Hey guys, I've lurked on this forum for years, ever since I was diagnosed but this is the first time I'm compelled to write something and it's good news. My behcets was 'cured' by switching to an all meat diet. What do I mean by 'cured'? I don't get ANY symptoms anymore.
I used to have all the symptoms you could get:
Mouth Ulcers - The bain of my existence.
Genital Ulcers - Possibly the worst pain imaginable.
Arthritis - I couldn't do a lot of things because of it.
I had these symptoms for the last 8 years and it almost made me commit suicide. It's hard to say it but that's the truth.
Over the years I took:
NSAID
Methotrexate
Prednison
Imuran
Steroids
Sulfasalazine
Remicade
These nasty drugs that didn't really fix the problem and just felt like it was putting a bandage on a wound. And besides, I wanted to fix the problem, not the symptoms.
However, ever since I only started eating meat. I have absolutely ZERO cankers upstairs or down, and no swelling in my joints whatsoever. I feel like a whole new person.
So what do I mean by all meat? I mean ONLY meat and nothing else. I know it sounds crazy since we've been taught that faulty food pyramid all our lives but it's not so far fetched. First of all, there are many cultures even today that only eat meat. Take the Inuit for example. They only eat meat because nothing else grows in those frozen tundras and they're perfectly healthy. And after all, meat was the original human diet. You can also get all the vitamins and minerals you need by eating meat. For instance, chicken liver has Vitamin C and others that you would never think you could get from meat.
There are many communities online about an all meat diet or 'zerocarb' diet, just search it up on Google.
I'm writing this thread because I've never been happier in my entire life and I want to see if it works for you.
Please try it and if you do, then PLEASE leave a comment and let others know. If this is the miracle cure (and I know it sounds too good to be true to say it's a 'miracle cure') then everyone needs to know.
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najeebo
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It warms my heart that you found a way that hashrlped you feel better! And I totally understand. Though I am not 100% meat, I am 95% protein. Sadly I still have strong BD symptoms, but I feel better off with a high protein diet as a posed to a traditional diet. I think it's great you you posted your message. Ibthink keep you should keep doing, I think you will help a lot people
There is another thing I forgot to mention. I live in a household with people who don't only eat meat, they eat 'traditional' diets and when I first started doing an all meat diet I still had some symptoms. What I did to get rid of these last few symptoms is to meticulously avoid cross-contamination. I got my own pots, plates, utensils, pans, etc that only I used, I tried to avoid cooking when anyone else cooked, I didn't really eat around people that were eating some really big triggers for me (gluten, spices, peanut butter, etc). This helped A LOT more. I would say 99% of my symptoms were gone. What got me to 100% was when I moved out to my own apartment and was able to have a kitchen only I exclusively used.
So what I'm trying to say is make sure that you're not getting cross-contaminated.
Also, I don't think doing 95% is good enough. It has to be ALL meat. Even I tried to cheat a few times on my all meat diet and when I did, even if it was just a little salad here or there, or some french fries, all my symptoms came back. So I would say that you need to try an only meat diet and not cheat to see if it works for you.
I agree with this 95% aspect- If i have ONE bite of sugar- im down for weeks. I am ZERO sucrose. Ever since I have removed ALL sucrose- thats when I saw the benefits.
No fruits except VERY RARELY 1-2x a year of blueberries or strawberries in season (high in glucose/ fructose anyways). But I myself only eat Meat, fats, and low carb veggies (no pasta/breads either). Might I suggest a food diary? I had to keep track of foods for over ten years... what I could eat last year does not count this year. The body is constantly changing. Some people are extremely sensitive to fructose, some certain oils. Everyone is different. But one thing is for sure- sugar is factually proven to be inflammatory.
Hopefully this can help pinpoint some sensitivities for you.
there is a website that breaks foods down into its chemical components. Helped me tremendously.
I'd be interested to know if you had tried a paleo type diet first excluding wheat etc but still eating veg? Or have you tried adding some veg since to see if you can tolerate them?
Just curious as to what you'd tried and what hadn't worked previously. I've read a lot about excluding gluten and the benefits of paleo. I hadn't heard about this approach and I'd love to know more about the food pathway that led you there.
I've done paleo I but found it slightly inconvenient. what works for me is high protein, high fat, low carb veggies. zero sugar. I think honestly the working aspect between the all meat diet above, paleo, and myself is the zero carb/ sugar aspect. every since I've cut it out completely- I've never felt better. please look at my post below as well as my replies through my profile to others where I talk about dietary change.
Yup, I tried Paleo, in fact I've probably tried every special diet out there. Paleo, Gluten free, Lactose free, Fodmaps, Salicylates free, and more. Some of them helped a little but none of them got me to 100% free symptoms like I wanted, because I can't stand even one canker.
Actually it's kinda funny that you mention trying to include vegetables again. I tested them after being on an all meat diet for a while and man, my symptoms were worse than ever. Cankers, arthritis, swelling, brain fog, and more. So now I know, don't try to cheat.
Yeah! Better than ever actually. I added one last addition which is a B12 supplement. This keeps any tiny cankers away and if I do get one very rarely, it heals in 1 day.
Brilliant! So pleased for you. I had good success going gluten and sugar free for a while but with shift work and fatigue have been in a downward spiral not making the best food choices when tired.
Thanks for this and I do hope you continue to be healthy. I have suffered with Behcets for over 30 years and do have long remissions. Anywhere between 2 years building up to 8 years. In between I have bad to extremely tough times with most of the symptoms. This is just the illness and how it works with me and many others. We all have different stories to tell with symptoms, meds and doctors. I'm glad you have found something that helps you and it's certainly worth a try but I do wonder if you are maybe in a good period of remission. I also think if something works for you and you believe in it then it's all good. I may give it a try sometime in the future and I will certainly let you know.
I don't think its remission because I'm only symptoms free when I eat all meat and I've tested this. If I eat other things, especially big triggers like gluten, peanut butter, bananas, blueberries, brown rice, and others, then all my symptoms come back in literally an hour.
I agree to an overwhelming majority. I've been pushing dietary changes for some on this forum. I, myself eat zero sugar. High protein, high fat and low carb veggies over here and I've never felt better. When I do have my VERY rare OMG GIVE ME ALL THW BREAD DAYS- Joints act up within hours, last for days. Ulcers will form within hours. It's pretty effective negative reinforcement.
Yup! I originally tried zero sugar. High protein, high fat and low carb and it definitely helps but it still wasn't perfect like it is right now. Thanks for sharing!
Yes! Sugar or fructose causes the worst pain or ramp up of symtoms. I am actually allergic to wheat and gluten; so that was easy to cut out. But all protein with some kale lol.
My back ground is in nutrition so that has helped. Great website! Thank you for sharing
It is good to hear you found a way to go in remission. However don't fool yourself you're not cured and never will be. Sorry to say that but I'm a realest. With me up until I was 20 yrs old all I had was "THE SORES" and how I hated thoughes. I was a power lifter and had plans to enter my first contest. Protein was my life. Then the joint pain came and my life changed. Doctors said stop eating protein cause it can cause inflammation, but they had no idea what was wrong with me. Even said I was faking. After a year and a half they now said to start working out again. So I started riding a bicycle and taking nsaids. Literally I would get out of bed crawl to my bike and ride it out my house. I rode a bike because it didn't hurt to do so. And the more I rode the better my joints felt. About 4 month into it is started yoga and three month later I was asymptomatic. This was July of 89. I work with weights but not heavy. Did this for 4 yrs. Then I started running 8 to 10 miles everyother day. But because my left knee sounds like popcorn poping when I bend it i changed to walking. Plus I do push ups, pull ups and other body type exercises now. By 2001 I got to the point of doing 1000 push ups, 300 pull ups and I had more mass then ever. Then the mouth sores started ,hip pain and I started getting head rushes every time I stood up. That when on for two weeks, I even play around with them. I even bit a mouth sores when eating. Needed stitches but couldn't cause it became an ulcer. Got bad sores on my calf. And started seeing blood on stools. But not knowing I had bd yet I just kept going on. Then after a day of working in a garden (my job) then my workout which was pull ups I went to bed. When my alarm went off at 6 I couldn't move or even really breath I was in so much pain and my sight was like looking through a cloud. The next thing I know is I'm being awaken and told I'm going home. I had been in hospital for three days. Doctors said I have bd, gave me a handful of pills and a wheelchair. But u know what I did? I started all over again. 4 long lonely month I was in that f ing chair. I thought to myself , OK greg, this time don't put mass on keep your weight down and by 08 I stopped taking that handful of pills. Big mistake. But I made it back to being asymptomatic again. Well it's 2016 and it's back and my symptoms suggest it's neuro the worst form of the disease . I can say a lot of maybe if I did this or maybe if I did that but right now nobody knows. Just keep doing what works for u but stay with doctors and meds even if it's just a vary small amount. But on a serious note I'm going to try what your doing. I hope your good health never stops and yeah, the mouth sores do suck.
Yup, thats why I put 'cured' in quotations because I know I still have the disorder. Thankfully, as long as I follow my diet, I pretty much have 0 problems related to it. Definitely try it out and let me know how it goes. And I have to stress that you have to be very thorough with this diet. No cheating, and no cross contamination because after eating like this for a while, I'm so sensitive to anything else that all my symptoms come back worse than ever.
My first thing is sugar. Already been trying now I will even harder. But do u or did u find yourself addicted to curtain foods u stopped eating and how much red meat do u eat. Because I have been told that it has an enzyme that causes inflammation.
Sugar was a big problem for me too but I don't get any more cravings and I don't really find it hard to only eat meat now. It was hard initially. Yeah, I eat lots of red meat, steaks, lamb, every day.
of course i am always looking for something to help my son who is 24 and got cml leukemia at 12 then bone marrow transplant then relapse then "spontaneous remission", he was so young and cml is an adult leukemia so they didnt know what to do when he relapsed so we waited. he has been in remission for cancer for 10 years. after he got in remission his behcets started flaring up and he has never been even half way well with a half decent life since. he still has a good attitude. dont know how for real. a new dr came to the transplant unit. we kept having to go there because he was cancer free but sick, of course we saw 100 drs, was told he was crazy/faking and i as his mother was crazy and we by accident finally found a dr when he was 17 that diagnosed behcets. that when he figured out my kid was smart they were discussing that maybe his behcets is keeping the cancer away because the autoimmune diease was attacking his body.with the bone marrow transplant he should have never relapsed. that is a scary thought. anyway, he has the hla factors b51 and b57. it would have been nice while we were told we were crazy/faking (yes as his mother i ended up looking crazy cause i was cussing every medical person) that they would not have been so tunnel visioned that even though they had the hla factors didnt think behcets and i was just thinking the other day is it the food he eats that makes his mouth ulcers and inflammation bad. i was going to text him about it. the reason i never pushed it is because it scared me when he got down to 100 pounds at 5'7' and they were talking stomach tube. i had to get some weight on him. he is so sick of this i am so sick of this. i am glad for you. thanks for posting
Omg I can't even tell you how happy I am that I came across this post. I was suffering with behcets since I was 12yrs old. From 12- 15 I would have a flare up once or twice a year at the same time every year I noticed. I'd say I've had flares about 6 times throughout those years. (the only symptoms I got were genital ulcers at the time) I know for sure I never changed my diet and ate like a normal kid, really anything. Ive been in remission since my last flare when I was 15. I remember being in the hospital for about 2 and a half weeks because it got so bad. I had to go to the hospital every time I had a flare up because absolutely no doctor was able to give me a definite answer as to what the hell was happening to my body until the last flare at age 15. I was at Miami children's hospital where maybe over 20 + specialist doctors came to finally help determine it and give me an answer. I had a biopsy done & sent to some research place located in Boston. The results came back inconclusive & basically the doctors said I had some sort of autoimmune disorder & ruled it out as behcets syndrome. Up until then I really thought I caught some sort of insane fungal infection from a "natural spring" bath in a small town in Romania (grandparents live there) That's not even a joke. There was just no other logical explanation at the time, you know? What kind of normal healthy little girl gets genital ulcers ? Well, I'm 21 now and fortunately from the age 15 till now, I was pain free living life ! But unfortunately ... I got a flare up. Same symptoms but this time my muscles really hurt & I was extremely tired in the beginning of this flare up. (Its been 1 week and I'm still in pain and still have the ulcers but looks like they are trying to heal) one thing I did notice for the flare up was that I was EXTREMELY tried & very stressed. I also ate some peanut butter cups, which I haven't had in years & just so happen to have a flare up a couple days later? ( I read that peanut butter is a trigger for some patients) I was going to try this raw food diet but now that I read this I might change my entire outlook on what I'm going to eat. I have some truthful opinion on marijuana and how it's definitely helped me cope with the pain. It's also a potent antinflammitory drug that definitely helped in my option. I never smoked when I was a kid but I have taken it up and I never had fast recoverys until now. My ulcers would last 2 weeks mostly and this time around it's already trying to heal at 1 week. I feel much better reading everyone else's story's because this is not an easy thing we go through & simply unfair we are forced to go through this. One amazing useful tip I need to share with the patients that are dealing with the genital ulcers is to fill the tub enough for you to cover your genitals. It was still hurt but not nearly as bad as peeing in the toilet, I physically couldn't do it anymore because it was too painful so that is when I came about the bath tub idea. What are your thoughts on the raw food diet ? Should I really consider doing the all meat diet ? ( I would 10000x have to include fish as well)
It took me years to discover that a meat only diet kept my Behcet's symptoms at bay. After years of getting off of gluten (and all grains), dairy, and sugar I was still having symptoms. I stayed on a paleo diet for years and them realized that it was the fodmaps in the veggies that were making me flare (and avocado and coconut were the worst on the paleo). I then tried a diet of only meat, seafood, and ghee and all my symptoms went away. Once in a while if I cheat I get lesions so I get right back on program. I eat salmon, egg yolks sauteed in ghee breakfast, usually skip lunch as I'm not hungry, then have meat for dinner (steak, lamb, burgers etc) with ghee. Last year I started following the research of Dr. Valter Longo on utilizing water fasting for 3 to 5 days once per month to increase autophagy (to recycle old proteins and regenerate the immune system via stem cell regeneration). Doing that makes a "high protein" diet very healthy. Ancient man always water fasted periodically when food stores were low, so a high protein diet was healthy. All of the bad news that has been circulating about high proteins being dangerous is based on modern high protein diets being followed without periodic fasting. I also follow the zero carb blog that you posted, the stories are incredible. So, you're not the only person out there with relief from Behcet's doing protein and fat only diet!
Hi, I’m curious to know how you prepare the meats. Do you use any type of seasonings or so? What type of oil do you use? Organic meats? Any side with it or just straight meats?
I’ve be suffering with behcets and usually get mouth ulcers, uveitis, joint pains, fatigue.
On humira which is just a patch, I do flare about every 3 months. This is such a horrible condition to have and I feel everyone’s pain who has it.
Hey, I eat mostly rib eye steaks as rare as possible (like 20 seconds on both sides at MAX) and even raw most of the time since it digests way better than cooked meat. No seasoning except salt, and no oils or anything. Just cook it in its own fat. I eat regular grocery store meat since I can't find any organic meat that hasn't been frozen in my area. My stomach can't stand previously frozen meat at all. Try it out for a month and see what happens.
Just home cooked meal. I think some people in the community buy it at whatever convenient place. Just depends on your situation. BTW, check out this interview with a doctor who follows this diet on the Joe Rogan show: youtube.com/watch?v=Yj_Bc9h...
I'm so fascinated by this whole discussion and everyone's experience. Thank you! I am so glad the post spurred this discussion. When I ask the doctors about diet, they have absolutely no response!
Yes for the past year I have felt like they think I am just bat shit crazy. Nothing really has been in my blood markers and FINALLY this doctor was able to put it all together.
So glad it appears to have worked for you. I would love to follow this as I'm sure my dogs would.Really interested so please post the double blind peer reviewed study results.
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