Hello folks, time for some more food intolerance reversal in this testimonial from a member of the Circadian Retraining Program. I began talking with Chuck before I even developed the program. He was an early follower of Hack Your Gut and we’d often discuss aspects of diet from different perspectives.

Chuck has made major improvements including correction of food intolerance, improved mood, and he’s reduced his thyroid dose by half. Most importantly, he now tolerates fiber, something that used to put him in to a bad depression and cause rosacea. Not surprising, reversal of food intolerance is common for most in the program.

You’ve probably seen Chuck Morrison in my Facebook groups. Since he likes his anonymity, we’ll stick to his Facebook handle and picture, which is obviously Jim Morrison and not him. I’m sure he’ll pop in to the post if any of you have questions for him.

1)Hey Chuck, tell people a little bit about yourself…what you do, and what you’ve been dealing with.

Mid fifties attorney — was on antibiotics on and off for close to five years in high school and college for acne.  Acne was not bad and the treatment didn’t even work.  Kept taking them because back then I stupidly believed doctors knew what they were talking about. 

Had a vegetarian diet, but diet consisted mostly of cereal grains and lots of processed food.  Very little in the way of animal protein.   After stressful job experience, began getting bad depressive and anxiety symptoms.  Tried worthless talk therapy but declined to go the anti-depressant route.  Had very poor sleep.  Lots of heart palpitations. 

2)We’ve talked a bit about how you’ve followed the same route as many people, myself included. Give me a rundown of what you’ve done and tried to treat.

Started looking for answers.  Believed candida was the culprit based on long antibiotic use.  Followed the anti-candida protocols…chased lyme and mercury toxicity.  Spent thousands on assorted quackery. 

Went to the Pfeiffer Center where they loaded me up with large doses of synthetic vitamins.  Went ultra low carb; under 72 mgs per day.  Started getting horrible symptoms from the vitamin regimen.  Muscle pain –burning weakness. 

Bowel function collapsed with constant diarrhea.  Started getting Graves Antibodies.  Started taking thyroid hormone and following protocols developed by Ray Peat.  Depression diminished…but gut problems continued. 

Found John Herron’s work and began taking his recommended fibers—took large doses of probiotics…lots of fermented foods—but did not improve.  Bowel function improved somewhat with fibers, but fibers brought on deep depression and ferocious roseacea. 

3)You’ve been following the blog for a while and then a year ago you jumped in on the Circadian Retraining Program. What tempted you to try the program?

Kept seeing posts for the CRP, but didn’t understand it and ignored it for a long time.  But then listened to Dave’s post where he discussed seeing gut health improvements that exceeded what he had achieved using fibers, ferments and probiotics.  Program was affordable so I thought what the heck and bought it. 

Progress was slow.  So I decided to get fanatical and follow every recommendation to the letter.  About this time a fellow CRP experimenter who had been posting her improvements posted material indicating she was missing many of the zeitgebers and still getting results.  I was 6 months in and seeing nothing. 

4)I know you’ve mentioned food intolerance is fading. How is that going and what were your major intolerances?

First noted improvement was less food intolerance.  I had noticed my blood pressure rising and I was getting lots of palpitations.  I now suspect that this was the CRP improving my health and making me over-medicated on thyroid. 

But initially I thought I wasn’t getting enough potassium.  So I started trying to eat bananas again.  I could never tolerate them without bad reflux…suddenly they were tolerable.  Then I tried sweet potatoes.   Same thing.  Formerly they caused killer reflux –now nothing. 

5)Talk a little bit about the other improvements you’ve seen.

In about January of 2019, blood pressure and palpitations were getting so bad that I had to do something.  I had noticed in the past that both of these got worse when I was taking too much thyroid.  So against doctors advice, and against lab values which indicated my thyroid status was optimal, I reduced my thyroid medication.  Blood pressure normalized.  But within weeks it was rising again. 

Another medication cut normalized it again.  I continued to apply the Circadian Retraining Program.  Since Bristol stool quality was still poor, I decided to incorporate some butyrate supplements.  I noticed that my longstanding Eustachian tube dysfunction improved.  So I started adding back in John Herrons recommended fibers along with some resistant starch: green banana flour mostly. 

This time after a few days of rosacea, it went away.  Sleep and stool quality improved.  Instead of waking every 2 hours …it was every 4 then 5.   Instead of getting depressive symptoms, I started getting a lot of mental clarity and a positive outlook. 

All through this period I maintained an organic, gluten free, whole foods diet with lots of fruits veggies and lean animal protein.  I cut fat to 10 percent of calories and cut to two meals daily per the CRP principles.   That seems to be when the major improvements began. 

6)Do you have any tips for other people who may be at the beginning of a similar path as yours?

My biggest tip would be to focus on Circadian Training…BEFORE you do ANYTHING else for your health.  Make sure to incorporate ALL aspects as fanatically as possible in the beginning. 

Avoid gurus…miracle one intervention saved my life nonsensical claims….highway robber “Intergrative” doctors,  dubious detoxification schemes and lyme diagnoses. 

Don’t quit if you don’t see immediate progress, cut fat intake to 10 percent of calories, eat a wide variety of whole organic food, optimize minerals and fat soluble vitamins from food if at all possible.  Get Vitamin D from sun exposure and Sperti Light box only. 

After doing the CRP for a good bit, start adding in soluble fiber supplements. Things like larch(arabinogalactin), PHGG(Partially hydrolyzed guar gum), apple pectin, resistant starch, etc. 

Conclusion

Well there you have it, another fantastic testimonial to how optimizing your circadian rhythms is life changing. And yet another showing reversal of food intolerance. Just an important note: Many people see mild benefits until they apply principles they skipped early on. This is why Chuck’s advice to be fanatical and stick to the plan is crucial early on.

In the private Facebook Group, people want to know which principle drove a specific person’s improvements. Without fail, it’s the concept they weren’t applying previously. Cutting fat intake worked for some, tweaking meal timing and frequency others, and I believe someone is about to see even better improvements by addressing light.

But the only reason that specific principle seemed to drive the change is because they were already doing everything else. And that creates a great deal of synergy and removes their barrier to improvement.

All components of the program create synergy in the body, and when you skip some progress happens but isn’t maximized. Naturally when you start doing that component progress increases, but that’s not because that specific component is driving progress. It all matters.

To learn more about the Circadian Retraining Program, check it out here.