The Spoon Theory and Chronic Illness

Original Publish Date: 9/24/22

 

I’ve been partnering with many CIRS providers to help marry the carnivore diet and CIRS communities. Many chronic illness carnivores suffer from Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome and wrongly focus on perfecting their carnivore diet.

 

Diet is an absolutely fundament tool for healing. But after a year or two, if you aren’t fully healing with the carnivore diet, it’s not that the diet isn’t perfect enough that complete healing doesn’t ensue. 

 

I wish I could say the carnivore diet fixes everything but it’d be going against “First Do No Harm” if I still advocated for that. 

 

As I’ve been blessed to serve nearly a thousand individual carnivore clients, I’ve learned that chronic illness needs a trifecta approach. I plan to share more about this as I can find the best way to approach it. 

 

Carnivore Diet + Environmental Illness (e.g., CIRS, Lyme) + Mind-Body Healing

 For my chronic illness clients, all three major facets need to be considered and righted for full healing. Righted does not mean perfection. 

 

You can eat the cleanest carnivore diet, but if your environment is toxic, you won’t get wholly better. You can eat a carnivore diet and fix the environment, but if your mind doesn’t believe you can heal, you simply won’t. 

 

Sometimes people get stuck in a place of identifying with chronic illness that they are skeptical of ever fully healing. 

 

But you can. I’ve seen it myself. 

 

I’m honored to share that one group I belong to is the Christian CIRS Network. These providers work with the most challenging chronic illness cases, and miracles do happen.

 

I hope to come out with studies to share how the carnivore diet is the way to reduce systemic inflammation. The beauty of CIRS is that there is bloodwork involved. We have bloodwork numbers on non-carnivores and carnivores pre-CIRS treatment. The research is premature, but overall inflammation looks less, even on the innate immune side. (C-reactive protein is more telling of the adaptive immune response).

 

The incredible beauty of CIRS bloodwork is also that similar markers are used to test rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory conditions. Can you imagine if we publish scientific literature showing bloodwork data that those on a carnivore diet have lower inflammation (with specific chronic illness markers)? 

 

To be continued…

 

The Spoon Theory

 

 

If you or your loved one suffers from chronic illness, you probably have heard of the Spoon Theory by Christine Miserandino.

 

The Spoon Theory is a way for people who live with chronic illness to depict how health issues impact their ability to complete everyday activities.

 

People with chronic pain start each day with a set number of proverbial spoons. 

 

Each spoon represents the physical and mental energy it takes to complete a daily task. Smaller tasks, such as making your bed, may take one spoon, but larger tasks, such as cleaning the house, may take several spoons.

 

Smaller tasks may take several spoons on days of severe inflammation and pain.

 

To give you an example, a mother may have one spoon left by the end of the night. She has to decide if she will make dinner or wash her children. She can sometimes push through and borrow spoons from the next day, but she risks eventually running out of spoons.

 

Chronic illness sufferers have to be economical in how they use their spoons daily. No, they are not lazy or unmotivated. They are just out of spoons.

 

I hear from my chronic illness clients that they have dreams, but when they get bogged down by illness, they feel depressed, as if they can never fully enjoy life. They feel they are a burden on their loved ones as many cannot work or are on permanent disability.

 

If you think of chronic illness as a finite amount of daily spoons, it becomes easier to understand the struggle and daily battle of chronic illness.

 

No one knows exactly how many spoons we have in our lives, but whatever amount you have, make sure to use them well. 

CIRS Support

 

For individuals seeking comprehensive practitioner-led and community support on their mold illness journey, we welcome you to join our exclusive NwJ CIRS Group Support. Join today for access to extensive resources, a like-minded community, and unparalleled care as we journey to root-cause healing together.

 

In health,

Judy