SI Pain: 6/100 | Rib Pain: 0/100 | Concrete Back: 16/100

I felt stiff and achy today.

I want to say that it’s from doing a different form of yoga last night, but I don’t think it was. Most of the moves were quite similar.

I suspect I’m feeling it from the enormous amount of food I had yesterday. In particular, the chia pudding I’ve been eating for the last few days.

I think all of the ingredients should be fine on the diet I’m following, but I wonder whether I am having a reaction nonetheless.

I listen to a lot of podcasts each week (and read books) about biology, genetics, the microbiome and diet in general. It’s the most fascinating topic.

It really sits at the heart of everything in our lives: how we feel, how we manage pain, how we fight off illnesses, even our mental state.

But one thing always frustrates me…

How binary some experts can be on so many of these topics.

There are highly qualified health and wellness experts out there (individuals who I really respect that offer valuable information) who are so steadfast in their views they will not entertain the idea that there could be different outcomes or responses for different individuals.

They cannot imagine a future where new information could update the information they have now.

I find this baffling.

The more I dive into genetics and the microbiome the more absurd having such a fixed stance seems.

How can all these highly qualified, genius level people (who are citing credible scientific studies) fall onto such opposing views with no suggestion or possibility of compromise?

And at a time when we are some early into our exploration of the human microbiome?

We really don’t have to scan very far back through history to find examples of where the great minds of the day – scientists, philosophers, religious clerics – touted ideas that now, with the benefit of modern science, have been thoroughly debunked.

It seems strange that confidence and bravado so often holds sway over reason and balance.

My feeling is that the starting point, as humans, should be to accept that we are fallible. We cannot have access to all of the information all of the time and as such we should stay open to new information.

Everything we view is through a tiniest sliver of a window in a heartbeat of a moment

We can make amazing hypotheses and incredible suggestions and ideas.

These can sometimes lead to protocols, medications or treatments that can really help people and in a lot of cases save lives.

But this doesn’t mean that we can ever be totally confident we have the correct answer or one rule that works for everyone.

In the case of autoimmune disease there are some people who might do great following a certain diet, but others might not.

Some might need to tackle certain stresses in their lives.

There may be some who really need hardcore biologics to see them through.

The gist of what I want to say is this.

We should be suspicious of easy certainty.

If you can explore, keep an open mind, read the latest literature and see what works for you (not worrying about what should work or what worked for others) then you will be in a strong place.

Anyway, moving on to the rest of today…

I had a weird sensation near my SI joints today during my evening walk.

I was generally feeling fine today but on my way home I suddenly got a sharp sensation in my left lower SI joint.

It wasn’t crippling but it reminded me of a very specific sensation I had few years ago, when things were really bad.

At the time it felt like an alien creature was swimming around my body. In my head I imagine a microbial worm flitting about.

It felt like that just now, as I write this, for about 30 seconds.

Now it has gone away so hopefully it’s nothing.

When I got back I still felt like my back wasn’t quite right and for the rest of the evening I felt random twinges in my left SI joint.

At about 10:00pm I convinced myself there was a 50% chance I would wake up having a flare tomorrow morning because things just didn’t feel right.

I did my yoga anyway but instead of my new routine I did the old beginner level Jin yoga. This is the one I had previously done for nearly 2 years that has helped me so much.

It seemed to go okay, no major traumas, so fingers crossed things don’t escalate tomorrow.