal products were bad b/c of the China study and such - thats why I did rice protein instead of the standard whey protein), some almond butter, hemp seeds, rice cakes, wheat bread w/ smart balance (vegan version of butter), etc. I was eating 6 meals a day and forcing food down even if I was full to get at least 2k calories to build muscle. At some point I couldn't keep it up - I was too stuffed all the time and started eating less and less. For unknown reasons (that I still don't know) I became chronically constipated - at first I would use prune juice and/or magnesium to have a BM but after a couple weeks that stopped working and I couldn't figure out how to get un-constipated. I would go 2 weeks without a bowel movement at times and when I went it would be unbelievably massive like you can't even believe its possible for that to come out of a person. I'm talking 9+ inches long and 4 to 5 inches thick and I've been constipated intermittently and had abnormally large BMs all my life. Never any diarrhea. Sorry for all the detail but I suspect it's very important. I hadn't yet started developing any real health issues outside of the constipation and a general sense of malaise. Eventually I started developing a whole range of symptoms - very gradually and slowly - starting with skin rashes, evolving into constant heart palpitations, chest pain, joint pain and popping, panic attacks, stiff neck, insomnia, back pain, etc. I had to stop doing bodybuilding because my joints were hurting way too bad and I ended up losing a lot of weight (almost all muscle) that year at college.
I've been on a constant downward slope since then without any answers. I am very skinny now weighing about 110 with 7-8% bodyfat (that means I've lost about 45 pounds of muscle over the course of the last 3 years - I've always had extremely low bodyfat), lots of digestion issues - distended abdomen, bloating, no appetite whatsoever (I'm sure I could go a couple weeks without eating anything and still never feel the slightest bit hungry), all muscles are very weak and sore, joints hurt, most days it feels like someone is constantly taking a drill and drilling into my knuckles, wrists, knees, ankles, etc. and I get a lot of sharp/tingling pains all over my body constantly along with lots of muscle twitching, sharp shooting pains in my ears, chest pain, abdominal pain, dry hands, dry mouth, dry eyes, cold hands and cold feet, etc.
It feels like my body is constantly under some huge assault. I strongly suspect some kind of autoimmune disorder (what else could it be?), but ANA test has come back negative along with negative result for rheumatoid arthritis, sjogrens, etc.
I'm starting to wander if the tests are somehow missing something or if I have some other rare autoimmune disorder that hasn't been tested for. I have seen a lot of doctors and specialists and most tests have come back normal except low testosterone at about 150 - normal is 500+ (which I'm getting injections for now from the endocrinologist), slightly elevated DHEA, slightly elevated cortisol, and nutrient deficiencies. I am deficient in vitamin E, copper, zinc, B12, B5, chromium, selenium. I was diagnosed with IBS. An alternative practitioner did a scan on me called electrodermal screening and it found that my gallbladder is very weak and working excessively hard, the pericardium around my heart is dangerously weak, and there are problems with my central nervous system. My family doctor is very confused - says I'm one of the most difficult cases he has ever seen and hasn't really been able to help at all. I had a live blood cell microscopy done which showed low level of toxins, parasites, and candida in the blood (note - that doesn't mean I don't have these things in other parts of my body - just that they're low specifically in my blood at the time) - all were 1 on a scale of 1-5 but my immune stress was extremely high at 4+ (4
plus is higher than just plain 4) and red blood cells were all clumped together. Tests have revealed a very low white blood cell count.
My gastroenterologist was not able to find anything - endoscopy, colonoscopy, and small intestine barium test all were totally normal. Adrenal, thyroid, and pituitary all supposedly normal according to endocrinologist tests. Although, my Dad read a book that said there's a fool proof adrenal test that's always 100% accurate to determine whether someone has adrenal issues or not. You stand in a dark room, let your eyes adjust, and then have someone point a flash light in your eyes. If the pupils fluctuate then the person has adrenal problems. If the pupils shrink and stay steady then the adrenals are strong. Mine fluctuated. In another test you lay down, measure your blood pressure, and then stand up and measure it again. The blood pressure should go up about 20 points if the adrenals are strong and if they're weak the blood pressure goes down. Mine went down about 20 points. My mom who is extremely healthy and happy excelled on both tests - her eyes stayed very steady and blood pressure went up on the second test. So I think there is much more to this than the endocrinologist's blood tests can reveal.
I had emergency appendix removal in the summer of 2012 via laproscopic surgery and was given antibiotics briefly just to prevent infection. This was about a year to a year and a half after my health issues began.
I suspect I may have leaky gut, but I have no way to really know for sure. Certainly I must have significant intestinal dysbiosis as after doing a lot of research I've come to the conclusion that digestive problems cannot occur if the gut flora is healthy and balanced. It's extraordinarily important and huge variety of serious health issues seem to stem at least in part from a dysfunctional gut flora.
I'm in really rough shape at the moment and had to drop out of college temporarily because I do not have the health to continue at the moment. It's really amazing to me how I went from virtually perfect health - thriving and extremely happy - to very dangerous levels of illness just over the course of a few years without knowing what the fuck is going on. I was almost completely bedridden about a month ago - I barely even had enough energy to turn my body over in bed! Luckily, somehow managed to get myself out of that predicament and now I at least have enough energy to function albeit at a low level.
In researching leaky gut I found Aajonus Vonderplanitz' website which had some testimonials of people healing their leaky gut with his diet including some guy who apparently dwindled down to 80-90 pounds (even worse than me!!!) and regained a normal weight and reversed his health issues. That led to me looking further into raw paleo as I'm very open minded and willing to do practically anything to regain my health. I've also never been picky about taste when it comes to food. I'll eat anything you care to name if it truly makes me healthy.
From what I've read it sounds like raw meat is much easier to digest than cooked meat. If so, this could be the key to building my body back up. I've eaten raw egg yolks for a long time without any obvious ill effects, yet I still have some doubts about raw meat probably partially because it's not protected from the outer elements by a shell like eggs are.
Finally, some questions:1) I went out and bought some fresh raw grass fed Wagyu beef sirloin from this place:
http://localyocalfarmtomarket.com/. Is it REALLY totally safe to just start eating it completely raw? I really can't afford to get some kind of powerful infection right now... I'm too weak. Should I start with cooking it rare and gradually cooking it less and less to get my body used to whatever bacteria is in there until I'm eating it 100% raw?
2) What about parasites? Supposedly according to Vonderplanitz the parasites in raw meat are actually beneficial for us, but I'm very skeptical of this. There's some information from alternative sources that parasites are much more common than allopathic medicine ackknowledges and are responsible for many forms of chronic illness whereas the allopathic paradigm only acknowledges obvious acute parasitic infections involving fevers, vomiting, etc. For example:
http://www.nairaland.com/903693/how-parasites-cause-chronic-disease. Quote: "These foreign invaders overload the liver and accumulate in the organs, muscles, lymphatic system and nervous system, thereby creating a wide variety of disease conditions like arthritis, asthma, eczema, chronic fatigue and memory loss. Parasites are also capable of migrating from the intestines to organs, joints and muscles. A type of parasite known as Entamoeba Histolytica has been found to migrate to the liver and is capable of causing weight loss and insomnia. In some cases of ulcerative colitis, elimination of this parasite resolved the condition. Parasites also depress the immune system by excreting toxic waste products into the body."There is a parasite check list here and I have experienced almost every single symptom listed:
http://www.thewolfeclinic.com/index.php/information-and-tools/self-evaluation-tools/154-parasite-check-listI definitely want to avoid introducing new parasites into my body as much as possible. That's one of the main reasons I'm hesitant to start eating raw meat and looking for assurance here.
3) Are frozen and then thawed raw meats good to consume too or does the freezing damage it in some way?
4) Are all grass-fed raw meats safe to consume? Examples of things I bought from local yocal: frozen grass fed short ribs; frozen pasture raised young chicken livers, frozen pasture raised chicken thighs, fresh wagyu sirloin, fresh wagyu bistro fillet, frozen pasture raised beef liver, frozen lamb rib chops.
Are these all things that you guys would consume totally raw and believe to be safe? Would coating them in coconut oil and/or raw honey be a good idea since these both have anti-bacterial/anti-viral/anti-parasitic properties? Ie. lauric acid in coconut oil.
5) What do you guys think about Vonderplanitz? I want to believe him but the thing about him suffering over 300 heart attacks seems like total fairy tale bullshit. Is that even possible? Surely at least one of those would have killed him? How many attacks can a heart really withstand without death? That alone makes me wary of anything else he says...
I gather Tyler at least is very opposed to his recommendation to include raw dairy. My experience so far is that milk - both raw and pasteurized (especially pasteurized) cannot be tolerated, but raw whipped cream/butter seem OKAY.
Thanks guys - sorry for the huge wall of text, but this is very important to me!