Hello altogether, my name is Jens Schuppenhauer CEO of Adelheidi. Let me tell you my story:
I never had any allergies or food related issues time of my life. I think part of it, is that I played as kid in the mud, built castles in barns out of hay bales fully covered with dust and whatever lived in it and whatever vegetable was considered ripe eating, like potatoes, kohlrabi, carrots, was dag out of the soil bit off the peal which was spit on the ground and the inside was eaten with full joy. I had not one worm infestation from it but many. Today I think that did not hurt me at all but helped me to build up a strong microbiome in my gut with all kinds of pathogens from bacteria, parasites, fungus and viruses. When all around me were sick, I sneezed a little for a couple of of hours but that was it. You could always consider me pretty healthy guy with a strong immune system.
I was blessed to be one of the latest generations before computers and cellphones who were outside playing with mice, frogs, birds, worms and whatever was not fast enough to get away from us as kids. We did not even watch TV as the 3 programs available were quickly too boring to be considered as an alternative to the real and exciting live outside.
I moved over from Germany to Florida and as I am used to it enjoyed the outside living until my first encounter with what I today think was the brown recluse. I did not feel a bite but could see the swelling days later when my left arm was swollen to double the size. The most efficient way chosen by the doctor was broad-band antibiotics which helped to get the swelling away and my arm back to its normal size. No-one even thought about the aftermath that antibiotics left in my gut respectively what to do to get back to normal. I felt good as always and did not think about taking care for my gut at this time.
This encounter did not hold me up from enjoying the outside life with all its adventures. And it did just take 2 years that I made my second encounter with the brown recluse by carrying a tree limp full of wholes, where all the spiders where hiding, that triggered another spider attack. Again I did not feel anything but days later I recognized again my left arm swollen. And guess what: I got another time broad-band antibiotics. And again: no actions were taken to cure the mess that antibiotics left in my gut.
It took about a few weeks after the second broad-band antibiotic treatment that my knee started hurting like arthritis pain. As I am used to jog on the beach on a daily basis I had to stop my sport due my pain in the knee. I started using the fitness bike in the gym instead to stay fit which was possible to do but I felt that I still wear off my knee. Another thing I noticed was that whenever I turned my head to check the blind-spot when driving my car, my neck hurt and it gave me a sandy feeling as if bones are scratching on each other.
At this time I did not know how it all was related but I started reading into it, hours, days, weeks, months. And I found something: leaky gut syndrome. One of the reasons you can get leaky gut is from antibiotics. Either you get it over a long period of time from antibiotics in small portions in conventional food or from a treatment that your doctor prescribes once you have a bacterial infection. And yes, I had two treatments because of my spider bites. I found something that made sense. The next goal was to cure the leaky gut to get rid of all the allergies and sensitivities that I never had in my life.
If you look into LEAKY GUT you find a lot of recipes to cure it. It all started with tons of probiotics, collagen, pectin, glucosamine, bone broth, fermented foods. So I did it all: I drank 6 kombucha a day, ate fermented fish, kefir, yogurt, kimchi, rice in grape leaves, olives, hering in wine sauce, everything, that was fermented, that I could find. What can I say: even after a year my knee sensor worked perfectly and every kefir took 30 minutes to tell my knee to ring the bell with arthritis pain from the containing lactose. Every cheese I ate gave my thumb the signal to hurt whenever bended. AND there was a funny thing: whenever I drank carbonated water, especially club soda in a restaurant my knee gave a signal not to do it. I could not drink any carbonated water or soda where the carbondioxid was added to the liquid. On the other hand I could easily drink kombucha or champagne where the carbondioxide was created by natural fermentation. I know ayurveda is telling us not to drink any carbonated drink, I can say that carbonated drinks from natural fermentation did not hurt respectively triggered auto-immune response.
Nothing really reversed my auto-immune responses and I finally totally quit: lactose, gluten, coffee, tea, alcohol, and a lot of other things and went totally VEGAN for 2 years. All that I can say is that I never felt fitter in life than during this time. I was able to reverse my biological age by decades and felt the power of energy that I had as I was 16. I could work 18 hours and did not feel it. I had no vacation for months and still had energy to tear out trees. I was thinking positively and there was no hint of depression or negativity in me. This was one of the most productive times of my life. Part of the reason that we turned back to eating fish was that my wife was suffering from heart-rythm problems which completely stopped after she restarted eating fish and which never returned. Under the line: my knee was a little better but still not cured.
It was the time that we found out about AUTOPHAGY and the power of FASTENING. We thought it is worth trying and we started intermittent fasting with 16 hours just water, no food at all by mainly stopping to eat at 8PM, skipping breakfast and restarting with lunch at 12 or sometimes 2PM the next day and having a window of 6 respectively 8 hours to eat 2 meals. I practiced this so called 16/8 respectively 18/6 method for about 3 weeks and started noticing that my knee sensor faded away. I started doing tests with carbonated water, gluten, cheese, kefir, and other things that I avoided for years and what can I say: GONE. No more pain noticeable, no more knee sensor. But I cannot say that I was too sad about it. On one hand the sensor always helped me to develop new products which I could test on myself, on the other hand thanks god, I can jog on the beach again, and can cheat here and there..
In addition to 16/8 intermittent fastening I did a couple of more things which may have contributed to fix my leaky gut and stop my food sensitivities and auto-immune responses. During the eating period of 8 respectively 6 hours I ate almost every day chicken, cracked open the bones at both ends, ate the ends to get the articular cartilage and then crushed and squeezed out the bones to enjoy the bone mark, which tastes pretty much like liver. I know the grandma of my wife who was fit at the age of 96 had bone marrow dumpling soup many times a week. Bone marrow dumplings are a German thing and you do not find it too often in America. You get bone broth a lot but I think BONE MARROW is by far more effective and able to fix your gut lining. I also tried to eat an apple and a banana a day to get the collagen from vitamin C and the pectin to help fix my gut lining. Parallely I was adding probiotics and fermented foods.
What I think today is that you should fix your gut lining first before you start getting into fermented foods excessively as everything, including the fermentation bacteria and the yeast, is leaking into your blood stream and triggering auto-immune responses until the gut lining is repaired.
Overall and under the line: what helped me might help others but I am not in the position to tell or promise anything. To sumarize what I experienced and what helped me:
Intermittent fasting, during the eating period get bone marrow, collagen, glucosamine, pectin, vitamins, yogurt, probiotics and prebiotics (like live sauerkraut). Once the gut lining is repaired and the gut microbiome is back built up to protect the gut lining you are ready to eat most that you had to avoid before without auto-immune disorders to show up (I am not talking about celiac). And again: this is what happened to me and helped me personally. This is not a recommendation or consultation for others to copy and follow. Built your own opinion and consult your doctor or even better holistic healer.
I know I could eat many things without auto-immune response today but I am avoiding most of it because I know that it is not good for me. I am happy that I can have yogurt, kefir and cheese today and built back up my lactobacillus in my gut as I know that especially those stand for good gut health and longevity.
I know there is a lot more to it and I could have stretched this story to a size of a book. I, myself learn everyday something new and recommend: never stop to be curious and build up your own mind. Do never follow these black and white promoters and demagogs who just want to sell you something and it is just the opposite that is true in a couple of years.
Thank you for your attention and maybe I could attribute to a higher level of your well-being. Do not hesitate to ask me questions or add your comments to my story but even more importantly:
Take this story as a role model to tell your own story so others can learn from your experiences.
Best Jens Schuppenhauer
CEO Adelheidis