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Travis improved focus, anxiety disorder, OCD, depression, psoriasis, and blood sugar on the carnivore diet

March 22, 2023 No Comments

Travis is in Calgary, Canada, and was born with coarctation of the aorta, also nearly three months premature. He says there were “lots of complications because of that.” Travis explains, “I’ve had eight heart operations, and two gastrointestinal because my aorta was actually plumbed to my stomach artery. Because that got infected… it was a very complex issue that had to be corrected.”

Travis also didn’t have any femoral arteries in his legs, so “I was definitely not able to do a lot of physical activities.” Growing up, he experienced muscle fatigue and other symptoms due to poor circulation. Travis says, “I had a lot of migraines, almost daily, and my mom was always pulling me out of school because I had a headache.” He also had high blood pressure due to his arterial malformations.

The years of antibiotics and worry about health took a toll, and Travis says, “I started to have severe mental health issues, with OCD, anxiety, and depression. Skin disorders, like eczema and psoriasis.”

The antibiotics were needed because Travis had an aortic graft, which presented a risk of infection, so he was on antibiotics continually. Despite this, he has had “two heart infections that were pretty bad.” Graft infections carry a 50% mortality rate, so they can’t be ignored. The constant threat likely contributed to his stress.

When he considered that the way doctors would look for infection was by using radioactive-tagged glucose, he decided, “If they use glucose to find an infection, then wouldn’t it be best for someone who has a high risk of infection to be on a low glycemic diet?” The strategy worked, and instead of taking an antibiotic daily, Travis can take one every few weeks.

“I started with Paleo, because I thought that was the best way to go.” Then later, he decided “maybe keto was the best way, because I hear a lot of people with mental health issues doing keto and kind of putting that in remission.”

Travis learned that plants were not his friend: “I found out that as I excluded more and more plants, I felt better.” Worried that eating only meat wasn’t a sustainable diet, Travis researched online, where he found many people who had been eating only meat for years. He decided to give it a go and see how it went!

Travis finds that dairy products are a “no-go, otherwise, psoriasis and eczema will flare up.”

His doctors discouraged exercise, but Travis has found that regular exercise now improves his aerobic ability and circulation, saying, “even my femoral arteries have increased in size since I started working out.”

Travis no longer suffers from his skin issues and finds that his brain and mind are functioning better as well. “I don’t have any OCD symptoms with it; my anxiety is far down, and I’m able to cope with a lot of stressors in life because of this. It’s a lifesaver.”

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.”

Evan E reverses ankylosing spondylitis on a carnivore diet

November 30, 2022 No Comments

Ever since Evan was young, he had an insatiable hunger that caused him binge eat, in addition to his other daily struggles of ADHD, OCD, brain fog and fatigue. When he turned eleven—embarrassed by his heavy frame—he decided to go on a diet. Following the conventional wisdom at the time, he started eating a low-calorie/low-fat diet, full of lots of “healthy” whole grains, seed oils and tofu. He lost 30 pounds, but describes his body composition as “skinny fat ” at the time. He also couldn’t help noticing that he was a lot weaker than his fellow classmates. Using sheer willpower alone, Evan struggled with yo-yo dieting and calorie counting throughout high school, but it wasn’t until he entered college that the real trouble began.

“Out of nowhere,” Evan says, “I became incredibly depressed, anxious and suicidal.” He tried exercising daily to combat his negative feelings, but saw zero improvement. Exasperated, he turned his focus to his diet, and in his research experienced the cognitive dissonance that goes along with learning that animal fat is an important part of the human diet, while also simultaneously being the main driver of heart attacks and cancer. In the end, the “experts” won out, and Evan persisted in following their low-fat/high carb recommendations—to no avail. “I just felt worse and worse—I wasn’t getting better at all.”

After years of declining health, a defeated Evan began binge drinking and eating candy to deal with his frustrations. He eventually was diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis—an autoimmune condition that runs in his family that affects the spine. He would go on to gain 40 pounds, and when hospitalized with bruises all over his body, nausea, diarrhea and night sweats, his doctors told him that his symptoms were most likely psychosomatic.

Finally, in 2020, one of his friends—who happened to be on the carnivore diet—invited him over for a steak. After eating it, Evan was surprised by how satiated he felt, and ended up not eating for the rest of the day. He woke up the next morning still feeling full, so he decided to give the carnivore diet a try. After the first week, Evan had lost ten pounds, and while he didn’t feel great—he didn’t feel terrible either. “Within the next two weeks, all of a sudden my depression and my anxiety had vanished, my Ankylosing Spondylitis had gotten 90% better, the numbness in my hands was gone, my bruising started going away, my asthma went away, my heartburn went away, my digestive issues went away…my libido came back—pretty much everything you can think of went away within two or three weeks.” He also noticed a remarkable improvement in his ADHD and OCD symptoms. “My whole outlook on life is a lot different: I’m a lot more motivated, a lot more friendly, outgoing, happy. So, pretty much, everything for me has changed.” His friends and family all agree. “I’m not the same beaten down person that I was before.”

Gene sees improvements in gout, depression, ADHD, anxiety, and recovery from exercise

November 4, 2022 No Comments

Gene had a rough life before his carnivore conversion. As a child, he had ADHD and anxiety, making school very challenging. He did not get good grades and says, “At one school, they just kept me in a closet because I couldn’t interact with other kids. I was the first kid in my school in both the gifted and learning disability programs.”

Gene struggled to maintain consistency in his work as an adult and turned to alcohol abuse to numb his emotions. When he turned 40, he weighed over 200 pounds and found himself “living in an apartment by myself with no real relationships.” His depression deepened, and he drank one to two bottles of wine every night as he watched his waist expand to 39 inches.

When Gene’s dog died, he had to decide whether to allow the emotions to flow or continue drinking and suppressing them as he had before. He decided then that he would stop drinking completely. Eight months after quitting alcohol, Gene gradually stopped eating vegetables, because he “didn’t feel a need for them.” He first learned about the carnivore diet in 2015-16 on Reddit. He gradually slipped into carnivory, “almost accidentally.”

He didn’t notice until later but notes that in hindsight, he passed through the paleo and keto stages, yet didn’t see his intrusive thoughts stop until he stopped eating all vegetables. Gene began to feel strangely better, and he “Realized one day ‘I feel really good!’ I haven’t had an issue with intrusive thoughts about death in months, which is something that had just been a normal part of my life; I had kind of accepted it. When I realized that kind of thing wasn’t happening anymore, work was easier, everything was easier, that’s when I realized that I should actually be carnivore as a lifestyle, rather than just simplifying things.”

“I really found not thinking about what I was going to eat to be relaxing.” Gene saw his weight drop from 205 down to 175, which fit his 5’ 7” frame much more comfortably. His waist also went from 39 inches to 32. That is a life-changing improvement in visceral fat, which is the type of fat that causes inflammation and metabolic disease.

“ADHD, depression, all of that stuff got better, including enabling me to go to college, which is something that I had tried several times and was just never able to sustain, because I would get overwhelmed almost immediately.”

“Now I manage a team of engineers and technicians doing research and development; I’m controlling this whole group of people, assigning tasks, and deciding where we’re going, and that’s not stuff I could have done five years ago.”

Gene participates in CrossFit, running, mountain biking, and Spartan races, all without any carbohydrates. He never experiences the pain and soreness that running used to cause.

“I’ve set PRs for every lift I’ve kept track of and 10k, 10 mile, and half-marathon runs in 2022 at age 45.”

 

Alex gets relief from PTSD, weight, joint pain, heart burn, and ADHD on the carnivore diet

November 3, 2022 No Comments

Alex, 57, is a carpenter and lives in Colorado. He grew up in Boulder and likes to ski and race mountain bikes.

Alex longed to be a natural athlete but always had to “struggle” for his performance.

Anytime he got fit, Alex restricted his calories and exercised “like a maniac.” “I was miserable, irritable, and people didn’t like being around me.”

Alex says he didn’t do well with the Standard American Diet and “it really spilled over into my mental health.” He had ADHD. Getting a four-year degree took him six years—” I just couldn’t focus.”

In 2018, Alex did a 50-mile mountain bike race. He ate a lot of beans and lean protein at the time—no fat. Two weeks later, in July, he had an accident and was run over by an 1800-pound ATV. He landed in the hospital for four days.

His physical injuries weren’t life-threatening, but they were debilitating. He suffered from broken ribs, a brachial plexus injury—which left him with a dead right hand—a crushed left ankle, and his knees sustained a lot of damage. He thinks this is because he had extreme joint inflammation.

Although his physical injuries were significant, he says he was really affected by PTSD. “I had trauma and didn’t feel safe on this planet,” Alex recounts. Also, he had suicidal ideations. If you or someone you know has thoughts of suicide, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by texting 988 or calling 1-800-273-8255.

Before carnivore, Alex says he was eating a lot of fast food. “I was taking antacid tablets like Skittles. If I didn’t know it was heartburn, I’d think I was having a heart attack.”

Basically, he was “just tired of being sick and tired.”

Alex found Dr. Baker online and came to carnivore over three months ago. “I don’t think I’ll ever look back.”

Many of Alex’s physical injuries and health issues have completely resolved or improved since he started carnivore.

“I have incredible focus now. I go to work and I have to do my share of computer work and I sit down and bang out emails and spreadsheets.”

Alex feels his trauma has resolved because he couldn’t focus with PTSD, and he’s no longer suicidal.

Although he’s not restricting or exercising like crazy, he’s dropped 20 lbs.

Before carnivore, he could do three push-ups. Today he can do fifty. ‘My muscle mass is increasing and I’m doing way more and it’s way easier.”

His ankle has a better range of motion, without any physical therapy. This is happening “organically.” And his right hand is ninety percent better.

“I’m a nicer guy” today and recalls when his mom told him that he’s so much more patient and much nicer.

Alex says, “I’ve never been hungry in the last three months.” He enjoys ribeyes with salt, dipped in Kerrygold butter.

Alex is optimistic. “I have hope since going carnivore. I’m gonna buy a ski pass this year and I’m gonna do that 50-mile mountain bike race five years after the accident. I’m gonna do [it] better, faster, stronger than I ever had before.”

Jonathan bodybuilds and manages pain on the carnivore diet

October 16, 2022 No Comments

As a competitive body builder, Jonathan Griffiths brings a unique perspective to the carnivore diet. He engages in a sport that has very specific dietary challenges, and at 27 years old, his eating regimen calls for a whopping 5 meals a day. While his approach is very different compared to that of his carbohydrate-rich competitors, he says he’s been able to apply the carnivore diet to fit his athletic goals—all while reaping other health benefits as well.

Hailing from the southwest of England, Jonathan grew up on what he describes as a “bland” diet; similar to that of the Standard American Diet of white bread, ice cream and chicken nuggets. After getting into fitness as a teenager, he ran the gauntlet of various diets—high-carb, low-fat, keto—but after trying each of them for several months, found they didn’t work and left him feeling worse off than before.

As he began pursuing the disciplined sport of bodybuilding, he came across the carnivore way of eating—and in trying it—Jonathan has experienced benefits way beyond that of his initial goal of merely building muscle.

On all of the other diets Jonathan tried, he says he could never quite shake an “immense feeling of dread and impending doom.” On the carnivore diet, however, that feeling of depression lifted, as well as many of the symptoms he experiences while being on the autistic spectrum—giving him the ability to “roll with the punches” and remain calm and focused when facing stressful situations. He was also able to pinpoint a back problem that had been plaguing him for years but had subsequently gone undiagnosed, and was able to wean off of certain pain medications prescribed to manage the condition.

Eggs are a huge part of his diet, as well as dairy to help with the intake of calories needed to bulk up. When asked what the major difference was between his performance when on a typical “body builder diet” of chicken, rice and vegetables compared to the carnivore diet, he says “It’s like you can dig deeper within your body fat, it’s almost like you can put more effort out and get results faster. I noticed when I was using a low-fat approach before, your testosterone tanks—you feel trash! Your skin gets dry and your brain doesn’t work, you can’t think, your cognition is awful, your memory is bad—everything goes to pot basically. Using a higher fat approach, I noticed I can sustain my workouts for a lot longer.”

Jonathan is quick to point out that bodybuilding isn’t the healthiest of sports. He says some of the common side effects are an increase in blood pressure due to sheer muscle mass, as well as the tendency of many of the athletes to take unnecessary risks. For bodybuilders interested in reaping the benefits of a carnivore diet, however, Jonathan encourages them to give it a try. His performance hasn’t suffered by deviating from the norm. In fact, it’s improved his life significantly.

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.

Emily maintains 150 lb weight loss

June 14, 2022 No Comments

Emily is a 51-year-old stay-at-home mom, who has “been on the rollercoaster my whole life,” and struggled with her weight, food, depression, mood, and self-esteem for most of her life.

She was “over 200 pounds in my twenties… thought that was the end of the world, terrible.” After she had her children, Emily reached 300 pounds in her late 30s. “I had a horrible relationship with food.”

When she was 46, and contemplating gastric sleeve surgery to lose weight, a friend offered to “one more time” go through a weight loss diet together. “This accountability piece, this person that was wanting to show up for me and say ‘you and I, we’re going to talk every single day, and we’re going to figure this out.’ It happened to click that I found the right modalities and I had the right relationship and the right accountability for those pieces to come together for me.”

Emily started out by fasting, saying “fasting was fantastic for me emotionally” which helped her in several ways. “I got the body recomposition and I got a lot of benefits, a lot of self-confidence, a lot of success. Carnivore and fasting together were the last 50 pounds.” Overall, she achieved a 150-pound weight loss, losing half of her body weight and maintaining it using a carnivore diet. She attributes her success more to the carnivore diet than fasting: “carnivore is so powerful; I think it’s way more powerful than the fasting…but I think together they work really well.”

Like many people, Emily found that keto itself was challenging due to all of the “keto treats” that are used. “There’s too much stuff on the keto road that has the artificial sweeteners that combine sweet and fat together, and I lost control with those foods. I lost control with the nut butters, lost control with the fake keto treats.” She found that a part of her was always looking for the loopholes, the “cheater rules.”

Emily found simplicity and functionality in the carnivore diet that solved these problems for her. “The simplicity and allure of not having cravings was what fascinated me about carnivore.” A friend had chronicled her mental and emotional journey over time on a carnivore diet, and Emily thought, “I got to try this; I have to see if this is the final finisher that’s going to make all the difference for me.”

Her family eats this way too now, and she says “it’s very beef oriented…my husband…makes up six beef patties, and bacon, and makes these patty-bacon sandwiches for lunch. We’ve got two air fryers out, for whoever wants to cook themselves meat, whatever they want, and we keep chicken wings available, my little guy likes those a lot.”

Emily had “a lifelong issue with depression. I’ve been medicated, you know, during that, I haven’t had to go near any of that.” She recommends that “patients, throw out the scale please, this is a healing first protocol…reach out for community.”

Sade manages her borderline personality disorder on a carnivore diet

May 6, 2022 No Comments

My name is Sade, I’m 28 years old and live in Mexico, I am from London UK. I was diognosed with Borderline Personality Disorder in 2015 and have also been dealing with Anxiety and Depression for years prior to being diognosed.

 

I tried to talk to someone about getting a diagnosis for Autism (Asperger’s) because of my sensitivity issues, repetitive behaviour and inability to socialize (without substances i.e alcohol/drugs) I have always been extremely socially awkward and not sure of how to connect with others properly. All of my younger siblings are also autistic. The mental health team dismissed everything and stuck with the BPD and prescribed me medications and had me in therapy (DBT) which only lasted 4 weeks due to being homeless at the time.

I had an unstable childhood and really traumatic time as a teenager and young adult.
I am married with a son now and the mental illnesses almost ruined my marriage I found carnivore just in time as we were on the verge of a divorce.

I am currently thriving on carnivore I’ll be going into my 8th week on monday and I’ve seen improvements from just a week into carnivore. Three days for the depression to lift, a week for the anxiety to go completely and the BPD symptoms have been slowly going away week after week. They feel gone now but of course, I’m continuing to monitor myself as its only been 8 weeks. But coming from being mentally unstable everyday to not having any episodes or highs/lows… I’m pretty convinced it’s a permanent thing.

If you need me to change this in anyway or you need to edit it please feel free. Haven’t done a bio like this before.

Also if the photo isn’t appropriate let me know as I’ll need to take a new photo during the daytime tomorrow. This photo was taken yesterday.

Also a photo of me when I was bigger attached.


Thanks


Sade

Amanda put her whole family on the carnivore diet

May 5, 2022 No Comments

Amanda says her family has been on and off keto for the last four years. She and her husband have five children.

After watching videos in the carnivore space, Amanda thought she needed to start healing her family, including herself.

Her 12-year-old son was injured by a vaccine as a baby and is now autistic. He has poor muscle tone, extreme thirst, and unexplained weight loss—since puberty, it’s worse.

Amanda said, “If he could heal eating carnivore, then the whole family is doing it because I wasn’t going to make a whole bunch of meals to satisfy everybody.”

She and her husband needed to balance their hormones. Amanda felt bloated, brain-fogged, and tired. She had gained a lot of weight.

Her autistic son ate a lot of grains and almond milk.

Her middle daughter was a carb-aholic and was always asking for spaghetti or rice. All her daughters had a “really bad sweet tooth.”

After watching a type 1 diabetes video, Amanda says, “It kind of freaked me out because my son had all the symptoms of a type 1 diabetic.”

When she took her son to the doctor to have him checked out, the doctor said he was fine.

Amanda was unconvinced.

One night, about three weeks into their carnivore month, Amanda says she got “a little lazy” and ordered a pizza.

Her son ate some, and the next day he had a “massive meltdown.” It took a few days to calm him down.

After dinner at a friend’s, Amanda and her family ate some cookies and cake for dessert. That night they had bad stomach aches, and by morning the kids felt sick to their stomachs.

Amanda learned that her family cannot tolerate processed foods.

At one point Amanda reintroduced nuts into the family’s diet.

For the girls’ sweet tooth, she experimented with desserts. She made dark chocolate walnut clusters and was constipated for two or three days after eating some.

The next week, she made peanut butter and chocolate and got constipated again. Amanda decided, “no more nuts at all.” If she had problems, the girls probably had them too, “because everyone is having a hard time pooping.”

Amanda says eating carnivore is a way of life. She and her husband explained to family and friends that eating this way is important, especially for their son, who has special needs.

Amanda says she’s lost weight—down from 198 to 173 pounds—is not bloated, her inflammation is gone, and she has more energy.

It took her middle daughter time to adjust to no carbs, but Amanda explains, “Now she’s my biggest steak eater.”

The family eats a lot of meat, eggs, and dairy. She uses cheese and heavy cream with eggs to provide fat for the kids. Raw milk yogurt serves as a snack. Veggies have gradually faded from the family’s meals.

Amanda’s advice is to try carnivore for 30 days and then slowly incorporate foods to see what works and doesn’t for your family. And be patient—it takes time to heal.

 

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