Fri 14 Sep 2007
4 Ways to Never Get Sick Again
Posted by Jeremiah under Health, Nutrition, Paleo Diet
Imagine, for a moment, our ancient ancestors. Imagine them hunting, gathering, and traveling great distances. Imagine the constant threat of danger.
Now what happens if one of them gets sick?
It seems to me that our Paleolithic ancestors couldn’t have gotten sick as often or with the same severity that we do. It would have been a death sentence.
Yes, we live in heavily populated areas and germs are spread easily, but I don’t think that’s the only answer. Germs constantly invade our body. Your body has mechanisms to fight these invaders, that is if your immune system is functioning properly.
Do you get sick often?
In the past, I’ve gotten sick several times a year. I know this is the case for many people. During my freshman year at college, I remember being sick for almost an entire semester.
Last spring, I planned a camping/hiking trip, but I developed a fever the day before we left. It’s a long story, but suffice it to say I was so determined and stubborn that I still went even with the fever. Once we started hiking, I could barely move. My breath was so short and even just walking was difficult. It was a beautiful trip, but ultimately cut short by my illness.
Now, did Paleolithic humans, with no warm clothes or sleeping bags such as I had, experience these same kinds of debilitating symptoms? I seriously doubt it. And I think I know why.
Sleep: Stop ignoring your body’s need for it.
It’s only a big deal when you don’t get it, right? And when would Paleolithic humans miss sleep? Imagine having no job, no deadlines, and no alarm clocks. I’m sure it was great. The body needs sleep so bad, that it will literally shut itself down for “microsleeps” after enough sleep deprivation.
I am certain sleep deprivation causes a weakened immune system. I have very often woken up with a sore throat, the beginnings of a cold, after getting 3 or 4 hours of sleep during the previous few nights.
Get as much sleep as you can. And why not? Being well rested feels amazing. Do you really think the extra couple hours you gain by missing sleep is worth it? You go through the next day being less productive and feeling like a zombie.
Stress: Make it productive.
When it rains it pours. We always seem to get sick at the worst time. And it’s no coincidence. Stress weakens the immune system too. Our ancestors didn’t encounter the same kinds of stress as we did. They didn’t have to be in a constant state of worry. Stress in the stone age was quick and productive. Yes, productive. You do the whole “fight or flight” thing and then you forget it.
So I say that the most effective thing you can practice is productive worrying. If you can solve a problem by worrying about it, go ahead. If you spend all night contemplating worst case scenarios, ask yourself “what is the point in this?” Especially if things are out of your control. If the universe is about to shit on you, you might as well enjoy the sunshine.
Food: Eat better and eat less.
Here’s an analogy that I actually learned from reading the Gran Turismo 3 instruction maual: To avoid spinning out of control while driving, the sum of the traction forces (accelerating, braking, turning) on your tires can’t be greater than the friction. In other words, the friction of the tire has to be split between accelerating, braking, and turning. You can’t take a turn while braking at the same speed that you could take it without braking.
In the same way, your body has to split its energy between the muscular system, the digestive system, and the immune system. Do you enjoy running after eating a huge meal? Didn’t think so. Eating crap food over and over again makes it hard for the body to focus on much more than processing toxins. Refined sugar is a good example. It’s simply a toxin to your body. I often feel a complete lack of energy soon after consuming too much sugar.
Eating too much food is similar. Most illnesses are associated with a decrease in appetite. This is because your body has a job to do and it can’t be bothered with digesting a huge meal.
Paleolithic humans didn’t have to make the hard choices we have to make. They didn’t have to struggle to avoid grains, dairy, refined sugar, processed foods, and artificial products. They didn’t have to do this because those foods just didn’t exist! And gorging themselves was a difficult proposition indeed, especially if they did happen to get sick.
Vitamin D: Don’t be deficient.
There is an element of truth in most myths. I bet you’ve heard the myth that cold weather causes illness. It’s simply not true:
Myth: Cold, wet weather causes colds and flu
Fact: Mothers no longer have to keep their children indoors until their hair dries, according to Dr. Susan Nelson, an internist with the Ochsner Clinic in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In reality, viruses are the culprits. Nelson does say, contrary to the myth, that staying inside more — because of cold weather — even may make it easier to spread germs.
-CNN: Medical Myths
This is just a theory I have, so take it as you will, but I think this myth has probably been propagated because winter is associated with something that does cause illness: vitamin D deficiency. Very few foods have much vitamin D. However, sunlight helps your body produce the vitamin. And it’s safe to say people get a lot less sunlight in the winter. Vitamin D is thought to have an important role in the immune system. There are theories that vitamin D even has cancer fighting properties:
The vitamin D hormone, calcitriol, has been found to induce death of cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. Although the anti-cancer activity of vitamin D is not fully understood, it is thought that these effects are mediated through vitamin D receptors expressed in cancer cells, and may be related to its immunomodulatory abilities. The anti-cancer activity of vitamin D observed in the laboratory has prompted some to propose that vitamin D supplementation might be beneficial in the treatment or prevention of some types of cancer.[8]
Wikipedia- Vitamin D
Getting your vitamin D from sunlight is probably the best solution and once again the Paleolithic human has no problem at all in this area. You have no risk of overdosing on vitamin D while absorbing sunlight as opposed to a megavitamin and it’s easier for your body to produce vitamin D through receiving sunlight as well. Worried about skin cancer? I’m not an expert, but I do know that it’s possible that vitamin D deficiency can even contribute to your risk of many types of cancer and skin cancer is also one of the easiest cancers to treat. And I also have to scratch my head when pondering this problem. If sunlight was so dangerous, wouldn’t all of ancestors have had skin cancer? The sun has been around much longer than life on Earth. Why wouldn’t we have evolved to handle it?
Twenty minutes a day in the sun is about all you need anyways (without sunscreen because it blocks vitamin D production).
Never sick again
Can making these changes really ensure you never get sick again? I’m not completely sure, but I turn to Art De Vany for clues:
So, do I get sick?
No, I never get sick. In 20 years I have had only had food poisoning from improperly handled sea food in a rather high end restaurant. I recall one other occasion when I felt under attack from a virus going around, but it never got me. This was during my teaching years when I was exposed to about 700 students a year in my classes and countless others in daily work on a large campus.
This was unusual among our faculty; I could always be counted on to fill in for some one who was sick and couldn’t teach class. At finals, my classes were filled with coughing, hacking students sick from all night study and stress. The flu and other viruses never seemed to get me. UCI also has a large foreign student contingent, somewhat weighted toward Asia. This is a part of the world where many flu virus originate because of the hog-duck-people cycle.
-Art De Vany: Do You Get Sick?
So there you have it. Someone who practices a diet similar to paleo hasn’t gotten sick (excluding food poisoning) for 20 years. And he’s 70 years old! I think that’s rather amazing.
What I’m suggesting is that maybe this whole sickness thing really isn’t ‘normal.’ We see it as a part of life, but what if it wasn’t intended to be? What if our bodies are strong enough that, if provided with the right inputs, they are fully able to conquer most illnesses easily? I don’t have to just wonder. I’m going to find out.
September 17th, 2007 at 7:14 pm
Wow, you’ve made some pretty strong suggestions there, many which immediately seem invalid. Where do these ideas come from? A quick search returned many results which listed disease as a cause of death for our ancestors. Getting sick *was* one of many death sentences for them. Just look at any stats on average lifespan.
Healthful practices are certainly worth undertaking, but to suggest the practices of paleolithic humans justify those practices? No, you’ll need to validate those claims…
September 17th, 2007 at 8:20 pm
Thanks for the comment, Mark.
I am aware that median lifespans of Paleolithic humans were about 30-35 years. Most people I know, including myself, have had several severe sicknesses every single year in which we have had almost no energy and we can sometimes barely breathe; and that is with plenty of rest, modern medicine, and warm clothing. My point is that I don’t think any of our ancestors would have survived as long as they did if they had the same problems.
You asked “where do these ideas come from.” I am going to assume that you are unfamiliar with the Paleolithic diet. It’s something I’m experimenting with now.
The basis of the rationale behind the diet is this: our species had millions of years to adapt to the environment and to the available food sources present in the Paleolithic Era. Evolution creates animals that are strong, that are well suited to their environments, not ones that can barely get by. If a species isn’t well adapted, it overrun by stronger species. The last 10,000 years of human history has seen great changes in our lifestyle and diet, but evolution has had no almost no time to catch up. Therefore, we probably aren’t suited to our modern lifestyles. If you accept this, then it’s only logical that our diet and lifestyle should reflect that of a Paleolithic human for optimal health.
Trust me, I know this whole thing sounds radical. Most people think that, but at the same time, it’s very intuitive to me. I’d be happy to answer your questions if you have more. Thanks again.
September 17th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
I suspect you’re right. But we don’t all have those problems and yet we all eat a similar diet (that is those in Western cultures largely all eat similarly poor diets, as judged by our consumption of highly processed foods). Thus the diet cannot be the only, and not necessarily the major contributor (it probably is, but such a statement requires more support) to early death.
Yup, I’m unfamiliar with the diet, but I have heard it mentioned. The rationale does hold in respect to the unlikelihood of evolution having yet improved our ability to digest process foods. However adaptation doesn’t require optimal performance. In terms of natural selection it only requires greater performance than the competition (i.e., traits which benefit an organism more are selected over the competitors which provide less benefit). Therefore the paleolithic diet is not necessarily the best one. Just better than the alternatives available to our competition (which can include ourselves; rival tribes, Neanderthals, etc., assuming group selection is also a valid evolutionary mechanism. I don’t know if that’s the case).
So, I don’t believe someone can state that we should eat what our ancestors ate because their survival, and the slow progress of evolution, shows that our bodies are more suited to their diet than our own. What about our ancestors’ rates of disease? Did their diet actually improve their ability to deal with disease? If they’d eaten as we do, could the countless other different aspects of their lifestyle have meant that our diet would actually have been *better* for them? The fact that enough of them survived for the race to continue isn’t enough to claim that their diet had any significant impact on their health in comparison to the impact of our diet on our health.
We also need to consider what else, other than diet, provided us with an evolutionary advantage. Perhaps diet was a minor contributor compared to our cognitive abilities. Do proponents of the diet take this into account?
To further illustrate my point, cast your imagination 10,000 years into the future. If people in the future examine the records from our time (of any accurate kind), they’ll see us eating poorly, yet surviving as a race. Should they then decide to eat what we’re eating now?
-M
PS: I think you and your readers would find something like this plugin very useful: http://txfx.net/code/wordpress/subscribe-to-comments/ (I know I do). It lets commenters register to receive an email notification when a new comment is posted.
PPS: I hope I don’t come across as dismissive or overly critical. I know you’re just presenting your own ideas and those you’ve come across, and not making statements of fact. It seems as if you’re truly trying to understand this issue, so I’m just picking it apart a little for you. Ideas which seem intuitively accurate are dangerous because their intrinsic appeal can cause you to overlook their failings.
PPPS: For the record I’m also an omnivore.
September 17th, 2007 at 10:30 pm
Yes, but as evolution progresses over millions of years and the environment remains relatively the same, competition is going to force groups to adapt better and better. I agree that evolution doesn’t produce any perfect specimens, but they are pretty damn close.
The main food guidelines in the Paleolithic diet are eliminating grains, dairy, and processed food. Yes, our bodies might not have been adapted 100% to the food sources available, but I theorize that they weren’t adapted at all to consume grains or dairy before the rise of agriculture.
I suppose this is very hard to determine, but I have heard many reported benefits of modern people adopting a Paleo diet:
Benefits from Paleo diet
There haven’t been many studies done, but I talked about this one:
First Controlled Study of Paleolithic Diet
Concerning the rest of your comment, we could indeed have survived by leveraging technology or intellect even with poor nutrition. I definitely see what you’re saying. At the same time, I have to wonder how our ancestors survived without the technology we have now and with the same level of illness (you really don’t think most people get sick fairly often?). We are essentially domesticated animals now, completely free of all the dangers of living in the wild. We have removed natural selection, but it was still a powerful force back then. I would hope our descendants would recognize this in 10,000 years.
PS. Glad you are an omnivore as well. I chose the title because I was kind of fed up with hearing so much about veganism, as if it was the only option for people wanting to live healthy.
September 19th, 2007 at 1:56 am
It’s good that a controlled study has been done, but with such a small sample size the conclusion can’t be given much weight (not to mention the limited demographics; all Swedish heart disease patients).
But not to dismiss the results (or anecdotal evidence), clearly the paleolithic diet is good for some people. But how good, and for whom, and exactly which parts of the diet are most important, and for whom?
September 24th, 2007 at 6:45 pm
I also “never” get sick. I am 46, mother of 4 adults. Even when my children were small and would have usual children’s illnesses (although rare), I would almost always remain unscathed by the current bug. I have probably had the flu 2x in the past 25+ years and it has only lasted less than 24 hours when others will have it for a week. Also, maybe 1 or 2 colds in that time. My diet is normal american… sometimes pretty healthy, other times, fast food and junk… it varies considerably depending on schedules, etc. My kids are like me, although they had some kid stuff, but very rarely get sick now. My husband is about the same, so are his parents and my parents and our siblings. My theory? Good genes… to me it seems like some families just have better immune systems than others… we lucked out. A good diet can’t hurt, but I think genes play the big role in good immune system (at least in our family).