10 Aug 2025 6 min read Trail Provisions

Raising the Floor: Tools That Helped Me Function Again

Resources that helped raise my baseline - enough to even imagine hiking again.

Photo by S. Rolling

What This Is

Nearly ten years of searching for the help I wasn’t getting. What’s here are the tools that raised my baseline just enough to stand, breathe, and start again.

Not healed. Not in remission. No miracle narrative. Just a steadier floor under shaky legs.

These are my puzzle pieces, what I found while stumbling through collapse, grief, pain, and long stretches of suffering. This is me switching on a light so you can see what’s there. Take what helps raise your floor; leave the rest.

The knowledge here was freely shared — podcasts, interviews, research papers. I simply couldn’t afford most programs or products anyway. The real work was learning the principles and testing them slowly.

Links are included now because access matters when you’re already fighting for capacity. Still, arrive curious, seeking information, not instruction. These are trail markers to help you chart your own path, not marching orders. Your body gets the final vote.

Changelog: This is a living document. It's been a long road. As I remember more or the work evolves, I'll keep adding and pruning.

13 JUL 2026 - Added forgotten link (Kirsh Institute) in movement section
13 JUN 2026 - Added (Ready State/Moves Method) in movement section
16 MAR 2026 - Added forgotten link (Bob & Brad) in movement section
03 JAN 2026 - Added links for easier access; reorganized sections for clarity

The Biggest Movers: Where I Started

These are the resources that cracked things open for me. The ones that led to everything else on this page. If you’re overwhelmed, start here. Let these guide you to what comes next.

CDC-Kaiser Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study - clear dose response links between early adversity and later health risk. This helped me to stop moralizing symptoms, see the pattern beneath the pain, and prioritize nervous-system work, without shame.
Gabor Maté, MD - trauma ↔ illness framing
Wim Hof - breath work and cold exposure
Rhonda Patrick, PhD - micronutrients & inflammation
Mark Hyman, MD - systems and functional framing
Jason Fung, MD - fasting & metabolic basics
Paul Saladino, MD - animal-forward elimination nuance
Andrew Huberman - practical nervous-system tools (sleep, light, breath)

Awareness, Reconnection, Regulation

When the nervous system is on fire and nothing else lands:

Bessel van der Kolk, MD - trauma ↔ nervous system framing
Sadhguru - inner stability and presence for modern life
Master Shi Heng Yi - pragmatic Buddhist principles for modern life
Dr. Daniel Amen - brain, health and behavior perspective

Use as education, not doctrine. Keep what actually calms your system.

Metabolic Reset & Inflammation Relief

Other levers that can change energy, swings, and pain:

Jessie Inchauspé - practical strategies for blood sugar regulation
Pradip Jamnadas, MD - fasting and insulin resistance
Valter Longo, PhD - fasting-mimicking diet and longevity framing; cautious, nutrition-first approach
Aseem Malhotra, MD - cardiometabolic risk; insulin-resistance clarity
Philip Ovadia, MD - metabolic health made practical
Dhru Purohit - curated metabolic and lifestyle conversations you can apply

Test gently. Track sleep, mood, and flare length - not just weight or macros.

Food-As-Function & Elimination

Clarifying triggers and implementation support:

Rina Ahluwalia - recovery from sugar addiction, fatigue and brain fog
Shawn Baker, MD - a leading authority on nutritional therapy
Ken Berry, MD - low-carb/elimination/carnivore support
Annette Bosworth, MD - keto and fasting tactics for stability
Thomas DeLauer - data and science driven nutrition resources
Lillie Kane - practical keto and carnivore education for real life
William Li, MD - food for cellular repair
Bobby Parrish - label literacy & low-additive grocery strategy

Do not moralize food. Use it as data. If your body steadies, you’ll know.

Micronutrients, Epigenetics, Root-Level Intakes

Where small deficits created big noise:

Lucia Aronica, PhD - epigenetics & expression
Georgia Ede, MD - nutrition & mental health
Shebani Sethi, MD - metabolic dysfunction & mental health.
Terry Wahls, MD - mitochondria-focused inputs

If labs or symptoms hint at gaps, shore them up slowly and retest.

Movement, Strength & Longevity

Capacity first, expression later. Scaled to the body I have now, not what I think it should be. This is what got me moving again.

Movement by David - gentle daily mobility
Squat University - alignment & pain prevention
Strength Side - strength and mobility for real life
Knees Over Toes Guy - longterm flexibility and mobility for life
The Ready State — soft tissue prep, rolling, mobility, isometrics
Moves Method — end-range strength , nervous system retraining
Kirsh Institute - shoulder pain and prevention
Bob & Brad — pain management, accessible PT & rehab
Gabrielle Lyon, MD - "muscle as medicine”

Going brief and targeted everyday is what builds capacity... Don't do heroic workouts you can’t recover from. Translate their advice into your current bandwidth. Your dose is your dose.

The Tools That Slice Through Noise

Not all data is good, relevant, or applicable. Learn to filter like your life depends on it.

When the takes get loud, these are where I sanity-check before changing anything:

General

Cochrane Library - systematic reviews
Drug-Nutrient Depletions - American Academy of Family Physicians
Examine - clear summaries of nutrition/supplement research
John Campbell, PhD - plain-language walk-throughs of studies and public-health claims

Specific Topics & Resources

Barrett's Esophagus - American College of Gastroenterology
Hypertension - AAFP clinical practice guidelines
IH - Intracranial Hypertension Research Foundation
Lupus - Lupus Foundation of America
POTS - Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome
Rheumatoid Arthritis - Arthritis Foundation

At the end of the day, none of this replaces your own body’s data- — sleep, pain, flare duration, and how the trail actually feels.

Foundational Documentaries That Move The Needle

Note: Not anti-pharma. Pro-agency and informed consent. Medications are often necessary. Approach them with a clear, eyes-open awareness. Understand trade-offs, ask better questions. Working with clinicians who respect your pace.

Cereal Killers (2013) - Challenges fear of fat and the old nutrition script we were all taught.
Run on Fat: Cereal Killers 2 (2015) - Low-carb endurance as a case study; reframes “fuel” and inflammation.
The Big Fat Fix (2016) - Simpler levers that matter: sleep, stress, movement, real food. Less hype, more habits.
First Do No Pharm (2024) - Questions the medication-first reflex and industry incentives; nudges to ask better questions and prioritize basics and informed consent.

Not endorsements, just films that helped me see the terrain differently. Watch for principles, not dogma.

Why I Sifted This Hard

I know this is a LOT of work just to understand what’s going on.

I did it to apply what actually helps me. To reclaim some agency over what’s happening in my body. This was never about cure or remission. It was about taking my shot at a better quality of life.

Every tiny moment of aliveness and thriving I’ve managed to steal back from illness adds up. For me, it has always been worth it. Every time.

I spent years mining each source for a single usable pearl. One small thing I could apply to my specific circumstances. Over time, those tiny wins raised the floor.

What This Is (And Isn’t)

This is for the days you’re still in the weeds but refusing to hand the whole day over. If one idea here helps you breathe easier or shortens a flare, that’s enough.

The floor just rose a notch.

This isn’t advice, optimization or performance culture.

It's stay upright culture.

If this pointed you somewhere useful, saved you some time, gave options you didn't know existed, pass it on to someone who might need it. → Share

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Trail Crossings & Waypoints: