{"id":32714,"date":"2015-09-16T18:18:56","date_gmt":"2015-09-16T22:18:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wanderlust.com\/?p=32714"},"modified":"2015-09-16T18:25:15","modified_gmt":"2015-09-16T22:25:15","slug":"how-chef-seamus-mullen-healed-himself-with-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wanderlust.com\/ja\/journal\/how-chef-seamus-mullen-healed-himself-with-food\/","title":{"rendered":"How Chef Seamus Mullen Healed Himself With Food"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article\u00a0is part of a\u00a0new series,\u00a0From the Wanderlust Kitchen<\/a><\/strong>, celebrating real, good food. Receive a digital cookbook of this season’s recipes from chef Seamus Mullen and Wanderlust Hollywood by\u00a0signing up here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2022\u2022\u2022<\/p>\n

For chef Seamus Mullen, food was the answer.<\/p>\n

Not only was it inspiration for his life as an acclaimed chef and restaurateur<\/a>\u2014but it also served as a key and defining factor in healing himself from the immobilizing pain he started to experience in the early 2000s.<\/p>\n

Back then, he was working grueling hours at his first New York restaurant, Boqueria, when he started experiencing periodic, agonizing flare-ups concentrated in his shoulder, knee, or hip. At times the attacks were so severe it felt like a hot knife jabbing into his joints, rendering him immobile\u2014quite the predicament when your job is to be on your feet in a\u00a0bustling kitchen all day and night. Multiple trips to the hospital proved inconclusive: he\u2019d leave with pain medication, but no diagnosis.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very clear there was something very wrong with me,\u201d Seamus says, looking back.<\/p>\n

The breaking point came in 2007 when, one day, Seamus woke up with a pain in his left hip so excruciating, he couldn\u2019t move. At all. After several hours of lying on his living room floor, unable to get to his phone across the room, a neighbor found him and called 911. An MRI showed that his hip was swollen with liquid, putting pressure on a nearby nerve. A few days later a then-33-year-old Seamus was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, a chronic inflammatory disorder that causes the body to attack its own tissue, resulting in intense, uncontrollable pain in the joints. It has no known cure. \u201cI thought, \u2018Am I ever going to cook again?’ \u201d he says.<\/p>\n

After his diagnosis, he reevaluated his lifestyle. At one point he sought advice from his\u00a0grandmother. “She said, ‘you need to think about food and how food impacts this disease.’ \u201d<\/p>\n

So he dove into research, looking into the ways food affects inflammation in the body. Much the literature at the time focused on what, and what not, to eat, \u201cbut things didn\u2019t really jell\u00a0for me until I met a pretty remarkable doctor named Dr. Frank Lipman<\/a>,\u201d Seamus says. Dr. Lipman took a keen interest in Seamus, working with<\/em> him\u2014a noticeable difference\u00a0for Seamus\u2014to see how they could restore his health, together.<\/p>\n

Seamus started with a natural cleanse to reboot his microbiome, or gut health, and then slowly worked at fine-tuning a holistic lifestyle that included anti-inflammatory foods, but also less stress, more sleep, and a well-rounded exercise routine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithin six months, I woke up one day not in pain for the first time in 10 years,” says Seamsus, “and that to me was a pretty remarkable eureka moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, Seamus is transformed. He\u2019s a vibrant, active guy who is 45 pounds lighter and has been off medication for a year and a half. He\u00a0owns four (and counting) restaurants in New York and London, is the executive chef of Wanderlust Hollywood<\/a>, and is also an author<\/a>, speaker, and avid outdoorsman who runs, bikes, and practices yoga.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went from feeling as though I was totally indebted to and at the whim of the medical system to realizing, wait, there\u2019s a whole lot that I can do to take control of my health,” Seamus says.<\/p>\n

“And of course, at the heart of all of that, was food.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022\u2022\u2022<\/p>\n

Hungry for more from\u00a0the Wanderlust Kitchen?<\/h3>\n

Sign up for seasonal recipes, digital cookbooks, and inspiring interviews.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\r\n