How To Finally Fix Your Gut, Decode Your Embarrassing, Frustrating Digestive Issues & Fix Crohns & Colitis

My name is Ben Greenfield, and on this episode of the Ben Greenfield Life.

Podcast, what gave me the faith was I would go home and I'd do a day fast. I wouldn't eat anything. I would meditate. I would just relax, sleep. I wouldn't anything. And my bowel movements would go from 20 to 12. And I go to the doctor and I say, hey, Doc, I didn't need anything, and I just got 30, 40% symptom relief. What's that mean? Oh, that doesn't mean anything. You just didn't need. So there's no correlation? No, there's no correlation. Well, I knew that not to be true. I said, well, that's the most ignorant thing I've ever heard. If I can move the needle with this extreme choice of not eating, then there's got to be other ways to move the needle.

Faith, family, fitness, health, performance, nutrition, longevity, ancestral living, biohacking, and a whole lot more. Welcome to the show. Well, folks, I met today's podcast guest at a health event down in Arizona. I believe it was. It was. It was several months ago. He and I have been trying to connect for many, many months since then. He actually came up to me at a. At a cocktail party at said event, and he introduced himself to me, and he started talking about his story, which involved a ravaged gut, you know, bloody stool, and the type of things that are just absolutely fabulous and pleasant to talk about at a cocktail party. And I realized as he was going on that he actually knew a lot about gut issues, gut inflammation, Crohn's colitis, a lot of stuff that people struggle with and may not even know that they're struggling with. You know, they might think they just have irritable bowel or constipation or they just maybe ate the wrong piece of cheese last night. But Dane Johnson is the name of my guest, and this dude knows what's up when it comes to unique approaches to fix your gut. He's the owner and the founder of Crohn's colitis lifestyle. I'll link to that, and I'll link to everything else that we talk about if you go to BenGreenfieldLife.comDane. that's BenGreenfieldLife.comdane. i could tell you Dane's whole story, but I think he's probably going to do a better job doing that. But I can tell you that not only do we want to talk about that, but we'll also dig into the type of test that Dane runs. This program that he has, has called SHIELD for really developing the right supplements, nutritional approaches and mindset approaches. For your gut, a little bit about the emotional and spiritual component that fits in here. That's pretty surprising. So, Dane, A, super stoked to have you on the show and B, opening the kimono for people. Experience a little bit of deja vu because we tried to do this a few months ago and just got completely nuked by a bunch of tech and Internet issues. So here we go for round two. You ready for this?

I am ready. Thank you so much, Ben, for having me. I'm grateful to be here and I'm excited for everyone listening. My hope is that this is a life changing conversation that me and Ben have and it brings you nothing but amazing fortune. So let's dive in.

Cool, man. Well, you were a male model or something like that, weren't you?

I was. I was doing some Zoolander for quite some years. And you know, for me it was like, it was like kind of like a get out of jail free card. You know, you get out of college, I had an office job 9 to 5. Like it. I happened to be the right height, you know, right measurements and just went for it. I started acting and modeling and doing commercials and all that. And when I was 20, when I was 22, 23, and I wasn't one of these kids who was found in a. In a mall or scouted, as they say, I kind of moved to LA by myself, no friends, no family, few bucks in my pocket and just kind of went for it. And it was my first time ever, you know, trying to make what I saw in my head and manifest it into reality. And I was so fortunate to get some success. I signed with major agencies and started modeling and acting and doing a lot of big stuff that I was just super grateful for. But the ironic part is I had been diagnosed with at first ulcerative colitis, and now I'm starting to go on sets and have 10, 15 bowel movements a day. Blood, cramping, urgency, diarrhea.

Like before you went to LA to start modeling, did you already kind of know in the background this was an issue?

Yep. 19.

And then it just got worse.

Yeah, I mean, I mean, Ben, when I was dealing with this, I think a lot of people who, if you relate with this, I had no idea what was happening. I was in College at 19 years old. I started seeing blood in the stool and thought, well, I don't know what that is, but I'm just gonna hope it doesn't happen again. And it just got a little bit Worse and a little bit worse. And then by the time I was 23, I'm working a full time job and I'm working 12 hour days in Washington D.C. i was working federal government type stuff and all of a sudden I just got really bad where I went to the doctor, they diagnosed me with ulcerative colitis and they said, I'll have this for the rest of my life and I need to stay on these drugs for the rest of my life. There's nothing I can do about it. Food doesn't matter. I mean, it was devastating. I broke down in front of my boss and I broke down in front of everybody. I was put on prednisone and acicol.

Yeah, I was going to ask you what they actually put you on.

Yeah, they put me on that. 40 milligrams of prednisone, tapering 5 milligrams a week down to zero and then acetyl. And then after that I went on remicade. And for me, I mean I came. I was raised in Virginia in the middle of the woods and my family knew nothing of natural medicine. We were good people. We just thought be a good person, treat people right and everything will be okay. There was no disease in my family.

So hey, take your Tums. If you get indigestion and you're good to go.

Exactly. To take a Tylenol, go to sleep it off. Here's some soup. I mean, just simple stuff.

It's kind of funny not to take over your story, but I grew up in a very similar household where we played outside, we hiked, we were physically active, we were out in the sunshine. But really, and it wasn't my parents fault, they just didn't know a whole lot. There wasn't much of an emphasis on the link between the way that you feel and the food that you eat. And I remember I would have multiple days per week for most of my teenage and adolescent years where I would be curled up with debilitating stomach aches and pains and cramps in the evening. My parents assumed that I just had a weak stomach, that I was sick. They often took me to the doctor who would put me on round after round of antibiotics. And nobody really paid that much attention to the fact that my favorite thing to do was drink 1 to 2 gallons of 2% milk per day because I was a growing boy and I needed it, baby. And I had no clue about lactose or A1 proteins or the inflammatory nature of that at all. I kind of had a similar situation and always wonder like, gosh, because I still have a little bit of a princess gut. I just wonder if that definitely did a number on me early on in life.

Amen to that, man. And that's what I think, Ben. Me and you are here to do is. That's our gift to the world. It's through our pain that we created purpose and we're here to help others find real answers. And I think something that's really distinct here is it's really hard to help others and have that special gift if you haven't gone through that pain yourself. Yeah. I think that was lacking in our parents, who we love and who are doctors, who we love is that there was just that disconnection. They really hadn't been through it and the conventional medicine didn't say much about it and parents didn't know what to do about it and we were all kind of dumbfounded. And so it's. Yeah, it was a similar situation. I had 2% milk, like a gallon a day. Same thing. Growing boy really into my athletics, wanted to gain all this weight and be big for football and basketball and was just so into that that it just, it took over. And I think it might have been connected with my own princess get right.

Yeah.

When you're that young and you're going through that, it's. You don't know what to do about it and you feel like it's almost like better luck next life.

Yeah.

You know, it's like, oh, well, this is it and this is how it's going to be and there's nothing. Nothing matters.

Yeah.

That.

That are just like cut out, you know, bits of your body, which I know a lot of people deal with as well. I mean, as it's my understanding that ulcerative colitis can kind of like come and go and you have periods of REM in between, but often due to stress or due to travel or due to even excess physical activity or heat or things like that, you get those flare ups and it sounds to me like you did get on medication, but you were experiencing getting worse and worse, especially the bleeding part, which I think is likely super disturbing. If you haven't eaten beets the day before and you look in the toilet and it's red.

Yeah, all red. Exactly. And it was not. And I know a lot of people right now might be relating with this. I didn't want it to do natural medicine. I just wanted my life back. I just wanted my life back. I was shooting for big, big campaigns. I thought I was going to be the next Brad Pitt, you know, hope and believe. You know, I thought I was going to be a cool cat. My ego was getting way too big. And all of a sudden I was blood. Every day. The whole toilet bowl was blood. Cramping, pain. It felt like I was pooping glass. And then the prednisone kind of worked and stopped working. The acicle didn't work, then the liar didn't work, then Remicade didn't work. And then it was 6 MP. And then I got basically drug induced hepatitis from the 6 MP waking up in shivers and cold sweats. And I had to come off immediately. And. And then I went on in Tivio and it was just like my. My family was throwing everything at this. Everything. And it was. Oh, man, I just. I could not get out. I was in this prison. And it was not weeks, it was not months, it was years. And I'm sitting here and I'm masking it, I'm hiding it from my agencies. And I'm a hard worker, really. Just everything I've had, I've had to work for. And I just paid my own way my entire life. And here I am just stuck, and there's nothing I can do about it. And I go to ucla, I go to Cedars Sinai, I go to Mayo Clinic, and they're all telling me the same things. I have, at first, severe ulcerative colitis. Then UCLA diagnosed me with Crohn's disease. And then Mayo Clinic said, no, you have. You have ulcerative colitis. And then UCLA said, no, you definitely have Crohn's disease. They couldn't make up their mind. So I just started calling it Crohn's colitis. And I'm sitting here and they're all saying, look, you're just going to keep switching these biologics until we find that it works. If it doesn't work, we need to cut out part or all of your colon for a total colectomy. So you're going to get your colon removed and then you're going to wear a stoma. And then if everything goes well, you can have a reversal surgery to make a J pouch. And then, you know, and hopefully that will. That will cure it.

And hey, a quick question about that, because obviously, you know, people cringe at the idea. Idea of that surgery, but it doesn't just fix things to my understanding, because of the extreme importance of the colon and the colonic flora and the absorption of things like short chain fatty acids and a lot of stuff that occurs in the colon dictates that you can't just take it out and not experience sometimes even worse issues in the future. Am I correct in that assumption?

You are correct, but it's not something discussed with the doctor. So the doctor's looking at a situation saying there's, there's no way out. We have to take out the colon. This could be life threatening. You could increase dysplasia, which is basically turning into cancer, and it's potentially life threatening. So we need to take the colon out. Now. The long term effects of. Yeah, you can have short gut syndrome, you can have water absorption issues, B12. Issues of absorbing B12. Yeah. Short chain fatty acids and other issues where a lot of people who have a total colectomy are going to the bathroom on average, if everything goes well, five to seven times a day. So it's not uncommon to still use the bathroom a ton because you don't have the colon and wake up in the middle of the night. But it can save your life. And I do want to say that in some cases it's needed and it's not something I look down upon. I work with many people who had their colon removed or part of their terminal ileum, and that's totally fine. And you can still get massive results with it. It's just something that I didn't want to do and I felt like there was something more I could do. And Ben, what gave me the faith was I would go home and I do a day fast. I wouldn't eat anything. I would meditate, I would just relax, sleep. I wouldn't anything. And my bowel movements would go from 20 to 12. And I go to the doctor and I say, hey doc, I didn't need anything and I just got 30, 40% symptom relief. What's that mean? Oh, that doesn't mean anything. You just didn't need. So there's no correlation? No, there's no correlation. Well, I knew that not to be true. I said, well, that's the most ignorant thing I've ever heard. If I can move the needle with this extreme choice of not eating, then there's got to be other ways to move the needle.

Right? Because obviously you can't just not eat your entire life. And I think that's in addition to nutritional malabsorption, one of the reason people with inflammation, colitis, et cetera have difficulty. This is one of the symptoms. You have difficulty putting on weight because many folks just realize, oh, it feels better if I just don't eat. So they don't eat and they Begin to just kind of waste away almost like cancer, cachexia or something like that.

Yeah. And you start reading about intermittent fasting and all the benefits and the benefits of fasting. You go, hey, this could actually be really good for me. And we kind of, you know, just have this, what we call food fear. So we are just have this tons of trauma around food. And I stopped eating a lot. But all of a sudden I went from £185 down to my lowest was £122. And it was. My diet was getting more strict and my symptoms were getting more severe. And then the drugs were working even less. Prednisone was working even less. Methotrexate didn't work. The intiveio didn't work. Remicade didn't work. Lyle didn't work. Acicol didn't work. And all of a sudden I'm going from bad to severe to life threatening. So in 2014, I ironically went through a lot of stress. I think a lot of people can relate who are listening to this. I went through a great deal of stress and all of a sudden I went into a life threatening condition. I started losing my vision. I started having massive night sweats, fevers and shivers. If you're getting night sweats and fevers, I want to touch on that as we go because that was a huge correlation. Now that helped me actually get rid of this issue later on. So night sweats, fevers, shivers. I was losing my vision. I could hardly walk. I actually took. I stopped at a convenience store because I was doing a show for this company. And so I drove myself. I told the art director, I said, I got to go, I'm having a severe situation. I drove myself to the hospital and I was in that hospital for six weeks. I didn't leave for six weeks. I lost £60, about 20 bloody bad moons a day. My whole family flew in. I think it was December 14, 2014. I died at the hospital. Wow. The doctors didn't know what to do. I didn't have good health insurance. So they kept transferring me to different hospitals until I was at a hospital where they was more of a Chinese hospital inland. And they didn't know what to do at all. And it was actually my mom who was managing my health because the doctors were overwhelmed. They didn't know what to do. So she was calling every doctor I'd seen at Mayo, UCLA and Florida, all over, trying to get an idea of what we could do. Because at that point I was on 200mg of infused prednisone. I was on four different types of antibiotics. They put me back on biologics. I was on three grams of Dilaudid, which is what you give to a dying cancer patient. And I was on ambient, and then I was on. I think that was it at the time. So I was starting to have hallucinations. You know, my mom was saying I was, you know, talking to my twin sister, which I don't have one. I don't really remember a lot of that time. Then I went on TPN feeding tube because I couldn't eat. So it was just getting worse and worse and worse. And then there was this doctor who said that he believed that there was. It wasn't actually a bacterial load that was attacking me. That's why the prednisone and the antibiotics weren't working. He believed it was a virus, and he gave my mom that hint. So we called up the insurance and we said, hey, we need to put him on an antiviral chemotherapy or he's going to die. And so we had to argue with the insurance company, because a sample of it is $5,000 a sample. So we argued with him and argued with him and argued with him. We're sitting. We need to be at that place because it's the only place that our insurance would allow us to go. So we didn't have a $200,000 bill by the time we left. And eventually they gave us some, and I actually snapped out of it, came to consciousness. So after about two days on the chemotherapy, I snapped out. I became conscious. I was able to talk and kind of start moving around. And it was at that point I checked myself out of the hospital. So from the time I got blood, was 19. I nearly died on my 27th birthday in the hospital. So this was not some quick thing. I want everyone to know that I didn't just go up and just start a diet and take a few supplements and read a book, and everything changed. It was years of failure. It was thousands and thousands of dollars. It was a lot of pain. It was everyone in my family, everyone in my circle trying to help. And the number one thing that changed during that time is I started realizing that I had to be the CEO of my health. So when I first got this, I'm going, hey, I'm going. I'm seeing the best doctors in the country. I'm at Mayo Clinic. I'm at ucla. They know way better than me. So I was just there to just listen and do. And I realized that wasn't serving Me. And I wasn't just, you know, going to say, hey, doctor, shut up. I'm just going to run this thing. But I started saying, I'm going to have a voice and I'm going to start choosing what I do and why. And when I made that distinction, I was able to have more control and dictate how each day went. Because the doctor's not. Your doctor's going to be with you for 10 minutes. We all know this, right? You got 10 minutes with the person, maybe 15, you know, you're with yourself all day long. So I was able to micromanage all day long what was happening. So once the chemo started kicking in, I made the decision to check myself out of the hospital. And I was housebound for a year at that point.

A year. Geez. So you're just basically just locked away trying to fix your gut or your colon?

Yes. Yeah. And luckily, my mind. And one thing I want to talk on to everyone listening here, how important the mind is. A year prior to that, I started realizing, hey, if I fast, this matters. Hey, if I eat certain things, it goes down a little bit. I started seeing little distinctions. And one thing that saved me is I started journaling every day. So a lot of people that I see, they're either healthy or they're sick. There's no distinction in the middle. So I learned to start celebrating If I saw 10% symptom relief, meaning if I went from 20 bowel movements to 17, I was celebrating. I was hands in the air. I started learning how to get happy. I started learning how to celebrate the micro wins. And I started to look at how to micromanage every day, what was happening. So some key aspects I did when I first started actually getting some real results with natural medicine, because I tried for, you know, once I saw fasting work, I said, let me try the SCD diet. Let me try low FODMAP. Let me try AIP. Let me do the fruitarian diet. You know, 400 bananas a day. I did only bone broth. I did pureed carrots. I, you know, I was reading Jordan Rubin's book. I actually got to meet Jordan and ask him all these things. And I started reading Jeannie Patel, who's also big in the community. And I just looked everywhere and I tried all these things. And these generic famous diets were not working. My case was too severe. The underlying issues, the root causes were so strong, it didn't matter what I ate. I was going to bleed, I was going to have pain, and I was going to have cramping. I think there's a lot of people going to relate with that. There's a lot of people who say, hey, diet restriction works. And that's simply because the diet restriction is allowing the body to have a healing response. So we'll talk a little bit about that as we go. But the diets weren't working. It wasn't really giving me what I needed. And as I restricted my diet and my caloric intake, I started noticing just more weight loss. So Now I'm anemic. £130, 6:2. And I can partly walk. And I've been trying to eat puree carrots for five days straight.

Yeah.

So that's actually a worse situation than I was five days prior because without that weight, without those electrolytes, without the nutrients in my bloodstream, I'm as good as dead.

Yeah.

So I was in this conundrum where I couldn't keep restricting my diet. And that was the conundrum. I needed to find a way to stabilize my body while going after root cause. And almost like a chess match, it was like a moving place. Don't get hit, but hit the opponent. Right? Don't get hit the opponent, don't get hit. So it was a dance that I had to learn. So when I was housebound a little bit before that story is I decided that I wanted to go to school for natural medicine. So I said, whatever I'm going to do. I made a distinction. I think this is the biggest distinction everyone can listen right now is I decided that I was going to be the CEO of my health. Not the expert, not the master, but I was going to take control and response ability for my health. Meaning I'm going to hire this naturopath doctor. I'm going to work with this conventional doctor. I'm going to work with this mindset coach. I'm going to work with the spiritual coach. I don't care. I'm going to put them on my board. I'm going to figure out what they're saying in layman's terms. I'm going to integrate, I'm going to simplify, I'm going to execute and then I'm going to see what happens.

Yeah. Which obviously, I mean, some people, they cringe because, like, oh, you're going to turn into Dr. Google and figure out via deep dark Internet forums and threads what's wrong with you and give yourself hypochondria and all the things that people associate, especially you hear a lot of doctors, they'll Scoff if you walk into their office with some article you found on the Internet. But yet, at the same time, there are so many resources out there. I mean, gosh, totally not related to the gut, but I had this weird mark on my forehead last week, and I downloaded a dermatologist app, took a picture of it, and within a couple seconds knew what it was. And it's not only freeing to be able to be in control like that, or at least arm yourself with a little bit of extra knowledge, but it can save you a ton of time and hassle. And again, obviously, you got to kind of go in with your spidey sense up when it comes to just taking random pieces of advice online. But, yeah, taking control over conditions versus just sitting and waiting for somebody else to figure it out. I think it can be incredible, especially for the stress that accompanies those type of chronic health conditions.

You and I both know, Ben, that that resilience, that grit, that trial and error is kind of how you got where you are. It's part of it. And same with me. We have to stand up and be consistent and be willing. And you want that spidey sense, of course, because there is a lot of crap out there. And at one point, I was taking hookworms, and there seemed to be a lot of good clinical research on it. But then after a week, I said, what am I doing? I'm drinking worms.

Yeah, I did that once. The hookworms and the tapeworms. Yeah, just as an experiment. I heard so many biohackers are doing it to modulate their immune system, especially travel. I did it for, like, three months. It's expensive. It's like 400, 500 bucks or more a month. I didn't notice jack squat from taking it aside from just fun conversation at cocktail parties, but that was about it.

Yeah, I mean, I was 24 years old with very limited experience. And so I think what we're both saying here is that having some kind of foundation to start training. I personally believe that self empowerment around health is the number one value on the planet. There's nothing more valuable than that. So if you can start learning and experimenting and growing, you're not only helping yourself, but your significant other, Your kids, your parents, your loved ones. You just have more power to do something about these terrible things that can happen to us. And that's when I made that distinction. I remember I was sitting there one day, and I said, if I can figure out how to get happy eating this way, if I can figure out how to get happy doing these protocols. If I can figure out how to take back my life, I have everything to gain. So whether it's in that career I had when I was a kid doing the modeling and acting, or. Or any other career I want, or being a father, which I knew I wanted to be a father and I wanted to be married and what I would do for my significant other. And I already knew I didn't want to just put my parents in an old folk home and just leave it up to the doctors. I already knew I wanted to do something about these things that could happen to me in life. So I said, wait a minute. Everything that Crohn's and Kleis is asking me to do, to be able to heal, is everything I actually want for my best life. And that right there, that was the change I went from, oh my God, I have to be gluten free, I have to be dairy free. I have to be on this crappy diet. I'm miserable. I can't be like my friends. How long do I have to keep this up? 2. Wanting and desiring to figure out how to get happy like this. Yeah. So it was a mental change. The number one healing starts in the mind. You have to change your mind to say I want this. If you're doing it because you need it. That fear based gasoline only goes so far.

So are you saying that the mindset shift for you was visualizing, imagining, and kind of future projecting the idea of what you would feel like in the life that you would live once healthy?

Yes. But it was also, what is my best life? When I started imagining what it was, who was I and what was I able to do? It was very similar to what it took to heal Crohn's and colitis. Meaning if I want to stand up on a surfboard when I'm 70 years old and feel good, is eating a specific way going to be part of that? Of course. If I wanted to not have back pain, if I didn't want to get Alzheimer's, which both my grandparents died of Alzheimer's, my parents trying to. Or my mom mostly trying to tell me, hey, you got to do this diet. You got to try this, got to try that. And me just having to be drugged to do it, like just miserable. Absolutely. And I know a lot of parents are relating this or kids are relating this right now. It's like you're just miserable trying these diets, everything. Something can change in you. It's not just about Crohn's and colitis. Like Something changed in you, Ben, where you said, I want to eat this way. I want to make this investment because I'm excited about what it can create in my life. I'm excited about how I can feel and how I can shift. So you took a fear based ideal to an investment, a sacrifice into an investment. So once I started shifting my mind that I wanted to invest in myself, I wanted to be the best version of myself. I took power away from the doctor, I took power away from the diagnosis, I took power away from, away from everyone. I didn't need as much. I didn't feel so guilty that my parents were literally emptying their bank accounts trying to heal me.

Wow.

My first year trying to heal my family spent $30,000. We are not rich family. We didn't have a lot of money. That was a lot of money for us. I got worse. The reason I got worse is because I wasn't willing. I wasn't actually in it. I was being drugged to the hospitals and drugged to these doctors and choking down and doing whatever they were saying. And I was miserable the whole time. I didn't know what I was supposed to take. I didn't know what I was supposed to do. I wasn't accountable, I wasn't researching, I wasn't reading. I was putting out my hand and someone was saying, take this and eat that. And I was just doing it and putting my headphones back on. Binging on Netflix.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I know that eventually, I guess to go long story short, you wound up healing yourself pretty significantly. And obviously when I saw you at the event in Arizona, I never would have guessed that you were, what'd you say, £130?

120. £120.

Six too. I mean, you're a big, strong, muscular guy now and I mean, you look super healthy. So how long did it take for you to actually, once you started to take your health into your own hands, turn the corner and start to feel like you didn't have to be chained to a toilet all day.

It took me about three or four years before I got any real results. And I went into natural medicine school because I started noticing when I changed certain things that I started getting some results and that created belief.

Oh, and by the way, what's natural medicine school?

I got a board certification in holistic nutrition from a place called Ehigh Inn in Los Angeles. So it was founded by a few naturopath doctors and it was a two year degree where you basically learn about mitochondria, energy and gut health. And meditation, the nervous system. You learn about nutrients and how to figure out how much nutrients is in food and the value of fiber and those kind of basic strategies. So it gave me a place where while I was sick and while I was housebound, I was. I was doing what I could there. So my naturopaths would live close. I would also do a lot of it online, and it took me about two years. So I was in it for about six or seven months prior to me getting sick. And then when I left the hospital, it was actually my naturopath professor that was the first person I called to say, what do I do? And he put me on vitamin a, vitamin C, zinc, slippery almond, marshmallow. He was actually the first one to introduce me to something I call the BCPA shake, which is bentonite, clay, and cilium husk, which actually helped to formulate my bowels because I had such a spastic colon and diarrhea. That binder with a bulking agent really did help me immensely calm down bowel movements and even calm down the blood.

So that BCPA shake, is that like the name of a recipe or is that an actual brand?

That's like a recipe? That's just kind of the nickname that I. That I. That he and I kind of created for it.

So you called it BCPA, BCPH.

So bentonite clay, okay. BC and then psyllian husk, pH. Psyllium husk. And so that you can do it with psyllium seed, or you could use acacia fiber, or you could use sprouted flax and chia seed. There's many different types of fibers you could use as a bulking agent or as a binder. You can use many different ones, but those are the two that he introduced me to that actually did start to help. So he had some benefits where he showed me that, which was a big aha moment. But there were also a lot of things that, you know. He was a fantastic, brilliant naturopath doctor, but he didn't specialize in Crohn's or colitis. And I started noticing that within naturopath doctors around the country is that not many people specialize, but they could show me 10, 20, 30 cases of people that they had reverse symptoms and gotten clinical remission. And that's what I was looking to do. So I even furthermore said, I have to figure this out. But the benefit is I was exhibit A. So when I was doing natural medicine school, I was taking what I was learning, and I was applying it to my daily life. So it was the Best training I ever got because I wasn't talking about theory. I was literally chronically sick, 120 pounds. Couldn't leave my room and saying, okay, I'm going to try this, I'm going to try that, I'm going to add this, I'm going to do that. And it was him who actually said, you finally got me to sit down and meditate and really take it seriously. And so, long story short, when I started to heal, it took me about a year to get mass results. In one year, I got rid of about 90 to 95% of my symptoms. I went down to two to three bowel movements a day. No blood, no cramping, no urgency. I went up to £175. I got off, I took myself off intiveo, I got myself off prednisone, I got myself off the chemotherapy pills, which only supposed to last for a month or two. I got myself off painkillers, I got myself off ambient. I was drug free in about seven, it was about seven months. And on month seven, I was supposed to go in for an infusion and they took my blood and they were going to give me the intivio. I sat in the infusion chair and I felt so good, man, I felt so good. And I just knew in my heart, I said, this is not the intivio. I've tried biologics. I just did. I didn't want to stay on them because I knew I had to be on them for the rest of my life. And I was reading about the chances of the biologics increasing, chances of cancer. So it just didn't feel right. So I made a personal decision that I was going to just go wild west on it. And I just stood up from the intibio table and I said, no thanks, walked out and went cold turkey. And it was bold. And I'm not recommending anyone listening here to do that. And looking back, I was a young guy who didn't know what I know now. And there's a better way to do it, but that's what I chose. And I just felt deeply that it was the natural medicine that was working. It wasn't that I had a lot of learning pivots from there. That was about seven or eight years ago where I had to learn a lot of different things. But I made that decision. And when I went to the hospital to see my doctor at ucla, she said, dana, I was gonna be really mad at you until I saw your blood work. Your blood work's perfect. What have you been doing. And it was like, oh, my God. Let me tell you what I've been doing. I've been taking this curcumin in boswellia and using all these different types of fibers and meditation of it, make my own yogurts and all that sauerkraut jar a day, you know, all this stuff. And she didn't know what I was talking about. She said, okay, whatever, Just calm it down. Let's do the colonoscopy. Let's see what's going on. So I let her do the colonoscopy. My colonoscopy showed 80%, 80% healed.

Wow.

The scars were gone, the ulcers were gone. The inflammation was almost basically gone. I mean, seven months later, it looked. She couldn't believe it.

That should be helpful and hopeful for people who have issues like this to hear. Also, because the body was able to, or at least the colon was able to regenerate itself, I know there are some organs, like the heart, where if there's cellular damage and cellular deaths, you typically just get fibrosis and a weakened heart and heart damage, whereas the liver can totally regenerate. It sounds to me like the colon just basically can bounce back.

Yeah. The gut is the fastest healing tissue in the body. I mean, when it has the ability, it can heal very quickly. I mean, some of the clients and members we have, I mean, I know it sounds unbelievable, but we see people get massive symptom relief. Sometimes 80, 90% symptom relief in 14 days. It's insane. I know it sounds crazy, but it is possible. It's just the body has to find that right pieces, the right puzzle, and it can. Boom. It can move quickly. I mean, think about when you get food poisoning, you get the flu or you get the stomach bug. Think about how quickly your body can recover from that. If you get it out of your system, it could be a day or two. So it's not like tearing your shoulder, you know, it's not like your hip goes bad. The gut is very quick to act. And so some of the things that I'd say sum it up with my healing journey, because I don't want this to be about me. I want this to be about the viewers, and I want to give them the big things that they. That you can use today to get massive results. So things that I did in the beginning that were huge, that were not just about a magic pill or about a diet. Number one, I only ate what I cooked, so I didn't know what to eat. So I said, if I don't know what to eat. Let me only eat what I cook because I'll have a better intuition. Okay, so theme for you. When you're starting to heal, let intuition be your North Star. Your divine subconscious is really powerful if you can tap into it. That's one of the benefits of meditation. It helps you tap into your subconscious and your awareness. So I only ate what I cooked and I meditated on that and allowed me to start feeling how do I feel with this food or that food?

Would you actually. Obviously you can log your meals and write symptoms of it, but did you actually sit and meditate after each meal and tune into the body in the beginning?

Yes, I would meditate for about 20 minutes before meal and after. Especially if I was not competent, I could handle the food. So I was trying to figure out, should I eat fruit, should I eat grains, should I eat meat, should I eat? Because every diet was being a little different. But I looked at the common themes. If you look at SCD diet or the. Or if you look at AIP diet or a lot of these are going to say high protein, high meat, high, some vegetables and stay away from polysaccharides, stay away from grains. And so I saw a common theme to stay away from grams. Same with fruitarian diet, stay away from grams. So I was seeing a common theme that certain plant based foods were not working. So the first thing I tried was a lot of meats. And then I started being okay. Red meat was hurting me because of the iron and the red meat. So I started getting away from that. Then I said, okay, well if I cook it on a no, what's the difference between cooking chicken on a barbecue with a high flame versus in a crock pot? So I started learning about and I created this thing called food philosophy where I started learning about how food works despite a blind diet that saved me. There's one thing I want you to understand today. It's being able to be aware of food. Don't just do a diet because someone said it and wrote a book. Look at food and be aware of how it works and then listen to your body and journal on that because your body will tell you. Some people with diagnosis of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis will do very good vegan and others will do very good meat based. I have one client right now, he's been with me for a year and he can only eat vegan. He cannot have any meat. He has any meat. He gets 18 bloody bowel movements a day. He can only have plants. Wow. But it's very common for a lot of us to say, I can only eat meat because meat is dead food. It's got no carbs, it's got no gluten, it's got no dairy, it's got no sugars, it's got no fiber. Right. Fiber is only found in plant based foods so it can slow down the bowel movements, especially if you have a spastic colon. So I started realizing just the food. I call it food philosophy. So one of the goals I have for viewers listening is I want to free you of a diet and give you the power to assess the risk of any food that you eat at any time. Just look at it and assess it.

By the way, related to that whole logging thing, I recently interviewed Dr. William Davis. I don't know if you know him. He's the author of a relatively new book called Super Gut. Very focused on El reuteri and some other specific strains of bacteria for particularly things like Sibo, but also sleep performance. He recommended to me when I interviewed him this device called a food marble. It's made by a company called Air A I R E. In the past, to test for sibo, you got to order this kit and do all your breath tests. And this is like an at home SIBO test. You breathe into it for five seconds before and after each meal and then like an hour after your meals and you can log and it actually shows you all your methane and hydrogen production from every single meal. And I for a while was getting gas and bloating and I talked with Dr. Davis and I bought one and I've been using it and it's crazy. You can, with laser like precision see exactly what's causing a spike in methane or spike in hydrogen. You know what's nuts? If I go back to what you were talking about, pretty strict, meat without a lot of especially like fibrous vegetables and even fermented vegetables and things like that. My gas scores are pretty much non existent. And as soon as I introduce any amounts of not just beans, but lettuce, kale, carrots, you name it, I see this bump up in hydrogen and methane scores. And I don't know if I'll just eat only meat my whole life. But it's pretty crazy that once you start to track, sometimes you think what's up? And then once you start to track, you really start to see these patterns emerge and it's crazy.

I love that. I haven't heard of that app, but it sounds fantastic because SIBO is Such a hard one to tackle. Yeah. But there's a lot of evidence to suggest anyone with IBS has sibo. I mean, sibo is not necessarily a diagnosis. It's a, it's a just bacteria overgrowth. It's a microbiome imbalance. And, and it's, it's really interesting on that because over the years I only ate more paleo AIP for years, but I've actually so something that changed on me. And this is for those I want to give everyone a higher thought. Eventually you want to get them what I call the offensive food. See, if you're still having a problem eating a whole food which has fibers or sugars and you're getting a severe reaction, that's a sign that the microbiome still needs to get healthier. There's something still there that diet restriction can't solve. I see this a lot of times with people who go paleo and feel better. It doesn't necessarily clean out the gallbladder and the liver and it doesn't treat underlying infections and maybe infections that have biofilms that you're not even finding in a quantitative PCR stool test. And so a lot of times that upper GI is just, just hidden and it's, it's mass. And the more you, you treat it and then start conditioning that upper gi, the easier it is. So nowadays I actually eat probably about 70% plant. And for about five years I only ate meat and vegetables.

Wow.

Because I found the same thing. And so it was all AIP was just like fermented foods, properly cooked meats, you know, head, the tail type stuff. And I still love that. I still do it. I think it's fantastic. But I had something done on me. I said, if I can't eat these things, is that because it's bad for me or my body's not ready for it? And that was the. So it was a good question. And I said, okay, can I answer that question? I started messing around with it and finding certain things to help me. So in that regard, you know, I got on the offensive food of how can I do physical therapy in my gut so it can handle more. So like let's say like a piece of pizza, it's poison, we shouldn't have it. But why is it a 20 year old person who doesn't have GI issues doesn't have a severe reaction to the pizza while we do? So my goal and why I called the program SHIELD is the ability to be able to handle poison without a severe reaction. That's a Sign of a healthy gut. Yeah, that's where I started saying well let me get on the offensive food and let me start adding these things and finding a way to do it. Deeper infection, like I'll say like biocide and was really good as an anti biofilm. If you don't know what you're doing, be very careful because that can expose a lot of infections that can cause a cytokine storm that you're not ready for. We see it all the time so you gotta be really careful with how you detox and work it. But I love like tadka nac glycine. Those are like my 3 favorite for liver and gallbladder cleanse. What was that?

What was that one you said? Tudka.

Tudca is amazing. Check out tudca T U D C A. So and this is all a chest match guy. So as we as me and Ben talk about supplements and all that, it needs to be put and customized to where you are. If you do this in the wrong place, it's like a paradigm, it can cause a negative reaction. So here's what I want everyone to know. If you take a certain supplement and you're not in the right place, you can have a negative herxheimer reaction, a negative reaction. But the same person, same root cause, who's a little bit more prepared can have an amazing positive reaction. So there's a paradigm with supplements. Just because something doesn't work or food doesn't work doesn't mean it's bad for you. It means your body's not ready. So tuck is an amino acid that helps your gallbladder create more bile. Bile is also used by the liver to transport toxins. A lot of people who are constipated, a lot of people with bacterial overgrowth, dysbiosis, autoimmune disease, they're backed up in the liver and gallbladder until they get fixed. You're not going to digest fibers, you're not going to digest proteins or fats. Well if you're getting a lot of gas and bloating and foul smelling bowel movements, then that's probably an indigestion of fats. One of my favorite things is taking a little bit of liposomal PC phosphatidyl complex or phosphatidylcholine and that's so heavy in fats that a lot of times you get a lot of ton of gas and bloating. So I'll use that as a measurement of success on how I'm doing with fats. Because I want that to feed my mucosal membrane, to help heal my epithelial cell wall, to help build my lipid fat bilayer so I have less mast cell activation and internal cellular issues. So, like a lot of my clients who have mast cell or histamine issues, one of my favorite things is to use things like butyrate and PC to rebuild those lipid fats around the cells to stop that histamine reaction. And so it's all like a chess match. It's like, where are you? What are the root causes? How can you find them? And then how can you slowly use things to get it at the right time? So working on your liver and gallbladder is really great for digestion. A lot of people with Crohn's and colitis, their digestion is so poor, their pancreas is not operating correctly. They have undigested proteins, fats, or even fibers that are going into your colon, and it's causing the spastic colon. That's why restrictive diets works in the first place, because you're trying to make things more bioavailable and reduce inflammatory response. Well, one of the hardest things to digest is beans or kale because it's so fibrous. It's insoluble fiber that doesn't absorb water, and it flies through your gut like a log on top of a stream. You need soluble fiber. That's why bananas do better.

Okay. Okay. Got it.

You see what I'm saying? So what we can do is the food that you're reacting to, when you learn food philosophy actually teaches you about root cause. If I have someone who's having a terrible reaction to a banana, I'm already knowing that sugars are a problem. And I've got my sights on yeast or fungal growth. Growth, because that sugar is feeding that, and it's causing a reaction because fungus and yeast feeds on the sugar, and it usually causes that negative reaction. So I'm already thinking sugar, fungus. Is there connection? Is it mold or is it yeast? Is it candida? Is it in the gut? Is it systemic? If someone's having a reaction with kale, like insoluble fibers, I'm thinking poor digestion of fiber, sibo liver, gallbladder backed up, and aspastic colon. And because of that, a lot of people with ulcerative colitis, like, for years, I would get tons of lettuce and tomatoes and corn and brown rice undigested in my stool. And so why is that not being broken down?

Is there anybody, though, that doesn't get corn in their stool. I mean, isn't that kind of a thing?

That's just. That's pretty much everyone at this point, especially all the GMO corn that's got so many issues in the corn. But, you know, and so you, you start learning about that and what's what the crazy thing has been over these last seven, eight, nine years, I can eat 10 times as much food and I have no symptoms from it. So I just got back from Mykonos two days ago and we're in Greece. And you know, when you're out in Greece and you're on boats and stuff, you're not going to eat how you eat at home. It's a little harder. So I'm still gluten free and doing all that stuff. But a little bit of this, a little bit of that, I ran into. There was this guy who is famous chef out there who had this homemade bread made with oat and millet and there was a little bit of flour in there, so it had some gluten. I had three or four pieces, had a normal bowel movement, no problem. But I was able to assess the risk of that and choose that in that moment and be okay. And all the hard work of fixing my gut has allowed me to handle the stress of poor quality food if and when I ever choose to have it. And that's true freedom. So that's what everyone wants, is they want to make an investment in a way of living so they can get back freedom. Now I have even more freedom because I do not desire poisonous food. I don't want pizza, I don't want gluten, I don't want donuts. I don't want it. It does nothing for my dreams or goals.

You're like me when people say, oh, dude, do you ever cheat? Do you ever just say, eff it? And I'm like, well, if you want to call having a little bit of extra ribeye steak and a larger piece of a nice organic dark chocolate bar and an extra glass of biodynamic wine, yeah, I cheat. But for me to pull into a fast food restaurant or go out for donuts, to me, that's like offering me a chunk of dog crap to cheat on. It's like, if I'm going to cheat, I want the good stuff, baby. It's cheat. Cheat's just more calories. Right?

But how long did it take you? Honestly, that mental fortitude, you get so much dopamine, you get so much excitement about what you're building. Why are you going to put a chain on yourself with that poison? You're just there mentally.

Yeah, well, what it took for me was I used to pull into McDonald's every day on my way to tennis practice in college and get a Big Mac supersized and Dr. Pepper and then go play tennis for three or four hours. I did that every day in addition to the gallon of milk. Those other things that I used to do. And what it took for me, honestly was when I was in college taking nutrition courses, seeing pictures of guts and learning about how foods are broken down and learning about inflammation and realizing, oh, hey, you'd think I'd have clued into this long before there's actually a link between what I eat and how long I'm going to live and how I feel. And once you know, it's kind of like when you look at the picture on the side of the cigarette package, which obviously doesn't stop a lot of people, but probably halts a few once you know, it's actually difficult to eat the poison and if you know physiologically what it's doing to your body to keep doing it.

And you know, the addiction even gets more exciting because when you started diving into telomeres or nad or peptides or stem cells or cellular health or cleaning or the liver, like all of a sudden you're just going, my God, I feel, I don't need. I feel great. I feel like I'm actually fast, bigger, faster, stronger at 30 something than 20 something. I mean, you have every. This is the thing that changed me. I have everything to gain and nothing to lose. What I'm losing and what is all emotional fear and trauma to connect with a society that poisons itself as a celebration. What do we do for birthdays, Halloween, Christmas and prom, Prom night? We drink and eat crap food.

Yeah.

It's like we celebrate poisoning ourselves. And I think that we need to change that.

Yeah, no, trust me, bro, I'm super into feasting. But the feasts we have here are absolutely amazing when it comes to real good organic food, close to earth. I wanted ask you because there was one thing that intrigued me actually. It was when you and I were talking when I first met you. You said a lot of doctors, they don't run the right tests, they don't look for the right things. And I noticed on your website, because I went and checked out your website, I'll link to it BenGreenfieldLife.com Dane because you have all your different products that you recommend and use and then a whole program where People can actually be coached by you and your team to learn the techniques that you know. But then you got a whole bunch of different lab tests and some stuff that you wouldn't think necessarily directly correlates to the gut, like Epstein Barr and cytomegalovirus. So what's your approach to the actual testing component?

Yeah, great question. So there's so many root cause issues that are not being checked by conventional medicine and insurance is not going to cover the right type of technology to even check. So for instance, the first test I like to use I do think helps. It's got. Every test has its whole. So one thing to know about testing is no test is perfect, but they can really help you understand root cause. So I'll give you an example. The first test I like to use is a quantitative PCR test. I use the GI MAP test. This is basically giving me quantitative values of measurements of infections that is very sensitive so it can see what the doctor can't see. So for instance, if a doctor wants to find H. Pylori bacteria in your body, it needs to be E to the fourth, mid mid, E to the fourth or higher. That's a scientific notation. So it's just a really high amount for them to test positive and has be active. Well, when you do a genetic stool test, it can be a very small amount and not even be active or reacting in the body and you can still see it. So I had one guy, this guy was a very successful man in Los Angeles. He made lots of money, went to UCLA and all this stuff and he was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, having 20 bloody bowel movements a day. And he didn't know why. And he's having six bowel movements a night. He's about to quit his job. And this is a multiple six figure job. He's a very successful young man. He didn't want to quit, but he's lost all this weight, 20 bloody bowel movements a day, cramping, pain, urgency, weight loss, acne, headaches, depression, and he's just lost. And so I work with him one on one and the first thing I do is I do a GI MAP test and I look and he has got massive amounts of Candida just sitting in his stool.

Oh wow.

I'm talking humongous amounts of Candida. And it's right there. And this is where I get a little upset with the conventional. It's right in front of me. It took me five days. Well, here you go. You're probably reacting to it, I kid you not. In three weeks, we had him symptom free and they were about to take out his colon. Wow.

And you did you just put him in like an antifungal type of protocol using oregano and all those type of things.

So that's the chest mesh. I'll give you an example of the chest mesh. The first thing I want to do is increase nutrient absorption and reduce inflammatory response. That's all. That's all you want from food? Okay, two things you want from food, you want to increase nutrient absorption and reduce inflammatory response. So I got to get his colon to calm down. I got to get amino acids. I got to. In his body. I get healthy fats in his body. I got to get him creating cholesterol and testosterone. I got to make sure he's got the building blocks to even recover. If you don't have the building blocks, you're not going to recover. So I make sure that I'm starting to increase. I'm building a nutrition plan where I can increase absorption, reduce inflammatory response, and I'm starting to use anti inflammatory. I'm playing defense. So the first thing you want to do is do things that can only help and don't hurt. Don't go on the offense because it's too risky at first. You're one step away from going into an ER room. Some of the. Some of you guys out there listening right now. Okay. And if you're not that sick, it's still the best way you can get massive difficult dividends just playing defense. So things like a really healthy curcumin, a little hack. Don't get a bioavailable curcumin. You want a curcumin that actually doesn't absorb because it coats the colon.

Yeah. So if you get like the curcumin that has the black pepper and stuff added to it, that's actually a bad idea if you want the curcumin for the gut because it gets absorbed systemically. I've heard that before.

Bingo. Exactly. And black pepper, you don't want. It aggravates the gut. No, black pepper, you see that in your curcumin? Don't get it. So a regular. I use C3 curcumin by Designs for Health. I love that product. Product. So just starting to use some of that. Using meat colculus, things that coat the stomach, do what a 5 ASA mesalamine is trying to do, but do it better. So using like slippery elm or marshmallow root, or you could use some glutamine or aloe vera. So you just want to play defense. It's not going to hurt you. It's only going to calm down, right? Put your hands over your face and start moving around the ring. So play defense first. So with defense we got him down to 8, 8 to 9 bowel movements and cut his blood down by 60% and his energy went up by 50% in a matter of 10 days because he couldn't absorb anything. He was eating crap food, he didn't know what to do, so he couldn't absorb. And everything he was eating was causing inflammatory response even though it was seemingly healthy. Right? His spirulina and his salads and he was having grains and he was eating gluten free burgers with a gluten free bun. And it was just not doing anything for him. It was just so generic. And so we built that plan. He started getting some fantastic symptom relief and then we started working on his detox pathways to before we detox. So the number one thing you're going to want to do when you're looking at the chest match of trying to kill off infections is you've got to make sure your detox pathways are open. So starting to maybe use some glutathione or NAC or glycine like we talked about using binders. So it could be like a BCPH shake, it could be GI detox, activated charcoal, it could, you know, these things. You want to clean out that gut first, play some defense, let the body release some toxins, then slowly start on an antipathogen. So when I start on anti pathogen, I'm looking for something with very minimal ingredients, something as old as, like very old as, like old as dirt type of thing. Like oregano is a good example. Right? Oregano was used by your great grandfather to treat the flu or toenail fungus, you know, in the 1800s. It's very old and you can get like oregano with olive oil and that's broad spectrum. It's anti parasitic, antibacterial, anti yeast and some antiviral. But if your body's not ready, you're going to have a terrible reaction. So you got to prime the body, make sure the inflammation's going down, calm down the epithelial cell wall, make sure that the liver and gallbladder is being supported and slowly microdose on it. So as I microdosed on the anti pathogens and titrated up, all of a sudden he's going, dan, I'm getting normal bowel movements, I'm able to eat this. I'll need this. And I think it was in three or four months. He's sitting courtside at the Lakers game. No problems, no symptoms. We got him off biologics. He now he decided, I'm not going to get you guys. If you want to get off biologics, you just, you got to make that choice. I can coach you through it, but that's your choice. So he decided he wanted to come off biologics. We got prednisone, we got him off the salamine and his prednisone just, or I'm sorry, his calprotectin just came back at like a 60, I think a 60 or 50 from 3,000. Long story short, the lab work, a lot of times it's just not being checked. So if you're listening to this right now, ask yourself, did your doctor ever check for candida? Did he check for yeast, did he check for viruses, did he check for a parasite? No, because the insurance covered lab work. Doesn't go, doesn't even see it, doesn't even look.

Is there a test that does a lot of it all at once? Because I've in the past made recommendations for the Genova Diagnostics three day stool panel, which does give you parasites, yeast, fungus, inflammatory markers. Does that knock a lot of that stuff out of the park or do you think there's extras that you gotta add in?

Probably in the beginning that's a good bang for your buck because you're looking for obvious infections at the beginning, especially if you just got diagnosed, is there an obvious infection or is this a deeper problem? So that's not going to check for viral load, it's not going to check for mold. So the thing about a genetic stool test is they can't check for mold because it takes too long to culture. So they don't check for mold, they only check for yeast and candida. So for example, I had a five year old girl who's working with extreme ulcerative colitis. Now she's symptom free. And the problem was she had molded her gut, she had aspergillus with gliotoxin in her body and it wasn't showing up in her stool test even though her secretary IGA was extremely high in her calprotectin because they don't culture mold in a genetic stool test. So sometimes you do need to look different. So I'm gonna say this phase one GI map test. Once you're good with that, phase two, I'm gonna look at an organic acid test, urine analysis, that can give me ideas of mold neurotransmitters, vitamin deficiencies, oxalate issues, which also can tell me about more systemic issues. So I'll look at an organic acid test and then the phase two. Also, I'm probably gonna look at maybe a cytokine panel. So at this point, I want to see if you're interleukin 12 or 23 or IL beta 1 or your. Or your TNF alpha is raised. That'll give me an idea if the biologics are working or if you need the biologics. And if there's deeper systemic reactions. Each cytokine tends to be linked with different types of autoimmune diseases. Like IL18 is linked with inflammation and damage on the. In the mucosal lining. So I'm saying, okay, the IL18 is really high. Now, the research is still very new within cytokines, so we're still learning a lot about them, but it's still very good to check. So if I'm gonna get you off biologics, I'm always gonna check your cal, protecting your cytokine religiously as I'm coming off. That's what the mistake I didn't make when I came off the biologics. Okay, so phase two. I wanna know cytokines. I wanna know organic acid. And so now I have stool, urine, and then the blood work I want you to do under insurance with your doctor at first because it doesn't cost us any money. We always wanna save money when we can. Don't splurge. Right. Spend money on things that make sense, but do not spend money, anything, a supplement or a lab that does not make sense to you. You. It's the biggest problem. Everyone's going to a naturopath and doing what they're telling them to do without it making sense. They're taking supplements or doing labs. Spending 3, $4,000 on labs and they don't even know why. You got to make sure it's being trained. Like, if you're paying them, explain it in layman's terms. Why are we doing this? Why are we doing this? Why are we doing this? So when you in the shield Program, what we do is we actually make you become accountable to your plan and what you're doing and why. So we're training you because if you're going to be good in 10 years, you need to know what you're doing. You don't have to become a doctor. You just have to understand the stuff in layman's terms. So just break it down. Give yourself a Cheat sheet and understand it. Two to three sentences on every supplement and what it does. Same thing with the lab test. If you're going to spend money, understand it. So phase two, organic acid, the cytokine GI map is the first one. Just look for those really clear, obvious ones. And then I might look after that like a mold test, a mycotoxin test to see what that I might be looking at. Like a heavy metal test. Is there something deeper going on with heavy metals that could be causing some of these different cytokine panels? A lot of people with Crohn's colitis may have another autoimmune disease like lupus or rheumatoid arthritis or multiple sclerosis. So we want to see if there's other issues that are going on because they're all causing that hyperactive immune system. And then I, you know, food allergy test I will do eventually. So if I have leaky gut gone, zonulin is not a problem. Your microbiome is good, your inflammation is under control, and you're not on any kind of biologic or immunosuppressant. Then I'm going to check, check your food allergies and I'm going to check your IGA igg maybe, or IGA igg. So that's just going to tell me about, you know, different types of a delayed reaction that can cause a sensitivity over two to 28 days. Or, you know, an IGE if you're getting severe reactions to food, which is usually pretty apparent. So you don't usually have to do that. The, the big one that I've been adding in lately, which is also a phase three or phase two, depending on what I'm seeing as the root cause is around viruses. So this is a big hitter.

Yeah, I think, I think this is what you were telling me, by the way, that I was super intrigued about.

This has saved more lives and this is what helped save my life. I have seen people, it's miraculous. I've seen people go symptom free in four, like unbelievable results. Four days from doing, from looking at this theory. So I do a test, and it's only in Germany right now. Covid restrictions will not allow us in the United States to do this test, but you can still learn about it and just keep connected with us. And I'm hoping this month, in August that the restrictions are going to open and we can do this test here in the United States. Otherwise it's very expensive. You can still piece it together, but you're looking at $2,500 to piece it together in the United States. If you do it In Germany, it's $550. So there's a, there's a man named Dr. Arman. He's Armin labs.com A R M I N labs.com He's a medical doctor, 35 year veteran, worked with HIV, AIDS, all the big bad wolves. And what he's really, the one thing he's done is he has found root causes to chronic diseases that are seemingly incurable. So he's been able to find connections with Lyme disease or other viruses or bacteria. So like bacteria load in your bloodstream like Campylobacter and yersinia, which are usually found in the GI tract. But a lot of people don't realize they're actually in the blood too and they're causing those issues. So he has great testing. So the basic thing that he's doing different than what our doctors are doing is he's testing, testing for the IgA antibodies. That's T cell activation. So think Covid. T cell activation is giving us a more apparent and true result versus igg and igm. This is just an antibody that your T cells create to fight an infection. So when you are getting testing positive for something, they're saying, look, your body's creating antibodies to this, therefore you have it. So when the doctors check your Epstein Barr virus or cytomegalovirus in the United States, they're checking igg, which is just delayed or a past infection. So they're saying, look, you've had it in the past, but you don't have it now. So they're not going to act on it. So if you have high levels of IG to ebv, cmv, the doctors are not going to do anything and they're not going to know what to do with it because it's just past infection. Now IgM is a really poor way of checking for current infection. So only probably 20% of the time is IGM actually accurate. And it only tests for very strong, very fresh infection. So if the infection's old or it's been there for a while, IgM is not going to be there. So the number one thing you want to look for is the IgA antibodies. And that's what Dr. Armand does. So he actually built a specific Crohn's colitis test for us where he tests for, I think it's five different viruses and two bacteria that he calls enterobacteria or enteroviruses, which mean are viruses and bacteria that Cause inflammation in the colon.

And is that one, by the way, the Armand Labs viral panel?

It is the viral. I mean, I just have him do. He kind of made one up for me. So I'll tell you what's in it. He does the vcv, the echovirus, cmv, ebv, hsv. So those are all viruses. And then I think Coxsackie. So six viruses. And then he adds in the Yersinia and Campylobacter in the bloodstream. So it's a blood analysis. So he checks all of those. I mean, probably about 80 to 90% of my client load. And we have roughly. I mean, we've worked with over a thousand people with Crohn's colitis. We only do Crohn's colitis. I see about crossover 40 Crohn's colitis patients or clients a week. I see usually. So it's all we do all day long. We put out a testimony once a week. We. Our success rate of getting at least 60% symptom relief in three months is 90% or over. So when we work with someone, we are 100% dog on a bone. Getting. Getting results. We just. That's just how we are. Everyone on our team has Crohn's and colitis, so we're always checking this ourselves. So you're working with someone who has the disease themselves and specializes in it. So when we check with Dr. Armand almost, I think it's about 90 out of 100 clients we've checked have all come back positive with active viruses. We've been diagnosed with bronchocolitis. Ben. It's absurd.

And are there actual symptoms associated with these viruses?

Yeah, all the terrible. If you're noticing that, if you're getting night sweats, fevers, cold sores, if you have a passive mono. If you're noticing that no matter what you eat, when you get stressed, you get blood, cramping and urgency. I'm already thinking, what's going on with the virus? Is there a viral load in there? If this just came out of nowhere and now you have Crohn's and mostly it's colitis. I see a lot more. But if you just got colitis, you've got Crohn's and you're not sure why and die. Doesn't make a sense. No matter what you do, you're sick. I'm all. I'm thinking there's an underlying virus that's active and your body is having a severe cytokine reaction to it, specifically in the colon. And when it sheds, your body's freaking out. Doesn't matter what you do. If that's making sense to you, we can help you. And you need to check for those viruses, and you need to have a game plan to go after them. And sometimes you can Herx hard. So is it as easy as, hey, check the virus and go take some antivirals? No, you gotta be careful. You can have a severe herx. A Herxheimer reaction is where your body becomes over toxic with endotoxins or mycotoxins. And then your cytokines have even a more extreme reaction, almost like you're flaring even worse as you're trying to fight it off. So you have to be cautious and know what you're doing. You have to set your body up to be able to fight these things and be able to release these things. So through your liver, your gallbladder, your lymphatic system, poop, pee, sweat. That's why Ben is always doing infrared sauna and working on his detox pathways. It's just so important. So, you know, for instance, I had Dr. Almond come on to our community and do an interview, explain this, that we had about four people just go ahead and test with them who were from our European communities. We have people all around the world. And because we couldn't do it in the United States, we just had a few people in Europe, and every single one of them tested positive for a virus. And get this, one of our clients was in remission, and he had a large amount of a viral load. And Dr. Armand said, this guy's a ticking time bomb. It's only a matter of time before his symptoms come back. Because this virus, his body's in control of this virus. But if he hits stress, if he goes on an antibiotic, if you go on antibiotic and get really bad, that's probably because the antibiotics destroy your microbiome which controls the virus.

Wow.

If you take those antibiotics or tons of glyphosate food or all of these things, your body's getting weaker and weaker, and it's allowing these underlying problems that were probably there in the first place to become systemic. And all of a sudden you start getting cytokine reactions to it. So it's the weakened microbiome that's making us susceptible. Might even not be new. It might be there, but now you're susceptible to it.

It's very complex. And obviously, we've kind of started to dive down the rabbit hole a little bit in terms of a lot of things that as you discovered during your journey. Doctors, practitioners don't test for and things that they don't do. And you've alluded to the fact about the complexity of this. If somebody is listening in and they have issues, walk me through what it takes to actually work with somebody like you or go through your shield program or something like that. What's the first step if somebody just wants to figure this out?

So the first step you're going to want to do is build what we call a foundational blueprint. So something that you can do in your life that's not overwhelming, that you can be confident, consistent with, and that simplifies your goals. So number one, what are you eating in a way that makes you happy and healthy? And simplify that. So it could be like type of an elemental shake or a whole food meal, maybe focusing on AIP or paleo or vegan. So you want to start with a proven system. So we've done this with hundreds of thousands of people, so we might. We're going to use a proven system on you and then we're going to customize it. So the golden goose is that everything needs to be customized to you and everybody. We got to get away from the generic. So based on your symptoms or your lab work or how you're feeling or your emotional stress or your need for sugars or need for fast food or if you have a 12 year old who's sick, we always try to find that medium. We got to get happy to get healthy. So start with a proven system that you can be consistent with that is nourishing you, that you're not freaking out with and just do it long enough to start getting experience with. How does food change things? How does certain supplements like C3 curcumin or Omegas or tudco or a probiotic or a butyrate, how do these things help? And if you're on a budget, don't buy things that don't make sense. So cut the fat, make sure you're being very specific. So we're very conscious of where the money is. We only want to spend what makes sense. So the second thing is build your personalized answer. And you're going to have a coach and a partner in that with someone who has Crohn's and colitis themselves and is trained and sees 40 people a week. Specialists. Okay, so this is what we do. So you want to start with a proven system, number A and make it consistent, make it easy. So right now if you're like, Dane, I'm overwhelmed. I don't know what to do. Simplify it. Look at your plan and just say, okay, let's make it simple. Key hack for that. Do 80% of your plan, 90% of your plan first thing in the morning and last thing in the night. And try to make the middle of your days open. That makes it easy for kids. Work, travel. So try to do your plan first thing in the morning, first thing in the night, and make it consistent. Okay. Number two is when you're cooking and things like that, don't cook one meal. Cook to eight meals at once. Put on some Bob Marley, let the sun in. You know, you don't need to be a perfect chef. You have to just look to cook in a way that reduces inflammation and increases nutrient absorption. Okay. And we have to make sense of that with what foods do you like? And what. How's your body? What is your body telling us? Once we see their lab work or we also see what's going on with your symptoms, a lot of times, I'd say about 70 to 80% of the time, we get pretty great results with that first foundation where you're going to all of a sudden create belief. So right now, if you're listening, you might just be in faith. Is this a scam? I'm skeptical. Is this actually going to work? Know what am I going to do? How long do I have to keep this up? We've got to turn that faith into belief. So belief comes through experience. If you experience symptom relief, you're going to have belief. You're going to be excited. You're going to be what? You're going to want to learn more. You're going to be turning those pages quicker. And so we got to start creating belief in you. When I can get that belief and that trust, I know we're going to win because I know that you are now going to lead your plan. I don't have to drag you. So you're going to be like, man, this is working. This is. And then all of a sudden you'll say, dane, I want to eat this. I want to go here. I want to have a beer. Okay. Make it a goal. Goal. I'm not saying a beer, pizza, or any of that's good for you. But if you're saying that's your goal, then make it a goal and build a shield that allows you to handle that poison or stress without a terrible, nasty reaction. Now, if you want to get to where Ben is and get to that point where you realize and have this epiphany that none of it is helping you with anything you want. That's where I am, too. And I would suggest to continue to move there. But that might take a year or two or three years to emotionally decide that that's what you want. So the second thing is start acting on what you desire, not what you need. Okay. Happiness, desire, curiosity. That is a way better fuel than sacrifice and fear and need. So as you get that consistency now, we can personalize. If you don't have consistency, you cannot personalize.

Yeah.

So we've got to say, okay, get that repetition in. And then let's say, okay, how you doing with this? Can we up the dose of this now? If you're getting great results, I might just take the same plan we're doing and just titrate up. I might hit the gas on it and see how far the dividends go. Go right. I might be able to get great dividends with the basic plan. Let's roll. That's how a lot of our clients do. So when we see some of our. We see a certain percentage of our clients get massive results in two or three weeks. As if. This is crazy. I can't believe this. This is ridiculous. People are never going to believe this. You know, those are usually that basic plan working so well.

Yeah.

Okay. And so then we personalize. And then at that point, based on your budget, based on what you say we're going to be recommending. Okay, let's do some lab work. If we do lab work with you, we make $0. I'm huge on integrity, as I know Ben is. I will not make a dollar on you on labs. Whatever. My cost is to order labs for you is for you. If you can get it done with insurance, please do it through insurance. If someone else will get it cheaper, go for it. Whatever my cost is, is your cost. I can do labs in Dubai, Australia, Canada, all over. And so I built this system because we're a medically licensed company, and then supplements as well. We get an average of 20 to 30% off retail price on supplements, probably 35% off Amazon.com, so that's right out of my pocket. I, again, I spent a lot of money trying to heal myself. I know where you're at. I know. I just. Integrity is so important to me. I'm not willing to trade it. So I want to create an environment where you have every resource you need to get massive results. You have the best products in the world at the cheapest price. You have the best lab work that can be interpreted for you and you have everything you need and you also have the most successful community in the world because these people that you're, if you go and you go to YouTube and you type in Dane Shield, you're going to see hundreds of testimonies. You can actually meet those people and chat with, with them in the program. So these are all just members. So when you're in the program it's one, it's one payment. It's, it's, it's a lifetime membership. I don't do hidden fees. There's no subscriptions, one payment. I do free live trainings once a week as well. So it's all about like today we talked about the art of happiness with ibd. So how to get happy and how to release it. I think that spiritualism and, and mental fortitude, changing perspective. I mean Ben, you know, there's no way you got where you are if you didn't have to go through some emotional experiences of life. Like I'm going to work out like this, I'm going to eat like this, I'm going to commit my life to this.

Yeah, absolutely Dane. It sounds super comprehensive and I know again we're kind of running short on time. There's probably a lot more details to the shield program but I know you've got a pretty comprehensive website and so I'll link to that if folks go to BenGreenfieldLife.com Dane the reason I wanted to get you on Dane was to point out the fact that A there can be serious issues that you have with your gut and you don't just have to go get it cut out and you don't just have to rely on western medicine to fix all your issues because a lot of times it doesn't. B, I wanted to give people the hope looking at a guy like you and they can look you up on Instagram or go to your website, see how you looked before, see how you looked after. It's inspirational. If you're listening right now, you can fix this stuff. And C, I wanted to kind of highlight how many different things you got to think about. The multimodal approach, the lab testing, understanding that it can be a variety of issues, even like the stealth co infections and viruses that you talked about. And I hope we really help people wrap their heads around the fact that it's complex but it's all fixable. It's all fixable. And so if you're struggling right now, I mean I met Dane, he's a stand up guy. He knows what he's doing and he's not paying to be on this podcast or anything like that. I met him and was just really impressed and I wanted to open him up to my audience. So if you have gut issues, obviously, I've got other podcasts I've done about Crohn's colitis, ibd, ibs, et cetera. I'll link to all of them in the show notes@bengreenfieldlife.com dane but go check out Dain's Crohn's colitis lifestyle website, his shield program. I think it'll help a lot of people out. And of course, if you have comments or questions or feedback for Dane and I, you can also go to BenGreenfieldLife.com and I'll put everything over there. Everything over there. Dane, any last things you wanted to throw in before we part ways here?

Yeah, this has been an honor. I'm so, you know, thank you so much, Ben. I love your energy and I'm just always a fan of you and I'll always be here to help any way I can help you or your community. Number one, when I checked, I had massive candida in my body. I had yeast, I had blastocystis parasite, I had CMB virus, I had a bit of mold, I had tons of H. Pylori. And the doctors never mentioned any of this to me at all the hospitals. They never found it. I found all of this stuff. So it was multiple things that got me so sick that caused all these issues. And so, yeah, there are plenty of things there and it needs to be customized to you. Self empowerment is the answer and that's what's going to keep us healthy for 20 or 30 years. And we need that community to work together. And lastly, the number one, build your foundation, then personalize it. And then you got to get happy to get healthy. Because if you can find consistency over five or ten years of loving this and being happy with this type of exploration, you're just going to get better and better. If you look at how Ben was three or four years ago, I guarantee he's better now. It's because of his desire. It's because of his happiness around this. He's not just getting in, get what he needs and he's out. He's growing with it. So the third thing, get happy to get healthy. And yeah, again, and Ben, thank you so much. It's been a pleasure to be here. I'm wishing love and gratitude and health to everyone on this and I'm just so appreciative and really want to send love to you Ben and your community. And thank you so much.

Thanks Dane. Thanks for what you're doing brother. And again folks, go to BenGreenfieldLife.com Dane I'll put it all over there. All the goodies that you need. Until next time, I'm Ben along with Dane signing out from BenGreenfieldLife.com have an amazing week. More than ever these days, people like you and me need a fresh, entertaining, well informed and often outside the box approach to discovering the health and happiness and hope that we all crave. So I hope I've been able to do that for you on this episode today. And if you liked it, or if you love what I'm up to, then please leave me a review on your preferred podcast list, listening channel, wherever that might be, and just find the Ben Greenfield Life episode. Say something nice. Thanks so much. Means a lot.