Anne

When I first started experimenting with dietary interventions for Crohn’s Disease, my goal was to get back to eating cupcakes. Now, my goal is to eat an artichoke with hollandaise sauce. Let me tell you why I’m okay with that.

I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease when I was six years old, and spend my childhood and teen years in doctor’s offices and following the latest treatment advice. In my early 20’s, after making it through college on a diet that mostly consisted of Cheez-Its and the help of a IV drug that cost $7,000 per infusion, I knew something would have to change. I was tired of getting infusions every 8 weeks. I was always worried about insurance costs. It got harder when I graduated and started supporting myself—I took the first job I was offered because it had good employer-sponsored insurance coverage, instead of finding a job that I loved. That year, I wiped out my entire savings account to cover the cost of one infusion because the insurance supplement didn’t cover the whole co-pay.

Insurance wasn’t what made me change my life, but it definitely provided incentive.

A few years later, when I was doing a new consult with a naturopath, I told him that it was my goal to get off of Remicade, the super-expensive immunosuppressant drug I was on at the time. And then it just slipped out: I wanted to get off insurance, too.

“Oh, no, that’ll never happen,” the doctor said. (He wasn’t my doctor for very long.)

What I meant was that I didn’t want to be dependent on insurance, or owned by insurance. Being 100% dependent on insurance stressed me out, which made me even more sick. I wanted to get to a place of good-enough health where I could survive without insurance if I had to. At that point, it seemed like a complete impossibility. I stopped thinking about it.

What I did think about was my diet. I tried all sorts of approaches: the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, IgG/IgE allergen testing with a rotational diet, paleo (sometimes with the 80/20 cheat), paleo autoimmune, low-FODMAP, keto, and eventually all of them put together.

Doing work on my diet meant that I needed some expert help, which is why I had started seeing naturopaths. I started to research more than just diet, and strongly suspected I had Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO) and a leaky gut. When my normal gastroenterologist just shrugged off my questions, I walked away from the standard healthcare system.

With the help of my team of naturopaths, I tackled SIBO head on and started to heal my leaky gut. My overall health improved dramatically. I quit all but one of my prescription drugs, and lived a normal life for a while.

But let me tell you something about bacteria colonies—they don’t like to die. They will craftily devise plans to NOT DIE. So you must fight them, aggressively.

Somewhere in the middle of trying the keto diet, I started losing control of my bowels (to the point of having a stash of adult diapers on hand), and noticed SIBO regrowth. My life completely and utterly revolved around my guts. To try to gain back some control, I searched for another way of eating that might help me get back on track: Juicing. The Wahl’s Protocol. More fiber.

Then, I learned that it was okay to only eat meat.

At first I didn’t believe it. Don’t you need vegetables for nutrients? What about Vitamin C? Do people really eat like this? But as I researched further, I found that many people—including people with Crohn’s disease like me—had thrived and healed on a carnivore diet. So I decided to give it a try.

I cannot describe to you the depths of RELIEF that I felt those first few weeks as a strict carnivore.

No more angst about vegetables—which to eat and how to prepare them, and how much fiber is enough, and if I try this new thing how will my body react and how long will it be until I need a toilet?—all of that, gone.

For the first time in many many months, I felt hope. My body felt less inflamed. I did not magically heal overnight, but I could see small, real changes that made me confident in my body in a way I’ve never felt before. With my new-found energy, I began creative projects and traveled more. Because I gained back control of my bowels, I started hiking again.

My guts are no longer in charge of my life. I am.

There are still things I’m tweaking. Eventually I want to try adding back some plant foods, because I enjoy them and can see benefit from additional sources of nutrition. Stripping “everything” out of my diet has shown me just how much exercise, stress, and sleep are huge factors in my health, so I’m working on those as well. Not everything is diet.

Things are not perfect yet, but I’m immensely satisfied with how far I’ve come. I’m finally in a place where I don’t worry about insurance. I don’t have to. All my treatments are food or they’re completely free.

I have achieved the impossible goal.

Do take a look at Anne’s great blog ‘What a gut’
http://whatagut.com/resources/diet/