Proton Pump Inhibitors Suck

Almost same experience for me....vis a vis asthma and allergies, not digestion.

While I was never a vegan, I was brainwashed by popular media and big pharma/food manufacturer's and Government non-profit PSA propaganda to believe the lies that meat and saturated fats were bad for you. So I ate as vegetarian as possible...oftentimes, three or four days straight of eating nothing but plant foods - poi, banannas, nuts, legumes, fruits and salads...as well as "whole grain" everything. When I did eat animal based foods, I always ate lean/non-fat/low-fat/lite etc.

Non-dairy creamers. Turkey bacon. Margarine. Ground turkey instead of ground beef. Non-fat sour cream and yogurt. Always lean cuts of meat, if I did eat meat. Low-fat cheese. Non-stick cooking sprays for cooking. "No cholesterol" canola oil, etc.

Eating like this for over 5 years saw my waistline continue to expand and my asthma to be perpetually aggravated and chronic.

Doctors eventually put me on inhaled steroid combo drug. It was like a miracle...my asthma was gone.

But I still kept getting fatter, despite following the conventional wisdom of "eating healthy." Oh...and I've been an exercise/physically demanding recreation guy (always doing something with an asthma inhaler in my pocket.) In other words, I regularly exercise...I have my entire adult life. And yet I was still losing the "battle of the bulge."

And than one day, I awoke with blurry vision.

At 32 years of age, I had developed cataracts.

In the fine print of the inhaled steroid's info insert, it stated that long term use has been shown to increase the likelihood of cataract formation. I saw four different doctors, and they were all dumbfounded that I could have gotten the cataracts from only about a year of being on the medication.

They told me I couldn't receive intra-ocular lens replacement surgery until my cataracts progressed to the point of being legally blind (it was a provision of my healthcare coverage plan). Within 6 months, my vision had degenerated to 20/400. Legally blind. I lived like that for 3 more months before finally got the surgery and can now see just fine.

Doctors insisted I should maintain my inhaled steroid medication. I told them no, I'd rather die of an asthma attack than to go blind again. I resisted the Doctors and just told them I'd stick to using my rescue inhaler whenever I felt an attack coming on. In the parlance of conventional medicine, this is not "controlling" my condition. But they couldn't force me to...so I never touched the steroid drugs again.

Shortly after this surgery, I came to the conclusion that I was at a crossroads - either I lose weight, or I'd have to buy an entirely new wardrobe. I was tipping the scale at 220...when I graduated from High School, I was 155.

I had to accept the notion that my low-fat, predominantly plant based diet and a lot of aerobic/endurance exercise was not helping me lose weight AT ALL.

So I turn to the internet and google up personal fitness trainers websites to read up on the topic of body building and losing weight. One of the nutrtionists I read up on was a guy named Mike Furci, and his reference material to back up his proscriptions were articles by Mary Enig and Sally Fallon at the WAPF. I begin reading everything at the WAPF site. The site hit a chord with me...especially when I read Dr. Price's observations of indigenous populations in Polynesia and their physical state on their native diets and how it degenerated into malnourishment after introduction to the Western hi-carb/grain-heavy diet. Looking at the number of fellow Hawaiians who are fat, obese, diabetic etc., I realize that Price's observations coincide precisely with the historical record of Western contact with the Hawaiian islands. Cook and his sailors made copious notes regarding the athletic physiques and giant stature and girth of the natives when they first landed here.

So I change my diet to a high saturated fat, high protein, no grain diet. Inside of 3 months, I'm down to 175 pounds...and can actually see my muscle structure. And than one day, I also realize that it's been quite some time since I had an asthma attack and needed my rescue inhaler. Well damn...wouldn't you know it - it appears my diet was a huge part of my asthma as well.

Such results drove me to research deeper into diet issues.

I now believe that the inhaled steroids combined with my high Omega-6 fatty acid imbalanced diet contributed to my cataract formation and chronic asthma. Had I been eating an Omega-3 rich diet (of which I learned accumulates especially in the eyes and the brain and lung tissue), I may not have developed the cataracts, and had I not been conditioned to believe that saturated fats were detrimental, I would not have had the chronic asthma that had me taking the steroids in the first place.

This is what makes me so irritated with the vegan/vegetarian claims of dietary superiority. Because I believed it, and tried to follow it as much as possible. I would regularly go to events/restaurants, and eat everything plant based, and leave the meat only partially eaten. Or I would order food specifically to avoid the meat and saturated fats, and I believed I was eating "healthy." The only reason I never tried full blown vegitarian-ism/vegan-ism is because I've been hunting pigs since my teens. I live the hunter's ethos of kill only what you will eat, and eat everything that you kill. But even after a successful hunt, I'd still cook up the pig and share it with as many people as possible and still try to eat more vegetables in proportion to the meat on my plate.

In short, I have a special loathing for the "plants are a superior food source" and that meat and animal fats are bad for you ideology, because by trying to apply it, it just gave me health problems.

The largest paradigm shift for me was the discovery that eating fat did not make you fat....but that's what one would believe if they mindlessly absorb the message of Americas corporate food processors and their ubiquitous marketing promotions based on low-fat/non-fat claims of health.

I'm now completely opposite in my approach, and I've never been healthier. Not only is my asthma very rare now (I still get allergic reactions to excessive dust exposure and animal dander), but I've never had better endurance when I engage in strenuous activity.

Praise the Lard!

http://thehealthyskeptic.org/get-rid-of-heartburn-and-gerd-forever-in-th...

Great series on the topic.

I've never known before all the reasons to take (and not take) PPIs. It sounds horrible what you went through. A doctor at school gave me a two weeks supply to help my body clear up a nasty stomach virus (it helped).

my husband has quit taking zantac, which he took for over a decade, and finds that eating less wheat helps and taking apple cider vinegar in water helps, along with other lifestyle changes. it's insane that MDs have no problem rxing medicine for a condition that is directly caused by what we eat.

QUOTE:
"... stomach acid, which we kind of evolved for a reason- to help digest food and to protect against pathogens."

Until people understand science and evolution, medicine will continue to be not much more than magic potions. And that won't happen until ignorant people stop interfering with the teaching of science and evolution.

Great post, very nice to hear that somehow you found out that the solution wasn't to be found in 'modern medicine' but in real food.

My mother has IBS but doesn't really want to try to go no-gluten or no-grains, and is still afraid of fat (when she sais something about high-fat, and looks at me, she says: "Oh, yeah, fat ain't bad, is it?", though.

My sisters little baby has quite serious eczema, but she is not open to a low-suger or low/no-grains test diet of 4 weeks. I can see why, because over here, nowadays it is 100% normal to feed your small kid grains, sugar infused yoghurts, and cookies every day in every day normal life. Although I already demonstrated that I lost weight on this diet/lifestyle and got 100% rid of my canker sores, amonght other issues, after 20+ years of doctors telling me: "We have no idea what triggers these sores, you are probably just low on vitamins or have a weak immune system or something like that". I just turned 34, but I think I have more years to go than 5 years ago (maybe even more?) at this time.

It's so hard to change people's beliefs, even if you show them an example in their personal social group. Peer pressure, and the almost 'sacred' status of the healthcare professionals really is deeply embedded in people's minds...