This is a living document — I'll keep adding sections to it over time, so treat it as unfinished.

The usual thing applies here as much as it does anywhere else. We start with problems, understand the problems and their corresponding form, and make our guesses and explanations of how to solve them. We may need to perform a crucial test when there are multiple explanations but, especially in health, it is more common to require lots of smaller tests and experiments and then adjust the method accordingly. Each human body is obviously vastly different from another, otherwise we could all follow the same advice and be well — but that is certainly not the case.

I aim to condense everything that I know about health and all the tools and methods of pulling oneself out of sickness and into the state of optimal health, where the body does not get in the way of one's aspirations and thoughts as the blindly coercive vessel that it can be — especially when health is poor. With this in mind, the focus initially will always be to restore the body to this state where it can be free of symptoms and able to function without a hitch. I will begin with the (seemingly) most pressing of issues and symptoms that I have and then move on to the lesser, more niche areas.

The Gut

The gut is one of the more common problem areas of the body. Part of this is due to the fact that it is constantly exposed to everything we eat or drink, but it also contains the second highest concentration of neurons in the body — second of course to the brain. The number of neurons in the gut amounts to ~0.2% to ~0.6% of the total neurons in the body. This sounds measly, but it's still a significant number at an estimated 100–500 million neurons (roughly the same as a cat has in its brain). Biologically speaking, we are wired to sense the slightest changes occurring in the gut. The share of the neurons is highest in the small intestine, which holds around half of the total neurons of the gut, followed by the colon/large intestine. This also speaks to the importance of the health of the gut, as we have evolved to be highly sensitive there — more so than any other part of our biology, excluding the brain.

Since the gut is exposed to everything that we eat and is very sensitive, it is a good starting point when trying to improve general health, as it has far-reaching effects on many systems in the body. The rise in colon cancer and other maladies of the gut sheds some light on just how bad our situation is, with the occurrence of these issues happening younger and more often than ever in recent tracked history. The reasons for this are certainly manifold, however there are many quite obvious or very well understood mechanisms where the gut is harmed directly and indirectly, in ways which can be mitigated without much issue.

Bacterial Overgrowth / Dysbiosis / SIBO

Symptoms:

• Pain
• Lactic acid taste
• Bloating / cortisol symptoms

Potential fixes:

• Reducing the things that are feeding the bacteria — certain starches, lots of sugar and cane sugar at once (especially on an empty stomach?)

Headache

Thyroid.

Went away with salty corn chips with cheese, a raw carrot, and coke with ginger (later).