In this interview, host Subah Saraf speaks with Lydia Cronin, a long‑time sufferer of ankylosing spondylitis and multiple autoimmune and metabolic conditions. Lydia recounts a 23‑year battle marked by chronic pain, loss of mobility, and a regimen of powerful pharmaceuticals (Remicade, Enbrel, Vyax, prednisone) that also caused side‑effects such as ulcers. Additional diagnoses included diabetes/prediabetes, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, mold exposure, and heavy‑metal (mercury) toxicity. After moving into a mold‑infested home, her health deteriorated further, leading her to the Hippocrates Health Institute in West Palm Beach. There, she adopted a strict raw, organic, plant‑based diet rich in green juices, wheatgrass, and extensive detox practices (colonics, enemas, wheatgrass implants). She emphasizes that stress, poor dietary choices (refined sugars, wheat, dairy, eggs, alcohol), and mindset are central contributors to disease. Over a five‑month residential program, Lydia reports complete cessation of medications, restoration of mobility, and reversal of her chronic conditions. She advocates that anyone can achieve similar healing by radically changing diet, reducing stressors, and learning to prioritize self‑care.
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Hi, so today I'm here with a wonderful woman who's called Lydia Cronin, who I met at the Hippocrates Health Institute, and she has an incredible story to share with us today. She was suffering from spondylitis, but after she turned to a raw plant-based diet, she was able to reverse her disease and was able to start walking again. So I'll let Lydia take over and tell us what were the kinds of diseases that she was suffering from before she came here and what the doctors told her about it.
Hi, thank you for having me here. Well, I have been suffering from ankylosing spondylitis for about the past 23 years when I was diagnosed with it. Basically, I was put under tons of medication from Remicade to Enbrel to Vyax and many— prednisone, where it actually caused an ulcer in my system. And basically, I was always In pain. So we're talking 23 years of always being in pain. I also moved into a home recently, about a year ago. They have mold that even made my system even worse. I lost my ability to walk. My ankle got inflamed. I was in a little scooter to get around, in a wheelchair. It was pretty pretty bad. It got to the point that I came to Hippocrates over in West Palm Beach, Florida, where in here I've— they did many tests. I had many tests done. I was diagnosed with diabetes, prediabetes.
Oh, geez.
Hashimoto's, thyroid dysfunctioning, mold, metal toxicity, Mercury toxicity, a lot of different things.
And now you're off all of that?
All of that.
After staying on a plant-based diet?
Yes. So when I came in here, I got into a raw, organic, plant-based diet, drinking tons of green juices that I love. And with that, you also needed to detox, so with a lot of colonics, A lot of enema, with a lot of wheatgrass implants, drinking wheatgrass, doing implants as well. Many of the reasons why we become ill has to do a lot with stressors that we have gone through. Also the wrong type of diet that we have had. It activates our system to the point that it cannot take it anymore and we We end up becoming ill and we don't know why. You know, as simple as it sounds, how do we reduce our stressors? How do we eat better? So it's a matter of making a huge change in your lifestyle if you want to heal.
Yeah.
And believe me, a lot of people don't like eating just raw, okay? They don't like a lot of that, but in order for you to heal, you must change the way you eat. You must change the way you think and get rid of the stressors that you have in your life. And a lot of times you need to learn how to say no, to take care of you and love you, because you could heal yourself. I've done it, and I have met so many people at Hippocrates that have done it, and you could do it. You could do it yourself even at home once you learn what to do.
It's incredible, you know, how, as we were talking before, Modern medicine doesn't recognize the link between stress and the body. It treats these two as two separate entities, but people don't realize that you cannot treat the body without treating the mind or the stress. And I'm so happy that you recognized that and you worked on it. So I want to ask you, for the usual audience, what was the diet exactly that you were eating?
What did your plate consist of when you were trying to Well, I thought I was a person that ate good because I thought I ate more of a vegetarian diet. But with that vegetarian diet went, you know, the egg and some dairy, went some wheat, okay, and all of that, especially the sugars and the wheat.
And you blame all of that kind of food?
Of course, I had irritable bowel syndrome, you know, I will, I will get so bloated. You know, people drink so much alcohol. There's so much sugar in all types of alcohol. What is it doing to our system? It's just destroying us. So, you know, it's the quality of the food that is out there, and it might taste good to us, but every time we take a bite of it, it's doing something internally to us that eventually is going to come out. And sometimes you're going to wonder, what happened? What did I do? And all along, we've been doing it to ourselves all the time. All the time, change. We need to change. We need to change the way we eat and the way we are thinking about us and love ourselves and take care of ourselves.
And how long did it take you to reverse these conditions in total?
Well, I stayed at Hippocrates. I was very lucky and thank God I was able to stay at Hippocrates for five months. And through the process of those five months was when I started to. See the healing taking place.
So just in five months, you were able to cure 23 years of damage.
Yes. Wow.
So thank you so much, Lydia, for sharing your story. It's so inspiring for everyone who watches it to make them believe that food can actually heal us. And I have a living example right in front of me. So thank you so much.
