1. Remember the product Organ Delight I talked about a few posts back? I gotta tell ya, we’re loving the stuff! (And no, I don’t get a kick back on it.) The most obvious change for me, both when I tried the same company’s liver pills a couple of years ago and now, is the obvious and visible change in my menstrual cycle. With Dr Ron’s liver or mixed-organ pills, my menstrual blood is a strong red from start to finish. Without these, the blood rapidly changes from a strong red on Day 1 to a pale pink by Day 3. Again, I expect I would get these results if I were to regularly take another excellent source of iron such as whole liver. But I don’t do that. The fact is, I do everything I can on GAPS and some aspects just keep sneaking out from under me! Thus, I’m taking a second round of a Dr Ron’s product and I wanted to share the results with those of you who might find yourselves equally liver-less (or in need of adrenal support, etc).

Of note, my seven year old son cannot yet accommodate large capsules of anything. I broke these open for him, expecting him to complain of a bitter flavour. He didn’t. What he said was, “Oh, yummy! Oh, I could eat this all day long!” There you have it.

2. While I won’t have a chance to answer comments for probably a few more days, one of the most recent ones inspires me to point out for those owning a copy of the GAPS Guide book that on this site is a very important ‘Book Updates‘ page. There I post anything critically important that I’ve learned about GAPS since the Guide’s publication, as well as important corrections. If you use the GAPS Guide book, please be sure to check this page regularly.

Alex, thank you so much for your kind words as well as for your very important point about a mis-write in the GAPS Guide book, for which a correction appears on the Updates page. I really appreciate people bringing this kind of thing to my attention so that I can provide the correction.

3. I want to extend a huge thanks to Dee and to Mark H. for this past year’s direct donations to this website. These, purchases of the book for oneself and/or others, and the other gifts listed here make it possible for me to write posts, test and report on approaches and products, and answer comments.  Dee, Mark and all those who’ve supported this site through any of the means listed on the ‘Support This Site’page, thank you so much! Your generosity is appreciated and will go far to help many!

This book presents the “how to” of the GAPS program. Reviewed and approved by Dr Campbell-McBride, the GAPS Guide book:

• shares several inspiring stories of recovery
• presents a step-by-step guide to doing GAPS
• answers frequently-asked-questions
• directs you to amazing resources

It features:

• 161 pages, fully formatted and thoroughly edited to present full pages of the most vital, helpful information in an easier read
• Reviewed and approved by Dr Campbell-McBride
• Easy-to-read format
• Perfect bound
• Full colour cover

Are you or someone you know struggling with fatigue, painful menses, autism symptoms, hallucinations, constipation, insomnia, colitis, inflammation, or any one or more of the other issues listed here? Grab for yourself -or a friend- a copy of this comprehensive guide!

Concerned about the cost? In preventing major errors, shopping mistakes and more, the tips contained within will more than recover the cost of the book and shipping! (Bulk rates are also available.)

For a sampling of feedback received, click here.

To order, click here. (Please note: Questions about bulk rates, ordering, shipping times, etc, must be submitted to the book’s distributor.)

Enjoy!

I know postage can get wildly expensive, and the cost of a niche book is always already higher than a mass-produced one. My recommendation is to view it as ‘many hours of consult’. Paying, say, $38 USD for a book with shipping which eliminates or reduces the need for multiple consults is actually a huge savings.

Further to this, the tips in the book directly save a person that much more (shopping, preventing expensive mistakes, etc).

The final consideration is, “How much time does one want to spend hunting for information?” If a person feels their own research time and effort is worth more or less than the cost of a book with shipping, that can help them determine whether a purchase is ‘worth it’.

So, to buy or not to buy… Even on a financial level alone, the GAPS Guide book has saved people far more than it cost them. The additional savings in time, energy, effort, and headache are further -and very real- benefits. Last but not least, your contribution to my work -in the form of book purchase- is what allows me to maintain this blog and respond to comments on things not directly covered in the Guide itself.

A hearty thanks to each person who has supported this site! For the various ways to do so, including those that cost you not a penny, please click here.

Have you healed with the help of the book and/or this site and would like others to be able to benefit from these continuing?

If yes, please consider supporting the book, site and future resources in one of the ways presented here.

I’m so far preferring this approach to charging for consults for two reasons: one, it makes it affordable for everyone, including those without a penny to spare; two, using the book empowers each person to practice looking up information independently, which is an excellent habit in the journey to becoming well.

A big thanks to every single reader who has purchased a copy of the GAPS Guide book for themselves and/or for others, or who has referred others to the book! You have made -and are continuing to make- this blog and service possible!

I’m overwhelmed. Where would I even start?

What kind of probiotics can I take? What do I look for?

How do I get through some upcoming travel?

The die-off is intense. What can I do?

I’m super busy. What’s the simplest way to make the sauerkraut, and how do I do the diet while working full-time?

These and other questions I receive a lot. Good news! All of these and many more are intentionally and carefully answered in the GAPS Guide book, a guide so comprehensive it’s all you need to actually do the program!

If you are new to the program, or are feeling overwhelmed, or have multiple questions, the GAPS Guide book will be an amazing friend to you -because if these things are true for you, you are the reason the book was written! To hear how the book has worked for others, click here. For details on contents, etc, click here.

The taxi driver, a lovely man, mentioned that his youngest child, two, does not eat. She takes only milk, and only from a bottle. As is common in GAPS families, they have three older children who had not presented this issue; as the GAPS recovery journey makes obvious, this was not a result of parenting style.

I explained to the driver that, coincidentally, this is what I would be talking about the next day at the conference. As our conversation progressed, he became intrigued to learn that a dietary program can help orally defensive children start to eat. He asked for details about how one would transition a child who refuses to eat; I gave him as much information as I could while trying to not overwhelm him. He was so happy. He bounced in his seat, asking, “You think my child might really eat?” I replied, “No, I know your child will eat.”

He talked about the pain his wife has experienced with this issue, and I felt teary for her, knowing that particular struggle all too well. I left him with the website addresses for Dr Natasha and for GAPS Guide.

Sir, if you are reading this, I hope things are going well, that you have been able to start taking steps, that your daughter is coming around. I want you to know that the four hour delay in customs was absolutely worth it, to meet you, to have opportunity to share the program with you. I am confident the Universe brought us together. May your family be well.

What an incredible experience.

The audience seemed truly hungry for information on how to heal ourselves, our children, our parents and our patients suffering from dementia, autism, ADD, Crohn’s and more.

In the process of developing the presentation, and in listening to audience members, I learned so much. I will be sharing that learning in posts to come.

For now I will just say three things:

1: What an absolute wonder and honour it was for me to be given the opportunity to share my son’s story, plus practical steps for implementing the program. Although I myself am a visual and experiential learner, I’m aware that a live presentation plus the recordings (not yet available) will be a great boon to those who prefer an audio format.

2: It was absolutely incredible to meet people from the GAPShelp list (Inas, Gina, Chris, Nancy in NC, Kelly C, Simone -and her sister Jody who is GAPShelping vicariously), one of my co-moderators Millie, people whose blogs I love (Kimi, Ann Marie, Jenny, Kelly), and people whose books I’ve read and learned from (Rami Nagel and Sally Fallon among them). I was very sad not to get to meet Lori, a GAPShelper who lives in the area, but hopefully next time. Because, oh, there will be a next time! Read on…

3: For 36 hours I felt like I was in some sort of GAPS heaven: enjoying broths, fermented veggies and fermented drinks while surrounded by grounded, gentle, mild, happy people who love real food and who willingly work hard to keep it available.

Absolutely, unbelievably wonderful. I so recommend this conference.

Thank you to all of you who gave positive and supportive feedback regarding the presentation, to those brave enough to come and learn something new, to those courageous enough to ask their questions, to my fellow GAPShelpers for supporting me in energy and words both long distance and on-site, to Dr Rosann Volmert for contributing her clinical experience in response to specific questions asked during the add-on Q&A, to those who shared personal, friendship time with me -a great gift to me while so far from home- and, of course, to Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride and Peter Campbell-McBride for proposing in the first place that I present at all!

Gratefully,
Baden

Since you are so into GAPS, why do you refer to SCD?

Primarily, this is a matter of giving credit where due. GAPS was developed by a neurologist who, as far as I understand, used SCD plus multiple strains of probiotics to heal her son’s autism. (She subsequently developed a more comprehensive program for achieving even more efficient and comprehensive healing.) Dr Campbell-McBride has always been vocal about the SCD’s role in her son’s healing and that the SCD was a major starting point for GAPS. I deeply respect and admire Dr Campbell-McBride’s decision to disclose this. I know that, personally, when I work hard at something, it’s important to me to receive the respect of due credit. Elaine Gottschall worked extremely hard on behalf of the SCD from early adulthood right to her death. It is important to me that I honour Elaine as well as the Drs Haas by giving them credit for what they established.

Secondarily, the program I started with was strict SCD, as presented in the book Breaking the Vicious Cycle. In all of my work, I am very vocal about the excellent results this brought to our family. To leave out this part of our story would be a disservice to the SCD as well as to all people seeking healing.

Thirdly, as more and more people learn about both SCD and GAPS, they see the commonalities and are perplexed: “Are these the same program, just with different names? If not, what are the differences?” I feel it is helpful to describe their relationship and divergences.

Finally, for obvious reasons, many of the SCD resources are GAPS-friendly or very close to GAPS-friendly. Rather than reinvent the wheel, or scoop up content and relabel it GAPS, it makes sense (and is most ethical) to refer people to those. (I am happy to drive traffic to helpful sites.) Also, because GAPS is built on SCD, it is important to encourage GAPSers to read Elaine Gottschall’s work.

Don’t SCDers get confused when they read about GAPS?

Not that I’ve witnessed, no.

Because I always follow a forum’s guidelines, and also clarify what is specific to GAPS, there is little room for confusion.

My honest view is that people intelligent enough to realize that diet plays a role in health, and intelligent enough to find relevant resources, and intelligent enough to grasp that even some SCD foods are only to be introduced upon a certain amount of healing, and intelligent enough to develop a personal protocol within SCD or GAPS have sufficiently critical minds that they can successfully read or discuss differences in the world’s various healing programs.

Why do you post stuff about GAPS in forums besides the GAPShelp one?

I am a naturally gregarious person who desires to see all people receive answers to their questions. If someone asks a question and I have information, my natural impulse is to share that information. For the most part, I don’t create new threads regarding GAPS, but merely jump in with information or clarifications when an error is inadvertently posted and not otherwise addressed. While doing so, I take great care to honour a given forum’s posting guidelines and a given thread’s focus.

When posting on forums other than GAPShelp, why do you not disclose that you are the author of a GAPS book?

I have been specifically asked on certain forums not to mention or link to any GAPS resources. “Disclosing” about my book would inherently violate that request.

Why, on the GAPShelp forum, do you merely refer people to page numbers in your book?

Actually, almost every single day I spend up to several hours assessing and considering people’s challenges, writing carefully distilled yet comprehensive answers to posts (either on-list or on my blog), answering emails received off-list, collating information, creating and loading web-files, developing web-posts, and directing people to all of the above and more.

In the interest of time (both mine and the reader’s), and to encourage people to practice looking in their guidebook before posting ‘Frequently Asked Questions’to an incredibly busy list, I will sometimes elect to refer to a page number in the guidebook, rather than type the information out yet again. Much of my career has been in adult education and a key aspect to my approach has always been to “teach a man to fish”, that is, to increase a person’s capacity to find desired information, rather than leave them dependent on one person’s moment-to-moment availability.

Just as often, though, I link to a post in my publicly available blog and even more often (and especially when the answer is not provided in the book), I answer the question outright.

Why would you do all of this for free?

Simply, I want people to heal. I want people to be able to experience what my son and I are experiencing, and preferably without going through a lot of unnecessary pain, suffering or frustration along the way. I trust that this is the reason all volunteer moderators, writers, guides, etc, do this kind of work without charge or hourly remuneration.

Why do you charge money for your book, then?

The cost of printing and distributing tiny runs of a self-published book in a very niche field of interest is enormous. While I am very happy to spend several hours each day volunteering my time and energy, I am simply not in a position to be able to also fund a book project of significant size.

While the book has not to date made me any profit whatsoever, if it does in future, that will simply allow me to commit to another year of GAPS service. (My alternative will be to reduce my GAPS hours in favour of regularly paying work.)

Note: If cost is a sincere concern for you, simply ask your library or resource center to get the book in. Doctors’offices, naturopaths’offices, health food stores, autism therapy centers, self-help groups, etc, often fund small resource libraries for their clients’use. Bonus: When you make this request, you benefit not only yourself, but all other clients of that center who may be in the same financial position.

How did you determine the book’s price?

The retail price on the book is calculated based on production and printing costs, transaction fees charged to me by the banks, interest on the money borrowed to pay the printer, etc. (You’ll often note that self-published books, of approximately the same size, in niche fields run at about the same cost as GAPS Guide does. This is due to the fact that costs to the writer are unavoidable and consistent.)

Of note is that the customer’s cost is quickly recovered (and then some) through the tips, which save one from a lot of experimentation and errors (plus actually guide one specifically in saving money on GAPS).

Is the book’s price worth it?

The best people to answer that are those who’ve used it.

Also consider: In that GAPS Guide took close to two hundred hours just to compile, reading it is like getting a consultation for 15 cents an hour!

Do you plan to change any of your approaches in future?

Recently I had a bit of an epiphany in relation to SCD and GAPS. Accordingly, I have already tweaked some archived posts to reflect this. In the near future, I will post about my new understanding. My hope is that my activity will always be the most respectful possible, given my personal state of understanding at any given time. I am keen on learning ever more.

Big thanks to all who ask clarifying questions, such that this page was able to be developed!