How’s Your Health – Part 3
May 26th, 2025 - By Patrick T. McBriarty
“Oh My Gawd!” [In my best Valley Girl voice.] It has been more than a year since my last post. I suppose my excuse, like everyone, is life gets busy… My writing fell off the table.
New Home in St. Francis
Last May, I purchased a house in St. Francis, Wisconsin (half-mile from the lakefront, just south of Milwaukee) and dove into the move and getting settled. Home projects ensued, which never seem to get completed as fast nor as easily as hoped. And one leads to the next. Fakebook followers have seen these updates and I will try and keep them coming. All the while work at All Hands Boatworks has me engaged in organization and youth development. A few months ago, the need to scratch the writing itch finally became too much, yet editing this piece dragged out across four months.
I gratefully report, now sixteen months later, my resilience, general health, and ambitions continue to recover. Admittedly the improvement is in fits and starts — a profound evolution over the past three-years. Becoming a health warrior, detailed in Part 1, has been a radical and subtle transformation. Evermore healthy the journey is paying off. I detailed a list of many newly adopted spiral-ups for good, and spiral-downs to block toxins or injurious habits in Part 2. Compelled to finally complete a trilogy here I go deeper and share two fundamental personal habits — significant drivers of my recovery and health transformation.
My First Fundamental Practice
The first new health practice has been and continues with intermittent fasting on a 16/8 hour schedule. Not easy, it took me months to consistently hold this schedule. Working on it day-to-day and week-to-week daily fasting did become easier and easier. After 6- to 10-months I could regularly, comfortably, and consistently fast 15 to 16-hours overnight, and confine my eating to within 8 or 9 hours each day.
In the past I relied on strenuous, often excessive exercise to keep my weight in check. I was not eating as healthy as I thought. I rarely skipped a meal and worse often snacked at night within an hour or two of bedtime, usually while watching videos. Bad on two counts. First, good sleep and health are significantly hampered by eating after sunset and too close to bedtime, and second, blue light from electronic screens, especially after dark, disrupts our circadian rhythms and erodes health.
I pursued intermittent fasting to regularly promote cellular clean-up and regularly shift my body into autophagy [detailed explanation, meta study here, and here]. Granted there are many different styles of fasts to choose from. I like the routine of regular fasting to encourage unseen internal improvements and the yielded noticeable benefits. Intermittent fasting soon curbed my appetite. I became comfortable with reduced portions and found eating twice a day, with sometimes a snack between was more than enough food. Eating healthy (non-GMO, organic, mostly vegetables, low-carb, and lean wild caught fish, wild game, and occasional grass fed, non-antibiotic meats) also made fasting easier. Unhealthy cravings were soon reduced and then practically disappeared within several months. I no longer struggled with binge eating. In the past I might binge eat weekly and now it might occur once a month or even less, and I do not crave or rationalize overeating or unhealthy foods like I used to.
Most importantly with intermittent fasting I started to feel better physically and emotionally within weeks. And after eating clean food for a couple of months, on the occasion I slipped up or tried something unhealthy my body would tell me. Usually the first bite or two did not taste good and if I wasn’t paying attention eating unhealthy food did not sit well, and felt uncomfortable in my gut as a reminder to eat clean. A year ago, trying half a Jimmy John’s veggie sandwich, the first bite tasted awful and a second bite left me feeling a little sick to my stomach so I threw the rest away. I know! All those starving kids in China. But if it the food is crap?!
Typically, I have an iron gut and am not easily put off most any foods. However, with a consistently clean diet I am more aware and listen to my body. So, when I slip and eat packaged or processed foods they do not sit well and I am reminded to keep eating healthy. Now I read labels and when there is shit I can’t pronounce or a long list of ingredients—especially seed oils—I put it back on the shelf. These occasional reminders help my resolve and remind me why I eat as clean as I can and stick with healthy food. I also lost weight.
While I fought to stay active the past five years, I hardly worked out and thankfully was not working full-time. Yet the past three with the detox and learning a healthier lifestyle I simply did not have the energy, ambition, or time to consistently workout. And still looming large in my psyche was the Long-Covid exercise penalty. After May 2020, even a mild workout set my health back for weeks with reoccurring brain fog, malaise and fatigue leaving me mostly in bed to nap or rest. The resulting fear to not overdo it plagued me then, and occasionally still haunts me to this day.
So, I leaned into the solace of healing and transformation. As Maria and Dr. Robert encouraged me to honor my body and sleep, rest, or a nap when I craved it. Pre-Covid, I would have usually pushed through and further stressed or injured my internal systems and long-term health. I can only surmise I was constantly deferring healing, “swimming” in toxins (thinking of tap water and chlorinated pools), bad food, and bad habits to accumulate more and more bodily damage over the years. These last three years was time to recover my body, foster change, and give myself the rest to rebuild on a cellular, mental, and spiritual level to counter decades of endurance sports, bad habits, drinking too much and not listening. My efforts were definitely and gradually paying dividends.
How could I tell? Mostly it was an instinctual sense of feeling better. Initially day-to-day and then week to week. Also, little niggling aches and pains from past injuries seemed to diminish, recede, or not nag me as often. My balance improved as did my energy and resilience. I had more depth and was finally able to work a full day and then days at a time and soon could manage a busy week or two without crashing for a couple days in bed to recover. Now I rarely deal with fatigue or malaise – though I still experience low points. The days I struggle are not nearly a deep nor last as long. By two-years into my new health practices I had gradually lost 15 – 20 pounds. Losing about 10% of my body weight, my visceral fat also gradually dropped from 16% to 12%. Still much higher than I would like I was finally being honest about what I had accumulated and had carried around for decades. There is still plenty of room for improvement, but I am comfortably maintaining this weight and the gains in energy and ambition continue.
Now strenuous exercise was not necessary to keep my weight on course, though I do want to regain consistent exercise and to build more muscle. I am trying to be patient. It was interesting to listen to a recent podcast with Ben Greenfield and realize over the last decade the fitness world and elite athletes now recognize over training and high-volume exercise is counterproductive and erodes longevity. High-volume endurance training has a real long-term cost on our internal bodily health. So, when I return to regular exercise it will not be at the same volume and in a better mix of intensity, cardio, and endurance workouts, but not nearly as volume. Instead as I have felt better I have been able to try and incorporate additional health practices to my daily routines.
About six-months ago I also discovered instead of skipping breakfast and waiting until lunch-time to break my fast on the daily 16/8 hour schedule, shifting my eating earlier to between 10 or 11am and dinner at 6 or 7pm further encouraged weight loss. In addition, I felt better and had better energy. It also relieved occasional acid reflux at night. I am certain I would benefit from shifting my eating window even earlier and this will be something I work on going forward. It has been a real effort to eat dinner “so early,” and form new habits as historically I ate dinner at 8pm or later. Similarly, I have been working to cut out nighttime snacks. A bad habit most often tied to watching videos at night.
About a month ago, I instituted a new rule and only watch videos two nights per week, instead of almost every night. Now most nights I relax by reading in bed and am enjoying the greater mental peace and quiet at the end of my day. The two-night-a-week rule serves to both significantly reduce my exposure to disruptive blue light and helps break my evening snacking association with watching videos. Plus, a video or streaming a movie is now a treat again rather than a crutch or bad habit. I also find myself much less frustrated trying to find anything good to watch. I feel like my days have more time and I am now finishing books rather than feeling there is not enough time to be curious or read.
My Second Fundamental Practice
Okay, my second fundamental practice. This is what most people will consider the craziest new behavior. Yes, I have shared this with a few of you because it is the biggest and MOST important lifestyle change. My now three-year practice of daily coffee enemas. Yes, radical by today’s social conventions and medical consensus. Regardless, I know it has been elemental to my journey and recovery.
Coffee enemas detoxify the liver and colon. In turn, this long-term detox of my gut and liver have allowed my body to rebuild my adrenal, pituitary, and other biological systems. While a few of you may try intermittent fasting. I do not expect any of you to try, let alone adopt, coffee enemas as a regular health practice. In fact, I DO NOT recommend it without the proper support of a naprapathic practice (like BTNH) to assist with supplements, advice, and regular hair tests to guide your detox and adjust and individualized supplement plan. Here is why I have and continue to do it.
How Did I Get Here?
As I already mentioned in May 2020, I fell victim and struggled for more than a year-and-a-half with Long-Covid. When I had the time and energy I researched Long-Covid treatments, scientific papers, doctors, specialists, and other experts. On a suggestion and after intensive personal research I embarked on an initial round of Ivermectin. I was soon out in the wilderness, medically, and received the help of a friend (thanks, Anita) who connect me with Dr. Pierre Kory. He was super helpful including facilitating a rapid evaluation of a Long-Covid test and treatment advice. Ivermectin and an antihistamine diet helped knock down the chronic fatigue and brain fog, but my body and spirit were badly beaten down. I was not recovering like I used to with rest, good sleep, and relaxation.
In December 2021, I ended up in the emergency room. After pushing too many fluids to treat what I thought was a cold or flu. The Covid test at the rapid clinic had come back negative. Thanks to my friend Jim for checking on me and helping get me to the hospital. He may have saved my life, and another friend Holly, who happened to be volunteering at the hospital helped get me admitted quickly.
This hospitalization was prompted by my inability to speak more than two- or three-word sentences and a blissful ignorance. I was unable to connect thoughts and ideas, let alone conceptualize trouble, or conjure any sense of concern. Illinois Masonic Hospital quickly diagnosed and addressed my low sodium and tagged me with a second case of Covid. While emergency medicine and IV saline drips are amazing, hospital stays suck!
For five days I was in isolation, regularly getting prodded and probed most aggravatingly in the middle of the night, often awakening me out of a deep sleep. These systemic disruptions felt insidiously designed to disrupt patient sleep and recovery, encourage longer stays, and drive up medical billing. Subsequently I experienced months of chronic sleep deprivation and continued struggling with high anxiety and low energy. I was at the lowest level of health I had ever experienced. Frustrated at chasing and finding no real solutions from our medical “sick” care system. I was sick and tired of feeling — sick and tired!
Never before had I experienced chronic sickness and low energy, let alone become helpless and hospitalized. The experience scared the shit out of me. I became hyper-fearful of my mortality. Listless, unable to exercise (one of my favorite coping mechanisms), with minimal ambition I was losing hope of a way out. The past 18-24 months unsettled by the relentless societal warnings, fear mongering, and isolation of the “manufactured pandemic” I had been pushed to the breaking point. Every little symptom put me in fight or flight mode. Agonizing over my diminished state, afraid of dying, the littlest thing had me mentally scanning my body for trouble, hyper-vigilant for new symptoms and diminished health changes. The nagging fear of continued poor health was exhausting. I was now willing to do most anything to get out of this diminished physical and mental state. My ability to cope or take action was incredibly low.
The Mental Shift
Back To Natural Health Offices
Finally, the thought occurred to me to visit Maria and Dr. Robert at Back to Natural Health (BTNH). I still have no recollection of why the thought was finally strong enough to act. In retrospect probably because I was out of options. The only avenue I had not tried was holistic medicine. Centralized medicine has no monetary incentive to solve or truly heal chronic illness or diseases. Now, three-years into this long-term detox I am glad I went to BTNH, tried, and now embrace THE elemental practice of daily coffee enemas for my health.
I realize most of you are probably thinking, “There’s no f—-g way I would do a coffee enema!” This mirrors my initial reaction when Robert and Maria insisted upon daily coffee enemas. I considered, my sphincter sacred. I had no interest in meddling with nor dosing my bowels with anything — let alone coffee. Not just repulsed I was also highly skeptical. Coffee enema?! That is crazy talk! Or is it?!
Since 2008, I had gone intermittently to Back to Natural Health (BTNH) for sports massage and chiropractic treatments – at that time for two bulging discs in my lower back. During my many massages with Maria, she shared her take on health and wellness. Originally from Bulgaria Maria’s fascinating, intriguing, and at times seemingly “out-there” experiences as part of the Soviet sports complex, treating elite athletes both physically and mentally through massage and other therapies, offered revolutionary ideas and perspectives. Despite struggling with English, her third language, our discussions ranged across a variety of healing approaches from energy work, Tarot cards, astrology, reflexology and meridian lines, to reincarnation, herbal remedies, vegetarianism, Reiki, Rife machine treatments, and psychedelics. Maria would even occasionally tell of their treating and helping patients with chronic conditions. Real conditions western medicine failed to solve nor had any interest in addressing.
During the past two decades in spite their new name and observed practice changes I still thought of them primarily as a Chiropractic Practice. I had never really felt the need for more as I was active and reasonably fit on the outside and able to do endurance sports, race sailboats, and all too often drink like a sailor. Only now have I realized Dr. Robert and Maria gradually transformed their work into a holistic and naprapathic practice. They moved offices from Irving Park Road to Diversey Parkway, and renamed and rebranded the business from Backup Therapeutic to Back to Natural Health (BTNH) to reflect the physical move and shift in practice. My ignorance and slow return to them reminds me of the saying, erroneously attributed to Winston Churchill, “Americans will always do the right thing, after all other possibilities are exhausted.”
In January 2021, no amount of rest or sleep seemed to help me or break my malaise and greatly diminished existence. My intrinsic desire to find a way back led me to appointments, first with Maria and then Dr. Robert. Their insights, understanding and empathy far outstripped all previous doctor or specialist visits of the past two years or for that matter ever. Finally, I found health practitioners with a path – daunting – but a clear methodology to recover true health. More importantly, their sole focus was on correcting the causes of my chronic low-energy, exhaustion, and malaise. They had no interest in simply treating symptoms. Robert and Maria’s answers to my questions renewed hope and awakened a willingness to open my mind, and at least try everything, including coffee enemas.
Both Maria and Robert at BTNH insisted upon daily coffee enemas as part of their treatment program. They were so supportive, genuinely endorsed, and themselves practiced daily coffee enemas. So, it seemed foolish not to at least try. Their faith in the healing power and benefits of coffee enemas was so strong and unwavering, I became curious. I knew nothing about using coffee in this manner and realized my real objection was fear of the unknown. In between visits I did some research and came back with questions. Only later did I realize they were interviewing me as much as I was seeking answers from them. If they would not have taken me I have no idea where I would be now. At the time I reasoned if their methods did not work, became unmanageable, or did not help I could quit.
Thankfully Maria agreed to work with me. Early on she shocked me, referring to my history with them. Apparently, I had started their detox protocol back in 2016, but in short order had quit. I had completely blocked out the experience. After the initial shock of forgetting passed I recalled what Maria had said was true. Indeed, I had quit for not really seeing significant results but mainly was being cheap. This time my need, desire, and fear of dying had me fully committed (for at least a year or two) to see how it went. The risk and my health at this point was so low I had nothing to lose and so much to gain. Besides what’s a little tube in “the butt, Bob” after struggling for so long? This time I was not going to be cheap and quit so easily.
Robert and Maria are real healers who understood and offered a methodology as the name says, literally, back to natural health. From the outset I was told this would not be easy and it would take seven-years restore my natural health. So, beaten down at that point, I didn’t care—I just wanted to feel good or normal again. Admittedly mentally my brain was so foggy I was unable to conceive seven-years of treatment. I was simply trying to manage life day to day and week to week. But (no pun intended) the years have accumulated and their practices have become part of my lifestyle, including daily coffee enemas. Absolutely, it has been a substantial time and effort to consistently adopt these changes, but it has yielded great results.
Never forsaking my natural skepticism and pragmatism, I honestly gave the new BTNH daily and weekly practices an honest try. While gradually feeling better and more robust I still had bouts of fear and days where I was mentally delicate and untrusting of my health, but genuinely began to feel health improvements right away. Initially I pooh-poohing Maria’s offer of support letting me know I could text her most any time of day or night, Longer-term her reassurance and help has been a God-send.
Long-term detox is a serious commitment. Especially at the beginning as cramps, feeling bloated, fatigue, and low energy cycled in and out. It was a lesson in humility knowing my female friends deal with this all the time –usually without complaint, working through their day with grace and humor. These symptoms would likely have been much worse without the support of the BTNH recommended vitamins and supplements. Later I struggled with three to four serious bouts of constipation. Something I had never had before, and then later still strange aches and pains. Once it got bad enough I regularly reached out and greatly appreciated Maria’s help of a remedy, additional information, and/or reassurance to relieve my discomfort and ease my anxiety. These new bodily experiences often curtailed my productivity, ambitions, and extracurricular pursuits, but the sacrifices were proving out. Throughout this process I was moving forward instead of spinning my wheels. That in itself was reassuring as neither centralized medicine nor resting and recovering on my own had worked.
The slow progress has often been frustrating. Improvement was in fits and starts. However, the steady positive trend was usually reassuring. Comparing at each point where I had been weeks or months before was clearly an improvement. Gradually I was able to do more and regaining ambition. I became less anxious moment to moment and my ability to work a full day or several full days in a row and not be utterly exhausted by late afternoon expanded. The active detox created days of struggle—reminders of feeling unwell kept my ambitions low and Maria and Robert encouraged rest, not overdoing it or “toughing it out” and pushing through as I would have in the past. The first year my moods gradually lifted with fewer dark days, shorter and less frequent. Through patience and diligence, I was gradually retraining myself to dial back and embrace a more relaxed lifestyle.
The Details
In January 2021, BTNH sent me home with a battery of mailed-in, lab-kit tests to provide saliva, urine, and stool samples and a blood draw for liver, endocrine, and thyroid marker tests. Three weeks later, based on these results, Dr. Robert prescribed a mix of oral supplements taken four times a day – upon arising, lunch, dinner, and before bed. I was traveling at the time and he was even able to provide a list of supplements found at Whole Foods to begin the process.
In March 2022, I started in earnest committing two-to-three hours most mornings for a coffee enema, infrared sauna (3-4 days a week), and (4x a day) supplement routine. Each week through mid-October of 2022, I had a standing one-to-two-hour appointment with Maria for a Rife machine treatment (the gentlest), infrared sauna, and/or a massage. Maria also provided 30-to-60-minute talk therapy sessions during these treatments. BTNH’s holistic approach and in particular Maria’s intuitive abilities helped to address not just my physical ailments, but my emotional and mental struggles as well. This shed new light on my behaviors and hang-ups, and encouraged healthier practices and habits. I was able to reframe and breakthrough several mental obstacles and work through significant anxieties. I came to embrace the mind-body-spirit connection toward solving long-term roadblocks, blind spots, and ailments.
Initially splitting my time between my brother’s house in Wisconsin and my condo in Chicago, which I sold, closing in May 2022, even the additional of 3-4 hour weekly commute to Chicago felt worth it. The time and miles driven was a tangible talisman of my level of commitment to better health. While still in Chicago I purchased an infrared sauna to more easily do three-to-four saunas per week. Moving to Wisconsin further helped encourage and reinforce my intent. With fewer distractions, my schedule went to near zero. After three decades always on the go in Chicago, it was a struggle to curb my internal drumbeat to be productive, not waste time, be social, and active. Though often resenting so few outside distractions and feeling disconnected, this move focused my embrace of positive health habits.
Eventually after several months as I got stronger the Rife machine treatments were replaced with 30-minute Pulsed Electro-Magnetic Field (PEMF) treatments, used by professional sports teams and elite athletes to encourage recovery and cellular repair. Now days, I can handle 60-minute sessions on the PEMF at near maximum intensity. It has taken three-years to gradually tolerate this therapy and increasing intensities and durations. The first year I needed a nap post-treatment and could not schedule any commitments after. Now I regularly handle treatment and can schedule post-appointment commitments without crashing.
Most of the supplements and holistic remedies BTNH uses are ancient and proven. Yet they also stay open to new technologies and treatments as Robert and Maria personally research and test new treatment technologies and supplements extensively before introducing them to their patients. They are pragmatic and conservative, taking a long-term approach. Most assuring, Robert and Maria are not profit-motivated and are true and trustworthy healers.
Detox
So finally getting to it I must admit, after the first Coffee Enema I felt good, clean, and fresh inside. Day after day and even a couple weeks of daily coffee enemas the good feeling, particularly post-enema, continued. Further research into coffee enemas revealed a whole variety of benefits. This has been a process and slowly changed over time as the detox progressed. I now look forward to that time to think, read, or check emails, etc. while holding the coffee for the prescribed 12-20 minutes and usually two or three successive holds. This took months to build up to and the first several weeks I had to settle for a collective hold time of three-to-four attempts.
From October 2022 to July 2023 I was able to push my appointments with Maria to every other week. By early-2024 my every two-week appointment toggled between in-person and Zoom calls to cut back my number of trips to Chicago. Throughout I was learning a new mostly organic, vegetarian diet, and gradually delving deeper into additional health practices, like spring water, iodine sinus rinses, lymphatic massage, meditating, and foot soaks. My mental and emotional resilience was returning and discussions with Maria were helping me re-frame perspective of my self and embrace healthier habits. Collectively I have now established a new foundation and more sustainable “health positive” lifestyle.
Initially these radical changes in my day-to-day kept me mostly to myself, but I was consistently feeling better and my belief in my good health grew. Now I can juggle moving from a monk-like existence to socializing and travel. Until five or six months ago doing so meant facing significant anxiety and fear. Eighteen months ago, confidence in my health relied heavily on a religious commitment to these new routines. Fear of death drove diligence to these rituals well beyond any previous level of commitment in the past. I became the “A-student” I had disdained during my school years as I had always been happy with a “B” or occasional “C” so as to not miss out on life, fun, and socializing. I viewed most A-students as boring, but now shunned such thinking as a “B “or “C” in health now felt reckless. Until about six months ago a reoccurring theme was questioning whether this was sustainable and how could I live and travel and not pare back these new rituals. The fear of missing a day or week played into my anxiety. I was very afraid small missteps might jeopardize my recovery, recent efforts, and gains. Mental shifts have of course also definitely been part of this process as well.
So, I turn the question back on you, the reader, and ask, “how is your health?” I hope none of you has or will go through a health crisis like I have. The past three-and-a-half-years working on my health has been consuming and educational. I embraced and have battled over the past several years and plan to continue. I hope each of you are able to figure out what works for you – as the body truly can recover at any age surrounded by the right environment and daily habits.