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Section 02 of 09 43 essays · Spring 2026

Physical Health.

The body, its diseases, the medicine, and the institutions around them.

Section editor
Priya Shah
The body is, properly understood, mostly other people's problem. We report on disease, medicine, public policy, and the long argument about what the body owes the world.
More in Physical Health
02
May 26, 2026 · 6 min read

Myasthenia Gravis: When Signals Can No Longer Reach the Muscles

Myasthenia gravis is caused by antibodies that block acetylcholine receptors at the neuromuscular junction. The nerve fires normally, but t…

03
May 26, 2026 · 6 min read

Vitiligo: The Immune System Erases the Skin's Color

Vitiligo is the selective destruction of melanocytes — the cells that produce skin pigment — by cytotoxic CD8+ T-cells that recognise melan…

04
May 26, 2026 · 6 min read

Ankylosing Spondylitis: When the Spine Fuses Itself Shut

Ankylosing spondylitis targets the sacroiliac joints and spine with a unique perversity: instead of merely destroying joints, it replaces t…

05
May 26, 2026 · 5 min read

Sjögren's Syndrome: The Slow Drying Out of Glands

Sjögren's syndrome targets the exocrine glands — particularly the salivary and lacrimal glands — with lymphocytic infiltration that destroy…

06
May 26, 2026 · 6 min read

Celiac Disease: How Gluten Destroys the Intestinal Villi

Celiac disease is the one autoimmune condition with a completely identified dietary trigger: gliadin, the alcohol-soluble fraction of wheat…

07
May 26, 2026 · 6 min read

Psoriasis: The Skin That Cannot Stop Growing

Psoriasis is driven by IL-17 and IL-23 cytokines that lock the skin into a state of hyperproliferation. Keratinocytes that normally renew o…

08
May 26, 2026 · 6 min read

Graves' Disease: Antibodies That Force the Thyroid Into Overdrive

Graves' disease is the mirror image of Hashimoto's: instead of destroying the thyroid, the immune system produces antibodies that mimic TSH…

09
May 26, 2026 · 5 min read

Hashimoto's Thyroiditis: When the Immune System Silences the Thyroid

Hashimoto's thyroiditis is the most common cause of hypothyroidism in the developed world. Lymphocytes infiltrate the thyroid gland, destro…

010
May 26, 2026 · 6 min read

Type 1 Diabetes: The Immune Destruction of Insulin-Making Cells

Type 1 diabetes is not a failure of the pancreas — it is an immune attack on the pancreas. Autoreactive T-cells destroy the beta cells of t…

011
May 26, 2026 · 6 min read

Ulcerative Colitis: The Mucosal Siege That Never Ends

Ulcerative colitis confines its destruction to the inner lining of the large intestine, but the sustained mucosal inflammation produces con…

012
May 26, 2026 · 6 min read

Crohn's Disease: Inflammation That Eats Through the Gut Wall

Crohn's disease is a transmural inflammation — it burns through the full thickness of the intestinal wall. Unlike ulcerative colitis which …

013
May 26, 2026 · 6 min read

Rheumatoid Arthritis: How Joints Become the Battleground

Rheumatoid arthritis is driven by immune cells that invade the synovial lining of joints, forming an aggressive pannus tissue that erodes c…

014
May 26, 2026 · 6 min read

Multiple Sclerosis: The Immune System Strips Nerve Insulation

In multiple sclerosis, autoreactive T-cells cross the blood-brain barrier and destroy myelin — the insulating sheath around nerve fibres. W…

015
May 26, 2026 · 7 min read

Lupus: When Antibodies Attack Your Own DNA

In lupus, the immune system produces antibodies against the body's own DNA. Those antibodies form immune complexes that lodge in the kidney…

016
May 30, 2026 · 8 min read

The Most Expensive Drugs Ever Made: What Biologics Cost, and Who Pays

Humira at $80,000 a year. Skyrizi at $90,000. Stelara at $50,000. The monoclonal antibodies that transformed autoimmune care are among the …

017
May 26, 2026 · 5 min read

Insulin, Resistance, and the Crisis of Ketoacidosis

How insulin unlocks glucose uptake in healthy cells, why cells stop responding in Type 2 diabetes, what happens when insulin is injected to…

018
May 25, 2026 · 9 min read

Why Your Immune System Attacks You: The Leaky Gut Root Cause of Autoimmune Disease

Dr. Zsófia Clemens has shown that autoimmune disease begins not in the immune system — but in the gut. When the wrong foods damage your gut…

019
May 25, 2026 · 3 min read

Psoriasis & Psoriatic Arthritis

Psoriasis is an autoimmune condition in which the immune system attacks the skin, producing plaques, scales, and inflamed patches that can …

020
May 30, 2026 · 8 min read

Olive Oil, Reconsidered: A Plant Fat in the Carnivore Frame

Universally praised by mainstream nutrition. Unusually scrutinised by the carnivore community. What the carn voices actually say about oliv…

021
May 25, 2026 · 4 min read

Rheumatoid Arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis has long been considered a progressive, irreversible disease—one in which the immune system attacks joint linings, cau…

022
May 17, 2026 · 9 min read

Conditions Helped by a Species-Appropriate Diet: Real People, Real Cases

Named individuals from the ZeroCarb, Chaffee, and Baker archives share how a species-appropriate diet affected their MS, mental health, dia…

023
May 25, 2026 · 4 min read

Crohn's Disease

Crohn's disease, an inflammatory bowel condition that can strike anywhere from mouth to anus, has long been treated with immune-suppressing…

024
May 25, 2026 · 4 min read

Ulcerative Colitis

Ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory bowel disease characterized by ulcers and chronic inflammation in the large intestine, typically consig…

025
May 25, 2026 · 3 min read

Hashimoto's Thyroiditis

Hashimoto's thyroiditis, the leading cause of hypothyroidism in the Western world, begins when the immune system turns against the thyroid …

026
May 25, 2026 · 4 min read

Lupus

Lupus—systemic lupus erythematosus—attacks joints, skin, kidneys, and brain with an immune system that has turned against the body. The sta…

027
May 25, 2026 · 4 min read

Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis destroys the fatty myelin sheath that insulates nerve fibers, leaving patients with vision loss, tremors, fatigue, and p…

028
May 17, 2026 · 5 min read

Why High Insulin Prevents Your Body from Burning Stored Fat

Insulin is not just a storage hormone — it actively locks fat cells shut. Here is the mechanism species-appropriate diet practitioners use …

029
May 25, 2026 · 3 min read

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome / ME

Chronic fatigue syndrome and myalgic encephalomyelitis remain among the most poorly understood conditions in modern medicine, often leaving…

030
May 17, 2026 · 9 min read

GLP-1 Drugs: What the Transcripts Say About the Side Effects

Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro are generating $28 billion a year. Here is what patients and practitioners actually say about the side effect…

031
May 25, 2026 · 4 min read

Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia — a constellation of widespread pain, crushing fatigue, and cognitive fog — has long frustrated both patients and clinicians. …

032
May 25, 2026 · 4 min read

Celiac Disease

Celiac disease — the autoimmune condition triggered by gluten that flattens the villi of the small intestine — has a known dietary fix: eli…

033
May 14, 2026 · 2 min read

Macular Degeneration & Species-Appropriate Diet: 3 Case Reports

Three interviewee accounts of macular degeneration halting or improving on a carnivore diet — including one person diagnosed simultaneously…

034
May 25, 2026 · 4 min read

Type 1 Diabetes

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system destroys the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas, leaving pati…

035
May 14, 2026 · 2 min read

Glaucoma & Species-Appropriate Diet: 3 Case Reports

Three accounts of glaucoma resolving or halting on carnivore — including one case where glaucoma was 'gone within a few weeks,' and one des…

036
May 25, 2026 · 4 min read

PCOS

Polycystic ovary syndrome affects somewhere between five and ten percent of women of reproductive age and stands as the most common cause o…

037
May 14, 2026 · 1 min read

Cataracts & Species-Appropriate Diet: 3 Case Reports

Three accounts of cataracts stabilising or developing more slowly on carnivore — including a person diagnosed with both cataracts and macul…

038
May 25, 2026 · 4 min read

Endometriosis

Endometriosis—a condition in which tissue resembling the uterine lining grows outside the uterus, causing chronic pain, heavy bleeding, and…

039
May 14, 2026 · 1 min read

Dry Eye & Species-Appropriate Diet: 2 Case Reports

Two compelling dry eye cases on carnivore — one lifelong sufferer whose eyes became fully moist for the first time, and one person who had …

040
May 25, 2026 · 4 min read

Graves' Disease

Graves' disease attacks the thyroid gland, forcing it to flood the body with excess hormone—a state called hyperthyroidism that sends the h…

041
May 14, 2026 · 1 min read

Eye Floaters & Species-Appropriate Diet: 2 Case Reports

Two floater cases on carnivore — one resolving 90% and the person forgetting they'd ever had them, and one case where doctors explicitly sa…

042
May 14, 2026 · 3 min read

Vision Improvement & Prescription Changes on Species-Appropriate Diet: 7 Case Reports

Seven accounts of vision sharpening and prescriptions weakening on carnivore — including 3 consecutive improving eye exams requiring new we…

043
May 29, 2026 · 6 min read

From VLDL to LDL: How Your Liver Packages, Transforms, and Clears Fat in Your Blood

Your blood cannot dissolve fat — so the liver wraps it in protein shells called lipoproteins. VLDL leaves the liver loaded with triglycerid…

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Health Q&A
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