You are Proof!

Every person has their story. Each with it's own path.

Winding up a mountain of challenge, joy, and memory,

we are grateful to those who came before…

Towards the end of my teenage years I began studying many subjects that always have revolved around how to better the human condition. In late 2012 those endeavors brought me to the Hippocrates Wellness. How I found myself there was not just for the sake of learning however, it was also because I was struggling with an undiagnosed chronic disease whose symptoms were becoming less and less manageable. More than four years after I went through the Health Educator program and having immersed myself into several other learning experiences since, I still feel the most impact from what I learned there.

It is interesting that still, after all these years of seeing doctors of every title from MDs to NDs to DCs and everything in between and around, I have never received an official diagnosis. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Though it is often frustrating, it is the potential harm in the long run for so many that motivates me in all that I do.

Something that almost inevitably happens when conflicting, incomplete or even erroneous information is what is received, is something I imagine many out there are familiar with…the yo-yo. No, not the fun toy many of us played with as kids. I am talking about going back & forth between what most of society around us is eating & drinking, or some variation of it, and being fully dedicated to what we know is the necessary nutrition, community, and environment that we need for the greatest manifestation of ourselves. Some have the luxury of riding the yo-yo train for a while to develop the discipline necessary for change, sadly though, many of us do not have time to waste.

It is why, in spite of having never been given an official diagnosis, I sought to name it. I call it MTWS or Modern Toxic World Syndrome. I feel that since by definition a syndrome is a group of symptoms that often happen together, and the symptoms in which I refer are more often than not allergic, autoimmune, endocrine disruptive, mood altering, consistent, escalating, and more than likely a direct result of persistent pollutants and a seemingly out of control world that will take a state of emergency level of redesign to not be disease promoting, the title is appropriate.

Starting very shortly after my condition became unmanageable it was suggested to me to keep a food & symptom journal in order to better understand what affected me. I decided to take it much further. So now I have a timestamped 24-hour extremely detailed report of every single day of my life for almost four years. It has been one of the main tools for my curiosity, inner wisdom and impetus to seek out as many resources as I can to learn about the human body, it’s biochemistry, the history and future of medicine, among other things, and it is priceless. It may not be in a format that most will want to or even can look at, but it is undeniable proof of my experience in what turned my symptoms on and off close to a hundred times.

In some of the more contemplative moments, I am still left in the dust of nuance. Since we live in a world of so many differing and often conflicting opinions of how to exist, finding our individual truth can sometimes only be achieved by experimentation that is both guided and intuitive.

For sure there are always specific details to each success story that all of us crave to know. We want the one, five or ten things we can introduce into our own lives that will radically shift the way we have been to ensure better moments are to follow. The thing I found, for myself though, when I am able to look back at the single greatest insight that occurred after my time at Hippocrates, was this…

It was a seed…

A seed of information which initiated the development of the ability to see, feel and understand the body at the cellular level. In every moment, we are the sophisticated dance of our cells, our microbiome, several other systems known, and I imagine, many we have yet to discover. These advanced and intricate microscopic machines, whether they be directly of us, or within the microbiome, are the direct result of everything we have taken in, whether it be willingly or not. What sort of body have you built?

When people ask me what I do, I always want to answer something along the lines of: I live, breathe and dedicate myself to ensuring that a safer, healthier, more prosperous future will exist for ourselves and all that are yet to come, the job is irrelevant. I imagine that might encourage an eye roll or two…

 Thankfully, we are lucky to have so many amazing, brave, and wonderful people that have come before and are here now uncovering more of the hidden ways up this seemingly insurmountable climb. This is how we are able to get just a little bit closer to the summit and see at least some version of a bigger picture…

 There are things in this world we as a society cannot even think about yet, let alone measure…

So even as those in front of you, whether they be someone you know, a doctor, or an expert in another field dismisses your story as anecdotal, however long and detailed it might be… And even if you are a person whose condition was placed into either the box of psychosomatic or idiopathic or are then among the many more people whose symptoms were partially or completely reversed and then had your story ignored as nothing other than “placebo”… You will still sit there stubborn as a bull, shining brighter than the sun, because you are proof. You are proof that things can and will change. You are proof that we will do things in better ways. You are proof that there is hope, that remarkable things happen and that the more we open up to their possibility the deeper we can go in this world. You are proof that there is no limit to our creativity, no end to our abilities and never a reason to allow someone else’s opinion, no matter how much data they have to back up their stance, to prevent you from doing what you know is possible.

And so we continue… Playing our parts in this ongoing story of stepping out of what is considered normal and stepping into what is extraordinary. I believe we are getting closer to that day when what is extraordinary is what is considered normal.

Article by Maethyu Kai • @maethyukai • [email protected]