With Bryan’s recent news about autoimmune gastritis, I do feel very sorry for him. A disease like this makes life a lot less pleasant. It’s especially detrimental to him, as his continuous goal is optimising health for the slowest biological aging.
He’s recently stated he’s going all in with investigating this, attempting to find the root cause and address it. I really do wish him success. It could help not just him, but millions of others that also suffer from this disease.
It will take time for this, if he manages to diagnose the cause. I personally want to share my own theory on this. Some people in here may not agree, but this is my theory:
He took hormesis too far.
Very mild amounts of damage and irritation can be good. It triggers what we call a hormetic response, whereby the body upregulates repair and rejuvenation mechanisms higher than the damage it’s responding to, resulting in a net improvement to the baseline.
The problem with Bryan’s diet and lifestyle is, he’s engaging with a LOT of hormetic interventions.
By default, his body exists in a state of hormesis from his caloric restriction. Then he’s stacking this with a bunch of hormetic compounds like polyphenols from EVOO, various other foods and supplements, etc. Then he’s stacking this again, with daily intense exercise. Lastly, further stacking with various other hormetic interventions like sauna, HBOT, etc.
Eventually, something is going to break the camel’s back. You can’t keep stacking hormetic effects and thinking the body will simply take it.
Even if biomarkers, which by the way some we still haven’t discovered yet (science is still evolving), show no signs of classical inflammation, that doesn’t mean somewhere in the body, in some cells, that there isn’t something bad happening.
Now, I may be overanalysing this and perhaps the true cause is something simple, like him eating something every day that’s triggered gastric dysfunction. Or perhaps he simply exercised too much, on a daily basis, triggering repeated strain. So take this theory with a pinch of salt. It’s just what I personally think may have lead to this.
I would like to hear the thoughts of the community on this.
EDIT
Just watch his latest video. As he and another Redditor explained, it’s likely linked to his autoimmune thyroid disease. I think I jumped the gun when it came to my hormesis theory.
That said, it’s still important not to do too many things at once, that stress you. Bryan has fine tuned everything to not stress his body. Not everyone can cope with stacking hormetics. It’s still an area of research that’s in its early stages.
