Well, it’s a week since my (mini) flare up, following some less than Paleo food while on holiday.  Am I any better?  Mostly.  My hands are still a bit of a problem, though, and I have been rather silly again!

I was at a funeral last Monday offering some support to a friend who had lost her Mum. Although very sad, we had some fun looking through a library of old photographs and recalling some good times everyone had spent together.  Coffee, tea, a wee snifter and some food.

I had my daft hat on again.  Now, Paleo as I am, I do love a good sausage roll.  Oooooh, sausage rolls!  The ones on offer were particularly nice.

I had 3…………..followed by a sandwich…….

……and 2 cakes.

People who know me will be either shaking their heads or snorting loudly right now.  In my defence, I would say that I’m the same as everyone else, a wheat addict.  Having wheat addiction means that when you have wheat, you must have more wheat and more wheat and more wheat.  That’s why I couldn’t have just one sausage roll, couldn’t stay away from bread and then had to have a cake or two.

Wheat is the only major component of our food that has an addictive effect.  I’ve said before that wheat (pastry, bread, cakes – just what I’d been eating) releases endorphins.  This isn’t strictly true.  Endorphins are produced by the brain – but gluten exorphins are produced by the ingestion of wheat.  Similar effect on the brain, different route.  No other food does this and that’s why it’s addictive like no other food.

That’s why you can’t just have one piece of that ‘moreish’ bread.  You say, “moreish,” I say “addictive.”

If I was an alcoholic, my long-term recovery would depend on me cutting out alcohol completely for the rest of my life.  With wheat, I need to treat myself like the addict I am and stay away from it completely.  The reason?  Well……..

…….the reaction to my loss of control was nothing short of spectacular!  Now, I should have shown a little more intelligence after my experience with holiday food, but let’s treat this as another experiment, for science’s sake.  That’s my excuse anyway!

By the time I drove home (just half an hour) my hands, knees and my right shoulder, which hasn’t been a problem for well over a year, were indescribably painful.  Especially my shoulder.  I was genuinely shocked by this.

I had overdosed!

I went through almost 2 years of dealing with a seriously painful right shoulder, which was a big problem at gigs, caused some vascular damage and disrupted everything in my life, most of all my sleep and my ability to give my kids a ‘carry.’  There is a unique joy to be had from lifting your children into your arms and really giving them a cuddle.  I found doing that really difficult.

My shoulder had been OK for about the last year – getting better around the time I changed my diet.  Coincidence?  I think not.

Since Monday evening, I have been back to my usual diet and I’m almost back to my normal self.  I have been really amazed how quickly, with a clean diet, I have been able to reverse the horrible effects of a diet with wheat in it.

My hands are almost back to normal, my knees are good, my feet are fine, I don’t have a sore ankle any more and my right shoulder has settled, just as quickly as it flared up!

I can do this now.  Holding my hands together like this is almost impossible when my fingers swell up.  I couldn’t do this a week ago.

And I know now, categorically, that it is wheat. I’ve had a moment of clarity!  I’m not coeliac, but I know enough to know that one can have an intolerance to wheat and have a different autoimmune response.  Me – rheumatoid arthritis. Other folks – eczema, psoriasis, IBS, etc, etc.  Try a wheat free diet for a month (and I mean a REAL wheat free diet) and let me know how you feel?

One highlight of the week was seeing Muse in concert at the SECC in Glasgow.  Here’s a picture I ‘tried’ to take.  Great show, great lights, superb visuals.

I do love Muse.  They remind me a lot of Queen, in that they can do anything, covering R&B, Rock n’ Roll, Progressive Rock and big Orchestral pieces, even really weird shit (like ‘Unsustainable’ from their new album and the show’s opening song) and completely get away with it.

Their sound is big and complex but the engineers did an amazing job, it was clear and dynamic.  Really interesting to see the sound guys using a big old school analogue mixing desk with lots of outboard signal processing – rather than the ‘all on board’ big digital desks that are more common these days.

Woops, sorry, just dropped into Geeksville for a minute there!

Anyway, they were a real joy to watch and listen to.  Every time Dom slammed the kick drum, it hit me in the stomach.  Gorgeous!  As a drummer, I love watching great drummers do their stuff and Dom Howard is a great drummer.  There he is, look, drumming away and being great!

I did have one worry, though, with sore feet, a dodgy ankle and grumbling sciatica (yup, I have that too – people with a chronic disease don’t have JUST the disease, remember) I was thinking our standing tickets maybe weren’t such a great idea.  But then, the whole show was standing, so that was that.

So Scott, just shut up and watch the show!  I needn’t have worried.  In my recovering state, I was grand and I even managed a small mosh when they did Plug In Baby.  Well, you can’t not!

My only issue at the end of the gig was a slight tightness in my right knee – otherwise fine.

So, my resolve has deepened and a wheat free diet it is for me and I heartily recommend you follow one too.  Oh, and if you get a chance to see Muse on tour, grab it.

Awesome!

Related articles

• 5 Reasons Why Wheat May be Bad for You (wheatbellyottawa.wordpress.com)
• The Problems with Modern Wheat (marksdailyapple.com)