In the morning I woke up with a terrible headache and couldn't stop throwing up. I had to cancel the flight I had booked the day before. Maybe my body was fighting something off and it finally won when I took a break. It turned out that my parents' flight got cancelled that day too, so they were able to spend one more day with me. After sleeping five more hours I was almost 100% better, and was able to fly home the following day.
Thank you to everyone I met on the trail for all your encouragement, to my family and friends for following my journey, to Peter Bakwin for answering all my questions, to Reinhold Metzger for inspiring me on my first day, to my running sponsors: Drymax Socks, Om Organic Mushroom Nutrition, RunGoo, Hammer Nutrition, and to my running clubs: the Trail Crashers, Muscatine Running Friends, and Riverside Road Runners for your support.
And what a coincidence to bookend my journey, within five minutes of finishing my report I got an email from Reinhold, he was on vacation and wanted to see how my trip went. Thank you again for all your encouragement on Day 1 Reinhold, I'm not sure I would have achieved what I did without meeting you.
An update: Great news this morning 10/24 -- the precancerous problem I had before is gone. Seven months ago I was told I needed to have a surgical procedure, but I wanted to try my own program of herbs, supplements, and fruits/vegetables. Maybe I just needed to walk ~1,200 miles.
This blog - copyright Natalie Larson 2017
Update: November 2018 - one year later and my cells are normal, and no HPV.
ReplyDeleteI’m not giving medical advice or doing a research review, but in case it might help someone else I’ll list what I did here.
For approximately 2-4 months prior to hiking the CCT I took a number of immune support supplement complexes found at my local health food store, various carotenoids, astaxanthin, chaga mushroom powder, immune support mushroom powder, bay leaf extract, oregano oil, turmeric extract, licorice extract, astragalus, and garlic. I also tried to eat one papaya a week (based on a study I read), and drank a glass or more of carrot juice daily (based on a case report). I saw a study showing that UV light kills the HPV virus and so I bought a UV flashlight and shined it on the cells daily. I made my own suppositories in ice cube trays in the freezer, out of coconut oil, turmeric extract (based on numerous studies), bay leaf extract (another study), licorice extract, and oregano oil, and used these nightly. Some of these treatments were aimed at supporting my immune system so it could fight off the HPV - the virus causing the cells to mutate, others are antivirals or showed some evidence of healing cervical dysplasia. I also spent approximately one month traveling with my great friend 80 year old veteran ultra runner Don Winkley in Europe. While in Europe I limited my regimen to astaxanthin and a few other immune complexes (I cannot remember which now), plus red and orange vegetables when we had them. I ended up losing maybe five pounds on our trip, so it was also a kind of fast.
While out hiking the CCT the only supplement I took was astaxanthin, it also is supposed to help with sunburn and general inflammation. I tried to eat red and orange vegetables when I could. My diet on the trail consisted mostly of nuts (a lot more fat than I was used to eating, but maybe this helped with the absorption of vitamins) and dried fruit/nut mixes. Blackberries were in season during the hike so I ate as many as I could when I found them along the trail. I got lots of vitamin D with the sun exposure and the air quality was pristine (where I was living before had some of the worst air quality in the US). I was also immensely happy to be hiking the trail. Given that I never got sick while hiking, but immediately after I got back, perhaps my immune system was in high gear during the trek, but let up when I finally rested. I’ve also read that you can breath in a new microbiome just by hiking.
And I just remembered - I added a liquid chaga mushroom extract to the coconut oil, turmeric extract, bay leaf extract, licorice extract, and oregano oil concoction that I applied. I also drank the chaga extract with water.
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