Over 10 Autoimmune Conditions, C-Diff, More with Rebekah Farmer You Cured What?!

Rebekah Farmer shares her journey of healing from over 10 autoimmune conditions (plus many more issues) via a powerful change in diet.
For complete show notes, visit http://youcuredwhat.com/podcast/rebekahRebekah Farmer has dealt with health issues for most of her life. These include mood disorders, structural problems, and over ten autoimmune conditions. In spite of all those challenges, she has found healing. Now she uses the wisdom and passion she's gained from her experience to work as a health and life coach to help others heal.

[3:10] Rebekah gives her health background. She has overcome over 10 autoimmune conditions and over 20 total diagnoses.

[4:20] Malnutrition was an issue for Rebekah from a young age (6th grade). She was diagnosed with osteoporosis at a young age. She was on antibiotics a lot growing up and her immune system was not great.

[6:30] Rebekah, in 7th grade, was put on a lot of medications for anxiety, insomnia, narcolepsy, and more. And she was told by her doctors that they could all be taken long term and that they were not addictive (she now knows that they should not be taken for long, and that they are addictive). She was on many prescription drugs for over a decade.

[8:30] In 2017, Rebekah crashed.

[9:10] What was Rebekah's diet like growing up and in early adulthood?

[11:40] Rebekah's knowledgeable relative convinced her that she needed to get off the flurry of medications she was on.

[12:05] What was the withdrawal like trying to come off of her medications? (Clonazepam for anxiety was the hardest one to come off of. Very addictive.)

[13:30] Coming off the meds, Rebekah was suffering chronic fatigue. This sent her to functional medicine doctors who diagnosed her with chronic Lyme disease.

[15:40] Rebekah left her Lyme doctors after treatments were going to continue to be too expensive for her. And the doctors were telling her the treatments would be long term. (Rebekah was 25 at the time; she is 28 as of recording.)

[18:15] After seeing the Lyme doctors, she got in to see a renowned rheumatologist and was diagnosed with Central Sensitization Syndrome, a diagnosis that encompasses many issues.

[19:35] Rebekah was also diagnosed with several digestive issues: IBS, IBD, celiac, gastroparesis, slow transit colon, diverticulitis.

[20:30] Rebekah found ozone therapy helpful. She also tried PRP (platelet-rich plasma). These things didn't make enough of a difference for Rebekah.

[21:50] After a long time doing a strict ketogenic diet, Rebekah was no longer bed-bound. She was getting her energy back. But then she started to lose severe amounts of weight. She did not need to lose weight and was not doing the diet to lose weight. Despite eating up to 6000 calories a day, she was losing weight (and didn't want to). She was even misdiagnosed as having an eating disorder because she was getting so skinny.

[23:10] Ultimately, Rebekah was diagnosed with C-Diff, a bacteria that had taken over her entire gut.

[23:50] Rebekah's lowest recorded weight (at a height of 5-6) was 68 pounds. That's how bad her C-Diff was.

[25:20] Her diet at the time did not include a lot of meat.

[25:30] Rebekah went through 13 rounds of antibiotics to prepare for a fecal transplant.

[26:30] She had two fecal transplants. The first one did not get rid of C-Diff. The second one initially led to a negative test, but a month later she tested positive for C-Diff again.

[27:20] Rebekah provides a description of what the idea is behind fecal transplants.

[28:10] She had a third fecal transplant, and she still had C-Diff.

[29:10] In 2019, after more trips to the ER, Rebekah decided she had to give the carnivore diet a try. She had initially heard of it from Danny Vega.

[31:10] What are some of the keto "treat" foods that Rebekah was addicted to? (Fat bombs.)

[34:00] Rebekah, diagnosed with prediabetes and non-epileptic seizures, now thinks she was not getting enough prot