Tom was 40 years old when he started noticing the occasional twinge of pain in his knees.
An avid long-distance runner, he assumed the pain was nothing to worry about and would soon go away, just as other knee, ankle, and foot injuries had in the past.
He typically ran outside on paved roads, and only occasionally inside on a treadmill if the weather required it, so the high-impact nature of pavement running was almost always the cause that would require a week or two of rest to recover from.
But when his pain started getting worse a month into his self-prescribed break from running, and he started struggling to get up and down stairs and even walk normally around his house, he knew there was probably something else going on.
Having bounced back from innumerable running injuries over the years, he was well-acquainted with the typical recovery process.
This wasn’t that.
Not only could he not recall anything that would have caused such extreme pain in both of his knees, but that the pain seemed to be getting worse by the day suggested that this might actually be unrelated to his running.
Diagnosis
Tom’s doctor agreed that this wasn’t like any of his previous running injuries, and, a week later, an autoimmune panel confirmed his suspicion: rheumatoid arthritis.
Devastated to be diagnosed with an autoimmune condition that would likely continue to get worse over time, and that would obviously mark the end of his running, Tom asked his doctor if there was anything he could do to slow or even reverse the condition’s progression.
His doctor shook his head.
Tom’s immune system, for some reason, was attacking his joints, starting with his knees, so he would need to take an immunosuppressive medication—a medication that suppresses his immune system—for the rest of his life, to mitigate the damage to his joints.
Other than taking medication, there was nothing he could do.
Medical myopia
Tom had always liked his doctor.
He felt like they had good rapport, and that he could always get all of his questions answered, even if it meant going over their allotted appointment time.
This time, however, Tom left the appointment feeling dejected, like his doctor hadn’t even considered his question, or the possibility of doing anything other than taking medication.
Thinking back over the many appointments they’d had over the years, it struck Tom that his doctor had never asked him about his diet.
Or his supplements.
Or anything else that’s even remotely outside of the conventional approach.
If there was something he could do to improve or reverse the autoimmune attack of his joints, Tom realized he wouldn’t be learning about it from his doctor, and he would need to look elsewhere for help.
Enter Quantify
A Google search for natural approaches to reversing autoimmunity soon led Tom to Quantify, and he saw that many members had reversed chronic conditions that they were told were irreversible, by optimizing their diet, supplements, and lifestyle.
Excited to get started, Tom signed up on the spot.
After getting matched with a certified health coach specialized in immune function, completing a health questionnaire, and meeting with his health coach over video chat, a gluten sensitivity test was ordered for Tom, to evaluate immune reactivity to gluten, a protein in wheat, barley, and rye.
Gluten sensitivity
A few weeks later, he received his test results, and his health coach explained that his gluten sensitivity test was abnormal, indicating that while Tom didn’t have celiac disease, he did have a significant sensitivity to gluten, and that his regular consumption of foods containing gluten was likely contributing to immune dysregulation—a confused immune system, in other words—and, ultimately, his rheumatoid arthritis.
To address immune dysregulation, his health coach continued, Tom would need to optimize his immune function, by eliminating processed foods and grains from his diet, increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables, taking certain supplements, such as vitamin D3, vitamin K2, and magnesium malate, and getting to bed on a consistent schedule.
Recovery
Like most Americans, Tom had eaten bread, cereal, pasta, and other gluten-containing foods for his entire life, so to learn that a specific protein in these foods was causing his immune system to go haywire was quite the surprise.
As a runner, he knew that he couldn’t get away with a garbage diet, so he opted for whole wheat options whenever he could, convincing himself that by going whole wheat, he was eating healthy.
His “healthy” diet, however, unfortunately couldn’t have been less healthy for him, given his significant sensitivity to gluten that ultimately led to his autoimmune condition.
Tapping into the extraordinary commitment to his health that he had cultivated over decades as a runner, Tom stopped eating processed foods and grains without hesitation.
He started taking the supplements his health coach had recommended.
And within a few months, his knees started to feel better.
Within a year, his knee pain was gone, he had picked up biking (now more conscious of his joint health), and a follow-up autoimmune panel showed a normal rheumatoid factor (RF), confirming that he had reversed the autoimmune condition that he was told he would have to live with.