My Sinus Infection has Lost its Bite

A wooden stake won't kill a vampire. Flamethrower, would kill a vampire. Or we can lose our head. I mean, literally. Other than that we heal. -Mick St. John from the TV show Moonlight

How would you feel if an illness that had previously left you cold, tired and slogging through the day for months, could suddenly be 95% beaten in 17 days? Like you'd gained superpowers?

I came down with a sinus infection August 16, and aside from a little coughing, I'm well again. Let me tell you about other sinus infections I've had. I spent a week in the hospital with one when I was nine. I spent a whole summer dragging myself around classes and work in a thick sweater in my early 20s in a nasty bout with staphylococcus aureus. Another sinus infection struck again in 2001, a few years after the septoplasty surgery I had was supposed to have prevented them.

What's different about this one? Vampire Mick St. John (see quote above) told a blind friend from his past that he'd stayed well through diet (he skipped the part about being a vampire). I credit the same thing for my good health and ability to heal: no wheat, low-carb, and vitamin and mineral supplements. Gluten-free grainy goodies are an occasional indulgence; my diet is mostly meat, eggs, and fibrous vegetables, a little cream, cheese and sour cream, and a little chocolate. (I leave dietary blood as the exclusive property of vampires and the Masai.) Wheat in particular gives me nasal congestion--the thick, sticky kind that won't move. With this sinus infection, I was coughing but not congested: the mucus was running, not sitting around making a bog for bacteria to thrive. With no congestion, I was rarely in pain; I took only two doses of aspirin. I also took a five-day course of azithromycin (an antibiotic), Umcka Cold Care, and black elderberry syrup, which helped my throat.

Again and again on my low-carb, high-fat, high nutrient diet, I've healed: GERD gone, allergies alleviated, a cold gone in three days, a neck injury that righted itself, and shoulder pain shrugged off. Most of these things had persisted for years pre-diet change. A good diet may not make you live forever, but it may help you heal like a vampire.