Edema
Capsaicin is the active ingredient in hot peppers. It does two things:
This has been known for a while because proper hygiene is known to help prevent the extreme swelling of Lymphatic Filariasis, more commonly called Elephantiasis.
Lymphatic Filariasis is an infection with a parasitic worm that obstructs the lymph nodes and causes severe edema -- or so it was believed for some time. In reality, the edema is caused at least in part by secondary bacterial infections. Washing the limbs DAILY can help prevent the extreme swelling and thickening of the skin that otherwise occurs.
My condition predisposes me to edema, most obviously in the belly. However, at one time I was quite large and when I first began consuming hot peppers for the capsaicin, I shrank really dramatically in just a few weeks, so much so that multiple strangers stopped me in the grocery store or at work or other places to say "I see you walking all the time. Wow, you've really lost weight!" and then ask for diet tips.
I would mumble general platitudes about eating right and walking a LOT and not mention that I had a genetic disorder and had found a kind of biohack.
I began by adding habanero to the carb portion of my dinner (potatoes, noodles) every night for about ten days or two weeks. I started with a whole habanero and then three quarters of a habanero and then half of one etc until I couldn't tolerate more of it.
Habanero is fairly hot. They are very small peppers and a whole habanero was like 20 or 30 cents, so it was very budget friendly as well.
This was the loading dose. A loading dose gets used in traditional medicine sometimes. It is just taking a large amount of the medicine to start with to get a high enough dose in the system.
And then I tried to consume other, milder peppers daily for the next few months. I ate a lot of Bell peppers (on pizza or on a sandwich with plain chicken breast and lettuce), medium heat salsa, pepper jack cheese and ethnic foods (Asian, Latino) that contain peppers normally.
After a few months, I repeated the loading dose and again consumed habanero as part of my dinner for at least a few nights in a row, then returned to the lower doses of capsaicin.
I found that eating capsaicin and then going for a long walk really dramatically improved how much fluid I dumped. You will want to choose a walking route with access to bathrooms because you will need to relieve yourself. You will pee a whole lot and you may have intestinal drama.
You may have intestinal drama for the exact same reason antibiotics cause such issues: Half the weight of human feces is bacteria, so when you kill stuff in the system that's how you dump it.
When I say a long walk, I mean an hour or more. I was walking to a Burger King and eating there and walking back. The entire trip took like four hours or something most of the time, though I got quicker the more I did this. (Do keep in mind that this blog is DESCRIPTIVE, NOT prescriptive. This is what I did and it may not be what YOU need to do for your condition.)
I also spent about two years consuming watermelon something like five or six days per week, most weeks of the year. Watermelon is excellent kidney support and that can help you void excess fluids, so watermelon can play a role in helping you resolve edema as well.
Again, if you consume watermelon and then walk, make sure you have access to a bathroom. You will most likely need it. (Once, I outright replaced the pants I was wearing after eating watermelon and failing to make it to a bathroom.)
If you have trypanosomas, they are swimmers and they LIKE IT when you are retaining fluids. They don't like it when you start shrinking and you will have die-off and they will poison you. It will not be happy fun times.
On the upside, getting the edema down will help permanently reduce the infection. They will be hindered in how much they can infect you if you are less waterlogged.
My hypothesis for many years now has been that if I can ever achieve a "normal" flat stomach and be completely rid of the belly bloat, I can live a more or less "normal" life, though normal like a Kosher Jew: I will always have dietary and lifestyle restrictions and live different from other people, but I don't necessarily have to be a cripple dying a slow and torturous death.
Cystic Fibrosis is somewhat common in ethnic Jews and some of the dietary practices of Kosher Jews fit with some of what works for me. I think this is not entirely a coincidence.
- It opens a channel called TRPV1. (The transient receptor potential cation channel subfamily V member 1(TrpV1), also known as the capsaicin receptor and the vanilloid receptor 1.) This basically causes the body to dump fluids.
- It kills a wide variety of infections, including viruses, bacteria and molds.
This has been known for a while because proper hygiene is known to help prevent the extreme swelling of Lymphatic Filariasis, more commonly called Elephantiasis.
Lymphatic Filariasis is an infection with a parasitic worm that obstructs the lymph nodes and causes severe edema -- or so it was believed for some time. In reality, the edema is caused at least in part by secondary bacterial infections. Washing the limbs DAILY can help prevent the extreme swelling and thickening of the skin that otherwise occurs.
My condition predisposes me to edema, most obviously in the belly. However, at one time I was quite large and when I first began consuming hot peppers for the capsaicin, I shrank really dramatically in just a few weeks, so much so that multiple strangers stopped me in the grocery store or at work or other places to say "I see you walking all the time. Wow, you've really lost weight!" and then ask for diet tips.
I would mumble general platitudes about eating right and walking a LOT and not mention that I had a genetic disorder and had found a kind of biohack.
I began by adding habanero to the carb portion of my dinner (potatoes, noodles) every night for about ten days or two weeks. I started with a whole habanero and then three quarters of a habanero and then half of one etc until I couldn't tolerate more of it.
Habanero is fairly hot. They are very small peppers and a whole habanero was like 20 or 30 cents, so it was very budget friendly as well.
This was the loading dose. A loading dose gets used in traditional medicine sometimes. It is just taking a large amount of the medicine to start with to get a high enough dose in the system.
And then I tried to consume other, milder peppers daily for the next few months. I ate a lot of Bell peppers (on pizza or on a sandwich with plain chicken breast and lettuce), medium heat salsa, pepper jack cheese and ethnic foods (Asian, Latino) that contain peppers normally.
After a few months, I repeated the loading dose and again consumed habanero as part of my dinner for at least a few nights in a row, then returned to the lower doses of capsaicin.
I found that eating capsaicin and then going for a long walk really dramatically improved how much fluid I dumped. You will want to choose a walking route with access to bathrooms because you will need to relieve yourself. You will pee a whole lot and you may have intestinal drama.
You may have intestinal drama for the exact same reason antibiotics cause such issues: Half the weight of human feces is bacteria, so when you kill stuff in the system that's how you dump it.
When I say a long walk, I mean an hour or more. I was walking to a Burger King and eating there and walking back. The entire trip took like four hours or something most of the time, though I got quicker the more I did this. (Do keep in mind that this blog is DESCRIPTIVE, NOT prescriptive. This is what I did and it may not be what YOU need to do for your condition.)
I also spent about two years consuming watermelon something like five or six days per week, most weeks of the year. Watermelon is excellent kidney support and that can help you void excess fluids, so watermelon can play a role in helping you resolve edema as well.
Again, if you consume watermelon and then walk, make sure you have access to a bathroom. You will most likely need it. (Once, I outright replaced the pants I was wearing after eating watermelon and failing to make it to a bathroom.)
If you have trypanosomas, they are swimmers and they LIKE IT when you are retaining fluids. They don't like it when you start shrinking and you will have die-off and they will poison you. It will not be happy fun times.
On the upside, getting the edema down will help permanently reduce the infection. They will be hindered in how much they can infect you if you are less waterlogged.
My hypothesis for many years now has been that if I can ever achieve a "normal" flat stomach and be completely rid of the belly bloat, I can live a more or less "normal" life, though normal like a Kosher Jew: I will always have dietary and lifestyle restrictions and live different from other people, but I don't necessarily have to be a cripple dying a slow and torturous death.
Cystic Fibrosis is somewhat common in ethnic Jews and some of the dietary practices of Kosher Jews fit with some of what works for me. I think this is not entirely a coincidence.
