Ben Greenfield describes a personal medical emergency: a cyst developed on his head about three weeks prior, became large and painful by December 23 (the day before Christmas Eve), and led to extreme headaches, passing out, and severe head pain. He had the cyst excised and drained, was prescribed antibiotics which improved symptoms over days, and is experiencing ongoing brain fog, word-recall problems, and recovery from inflammation. He mentions additional therapies (peptides from Dr. Matthew Cook, a planned 10-pass ozone treatment), canceled trips, and urges viewers not to ignore unusual bumps or growths. He also briefly mentions using movement (hot tub/cold pool, walking, cycling) and drinking a Swedish Fish–flavored Ghost Energy drink to aid circulation and feeling better.
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Hey, what's up, everybody? I know I owe some of you who are particularly worried an explanation after my Instagram video this morning about this strange head infection, inflammation injury that I got. I'll try to keep this brief and bear with me because I've been stuttering a lot, losing my memory, having difficulty with. With word recall, I think as a result of some of the inflammation that's still kind of in some of the. Some of the cells in the. In the brain or around the neural tissue at least. What happened was I had a small cyst develop on my head about three weeks ago, and I ignored it, which I'll never do again. And the day before Christmas Eve, the 23rd, it had gotten pretty big and was getting pretty painful. And I finally had my wife look at it. And it was large and red and swollen. And I began to get a headache. I never get headaches. I came down with.
What I can only describe as the worst pain in my head imaginable. I wanted to die. All I could think about was, like, putting my hand through my head and like, ripping my brains out. I know that's a violent analogy, but that's what it felt like. And so on the morning of the. I think it would have been the morning of the 23rd, my family found me just like passed out in my Zen. Then with an oxygen mask over my face, just writhing in pain. My wife drove me to the doctor where they excised and drained this mass of cysts off the side of my head and put me on antibiotics, which immediately began to help, even though it took two more days for the headaches. This is like the first day. This is the day after Christmas is the first day I haven't had a headache. And I've been able to go up and down stairs without using the railing. Super freaky. It's almost as though I feel like I've had a TBI or concussion without a concussion. More like an inflammation infection.
My friend Dr. Matthew Cook is sending me up some peptides. I'll do a 10 pass ozone tomorrow to clear some more stuff out of the bloodstream. I had to cancel some. Some trips and things like that. But thank God I'm alive and I'm feeling like I'm on the. I'm on the mend every hour. But holy cow, you guys, I want to shoot you this video because.
I just want to tell you, don't be. What's the word when you constantly think that you're sick? Told you. I'm having a hard time with word recall. It's a hypochondriac. I don't want you to be like an orthorexic hypochondriac or something like that, but if you've got some kind of growth or bump or anything that just doesn't feel quite right.
Don'T ignore it. Get taken care of. Because I feel like in my case it could have been even worse. As it is, I got away pretty lucky. I just got to kind of get through the brain fogginess which is happening. And anyways, so that's what happened and hopefully that helps any of you not get killed by assist. Oh speaking of getting killed. Also, for those of you asking about that ghost energy drink I drank this morning because honestly, moving helps. Real moving helps the time going back and forth from the hot tub to the cold pool and then moving like walking and riding the bicycle feels really good for the blood flow to the brain. But the ghost energy drink, Swedish fish flavored ghost energy drink.
Can't say I'll be doing that again. Full on sweaty palm, racing heart, but it woke me up. So you have it.
