Case Study – Ulcerative Colitis
Ulcerative Colitis is an incurable disease.
Imagine this. One day you are a healthy 20 year old, chasing dreams in college. The next day you are an Ulcerative Colitis patient, planning your colonoscopies for life, hoping your disease doesn’t kill you, and your dream becomes survival.
According to Colby, everything was great until one day, suddenly, he felt severe abdominal pain.
Almost more pain than he could take, and when he makes it to the bathroom. Liquid, including plenty of blood. He went to urgent care, and they say, “uh-oh…let’s take a look!” (CT Scan). They say it “looks” fine, take these steroid pills for 7 days.
He follows up with the GI specialist about a month later. The prednisone has helped control pain, but they don’t know the cause of it yet. The doctor listens and suggests they look more closely (colonoscopy). It takes another couple months to get the test and to get an appointment with the doctor for the report.
“I’m sorry son, you have ulcerative colitis and there is no cure. You will have to be on this medicine for the rest of your life. Without continuous meds, remission is rare. We will have to watch closely, with a colonoscopy every year to see if you disease has progressed. We will likely have to increase your medications or change them to stronger versions to slow the progression of this disease.”
Colby was introduced to his new “life partner,” Lialda. Actually, the generic version Mesalamine, aka. 5-amino-2hydroxybenzoic acid, and was warned about potential side effects such as severe stomach pain, cramping, fever, headache, and bloody diarrhea.
And for the next few months, the partnership was delightful. Back to normal…back to living life and chasing dreams. (With the occasional break to “look closely” at his disease)
Until it came back. He didn’t even make it to the first annual colon looking.
Whatever was at the root of this incurable disease, was not willing to give up so easily! GI specialists are very busy, so it took a month or so to finally get in to see his doctor
“This is normal with your disease. Let’s run a few tests, and try this new medication.”
And then, “Colby, your tests were fine, except for your having that incurable disease. But I promise, that we are doing our best Re-Search to Find a Cure.”
Hmmm…Maybe we need some “New-Search.”
The doctor explains further, that they might have to add this, maybe that or try another one next. This, that and another is the plan.
“That” or medication number two is called mercaptopurine, a chemotherapy drug. When I look that up on RxList.com, the top of the page says, “Caution, mercaptopurine is a potent drug. It should not be used unless a diagnosis of acute lymphatic leukemia has been adequately established and the responsible physician is experienced with the risks of PURINETHOL and knowledgeable in assessing response to chemotherapy.” Just reporting.
I remember getting the flu about 15 years ago. Everything purging from my body. Every inch of my body was in pain, including my hair. Literally, my hair hurt.
That was the result of the new medication!! Flu symptoms and purging. He felt like he was dying.
And technically he was. The drug is extremely toxic to the immune system, liver, bone marrow, and GI tract.
I cannot speak for the doctors choice, but to someone not trained in medicine, “that” doesn’t seem like a good choice. It definitely did not FEEL like a good choice, to Colby.
Back to prednisone, which has always “helped” but is just too dangerous (high rates of not-surviving), to take on an ongoing basis.
And then “another one,” the Medicine his doctor chose as the next best step, brand-name Lialda. Its the exact same chemical structure as the first one that failed, but in our culture, brand names DO work, look, and taste better!
This time it didn’t even give temporary relief.
Now, after 3 strikes, his faith in his doctor is gone. He was realizing that his doctors are not sure, they have no scientific certainty at all.
The first step towards healing.
Colby wonders, “what am I going to do?”And counter to his every (learned) intuition…he listens to his mother. (This is a good rule of thumb, by the way!)
Mom had already been disappointed by medicine and pharmaceuticals, so she goes to a doctor that wears a super-hero shirt to work. He was told he was not a real doctor, so he’s rolling with it.
Mom’s doctor helps the people and problems that seem to fall through the cracks of medicine. But not incurable diseases, more like symptoms without a name and problems without a solution.
Feeling pretty dang defeated at this point he was ready to try anything!
I love that people consider me (mostly) at the brink of desperation. I take it as a huge energetic compliment. I’m that guy that people call when there is a mess, “the cleaner.” I’m doing my best to make it easy to find True Health with a program called The Metabolic Tune-Up.
During his initial exam, we use muscle testing, or applied kinesiology to “read” his body stress. At one point we use vials containing homeopathic levels (completely safe) of bacteria, viruses, and other infective organisms, to find what weakens his body. And out of about 700 vials of known infective microorganisms, the vial for C.Diff caused him to test weak.
C.Diff is an antibiotic resistant bacteria that is a known cause of colitis, which literally means, “colon on fire.”
But, we don’t diagnose by muscle testing, we respond to needs. On one hand, who cares what the diagnosis is. This vial makes you weak, and this plant medicine makes you strong. If I had to choose one diagnostic resource in my healing practice, I’d choose muscle testing.
The plant medicines that strengthened his body were Golden Thread and Cayenne Pepper.
In 2015, a real doctor by the name of Zhi Lv published a study in the National Library of Medicine journal, “Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.” They were attempting to address a problem with high relapse rates when treating C.Diff colitis with vancomycin. So they added Golden Thread.
RESULT of the Study: Adding Golden Thread resulted in “significant improvement in probiotic colonization (good bacteria), disease activity and histopathology (evidence of healing), and mortality rate (dying, there was significantly less dying).
Cayenne is already scientifically “accepted” as a resource used to draw healing energy to damaged tissues. We rub it on our shoulders after playing tennis.
There is scientific validation of most plant medicines, you just have to be willing to look. In most other countries, doctors use plants and pharmaceuticals, side by side, trying to discover the best medicine!
Golden Thread and Cayenne.
At the very least, we have something that strengthens his body, and will do no harm.
And thankfully, I don’t have to choose one diagnostic resource, so just like other doctors, I gave him his medicine and ordered a “few tests.”
He was back in one week, to see what his “tests” revealed. I tell Colby, “you are NOT fine, multiple tests reveal problems.”
Including, a clinical level SED rate, which means he is infected. His white blood cells are clinically elevated, with high neutrophils. (A type of white blood cell) This finding is suggestive of bacterial infection. His inflammation marker is 37 times higher than the healthy range!
Clinical level means the lab flags it on the lab report as “disease range.” So if his previous doctors would have ordered these tests, they would not have been able to say, “your tests are fine.”
But I’m not breaking BAD NEWS to Colby! I report that we can help everything we found. I can’t make any promises about your disease, being incurable and all, but these things, that we found wrong with you, we can help.
“In fact, what we gave you is an excellent remedy for this problem. How did you feel taking it?”
“I haven’t started yet.”
“No problem, can you start today?” “Sure!” He was beginning to see that I make sense. “Plus, being such a serious disease, let’s do a full stool analysis, to identify what exactly we are up against.”
We walk out to our reception area, and I tell Laura that we need a poop test. She says, “real professional.”
While waiting for the identification of the bacterial invader, he starts his plant medicines, which are antibacterial in nature. By the time we get the results back, he is feeling so much improvement he has stopped his medications. The lab identified: C.Diff.
Exactly what his body told us the first time we met. No lab tests. No neutrophils counted, no SED rates measured, or stool analyzed. From over 700 vials, muscle testing gets the exact correct vial.
We also learned that his gut inflammation markers were “off the charts.” For example, they list a lab value they call Lactoferrin. The description says, “this is an identifier of Autoimmune inflammatory disease in the gut, and if high, the condition is life threatening and will require lifelong treatment.” They are real doctors at this lab. Colby needed an unreal doctor.
The normal range is 0-7.3. His measures one thousand and ten! (1,010). That’s 138 times the highest level of normal.
We add frankincense, the pain and inflammation remedy that was as “good as gold” back in the days of Jesus.
Next visit, his disease is back. Not quite as painful, but to the point of bleeding again. Unlike his first relapse, he noticed it was when he ran out of his plant medicine. Colby was convinced, Mother Nature is the source of healing. He could feel it.
We refilled his “prescription,” and next visit the pain and blood are improving again.
I call that a healing trend.
True Health is never found with symptom suppression. A healing trend moves you toward stability, and in the end, you don’t need anything but food, water, oxygen, and movement to survive. When survival is secure, to thrive and grow you get back to those dreams.
We trended positively for 12 weeks, and retested his labs to see how “what we CAN change,” is changing. He is very near symptom free, and off all pharmaceuticals.
Then another one of those “Doctor telling you what is wrong” visits, and Dr. Stone (not a real doctor) reports, “Colby, you are fine.” Only this time it matches how he feels.
Your inflammation marker is now 0.8 (which is optimal vs 37 TIMES the healthy level), his SED rate is optimal, indicating no more infection. And his neutrophils are optimal, indicating no more C.Diff!
And in Colby’s case, we didn’t use vancomycin, just Golden Thread, and a couple other resources, Cayenne and Frankincense, and those resources led to something that eludes real doctors, complete remission or resolution of the inflammation.
Remember the study? The doctors were still on the “stop dying step,” and Golden Thread vastly improved that step. Apparently, if you add cayenne and frankincense to Golden Thread, instead of vancomycin, you get to the “healing” step and beyond.
We fixed what we could fix, and if I am completely honest, I do not believe he is in “remission.” He is actually cured. I know I’m not supposed to say that. But if I am arrested, I think his mom would bail me out.
And technically, I would more literally say “he is healed.” I just gave God’s medicine, which healed a problem (infection and inflammation), that was preventing God’s gift, aka Colby, from healing. It’s the healing process we all had Faith in, when we were little.
Remember that, when you felt sick and you rested. You cut your finger and you cared for it. And you healed. God also gifted us the medicine for every healing problem in the roots and leaves, of Nature.
My last bit of advice to him was “bury this.” “Keep going until you feel so strong and resilient, that this is a distant memory. And bring forward the value of this experience.” Don’t go all the way back to the habits and rituals that led you here. He is nourishing himself better, eating his veggies and better quality protein, and he is gaining trust in healing, nature, and his own body.
Make that list your ongoing ritual.
I appreciate this story for so many reasons, but particularly because it is SHORT. No, it didn’t seem short to Colby, or even perhaps to the reader, but to Dr. Stone. I read stories of 20, 30 40, and 50 years suffering. And when I read them, I hurt. We got this one resolved in just over a year. Only 3 months of True Health, and nine months learning that suppressing symptoms with drugs wasn’t the right path.
It would have caused me such pain to if it took him 10 years or more to make the realization that medicine doesn’t seem to understand healing. Can you imagine the pain of that story. Well, I guess we don’t have to imagine. The doctor who named Colby’s pain described the story.
“You have no hope. We will try this, that, and another, but your disease is progressive, so it will get worse over time. We’ll use stronger drugs with worse side effects. And we’ll stick a camera up your butt once a year, to watch our inability to heal progress.”
If you need some hope, True Health now offers The Metabolic Tune-Up. We can run your labs anywhere in the US (Except NY, RI, NJ), I’ll prescribe your meds, exactly what you need to heal and get stronger, and you follow along with a daily email introducing you to acupressure and five elements. You do your best taking charge of your health, and if you ever get stuck, I’ll help you over the hump!
Or if you just need some symptom relief, like PMS or Allergies, you can purchase directly from our online store.
I actually searched to see if I could find hurt or death from the medicines we use. I found a story of a man consuming a large amount of Yellow Jasmine and being paralyzed for several hours. He was fine though, and Yellow Jasmine is an excellent muscle relaxer, at reasonable doses.
I couldn’t find one account of reasonably taking plant medicines resulting in hurt or death. Their only hurt is the taste. They are very bitter, but this little girl, whose been on them since her terminal illness when she was a baby, doesn’t mind them a bit.
It’s ok. You can read her story. Mothers medicine healed her too.
Colby was kind enough to share his perspective.
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