I’m still under the weather too much to even troll you with a Greenwald post, so you have a nightly reprieve. I do think many of you are wrong, and when I say trolling, I don’t really mean trolling, I mean bringing up a contentious topic that I believe in and phrasing shit to piss you off. Ok. Now that I have written and re-read that I think I just defined trolling. So, yeah.
Drinking tons of water, felt much better all day, and as the day goes on I start to feel worse and have the cold aches and pains- I’d pay a hooker just to rub my back right about now.
On the other hand, finished day 7 of the diet I made for Shawn, and he is coming back on Friday to help me with some repairs and maybe look for a job in the region rather than re-deploying to some shit hole. Back to the point, even though I am sick, I actually feel better. I haven’t had an advil or alleve in 3-4 days, and my shoulders are not hurting (more accurately they still hurt a little, but they feel like they do AFTER I normally take alleve), both knees feel better and the recently injured right knee is almost at 100%, but here is the weirdest thing. My fingers, which hurt all day every day no matter what, have not hurt in several days, and I swear to the whatever, my knuckles are HALF the size they normally are. I may have had some food allergies or something I was unaware of ( I have no issue with gluten), but for now, it’s kind of shocking what is going on.
Baud
You know, all you have to say is “Greenwald” and we can take it from there.
Feel better, big guy.
gwangung
Trolling us on Greenwald IS you way of getting better.
Barry
” My fingers, which hurt all day every day no matter what, have not hurt in several days, and I swear to the whatever, my knuckles are HALF the size they normally are. I may have had some food allergies or something I was unaware of ( I have no issue with gluten), but for now, it’s kind of shocking what is going on.”
From what I’ve heard, rheumatoid arthritis usually has a number of food triggers which aggravate it (e.g., red wine). You’ve probably stopped eating some of your major triggers.
I strongly suggest keeping a food diary – it’ll be easier since you’re trying to educate Shawn, and given the simpler diet, you’re not reading cans to figure out what’s in them.
Poopyman
Why don’t you call Lauren?
Anne Laurie
Ever been tested for gout? The stereotype is a swollen toe joint, but sometimes the crystals pile up in the topside digits instead / also.
monkeyfister
Cool! Watch a LIVE view of a HUGE asteroid fly close-by Earth in about an hour!
http://io9.com/watch-a-live-feed-here-of-a-giant-asteroid-as-it-zips-b-1524530893
Steeplejack
@Cole:
As I think others have mentioned in the past week, because of your dietary changes you are probably experiencing relief from a general underlying condition of inflammation. Will see if I can find some references when I get settled.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
So Glenn Greenwald is the topic you believe in?
(I troll, I troll….)
Not Adding Much to the Community
John, would you be willing to consolidate all the changes you made to your diet together in one blog post, so that those of us playing the home game might try it ourselves? Thanks.
Baud
@monkeyfister:
Could that be the asteroid we’ve been hoping for?
Patricia Kayden
Actually if Glenn Greenwald’s revelations result in a change to the Patriot Act/NSA spying, that would be good. Doubt it though.
raven
never mind
Violet
If you’re finding your knuckles are that much less swollen, maybe it’s the salt? Weren’t you cutting that way down for Shawn’s food? Salt makes you retain water, thus swelling.
I mentioned vegetable seed oils in your first post on your friend’s diabetes. Here’s an interesting interview/discussion about that subject and the high Omega 6’s, which are not good for us, in seed oils. They can lead to inflammation. If you were avoiding those and using olive oil and butter, then that might be an issue too.
Hope you feel better soon.
catperson
I’m glad you’re doing so many things to make your life better/happier, Cole.
Hawes
Why would you pay a rugby player to rub your back? If only there were trained professionals who knew how to massage muscles of the back…
Rex Everything
I disagree. I think trolling is fundamentally insincere.
Comrade Mary
If you’re eating less starch/carbs/gluten, you know what? That just may work for you. I found that doing the same thing didn’t do much for any kind of inflammation for me, but people will vary.
Suzan
You should start a spa. Without the exercise. I can hear the infomercial now . . .
Cassidy
FFS, you work at a college. You’re waist deep in punani and your a mumu away from being an episode of Hoarders.
PsiFighter37
Eating sushi and seeing if people actually do show up for an end of the (long) weekend shindig. I’m already 3 IPAs deep, so it’s probably going to get messy no matter what.
BudP
Checkout Perlmutter’s Grain Brain and Davis’ Wheat Belly. Even if you are not gluten intolerant, you may be gluten sensitive. Also too buy sambucus for natural cold and flu prevention.
monkeyfister
@Baud: Sadly, no. A near miss.
***shakes fist at invisible cloud being***
NotMax
The paragraph I’ve bolded in the snippet just cracks me up.
scuffletuffle
Does anyone have any tips on getting PBS videos to play properly. I just spent two hours getting through 20 minutes of Downtown Abbey cause it keeps fucking buffering and finally doesn’t leave buffering to show any video. I don’t have cable and this is the only way I can watch but fuck if it isn’t frustrating. I don’t go through this shit with youtube.
Baud
@NotMax:
So the Swiss Air Force is manned by college professors? Who knew?
Howard Beale IV
@NotMax: Now that’s fucking hysterical if that’s reality. Of course, the pilot made the mistake of thinking the the Swiss were part of the EU when they’re not, and the Italian F-15’s that were shadowing him didn’t bother to tell him that-whoopsie.
contract3d
John – note this Wisdom from the Wife! (okay, my wife – a nurse who has been afflicted by blood sugar issues all her life and thus has been studying on the topic for four decades)
ANYTHING THAT EVEN TRIES TO SCREW UP YOUR BLOOD GLUCOSE CAUSES SURGES OF INSULIN AND -THAT- -SHIT- -IS- -INFLAMMATORY-
This is why you’re feeling less pain and seeing reduced inflammation in your knuckles etc.
Keep eating Shawn’s diet and live pain free for years!
Uh, please.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Baud: No that’s pretty much SOP for nearly everything in some countries. Believe me. Cracks me up that it’s the Air Force also, but there we have it.
Okay evildoers remember, we are coming in under the cover of lunch!
TaMara (BHF)
Sigh. I’m pretty sure I told you this a year ago, but hey, whatever. Really, kidding aside, I’m glad you’re feeling better. However you got there.
raven
@scuffletuffle: It played immediately for me after a 20 sec promo . I’m on a MacBook pro and a wireless connection.
schrodinger's cat
@scuffletuffle: You should try a Mohu Leaf paper-thin antenna. I don’t get cable where I live but am able to get 4 PBS stations, ABC and Fox on my TV.
Punchy
@NotMax: The Swiss dont…watch…their territory on off-hours. They…bank…on the French to help. Wait…was that too cheesy?
Botsplainer
Ditch bread and all wheat products save for special occasions. Cut way back on starches, and go with lots of dark greens to eat with good quality meat. Basically, protein, some carbs and a metric shitton of leafy greens.
I’ve ditched about 25-30 since the first of January.
Try exercise, too. Swimming for now should be fine.
Howard Beale IV
I posted what Gus did in LGF in the Mid-Day Open Thread-basically, he shit on the institution who awarded the Polk award because they are involved in placing people with the Homeland Security folks.
Careful, Gus-that ox you may be goring now may be your own.
JoyceH
John, why are you so sure it’s not gluten? There’s gluten intolerance, which is obvious, but there’s also gluten sensitivity, which is sneakier. Drs don’t diagnose a gluten issue until you reach full-blown celiac disease, I don’t think. Me, I’m self-diagnosed gluten sensitive. I can eat gluten, but I sure feel better when I don’t. Sometimes I fall off the gluten wagon (c’mon – pizza! sandwiches!), and when I do it I’m fine for a day or two, but then all the symptoms come creeping back. It’s not just joint pain – I know I have arthritis, but the joints are always worse when I’m eating gluten. But also sinuses, heartburn, dry eyes – there are a whole host of things that get better when the gluten sensitives stop eating gluten; those are mine, but there are others.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Punchy: The important question I guess is what might the Swiss miss because of this.
Botsplainer
Really want to see Go Pro cameras on Winter Olympic athletes.
NotMax
@Bill E Pilgrim, et al.
“To schedule an aerial dogfight, please press 3.”
Botsplainer
@Howard Beale IV:
They did give one to Inside Edition, so there’s that.
Bill E Pilgrim
Actually John I’m going to second the request: “Shawn’s diet” is what exactly? I sort of saw some posts about your friend visiting and etc but not clear on what the regimen entailed.
I’ll pay attention in class in the future I promise but I’d be curious to see a summary. I’ve had fair success with cutting out carbs to some degree, following what I learned here, basically.
Kind of an amazing book even just in terms of interest, and he’s a damn good science writer, I mean from way before he wrote about this subject.
raven
@Bill E Pilgrim: diabetes diet
JMT
My guess is the lower sodium foods are part of what’s making you feel better, John. I know that when I don’t keep my salt intake below 1500mg/day, my joints hurt and my hands and feet swell.
I think this effect can get confused with gluten and other food sensitivites because many processed foods which are high in gluten are also high in sodium.
For example, my sister swears her joints hurt when she eats wheat or tomato or milk products – and she feels awful if she eats stuff like pizza, spaghetti, tacos. She blames the tomato and dairy and wheat while I blame the added salt and buy/make low salt versions of those yummy foods. Works for me so far!
Violet
@JoyceH: Yep me too. The other thing is, when I gave it up, I felt really under the weather for about 4-5 days. Took a few days for that to hit and then it was like having a mild flu. Then all of a sudden it lifted and aches and pains I’d been experiencing, like in my joints and ankle, vanished as well. Apparently that’s it’s not unusual to experience that kind of withdrawl when giving up gluten.
Found it interesting that John is sick after radically changing his diet. Maybe it’s just a random cold or other virus, or maybe it’s something else, like his body is adjusting to the dietary changes and he’ll feel crappy for a few days.
I agree that gluten is sneaky–you can have no intestinal symptoms but symptoms can show up in other places.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
Inflammation is not your friend. A reduced level of inflammation is why you have fewer aches and pains – and joint swelling. Lots of vegetables are always good, as little preprocessed food as you can eat, and don’t fear the fats – except fats high in Omega 6 fatty acid. In this country we eat too much Omega 6 and too little Omega 3.
Some of the imbalance is caused by factory farming of meat/poultry. Changing the food animals diet and life habits creates meat that it higher in Omega 6 fats than if beef, pigs, and chickens are pastured instead of pumped full of grain and antibiotics so they get bigger faster and sell younger. And vegetable and many seed oils are very high in Omega 6 also. I could rant on, but I won’t. There some very good data on this stuff, and the psych departments are looking closely at the FAs and inflammation as mediators, in part, of brain disorders.
Lizzy L
@Violet: Same same. I had gut/digestive issues, plus bad fatigue. I gave up wheat products. Took about 5 months, and then, wow. Gut issues went away, energy levels shot up. I miss good bread, but I don’t miss what happens to me when I eat bread, so no bread, no wheat noodles. When I miss pasta I buy rice or mung bean or sweet potato noodles at the Asian store. I’m skinny, so weight is not an issue, but I lost about six lbs when I stopped eating wheat. Plus, I eat brown rice, rarely white rice. I’ve always eaten a lot of greens and fruit; now I eat MORE greens and fruit, plus fish and chicken. Eggs occasionally. Legumes, yeah: I love lentils, black beans, and garbanzo beans. I also gave up beer, and I don’t miss it.
John, I love it that your joints feel better. Keep drinking lots of water, and keep on with the good food. I hope the cold passes quickly.
Laertes
Fucking troll. If you’ve got different ideas than me about what’s important, or about the details of this important subject or that, you’re probably only posting about it to annoy me.
aimai
@Barry: I think this is an excellent idea. All kinds of things can trigger responses like swollen joints, water retention, etc… from things that are obvious (like too much salt) to things that are less obvious, like tomatoes/eggplants and other members of the nightshade family. Look hard at the things you weren’t eating while you were helping shawn and you may find that you accidentally eliminated some stuff that you should keep avoiding.
Helen
@JMT: This is exactly what I experience. As soon as I limit my salt intake all swelling (that I didn’t even know I had!) goes down. Also, counter-intuitively, drinking lots of water brings down swelling.
And an anti-salt cooking tip: I find that when I use heat – spicy heat, not hot heat – I do not miss the salt at all. And this from a woman who puts salt on McDonald’s French fries!
MikeJ
Weird. That whole story about spying on a US law firm was mostly hyperbole and very short on real facts. Who would have guessed?
Jeffro
@NotMax: Colbert-worthy!
ruemara
@MikeJ: the devil, you say!
Not sad to have you not trolling, but other than that feel better.
Cervantes
@MikeJ:
Wait — you do realize that whole article is simply the opinion of one of their staff writers, yes?
And not only that, his usual focus is the Middle East, not the NSA.
catperson
Okay, I was trying to avoid the specifics but I feel compelled to respond. Statistically speaking, decreasing salt is much more likely to be the cause of decreased swelling than any decreased inflammation from avoiding gluten, especially in someone with your drinking history, Cole. Fluid balance is mostly regulated by salt, not free water intake. There are exceptions but nothing I know about you from this blog suggests that’s likely. I’m mentioning this because food fads based on anecdotes/bad science irritate me.
That said, do what makes you feel better.
Howard Beale IV
@Botsplainer: Blind squirrels and nuts.
JoyceH
@JMT:
Tomatoes! That’s another issue. Tomatoes are members of the nightshade family, as are peppers, potatoes and eggplant. I think a lot of people are sensitive to nightshades and don’t realize it.
Yatsuno
@MikeJ: OBOT!!!
StringOnAStick
I quit all grains after figuring out that wheat bugs me, and the joint pain went to nearly zero thanks to that. I eat plenty of salt, more than I used to and that is definitely not the source of joint pain for me, wheat and carbs in general are. I’ve done a LOT of reading on this issue, and for people like me who were headed for metabolic syndrome, getting my insulin response down really, really dropped my general inflammation level.
From what I could tell by what John was feeding his bro, except for the quinoa it was pretty much what I eat. And feeling crappy 4 to 7 days into cutting out wheat and carbs is very, very common; stick it out and you’ll be OK in a few more days – DON’T BACKSLIDE, you’re almost there!