If you don't eat sugar, you will never heal your chronic illness

...You will only put a temporary band-aid on it.

As someone in the fasting community for over 18 years, I've gone all-in on dry fasts and keto/carnivore dieting, stripping down to zero carbs for that laser focus and fat torch. It can be SO POWERFUL! But long haul?? No thanks.

Even though I walked through the valley of the shadow of zero-carb and chronic illness, you do not have to make the same mistakes, for I am with you. Now, I can't account for everything you are dealing with, but I will give you guidelines, and they can be found in the Miro board.

What can this eventually look like? Crushing 600g+ of carbs a day, think: fruits, roots, grains, and energy's steady. Good blood sugar, no wild swings, no brain fog. Good HbA1C, and no need for stimulants and pills.

What you have to learn is that carbs aren't villains. Your cells just forgot how to burn carbs clean. Your fat-burning's taking over, clogging the glucose path. Low-carb skips the issue by jacking stress hormones. Add carbs? Crash city. I've tested the extremes. The Scorch Protocol will attempt to fix your carbohydrate metabolism because, without it, you cannot fully heal and thrive. I highly recommend studying Ray Peat's methodologies to understand bioenergetics.

Step 1: Get Why Carbs Feel Bad (The Clog Explained)

Your body turns carbs into glucose, the quick fuel for energy. But if the "burn factory" (your cell's mitochondria) jams, glucose piles up. It turns to lactate (like sour milk in your muscles), spiking fatigue and sugar swings. Why the jam? Fat burn dominates via the Randle cycle. A tug-of-war where fats block glucose entry. (Google the Randle Cycle!) Stress, fasting, or low-carb diets hike free fatty acids, slamming the door (Pyruvate Dehydrogenase (PDH) enzyme).

If PDH is inhibited, it’s reduced to lactate instead, recycling NADH back into NAD.

Result? Wired-tired, poor sleep, hormone dips like low T3, low Testosterone, and high cortisol (stress alert).

Step 2: See the Wins of Clean Burning once fixed

• Energy evens out—no spikes or slumps.
• Hormones get a glow up: T3 increases metabolism and gut motility, DHEA/testosterone boost drive and libido, IGF-1 speeds muscle repair.
• Calm kicks in: The body has energy to relax. Do you know what muscles do when they lack energy? They seize up. Ever heard of rigor mortis?
• Body thrives: Fuller muscles, quick recovery, warm hands (sign of solid oxidation), less brain fog, and the immune system recovers (slowly).
• High-carb diets can only work if PDH is active.

Dry fasting sets this up perfectly. Those no-water resets flush receptor sensitivities and allow you to start from a cleaner slate.

Step 3: Map the Normal Carb Flow

1. Gut breaks starches to glucose/fructose. Transporters (SGLT1, GLUTs) absorb 'em smooth. Fructose chills spikes.
2. Liver buffers: Stores as glycogen (energy reserve) with insulin's help (via GSK-3β switch).
3. Blood carries to cells. Insulin opens doors (GLUT4) for uptake.
4. Inside the cell: Store as glycogen or undergo glycolysis.
5. Mito gate (PDH): Pyruvate to acetyl-CoA for Krebs cycle (TCA). This is an electron loader.
6. ETC chain: Electrons spin for ATP (cell cash). CO2 out, O2 in—clean exhaust.

How should it feel like if everything is working? Steady ATP, low lactate, high CO2. Feel warm, calm, and strong.

Step 4: Spot Your Jam Points

Common blocks, easy fixes:

Fat Burn Takeover (The Randle Cycle):
This is the big one: your body gets stuck burning fats for fuel instead of glucose, thanks to the Randle cycle—a built-in rivalry where fats and carbs compete for the same spot in your mitochondria (your cell's energy factories). High levels of free fatty acids (FFAs)—those loose fats floating in your blood—flood the system from things like stress, skipping meals (even overnight "fasts"), low-carb eating, or inflammation. These FFAs block glucose from entering cells (causing high blood sugar) and slam shut the PDH enzyme, the door that lets glucose into the mitochondria.

Signs to watch for: After eating carbs, you get a "carb crash"—sudden fatigue, brain fog, or shaky low blood sugar (reactive hypoglycemia) because glucose can't burn and turns to lactate instead (that achy, sour feeling in muscles). You might feel okay on low-carb, but it's fake stability from ramped-up stress hormones.

Fixes: Eat enough total calories to dial down fat release—don't undereat. Undereating is one of the reasons you're in this mess in the first place.. Tools like aspirin (in low doses, like 325mg with food) can suppress fat burning and let glucose through. People adopting this change often feel liver pain as they try to retrain the body to use glucose after years of low-carbing or similar. Start slow, pair carbs with a bit of fat/protein to ease the shift.

PDH Lockdown (The Gatekeeper Shutdown):
PDH is pyruvate dehydrogenase, the key enzyme that acts like a gatekeeper: it converts pyruvate (the broken-down form of glucose from glycolysis) into acetyl-CoA so it can enter the mitochondria for full energy production. When it's "locked," glucose gets in the cell but can't go further—it ferments into lactate instead of burning clean. This happens when PDK (pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase) tags PDH inactive, triggered by stuff like excess acetyl-CoA (from too much fat burn), high ATP (your cells think they're full of energy already), skewed NADH/NAD+ ratios (more on redox next), or stress hormones like cortisol, glucagon, and adrenaline (think too much coffee). Low thyroid function or missing nutrients make it worse.

Signs to watch for: You eat carbs and feel bloated or tired right after, even if blood sugar looks normal on a test. Over time, low energy despite eating, muscle weakness, or labs showing high lactate levels.

Fixes: Feed the gatekeeper what it needs. It's a nutrient hog. Stack B vitamins: thiamine (B1) 100-300mg, riboflavin (B2) 50-100mg, niacin (B3) 50mg, pantothenic acid (B5) 100mg, plus magnesium 400mg and alpha-lipoic acid (ALA) 300mg daily. These activate PDH directly. Support thyroid with iodine or selenium if your T3 is low. Or go straight to the source with slow-release liothyronine T3 (the most powerful and fastest-acting).

Mito Traffic Jam (ETC Snags):
Even if glucose gets to the mitochondria, the ETC—the chain of proteins (Complexes I through IV) that spins electrons for ATP—can bottleneck. Slowdowns in Complex I or III (often from aging, toxins, or nutrient gaps) make NADH pile up, electrons leak as ROS (causing oxidative stress), and ATP production tanks. Your body scrambles with stress hormones to compensate, but it's inefficient—like a clogged exhaust pipe.

Signs to watch for: Cold hands/feet (poor circulation from low CO2), easy fatigue during exercise, or that "hit a wall" feeling. High oxidative stress shows in labs as elevated markers needing antioxidants.

Fixes: Smooth the chain with ETC supporters: Beef liver, blood supplements, aspirin, Oysters, and slow-release T3, CoQ10. Minerals like zinc, magnesium, copper, selenium, and manganese fuel antioxidant enzymes (SOD and glutathione peroxidase) to mop up ROS leaks.

Gut Sabotage: The Hidden Brake:
Your gut's a sneaky player: bacterial overgrowth or sluggish bile flow releases endotoxin (LPS, a toxin from bad gut bugs), which directly inhibits PDH and ramps up fat burning (FAO - Fatty acid oxidation), trapping you in that Randle cycle again. Poor carb digestion leads to fermentation—undigested sugars feed yeast or bacteria (very common candida overgrowth symptoms that may require fluconazole for a few months), causing gas and inflammation that circles back to block oxidation.

Signs to watch for: Bloating or IBS-like symptoms right after carbs, even "healthy" ones like fruit. You might label yourself "carb intolerant," but it's gut-derived chaos showing as fatigue or skin issues.

Fixes: Boost bile with bitters (like dandelion tea) or ox bile supplements (TUDCA 500mg/meal). Cut fermentable carbs temporarily (low-FODMAP fruits/veggies) while killing overgrowth with oregano oil or probiotics. Improve flow with magnesium or walking post-meal. Once cleared, carbs that bloated you before feel effortless—I've seen it flip in days with dry fasting's gut reset, but if you've got bad overgrowth you will need to put in more work.