Dr Jack Kruse is a controversial Paleo neurosurgeon doctor. Not only because his suggestions go many steps beyond normal Paleo, but also because few understand what the heck he’s actually writing on his blog (I don’t understand absolutely everything that he says either). His belief is that while Paleo can make asymptomatic or prevent many diseases, his Epi-Paleo regiment can also reverse some diseases and have a higher degree of success than plain Paleo. He believes that going fully natural is the way to heal our bodies, and that food is simply just one part of the whole picture (maybe 30%-50% of what you’re supposed to be doing to fix your health). He explains his opinions in terms of not only biology, but also quantum physics: how this machine called “human body” works. This article is a gross generalization of what he preaches, in plain English.
Step 1: Epi-Paleo-ketogenic seasonal diet
This means that you follow the Paleo diet as described herehttp://eugenia.queru.com/2011/10/20/how-to-make-free-healthcare-cheap/#update2, but with these added modifications:
– No more than 50 gr of net carbs per day on winter (ketogenic). Up to 75-100 gr of net carbs per day on summer as organic fruits and starchy veggies become available naturally in season (plain low carb). You slowly add more carbs on Spring, and you slowly wind down from them in Autumn.
– Way more seafood than meat. This means that some form of WILD seafood must be eaten DAILY. Oysters must be eaten very regularly (I buy them canned from Trader Joes, since that brand comes with olive oil instead of PUFA oils). Shellfish are on the top of his pyramid, then it’s wild fish. For the few days that would be eating meats and offal (preferably grass-fed), have sea vegetables on the side. For poultry, eat them rarely, and prefer duck or wild fowls instead of industrialized chickens (even free range chickens are badly grown).
– Dairy is ok for those who are low in inflammation, but only if it’s from a casein A2 animal (goat/sheep/buffalo), and if it’s fermented. Consider home-made goat kefir, fermented for 24 hours.
– No nightshades (e.g. tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, potatoes) or dairy IF you have high inflammation. This can only be known if you make lab tests, and he highly suggests you do so before you start this regiment, in order to know how to individually modify some of these aspects. Info on lab tests here.
– No sweeteners, not even stevia. A bit of raw, local honey on summer is ok, I guess.
– You never miss breakfast, and your breakfast must be high in fat and protein. No snacking in the first few months between meals (in order to reset the leptin hormone).
– Eat lots of raw cilantro, because it can remove a number of heavy metals that you might have been developing all these years. If you can afford it, do a heavy metal hair analysis as you start this regiment.
– Do NOT practice IF (Intermediate Fasting) unless your ailments have being made asymptomatic and you’ve become a fat burner. IF can be very bad for you if you’re still sick.
Step 2: Fluoride-free water, and lots of it
You must learn to drink lots of water. For example, if you’re drinking 2 liters a day, up them by half to a liter a day (this all depends on the individual’s age, sex, exercise, height etc). Water is the catalyst that will make your cells work in this regiment, so you will need lots of it daily. The catch is that you will have to drink and cook with fluoride-free water. If your county adds fluoride on your tap water, you’ll need to buy bottled water (do a google search about which companies sell such water). Plain filters won’t remove fluoride (you’ll need a reverse osmosis machine to remove fluoride from tap water, not cheap). Also, make sure you buy a fluoride-free toothpaste (or make your own) and your beauty products/shampoos are SLS- and gluten-free.
Step 3: Supplementation
Especially in the beginning, as you’re still sick and you can’t absorb much real food, you might need to supplement. Don’t replenish these boxes after you’re done with them (except maybe for Magnesium and CoQ10, depending on the person’s needs). His suggestions are:
– DHA/EPA or krill oil
– Iodine + Selenium for best thyroid function (I buy this)
– D3 1000 IU (with breakfast)
– CoQ10 Ubiquinol (not Ubiquinone)
– High absorption magnesium (30 mins before sleep)
– K2 Mk-4 (not Mk-7)
– PQQ
– B-complex with folate (instead of folic acid)
Step 4: Circadian rhythms and Sleep
None of the above will work if you don’t live the life of our ancestors. This means that you go to sleep at night, and you wake up with the first light. You must sleep at night because that’s when all the healing is happening! You’re supposed to turn off the lights at night, and use candlelight or any other type of non-blue light (because these simulate sunlight and won’t let you sleep). Harvard University suggests:
– Use dim red lights for night lights. Red light has the least power to shift circadian rhythm and suppress melatonin.
– Avoid looking at bright screens beginning two to three hours before bed (ed: forget your laptops, tablets and cells at night, read a book or do art).
– If you work a night shift or use a lot of electronic devices at night, consider wearing blue-blocking glasses.
– Expose yourself to lots of bright light in the AM (7 to 10 AM). and during the day, which will boost your ability to sleep at night, as well as your mood and alertness during daylight.
When you get up the next day, have breakfast almost immediately after you wake up. Then, you go out in the first sun with little clothing and NO shoes, in order to get its UV rays (open your mouth to it too, the place under your tongue can get most of the UV rays) and to connect with Earth’s magnetic field. Wear something if it’s cold after that, meditate a bit outdoors, then maybe have some light exercise (e.g. yoga, have your sprinting outbursts exercise before dinner instead). Then have a shower (with hot and cold changes as the water’s temperature) and go about your day. And yes, all this means that you sleep more in the winter than in summer. Also, don’t forget to walk among vegetation/trees, they release substances that your body reacts to positively.
Step 5: Cold Thermogenesis
CT allows you to reduce inflammation and heal bone and muscle problems — among other things. Bathing in the sea or salt lakes is the best from all the types of CT. Dr Kruse has a HOW-TO about this here http://www.jackkruse.com/cold-thermogenesis-easy-start-guide/ and there are many other places online to find CT info. If you find all these ice baths too much, consider to at least start with a warm shower for a few seconds, gradually turn it into a completely cold shower, and at the end have a minute of warm shower again (just enough to take care of your hair with warm water).
Step 6: No non-native EMF
Of all his suggestions, this is the most difficult thing to implement in our modern life, because it’s almost unavoidable for people who live in big cities (which are by definition unnatural, btw). Non-native EMF means that you minimize to absolute minimum usage of cellphones, no wifi, computers, tablets, microwaves etc. You’re allowed close to such machines for the absolute minimum required to function as a modern person (e.g. to quickly answer your email, or file your taxes electronically, or to read the news quickly, or to watch TV no more than 2-3 hours a week). You should also not live close to cell or electrical towers, or freeways, or airline trails. Additionally, if you can afford it, you should consider a magnetic bed sheet. What all this means is that you can’t have a job in computers or live on an apartment with a gazillion wifi routers around you. What it REALLY means is that for optimal results you must move away to the country, buy a house there with a garden (and work on your vegetable garden barefoot), find a non-electronic-based job there, and live a very “ancestral” kind of life. I know that this last step might be over the top for you, since you might like your city life, but the truth of the matter is, you’re zombiefying and sickening yourself under these conditions, as time goes by. On his blog, Dr Kruse explains in terms of physics how EMF is destroying your body.At the end of the day, it’s your choice. But maybe you could minimize the damage of EMF by taking some precautions (e.g. minimizing electronics usage, blue lights, walk barefoot on soil sometimes etc), even if you eventually decide to live in a city.