I Am Finally on the Right Path to Optimum Health and Happiness
It’s Friday, everyone! And that means another Primal Blueprint Real Life Story from a Mark’s Daily Apple reader. If you have your own success story and would like to share it with me and the Mark’s Daily Apple community please contact me here. I’ll continue to publish these each Friday as long as they keep coming in. Thank you for reading!
Mark,
Whenever someone asks me about my history with Ulcerative Colitis I respond with something along the lines of, “It feels like a bad dream that will forever be imprinted in the back of my mind.” It was 2006, my senior year of high school, everything was going fairly well. I was a healthy (or so I thought) 6’3″, 180 lb. 18 year old about to graduate high school and head into the next stage of my life: college. However, life had different plans in store for me. Around my second semester I began to feel consistently nauseous. It felt like anything I ate (S.A.D. mind you) would just pass right through me as though I hadn’t absorbed any energy/nutrients. I figured it was a relatively normal side effect from consistent partying that year, though it persisted. Bouts of nausea would come and go, as would horrible abdominal pains that would make even the toughest man curl into the fetal position. I decided it was time to get checked out. I had my first colonoscopy done within weeks of my first symptoms.
“You have Ulcerative Colitis,” the doctor said. I remember my mother and I looking at each other absolutely confused. Neither of us had heard of this illness before. He proceeded to inform us that Ulcerative Colitis is a form of Inflammatory Bowel Disease, which is an inflammation of the colon. I remember pondering for a moment about what all of this could mean. I finally looked up and asked, “So what do I do?” He responded with, “Well, we can treat it with different medications depending on which one you is most beneficial to you.” “Treat?,” I thought. “You mean I have to live like this for the rest of my life?” I remember the doctor’s face vividly…it was an expression of reservation, confusion, and sadness, as if he were trying to formulate the wisest, yet least alarming way possible. “Not necessarily. A lot of people go into full remission with the right medication.” I carefully considered his response and asked, “How is this disease caused?” He looked back at me regretfully, “Unfortunately we don’t really know.” I didn’t know what to say to that. Still completely shocked and puzzled at what I was told, I continued through the next few months now under the supervision of a gastroenterologist and given several medications to take daily.
Sadly, things only got worse from there, I missed my college SAT tests on three different occasions due to having virtually no energy, constant joint and abdominal pains, as well as never-ceasing nausea. My friends and family would wonder where I was, why I wasn’t answering their phone calls, and why I would never leave the house anymore. My attempts to eat were pitiful, and as a result I was losing weight fast. Fast-forward two years later…After several failed medications and treatments from pharmaceutical to alternative, I ended up at a emaciated weight of 127 lbs only sleeping perhaps 2-4 hours per night.
I’ll never forget the feeling I had during this period of my life. It was as if I was on the brink of life and death, a sort of limbo. Nothing seemed real anymore. After stubbornly refusing to go to a doctor (due to my strong distaste for the medical field at that point), my father more or less forced me to our family clinic. My family doctor looked me over with noticeable concern, checking my blood pressure/pulse three separate times. He looked up at me and said, “You need to go to the hospital immediately.” My dad quickly rushed me to the E.R. and within an hour or so I was wheeled into a room and pumped full of pain-killers and fluids. I remember my father telling me what the doctor had told him, which is something I’ll never forget, “If you would have brought him in any later, he could have died.”
The good news is I stabilized, albeit only temporarily. Through the following months my weight shifted like crazy, the medications stopped working, and I was back at square one. All of the false hope I was getting from each new medication I would try and ultimately fail was taking its toll on me not only physically but mentally as well. My only other option to consider was surgery, in which I finally agreed to. My doctor recommended a three-step surgery. My first surgery was a total colectomy (removal of the entire large intestine) resulting in my need to wear a colostomy bag for nine months while my surgery site healed. My second step was to construct a “J-pouch,” which is basically the conversion of part of your small intestine into a a “J” shape to form a make-shift colon. Step two lasted a few months to let the J-pouch heal up while I still used the colostomy bag. My third and final step was to reconnect the plumbing, so to speak. This was one of the best decisions I have ever made and I don’t regret it for a minute.
My symptoms decreased to a manageable level, allowing me to eventually become independent, living and working on my own. Though the actual Colitis was at a stand-still, I was constantly bloated and sick, and my J-pouch would develop chronic pouchitis (infection of the pouch) which would be temporarily resolved by very powerful antibiotics such as Flagyl and Ciprofloxacin, but would eventually reappear. All of these chronic infections I was getting didn’t make sense. I was cured right? This shouldn’t be happening.
Well that’s when I really began analyzing my diet, which eventually brought me to your book, The Primal Blueprint.
When I finally ditched the SAD diet and started living primally, (eliminating processed foods and most importantly, GRAINS and adding more healthy fats, plants, and animals) I noticed the pain had been reduced to a minimum, my weight stabilized, and I had no more bloating which would usually appear after a good carb/grain-dense meal. This seemed to be working for me, so I stuck with it. After several months of living primally, at the age of 24, a stable weight of 182 lbs, and a height 6’4″ I can safely say that I am in the best shape of my life and feel better than I ever did pre-Colitis. My energy levels are stable. In fact, I hardly ever get mid-day crashes unless I eat something I shouldn’t (which only reminds me that I’m moving on a path towards the dark-side and I better recalibrate.) I lost over 30 lbs. of fat and gained a significant amount of lean muscle mass, but most importantly, is that I feel healthy. While I may never be “normal” again, I know that I am finally on the right path to optimum health and a life full of happiness. Thank you Mark for the selfless wisdom that you have imparted to myself and many others that have conquered their trials and tribulations via The Primal Blueprint.
From the bottom of my heart. Thank you.
Kyel
Grab a Copy of The Primal Connection: Follow Your Genetic Blueprint to Health and Happiness Today!
Posted By: Mark Sisson
You’re the best. Congrats to you, Kyel. Your story really touched me. What an amazing amount of vitality you emanate in the last photo–I am so glad you shared your story.
My best,
Lucia
Thank u for telling your story…i know its sometimes difficult to talk about personal health issues liked UC….i as well have ulcerative colitis…i found out about 2 years ago that I had it…and I got hit bad with the abdominal pain and going to the bathroom literally like 10 times a day… Eating a small cracker even killed my stomach…i was on medication but it was not doing anything for me so I stopped taking it! I do believe that stress can trigger horrible health conditions
Wow! That’s a freaking amazing transformation! The sad thing is that I feel like I saw a lot of guys like you when I was in college, and wonder how sick some of them really were.
Thank you so much for posting this! I dealt with Ulcerative Colitis from 2007 till 2012 — That was my last flare up, a year ago. I almost died on two different occasions, and spent over a week in the hospital a couple of times in very bad shape. This all came about after I graduated from college in 2006. Doctors told me I would have to be on drugs the rest of my life… and I might need to have my colon removed. Thanks to this kind of diet (first on Specific Carbohydrate Diet, Jordan Rubin, Raw Vegan, GAPS, and finally to PB)… I am on NO drugs and I feel like I’m getting healthier every day. It has taken a while to realize that rice crackers and Pamela’s Baking Mix are OUT. A rough road to travel, but the education has been it worth the experience. Glad to see others are also finding success through diet and lifestyle changes.
Well done! It looks like three different people!
Awesome!!
My girlfriend sent me the article “Finally on the right path to optimum health and happiness” and I thought I was reading an article written about myself. I have lived Kyel’s story! The article inspired me to take on the Primal Blueprint way of life.
Kyel, if you read this comment, I am curious about your transition to the diet. I seem to be low on energy and going to the bathroom more frequently. I was curious if this is just a part of the adjustment/cleanse period and would love to ask you for advice since our digestive systems are similar. I have had a J-pouch for 3 years now.
I appreciate the help and thank you for the inspiration and path to live a happier and healthier life!
You really make it seem so easy with your presentation but I find this topic to be really something that I think I would never understand. It seems too complex and extremely broad for me. I’m looking forward for your next post, I’ll try to get the hang of it!|
I have been healed of UC by doing a home fecal transplant. I aquired UC in 2009 after taking a Zpack antibiotic for a sinus infection then a month or two later I had knee surgery, where I was given an antibiotic during surgery.
The very next day after surgery, I had explosive diarrhea, gas, cramps. Tests showed it was not C-diff or any other infection. Doctors said I would have to live with it for the rest of my life and take drugs the rest of my life that suppress my immune system.
I learned about the Specific Carbohydrate Diet and stopped eating all yeast, sugar, starch, wheat and lactose in May of 2012 after suffering for 3 years of bleeding, diarrhea, gas, cramps, etc. These are the foods that feed the bad bacteria, then your body tries to flush it out with mucus and beings to protect itself with inflammation. I don’t believe it is my immune system attacking itself – but it is attacking a bacteria that is causing damage and my immune system is trying to kill the bad bacteria off.
The SCD diet did help but the stronger microbes began to die off, being starved from their regular diet of those things I quit eating and create a flare of my UC symptoms. After a two month flare I did a home fecal transplant.
I have been symptom free every since. I still eat SCD as I want to give my digestive system time to heal and for the good bacteria to get well established in my colon. I don’t want to ever go through this again.
I would recommend anyone with IBS, UC or Crohens to research fecal transplants and check out my blog – http://healed-from-uc.blogspot.com.
It had given me my life back.