Living with Autoimmune Disease
Diagnosis and Treatment
In this post I wanted to discuss my experience with autoimmune diseases. When I was 12 years old I was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriasis, and psoriatic arthritis…. I thought I was done for. Hearing a diagnosis like this at such a young age was horrifying. I went to the doctor with a sore wrist and body rashes and found out I had a group of incurable diseases affecting my joints, skin and potentially organs. My parents and I were real scared. Of course, I was put on a number of different medications to weaken my immune system and “treat” my diseases. But really what these medications did was suppress my symptoms, not heal my body. Nevertheless, many of these helped, but were a pain to take and came with unpleasant side effects.Â
Over the next several years I tried several different medications used to treat RA and Psoriasis. These included Enbrel, Methotrexate (both pill and injection), Prednisone, Humira and multiple types of steroid creams and shampoos. Humira and Methotrexate seemed to be the most effective, which we stuck with for several years. Once I got into high school I started getting into health and fitness. I began lifting weights, eating less crap and more “healthy food”. I noticed that my autoimmune symptoms were getting better. This allowed me to start tapering down the dosage of my medications. When I started college I was feeling so good I quite taking methotrexate, which was a huge step forward.Â
Discovering Alternative Ways of Healing
In my 3rd year at university I got introduced to a book called Breath by James Nestor. This book changed my life. In it James talked about people with autoimmune diseases like RA who had relieved their symptoms by doing intense breathing exercises and cold plunges. So of course I started trying them… Not entirely sure if they were helping. I’d like to think they were. Regardless, this book opened my mind to alternatives ways of healing the body. A few months later I was recommended a book called Dirty Genes by Ben Lynch, which really changed my life. This led me down a rabbit hole of reading and researching how to naturally cure autoimmune disease and live a healthier life. I developed a passion for functional medicine. I wanted to be all natural. No medications, no junk food, no bullshit. My goal was to live as optimally and as healthy as I could.
In late fall of 2021, I discovered and started the Autoimmune Protocol (AIP) elimination diet. This diet helped a ton. I removed gluten, diary, nuts, seeds, sugar, nightshades, legumes and several other foods thought to be triggers for autoimmune diseases. Being in the college environment I was in, I was still drinking a lot of booze… However, this diet shift helped dramatically. My symptoms were almost completely gone. I looked good, lean and felt amazing. I had no intention of ever eating gluten or diary again, two foods I had been eating almost everyday of my life until then. I eventually made the premature decision to stop taking my Humira shots… This was a bad idea and I highly recommend you don’t do this without discussing a plan with a knowledgeable healthcare provider. The dangerous part was, if I cheated on the diet I would have an arthritis flare that would essentially cripple me for days. For the most part everything was under control and I was finally off my medications, so I figured the occasional flare was fine.
Relapse and Recovery
It all went downhill when I graduated college. While I was searching for an apartment I moved back with my parents, where I started to cheat pretty severely on my diet. I was eating a lot of foods that are on the AIP no go list like grains, peanut butter, potato chips, corn chips and nightshade vegetables. I still did my best to avoid gluten and dairy, but I doubt I was very good at it. My rheumatologist said it’d be wise to go back on my Humira until I could get my diet under control so I didn’t damage my joints any further. I continued to eat like this way for nearly a year. The combination of my lazy diet and a few highly stressful events led to an awful Psoriasis flare.Â
Eventually, I moved into an apartment and got my diet under control but the Psoriasis didn’t go away. I had to resort to topical steroids, which I hadn’t used in years and was very upset about. So I figured it was time to take my elimination diet a step further… The only thing I could think of that was stricter than AIP was the carnivore diet. This was a diet I had heard about for a while, but never considered viable. Tons of people with autoimmune diseases have claimed that their symptoms completely vanished within a month of only eating meat. I figured since I was stuck with this psoriasis flare, I might as well give it a shot. So on November 27th of 2023 I cut everything out except for meat and meat fats. (Read my post The Ultimate Elimination Diet: Why I Decided to go Carnivore to learn more about my decision). As of writing this post I am just over 3 weeks in and I can say I feel pretty damn good. Maybe the best I have in my life. My Psoriasis was gone after just two weeks on the diet. The few floaters that have been in my left eye since my Scleritis diagnosis (that’s right, another inflammatory condition) are now disappearing after week three. My plan was to start slowing and carefully reintroducing plant foods after about three months. But I feel so good right now I’m not entirely sure I want to go back.
Important Takeaways
I think there are a few lessons to be taken away from my experience. One is that medications for autoimmune diseases certainly have benefits and should be taken if needed. Autoimmune disease symptoms and flares can cause irreversible damage to your body. It’s important to stay on medications that are helping until your diet is completely under control.
A more important lesson is that diet absolutely plays a role in your autoimmune disease. If you have a doctor that says what you put in your body has no effect on your autoimmune symptoms or that you will be on medication forever, run the opposite way. Obviously it takes more work to be symptom free without medications, but it’s worth it. You will feel better in every way. Reversing your autoimmune disease naturally will inevitably lead to a cascade of health benefits that will improve your quality of life so much, you’ll wish you had been living like that for your whole life. That is the most important sentence in this article. I want you to read that again. Being able to suppress your autoimmunity naturally means that your body is working in the most optimal and healthy way it can. And you will notice the difference.
I wanted to tell you a bit about my experience and some important lessons to consider. Living with an autoimmune disease can be extremely hard, but it can be done. I think of my diagnosis as both a blessing and a curse. Without it I probably wouldn’t be striving for optimal health. If you have an autoimmune disease, know someone with one, or you just want to live a more optimal life, please continue to read and share my blog content. Thanks for reading!