Let’s talk about each of the many outwardly signs and symptoms of Paleo gone wrong individually, and cover as many as possible – although there could be many others that I haveyet to discover or connect to the metabolic profile induced via carbohydrate and/or calorie restriction (or overtraining) common in the Paleo world.
Once again, let me emphasize that these aren’t problems that are exclusive to a Paleo or carbohydrate-restricted diet. You can run into these problems on ANY diet. You can run into these problems just from drinking too much water or not getting enough sleep! There are seemingly infinite paths to producing excessive stress hormones. Whether Paleo was the trigger to your issues or not is irrelevant for this next section. What’s more important is identifying the problem and learning how to correct it.
The first and most prevalent is probably the icy cold hands and feet that many experience from
having their catecholamines elevated for months and their thyroid toppled in the process.
Cold Hands and Feet
I’m obsessive about cold hands and feet! Because the warmth of hands and feet is an
incredible insight as to what is occurring inside of the body. When the hands, feet, and tip of
the nose are cold, it is due to reduced peripheral circulation and the constriction of blood
vessels in those areas. Peripheral circulation is reduced when stress hormones become
elevated. This causes blood to rush from the extremities back toward the internal organs for
emergency usage. “Cold feet” is a universal sign of tension, nervousness, or anxiety – all
powerful inducers of stress, although they can result from being in a stress-dominated physical
state as well. We’ll discuss that later.
The thyroid gland is the primary driver of metabolic energy and warmth. Stress hormones are
sort of the Kryptonite of the thyroid. They oppose one another, for the most part. The lower
the thyroid gland goes due to dieting, emotional stress, nervousness, inflammation, lack of
sleep, carbohydrate restriction, overtraining, infection, and so forth – the more prone we are to
be dominated by stress hormones throughout the day and night. The low-thyroid, excess
adrenal activity combination typically causes the hands, feet, and tip o’ the nose to become
quite chilly. Sometimes you might feel it in the ears too.
Having cold hands and feet is hardly a health problem, but that’s not the point. The point is to
see the bigger picture of what is taking place physiologically and hormonally below the
surface. And from the research I have done, as well as experimentation and communication
with hundreds of thousands of people all over the globe, all signs point to the physiological
state that causes these cold hands and feet being a net-negative to one’s health.
That state, is the sympathetic dominant state. While this may sound far out, a simple browsing
of the Wikipedia page for the disease of having extreme cold hands and feet (Raynaud’s Syndrome) spells it out plainly…
To be clear, and redundant, the sympathetic nervous system is the stress-driven side of the
nervous system. While it is always somewhat active, and totally essential to health and
function, it’s important to know that if your hands and feet are cold, you are most likely
unbalanced towards the sympathetic, and the last thing you need to do is engage in more diets
and activities that increase sympathetic activity (high protein intake, low-carb diets,
intermittent fasting, low-calorie diets, hard physical training).
If your hands and feet were cold to begin with, and especially if they have gotten worse since
tinkering around with various diets, paleo slow cooker recipes included, you need to run, not walk away from what you’ve been doing. This is a sure sign that you are not in a healthy state, and need to take action to correct this. Even if you had this problem going into a Paleo diet and lifestyle, this
can and should be corrected. Paleo is probably not the right “prescription” for this tendency.
Reduced Sex Drive
While we’re on the topic, might as well delve into sex drive too. Sex drive is mostly a matter
of metabolic rate and stress hormones once again. The higher the metabolic rate, and lower
the stress hormones, generally the greater the production of pro-sex drive hormones like
testosterone in males and progesterone in females.
Diets with lower levels of calories and carbohydrates and more animal protein generally work
against sex drive. Even just losing weight, which reduces the hormone leptin, will typically
decrease sex drive if enough weight is lost – as leptin is the hormone giving the thyroid gland
its directions. Sex drive usually returns once the weight is regained.
Basically, when food is scarce – carbs in particular, and stress is high, sex gets bumped further
up the Hierarchy of Needs. It becomes less of a priority. It is basic biology. During peak
times of year when food is abundant, reproduction takes place. That is why there are mating
seasons in nature that generally correspond with times of peak food abundance.
To be truly Paleo, it would be best to keep sex drive minimal all year long on a diet of
grassfed meat and raw cabbage, and then feast on carbs in September in the Northern
Hemisphere – having sex like a bunny. No thanks.
Loss of Menstruation
Okay okay, it was getting a little bro-ey up there. It’s as if I was talking only to the males and
leaving you ladies out. But I was thinking about you. I think about you all damn day. Freakin’
carbs!
Just as with sex drive being predominantly controlled by the body’s perception of “times of
plenty,” menstruation is under similar influences. Those who fail to menstruate most often are
lean, hard-training female athletes. In today’s society, we define this lifestyle and physical
look as the epitome of health. Oh yeah, not menstruating is like, SOOOOO healthy.
There are other factors that can contribute to a ceased menstrual cycle, but there’s no easier
way to get there than to lose weight restricting carbs, or fats, or calories, or training really
hard, or a combination. Why? Because these things decrease metabolic rate and increase
stress hormones. We have built in mechanisms to deter reproduction under these types of
conditions – conditions that are not conducive to undergoing a metabolically-expensive
pregnancy.
Infertility
Fertility, just like menstruation, is a pretty basic matter of overall metabolic status just like
menstruation and sex drive. Females have a lot more that can go wrong hormonally.
Generally-speaking, the most important fertility hormone for females is progesterone, as in
pro-gestation-hormone.
Progesterone is produced in proportion to the amount of thyroid being pumped out. This
causes a higher rate of conversion of LDL, the base molecule of our steroid class hormones,
into pregnenolone – which is the hormone from which we synthesize things like DHEA and
progesterone.
Stress is antagonistic to that, and carb restriction, low-calorie intake, fasting, hard exercise –
these all have the potential to reduce progesterone production to a level that makes conception
more difficult, and carrying a pregnancy to term more unlikely. More importantly, reduced
levels of progesterone make pregnancy much harder (less progesterone means less cervical
elasticity – ouch), and the health of the baby much poorer. More feasting, less fasting. More
sleep, less hard exercise. More carbs, less protein. Those are all general rules for the
promotion of progesterone production, but it is very person-specific. You never know for sure
what a person needs to balance out his or her system. Cravings are usually a pretty good
guide. Obey them.
Night Sweats
I suspect that this stems from the same condition above, or is at least related somehow.
Although night sweats point to a more severe expression. An ex-girlfriend of mine helped
show me a lot about the potential downsides of carbohydrate restriction, as I was totally in the
low-carb/ easy paleo recipes infatuation stage when we started dating, but observed her losing her
menstruation, having night sweats, almost dying from hyponatremia during a long run,
developing deadly shellfish allergies, and developing an autoimmune disease on a low-carb
diet – until of course she and I both gave the finger to carb phobia and I watched all of those
conditions quickly disappear.
My best guess at explaining both phenomena is that when the concentration of sugar and salt
becomes too weak in the intracellular fluid, the only way the cells can concentrate the levels of
salt and sugar is to dump water out. When this happens, even if your bladder isn’t anywhere
near full, you will feel a sudden urge to urinate. And the urine will be very clear. This can
happen during a stressful event, when you have gone too long without eating (including the
middle of the night), etc.
The night sweats just seem to be an even more aggressive way of getting water OUT. But
perhaps there is more to the story. It’s a phenomenon that has been mentioned many times on
my site over the years, so I figured it was worth bringing up.
Anxiety
Anxiety is a natural mindstate when adrenal activity has become excessive. Anxiety is very
common on Paleo/low-carb diets. Drinking excessive fluids really exacerbates it. Catecholamines are probably at the root of the issue, and they can cause obsessive-compulsive thinking patterns, aggression, and other issues to accompany the anxiety.
Irritability
Irritability is also a pretty natural mindstate to be in when catecholamines are elevated. This
was one issue that I noticed emerging on a carb-restricted diet. It was fine at first, but over
time became a pretty severe issue, especially once I got an idea into my head. I could create a
mortal enemy out of thin air it seemed. I can’t help but comment on the often militant and
aggressive tone that is found in the low-carb sphere, aside from Jimmy Moore. You should
see how irate they become when I show them the pivotal role carbohydrates play in lowering
fasting insulin and glucose levels and reversing insulin resistance. Scary Taubes!
Again, this is not just a carbohydrate issue. I have experienced this from chronic calorie
deficit as well, even when my carbohydrate intake was around 300 grams per day. But
problems with carb restriction often have nothing to do with calories. My calorie intake was
near 4,000 per day whenever I tracked them during my time on a carbohydrate-restricted diet.
Waking at 4am
Our natural rhythms seem to set 4am as the time to awaken with a surge of adrenaline when
things start to become “off.” I do believe that this can have something to do with running out of
sugar and salt at the cellular level – once again relating to overall metabolism.
Usually there is a strong urge to urinate and feelings of extreme hunger or thirst, rapid pulse,
and anxiety. Putting sugar and salt under the tongue at this time is very helpful for taming this
adrenaline surge. This is another thing to watch out for and take action to correct.
Lightheadedness
Lightheadedness, or dizziness upon standing, is another classic low metabolism symptom that
one can encounter on a prolonged Paleo diet, or a diet of any kind. The subjects of Ancel
Keys’s famous starvation study at the University of Minnesota all reported this happening and
feared fainting and blackouts if they stood up too quickly. This is probably related to
bradycardia and hypotension – both telltale low metabolism symptoms. Experiencing
starvation myself personally, and extensively reviewing Ancel Keys’s work on the subject, is
what enabled me to be so capable of spotting the symptoms of a suboptimal metabolic rate – as
many physiological and psychological changes that take place when metabolism declines are
universal.
Constipation
The creature with the lowest metabolic rate on earth is the sloth. The average body
temperature of the sloth is roughly 93 degrees according to what I have read – although I
haven’t trudged through the jungle poking their buttholes with a thermometer to confirm this.
Gastroparesis/Delayed Stomach Emptying
This is a very common problem in the low-carb/Paleo world, and the healthy eating industry as
a whole. Basically food just feels like it sits in your stomach like a rock, and the stomach does
not empty its contents out into the intestines for way too long. Presumably this delayed time, as
well as the delayed time in the intestines that often accompanies it (increased transit time), are
an active attempt to squeeze out more energy from the food being ingested.
Get things moving again with a big surge in metabolism (carbs are almost always essential in a
case of gastroparesis that develops during carbohydrate restriction, but calories are a greater
factor in those who developed the disorder for other reasons, such as reduced calorie density
of the diet), and the condition usually improves.
Acid Reflux
This is probably related to gastroparesis/delayed stomach emptying more than anything. But it
may also have something to do with reduced gastrin secretion when metabolism is below
normal. Gastrin is a hormone that triggers important gastric secretions vital for the proper
digestion of food. Acid reflux was something that I suffered from on several different
“healthy” diets, worsened the most by excessive hiking because hiking downregulates
metabolism (think 2 degree drop in body temperature), but it cleared in just a few days when I
raised metabolism via the elimination of macronutrient restriction with increased calorie
intake and exercise minimization.
High LDL cholesterol
Blood lipids can improve in the short-term on many diets, Paleo especially. That doesn’t
mean that these improvements will continue forever. The changes often pattern changes in
weight, which go down for a few months, plateau, and then rise again. To really understand
LDL, we have to look at some of the basic physiological aspects of the stuff.
Low testosterone
Well, we pretty much covered this already I think. But if you would like to see a real life
example of a real person who went from an Eskimo diet to a typical 20-something diet built
primarily around wheat, and saw LDL levels drop by nearly half while testosterone jumped
120%.
Puffy Eyes/Water Retention
This, yet again, is traceable back to metabolic rate. In Ancel Keys’s Biology of Human
Starvation, all the subjects developed severe water retention as their metabolic rate declined.
Usually the eyes are puffy in the morning from lying flat on your back all night. Then, during
the day, gravity pulls the fluid down towards your hands and feet. Fluid retention is not a good
sign. Temporary changes in fluid retention are nothing to be concerned about, but chronic,
worsening fluid retention is definitely something to take action to fix – and it could be due to
your diet no matter how perfect or biologically appropriate you’ve been told it is.
Autoimmune disease
Autoimmune disease is something that the Paleo crowd likes to pin almost entirely on gluten.
While gluten can trigger an inappropriate inflammatory response in someone with a
hyperactive immune system, that doesn’t make it the cause. Often, it isn’t. I’ve seen many
autoimmune diseases emerge on wheat-free diets, and clear up when wheat is reintroduced, for
example.
The theme is definitely reduction in metabolism, which exerts a lot of influence over the
thymus gland (thought to be pretty central in the development of autoimmune disease). As
Hans Selye’s pivotal work on stress showed, the thymus gland undergoes radical change when
the catecholamine and glucocorticoids are elevated – a frequent result of calorie restriction,
carbohydrate restriction, and other dietary errors. I’m not so concerned with the physiological
details though, as all I need are eyes and ears to see that autoimmune disease is a frequent
result of a Spartan health regime involving too much exercise, too little food, not enough carbs,
lack of sleep, too much stress or trauma, or a combination of several inadequacies.
Once again, let me emphasize that these aren’t problems that are exclusive to a Paleo or carbohydrate-restricted diet. You can run into these problems on ANY diet. You can run into these problems just from drinking too much water or not getting enough sleep! There are seemingly infinite paths to producing excessive stress hormones. Whether Paleo was the trigger to your issues or not is irrelevant for this next section. What’s more important is identifying the problem and learning how to correct it.
The first and most prevalent is probably the icy cold hands and feet that many experience from
having their catecholamines elevated for months and their thyroid toppled in the process.
Cold Hands and Feet
I’m obsessive about cold hands and feet! Because the warmth of hands and feet is an
incredible insight as to what is occurring inside of the body. When the hands, feet, and tip of
the nose are cold, it is due to reduced peripheral circulation and the constriction of blood
vessels in those areas. Peripheral circulation is reduced when stress hormones become
elevated. This causes blood to rush from the extremities back toward the internal organs for
emergency usage. “Cold feet” is a universal sign of tension, nervousness, or anxiety – all
powerful inducers of stress, although they can result from being in a stress-dominated physical
state as well. We’ll discuss that later.
The thyroid gland is the primary driver of metabolic energy and warmth. Stress hormones are
sort of the Kryptonite of the thyroid. They oppose one another, for the most part. The lower
the thyroid gland goes due to dieting, emotional stress, nervousness, inflammation, lack of
sleep, carbohydrate restriction, overtraining, infection, and so forth – the more prone we are to
be dominated by stress hormones throughout the day and night. The low-thyroid, excess
adrenal activity combination typically causes the hands, feet, and tip o’ the nose to become
quite chilly. Sometimes you might feel it in the ears too.
Having cold hands and feet is hardly a health problem, but that’s not the point. The point is to
see the bigger picture of what is taking place physiologically and hormonally below the
surface. And from the research I have done, as well as experimentation and communication
with hundreds of thousands of people all over the globe, all signs point to the physiological
state that causes these cold hands and feet being a net-negative to one’s health.
That state, is the sympathetic dominant state. While this may sound far out, a simple browsing
of the Wikipedia page for the disease of having extreme cold hands and feet (Raynaud’s Syndrome) spells it out plainly…
To be clear, and redundant, the sympathetic nervous system is the stress-driven side of the
nervous system. While it is always somewhat active, and totally essential to health and
function, it’s important to know that if your hands and feet are cold, you are most likely
unbalanced towards the sympathetic, and the last thing you need to do is engage in more diets
and activities that increase sympathetic activity (high protein intake, low-carb diets,
intermittent fasting, low-calorie diets, hard physical training).
If your hands and feet were cold to begin with, and especially if they have gotten worse since
tinkering around with various diets, paleo slow cooker recipes included, you need to run, not walk away from what you’ve been doing. This is a sure sign that you are not in a healthy state, and need to take action to correct this. Even if you had this problem going into a Paleo diet and lifestyle, this
can and should be corrected. Paleo is probably not the right “prescription” for this tendency.
Reduced Sex Drive
While we’re on the topic, might as well delve into sex drive too. Sex drive is mostly a matter
of metabolic rate and stress hormones once again. The higher the metabolic rate, and lower
the stress hormones, generally the greater the production of pro-sex drive hormones like
testosterone in males and progesterone in females.
Diets with lower levels of calories and carbohydrates and more animal protein generally work
against sex drive. Even just losing weight, which reduces the hormone leptin, will typically
decrease sex drive if enough weight is lost – as leptin is the hormone giving the thyroid gland
its directions. Sex drive usually returns once the weight is regained.
Basically, when food is scarce – carbs in particular, and stress is high, sex gets bumped further
up the Hierarchy of Needs. It becomes less of a priority. It is basic biology. During peak
times of year when food is abundant, reproduction takes place. That is why there are mating
seasons in nature that generally correspond with times of peak food abundance.
To be truly Paleo, it would be best to keep sex drive minimal all year long on a diet of
grassfed meat and raw cabbage, and then feast on carbs in September in the Northern
Hemisphere – having sex like a bunny. No thanks.
Loss of Menstruation
Okay okay, it was getting a little bro-ey up there. It’s as if I was talking only to the males and
leaving you ladies out. But I was thinking about you. I think about you all damn day. Freakin’
carbs!
Just as with sex drive being predominantly controlled by the body’s perception of “times of
plenty,” menstruation is under similar influences. Those who fail to menstruate most often are
lean, hard-training female athletes. In today’s society, we define this lifestyle and physical
look as the epitome of health. Oh yeah, not menstruating is like, SOOOOO healthy.
There are other factors that can contribute to a ceased menstrual cycle, but there’s no easier
way to get there than to lose weight restricting carbs, or fats, or calories, or training really
hard, or a combination. Why? Because these things decrease metabolic rate and increase
stress hormones. We have built in mechanisms to deter reproduction under these types of
conditions – conditions that are not conducive to undergoing a metabolically-expensive
pregnancy.
Infertility
Fertility, just like menstruation, is a pretty basic matter of overall metabolic status just like
menstruation and sex drive. Females have a lot more that can go wrong hormonally.
Generally-speaking, the most important fertility hormone for females is progesterone, as in
pro-gestation-hormone.
Progesterone is produced in proportion to the amount of thyroid being pumped out. This
causes a higher rate of conversion of LDL, the base molecule of our steroid class hormones,
into pregnenolone – which is the hormone from which we synthesize things like DHEA and
progesterone.
Stress is antagonistic to that, and carb restriction, low-calorie intake, fasting, hard exercise –
these all have the potential to reduce progesterone production to a level that makes conception
more difficult, and carrying a pregnancy to term more unlikely. More importantly, reduced
levels of progesterone make pregnancy much harder (less progesterone means less cervical
elasticity – ouch), and the health of the baby much poorer. More feasting, less fasting. More
sleep, less hard exercise. More carbs, less protein. Those are all general rules for the
promotion of progesterone production, but it is very person-specific. You never know for sure
what a person needs to balance out his or her system. Cravings are usually a pretty good
guide. Obey them.
Night Sweats
I suspect that this stems from the same condition above, or is at least related somehow.
Although night sweats point to a more severe expression. An ex-girlfriend of mine helped
show me a lot about the potential downsides of carbohydrate restriction, as I was totally in the
low-carb/ easy paleo recipes infatuation stage when we started dating, but observed her losing her
menstruation, having night sweats, almost dying from hyponatremia during a long run,
developing deadly shellfish allergies, and developing an autoimmune disease on a low-carb
diet – until of course she and I both gave the finger to carb phobia and I watched all of those
conditions quickly disappear.
My best guess at explaining both phenomena is that when the concentration of sugar and salt
becomes too weak in the intracellular fluid, the only way the cells can concentrate the levels of
salt and sugar is to dump water out. When this happens, even if your bladder isn’t anywhere
near full, you will feel a sudden urge to urinate. And the urine will be very clear. This can
happen during a stressful event, when you have gone too long without eating (including the
middle of the night), etc.
The night sweats just seem to be an even more aggressive way of getting water OUT. But
perhaps there is more to the story. It’s a phenomenon that has been mentioned many times on
my site over the years, so I figured it was worth bringing up.
Anxiety
Anxiety is a natural mindstate when adrenal activity has become excessive. Anxiety is very
common on Paleo/low-carb diets. Drinking excessive fluids really exacerbates it. Catecholamines are probably at the root of the issue, and they can cause obsessive-compulsive thinking patterns, aggression, and other issues to accompany the anxiety.
Irritability
Irritability is also a pretty natural mindstate to be in when catecholamines are elevated. This
was one issue that I noticed emerging on a carb-restricted diet. It was fine at first, but over
time became a pretty severe issue, especially once I got an idea into my head. I could create a
mortal enemy out of thin air it seemed. I can’t help but comment on the often militant and
aggressive tone that is found in the low-carb sphere, aside from Jimmy Moore. You should
see how irate they become when I show them the pivotal role carbohydrates play in lowering
fasting insulin and glucose levels and reversing insulin resistance. Scary Taubes!
Again, this is not just a carbohydrate issue. I have experienced this from chronic calorie
deficit as well, even when my carbohydrate intake was around 300 grams per day. But
problems with carb restriction often have nothing to do with calories. My calorie intake was
near 4,000 per day whenever I tracked them during my time on a carbohydrate-restricted diet.
Waking at 4am
Our natural rhythms seem to set 4am as the time to awaken with a surge of adrenaline when
things start to become “off.” I do believe that this can have something to do with running out of
sugar and salt at the cellular level – once again relating to overall metabolism.
Usually there is a strong urge to urinate and feelings of extreme hunger or thirst, rapid pulse,
and anxiety. Putting sugar and salt under the tongue at this time is very helpful for taming this
adrenaline surge. This is another thing to watch out for and take action to correct.
Lightheadedness
Lightheadedness, or dizziness upon standing, is another classic low metabolism symptom that
one can encounter on a prolonged Paleo diet, or a diet of any kind. The subjects of Ancel
Keys’s famous starvation study at the University of Minnesota all reported this happening and
feared fainting and blackouts if they stood up too quickly. This is probably related to
bradycardia and hypotension – both telltale low metabolism symptoms. Experiencing
starvation myself personally, and extensively reviewing Ancel Keys’s work on the subject, is
what enabled me to be so capable of spotting the symptoms of a suboptimal metabolic rate – as
many physiological and psychological changes that take place when metabolism declines are
universal.
Constipation
The creature with the lowest metabolic rate on earth is the sloth. The average body
temperature of the sloth is roughly 93 degrees according to what I have read – although I
haven’t trudged through the jungle poking their buttholes with a thermometer to confirm this.
Gastroparesis/Delayed Stomach Emptying
This is a very common problem in the low-carb/Paleo world, and the healthy eating industry as
a whole. Basically food just feels like it sits in your stomach like a rock, and the stomach does
not empty its contents out into the intestines for way too long. Presumably this delayed time, as
well as the delayed time in the intestines that often accompanies it (increased transit time), are
an active attempt to squeeze out more energy from the food being ingested.
Get things moving again with a big surge in metabolism (carbs are almost always essential in a
case of gastroparesis that develops during carbohydrate restriction, but calories are a greater
factor in those who developed the disorder for other reasons, such as reduced calorie density
of the diet), and the condition usually improves.
Acid Reflux
This is probably related to gastroparesis/delayed stomach emptying more than anything. But it
may also have something to do with reduced gastrin secretion when metabolism is below
normal. Gastrin is a hormone that triggers important gastric secretions vital for the proper
digestion of food. Acid reflux was something that I suffered from on several different
“healthy” diets, worsened the most by excessive hiking because hiking downregulates
metabolism (think 2 degree drop in body temperature), but it cleared in just a few days when I
raised metabolism via the elimination of macronutrient restriction with increased calorie
intake and exercise minimization.
High LDL cholesterol
Blood lipids can improve in the short-term on many diets, Paleo especially. That doesn’t
mean that these improvements will continue forever. The changes often pattern changes in
weight, which go down for a few months, plateau, and then rise again. To really understand
LDL, we have to look at some of the basic physiological aspects of the stuff.
Low testosterone
Well, we pretty much covered this already I think. But if you would like to see a real life
example of a real person who went from an Eskimo diet to a typical 20-something diet built
primarily around wheat, and saw LDL levels drop by nearly half while testosterone jumped
120%.
Puffy Eyes/Water Retention
This, yet again, is traceable back to metabolic rate. In Ancel Keys’s Biology of Human
Starvation, all the subjects developed severe water retention as their metabolic rate declined.
Usually the eyes are puffy in the morning from lying flat on your back all night. Then, during
the day, gravity pulls the fluid down towards your hands and feet. Fluid retention is not a good
sign. Temporary changes in fluid retention are nothing to be concerned about, but chronic,
worsening fluid retention is definitely something to take action to fix – and it could be due to
your diet no matter how perfect or biologically appropriate you’ve been told it is.
Autoimmune disease
Autoimmune disease is something that the Paleo crowd likes to pin almost entirely on gluten.
While gluten can trigger an inappropriate inflammatory response in someone with a
hyperactive immune system, that doesn’t make it the cause. Often, it isn’t. I’ve seen many
autoimmune diseases emerge on wheat-free diets, and clear up when wheat is reintroduced, for
example.
The theme is definitely reduction in metabolism, which exerts a lot of influence over the
thymus gland (thought to be pretty central in the development of autoimmune disease). As
Hans Selye’s pivotal work on stress showed, the thymus gland undergoes radical change when
the catecholamine and glucocorticoids are elevated – a frequent result of calorie restriction,
carbohydrate restriction, and other dietary errors. I’m not so concerned with the physiological
details though, as all I need are eyes and ears to see that autoimmune disease is a frequent
result of a Spartan health regime involving too much exercise, too little food, not enough carbs,
lack of sleep, too much stress or trauma, or a combination of several inadequacies.