Chemo drugs for life or raw milk? How Doug Colitis Strikes Ulcerative Colitis
I always like to write blogs based on current inspiration or information that is coming into my life right now. Last week when I was visiting friends in Canada, I met a mixed martial artist who was at the forefront of his game, about to compete with the best in the world – and then all because of a chronic illness called colitis ulcerative lost. It broke my heart. He was absolutely desperate for answers after seeing several doctors with no results. He asked me for advice on nutrition and herbs and whether I know anyone who has been healed.
Then it hit me.
Not only did I have a friend who healed from ulcerative colitis – this friend was also a mixed martial arts artist who was at risk of losing everything from the disease. How are the chances?
Then I knew I should interview Doug when I got home so I could share his healing with everyone out there who was suffering.
How He Got Sick
Doug was once like any other teenager who ate a “SAD” (Standard American Diet). He was a self-proclaimed “human garbage disposal” who ate everything and everything in sight with no problems. Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) was the reason he got out of bed every morning, and if you’ve ever seen MMA fighters in fact, you’ll know that a strong, healthy body is essential to success.
On a fateful night, Doug got into a fist fight when he defended someone who was very close to him. In the end, he split his left hand on his opponent’s teeth. As soon as he told me that, my eyes widened – we have some very dangerous bacteria in our mouth. This is the last place you want to touch your open wound!
My fears were confirmed when Doug told me what happened next. The incision was infected, of course, so Doug went to the hospital for what he thought would be a simple round of antibiotics. He walked away with a script for doxycycline and a smile … until a few weeks later when his hand turned green with the added bonus of leaky Eus. Fun.
This time he went straight to the emergency room and was greeted with a shocking greeting: “Prepare him for an operation. We will have to remove his fingers.”
A nurse came in shortly before the operation and asked the team to save his hand. She suggested a pickline that was scanned through a vein in his chest, with a daily IV antibiotic that would send the drug down his arm all the way down. Fortunately, they listened, and every day after that, this incredible nurse stood at his door to give a fresh dose of IV vancomycin.
The IV antibiotics saved his fingers, but came at an expensive price. At mid-treatment, he collapsed with a 104 * fever that doctors feared could be caused by meningitis. He was rushed for a spinal cock, freed from meningitis and continued his last IV therapy like a champion. Unfortunately, the secondary infections and fever continued. His immune system took a big hit from the constant administration of IV drugs that destroyed the gut microbiome. For the next two years he was sick, but thankful to have a hand anyway.
Then one day he came with flu like no other. It took weeks to get over, and although most of the symptoms disappeared with the virus, its stomach symptoms remained.
Every night afterwards, Doug was plagued by stinging pain, nausea, diarrhea, without appetite and blood in his chair. It took weeks before he actually started throwing blood. He quickly lost weight and knew that something was wrong.
The diagnosis
Doug made his way to a gastroenterologist who he believed would be able to diagnose and quickly treat what troubled him. That was exactly what I thought when I went to treat my IBS. Unfortunately for me and Doug, we quickly learned that doctors knew as much as we did about what was devastating in this intestine.
Faecal test – negative for bacteria and parasites (so was mine, and yet check the worm that I passed with herbs!)
Endoscopy / colonoscopy – positive for severe inflammation.
“You have ulcerative colitis,” the doctor told him. “We don’t know what causes it, but we have a protocol to deal with it, so let’s get started.”
Unfortunately, this protocol was a drug guessing game that left Doug in worse pain, depressed, and desperate for answers.
Let’s play a game
1. Lialda, an anti-inflammatory drug, was first on the roster.
Next to Lialda was an anti-spasmodic who did nothing but exacerbate Doug’s symptoms.
In the interview above, Doug and I decided to take a look at the side effects of Lialda vs. to cast the actual symptoms of ulcerative colitis. We discovered exactly what Doug was doing when he wondered why he felt so bad: they were the same. Severe stomach pain, cramps, bloody diarrhea, nausea, abdominal pain, loss of appetite. Doug felt Lialda’s palpitations so hard that he thought he was going to die. “It’s not worth it,” he thought to himself. The side effects were worse than the disease!
2. Steroids were next on the list.
It started with 20mg prednisone, then 40, then 60. Doug’s face exploded into the shape of a moon and he couldn’t sleep no matter how hard he tried. He said the brain fog he was experiencing from these steroids was the worst of his life. The joint pain was unbearable.
3. Time to go with the big guns: chemotherapy drugs. 6MP to be precise.
“It was the darkest time of my life,” said Doug. “I was so depressed and weak that I couldn’t get out of bed. I wanted to die.” He was 137 pounds and wasted away in front of his family.
At this point, Doug was told that he would either have to stay on these medications for life (no matter how bad they made him feel), or have his entire colon removed.
“The only other way is to cut out your colon. Once we do that, there is no going back.”
“What about the diet?” Asked Doug. “Isn’t there something I can do?”
“No,” replied the doctors. “If something bothers you, it doesn’t eat, but we believe that nutrition has nothing to do with it.”
Doug made his way to the specialist’s office and was ready to give up his entire colon until the surgeon stopped him and said, “Look, you’re 21. Take my advice. Things can happen. Try it for one hold out a few months and then come back to me. ”
The awakening
Doug went to the place we all get when we’re lost (and the place you’re right now) – the internet. He searched forums about ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. He tried every suggestion that seemed viable. He went on a vegan diet. Was macrobiotic, even. Nothing worked, and eating fibrous vegetables like leafy greens or grains like brown rice only made the problem worse because it damaged and irritated his intestinal lining.
And then someone said the two words that changed his life: raw milk.
Everyone in the forum laughed at the idea, but something in Doug’s intuition told him to turn it off. “I have nothing to lose. I can either try this crazy idea of raw milk or lose my gut,” he thought.
Doug began researching where to get the milk (www.realmilk.com), and realized that the FDA is hard on this incredibly healing food because they know it will cut their pharmaceutical profits. I suggest watching the Farmageddon documentary to see how far our government will go to hide the benefits and prevent access to this wonderful substance.
He ordered a gallon from a brave local farm, took his first sip, and was amazed. “It was very different from the milk you get in the store,” he told me.
“In fact, pasteurized milk was one of my worst triggers. I felt incredible with raw milk.”
He saw that the milk was of this interesting yellow color and later realized that this was because the cows were fed grass on organic land. Cows that have been fed fresh green feed, especially those that graze on grass, have been shown to have a higher content of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) and essential fatty acids in their milk – the ingredients that give it this rich color (1,2) . Animal studies show that only 0.5 percent CLA in your diet could reduce tumors by more than 50 percent, including the following cancers: breast, colon, lung, skin, and stomach cancer (1, 2, 3). It has also been shown to lower body fat, increase lean body mass, and reduce inflammation, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease (1, 2, 3).
After 2-3 weeks he started to put weight back on and was absolutely ecstatic. He started putting raw cream and butter in his diet and wondered what else the farm had to offer. He saw that they were offering “organic” products and soon realized that his milk was organic too.
This of course opened the doors to the rabbit hole and he made out about GMOs, toxic food additives, pesticides and much more. This is a topic for another blog post, but essentially he completely cut GMOs from his diet and went 100% organic. The difference was immediate.
Doug’s health diet
At that point, Doug was knee-deep in research. He knew he wasn’t ready to digest irritating plant fibers, and knew that sugar, fruits, and carbohydrates were some of his worst triggers due to Candida and his leaky gut. He also knew that fats could be very healing to seal his damaged gut, so he went on a high-fat paleo diet and ate mostly low-FODMAP foods.
Dr. Deborah Gordon, M.D. best explains it:
“Raw milk refers to unprocessed, untreated milk straight from the cow. The milk that you buy at the local supermarket today is a completely different substance. It has been pasteurized, ultrapasteurized or homogenized. This liquid is not really milk. It is a chemical Modified substance, heated to remove pathogens and bacteria and extend its shelf life, the resulting low enzyme activity makes it difficult to digest, the changed fat content makes vitamins and minerals difficult to absorb, and residual medicines and antibiotics pose a threat for human health. In addition, the naturally occurring beneficial bacteria have been destroyed. ”
The only reason commercial supermarket milk is pasteurized is because it would be incredibly dangerous to drink raw milk from a factory cow. Factory bred animals are routinely fed an unnatural, high protein GMO soy and corn diet. This diet is so toxic to their biology that it causes serious illnesses that can only be combated by continually injecting cows with antibiotics. These animals, which are kept in inhumane conditions far from their natural environment, are exposed to enormous stress.
Raw milk from grass-fed cows is a whole new ball game.
Dr. Gordon, M.D. explains further: “Raw milk is an incredibly complex complete food, complete with digestive enzymes and its own antiviral, antibacterial and anti-parasitic mechanisms, which are conveniently built into a neat package. It is full of fat and water-soluble vitamins, a wide range of minerals and trace elements , all eight essential amino acids, more than 60 enzymes and CLA – an omega-6 fatty acid with an impressive effect on everything from insulin resistance to cancer to cardiovascular diseases. ”
In fact, the Weston A. Price Foundation conducted an informal survey of over 700 families and found that over eighty percent of those diagnosed with lactose intolerance no longer experience symptoms after switching to raw milk.
Why is that? Because raw milk actually contains the enzymes and probiotics you need to digest it!
As a child, you produce the enzyme lactase to digest the molecule of lactose from breast milk. When we grow, we stop producing it. Therefore, we would have to consume living, enzyme-rich raw milk that already contains plenty of lactase in order to break down the lactose. And that’s exactly what happens.
Raw milk probiotic content was able to repopulate Doug’s intestine, and the healing fats and enzymes worked wonders on his inflamed, broken food.
And to speak of the anti-parasitic mechanisms of raw milk; Parasites play a major role in all intestinal disorders, because once the “good” soldiers are gone, the bad ones can take over. While drinking raw milk and eating a clean diet, Doug insisted on many different parasites, including candida, needle worms, and more.
Ditch The Drugs
Doug felt so much better about his new diet, fermented foods, and raw milk that he decided to give up his chemo and anti-inflammatory drugs … against his doctor’s orders.
As soon as he did, his healing came into the circle. He had no symptom in sight.
He went to the doctor’s office to put a brand new man with 50 pounds of healthy weight and muscle pain back on. “Wow, you look great!” said his doctor. “The drugs work, I suggest?”
“No. I’m away from everyone.”
His doctor’s jaw fell to the floor. “You are crazy,” he said. “You need it. This is a chronic illness. It will come back.”
“I’m sorry, doc, but your medicine has done nothing but aggravate me. I have found what works for me and I do not look back.” With this feeling he left the office and today he has been free of symptoms for two years.
“I feel like a bionic now.”
If you met Doug in person, you would never know that he was sick. He is strong, loving, caring, positive, and let me tell you – sharp as a knife. This happens when you get sick and have no answers. You have to teach yourself the truth from first place. He knows so many facets of health and nutrition and I am honored to be his friend. Today he still eats a high-fat paleo diet, but was able to reintroduce many wonderful foods such as sweet potatoes, starch, fruit and nightshades. He still avoids gluten and grain (according to Paleo-Weish
eit) and still drinks its raw milk every day, in much smaller amounts. He makes sure that he has at least one serving of fermented vegetables with his meals and says he will never forget the importance of keeping you healthy and fighting the bad guys for your gut and the soldiers who live in it.
And you can too.