Joel was an engineer for Exxon-Mobil and developed autoimmune pericarditis after a viral infection. He fought it for years and had a bad flareup in 1988. He resigned from Exxon-Mobil and was put on SSDI disability for 10 years because of the pain and fatigue. In 2011 he was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis, an autoimmune arthritis that fuses joints. He was put on TNF blockers that cost $20,000 every six weeks.
“The pain from the arthritis in the spine was severe, and I was put on narcotic pain medicine 365 days a year, methadone and opioids. He developed chronic insomnia and was prescribed Ambien and Lorezapam to sleep.
“I was on seven prescription drugs over the last 12 years, and, uh, spent over three million dollars in insurance costs, medical costs, and hospitalizations. And then it got very bad this March. The inflammation caused an instantaneous spinal fluid leak from my brain. The neurosurgeons in Seattle hospital thought it was a life-threatening situation. They said I could get meningitis from the leak. It caused a debilitating headache pain; I could not sit up…they didn’t know exactly how to treat it as it’s a rare condition.”
His brother, a physician in California, sent him Dr. Baker’s book, The Carnivore Diet. He finished the book in 24 hours, and since “the doctors didn’t know how they were going to treat my situation” he decided he had nothing to lose.
Joel went on a carnivore diet on May 21st 2021, eating only beef, lamb, and water. Within three weeks, his CSF leak had stopped on its own. He was able to start reducing his prednisone dosage after three weeks, and taper off completely after six weeks. The diet also cleared him of back pain from his ankylosing spondylitis, so he was able to completely taper off all of the opioids after taking them for 10 years, 365 days a year.
He was able to taper off all of his other medicines, even for his heart. “Normally after one day my heart would go into arrhythmia, but after two months on the diet I was able to completely stop.”
Joel experimented with reintroducing foods, and found that gluten was the worst culprit, along with carbohydrates. He finds it easy to stick to the diet because “if I have a little, like one-fourth of a slice of bread, I lose vision in one eye and I have a headache. This helps motivate him to stay on his diet!
“No more infections, no more hospital, I had my energy back, then after three months I was able to start running. I have the best health I’ve had in twenty years. I’m off all medications; no supplements, not even a vitamin pill. I just eat the meat!”
Joel is now a grad student at University of Washington, and is getting his Master’s degree in social work. He also started a new company to focus on sharing the diet with others.
