Jordan Rubin - Planet Heal Thyself: The Revolution of Regeneration in Body, Mind, and Planet

DESTINY IMAGE BOOKS BY JORDAN RUBIN

The Makers Diet

The Makers Diet Revolution

The Makers Diet Transformation DVD

The Makers Diet Transformation Journal

Makers Diet Meals

The Joseph Blessing

Copyright 2016Jordan Rubin

All rights reserved. This book is protected by the copyright laws of the United States of America. This book may not be copied or reprinted for commercial gain or profit. The use of short quotations or occasional page copying for personal or group study is permitted and encouraged. Permission will be granted upon request. Unless otherwise identified, Scripture quotations are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

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I FOUND OUT WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO LIVE IN A DEGENERATING BODY when I was nineteen years old.

I didnt have a well-known autoimmune disease such as multiple sclerosis or ALS, serious neurological disorders that worsen over time. Nor was I stricken with leukemia, a form of cancer that affects the bodys ability to make healthy blood cells and is one of the most common cancers for teenagers and young adults.

What was sending me on a lonely path toward a seemingly certain and untimely death was an inflammatory bowel disease known as Crohns diseasethe worst case theyd ever seen, my doctors said. What this meant in practical terms was that my body was breaking down because of my digestive tracts disharmony and massive inflammation as well as its inability to convert food into energy and assimilate basic nutrients to feed the entire body.

I was an unlikely casualty of a broken system of degenerationa college kid whod just finished his freshman year at Florida State University, eager to experience the world and embrace life. I really believed I had a sunny future and that my best days were on the horizon, but suddenly, out of nowhere, my body started deteriorating rapidly. In a matter of days, I went from being the picture of good health to a scared, confused, and emotionally battered young man who couldnt believe how swiftly his life had changed.

Following the spring semester of my freshman year, I came home and hung out with friends for a few weeks before I had to report to a summer camp as a counselor. This is when the deterioration of my health began.

Out of nowhere, I was hit with nausea, stomach cramps, high fever, and horrible digestive problems. I thought I was fighting a nasty bug, but I didnt rebound like I usually did. This first wave of discomfort was followed by a tsunami of violent and bloody diarrhea that knocked me for a loop and sapped any remaining energy I had. I dropped twenty pounds from my already lean frame in just six days at camp.

I hung on as long as I could because I didnt want to come to grips with my rapidly deteriorating health. I didnt have the appetite for the camp chow, so the lack of nutritional sustenance took its toll as well. What little I managed to eat resulted in painful cramps, high fever, and more brutal diarrhea. I had to always know where the nearest bathroom was in case I had to do the penguin walk. After another week of misery, I couldnt function. I had to go home.

A friend drove me back to my hometown of Palm Beach Gardens in South Florida, where Mom took me to my family doctor. He poked and prodded my abdomen, then ran a battery of tests that all came back negative. Just before leaving the examination room, my doctor wrote me a prescription for two antibiotics. Youll be okay, he promised. I dont see any reason why you cant go back to school this fall.

I rallied barely enough to return for the fall semester, but my time in Tallahassee turned out to be a disaster. My physical strength ebbed. Just before midterms, I had to withdraw from school and come home. This time around, we all knew it was serious. When my fever spiked to 105 degrees one night, Mom and Dad immediately stepped into action, filling our bathtub with ice and cold water, but I was close to incoherent.

My parents rushed me to the local hospital, where specialists and medical technicians conducted various tests, including a sigmoidoscopy and an upper GI series that allowed them to examine the condition of my intestinal tract. They were looking for any irregularities.

I was examined by a gastroenterologist, who recognized the symptoms of high fever, night sweats, loss of appetite, general feeling of weakness, severe abdominal cramps, and diarrheaoften bloodyas symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease. After running a battery of diagnostic tests, the doctor delivered a stunning verdict: I was stricken with a digestive ailment known as Crohns disease.

How do we treat it? I asked.

Theres no known cure, replied the gastroenterologist. Youll probably be on powerful anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressives for the rest of your life. You could be facing surgery to remove parts of your small intestine and potentially your entire colon.

To a nineteen-year-old preparing to find his way in the world, that sounded like a fate worse than death.

A ROUGH ROAD

I couldnt believe the news. I immediately fell into despair.

I seemed like one of the most unlikely young adults to be struck down in my prime because my parents, Herb and Phyllis Rubin, were two of the most health-minded people youd ever meet. Theyd done everything they could to raise me in a healthy manner, especially in the area of diet.

My father was a naturopathic physician and chiropractor who sought a more natural approach in treating patients and their aches and pains. Mom was a back-to-nature type as well who filled her cupboards with raw honey, wheat germ, and lentils and stocked our refrigerator with homemade soy milk, sprouts, and tofu. She didnt allow fried chips and store-bought cookies in the house, which made me just about the least popular kid in the neighborhood.

So when I became deathly ill at the age of nineteen, my parents were very proactive. Over the next year and a half, they would take me to sixty-nine doctors, natural practitioners, and health experts from every spectrum of the medical worldfrom conventional medicine to alternative and experimental therapies. During a two-year period, I read more than three hundred books on health and nutrition. You name the diet, you name the nutritional supplement, I tried it. I left no stone unturned.

Nothing stopped the death spiral that my health was in. I lost nearly half of my body weight and was reduced to 104 pounds, a frightfully thin figure who resembled a concentration camp victim. My medical team told my parents to hope for the best but be prepared for the worst.