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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.”

Rory improved Joint Pain, Skin problems, Gut Health, and aches On The Carnivore Diet

March 22, 2023 No Comments

Rory is from Brisbane, Australia, and says, “I’ve had health problems my whole life; diagnosed at four as an asthmatic. I had tonsils taken out… From that point I’ve had a lot of health issues; mainly asthma, gut related stuff, food intolerances, and then acne as I became a teenager. As an adult, I was a vegetarian when I was 19, to impress this chick on MySpace. Then I was like, hey, this sounds pretty good and I kept going.”

Rory decided to take it further, saying, “I found out about veganism, and it aligned with my values at the time. I think everyone who goes into it has good intentions.” Rory was originally plant-based, out of “a desire to improve my health.”

“I found that within six months, I had low energy, fatigue, and joint pain, and I started seeing doctors who had no idea how to help me.” Rory was also having heart palpitations and “heavy left arm pain” and was worried because he has a strong family history of heart disease.

Rory slowly started adding some animal products to his diet, and “It helped a little bit, having meat, but I was still on a whole foods diet. I still had low energy, fatigue, candida, brain fog, but the main thing was low energy and joint pain.”

He once again took it a step further, but toward meat this time: “One day last year, after seeing all this stuff online about carnivore, I decided to give it a crack because I’m like, I was sick and tired of feeling like crap. I felt like I could eat basically anything, without having a reaction. My skin breaking out and joint pain. I’d eat a bowl of rice, and immediately be inflamed and have joint pain.”

“I found that the only thing I could eat was basically meat, and yeah, it made sense to just go into carnivore.” Rory didn’t have too many problems adjusting to a carnivore diet: “There were moments within the first 30 days where I was like, man I’m really sick of this.” “Week three or week four into it and the cravings…I just adjusted…I started adding in lamb and meat stock for the gut, which was really helpful for me.”

Rory found that his bowel movements reduced to one every two or three days, which he found “weird when I was used to big ones, once a day.” He also had some “keto flu” around day 18 and was bedridden for three days, with four days of diarrhea, but then felt much better afterward.

He reports that his gut and digestion are normal now, without any of his old issues. About brain fog, Rory says “it’s helped tremendously, 100%.” He says that “eating this way has given me more mental focus and clarity… I’m able to work longer, harder.” Rory says the changes have also helped with his son, saying, “I’m a better father, because I’ve got myself sorted in this way, and I can really be there for him.”

Allison cleared alpha-gal symptoms on a carnivore diet

February 6, 2023 No Comments

Allison lives near the Appalachian Mountains in western Maryland. She had heard of the meat-based elimination diet about six months before trying it but was “super resistant to it. I was like, ‘there’s no way, I can’t eat this way, boring’ but when I hit rock bottom, what I felt like, I said ‘I’ve tried everything else; I’m gonna do it.”

Let’s take a look at how she got to this point first: Allison was always used to being “on the go, on the move” despite having been “sickly” since an early age. She says that “in high school, it really flared up; I never made it through a single year without getting a medical waiver because I’d missed more than the allotted days.”

Allison went through college “with a box of tissues all the time” as she was always feeling congested. “No one could ever tell me why I was always sick like this.” After she started getting her menstrual cycle, Allison also developed golf-ball to baseball-sized chronic cysts on her ovaries. She later learned that refined sugars would trigger the cysts. Medicines for the cysts caused her anxiety, leading to more medications.

Allison had cystic acne her whole life and assumed that this spectrum of problems was normal for women. Then, as a teenager, Allison gave in to peer pressure and became a vegetarian for about seven years. After becoming a paramedic, she was exposed to different peer pressure: “luckily in my first year there, the guys kind of shamed me into eating some steak and bacon, and I thank them to this day for that.”

She also had weight issues, saying, “I gained weight as a woman. I’m entering my 20’s and I’m starting to gain weight…low-fat everything—skim milk, whole wheat pasta, ground chicken instead of ground beef, and I got nowhere. I couldn’t understand; I was eating low-fat everything and working out really hard.”

Despite cooking her own food and using fermented foods, sprouted grains, and freshly baked bread, Allison continued to have trouble maintaining her weight and avoiding symptoms. She began developing rashes and low-grade fevers, and her acne got worse as well as her gut function. Her doctors tried eight different antibiotics, plus steroids, over just one year.

In 2021, she was also diagnosed with Alpha-Gal, which causes a red meat allergy. After a chocolate binge and weeks of suffering in 2022, Allison decided to commit to following a carnivore diet, though she initially ate only chicken and turkey because of the Alpha-Gal. After three months, she no longer tested positive for the allergy and began adding red meat.

“I have a healthy three-day cycle with no pain, no bloating, and no acne. No doctor ever told me that my cycle wasn’t supposed to be hell week once a month.” She sleeps better and has better energy, and her weight has stabilized.

“I’m addicted to feeling good now. I don’t eat for social or emotional or addiction reasons anymore. I eat just to nourish my body, and that’s it!”

Daniel and Ed thrive on a carnivore diet

January 19, 2023 No Comments

Ed started a keto diet as a way to improve his focus and productivity and noticed that it provided more consistent energy. His father had been working on losing weight and had lost weight and found his productivity and mood improved on a carnivore diet.

Ed wanted these gains for himself, so he started the diet also. “I was like, damn this is crazy so let me hop on this carnivore thing and try it out. I tried it out and that’s exactly what I saw for myself as well.”

Dan was working with a different set of circumstances, and needed more than optimization-he needed help! Ed and Dan followed the “Typical bodybuilding advice; eat high carb, take protein powders, all that and yeah it worked really well for building muscle but my skin got absolutely terrible” reports Dan. That wasn’t the only problem this diet caused, however.

Dan said, “I have a bit of a history with depression, and I just felt like garbage all the time, and then my skin got to the point where I had these massive cysts on my skin, like huge volcanoes, and even have a scar where I had to have surgery on one of them. It was awful!”

The regular medical system didn’t provide a good solution for Dan: “I went to the doctors… they chucked me on this pill called Accutane… man, that pill is evil, dangerous. Although it did make my acne go away, it literally destroyed my whole body. I got shin splints on it the entire time, tore both my labrums in my shoulders, and then was in bed for six months with debilitating pain before starting carnivore. The doctors said it was all in my head and the drug didn’t cause it. I got ADHD and depression; they said there’s no cure for ADHD. They chucked me on Adderall, Vyvanse, Ritalin, all this stuff, and I was on so many drugs, and I’ve seen all my friends play sports, and I’m just like, “This isn’t really the life I want to live. I feel pretty hopeless.”

Dan gained weight and had to drop out of university because of his pain. His doctors told him that he would be this way for the rest of his life, which drove him to research more, looking for answers. He found the diet, and “life wasn’t even worth living at that point, so I went all in.” Dan lost 30 kilos in five months (66 pounds), cured his depression, and reduced his chronic pain to the point that now he’s working on rebuilding strength. He eats mostly meat and finds that he has to avoid fruit, or he feels worse and develops cravings. “I fully got my life back!”

Ed also benefited by sleeping better, running faster, and having more energy and focus. He does eat a little fruit and has no problems with portion control.

Through a carnivore diet, these two young men have both improved their health!

Martin improves ankylosing spondylitis and psoriasis on the carnivore diet

January 11, 2023 3 Comments

Early in life, Martin developed psoriasis, and by age 16 he had about 85% coverage, with cracking joints as well. He gained weight to 215 pounds after school and continued trying different diets. He also developed IBS, was told “you’re going to have to deal with it,” and was given medications that didn’t help much.

Martin even tried to go vegan after watching a “documentary” about sports teams and vegan diets. “I started doing the smoothies, and all of that stuff, kale, and spinach. “I lasted probably a week, and my IBS completely disintegrated me and I couldn’t keep anything down, and I felt completely like crap.” It also made his skin condition worse.

Over time, his psoriasis progressed to psoriatic arthritis, and while his skin looked a bit better, his joints hurt far worse. After experiencing some acute back pain, “my body went into full inflammation… there was barely a joint or part of my body that didn’t hurt. The fire in my skin over parts of my body raged for days and then weeks. It didn’t matter if I was moving or staying still, I just hurt all the time.”

Martin was diagnosed with two more problems: ankylosing spondylitis and fibromyalgia. “I tested positive for HLA B27. In the next few weeks, I got the next diagnosis of fibromyalgia.” His doctors suggested mycophenolate, which is an immunosuppressant medication, and a high dose of vitamin K.

Martin researched both diagnoses and the prescribed medication. His thoughts turned dark: “Your dreams of retirement holidays, playing hockey, or riding my motorcycle… all seem impossible now. I might be able to postpone the main event of the diagnosis, but this might be the best I am.”

“I stumbled upon a TEDx talk about a woman that had her knee and hip replaced by age seventeen because of an autoimmune illness. At around 20ish she tried the ‘carnivore’ diet and within a relatively short period of time, she recovered from a lot of the pain and joint discomfort. I listened to Dr. Shawn Baker, Dr. Ken Barry, Dr. Anthony Chaffee, and Dr. Paul Saladino.

Martin considered the immunosuppressant medications that were recommended and looked up the side effects. He thought about what he had learned online. This made him decide to try the carnivore diet. “March 3rd, I went all in.”

On the 18th day, he woke up without his IBS and joint pain raging. “I woke up and my system was quiet. Nothing, no pressure to go. No heartburn… It was eerie.”

Later, Martin’s pain level dropped further to a 4/5. After 90 days, Martin had: “No more IBS. Suffered for 40+ years. Cleared 95% of my psoriasis which I had since 10. Lost 35 lbs. Played my first hockey game!”

Martin continues to heal his IBS, psoriasis, and weight. He has noticed more resistance to sunburn, reduced body odor, a better sense of smell, and far better athletic endurance when weightlifting. He is off of all medications.

 

Chana heals from NAFLD, skin issues, digestive issues, and pre-diabetes on a carnivore diet

January 10, 2023 No Comments

Chana is located in Israel and has been on a carnivore diet for nine months. Her career was in music education, and she had been teaching as an orchestra director in New York and Pennsylvania since 1973. She also taught string instruments privately and in groups.

She always thought of herself as “into health,” and in 1982, “I decided to become a vegetarian, thinking that was a great way to go with my health because I gained a little weight after my first child, and then a year later I became a vegan and, um, way too restrictive! I actually felt okay for a while, then in the 90’s…couldn’t pinpoint it but I wasn’t feeling as well. When I get into these things, I’m very strict. Very little protein, and even less fat. You’d spread a little oil on the pan to saute some kind of vegetable and that’s about the amount of fat you got.”

Every time some health problem would arise, Chana would try to further tweak her diet. She now knows that she should have tweaked it by “getting rid of the diet, adding some protein and fat, get rid of the carbs.”

Chana started eating more raw foods, believing that they were healthy for her to eat, and “then I really wasn’t feeling so good,” and she realized this diet tweak didn’t help at all.

Chana tried Paleo “which helped a little bit but not enough to be ketogenic.” She found out about carnivore from a friend who was doing it. She thought about it for several months, but her friend wasn’t doing it anymore.

She was then diagnosed with fatty liver disease and primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC). Chana also had reflux problems for a long time.

Chana started the carnivore diet on her birthday last year. She had problems with her adrenals and hypothyroid, “along with some yo-yo dieting things from the past where I was eating too many carbs.”

She has been able to minimize the level of bioidentical hormones she takes, and after six weeks on the diet, her liver enzymes began to normalize. Chana experienced other changes in her blood work, with “cholesterol has gone up to 322, my HDL is 114, LDL is 197. Triglycerides are 53.” These values reflect some very healthy ratios, such as a triglyceride to HDL ratio well below 1.0. Her reflux completely vanished after six weeks on the diet.

Chana has also seen a big improvement in her energy levels: “I get much more accomplished. Before carnivore I was in bed a lot; I was exhausted.” Her weight also went from 154 down to 125 in about six weeks!

As far as Revero goes, Chana feels “it has been a major source of help and camaraderie and community, and it’s really a wonderful platform to be part of because there’s so much support.” She is now a coach on the platform!

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.”

Marcel manages psoriatic arthritis on the carnivore diet

January 6, 2023 No Comments

Marcel is working on completing his Advanced Nurse Practitioner (ANP) training and is focused on health. But, health was something that was eluding him. Perhaps his health challenges were one of the things that made him decide to be a healthcare provider as well.

Having suffered from psoriasis for 17 years, Marcel’s condition had gotten worse as it gradually spread to almost completely cover his hands and torso. Due to the fact that psoriasis is an autoimmune disorder, it can cause the joints and other tissues to be attacked. Marcel developed psoriatic arthritis five years ago. Things got more complicated when Marcel began to experience sleep apnea, a vitamin B12 deficiency, problems with lactic acid buildup in his muscles, and other health issues, which sped up the progression of his ailments.

Four years ago, Marcel began taking medications for psoriasis. The drug was an immune system blocker, known as a TNF blocker. This resulted in some control of his psoriasis and eliminated the inflammation in his joints. However, it left Marcel “Always tired, with muscle cramps. Just struggling with the symptoms of an autoimmune disease.”

Sometimes bad things can force us to make good changes, and Marcel was about to experience this paradox. His son became ill, and Marcel had to work from home so that he could take care of him. “That week, I felt just fine, and that week I took my psoriatic arthritis medication.” One of the problems with immune-system-blocking medication is that it can leave you very vulnerable to other infections that the immune system would normally protect you from.

The result was quite severe for Marcel: “The next day I became ill; I got a fever and a sore throat. I got a throat infection, and as a result a huge psoriasis flare up. I was covered from my scalp to the bottom of my feet. Feeling utterly hopeless and tired of being sick, I just went searching for possible solutions. Being an Advanced Nurse Practitioner in Training, being sick does not compute with the way I want to live.”

As many of us have, Marcel began a desperate search for answers online. He found the now-famous Joe Rogan podcast, where he was interviewing Dr. Shawn Baker. He wondered if the carnivore diet could be the solution. Marcel talked it over with his girlfriend, and they decided he should commit to trying carnivore for one month, staying very strict. The results were very promising, and his psoriasis began to vanish! Marcel’s joint pain eased as well, and for the first time, he began to have hope. He continued on the diet.

Experiencing some inflammatory flare-ups because of two “cheat days” around Christmas, Marcel found his body was not forgiving about his diet. Nine weeks after starting his carnivore journey, his psoriasis is completely gone! He still has some scarring from the lesions, but perhaps these will fade over time. Marcel is now a carnivore diet believer!

 

Lauren manages eating disorders, mood, and skin issues on a low-carb diet

December 21, 2022 No Comments

Lauren is in her early 30s and has been carnivore for 8 or 9 months. Her disordered eating began when she was 11 or 12 years old. She struggled with anorexia, bulimia, and what she describes as “very restrictive eating behaviors” up until she began her low-carb meat-based journey. She always had a weird relationship with food and describes how she was obsessed with watching what she ate and counting calories. This had led to problems, though.

Lauren started college anorexic—she was 100 pounds—not much for her 5’8” frame. For comparison, she is 145 pounds today. Her anxiety became so extreme in college that she had to drop out. She explains that she was in “fight or flight all the time” and couldn’t sleep at all.

Lauren would usually eat one big meal each day and use sugary foods throughout the day to give her quick energy. She didn’t focus on protein but on things like fruit, veggies, or a piece of candy for that quick pick-me-up.

A friend tried a carnivore for a month, and Lauren decided to give it a try too. She found the diet liberating because she finally felt full and didn’t have to restrict her calories.

Lauren had eczema on her body and rosacea on her cheeks, and those completely went away after the first month. “For lack of a better word’” she describes her skin as “radiant.” As an additional plus, she found that she lost 10 pounds without trying, attributing the effortless weight loss to consuming no carbohydrates.

Instead of hunger and thoughts of food, she says, “I feel full, happy, and satiated throughout the day,” Lauren reports. She loves that there is no counting calories, planning what foods to eat, or feeling constantly hungry.

She believes that people with eating disorders may do well on a carnivore diet because they tend to restrict themselves already. Lauren didn’t think the diet was hard because she was already used to restrictions; this may appeal to those with eating disorders as well, she explains.

Lauren is surprised by how much her mood improved on her carnivore diet. Needing fewer hours of sleep and waking up in a good mood without an alarm were both unexpected benefits of the diet. Gut issues, such as bloating and constipation, plagued Lauren. She could eat a grape or a nut first thing in the morning and 10 minutes later “look 6 months pregnant.” She was “shocked” that there was no bloating from eating this way. Her bowel movements are regular compared to before, when she may have had one per week.

Cooking and eating mostly at home, Lauren eats ground beef, bacon, eggs, some steak, occasionally liver, and uses tallow for cooking. She doesn’t measure how much fat she eats, but “the more fat I have usually the more full I feel.”

Lauren hopes to continue learning about the carnivore diet so she can help others get healthier on their carnivore journey.

Josh manages eczema on a low-carb diet

December 20, 2022 No Comments

Josh lives in Richland County, Ohio, and has been a Doctor of Chiropractic since June 2021. As a child, he had eczema, particularly on his fingers. He also had lifelong allergies and asthma, which he was diagnosed with at 5 years old. Josh’s mother was a nurse, and though she never practiced much, “she was very medical-minded.”

When he was in chiropractic school, Josh’s eczema and allergies got worse, possibly due to stress. His eczema moved up onto his arms and neck, and he sought answers. “I found out if I fasted that my eczema would go away, and that was always a really good temporary fix but it got to the point where I was so skinny, and I almost looked malnourished because I had fasted so much.”

Josh found that his libido was low, and he had lots of brain fog and headaches. His feet used to get cold a lot, even turning blue. Josh felt cold, shivering often.

His problems got worse after using a Standard Process “holistic cleanse.” Josh was “on like ten supplements at the time, and I had done the cleanse for the full 21 days. It was basically like you’re plant-based for 10 days, then they want you to throw in lean meats, for you to eat chicken. You’re doing these protein shakes along with like a hundred different supplements, so that really messed me up.”

Open to new answers, Josh found Paul Saladino and started eating meat and fruit, “and that made it even worse, just compounded.” Josh was eating two apples and three or four bananas a day and then determined he was allergic to bananas.

When looking for answers, Josh “found Joe Rogan, like many have, and that’s when I was like, ‘all right, I’ll just do meat, salt, and water.’ and I stuck primarily with red meat. I noticed bacon kind of flared me up.” He discontinued all of his supplements and stopped eating fruit as well.

This time, a new diet helped, and Josh found that his eczema completely cleared up, as did his back pain. “I usually see about 20 to 30 patients a day, but by the end of the day I would notice my back would be dull and achy, and this was after only six months of doing it.”

His back pain resolved, and “I don’t have asthma attacks anymore, especially when I’m very strict with the diet.” Josh also noticed better emotional stability, saying, “I notice less of that just ‘being on edge’ and lots more calmness.”

Josh has begun adding a carnivore diet recommendation to his patients’ care plans, to “kind of plant that seed and get them started on that conversation.” He sees the problems plant-based diets cause, saying, “You look at these people who are on these plant-based high-fiber diets, and it’s like their gut looks ridiculous. They’re so bloated, it’s insane! I have zero bloating, I don’t even fart, ever. It’s crazy.”

“It works, it just does; it’s amazing how big a turnaround I’ve made on it.”

 

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