The Moonshot Chapter 9— Dr. Gundry Saved My Life

While my results were not perfect, this was staggeringly positive news. Most everything was moving in the right direction

This year I was inspired to take massive action in an effort to be cured of my disease, Achalasia, in five years. This is a multi-post series on my fight. Click here to read my other posts.

I don’t know Dr. Steven Gundry. Never met him either. But the guy changed my life. Frankly, I believe he helped save my life.

It started with gut health. What I’ve learned about the digestive system in the last eight months has blown my mind. As I move towards my moonshot to find a cure to my Achalasia diagnosis, I have also been on a mission to improve my diet as well.

After undergoing a myriad of tests in the fall of 2016, the results came back that I was allergic to dairy and I had a very unhealthy gut. Ultimately, I believe an unhealthy gut caused my disease.

In addition to getting healthier, I was also determined to get off my anti-acid medications. The constant use of prescription drugs was not ideal and it felt like putting a band-aid on a massive wound. It might stop the bleeding, but the wound was never going to heal (or be healthy).

This 2nd outcome to my moonshot led me to a webinar in the spring with Peter Diamandis and Dr. Steven Gundry. Gundry had just published a book, The Plant Paradox, which focuses on how gut health has deteriorated for the vast majority of people due to diet. And this does not just include a diet of obvious bad foods, but also foods that all of us consider “healthy.”

Gundry’s webinar spoke to me like Diamandis’ moonshot challenge months before. As I blindly tried to figure out how to improve my diet and get off prescription medications, this felt like the roadmap. I immediately ordered the book and dove in.

Side Note: Whether you have weight issues, auto-immune disease, or you just want to improve your diet, read this book. It focuses on the dangerous protein in most of our foods called lectins — and how they attack the gut. These lectins are found in bad foods and ingredients — think: sugar, fats, dairy, soy, potatoes, corn, white flour, alcohol, etc. Surprisingly, they are also found in so-called “healthy foods” including wheat flours, grains and products, some nuts, nightshade vegetables, all beans (legumes), and most fruits.

My diet was lectin rich to say the least. Frankly, up until 2016, I was consuming every “no food” on the list…regularly. I’m not sure whether it was genetics, poor decisions, or a combo of both, but (I’ll emphasize again) I believe gut issues caused my autoimmune disease. If my goal was to get off my medications, it was time to change my diet, for good.

After reading The Plant Paradox, I set out to implement the “Gundry Diet” (which also included his recommended nutritional supplements). In June, I began a preliminary test phase and then committed to fully implementing the plan by mid-July (once I returned from a trip to China with Peter Diamandis).

The test phase was hit-and-miss as I adapted to eliminating lectin-rich staple foods I had eaten my whole life. For example, I love cashews. I had been eating them every day as a “healthy” substitute to potato chips. Guess what? They are terrible for you with tons of unhealthy lectins that attack the gut. Another one was wheat. I always ate wheat bread, grains, pastas, rice etc. I thought I was being healthy, but just the opposite was occurring.

Damn, this was a challenge!

Once I returned from China, I went all-in for five weeks — 100% Gundry Diet. At the five-week mark, I re-commissioned my functional doctor, Kyle Chavers to take all my blood, stool, and urine tests again and see where my body stood compared to the same tests conducted in 2016. Here is what we found:

TOP LINE RESULTS:

• Thyroglobulin (Thyroid) antibodies: Went from 51 to 42 (improvement)
• White blood cell count went down — from 5.1 to 3.4 (improvement)
• Testosterone came up 200 points 💪 🔥 💯
• Vitamin D doubled (was below normal in 2016)
• Triglycerides went down
• Bad inflammatory gut bacteria went from 7 species to 3 (and from 2 potential pathogens to 1)
• Fecal Secretory IgA (Leaky gut test): Went from 1685 to 1235

Holy hell! It worked! While my results were not perfect, this was staggeringly positive news. Almost everything was moving in the right direction.

The most exciting part of this test phase? I eliminated my prescribed medications for the entire five weeks without any esophageal pain or acid reflux. This was the first time I had been off anti-acid drugs in 5+ years.

The Gundry Diet is not easy and I know there will be setbacks. But I also know that I’m on the road to a much longer, healthier life. I must stay committed and consistent. This isn’t a fad diet, it’s forever.

That’s how Dr. Gundry saved my life.