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Autoimmune

Real People, Real Results​

Darby manages graves’ disease and type 1 diabetes on low-carb diet

November 26, 2022 No Comments

Darby grew up being plagued by every kind of allergy imaginable. At 5 years old, he was diagnosed with hundreds—from trees to weeds to bee stings and everything in between. At 11, he needed reconstructive sinus surgery due to the many sinus infections over the years, and later had to have his tonsils out as well. As the years passed, the allergy shots helped a bit, but his health problems inhibited his ability to engage in the sports he loved. Fast forward to 2013, and Darby begins to experience heart palpitations, which are dismissed by doctors, as they advised him simply to “stay away from caffeine.”

In 2015, he was hospitalized with a heart attack, and two weeks later with another one again. This time, his doctor was wise enough to check his thyroid panel. He was diagnosed with Graves’ disease, and was given more medication to manage yet another health condition. He was able to feel a bit better and add a few pounds to his underweight frame, but in January of this year there was even more crushing news. Darby was diagnosed with Type-1 Diabetes. In his mid-thirties, his mind was filled with dread as to what could possibly come next. In a moment of sheer desperation, he prayed for an answer. Not long after, he found Shawn Baker and the Revero community.

“Behold, I was messing around YouTube and I stumbled upon you and Dr. Ken Berry initially, so I started watching video after video…and realized that maybe my issue had been plant material this entire time. What is it that is causing my body to attack itself? Is it the oxalates? Is it the lectins?”

In March, Darby slowly transitioned to the carnivore diet, and after two weeks, he didn’t need to take insulin anymore. By mid-April, he was able to come off his Graves’ disease medication, and this past October his labs revealed his thyroid hormone levels were completely normal. Now, he’s able to do things he’s only dreamed of; running, lifting weights, and carrying his daughter on his shoulders for hours at Disney World. He’s also free from the allergies and sinus infections that have haunted him his whole life.

“It’s absolutely amazing. It completely blew my mind, and—it’s strangely satisfying. I do not have a craving to eat anything but meat anymore.”

Darby started off doing a strict version of the carnivore diet—his meals consisting of red meat, salt and water. He has since branched out to add pork, eggs, and chicken, but he’s planning to go back to a stricter approach soon, as he believes that was one of the reasons for his rapid recovery.


“I can’t say how truly thankful I am—from the bottom of my heart—for what [Shawn Baker] and people like Ken Berry and Anthony Chaffee do on a daily basis to try and help people, because it really, truly is amazing. It’s a miracle—like nothing I’ve ever seen. I was told that, you can’t cure this. This is what you’re going to be for the rest of your life… If it wasn’t for you…I would have never known. I would have just stayed being sick on the SAD diet and getting sicker.”

As far as Darby’s concerned, he has a new lease on life, and when asked whether this diet is worth the risks, he says “Bring it on!”

 

Tracy manages her weight and cancer treatment on keto and carnivore

October 27, 2022 No Comments

Keto and carnivore have changed my life beyond anything in my wildest/hopeful dreams. I was introduced to Keto, or should I say re-introduced to Atkins, by a coworker who had lost a noticeable amount of weight. Because it came from a woman’s magazine I really wasn’t on board with it and felt the need to research it. Keto has benefited my life way beyond weight loss: I have a few auto immune diseases, I’m insulin resistant, and I’m obese.

After about three months research I started keto in January 2018. I stayed below 20 total carbs. Weight loss was slow, but weight loss was not my number one priority after having done the research to learn how to manage my auto immune without meds and lower my A1c and my fasting insulin. In August 2018, I was diagnosed with breast cancer and went back to YouTube and the books to learn about keto and cancer. The most valuable thing that I learned was sugar is cancers favorite fuel. I oncologist does not agree with me on this but I don’t need his blessing. Not throwing him under the bus, he is very open minded and one of the few MDs on board with me and Keto.

I had a bilateral mastectomy and 27 lymph nodes removed on the right side. The chemo protocol was Taxol and Adriamycin + Cytoxin. Pretty mean shit. Of course, I had all the side effects that go with chemotherapy from hair loss to vomiting and loss of appetite, but my overall health was far better because I existed on a diet of pastured eggs, olives, avocado, liverwurst and Swiss cheese. I know that sounds like pregnancy kind of food but it kept me in really good shape. My plan was to eat two meals a day for the three days leading up to chemo and then I would fast for 2 to 3 days following chemo. I did use an electrolyte replacement. LMNT had some really good flavors that agreed with me or I would just have sea salt in water.

Unfortunately, I could not finish the second chemo protocol because I developed bilateral pulmonary embolisms and was 80% on room air. So, I missed the last two treatments of Adriamycin Cytoxan. My oncologist was confident that I would do well even though I had also opted to skip radiation. I was taking an aromatase inhibitor from July 2019 through August 2022.

In July 2019 I was told that my cancer was gone. I would have to do 10 years of the aromatase inhibitor which prohibits the body from making estrogen from testosterone. My cancer was HER++. Estrogen loves fat and now I became more focused on getting rid of my excess body weight. Visceral fat secretes all sorts of things that also make you sick. I was sarcopenia & post menopausal and could not even do curls with a 2 1/2 pound weight!

Luckily, I live alone and I’m not tempted by other foods and I started to learn more about the carnivore diet as the extreme elimination diet. As a sidenote, I have suffered from depression since childhood and was hopeful that this would help manage depression. I knew I was low in protein and wanted to get my protein only from food: I do not eat shakes or snacks or bars. I might try Ben Bikman’s Hlth Shake (more to come on that.)

At any rate, I did not gain weight during Covid and I am probably down around 80 pounds. I weigh in Measure once a month but I just have a simple bathroom scale so I don’t live and die by that number. My A1c is 5.1 and my endogenous insulin is down to 11. My goal is to get my A1c into the high 4s and get my endogenous insulin below 5. My endocrinologist is not on board with any of this; therefore, I simply lie to her. I did ask for Metformin though during chemo because my A1c shot up to 6–insulin was sky-high, too.

This spring I enrolled in a breast cancer study for patients with metastasis. I learned that my cancer has metastasized beyond the lymph nodes. I was gutted. It is liver Mets and obviously there’s nothing that can be done except to take the oral chemo and a shot (IM) as long as I can tolerate it.

I’m having a very hard time eating anything. This is where I think I’m going to consider Ben’s shake. My blood glucose is fine and I still have ~30 pounds to go and could certainly fast, but I miss eating something besides the electrolyte. I’m very strict with the diet it’s more than lifestyle now because it’s part of my medical protocol.

Shawn, thank-you so much for being on YT & cutting through all of the BS. You may not know how much we, or at least I, rely on you for guidance because it just can’t be found in the local community and these doctors have their head so far up their arses. One doctor asked me if I were challenging her medical degree with my Google degree. WTF?! I told her I am with the patient 24/7 and am the one who ensures compliance. I won’t do anything that I don’t understand, and I’m sorry I don’t have some type of a medical degree.

Thanks for going against the grain.

Kat heals from ulcerative colitis, asthma, and Lyme disease on the carnivore diet

October 12, 2022 No Comments

Kat’s battle for her health has been a fierce one, and she has fought bravely her whole life to find relief from the crippling asthma and ulcerative colitis that has plagued her since she was a baby. “I had ulcerative colitis from day one, ear infections, and asthma. Back in the day—they just really didn’t know any better—they gave me round after round of antibiotics, and then they gave my mother access to steroid injections; so she gave me an injection every month for the first couple years of my life.”

At the same time, Kat says she was born to be an athlete, and by the time they invented rescue inhalers, you could find her running happily on the track—inhaler in hand. Still, the years were filled with trips back and forth to the hospital for both her ulcerative colitis and asthma. “I just remember—from the time I can remember—being on the toilet in tears… just all by myself and my parents are helpless…they don’t know what to do. It was really hard—but I persevered and I just kept going. I was very much into sports. I had a horse; I rode. I played tennis, I rode my bike and I just relied on the medications to keep me going.”

In her 30’s, Kat discovered that if she took enough supplements, she could mitigate some of her symptoms without as many drugs, but that came with the hefty price tag of $500 dollars a month. In her 40’s she came across the keto diet which helped her successfully lose 30 pounds, but flare ups and rescue inhalers were still the norm.

On top of all of this, she received a Lyme’s Disease diagnosis in 2008, which complicated matters even further. Throughout all of this time, she never stopped searching—regularly listening to health podcasts and reading the latest books. When she started to hear about the carnivore diet, she mentioned it to her functional medical doctor at the time, and he said she should give it a shot.

“When I met you guys for the first time, it was my 60th birthday—it was May 7th of 2020. I’ll never forget it—that [membership to Revero] was the gift I gave myself for my birthday. Oh my gosh… it’s unbelievable what happened to me.” After a day or two on the carnivore diet, Kat says she was able to take what she considers to be the first full breath of her entire life. “Literally within the first week of eliminating plants, I was breathing and it was remarkable…the colitis cleared up—it still leaves me speechless sometimes to think about what happened just by getting rid of foods!” In the past, mosquito bites would leave painful welts that lasted for weeks, and would also activate her Lyme’s symptoms. A month and a half after going carnivore, she was swarmed with bites. They cleared up after a few days, and there was no adverse Lyme’s reaction. Now off all medications, Kat is incandescently happy to be free from the health problems of the past.“I honestly can say right now I have nothing wrong—and I cannot believe I’m saying that—it’s nothing short of miraculous!”

Emily healed from connective tissue disease, GERD, and fatigue on the carnivore diet

October 9, 2022 No Comments

Three years ago, Emily was simply looking for a way to lose weight before her wedding. On the advice of her father, she started doing the ketogenic diet. She lost weight for the wedding, but was still generally miserable. Why? In her early teens, Emily was diagnosed with a debilitating connective tissue disease. She was on several medications to manage her chronic pain and fatigue, but after years of disappointment didn’t have a hope of getting better. Then, after becoming pregnant with her first daughter, Emily says her body began craving meat—only meat—so much so that she was dreaming of sausages and ground beef at night!

“I was like…I wonder if it would be okay…if I just give in and just eat meat because my body wants it…and that’s when I found [Shawn Baker!] Here was this crazy guy that said it was okay, so I dug into the research and I was like, ‘Okay, I’m gonna give it a go—and never looked back since.”

Following her cravings with no intention of curing anything, Emily was amazed at what happened next. “I had no clue it would help my health! Basically, as the days went by—after I had just started to eat meat—I thought, ‘What the heck! Here I am fat and pregnant, with all these disorders, and I woke up and I had a really good day. I was like, ‘Wow, this is great! I will probably crash out tomorrow.’ But tomorrow, I had a good day—the next day I had a good day. I noticed my inflammation disappearing. I’m not fatigued. I’m not depressed—I’m not anxious. I’m able to put the crib together…I thought pregnancy was going to be so difficult for me with all these disorders, and as soon as I gave myself the okay and went into carnivore, I just kept waking up and having good days. I kept waiting on the other shoe to drop—and it never did!”

Now thriving and feeling well for over two years, Emily has since welcomed a second baby, and says both of her kids are in excellent health. While her children aren’t fully carnivore, they do eat a lot of meat, and it’s always served as the first course a every meal. Emily also believes their meat-first approach has contributed to the fact that her children have always been excellent sleepers.

As for the future, Emily finds true happiness in helping other people in the carnivore community as a coach with Revero online. Working with new mothers, expectant mothers, hopeful mothers, and those recovering from addiction, she adds that it’s often the best part of her week. “It’s so enjoyable because I like to see people have the same thing that happened to me. You wake up, you have a good day, you think it’s an anomaly—you think it’s a stand alone experience—and you keep waking up! I want to see people keep waking up to a good day.”

Lily healed from inflammation and digestive and skin issues on a strict carnivore diet

October 9, 2022 No Comments

Lily is a self-avowed anarchist, living in Mexico. She was featured in an HBO special about the anarchist movement, and her carnivore journey is also chronicled in that special: “you can see the progression of me from my pre-carnivore very sickly days until, you know, now, where I’m more or less healed from a lot of the stuff that I dealt with.”

Lily and her boyfriend stayed engaged in the anarchist community, eventually moving to Mexico where a large group has formed. This choice, however, would lead to her boyfriend’s murder later.

Vegan Troubles at First
When she and her boyfriend moved to Acapulco, they were planning on participating in the anarchist community. What they found, however, was “it was a bunch of rich snooty vegans, and something not mentioned in the series that is actually a big part of the conflict that happened within the community (the conflict is covered but not this specific part of it) was the opinion of the people that were running the event at the time, and running the community…that you couldn’t be an anarchist and still consume animal products, that it was inherently violent in nature.”

Cartel Dangers
Lilly and her boyfriend got into a situation where they were processing marijuana that they bought from the drug cartel into oil, which they sold to “gringos.” When they started growing their own marijuana and cut out the cartel, her boyfriend was murdered.

Health Issues
Lilly was eating a standard American diet, with “emphasis on junk food because that’s how I was raised” and was nauseous most days, “having to sit down and calm my stomach,” was dizzy all the time, and had “horrible migraines that would put me to bed at 7 p.m. every day. She had IBS, and felt “like I was falling apart.” She was “covered in open sores from chronic cystic acne.”

Finding Carnivore
Lily saw the Joe Rogan interview with Dr. Baker and “that’s actually what got me to give it a try.”

She “practiced strict carnivore for almost 2 years, with about 6 months of the lion diet to deal with inflammation, nervous system inflammation, chronic digestive issues, and horrible skin issues. This was from about mid-2018 to early 2020, which was during the filming of the HBO series The Anarchists.”

Her carnivore experience shifted the Acapulco anarchist community away from dogmatic veganism, and many members are now carnivore.

Symptom and Health Improvements
Lily has found great relief from her acne, IBS, nausea, chronic diarrhea, or constipation, and she has better energy. Her depression is gone, as is her joint pain. She still has some anxiety and tension headaches, but attributes this to her stressful life choices.


Lily has been working on reintroducing some foods back into her diet, while remaining vigilant about not returning to the ill health she had earlier. Her diet is still heavily meat-based, and she is “Still very much a believer in carnivore being good for healing the body and for determining specific trigger foods.”

Adam healed from psoriasis on the carnivore diet

October 8, 2022 No Comments

Adam has been a personal trainer for over 10 years. He has been through “some tough times” that have left him “feeling I’m in the best place in my life.”

Ailments and Adversities
Adam had “a lot of acne” when he was young. He tried Accutane, which “made my skin absolutely terrible. Three months later, he developed psoriasis.

Bodybuilding, Less Psoriasis
Adam developed a love for bodybuilding, and his psoriasis completely healed within 30 days of starting his bodybuilding diet, no longer drinking alcohol or eating fast food. “That was amazing to me…how my skin improved from improving my nutrition.” His diet at that point included some meat and vegetables, and “a lot of white rice.”

Cancer
At age 30 Adam was diagnosed with a non-seminal germ cell tumor “a five-inch mass in my chest. One night…started having chest pains from a deep breath I taken, and all of sudden it just would not go away.”

An emergency room visit “basically determined that it was some type of lymphoma, so right there just completely changed my life.”

Adam endured four rounds of chemotherapy and open chest surgery to remove the tumor, all within a six-month period.

Psoriasis Returns, Worse!
After another brief heart scare, and having fluid drained away, things seemed like “smooth sailing” until his psoriasis “just came back with a vengeance, covered my legs, my arms, my chest, my head, everywhere. During his chemo for the tumor, Adam’s psoriasis had completely gone away.

He decided he had to learn how to solve his problems himself because all of his medical providers just kept “over and over again prescribing me things that I just knew weren’t going to help me.”

The Vegan Missed-Steak
Adam’s search led him to a vegan diet, which he followed for two years, “making vegetable smoothies, and trying a grape diet for three weeks.”

On the vegan diet, Adam “lost 20 to 30 pounds of muscle, started getting just super fatigued…I had testosterone of a 90-year old. Everything was going downhill. I was thin, I was frail, and the biggest thing was my psoriasis was absolutely inflamed to the wazoo.”

Back to Bodybuilding
One of Adam’s friends encouraged him to return to bodybuilding, as it was “the last thing that had worked.” Within days of adding meat back into his diet, “my skin started to improve.”

“The difference is night and day.”

Adam recently competed as a bodybuilder, and “did a carnivore styled prep, and consisted of high fat, high, protein, and zero carb. It was the best stuff I’ve ever been, best I’ve ever felt mentally and physically.”

Better Bowel Function Without Fiber
“My stool is normal, …when I was vegan plant-based going to the bathroom was insane. I had hemorrhoids and it was the stool was hard, it was ridiculous. Every time I went to the bathroom it was a struggle; I’d be in pain.”

His psoriasis has improved so that he estimates 3% coverage, instead of almost 100%, and his cancer has never returned.

Ryan cleared auto-immune disorder that affected his right eye

September 28, 2022 No Comments

I am 37 years old in Southeastern Massachusetts and a married father of 3 young girls ages 8, 4, and 18 months. I was an athlete growing up through high school and always was fairly active giving minor attention to my diet.

I noticed like clockwork I’d put on 10 lbs a year starting at 30 really regardless of how much I worked out. I remember I dropped 25 lbs one year as part of a weight loss challenge with a buddy where once a week i literally cut weight like a fight to beat him, (I did, haha).

I’m naturally a very competitive person so when I started seeing my weight increase and health deteriorate I decided it was time to make a change. Starting in October 2020 I knocked off all sweets, did oat milk, truvia in my coffee, and began running 45 minutes a day on my treadmill, yuck.

Worse than that, I wasn’t losing any weight, I was killing myself for 10 weeks and was down like 4 lbs. I had also been diagnosed with an autoimmune eye disease that could be managed with 20mg of doxicycline daily for periods of 30 days. I had had enough.

I saw Dr Baker on Joe Rogan’s podcast and was intrigued by the idea. I began to think very seriously about joining world carnivore month in January. I did some research and then, jumped in with both feet.

After the first few days I began to feel the difference, my energy popped, my hangry personality traits disappeared and I felt genuinely, good.


I lost 28 lbs in January alone and was completely hooked. I signed up in July that year to compete in the “Haymakers 4 Hope” charity fight. Essentially a white collar brawler it’s a bunch of executives who raise money for various cancer foundations by getting in the ring and having a sanctioned amateur bout.


I thought how cool it would be to train on carnivore and document my journey. Dr Baker even joined in by sharing some of my progress on his stories.


I was amazed at how much energy I had eating carnivore and completely busted the myths of everyone around me saying you need carbs to train. In fact, most people I told (including the event coordinators) thought I was nuts for trying to. I had plenty of gas for not only the training, but for the event itself.


I was already down quite a bit but was able to get down to the required 228lbs on fight night, compete, and win my fight. I’ve turned a handful of my friends and siblings onto this diet and will absolutely never consider “going back” to any other way of eating.

Jon heals from gut issues, fatigue, and arthritis

August 3, 2022 1 Comment

I was a raw vegan/fruitarian for 7 years. I was actually an influencer in that community and offered health consultations helping people heal chronic degenerative diseases using a fruitarian diet and now do the same thing but now recommending an animal-based diet/carnivore. I’ve actually helped many in the short term heal cancer, arthritis, skin conditions, etc. But I watched the same people including myself start to degenerate trying to maintain this diet in the long term. I’m a certified detoxification specialist and online iridologist.

For the last 1 1/2 years of the 7 years being vegan mostly fruitarian/raw vegan I developed major gut issues. Gi pain and digestive problems and blood sugar issues. This was also very common with my clients that were long-term vegan.

The more I continued to eat a high-fiber diet the more I continued to degenerate. Skin problems, gut pain, malnutrition, and depression.

I started having cravings for eggs and I mean intense cravings. My instincts told me to eat them and to adopt a mainly carnivore diet to heal my gut. I listened and it dramatically changed my life for the good!!! In only 3 months I can proudly say I have no more gut issues!!

I’ve been on a mainly carnivore diet for 4 months now. My muscles came back, testosterone came up. Consistent energy. Zero gut pain. No constant gas and zero bloat and no more depression!!! And I feel like the 25-year-old bull I once was at 37!!!

I will send you a pic of how skinny I got as a fruitarian 5 years ago and what I look like now on a zero fiber 90% carnivore diet. The only plant food I consume living on an island (koh Phangan) in Thailand is fresh coconut water out of Thai coconut which does not cause me any issue at all.

This photo here was when I was super emaciated at 105 lbs when I was 100% fruitarian the other pics were when I was high raw vegan towards the end of my vegan journey. I was still very skinny and underweight at 120 lbs.

My diet now is muscle meats, liver, and coconut water.

Thank you so much for doing this interview with me and im hoping to bring more awareness to people especially the fruitarians and raw vegans that are in denial like I was and have major eating disorders.

Kassandra reverses a lifetime of obesity

August 2, 2022 1 Comment
kassandra1-min
Before: a good acne day…
kassandra2-min
Before: forced photo at my largest

My name is Kassandra and I’m 35 years old. My mother and I nearly died during my birth because she had untreated gestational diabetes. She passed out and I was pulled out with forceps unresponsive. I survived in nicu because the nurses taped together two incubators since I was a very large baby. 

I stayed large through most of my life, starting my first diet when I started public school. 

By my mid 20’s I was 270+lbs, and I had PCOS, lipedema, keratosis pilaris, bad acne, and extreme  joint pain. 

Lost 100 lbs in my late twenties biggest loser style. My legs didn’t shrink much but I felt better because I was thinner. 

Then I watched “Sugar: a bitter at truth” by Dr. Lustig and gave up sugar for 3 months. 

10 months the later, I welcomed my first happy accident son into the world. 

I eased up my sugar restrictions but still restricted calories and over exercised. Couldn’t lose weight. Blamed it on the birth control so I stopped it and got another happy accident. 

My second pregnancy had complications because of extreme weight gain and failed glucose test.  Then I tried keto at the permission of my OB and stopped gaining weight. Had a healthy baby.

 

Listened to a bunch of YouTube lectures from keto conventions and heard about carnivore.  I still wasn’t gaining but couldn’t stop binging so I looked up what little I could on carnivore and tried 90 days.  That was over 2.5 years ago. I’m leaner than Ive ever been in my life. No more PCOS, acne, or joint pain. My lipedema is shrinking and reduced a lot. Keratosis has reduced 95%. 

 

I can’t weigh myself because I still struggle with scale anxiety but I’m a S/M (dress size 6/8) and I spent most of my life in XL/XXL so I feel like I have a new body with more energy in my thirties than I had in my teens. 

James gets off all psych meds on a carnivore diet

August 1, 2022 1 Comment

Hello,

My name is James. I am 27 years old and have suffered immensely from mental health issues since I was 6 years old. I was diagnosed with ADHD and put on psych medication in kindergarten. I also was depressed as a child which progressed as I became a teenager. When I was 17 I was diagnosed with Bipolar and schizo affective disorder. I am now 27 and have been hospitalized due to manic episodes over 200 times. I was told I would never live a normal life and always have to be on medications which caused obesity due to elevating my insulin and blood sugar.

I came across the work of dr. Shawn baker and dr. Chris Palmer. I began intermittent fasting and eating carnivore and within 2 weeks my lifelong depression lifted. I also lost 25 pounds in those 2 weeks. I went from 270 pounds to 245. I had metabolic syndrome (high blood pressure, triglycerides and blood sugar) and my labs have all normalized. This is just the beginning of my journey and I am so grateful. I have been on this diet for 1 month and plan to do it for the rest of my life. It’s not a diet, it’s a lifestyle. I also check my blood ketones daily to make sure I am in ketosis, usually between 3-5 ml. All of my mental health issues have been put into remission as well as my life long psoriasis that covered my face and scalp.

Thank you Shawn Baker for having the courage to speak the truth. You have saved my life and the lives of future generations by sharing this knowledge. I plan to share my story to try and help heal others who are needlessly suffering. There are no words to express my gratitude.

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