Just something I wanted to share

[Jonathan Mertens]

Hi BP family, I wanted to share something that is dear to my heart and I hope you get something out of it. My apologies that it is not about real estate. 

It's about my story with an autoimmune disease. 

As a young kid and especially as a teenager, I never really cared too much about what I was eating. The more meat, the better. The more crisps and chocolate, the better. Could I have some candy with that, please? And don’t forget the soda!

Now, my mom always took a strong stand on us (my siblings and I) eating enough fruit and vegetables and I thank her for that today. However, it was summer 2016, and all of a sudden, I had some weird symptoms and these symptoms didn’t go away. After a few misdiagnoses, I finally got the verdict: Ulcerative Proctitis.

For the first few years, I didn’t think much it. I just had the label, but the symptoms didn’t bother me so much. With my medication, I actually didn’t have any symptoms at all and I also started to eat pretty healthy. Until I slacked off again, that is.

Fast forward to December 2019 and January 2020. My symptoms were worse than they’ve ever been. I felt terrible all the time and I couldn’t eat anything without getting a massive reaction and being completely out for a few hours. I received a change in medication and started taking my diet seriously again. This worked wonders and I got the disease back under control! 

About 1.5 weeks ago, I received a colonoscopy to determine the progression of the disease. I was anxious the whole week leading up to the colonoscopy, because I was honestly afraid that it had gotten a little worse again.

The results came in, and… NOTHING. As if I had never been sick!

I was so relieved. And on my doctor’s advice, I could immediately cut back my medication from 6x/week to 3x/week.

While my medication definitely helped me to take control over my condition, I strongly believe that my healthy diet took it to the next level. I don’t know if I will ever be able to completely stop taking medication, but this surely is a huge motivation for me to keep going!

It truly shows me how powerful a healthy, balanced diet can be. And it’s my wish to help a lot of people take control over their diet, so that they don’t have to go through what I’ve been through.

What are your thoughts? Do you believe in the powerful effect of a healthy, balanced diet?