A few weeks ago I went away for a 3-day weekend. It was my first trip away from home since I became enamored of fermented food. I did not plan well and took along only 2 cups of yogurt.
When I got home — and resumed my usual high fermented-food intake — I seemed to have a very mild cold. That was unusual; I almost never get detectable colds. Even more unusual was that I had a small case of athlete’s foot. Uh-oh. I planned to but some anti-fungal cream. I forgot, however. The next day, to my surprise, my athlete’s foot was almost gone. The following days it cleared up completely.
I had not had athlete’s foot for a long time. In the past, however, it did not go away by itself. I had had to use antifungal cream. Now, apparently, my immune system was working much better.
My interpretation is that during that weekend away, my immune function took a sudden dip. Perhaps part of the reason was that I did not sleep as well as usual but I suspect most of the reason was the decrease in my fermented-food intake.
Whatever the reason I got athlete’s foot that weekend, the fact that it went away without any special treatment suggests that all that anti-fungal cream in the drugstore implies that many Americans have suboptimal immune function. The Wikipedia entry for athlete’s foot says nothing about good immune function as a means of prevention. As if the hundred-odd people who wrote the article had no idea that what happened to me — it went away on its own — could happen. We are in the pre-John-Snow era here. The most basic practical point about athlete’s foot — you won’t get it if your immune system is working well — isn’t widely understood.
If you read Example 5 of my long self-experimentation paper, you will see that I used to get ordinary colds at an ordinary rate but after I started sleeping much better they stopped. Which points to the same conclusion as the incident I described here: A large fraction of Americans have suboptimal immune function. Some people will say: “Of course!” But they will go on to say, “The average American eats so much junk!” And I think that’s wrong. I think the problem is 1. Poor sleep. 2. Too little fermented food. The self-confident nutritionista will never mention either one.
If your immune system can not withstand 3-day lack of yogurt then the immune system was not optimal to begin with.
Suggest cut out flax seeds.
I would be very worried if my immune system was so dependent on fermented food intake. Maybe you need to slowly cut back on the amount and frequency going forward.
SB, you seem to be saying that your immune system doesn’t depend on fermented food intake. How do you know that?
I am thinking that frequency and amount of fermented food intake should be random – similar to exercise frequency and intensity as described by Arthur De Vany (Evolutionary Fitness).
I see. Thanks for explaining that.
I would like to make a comment that you may be jumping the gun on a weak immune system and athlete’s foot. While my immune system is quick to respond to other illnesses- i have been– in the past– subject to getting fungal problems on my feet. Here is a list of reasons why problems could have occured:
1: old shoes— fungus has had a chance to gain a foothold.
2: wearing the same sock and shoes all day when you are active. (more sweating– the fungus likes warm areas of low oxygen)
——-wearing tight shoes or socks would possibly be a problem!
3: have you changed the type of soap you wash with
noticed that certain soaps that dry my feet out make it more likely for a fungal infection to gain a foothold– so i have to be careful about what products I use.
4: how much do you sweat? I’m postive that people who sweat more have a higher risk of athlete’s foot. the question is, would you have this problem if you were barefoot?
5: immune system dysfunction:
As an aside, i have also noticed that my chance of athlete’s foot has actually gone up (!!) when I’ve consumed a lot of fermented products (natto, alcohol, probiotic supplements)