Wow, a lot of the replies here are so typical of what genuinely sick people experience every day. You don't need to posit a cause, you don't need to suggest cures and you don't need to critique his lifestyle.

The point of the article is not to try to explain all of that shit to you, but to try to make you understand what it's like to be that sick all the time. Try to take in that message first, and when you think you have the slightest idea what it's like to live like that, maybe you are then qualified to add a response.