I know of several hackers that have gone through YC have autoimmune conditions, and I would say there is a larger population of people that have autoimmune conditions then our parents generation. I myself have ankylosing spondylitis, and live with chronic pain, back and neck problems. Probably just really interesting to people like us, who want to hack our way out of problems that medicine doesn't have good answers for yet.
I've got the same thing - my neck and shoulders are wrecked, with two slipped discs and severe degeneration, more than should be for my age. The two things that worked to remove nearly all of my pain:
* Whole 30 anti-inflammation diet
* Mysore-style Ashtanga Yoga
If both are done diligently together every day, after 2 weeks you will likely see drastic improvement.
It's not a cure - if I stop, after 2 days I'm back in excruciating pain. But when I do these regularly, I can go through the day forgetting that I have neck problems.
I'm currently on the "low-lectin" diet which seems to be the most extreme of the anti-inflammation diets.
Even though the doctor (Gundry) provides mostly anecdotal evidence in his book The Plant Paradox - you might want to try cutting out cashews and nightshade vegetables which are approved on Whole 30. I felt a difference when I cut those two things out.
I see. What's your personal view on eliminating them? I'm trying to rule out the possibility that I've given myself a nocebo effect.
(I've had enough cases where I didn't realize something was a nightshade and I had a bad effect from it that I don't think I'm merely fooling myself, but the quality of articles about it is disturbing).
I don't think I'd be any kind of "hacker" if it weren't for undiagnosed celiac disease. If I wasn't been too sick to go out and do my normal activities, I never would have sat at home learning to program.
It's incidence also, anecdotally, seems to be increasing.
