Ever since I was a child, the human body has been phenomenal to me. At a very early age I began to draw, and it's probably not surprising that, soon after shapes and lines, the first "things" I drew were people. But I quickly started to get more specific: I liked pirates, and I liked their skull and crossbones flag, because I was a kid, so creepy and scary things were "cool," naturally: I thought Egyptian mummies were fascinating, and knowing that the face of Jolly Roger was the skull that gives our head its shape, and that those two bones were part of the skeleton, I didn't see something monstrous, I saw something wondrous:
"Whoa! There were brains in there!"
...and so on. Or maybe I just thought the skull and crossbones looked cool. Either way, I began drawing skeletons, all the time. Some of my teachers worried about me, and probably my parents did too, but drawing was my thing, and rather than discourage me in any way, for my ninth birthday my parents got me a copy of the classic Gray's Anatomy textbook, hoping that, if nothing else, maybe I'd learn something. Today, the book is a little dated to reliably reference, but it was a pivotal addition to my library as a macabre kid. The rest is history: over time, those two bones making the X beneath Jolly Roger's grin became skeletal connective tissue called femurs, and presumably he stood on them before he flew on a flag. His skull had many bones with wild names like zygomatica and occiput and sphenoid, and it protected a brain once. And attached to all that bony, hopefully-not-too-scurvied scaffold: muscle. Viscera and flesh. Tissues and organs, so many different muscles and nerves, mazes of carefully arranged moving parts, and all of it connected to itself.
I looked through Gray's Anatomy for the next decade, expanding my subject matter and drawing more and more images based on the book, as well as any other examples I could find. I had grown to truly appreciate the elegant systems at work within the body. Furthermore, I was raised to respect the power of herbal remedies, so I had also developed a deep love for plants, as well as our connection with them. By the time I started college, I knew I wanted to be a healer, somehow, someway, but not a conventional doctor: perhaps a naturopath, or an acupuncturist. When I had to declare a major, it seemed to me that Human Physiology would be the most useful means toward that end, so I chose that, and filled my elective spots with botany courses. After getting my bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona in 2007, I was not sure which medical school or graduate program was really right for me. I toured Costa Rica briefly, learning about Amazonian medicinal plants with ethnobotanist Dr. James Duke, renowned co-creator of the phytochemical database and author of some of my favorite herbal literature. Upon my return I began working immediately in university research labs, trying to determine what I could study, with whom I could study... Something like seven years later, I had learned many great skills and worn many hats, but I still had nothing consistent in the way of a career as a result (many factors make university lab work a tenuous and unreliable occupation), and I was getting dragged away from the actual art and science of healing to the business and bureaucracy side of research work, which was not where I felt my self shining best.
Working as an analytical chemist in 2013... (Photo courtesy of UAnews.arizona.edu)
In addition, despite doing yoga and mountain biking and hiking whenever I could, lab life had me sedentary and eating "healthy" lunch options at pizza buffets and sandwich shops, and as a result my health was starting to send warning signals and show red flags. My appendix had recently thrown in the towel. I had eczema and chronic acne on my entire (mostly lower) dorsal side, conditions I had endured since I was pre-school age and come to grudgingly accept, but which were growing steadily worse. I slept less than five hours a night and thought that meant I was "tough." I had shoulder and knee pain constantly, and nearly-debilitating back spasms that had me calling in sick to work all too often. I was also prone to injuries, particularly bone and joint injuries. I had heartburn almost daily and seemed to keep getting myself sick, often for weeks straight, long after the seasonal bug had passed everyone else. I was increasingly unhappy and dangerously overweight (yet always hungry) and I knew I needed to change things while I still could. To add to the pressure of this timing, I broke the first tarsal in my right foot, virtually immobilizing myself for several weeks. While I was laid up, I began searching for ways to regain the path of the healer, if not for others, at least for myself.
I had already been trying to improve my diet for at least a year, by reading ingredients and avoiding corn syrup, MSG, and artificial colors and flavors, and by sticking to that for a year straight, I had lost about 30 pounds. The photo of me above was taken around this time (I don't have any real 'before' pictures, just this halfway point). I had been getting sick a lot less, and my acne and heartburn had become less constant and more cyclical, but even being tall I still felt overweight at 245 pounds (down from over 270), and I was actively seeking ways to achieve my potential. With what could not have been more perfect timing, I was introduced to Qigong (CHI-gung) by my massage therapist (whom I have been known for over twenty years, since third grade, when my mom and I were in a car crash). A dramatic series of life changes followed, many of which I associate, directly or indirectly, with practicing qigong. Just a few months after the photo above was taken, a friend introduced me to a book, called It Starts With Food, that began to change the way I look at food. Following the core ideas in that book about how the body uses (or stores) energy throughout the day, I eliminated all processed food from my diet and began making everything from scratch. In addition to the ingredient cuts already mentioned, I did a strict minimal-inflammatory-compound reset for forty-five days: no processed sugar (including alcohol), no grains, no legumes, no dairy, and none of their byproducts. This is not a "diet" in the sense that I eat less, it is a nutrition schedule that involves eating appropriate amounts of nutrient-dense, real food throughout the day, not three large meals consisting mostly of starch and sugar. During this period I consumed over 2500 calories a day, and in literally six weeks I lost another 30 pounds... but that's not even the point. The point is this: my acne and eczema cleared up completely, and my sleep schedule normalized, with me waking up before my alarm and ready for bed before midnight. My appetite became regular, and specific: it turns out I am extremely sensitive to grain and dairy, so pizza commercials became nauseating instead of mouth-watering, for example. More surprising, though, was the fact that my joint pain was gone. Pain that had been there for years, residues of various sports injuries that I had come to accept as "healed" to their limit, had actually healed, completely. This is because the body is unable to devote its resources to healing injuries when it is forced to ameliorate chronic gut inflammation, which ultimately triggers autoimmune issues as the tissues become increasingly toxified. That is why so many people with arthritis and neuropathy report better conditions overall after properly balancing the processed food in their diets, and many also end up taking up a physically spiritual practice too (such as qigong, tai chi, or light daily yoga).
A pirate of the high trees in his natural habitat, 2014... Photo Credit: Donaldehyde
I maintained that strict way of eating for a full year, and having sustained the practice now for over three years I feel that it was the right decision for me to make. I rarely get sick at all anymore, and my days feel better than they ever did. It's not as easy as it may sound from the distillation I've given above, but it's not impossible. Due diligence takes individual research, and the food system is stacked heavily against us, but it is possible to make real changes to the body's ability to heal using proper nutrition. That's not the end-all, of course: some things are beyond simple nutrition. It is a good start though, and my scoliosis pains and back spasms happen far less frequently when I keep on top of my nutrition and hydration. I do think that the chi (qi, ki, the force...) had something to do with it too. It is possible, in my view, that qigong and yoga were actually catalyzing the development or facilitating the harvest of chi, and that in turn was triggering new pathways toward healing: things like willpower, focus, and clarity. Either way, meditation comes much more easily than it ever did before I started practicing qigong, which also taught me the true meaning of grounding myself and in turn, has helped me recharge and maintain many of my natural resources. Many similar testimonies to the healing power of qigong exist with regard to headaches, asthma, acne, and even more severe autoimmune disorders, like arthritis and sclerosis. For the times when the flare-ups happen anyway (truly, no body is perfect: certain issues remain a part of one's life in some fashion, at least for a time), therapeutic massage has almost always proven to be helpful to me, more so than any commercial pharmaceutical ever has. Sometimes even the most gentle touch can have profoundly deep effects. Exercise, too, is critical. For me, that means yoga, qigong, cycling, hiking, some weights... maybe some frisbee, or running my dogs... What might it mean for you?
I must re-iterate that this is only my personal testimony: I'm relating what I did for myself, not trying to tell anyone else "what to do," because really, every individual is different. It certainly can't be said that doing any one thing is right for everybody: ultimately it is up to each individual to figure out what works for one's specific system, especially when it comes to something as fundamental as one's own sustenance: you really are what you eat.