A I've gotten older, I've found that my overall health mostly starts in the gut. I got hit with a form of chronic fatigue syndrome from leaky gut in 2019 that was so bad that I burned out and lost the ability to work for about 6 months. A variation of the Autoimmune Protocol (AIP) diet is what worked for me:

  * Avoid wheat and most grains (rice and corn are fine)
  * Avoid milk and young cheese (cheddar is fine but YMMV)
  * Avoid FODMAPs like beans, other legumes and nightshades
  * Get back to macro nutrients like bacon & eggs for breakfast, meat & rice, etc
  * Get back to micro nutrients like spinach for iron and a thyroid supplement for iodine
  * Seek holistic approaches like ashwagandha to restore hormone balance
  * Build gut health with probiotics and get treated for parasites if necessary
  * Look into supplements like glutamine and colostrum which rebuild the gut
  * Decrease caffeine and stress which lower the activation threshold for nerves in the gut to purge its contents
  * Drink a gallon of water per day, from one large container if necessary, to accommodate ADHD/autism symptoms
  * Exercise by alternating weightlifting and walking each day, about 60 minutes ideally

Each food damages the villi in the small intestine at a different rate, but the gut only regenerates twice per week. Gluten causes some of the worst damage, which remains hidden until middle age when the ability to regenerate starts to decrease.

Now I believe that GMOs and processed foods are so damaging not due to stuff like preservatives, but because low cost means a higher percentage of fillers like gluten.

It took 3-5 years but I'm able to eat FODMAPs again, tolerate milk every day and even eat wheat a couple of times per week. I consider myself to be in remission but must be mindful of what I eat.

I'm also hopeful that long COVID studies will reveal some of the disease mechanisms at work in these types of undiagnosable conditions. Gaslighting (not believing patients as they describe symptoms) is still a huge problem in western medicine.