Around my house, I get called Wolverine a lot. I never get sick, even when everyone else is infected with a fever, virus, or cold. If I get a cut or a bruise, it heals overnight. There have been times when there was no evidence of an injury at all within a 24 hour period.
Even at 50 years old, I have no chronic knee, back, or shoulder pain, all things I dealt with constantly between ages 20 to 40. I’m able to perform vigorous exercise and extreme physical activities without getting tired. I never need any type of medicine like aspirin or Tylenol. I haven’t had so much as a sore throat, runny nose, or headache since 2015. Oh, and this might also be a reason:
Did I develop mutant powers from a passing comet or get Adamantium metal injected over my skeleton. No…sadly. What I did was much easier, and accessible to everyone. I stopped eating the average american diet of processed foods that are heavy on calories, yet stripped of nutrients, stopped eating late at night, and made sure to get some form of exercise every day.
I replaced all the junk food I was eating with daily servings of dark leafy greens, nuts and legumes, avocados, pumpkin seeds, and fish like mackerel and salmon. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was making my body bullet proof from all sorts of common medical ailments because of one key nutrient all those foods bring to the part – Magnesium. It makes sense that it would give me X-men like attributes, since Magnesium sounds like a good name for a character Wolverine would encounter in his adventures.
I could list all the reasons you should prioritize getting more magnesium in your diet, but there’s a podcast that does a much better job of it, and honestly, I don’t feel like typing out a medical paper today. Rhonda Patrick hosts the “Found My FItness” podcast and she recently did an episode on this very subject. As she went down the list, it dawned on me that I was a living test case for every benefit she stated.
It’s a remarkable micronutrient that most Americans are lacking, and it does so much. Imagine being able to repair DNA, regulate your heartbeat, improve muscle strength and endurance, reduce blood pressure, maintain strong bones, and stop cancer from forming. Well, if you put down the fast food and pre-packaged items from the mega-marts, and look at the list above for your diet, you won’t have to imagine it.
I worried when I first started this lifestyle about what I would eat when I developed a fever, bad cold, or had a stomach bug. I was like everyone else when those things hit…orange juice, toast with jelly, ramen noodle soup, Sprite or 7-Up. None of those items had a place with my new goals and how I dedicated myself to live.
The ironic part is every single item I just listed does not help you get better at all, In fact, they are all loaded with simple sugars, oils, and additives that just give your immune system more things to fight while also trying to defeat whatever invader has made it through your defenses to get you sick.
Eventually, it hit me that I just hadn’t been sick in a long, long time. I watched as others in the house dealt with all the normal aches and sicknesses, up to full blown severe Covid that keeps you in bed for a week at a time. I waited, wondering when I would start to feel those symptoms start to make themselves known, but they never did.
The combination of my diet, exercise, and not eating after 5 pm gave my immune system the “Wolverine” tools to stop all that before it ever happened. It’s been quite nice to not spend a night struggling to breathe through a stuffed up nose or feel like swallowing knives with a bad sore throat.
I’ve included some past articles that have easy and tasty ways to up your magnesium intake. I’ll also be sharing a recipe next week on how to take a can of mackerel and create the best fish tacos you’ll find without taking a tropical beach vacation. Enjoy the food, and better health. It’s never too late to start feeling good.
See the list of all Jason Murphy’s recipes at www.mysaline.com/jason-murphy.