Author: Brad Miller

I am an adherent of the Freedom Philosophy, Primal Living Advocate, chronic pain endurer, autoimmune disease warrior, who understands that I own myself.

Pancreatitis and Psoriasis How Grapefruit Juice helped me

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“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”
― Hippocrates

I hate grapefruit juice. I always have. But I drink it almost everyday now. The reason I force it down my gullet  is that it helps reduce the pain and severity of my pancreatitis attacks. When I feel my pancreas acting up which is almost daily now I start drinking grapefruit juice. There have been studies done on Grapefruit Juice extract that have shown it effective in reducing damage done during pancreatitis attack. There are also studies that show that Naringenin the main flavonoid in Grapefruit is also very anti-inflammatory.

When I drink Grapefruit Juice I immediately feel the result. I feel a “cooling” effect on the inflammation which I experience as swelling, pain and feeling sick, that is associated with the pancreatitis. The compounds in grapefruit juice are also thought to help stop the inflammatory cascade and lower cytokine production. This all leads to less inflammation and inflammation has been linked to heart disease, cancer, and for me psoriasis.

On top of having a pancreas that despises fat I’ve also had psoriasis for almost thirty years. I’ve not had a remission in my psoriasis since I first got it. It’s been a nightmare having it. I’ve tried creams and Enbrel. I had success with both but both require consistent life long applications with unknown long term side effects. I stopped using steroid creams because its impossible to put it on 75% of your body everyday and I stopped using Enbrel after I got pneumonia last year. I remember vowing to myself I would cure my psoriasis naturally about five years ago. I think I’m closer now than I’ve ever been.  I at first tried tons of different supplements but they didn’t work. The changes I’ve made recently are I’ve dropped 30 pounds, eaten a mostly primal diet, drink alkaline water and drink grapefruit juice everyday, and have seen spectacular results.

Another one of the benefits of consuming grapefruit juice is that Naringenin, the main flavonoid in the fruit, it has  been shown to help not only with easing inflammation but it also aides weight loss. I actually am trying to put on a few pounds now but in the past year I’ve dropped  thirty pounds of mostly fat over. I lost it mostly due to changing over to a mainly paleo diet.  I went hardcore at the beginning of February and lost the last ten pounds that have been plaguing me for ever. But the grapefruit juice does help keep the fat off. And keeping the fat off helps lower systemic inflammation in my  body.

Fat cells are linked to psoriasis and inflammation because they produce the hormone Leptin along with other factors. Leptin is a key hormone in the body that regulates everything from hunger to how much fat we store.  There have been studies done that show psoriasis patients have an increased level of leptin in the blood stream and many psoriasis patients are obese or overweight. I’ve gone from 172 pounds down to around 140. Almost 32 pounds of weight loss over the course of a year. Eating a standard american diet leads to leptin sensitivity which promotes inflammation and causes the body to store more fat. A study out of Taiwain speculated that in the future weight loss recommendations will be added to all psoriasis treatment protocols.

I prefer to drink organic red grapefruit juice because it also contains lycopene – white grapefruit juice doesn’t. I’ve also started adding a small pinch of himalayan sea salt to  each glass. This makes it taste better and provides additional minerals. Along with the grapefruit juice I’ve recently begun drinking Icelandic Glacial water due to its high ph of 8.5. I don’t know if it has helped with the psoriasis. Autoimmune issues and the inflammatory response are so complicated that its hard to say what is having an effect or if whether its the combination of the changes that are the key. My goal is to continue adding small steps to reduce my inflammation.

I have a lot of inflammation going on. When I was twelve I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis. When I was 15 I got psoriasis extremely bad. I believe that my pancreatitis has an autoimmune cause as well. Anything that helps cool inflammation is vital to my living healthier and enjoying more of my life. Grapefruit juice is now a permanent part of my anti-inflammatory campaign.

Before trying grapefruit juice or grapefruit extract it is recommended that you talk to your physician because it can interfere with many medications.

Please leave a comment if you’ve tried grapefruit juice for pancreatitis or if you’ve lost weight and seen a decrease in the severity of your psoriasis. Also I would like to know what you think about Alkaline water.

Wishing you a healthier today and a better tomorrow
Brad Miller

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http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/psoriasis/news/20081215/fat-hormone-linked-psoriasis

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18503517

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16579728

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130305145145.htm

 

 

Medical Freedom

When we give government the power to make medical decisions for us, we in essence accept that the state owns our bodies.”
― Ron Paul

Human health is the human experience. It is both a cause and an effect. When we feel better we do more, and when we are able to accomplish more we feel better. Illness is one the ways that affects our health but also the many restrictions, laws and the very structure of our medical cartel that runs health care in this country inflicts additional pain and suffering that is totally unnecessary.

Medical Freedom is simply human freedom expressed in the production and consumption of products and services that improve human health. Laws, government regulations, employer insurance schemes, medical licensing, the FDA and all the various other means of restricting consensual exchange between individuals for the purposing of “feeling better” and “living longer” has created a ridiculously expensive and overwhelming complex system that punishes the very people its been sold to help, sick people.

I have been in and out of hospitals for the past 28 years. I have personal experience with chronic pain, surgery and the ever encroaching hand of government in my health care decisions. I reject the need of politicians and so called experts that benefit by commoditizing my suffering. That has to stop. Whenever anyone talks of “healthcare” you should be suspicious. What is lacking in all of these debates is the term getting healthier or feeling better. We don’t talk about “hunger care” when discussing farmers growing food.

Medical laws were created in this country and were sold as a way to “protect” people like me. When in reality all it has done is to make my life more difficult when merely living is extremely difficult. One example is the management of chronic pain. Reporters and politicians, police officers, district attorneys and others involved in the addiction, prison or pharma industry are in the news all the time talking about the scourge of opioid use. I have taken literally thousands of pain pills in my life and I continue to take them because I hurt a lot. I am eternally grateful for opioid pain pills. If they didn’t exist I would have killed myself when I was 12 or I would have died due to shock to all the pain caused by the bowel obstructions and most recently the horrific pain of pancreatitis.

Pain pills or pain medicine are derived from the poppy plant. It is simply a plant that miraculously creates a substance that provides pain relief. It is truly remarkable. I should be able to grow poppies in my garden and make poppy tea which humans have been doing for thousands of years. But instead I need a permission slip from a government licensed health consultant (doctor) and go to a pharmacy that has the pills on the shelf locked up behind a counter. Not only do I have to get the permission slip I now have to deal with state law on top of federal law in concert with restrictions by the insurance company. And on top of all this my personal information is now in a government database. I never consented to have my information accessed by the government for my “protection”. This is a clear violation of the 4th amendment.

What madness is this? It all boils down to the fundamentals of human freedom. The question every person, especially those who are chronically sick need to ask themselves: do you own your own body and your mind? Our system, the government, the big pharma companies, the DEA, the FDA, the police, and the licensing boards all believe you do not. It is set up to usurp your self-ownership and farm it out to your doctor, your pharmacy, drug companies and the alphabet soup of government divisions.

I believe that I own my body and my mind and that I have an inherit right to ingest whatever substances I choose to in order to feel better and live longer. I will not be right all the time. Life is inherently dangerous and I will always have limited knowledge when making choices. This also applies to the so called experts as well. Science is open ended. The current medical system is set up to convince you that they have all the answers and they are omnipotent when it comes to which drugs which are good and which are “bad”.

The entire prescription / pharmaceutical / FDA / DEA /Medical college system  is a cartel set up to allow the sale of dangerous drugs which would never be allowed if the FDA didn’t rubber-stamp them. If we didn’t have an FDA then companies would be totally at the mercy of internet reviews, independent analysis of their drugs and would be liable for killing people just like anyone else who sells a dangerous product.

Right now their liability is limited. They get the FDA rubber stamp and this allows them to rake in huge profits until the dangerous side effects begin killing and injuring people. By the time the lawsuits roll in they have already made a hundred times what it will cost them  to settle the lawsuits. And drugs like Cannabis, MDMA, psilocybin, and DMT are illegal even though they have been show to be extremely safe and more beneficial then what they are peddling.

Medical Freedom isn’t something we talk about because the debate is always about access to “healthcare”. When is the last time you heard a politician talk about individuals becoming healthier? They don’t. They simply want more and more people in the healthcare system. The same government that designs the road system, the tax system, the public education system and the wars across the world are the same people designing and implementing our “healthcare system”.

Why is it that the more government fails the more people want from it? The food pyramid debacle is the perfect example of what the true priorities are for the government and its corporate partners. Many experts now blame the food pyramid and the low fat scam as part of the massive rise in diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

Food is a massive part of living a healthy life and the government purposely funded studies and supported research that showed sugar was good and that we should all be eating tons of wheat, corn and soy. And you know who receives massive subsidies from the government? You would be right if you said soy, corn, wheat and sugar producers.

Medical Freedom is the concept that you have the right to make choices devoid of corrupt government and corporate entities who want to treat sick people like a commodity. Medical Freedom simply means exercising your sovereignty over your body and your mind. Prescription Drugs should all be legalized as well as so called illegal drugs. Pharmaceutical companies will have to survive the legal challenges and the public review process along with the private entities that will emerge to test the validity of their claims.

I believe that once the FDA is stripped of their power of appointing which pharmaceutical company will reap billions of dollars in profits, the focus will turn from treating “diseases” and the chronically ill as a commodity to treating the chronically ill as human beings and treating the whole individual.

It is time to reclaim our right to go into a store and buy what we choose without the government, academics, people in white coats or who have a badge on their chest deem necessary. In a world in which Medical Freedom is respected we would still seek out health consultants and follow treatment recommendations. But the parent/child paradigm between the government and the ill would end. The consumer would be the one in control and have the ultimate say. And if you didn’t want to have a health consultant you would be free to follow a treatment program you see fit.

We’ve been lied to about Cannabis as a medicine by the government. The NIH actually holds two patents on cannabinoids that they list as effective for treating over ten different diseases and symptoms. The idea that the DEA who is financially incentivized to keep Cannabis a schedule 1 drug is criminal. The time to reassert our right to Medical Freedom as a natural expression of our innate rights due to our self-ownership as a human individual.

I’m struggling now with idiopathic pancreatitis. I’ve had this pain for decades but it went undiagnosed until the last few years. They are not sure why I have it or what we can do to prevent it from destroying my pancreas. I’m exploring having stem cell therapy to reverse the disease process. I should have the right to try what a majority of doctors might seem as dangerous or unproductive if I deem it to be a worthwhile risk.

Every decision we make is personal. When we are sick we don’t need the force of government involved to limit what are choices are in finding what we believe will be the most effective treatment for us to feel better and live longer. It doesn’t matter whether its vaporizing Cannabis, ignoring the food pyramid or trying experimental treatments that are now are considered dangerous or foolish but in the future could very well become the standard for care.

When you are sick you do not need artificial laws limiting your choices and limiting your access to natural, safe and effective plants and chemicals that have a chance to help individuals feeling better and living a longer life. Pain, inflammation and disease are terrible and life altering. I want every politician to know, every drug maker, and every one who seeks to commoditize my suffering that I am a human being who owns himself and I demand my Medical Freedom! I call all of those who are suffering with chronic illness to do the same.

Brad Miller

 

 

 

 

 

Cassava Flour Tortillas

One of the things I missed most when first transitioning to a more ancestral diet is the elimination of taco night. Now I don’t have to.

I eat Cassava Flour Tortillas at least twice a week. They are delicious. Below is a recipe that I’ve been perfecting over the last few months. It’s based on the recipe that is printed on the of Otto’s Cassava Flour bag. IMG_2655 This is the only brand I have tried so far. For me its tasty, easy to work with and is a great substitute for white flour when making breaking and tortillas.

 

This the only brand I use and I highly recommend it.

Cassava Flour is Paleo, Primal and AIP approved. I’ve also used it as a breading for wild boar schnitzel, bream, and chicken cutlets. They all turned out great as well. I need carbs in my diet because of my ileostomy. Otherwise my output is too watery which causes dehydration and a horrible burning pain on the skin around my stoma. I know its gross to talk about “output” on a recipe post, but let’s be honest, everything we eat comes out in the end.

I’ve included some pictures as well.

Cassava Tortillas 8 Servings

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time less than 20

Equipment needed:
Parchment paper, Mixing Bowl, Fork, Measuring cups, tortilla press (not necessary but I highly recommend it), non-stick skillet (I’ll try cast iron soon and leave a review)

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Ingredients:
3/4 cup Cassava Flour – I use Otto’s

1/4 Teaspoon Himalayan Salt or Sea Salt

2 Tablespoons plus 1/2 Tablespoon Fat – I like melted Ghee or Avocado Oil

1/3 cup H2o plus 1 teaspoon

1 Tablespoon Organic Apple Cider Vinegar

1/2 Tablespoon Locally Sourced Honey

Place dry ingredients in the bowl, add the liquids 2 tablespoons of fat and the water and stir. The dough will start to combine into one inch balls with some of the flour on the bottom and sides of the bowel not incorporated. Next I add the extra fat and water if the dough seems too dry. Normally I’ll add the extra fat. If its still dry after that I’ll add the water.

Stir again to incorporate the extra fat and or water. Next use your hands to mould the dough into a ball. It should feel soft and dry, not sticky. If it is sticky all you have to do is add a little bit more Cassava Flour at a time until the dough loses it’s stickiness.

Now you just divide the dough into eight equal portions. Place the balls onto the large sheet of parchment paper. Next get your smaller sheet of parchment paper and fold it in half. Put one of the dough balls into the center of one half of the folded parchment paper. Cover the dough with the other half.If you don’t have a tortilla press get a rolling pin and gently press out the dough into a circle about four inches to five inches in diameter.

I like to get the tortillas as thin as possible. That’s why I use a tortilla press. If you have a press simply place the folded parchment on the press. Place one ball on the bottom half then cover the ball with the top half of the parchment paper. Then press. My tortilla press doesn’t quite get it as thin as I’d like. So I add a spacer of one or two small plastic cutting boards that I place on top of the parchment paper and then press for a second time.

I place each flattened tortilla on the large piece of parchment paper. Next heat up a dry non-stick skillet on high. You want it hot. When up to temp place in the tortillas. It will take approximately 2 to 4 minutes per side depending on how done you like yours. You’ll know its time to turn them when you see bubbles forming on the surface. Flip and cook for another 2 to 4 minutes.

Stack them up on the plate. I enjoy mine as a great substitute for a flour tortilla. I like to make grass fed beef tacos with mushrooms and homemade taco seasoning. They are delicious.

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The tortillas heat up great in the microwave. You can also grill them once you cook them on the stove. That’s my favorite way to eat them. We had grilled steak tacos with fresh pico de gallo, and cilantro on these bad boys. One of my all time favorite meals.

Cassava flour is awesome but it does have about 14 grams of carbs per tortilla. It is reported to be a good source of resistant starch and only .15 grams of sugar per serving. If you are diabetic or have other issues with carbs I would do your due diligence before trying

I hope you try the recipe out. I honestly don’t measure the honey and the apple cider vinegar any longer. Its just by sight. Play around with that and what types of fat to use. In the future I want to try lard, beef tallow or duck fat too. If you have any comments or suggestions please comment below.

Brad Miller

Healthier2day.com

Ten Rules of Primal Living

This information is based on the Mark Sisson Book – “Primal Blueprint” – I highly recommend everyone pick up a copy and my own personal experience.

I’ve been on and off the Primal/Paleo lifestyle for the last 8 years.In that time I’ve gone gradually begun to live more and more according to the principles of the Primal or Paleo way of living. These principles have helped me to have a framework to pull me out of the depth of feeling like I have no control over my body and my mind.

I struggle with several chronic autoimmune conditions and have an ileostomy and chronic pancreatits. So it has been a challenge to get a handle on all the different variables that play into exacerbating the chronic inflammation which I believe is at the heart of all the pain, fatigue and overall misery I experience when I’m not feeling well. The Primal/Paleo philosophy allows me to have a concrete system to focus on when it feels like everything else is falling apart.

To be honest the last time I got sick in May I was in survival mode. I was eating terribly.  But once the horrific pain and fatigue began to subside a little bit I again started following more and more closely to the ten Primal Rules. As I’ve been able to recover from this latest small bowel obstruction and pancreatic attack I am eating and living more and more primally and I feel my strength, my mental well-being,  my motivation and my desire to socialize improving.

I used to beat myself up when I couldn’t live 100% primally in the past and that would cause me to chuck the whole deal and start eating Chickfila again. And that’s why I’m writing this blog and sharing my experience. I firmly believe that making small healthier choices today will lead to a better tomorrow. This is what I believe and this is what gets me off the couch to cook when I want to go to curl up and be consumed by the pain and darkness of disease.

The Primal lifestyle isn’t all or nothing. It’s like everything else in life, it’s a continuum. We all can’t be out hunting and killing our own food, growing organic gardens in the backyard, raising our own chickens and pursuing our passions as work all at once. Each of us is on a different part of the Primal Lifestyle continuum.

But that is what is great about the Primal/Paleo lifestyle. It is extremely adaptable to each individual’s personal circumstance. I don’t advocate nor does Mark Sisson living in caves and getting rid of modern technology. On the contrary I look at the Primal Lifestyle as a tool. It is simply a set of rules that help me navigate the extremely confusing and complex world in which we live.

I’m not 100% Primal. I still take opioid pain medicine for chronic pain, I still go to the hospital when I have a small bowel blockage and I still  binge watch way too much on Netflix and eat stuff that’s not on the Primal list. But I’ve made tremendous changes in my diet and lifestyle in the last eight years and it all began with these ten simple rules. I am grateful for all the pioneers and those who continue to work to get the word out about this lifestyle.

Here are the Ten Rules for Living Primally by Mark Sission:

#1 Eat Plants and Animals

#2 Avoid Poisonous Things

#3 Move Frequently at a Slow Pace

#4 Lift Heavy Things

#5 Sprint Once in a While

#6 Get Adequate Sleep

#7 Play

#8 Get Adequate Sunlight

#9 Avoid Stupid Mistakes

#10 Use Your Brain

As you can see these are extremely simple. I read somewhere that a good book should remind you of what you already know. This is the stuff that most of us deep down know to be the right thing to do to live a healthier today.

I would also  add two other rules for me. Mark does mention socialization and its importance under play and in other places in his many books and talks. Socialization makes a huge difference in my life. When I’m sick and feel horrific I want to just hide from the world. It feels like every social interaction will add pain and obligation on my system which is already weak pain riddled and extremely taxed.

Face to face socialization makes me feel better. It is important for me to share a positive reality with someone I care about. Seeing them smile when I walk in the room or when they give me a hug I feel reconnected to reality. The pain and fatigue are still there but the perception of them takes less of a priority.

The other rule I’d add is Organization. Organize mental internal environment and my physical environment help me feel better. This is a huge struggle for me. I’ve used my illness, chronic pain and overall misery to avoid organizing my life in many ways. I always felt why did it matter? I was just going to get sick again and it would be all be terrible mess again. But the pain will lesson, I’ll become more motivated, I’ll find a purpose, and I’ll endure the misery and commit, at least today accomplish something besides just existing one day. Being organized helps greatly with this process.

I will elaborate more about what I’ve found to be helpful and to be as honest as possible about my struggles. The main purpose of this blog and the classes and meet ups I want to hold is to create a “tribe” of Primally minded individuals who can share their story, offer others support and learn about different ways people have found to live better. I’ll also be writing a separate blog post for these rules and others I’ve found helpful with my autoimmune odyssey.

Please leave comments to help improve how I communicate. Also please leave a comment on what you would like to read about.

 

Why another blog about health?

This blog is my way of keeping myself accountable. I’ve been chronically ill and in pain for 28 years. I’m turning 40 in August and I’m not happy with where I’m at in life.

The myriad of health issues I am currently struggling with have so many different variables I often give up trying to take even the smallest steps to become healthier.

I don’t believe healthy is a state of being. We can only become healthier. That’s another reason I’m writing this blog. The term “healthy” or “sick” are outdated.

This blog is about my path to become healthier. Nothing else matters. I’m currently not working, had two businesses fail due to my lack of follow through and I’ve not been on a date in over five years. Oh, by the way I’m currently living with my mom.

Too often the thought of a lifetime or even a day full of pain keeps me from making healthier choices.  The pain and inflammation distorts thoughts, makes planning almost impossible and makes hope seem like a concept as rare as a unicorn or an honest politician.

This blog is my way of focusing not even on today but on the next small step I can take to become healthier. I hope people find what I write helpful and I would like to invite those struggling with chronic illness to comment and ask questions.

I’m not a doctor. I’m a man who is on a mission to take simple steps each day to become a little healthier. Healthier to me means a clear mind, a body at peace, a desire to socialzie, and motivation to move.

I was diagnosed when I was 12 with ulcerative colitis after over a year of getting more and more sick. Had an operation that didn’t go well and have been living in chronic pain ever since. I’ve been in and out of hospitals, had a bunch of surgeries, have moderate psoriasis and chronic pancreatitis.

This is my journey. To be honest I’m scared I won’t stick with it like everything else I’ve ever tried. But this time I feel like if I don’t, I won’t be long for this world.

Please comment and offer suggestions. I hate criticism but I want to improve my ability to communicate with others. I’ll try to be as honest as I can in the next few months. I’ve got a trip planned for Denver soon and I’ll be writing extensively about that.

Until next time I will be focused on taking the smallest steps possible to be a little healthier today. I hope you do as well.

Brad