So I got up the nerve to email Robb Wolf

I've been meaning to send Robb Wolf a question for a while since he is super smart scientist and I am only a lowly professional bullshitter.  Here's what I emailed him:

"Hi Robb,

Sorry for the length of this email... 

I have tardive generalized dystonia.  I was diagnosed about seven years ago.  When I was diagnosed, I was pretty pissed off and spent a few years wallowing in self pity and take out pizza on my couch.  As you can expect, my health declined even further and I ended up all metabolically deranged.  My PCOS symptoms went from bad to worse and I also ended up with insulin resistance. 

Fast forward through the next couple of years.  I did the whole Body for Life thing on the days I wasn’t too symptomatic with the dystonia.  I eventually graduated to Alwyn Cosgrove-designed workouts and Berardi’s Precision Nutrition.  This all improved my health overall and I lost 60lbs, upped my insulin sensitivity big time and saw most of my PCOS symptoms disappear.  Two years ago, I joined CrossFit Regina and then a year ago I decided to give 30 days of the paleo diet a shot a la Urban’s Whole 30.  What’s your saying?  Oh yeah… Holy cats!  Not sure why, probably because I don’t have a doctorate in neuroscience, but my dystonia improved.  Like, a lot. 

This used to be my life.  Most days, I was functional and could even work out in the evening but demonstrated some messed up movements on occasion throughout the day.  About a week out of every month, I spent my waking hours curled up in a posture, unable to walk and, on those really terrible days, even unable to dress or feed myself.   Yay!  I’d like to say I was all stoic and brave and whatnot but I wasn’t.  I really suck at having a disability. 

Nowadays, I have a few mornings where I’m a bit slower than usual and walk with a bit of a messed up gait.  That’s pretty much it.  Most days I'm just like everyone else.  At the gym, I might find it hard to find my rhythm on box jumps and switching from movement to movement in a WOD can sometimes also mess me up a bit.  This is not exactly a hardship.  And it's certainly not always.  For example, a couple of months ago I got 23 rounds as rx’d on Cindy.  That's three very different movements, done quickly, with no time wasted during transitions.  That’s kind of a night and day difference from not being able to dress yourself.

Now, I’m also starting to figure out that the improvements aren’t static either.  Since I’ve returned from the 2010 Games (I was on CrossFit Regina’s affiliate team… see, I told you I’ve really seen improvements) I’ve kind of let the diet slide a bit. There have been a couple of accidental gluten hits, some deliberate dairy and rice exposures in the form of ice cream and sushi (yummy), and I’ve been mildly symptomatic pretty much every day.  For the last week I’m back to happy paleo eating and starting to pull out of it and feeling a bit better every day.

Any idea why paleo+CrossFit (and especially the paleo part) is making such a huge difference?  They say dystonia isn’t progressive but it can change over time.  And tardive cases are expected to see improvement up to two years after development.  I’m kind of past that.  Is it just because, when I’m eating well, my digestive system is all pleased and my body is happier so I’m just less inclined to be symptomatic?  Or is there some kind of magic happening to my brain chemistry thanks to the pseudo-science?  Or is it some kind of combo of the two?  And what about the process of learning and then repeating, ad nauseum, functional movements all with a messed up brain.  Is that doing fun and funky things to my gray matter?  Because I swear thrusters are easier when I’m symptomatic than is a more unstructured, random activity like walking leisurely through my neighbourhood to get to work. 

Any insight you could provide would be awesome.  I mean, I know what I’m doing is working for me so I’m just going to keep doing it.  But it would be fun to know if there’s any info out there that might explain WHY it’s working. 

Thanks for reading my email..."

I really hope my email piques his curiosity.  I'm kind of curious to know why the heck it's made a difference.