From Chronic Pain to Pain-Free
Christopher, now 45 years old, spent most of his life in constant pain and struggling with numerous health conditions. After fifteen years of severe disability and an estimated 85% nerve damage throughout his body, he has made a remarkable recovery. Now pain-free for over 19 months, Christopher credits a meat-based diet as a cornerstone of his healing journey.
A Lifetime of Suffering
From early childhood, Christopher battled health problems. Born into a family with poor gut health, he endured repeated ear infections starting at age two, followed by a parade of antibiotics. By age five, he was experiencing bladder issues, headaches, and hypermobile joints. Growing up on the standard American diet in the 80s and 90s, his health continued to deteriorate through high school, where his absences had to be waived all eight semesters for him to pass.
College Years and the Downward Spiral
During college, Christopher experienced some improvement by building independence and reducing stress, but his health still controlled everything he did. He describes living with chronic bladder pain, aching all over, and constant headaches. Unknowingly, his diet during this time often lacked meat—his favorite meal was cheese and rice.
“I was unintentionally without meat a lot of days in college,” Christopher notes. After graduation, he attempted a “bulking” diet with natural peanut butter and salads, which proved disastrous for his already inflamed intestines. This dietary mistake triggered fifteen years of disability beginning in 2004.
The Darkest Years
As his condition worsened, Christopher became hypersensitive to stimuli. Music and TV caused physical pain. He gave up movement entirely, hoping to reduce his suffering. The pain became so severe that he developed a thirty-hour wakeful cycle and shrank three inches in height from remaining in the same position for extended periods.
At his worst, Christopher was taking fifteen medications simultaneously, including maximum-dose morphine, long-acting narcotics, three different muscle relaxers, and nerve medications. He gained over a hundred pounds and only left his house to get narcotics reapproved at the pain clinic.
The Turning Point: Discovering a Meat-Based Approach
After a frightening reaction to an immunosuppressant in January 2017, Christopher decided to recommit to addressing his health holistically, focusing on reducing medications and changing his diet. He discovered an autoimmune protocol diet built around meat.
“For food, I discovered an autoimmune protocol diet. I did it really low carb, 25 grams, sometimes 50 grams a day, and it was always built around the meats,” Christopher explains. He eliminated grains, legumes, nightshades, nuts, seeds, dairy, eggs, and sugar.
His protein sources included beef, lamb, chicken, turkey, and fish, with meat at every meal. Though he initially struggled with digestion, especially beef and lamb which “felt like a brick in my stomach at first,” he persisted with this meat-based approach.
Additional Keys to Recovery
While the meat-based diet formed his nutritional foundation, Christopher’s recovery included several other components. Neuroscience principles taught him to manage his nervous system through breathing techniques and careful movement. Weight training proved transformative, though initially painful. Extended water fasting—eighteen five-day water fasts—provided his first pain-free experiences.
Life Today: Strong, Healthy, and Pain-Free
Today, Christopher’s life is dramatically different. He consumes 170 grams of protein daily and has added over 30 pounds of lean muscle mass. He lifts weights 4-6 times weekly and walks 10,000 steps daily without fail. His testosterone levels match those of a 25-year-old, and testing has measured his biological age at 30—fifteen years younger than his chronological age.
“I’m eating animal-based as the core, with all these amino acids from the proteins. I’m going to keep getting better,” Christopher says. Though he’s now incorporated moderate carbs on workout days, he maintains a lower-carb approach on rest days, always keeping animal foods at the center of his nutrition.
After 25 years of daily pain, Christopher has now experienced nearly two years completely pain-free—a transformation he once thought impossible but now hopes will become “a standard, not an outlier” for others suffering from chronic conditions.
