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How I freed myself from Crohn’s Colitis
by Kent Petersen
Mission Statement
To use my knowledge and experience of what helped me remove all evidence of Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) from myself to help as many people as humanly possible
Preface
I have been writing a book over and over again for the last 10+ years. I get to a good stopping point and begin editing the book. During the editing process, I learn new details, new secrets, new mental shortcuts. Then every time I read over my book I realize I have new information. As I edit, I rewrite the book section by section and never really finish. So, I finally stopped working on it.
Now I’m sharing the best parts here.
This portion of my story is included so we all understand where I am coming from.
Success begins with changing yourself
Winning the battle with anything, especially Crohn’s Colitis, a severe form of Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), requires a lifestyle change. You will need to improve your thought processes, your mental habits, your physical habits, you activity levels, your understanding of yourself, your diet, your understanding of nutrition, your social interactions, and your environmental experiences. You need will stay vigilant, determined, and positive. Know medical science does not understand the cause of the disease. The disease can be sent into remission with your own power.
Why listen to me?
I was diagnosed with IBD and told I would never recover. At my worse I was having bloody loose bowel movements 50+ times a day with fissures on my anus unable to keep any food in. Now here I am, healthier than I have ever been, one or two solid bowel movements a day and completely pain free. I am baffling doctors with my complete lack of medicine and stunning test results. My last colonoscopy results said, “no evidence of disease”
Not to mention, I have been studying nutrition, fitness, yoga, the mind, medicine, and more for many years. I have worked in a hospital. I have a black belt in shaolin kempo. I am a certified yoga teacher. I am CPR certified. I am excited to share what I have learned with you.
Why have I written this book?
I originally wrote these tips to help myself. During a particularly rough flare up I turned to my own written advice. After a short period of time, my flareup reduced. I was thrilled. I realized, my advice was sound. I decided, I want to help people with IBD and pass on what I learned through trial and error in hopes of saving people some of the pain that I went though. Since then, I have been sharing my advice with many others and they have been getting positive results too.
Summary of my story: From sickness to lasting health
It all started when I was 20 years old and a Karate instructor, back in the summer of 2003. I was training for my final Brown Belt. In my martial arts style, Shaolin Kempo, this was the belt before Black Belt. I was in incredible shape. Strong, fast, flexible. I was 6’5” and 210 lbs. I never thought something like this could happen to me.
I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
I first noticed symptoms months before I thought anything of it. Digestion had been steadily getting worse. Diarrhea had become consistent for at least a couple weeks. I had blood in my stool for at least a couple days. When I first noticed the diarrhea, I thought nothing of it. Even when it continued for multiple days, I thought nothing of it. Throughout my life I had random bouts of diarrhea and it was never a big deal. In order to continue working I started using Imodium and various over the counter things to fight the symptoms. This was helpful in masking the symptoms and allowing me to continue my life. When the bleeding started, I was concerned. Even then, I hoped it would clear up. I made no changes to my life. I figured it would eventually stop but it didn’t.
I started making embarrassing messes. Still, I thought nothing of it. I became concerned when, I stopped wearing boxers and switched to dark colored briefs. I would wear board shorts and bathing suits because they didn’t stain. The situation continued to get worse.
Then, I was literally going to the bathroom every couple hours. I was having at least 5 bowel movements a day. I kept hoping that it would clear up but it did not. The bleeding became severe and I was having trouble sleeping. I really let it get out of hand. I kept trying to keep it to myself.
The night I realized I was sick was truly horrifying. I remember that night so clearly. It was around midnight. I was down at In-N-Out with my friends enjoying one of my favorite burgers when I had to make a mad dash to the bathroom. There was practically no warning. It was extremely urgent. I quickly left my friends and I charged into the restroom, which was relatively clean for a public stall. I turned around, dropped my pants and before I could even sit it exploded out of me. I could feel it with such intensity. I was feeling woozy and light headed. It hurt like a hundred knives stabbing me in the guts. I crumpled over in pain. I cried to myself. After what seemed like forever I opened my eyes and looked about. It had appeared as if someone had been blasted by a shotgun in here. There was blood everywhere. It was on the walls, on the toilet, on the floor. I did the best I could to clean up myself but toilet paper alone would not cut it. I pulled up my pants accepting the loss. I returned to my friends. Told them I wasn’t feeling well and returned home. I didn’t let them in on the details. I knew I was in trouble and I would have to get help in the morning.
That night I tossed and turned in unbearable pain. I don’t remember sleeping. I must have passed out or blacked out from the pain. I knew I had to go to the doctors in the morning.
My health spiraled out of control as doctors used me like a guinea pig. Test after test drug after drug. The didn’t know what was wrong with me and they really wanted to label it.
Medical doctors told me I would never recover
The doctor told me many stories about how stress will affect my health. He told me stories about patients who had relapses on their wedding days. He told stories about patients who worked too hard and caused a flare up. He told me stories about the endless battles. He told me how I will NEVER be completely healthy again. He actually used those words, “You will NEVER be healthy again,” I accepted it as true. I didn’t understand the significance of these words till much later.
They loaded me up with steroids and other debilitating drugs with minimal results. I was “healthier” to some extent. I tried most of the prescriptions drugs available at the time, including, Prednisone (a corticosteroid), 6-MP (6-mercaptopurine is typically a cancer medication that interferes with the growth and spread of cells in the body. It is used in fighting IBD that has not responded to other drugs), and Asacol (aka Meslamine, an aspirin-like anti-inflammatory drug), Remicade and Humira (both are TNF alpha inhibitor). Frustratingly, all of these yielded minimal (if any) results.
Doctors destroyed my hope
My doctor insisted I will have symptoms for life. At that moment, I accepted this as true. I believed the professionals. I figured the doctors know best. Even though, the doctor said I would NEVER be healed and that it can come back at ANY time. The doctor did not paint an optimistic picture for me.
The doctor insisted that diet plays NO role in fixing IBD symptoms and suggested we played with the dosages of the drugs. He said most people responded to drugs and the drugs should be able to induce a remission. I wanted to live a normal life. I trusted him to his best. No doctor ever found the correct dosage or medication that would induce a lasting remission.
Even the dietician who specialized in IBD did not have an answer.
I did what I feel most people would do in my situation, I gave up hope. I didn’t even attempt to fix it. Why would I? The doctors and experts said diet didn’t matter. They didn’t tell me about any behavioral changes that I could make which may help. Instead, they said medicine was the only solution and the drugs were not helping anymore.
The lows were very low
At my worse, I was in terrible shape. I had lost over 50 pounds, I was 6’5” and I weighed less than 150 lbs. My bowel movement count was through the roof. I was going to the bathroom every 15 minutes. Every stool had blood, mucus, and chunks of intestines. I was weaker than ever. I had constant intense cramps. During this time, I was literally crippled, walking was excruciating due to my skin splitting open around the anus due to frequent wiping and passing of stools. Doctors called it anal fissures. This continued on for some time.
Current medical science didn’t know how to manage this disease for me. Every doctor I went to said the condition was permanent and I would be on drugs for life. I didn’t like that answer.
Tired of doctors and drugs not working, I decided to change my approach. I decided to manage it myself. I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. The transformation fully began.
The path was challenging. Especially at first.
Sometimes others may not agree with your choices. My sister disagreed with me. She didn’t want me to stop seeing doctors. She begged me to stick with western medicine. She cried when I didn’t want her advice. She insisted I needed to see more doctors, get more tests, take more drugs, keep going around the never ending medical loop. She thought if I deviated from the standard western medical route, I would never recover. My own sister told me to my face when my little nephew was standing there that I was going to die if I didn’t listen to her. She stopped coming to see me because she thought I was doomed. I was devastated but I understood where she was coming from. I knew she didn’t have trust in me like I did.
As the months and years went by, I learned what worked and what did not work for me. I wrote down my advice and my processes to help remember what worked for me. With this information, I could minimize the worst moments and maximize the best moments. I wrote down everything, including what worked out well and what made me feel awful. I repeated the beneficial stull and avoided the things that hindered me. This information became the foundation for this book
I began to change.
I learned which foods I could tolerate and digest better. I learned that some foods were digested best at different times of the day. I learned that certain foods were harder to digest when mixed with other foods. I learned the complexities and intricacies of eating and the composition of what we are eating. I learned about chemicals and pH levels in our bodies. I learned how stress, including but not limited to mental, physical, and emotional puts a strain on the body and reduces or slows healing. I studied exercises I could perform when I was weak and helped with digestion. Such as inversions, breathing exercises, yoga, and walking.
I started with simple breathing exercises and mild slow movements. This in turn would lift my spirits and cleanse my mind. I performed them regularly. With exercise came peace of mind and soon happiness. My health steadily improved from there.
I took life very easy. One day at a time. I felt like I started a new life. My thinking, my habits, my way of being changed. I emphasized relaxing and being calm. I encouraged healthy eating and created a mellow environment. I was able to see the stress I was under. I learned to release it.
This new me is a great wonderful enjoyable version of me. I sleep better. I hold on to less stress and drop stress easier and quicker. I enjoy exercise and I keep getting stronger. My habits and my thoughts changed. With persistence and consistency my new preferred habits and ways of thinking became a part of me.
There were ups and downs but overall I became healthier, thought clearer, made preferred choices easier. My symptoms slowly fading away.
I became healthier than ever. I could go out with no concern of an unexpected bowel movement for the first time in years. I stopped looking for bathrooms every time I entered somewhere new. I continued to steadily improve.
As my health returned so did the burning desire to be strong again. The intensity of my exercise routines increased. The food I ate was as nutrient dense as possible.
When my health slipped and flare ups intensified, I would return to the advice and notes I wrote myself with great success.
There came a moment when my guts completely stopped hurting
After a nearly a decade I finally stopped hurting
My intestines completely stopped hurting! I noticed that they don’t feel bad anymore. My guts don’t hurt. They don’t ache. There are no cramps. The left side feels just as good as the right now. For the first time in 8 years I FEEL GREAT. I am pain free again!
To see if I was great according to western medical science, I went back to an gastroenterologist for the first time in years. I showed him 40+ pages of my old medical information and talked about how wonderful I was feeling. He was surprised I did this without meds and called the healing a spontaneous remission. I chuckled and said “It wasn’t spontaneous. I have been working hard at making lifestyle changes and maintaining my health.” I listed off a few of the things that I have been doing, like cutting fast food and soda from my diet, daily exercise, consuming cannabis, and keeping a positive state of mind. He then told me to keep doing what I’m doing. He encouraged me to keep smoking weed and he was very happy for me. Apparently I was supposed to get a colonoscopy every 2-3 years. I was well overdue. The doctor wanted to take a look inside to see how well I was really doing.
Surprisingly, it was a good experience. The lab results I got were exactly what I hoped they would be. First, I compared the old archived pictures that I have to the new ones. My intestines looked phenomenal. The lack of inflammation and bright red sections are profoundly obvious. Then I read the notes. “No evidence of active Crohn’s disease or ulcer in the entire colon and terminal ileum”
To summarize. No signs of disease in my intestines. Go me!
I overcame the odds. Doctors told me my insides would be scarred for life. Now there is no evidence of scarring. Doctors told me I would be drugged for life. Now, I don’t take any meds. I took it into my own hands and listened to my internal doctor. I followed my own advice that I knew deep inside, is the best for me
Currently I’m in the best shape of my life. This experience has been so transformational for me I feel very inspired to share my knowledge and wisdom to help give ideas to anyone who also wants to overcome bleak odds. I am excited to share what I have learned.
