About Joe Smiles

Let me explain my story, and my passion for human development and the power of strength, health, and fitness.

I started my personal training business in 2003. It grew fast and I got people working with me as I built my brand. However, I started going in and out of hospital regularly with days of severe bowel pain, vomiting, nausea and progressive tiredness, which incidentally I have had all my life but the symptoms were getting worse and occurring more regularly. No one seemed to help or believe me but I knew intuitively something was catastrophically wrong with me.

Fit, strong and driven with a rare illness

I kept things going while having multiple hospital admissions but at the end of 2007 I had major bowel surgery due to being finally diagnosed with intestinal malrotation, which was causing a section of my large bowel to intermittently twist (the medical term is volvulus). Fortunately for me, up until this point it could untwist itself. If the bowel doesn’t untwist, you can die very quickly. Malrotation is a congenital anomaly of the bowel affecting 1 in 6,000 live births, however this is an estimate, and it’s not considered to be found in an adult by the medical field. For an unknown reason the bowel doesn’t form in the right place during foetal development, making the bowel prone to volvulus which can kill the baby, or the baby needs emergency surgery when born.

However, after my surgery I kept getting severe bowel obstructions and had to gradually eat minimal food to reduce my hospital admissions. No one understood or could stop the bowel obstructions and in 2009 I was eventually transferred to St. Mark’s Hospital, an internationally renowned bowel specialist hospital in London where I was referred to the head psychiatrist by the gastroenterologist there, after a stay in the hospital. The psychiatrist said it was his job to find out what trauma I had been through that was causing my symptoms, and I said it was my job to find out what other physical issues I had that were not yet diagnosed. For a year we were at logger heads and he told me that unless I stayed out of hospital he would see me as an inpatient in the psychiatric ward. I had no one on my side yet again and the more frustrated I got the more I was told I had psychological problems.

I developed a chronically fatigued state, sleeping 18 hours a day and was in constant pain. I got in touch with the President of the British Society of Gastroenterology and asked for help. I was recommended to see the wonderful Professor Forbes at University College London Hospital, who diagnosed me with a significantly underactive thyroid and chronic intestinal pseudo obstruction.  To stay out of hospital I had to make the decision to eventually stop eating altogether.  I’ve had to live off medical liquid drinks and orange juice since 2012.  Between 2008 and 2014 I had 55 bowel obstructions.

The undiagnosed underactive thyroid was causing the immense fatigue, and chronic intestinal pseudo obstruction (CIPO) is a rare life threatening condition affecting the bowel. I can’t eat and if I do it puts me at risk of more severe bowel obstructions which consist of severe symptoms of bowel pain, cramping and dilation, nausea, and vomiting. Most patients are fed through an intravenous tube. Another symptom is tiredness and although my thyroid is under control, I have to plan how to manage my energy levels and pace myself on a daily basis. In CIPO, the nerves and/or muscles of the gut aren’t working (called dysmotility), and therefore regular peristalsis (the continual rhythmic contraction of bowel muscle) doesn’t occur, so the gut cannot propel wind, liquid, or food through properly, which causes obstructions. Please see the following link for more information about this condition and the wonderful charity PORT (Pseudo Obstruction Research Trust).  You could donate if you wish to:

http://www.port-charity.org.uk/what-is-cipo/

In most cases where the baby is born with it, they cannot ingest milk or eat. In my case I have CIPO because I was born with the intestinal malrotation, where the bowel isn’t in the right place in the abdominal cavity. This leads to life threatening twisting of the bowel called volvulus. In my case it wasn’t fully discovered until I was 30 years old by which time my bowel had suffered a lot of trauma.

Use me as an inspiration

Considering everything I’ve been through I still encourage myself and others, and I’m in a unique position to motivate and support you through hardship, exercise, pain, or weight loss. I keep myself as fit and strong as I can, which has baffled many medical professionals and general people alike. I usually look like a picture of health, but I believe if it wasn’t for my mental and physical strength and drive, problem-solving skills, and the benefits I get from consistently training at all costs, I wouldn’t be here now, or would be in a very bad place. I want to pass my knowledge and inspiration onto others like you. If you keep yourself fit and strong, you can reduce the effects of ageing, disease, pain, and mental illness and give yourself the best chance of graceful survival, because we will all suffer adversity to varying degrees at some point in our life but it’s how we handle adversity that counts.

The problems with physiotherapy and other allied health professions

Ever since I began my work in 2003 I’ve been immensely frustrated with patients/clients being referred back and forth by private medical companies and NHS doctors to mainly see physios, but also osteopaths and chiropractors, and to get nowhere with their health or injury. I’ve always been the second port of call to look after the chronic rehabilitation and health situations of the general public, getting them out of pain and performing better time and again. I was frustrated that patients/clients were receiving useless, dangerous, time wasting, unethical nocebic and placebic treatments that don’t work in comparison to my evidenced based exercise rehab protocols. Not only that, when I prescribe the right type of exercise at the right time for the individual, they also get fitter, stronger, more enduring, more durable, and feel younger as a bonus to being pain free. I’ve found the misinformation, variation and disagreement in what treatments to use among these health professionals to be unbelievable and distressing to me.

I decided to study physiotherapy with an aim to reach and help more people through capitalising on the marketing monopoly that physiotherapy holds in the health care system. People deserve more education, honesty, and truthful treatment strategies. I started my physiotherapy training at Brunel University, London in 2012 only to discover why the industry is in dire straits. Most ‘physio’ treatments have been removed from the medical degree because there is an overwhelming lack of scientific evidence for their use, and exercise – which has the strongest evidence of treatment – is hardly taught, so it’s no wonder they don’t know how to treat patients effectively. In addition, the bullying and harassment I (and others) received while on hospital placements and at university (which is rife in this 80-90% female industry) can be overwhelming. They eventually forced me out five years later in 2017. My illness also caused me no end of trouble and the prejudice was ironically shocking.

I believe I have a unique understanding of your concerns because not only have I formally studied sport and exercise science, I’ve also been very sick, injured, or pursued sport and training/health/nutrition goals so I know what it’s like for other people to go through these things. One thing I learned with my medical problems was how badly people listen. I’m very conscious of making sure I listen fully, and understand and support you. I don’t think most health care professionals have an understanding of the nuances behind their patient’s/client’s fitness, sports or health goals simply because they’ve never shared the passion associated with increased health or competition or it’s never been a part of their study curriculum. I want to inspire and show you that there are better ways to do things.