I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis (UC) in 2005 at the age of 29. The diagnosis came after a steady decline in my digestive health through my late 20’s. My symptoms were 5-10 uncontrollable bowel movements per day, bloody stools, pain weight loss and lethargy. I was treated with immunosuppressant medication that helped manage my condition but brought with it a range of unwanted side effects. Despite my treatment I was never able to maintain long term remission and over the last 13 years I have regularly had to take high doses of steroids to control flares.
As well as treating my condition with pharmaceutical medication I also saw a naturopath and started looking at diet and lifestyle solutions for my illness. I had adhered to a mainly vegetarian diet since I was 18 and continued to pursue this as the best dietary strategy based on the advice I was getting.
In 2010 I found out about the raw vegan diet which I then switched to for 6 months, I then tried a fruitarian diet for another 6 months. From then on I then attempted every dietary intervention I could find; GAPS, specific carbohydrate diet, low fodmap, ketogenic, ketogenic vegan, paleo, paleo vegetarian. Over the years I’ve spent thousands on supplements like probiotics, herbs, fish oil and different vitamins and minerals. Nothing worked to manage my condition and I continued to need the expensive pharmaceutical meds costing thousands of dollars per year.
Finally I came across Dr Shawn Baker on a podcast in July 2017 and became interested in the carnivore diet. I tried it for 6 weeks starting early August and found that it improved some chronic joint pain and psoriasis and reduced some symptoms of my UC namely no more blood and mucus and less urgency.
Unfortunately I had diarrhea and saw this as a sign that my disease was still active so in late September I started including some vegetables back in my diet. Over the next few months I noticed that my joint pain and psoriasis returned and that I kept needing to increase my immunosuppressant medication for UC.
So Christmas 2017 I started on the carnivore diet again. I had seen some people say that their diarrhea was temporary, theorising that it was related to adjustments in their gut microbiome. I also learnt that by increasing the lean meat content of my diet I could manage the diarrhea. It took about 6 weeks for my digestion to stabilize and since then I’ve had no issues.
It is now late August 2018 and it’s been almost 8 months that I’ve been on the carnivore diet. I stopped taking all my medications in February and have had no symptoms of disease since then. I enjoy a diet of fatty beef with a daily coffee and cream. I occasionally eat some cheese and egg yolks. I have no problem sticking to the diet and look forward to and relish every meal.
I’m am thankful that my long journey of experimenting with diet has finally brought me the healing that I sort. I now hope that the word gets out and others suffering from “incurable” autoimmune diseases have the opportunity to give it a try.
Adam
Perth, Australia
