Early Life and Health Issues
My name is Mike. I reached out to you on Twitter or X…whatever it is called now. Wanted to share some info with you.
I have had an extreme turnaround over the last 7 years. There is so much information that I really do not know where to start. Since I was a young kid I always had stomach issues, I can remember when I was 7 years old and going to the bathroom constantly and always having anxiety about being close to a bathroom which was always an uncomfortable feeling as a young kid and this carried on all the way into my early 30’s.
I was a 4 year college football player and rugby player. I grew up in Northern California in a city called Vacaville ( halfway between SF and Sacrametno.) I have been a Firefighter/Paramedic for the last 14 years. I am married and we have a 7 year old daughter. My wife eats the same as I do and it changed her life as well around the same time…took some time for her to come around…our daughter eats meat, no veggies, and is gluten free not due to an autoimmune but because we did not want to put that shit into her body.
When I was a teenager I had terrible acne all over my face, chest, and back and it was terrible. I went on 2 cycles of accutane and I remember my GI issues becoming substantially worse after that. It did not help that I ate anything and everything.
Serious Health Diagnosis in College
I was not overweight when I was a teenager, especially playing 3 sports in highschool. I was 5’9 and I was 200 lbs.. I was a stocky athlete and lifted heavy all the way through college. I kept having GI issues and that never was addressed until I was in my late 20’s. When I was in college in my senior year (21 years old) I was having major headaches on a daily basis. After about a year of dealing with that and initially chalking it up to neck injuries and back injuries in football and rugby, I woke up one morning and was projectile vomiting. I drove myself to the hospital and was diagnosed with an AVM ( Arteviovenous Malformation) and I had brain surgery 2 days later to stop the blood from leaking…I had a year long recovery with multiple neurological side effects that I thought were going to be lifelong…There is so much to that part of the story that would be easier to say in an interview instead of typing…
Fast forward a few more years when my GI issues took a very bad turn for me. It had been increasing over a 7-8 year period, but I was to the point where I was going to the bathroom 15 times a morning and that all occurred between 6 am -10am. I had diarrhea everyday of my life and at that point I just thought it was normal.
I became a firefighter when I was 26 and it was more than a challenge that I was able to deal with due to my morning routine of trips to the bathroom. After a few years of dealing with this I went to my doctor and informed her of what was occurring. She ran multiple GI tests over the next year and came up with nothing. Finally I was able to get a colonoscopy and was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and was prescribed meds and I refused to take them. I changed my diet and went GF for a while and quit drinking beer. My wife was pregnant with Mia, our daughter at the time of this all occurring.
I went from 205 lbs down to 175 in less than 30 days. I felt great but I was skinny fat and lossed too much weight in a short period of time. I lost a ton of strength and muscle mass but I was doing better. My Gi issues got a bit better but I still had gas, bloating, and bathroom issues along with terrible skin issues. I was still eating a ton of vegetables with meat. Over the next 2 years I went to paleo, to keto. My stomach issues got better but I still did not feel great. I was always bloated and still had some issues. This was back in 2016.
Turning Point and Current Health Status
I was listening to a podcast and it was on Joe Rogan with Jordan Peterson in 2018 and said fuck it I am trying it. Within a few days I felt different and things got way better. I was very strict but had my fair shares of slip ups and cheat days and drinking benders which put me right back into an inflamed gut. I would recover after a few days and be back on track. I watched your entire episode with Rogan and have read your book, which my wife put in my Xmas stalking a few years ago.. I have no more issues, I eat red meat and eggs every single day and I feel amazing. In 2021 I had covid or the fauci flu and was deathly ill. I had the Delta variant and had shadowing of my lungs. I was coughing so severely I caused myself to have a bulging disc at L5/S1 and a PARS defect fracture. I can cover this as well if you want to move forward to go over my recovery along with being scheduled for spinal surgery and then not because my pain went away. My back is still fucked and I have been at work as a Firefighter this entire time but I believe eating meat helped my recovery.
There is a lot of info here. I appreciate you Dr. Baker and I watch your videos on youtube daily. I really have zero social media besides watching youtube for educational purposes and I created a twitter profile after Elon musk took it over but I do not use it for anything other than education. I do not have anything else so I see what you do from those two platforms. Anyways, thank you for taking the time to read my story. I look forward to hearing back from you. If not, no worries on my end. Take care Dr Baker.
Thank you for your time,
Mike
