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Guy goes on carnivore diet after widow-maker heart attack

March 29, 2023 No Comments

Guy is a 57-year-old man who has been married for 33 years and has three grown children. He worked as a microbiologist and chemist before transitioning to a career as a software engineer. He enjoys playing tennis, beach volleyball, and running obstacle races in the mud. Additionally, he has played lead guitar in various 80s hair metal tribute bands, estimating that he has played over 800 shows in his life.

On his birthday, he suffered a widowmaker heart attack. His left anterior descending artery was completely blocked for over three hours before two stents were eventually placed in the artery while he was still experiencing the heart attack. Fortunately, his heart was minimally damaged due to collateral circulation that his body had already developed from frequent high-intensity training sessions. He even became the subject of two local news stories in San Diego for surviving the widowmaker heart attack.

A few years after the heart attack, he began to experience alopecia areata, leading to patchy baldness due to an autoimmune issue. It gradually worsened until he nearly had no hair on his body, including his head.

To prevent another heart attack and promote hair regrowth, he conducted extensive research on nutrition and discovered the carnivore diet. He adopted this diet, and eventually, much of his hair grew back. He also decided to stop taking all medications, including statins. He is doing well and remains very active. He credits the carnivore diet for his hair regrowth and good health.

Travis improved mental health, skin issues, and ulcerative colitis on a carnivore diet

January 6, 2023 No Comments

Travis is a health coach with a focus on a carnivore diet. He has had quite the health journey to get where he is today! Let’s take a look at his experiences.

He didn’t start life on an easy path, experiencing his first heart operation when he was only three years old. By the time Travis was 34 years old, he would have had seven more heart operations. That is truly a challenging beginning to life!

Travis experienced many other health problems in his quest for health. He suffered from several brain-based problems, such as anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), depression, and brain fog. These issues all indicate a person’s brain is inflamed and running on empty. When you push your brain to perform, and yet the mitochondria in those billions of nerve cells can’t provide the energy, the result is oxidative stress. The combination can make a normal day extremely challenging.

Travis experienced that in the form of these several related symptoms. In addition to these brain symptoms, he also suffered from chronic headaches. These are often one of the major symptoms of the brain functioning in an imbalanced way. Our brains typically rest at night, purging metabolic waste and replenishing supplies of essential neurotransmitters. However, this requires deep restorative sleep, and Travis experienced restless nights instead.

Travis also suffered from stomach ulcers as well as ulcerative colitis. “All of it was horrible!” he says. He still didn’t give up, though.

Burdened with this list of symptoms, Travis continued seeking solutions. He was originally on a “standard Western diet” and began to look for alternatives. The standard western diet is well documented in research as the standard to use when the researcher wants to make the lab animals develop a disease, which they then experiment on. It’s also known as the Standard American Diet, or SAD, which it certainly is!

Travis tried a vegan diet, but despite how much it is currently promoted as the solution to everything, he did not find it helped him. He also used a paleo diet, before transitioning into a ketogenic diet, and finally found and followed the carnivore diet. He has followed the diet for seven years now!

He has put a lot of work into understanding how it works and is amazed at the impact of the carnivore diet on today’s belief systems. “I’ve studied nutrition professionally, and currently research nutrition obsessively, now that modern understanding of nutrition has been turned on its head…” Personal experience is certainly very motivating when it comes to learning.

Travis is now a complete believer in the diet, having seen the results it has brought him and his nutrition clients. “Based on my previous experience, my education on the subject, and current years of practice in carnivory I can easily say that not only was carnivore the solution, but it ultimately solidified itself as the human-appropriate diet, and I have remained on it since.”

Ron got rid of skin tags, snoring, back pain, diverticulosis, toenail fungus, anxiety

November 4, 2022 No Comments
Before
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After

Growing up near the Adirondacks in upstate New York, Ron worked in the family construction business and was a lifelong subscriber to the Standard American Diet. In high school, he was 5‘6” and 205lbs, with a 36 inch waist. Since his work kept him active, he was able to stay trim for a while, but when he hit his 40’s and transitioned to a stationary desk job—his weight skyrocketed up to 285 pounds.

After experiencing a few unnerving health problems such as gallstones and a perforated colon, his real health scare came in January of 2022, when he had an episode of Bell’s Palsy. It spooked Ron at the time, as his brother had just suffered a stroke the previous year.

Thinking of his daughters and how we wanted to be around for them, Ron felt compelled to make a change. He came across the now infamous Joe Rogan interview with Dr. Jordan Peterson, who was discussing his carnivore diet. “Right after that, I’m like, ‘Carnivore! I love meat!’ So, I started on that, and it’s been no looking back ever since.”

Ron took the plunge and before long, he was losing 10 to 12 pounds per week. Starting out, he experienced some gastric issues, as well as a bad bout of brain fog saying “I got dumber than a stump for two weeks!” By week three, however, the aforementioned issues disappeared, and he began feeling “Really, really good.” Overall, the transition phase lasted three to eight weeks, so Ron encourages people to give the diet at least 90 days before calling it quits. Incredibly—in less than one year—Ron lost a whopping 100 pounds!

Some other happy disappearances include: skin tags, snoring, diverticulitis, toe fungus, and back pain. Ron is also very happy to report that his sex life has never been better.

Ron and his wife (who also lost 40 pounds on the diet) like to keep an eye out for sales when shopping carnivore, and when choosing leaner steaks, they supplement with eggs or additional fat to keep them satiated. Additionally, Ron enjoys pork belly and seafood, as well as homemade wings cooked in the air fryer on game days when he’s cheering on his beloved Buffalo Bills.

At the start of the football season, he reintroduced beer, and while he didn’t suffer any adverse reactions, Ron realized he had to limit his intake to one or two cans—otherwise the junk food becomes more tempting with every passing beer.

At 52 years old, Ron is incredibly grateful for his new lease on life. He has extra energy and focus to write music and play his guitar, and is able to walk all day at an amusement park without having to stop and catch his breath every few minutes.

He shares his incredible transformation with anyone who will listen, hoping to help others experience the same freedom from obesity. “From a weight loss standpoint, you lose 100 pounds—it generally gives you credibility with most folks.”

Coach Danny’s heart is doing well on a carnivore diet

October 9, 2022 No Comments

An avid athlete, firefighter Danny Smith would work out twice—sometimes even three times—a day. In 2016, after a few bouts of what he thought was gastritis, he went to the hospital on a day he was experiencing particularly acute symptoms. He was admitted right away, and while the nurse was asking him about the situation, Danny passed out. The next thing he remembers is being jolted awake by an electric shock to the chest. Looking up at a room now full of people, he realized he had just been defibrillated. His heart had stopped for seven whole minutes. The doctor informed him that he had suffered a major heart attack at only 39 years old.

Diagnosed with familial hypercholesterolemia, Danny suspected another culprit as well—his diet. It was most certainly a wake-up call, and he was willing to do or try anything to make sure it didn’t happen again. Encountering only vague dietary advice from his primary doctor, he decided to give veganism a try. It lasted only a year—Danny never feeling well due to achey joints and a lack of energy—and culminated in the painful tearing of his ACL.

As he started doing research on his own, Danny observed that the guys at the firehouse on the keto diet were looking and feeling pretty good, so he jumped on the bandwagon too. As he continued searching for answers, he kept seeing carnivore pop up, and since he gravitated towards meat while eating keto anyway, he decided to take the plunge and give it a try. “I went on the carnivore diet, I was like—‘I’m never looking back. I feel so great.’ Everything was getting better!”

Now 45, Danny has been doing carnivore for two years and feels fantastic. His cholesterol numbers are all in a healthy range, he enjoys better stamina and muscle gains at the gym, and his heart doctor says he’s in such great shape that he only needs a yearly checkup. His diet consists mostly of beef, with Danny regularly enjoying ribeye steaks, beef ribs, burgers, bacon, eggs and the occasional piece of cheese. He was also able to shed some extra weight he had been carrying around—dropping from 245 pounds to a healthy 180 pounds.

On top of all of this, Danny has experienced extraordinary mental health benefits as well. The shock of the heart attack left Danny reeling with PTSD and major depression, so he started seeing a therapist. “Two weeks into the carnivore diet, I told my therapist, ‘I don’t think I need you anymore, because I’m not thinking the same way as I was.’ And I didn’t need him anymore—and that was only 2 weeks into the diet! The depression really got better—the PTSD…was totally gone.”

Now, Danny enjoy plenty of energy to train, spend time with his family, and play the bagpipes at firefighter events. He may enjoy the odd piece of cake at his children’s birthday parties, or an occasional beer with friends, but he says he really doesn’t crave those things anymore—and is happy to share his story with the hopes that it will help others too.

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.

When she and her boyfriend moved to Acapulco, they were planning on participating in the anarchist community. What they found, however, was that “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.”

Lily 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.

Lily 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.”

When Lily saw the Joe Rogan interview with Dr. Baker, she says, “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 carnivores.

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

She 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.”

Lycia and Family Heal On Carnivore Lifestyle

September 22, 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.”

Adam had “a lot of acne” when he was young. Looking for relief, he tried Accutane, which “made my skin absolutely terrible. Three months later, he developed psoriasis.

He 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.”

At age 30, Adam was diagnosed with a non-seminal germ cell tumor, “a five-inch mass in my chest. One night, I 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.

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.”

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.”


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.”

He says that “The difference is night and day.”

Adam recently competed as a bodybuilder and “did a carnivore styled prep, that 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.”

“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 now estimates 3% coverage instead of almost 100%, and his cancer has never returned.

Two-Time Stroke Survivor Matt Lowers Blood Pressure On A Carnivore Diet

June 21, 2022 1 Comment

Matt suffered two cerebral strokes about three years apart.  The first was an Ischemic stroke that happened in 2015, and the second one was a hemmorhagic stroke that occurred in 2018.  He was battling high blood pressure for close to two decades and it culminated to these two incidences.

When he had the second stroke he was rushed to a hospital to have brain surgery, because of a brain bleed that resulted from the hemmorhagic stroke.  After the surgery the doctor gave him a 40 percent chance of survival.

Prior to the first stroke Matt was primarily a vegetarian and   during the second stroke he was a strict vegan. Fortunately, a year after the 2nd event he revisited the carnivore diet and started eating meat again (thanks to Dr. Shawn Bakers podcast interview with Joe Rogan) .  This is where he saw his blood pressure finally make its way down and eventually to normal. 

Prior to the first stroke Matt was primarily a vegetarian and   during the second stroke he was a strict vegan. Fortunately, a year after the 2nd event he revisited the carnivore diet and started eating meat again (thanks to Dr. Shawn Bakers podcast interview with Joe Rogan) .  This is where he saw his blood pressure finally make its way down and eventually to normal. 

Matt attributes much of the carnivore way of eating  to his physical wellness and recovery. 

Cindy gets off blood pressure medication on carnivore diet

May 6, 2022 No Comments

My name is Cynthia (Cindy), I’m 63 years old (almost 64) and am about 5’4”.  I got married in 2004. My husband is Type 1 Diabetic-diagnosed when he was 2, and he also has Cervical Dystonia, diagnosed in 2016.

I had been morbidly obese most of my adult life, had high blood pressure since I was a teenager, trying diet after diet, losing and gaining over and over.  After meeting and marrying my husband, things were great, but my weight was on the rise yet again.  In 2006 I was at just under 300 lbs.  I started researching Gastric Bypass surgery, went to all the meetings, had all the testing done.

 

After serious thought, and discussions with my husband, I decided to go for it. There is heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure in my family history and was told through this weight loss I would benefit greatly with the weight loss.  So, in May 2007 I had the surgery on a Monday went home on Friday and right back to work. Was told to have NO protein the first week post-op. Then to start with 100% whey protein drinks. 


I followed this faithfully, then could start eating, but had to puree my foodd if I intended to do so. Then after about the 3rd week I could eat food. Was told to switch to whole grain, wheat or dark breads, brown rice, whole grain pastas and sweet potatoes instead of the white bread, white rice, etc.  By May 2008 I had lost about 85 lbs, felt great, was told I no longer needed my blood pressure meds.  

 

Due to how I was eating, and I admit I added some sweets back in to the picture, weight started on the rise. At some point I also found out I had osteopenia.

Fast-forward to 2012, both of my knees were killing me, my back was hurting, was told I had arthritis in both knees as well as my back.  Cortisone shots work for a while, then time for another. I remember getting a series of injections of something else instead at one point. Nothing was working. I had my right knee replaced in 2014 after having lost about 25 lbs. so my surgeon would agree to do my surgery. 


That went great, no problems at all, weight again on the rise still sticking with what I was told after the gastric bypass on what to eat.  Still battling with my left knee, in October 2017, again after having to lose some more weight I went for my left knee replacement.  That one didn’t go so smoothly.  There was a spot that wasn’t healing. My surgeon grew very concerned and brought me back in to surgery and did an I&D and sent samples to be tested for infections.

 

Nothing showed and again there was a spot that would not heal.  After immobilizing my leg and a lot of soul searching and discussion with my surgeon I went in for another surgery, this time and I&D and Poly Swap.  This time instructed the lab to extend the amount of time to watch for infection of the samples given.  I wound up with two infections, one a staph infection, I don’t recall the name of the other. I had to go on IV antibiotics for 6-7 weeks, then another 6-7 months on oral antibiotics.

Finally on the mend, things were starting to go great, then a lot of swelling in my legs, feet and toes started occurring continuously.  I was sent for a bilateral deep vein ultrasound, both legs, got the diagnosis of Primary and Secondary Lymphedema. This was later in the year of 2018, scared me ridiculously. 

 

In the beginning of 2020 my sister had been researching diets and found Keto. After a lot of persuasion and persistence I owe her a lot!!  I started on the Ketogenic way of eating on September 27, 2020, weighing in at 269.9, and never looked back.  I had a great doctor at the time in NH where I was living.

 

After about a week into the diet I had to go in for a check-up and requested he do an A1C check, among all the other bloodwork I have as a post gastric bypass patient.  It came back at 5.8 which worried me even though my doctor wasn’t too concerned since he knew I had just started Keto and had already dropped about 20 lbs. since my previous visit to him. 


In January I bought a home test kit and checked my A1C, went to 5.0.  Right now, I am at 179, off my blood pressure meds, no more back pain, was just seen by a rheumatologist, due to having osteoporosis (diagnosed in Sept., 2021), was told my spine is good. 

 

I have also recently seen a cardiologist for some episodes I have randomly with rapid heart palpitations (200bpm) and am presently on a 30-day heart monitor (until May 4th). He told me after getting an abnormal EKG of  Left Ventricle Hypertrophy  that was due to the many years of high blood pressure.

Since starting Keto, I feel soooo much better and through a lot of experimenting, I feel being more Ketovore works for me, if not Carnivore.  Occasionally I will have a small salad, or a little broccoli, or other Keto-approved vegetable, but love meats, eggs, and of course bacon.  I have found that to be where I need to be more often.

Thank you for taking the time for me!

Cynthia

Tia gave up her love affair with carbs on a carnivore diet

May 5, 2022 No Comments

I was heading down a bad road with lots of health problems my cousin and dear friend pushed me to change my life. To look at my illness as a carb addiction. He found Dr. Cywes to help me.

It has been a lifestyle change that has been the hardest thing I have ever done. My main goal was to reverse my type 2 diabetes and adrenal insufficiency, hypertension, and uric acid levels.

I am off about 20 medications including 160 units of Humalog by insulin pump and 50 units of Lantus each night. 200 mg metoprolol tartrate and 40 mg of lisinopril for blood pressure, triglyceride medications 145mg tricor, 300mg allopurinol, lovaza and 40mg previstatin. Predisone to make cortisol for my adrenal insufficiency or I could die I was told. CPAP for sleep apnea. Non Alcoholic Fatty liver disease that I was told I really could not do anything about.

Through the years I have had numerous tumors removed, including a radical hysterectomy and the removal of the right adrenal gland with a tumor. I went septic from a large kidney stone stuck in my ureter because of high levels of uric acid. Acute pancreatitis from taking 20 lipase pills a day.

 

I am currently under the care of a bariatric surgeon through telemedicine (Dr. Robert Cywes). He has gotten me to look at carbs as an addiction like you would alcohol or drugs. I know if I go back it could kill me so I take it seriously and am very passionate about this journey to wellness.

I have been eating LCHF Lowcarb High fat for 4 years now. If I would introduce carbs back in without my insulin it would be very harmful so it helps me to stay on the path because I have fear of carbs now. It has changed my life. I do cry sometimes about not being able to eat certain things but have a big support system. Like people here at home yell, “NO you can’t have that!” Then I want to pout and feel sorry for myself.

I eat mostly all animal products. Dr. Cywes suggestion to fast 16/8 was a game changer. Eating 2 meals a day. No snacks as it would be an emotional event for me to snack. I have gone from a size 22 to an 8 and I try to walk at least 30 minutes each day to keep my blood glucose number good. My A1c was an 8.1 when I started and it is now a 5.1. My triglycerides were at 300 and now they are at 59. My blood pressure is great now with no medications. My uric acid levels were as high as a 9 at one point but down to a 4.6 and have eliminated the allopurinol.

It is a struggle every day and it has not been easy but well worth it. ♥️ If it works for me I know it can work for many more. I no longer take any of those medications, have no more fatty liver and no diabetes and my uric acid levels are in the normal range. LCHF Keto/ Carnivore lifestyle has healed my body.

I was told I would be on all those medications for life. Life changing! We need to spread to word far and wide. 

 

Thanks for listening and hope this will touch someone’s life.

Darren lost weight, gained mental clarity, and eliminated cravings on carnivore diet

May 5, 2022 No Comments

Over the years, Darren has had more than his fair share of trials and tribulations. When he was 19 years old, he was in a severe car accident that broke his back, crushed his pelvis, and put him in a coma for several weeks. Doctors predicted that he would never walk again, but miraculously, Darren defied the odds and proved them wrong. Still, there were lingering side effects after experiencing such a serious injury, including chronic pain and inflammation. Years later, Darren would go on to experience another accident—a terrible fall—breaking his arm in 16 different places in the process. Thankfully, he was able to recover, and kept active over the years by working out at the gym and keeping up with his favorite sport: martial arts.

As he approached his fifties, he steadily gained weight and wasn’t able to be as active as he wanted to be. His diet, he admits, was all over the place, and gut issues began to crop up as well. His wife decided to start doing the keto diet, so he joined in too. Not long afterwards, he was listening to Joe Rogan’s podcast and encountered Dr. Shawn Baker discussing the carnivore diet. “It immediately resonated with me. I’d always been a big meat eater, but I didn’t know there was an actual term [for it!]” Even though Darren ate a relatively large amount of meat when on a ketogenic diet, his plate still included lots of hardy vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower. The thought had never occurred to him that they could potentially be the culprit, and after reading Shawn’s book, Darren went carnivore the very next day. The results, he says, were instantaneous.

His stomach problems disappeared, his arthritis pain greatly diminished, and he was no longer experiencing rollercoaster-like energy dips throughout the day. He also lost 60 pounds and lowered his blood pressure! Darren did have some constipation during the initial transition period when going carnivore, but blames it on eating primarily leaner cuts of meat at the time. Once he added fat back into his diet, everything was fine.

“Everything’s improved—my mental clarity has improved, my sleep has improved—just absolutely everything…Physically, I feel great!” Darren acknowledges that he still has his fair share of aches and pains due to his previous injuries, but the arthritis and joint pain have decreased so significantly, that he feels like he has been given a new lease on life.

Nowadays, you can find Darren online as a carnivore coach for Revero. He says that if someone like him—with all of the health challenges he has faced over the years—can experience healing on a carnivore diet, anyone can! He deters people from becoming too dogmatic about it, as he enjoys other animal products besides beef, like cheese, pork and salmon. Mostly, he wishes to see people find the same freedom from pain and injury that he himself has experienced. “They can change their life, just by what they’re eating.”

 

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