Thread by @Medical_Nemesis

After a day of thinking I concluded that my perspective was shaped by my family, place (USSR) and time. By the time I was a teenager my worldview on medicine was cemented. /1

https://twitter.com/shitgia/status/1322167999269199873

Personal experience with medicine was a major factor. How my family dealt with health and illness. I was born with a heart defect and was a very sickly child with an impressive medical record and three hospitalizations including a TB hospital. /2

The summer I got accepted into the university I dodged my fourth hospitalization on suspicion of diphtheria. In no uncertain terms with a raging fever of 103F (over 39C) I told my mother that if admitted, I would crawl home naked if needed. /3

My ideas on food are largely shaped by the way we ate in my family. The biggest influence was my grandmother who was God for me.

I spend time analyzing eating in context as a complex system. Traditional eating was very regimented and regulated. Modern eating is promiscuous. /4

What is unusual is to maintain your traditional ways of living. Here confirmation bias comes handy to seek out books that place your experience in context.

Ivan Illich. Medical Nemesis. It’s a good theoretical book to get started. /5

When you read this book, if anything strikes your fancy, look up the reference and get that book. A lot of traditional ways of living are buried but you can find them if you hit the right thread in fiction or non-fiction alike. All you need is one sentence or idea. /6

I purposely avoid books on nutrition. They muddle more than enlighten. If I were to look anything up, I’d look into books of late 19th-early 20th century. Fiction is a more interesting place to find juicy bits that people think. You can then delve into more general research. /7

In the USSR most health promotion centered on “The sun, air, abc water - are our best friends”. Physical culture (exercise as opposed to damaging sport). Look up somebody like Nikolai Amosov, a cardio surgeon, for general idea how other cultures may deal with illness. /8

I never knew of this system while living in the USSR. Yet it’s representative of line of thinking. You don’t want a recipe. Main idea is that nobody can help you until you help yourself. You may not know how but you will find if you look. /9

indrestyrkeblog.wordpress.com/2018/02/01/bla…

Fasting and Feasting the life of a visionary food writer Patience Gray is a good book to prestige how people think of traditional eating ways. /10

Robert S. Mendelsohn is an MD to read. Or Herbert Ratner. I’d alO look for people who were sick and did something to make themselves better. To learn how they thought not so much what they did. You don’t want to copy actions but kind of thinking. Core. /11

To clarify, I did nothing to get better other than stop engaging with medicine and cross borders. If you move, you may become deathly sick or perfectly healthy depending on where you are. /12

@shitgia I hope you find this a good way to start. Your personal experience and observation should always be primary, in my opinion. /13