Hi All!

I hope you're enjoying your day, and the holidays are relaxing.

It's snowing and grey out but that's fine; no winter blues this year so far (huge win!). I've been 100% gluten-free for 6 months now. The anniversary was Tuesday this week. It's essentially cured everything, although it's taking time for my systems to fully heal. Still, I can do full work days no problem, and even 14 hour days aren't a huge deal. I don't overdo it, but it's a great place to be.

Wheat free means no anxiety, no depression, reasonable energy, no joint pain (my knee got better!), not having to be overly vigilent with my moods, ability to breathe, (my cardio is like that of a 20 year old now), ability to drive the car at night without worry of falling asleep, ability to travel without worry (huge!), etc. I play squash *3 a week for 2 hours, can do presentatons in front of hundreds of people, and generlaly just enjoy life.

Wheat was the root for sure, and AF was the result of the wheat issue.

Note: I did NOT show up as having a big problem on the IgG/IgA blood tests from naturopath, nor the genetic markers for Celiac (from MD). Possibly that's 'cause I was gluten-free-ish (95%), but didn't see the final benefits until being 100%. I'll say that again, I had to be 100% gluten-free to ensure I didn't have extreme mood problems.

After being gluten-free for 6 months I remembered, but didn't viserally remember, waking up with anxiety/depression. I had some accidentally a week ago (first time), and boy, oh boy, was that a truly shitty 4 days. Anxiety/ Depression the first day, upset guts thereafter, and joint pain that peaked on the fourth night. Thanks to Margeaux and Fern for talking me through that one. Looking back I don't know how I survived that on a regular basis, but I did and I'm glad. Life is pretty sweet now.

I thought with that, I really do owe people a post saying, find the root cause and it gets better. AF is the result of the problem, not the problem itself.

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I am surprised I'm not 100% yet. It always seems around the corner, which is somewhat frustrating. I think though the biggest impediment to being 100% healthy is not being 100% healthy. I get more colds now then ever and they last longer, and they last longer. Other things conspire to keep me off my routine.

I guess if I could spend a month resting somewhere warm, I'd probably recover all the way. Or if I took more time to recover from being ill, I'd get healthier quickly, but a busy life gets in the way so I heal slowly now. But the point is that's fine; my health is good enough.

Speaking of which, my girlfriend addressing her AF makes a huge different to my AF. Now that she has more energy/juice, it means I do. You can love someone, and they can still drain you. Both of us having energy issues meand we could be together. But now, generally, we boost each other. A lot more fun, and a good place to be.

Thanks everyone for your help in diagnosing my issue in late summer. It seems it was the I tried Whole Foods/Standard Process's supplements. They were a witches brew of animal parts, and it turned my August into HyperProductivity but Sept and part of Oct were recovery mode. It seemed to have overstimulated my thyroid (numbers went from normal to under 1 in Sept!). So likely they can work for those who were really unhealthy but for me, it was the wrong stuff.
http://www.standardprocess.com/Standard-Process-Document-Library/Brochures/ad...


My willpower pool is still not 100% where it was. Routine is my friend, and I don't like to have to exert willpower for health unless I have to. That distracts me from using it for other parts of my life.
http://scopeblog.stanford.edu/2011/12/29/a-conversation-about-the-science-of-...


I hope you're all healing, and good hunting on finding the root cause of your issues.

A+