Ankylosing Spondylitis‎ Greatly Diminishing!

Testimonial written by: Montana Mike

Hey everybody,

First off, here’s a little back ground info on myself. As I was growing up in a family of five, it was obvious that I was the one who was always trying to be the “healthiest.” I was very active, I was playing high school soccer, weightlifting, backpacking and running long distances. And I never even really considered that proper nutrition was vital to fuel those activities. I just abided by the food pyramid with the majority of my food intake being grains. I basically made sure the bulk of all my meals were mostly grains based. (tsk tsk.) I also had the mentality that calories are calories. So a Giant $5 hot n Ready pizza from Little Caesers that was caked in ranch and many other fast food joints were often on my menu after an intense workout “thinking, I earned that shit.” I also had chronic allergies and asthma growing up, another sign of autoimmunity.

When I hit the ripe age of 25 my world came tumbling down out of the blue. It was Nov. 20th 2011 when I had just completed my 5 mile up hill run on the treadmill. My back got stiffer and stiffer as the day progressed and my lower back muscles were dramatically swollen. I was basically bed ridden for a solid month because of the pain and I was zonked out on muscle relaxers. After about 8 months, I had been to the dr, done physical therapy and saw a urologist because I also had groin pain. All of this totaling up to $6,000! I had health insurance but my deductible was $6,000. (Stupid) I had a short spell of being promiscuous at the bars so I figured the whole groin thing was a separate problem all on its own. But it was connected to my back. This whole time I had not seen any improvement with my back. They finally came up with a diagnosis of Ankylosing Spondilitis. The rheumotologist saw that my blood was HLA_B27 positive and with that in mind and describing my symptoms she came up with the diagnosis. I was very reluctant to try her medications due to the severe side effects.

My friend told me about this anti inflammatory diet (Paleo) and I was very interested in it. I didn’t feel like I had many other options and I actually thought the whole paleo gig made sense. I dived into it on October 2012. After some independent research I convinced the DR to write me a prescription for Low Dose Naltrexone. I was doing paleo and taking LDN. I only saw improvements from there on out. Every thing about me was getting better. After maybe a year and a half of not being able to be active, I was able to be active again. That means, backpacking 50 miles, playing racquetball, weight lifting, walking and whatever the hell I want. But I don’t think I’ll ever run again due to the negative info that I heard via Robb’s podcast. I was even puking blood before the whole paleo thing. I was puking straight up blood and I was becoming very nervous and anxious in general. I lost 10 lbs one month because I couldn’t keep anything down. But this all changed when I went Paleo. I swear, I used to puke all the time! Once a week or more maybe. But after I started paleo about a year and a half ago, I only puked once, and that was alcohol induced!

As of Today I am off my LDN and continue my paleo diet. I’m not 100% yet, but I can seriously tell that this is the best choice I have ever made and my back continues to get better and better all the time. I know that one day It will be totally healed. I’m finally happy again and can enjoy the little things in life. You are undoubtedly the man Robb, Thanks! Thanks to your whole team!

Montana Mike

Squatchy

Christopher Williams (a.k.a. Squatchy) is a paleo aficionado, educator, personal trainer, wellness coach, and hobbyist chef. He also works as part of the Robb Wolf team.