For the purposes of this website, my life was pretty boring until 2005. And then at the age of 24, out of nowhere, I had a stroke.
2005 – a few months after the stroke
I had always considered myself to be pretty healthy, and had no major health issues prior to that. The stroke occurred as a result of a lesion (most likely a blood clot) in the right side of my pons. I lost fine motor function on my left side, which was not very fun considering that I’m left handed. Besides having to learn how to walk again, I had to re-learn how to write, play guitar, hold a fork, etc. Luckily, my young brain quickly recovered, and after a couple months of physical therapy I was pretty much back to normal. A lot of excellent doctors treated me, but no one ever figured out what caused the stroke.
2006 – hospitalized for a month for autoimmune diagnosis
A little over a year later I noticed that I was having a hard time exercising. I kept thinking I was just way out of shape. It got so bad that I was out of breath even from walking, so I went to the doctor. I then spent the next month or so living in a hospital, being tested for a wide range of possibilities – long story short is they settled on a narrowing of my pulmonary arteries, most likely caused by inflammation, that was causing my shortness of breath. I was diagnosed with the rare autoimmune disease Takayasu’s Arteritis, which is characterized by the narrowing of arteries due to inflammation (but only rarely in the pulmonary arteries). The cause of this disease, like most autoimmune diseases, is not known. So then I spent a year on heavy immunosuppressant therapy; we tried a wide range of steroids and other scary drugs, and they worked for the most part. I would still get winded upon exertion, but I could at least function.
2007 – about a week after surgery
In the fall of 2007 I went to California to have a pulmonary re-sectioning surgery performed, where the doctors would remove the inflamed tissue surrounding my arteries and enlarge the arteries using parts of a cow’s pericardium. I often joke that I sometimes crave grass. It’s a pretty scary procedure, something they call a standstill operation – in order to get to the arteries, they had to perform a full cardiopulmonary bypass, deep hypothermia and full cardiac arrest. As you can imagine, when you’re clinically dead for 8 hours there’s a pretty good chance you won’t come back. It was a scary moment in my life, and I am so grateful for my supportive wife and family for being there to help me through it. I made it out okay and now I have a killer scar and some crazy stories. Unfortunately, it didn’t ease my symptoms – I was on the same amount of medication with little or no improvement.
2007 – immunosuppressant steroids caused weight gain and other side effects
Flash forward to 2010. My continuous steroid and immunosuppressant medication therapy was starting to take its toll, even though I was trying to slowly taper off the steroids. I felt lousy almost all of the time, and worse still was the fact that I couldn’t foresee it getting any better. I then happened across an article that mentioned this crazy diet modeled after cavemen that eliminated grains, and it could reverse autoimmune symptoms. Within a week I had devoured The Paleo Solution and just about every Paleo resource I could find, and switched my diet. My inflammation markers decreased significantly within a month.
2011 – about six months after adopting the Paleo diet
Since then things have been much better. I’m not cured – there’s no mistaking that I still have a serious autoimmune condition – but the Paleo diet has absolutely helped. I started exercising for the first time since 2006. I was able to get off of steroid therapy, which was causing all sorts of side effects (weight gain, brittle bones, memory issues, shingles, and so on). Lastly, my wife and son have joined me on this crazy journey, which gives me comfort that we’ll all three live long, healthy lives.
What an incredible story. I know a man in his 30′s who just had a stroke and they are suspecting MS also. He has lost 2 chunks of time in his memory, like his wedding and birth of his kids :’(
So sad.
I will be passing your story onto him as well as the Paleo info.
Holding on good thoughts for you to regain 100% wholeness- sounds like you are on the right track!
Such a brave and encouraging story!
I am SO thankful that Janey was ALWAYS by your side as you went on that roller coaster ride ! <3
Incredible story, brother. Thank you for choosing to use your struggles and triumphs as a catalyst for education and enlightenment. Yours has been one of the handful of websites that have served as an invaluable resource for me as my wife and I adopted the paleo principals for ourselves.
Thanks for sharing your story and for creating your blog. Great recipes, great photography and commentary. Keep it up.
Awesome story!!!! I’m on day 3 of paleo and about to make poi and round roast (from your recipes) for my family of 5 for dinner tonight – excited!!! Praying for continued recovery for you! Thank you for your fabulous website.
Hi – I got here from Highbrow Paleo. Yours is an amazing story & I thank you for sharing it. My son had a stroke last summer at age 26 shortly after shunt revision surgery. He had/has minor effects on his right side and has mostly recovered. I would love it if he decided to take an interest in paleo, no luck so far but I keep hoping!
You have been so much in such a short period of time. I really hope that this lifestyle will continue to help improve some of the autoimmune inflammation. I’m really enjoying reading your recipes too, so thanks for the good food and for sharing your story.
Good stuff, keep up the excellent work and enjoy your new found health and longevity.
Wow, your story is really scary! I’m so glad that you stumbled across the paleo diet, because I bet the doctors didn’t mention anything about that to you :) Glad you’re doing much better now!
What an amazing story! I’m in awe. I’ve recently adopted a more paleo diet and I can certainly feel the difference. Love your blog and your inspirational story. I’ll definitely be checking back. Delicious wishes!
God Bless You and Your Family, and I am going to check out this Paleo diet.Thank You and Many Wonderful Blessings to You and Yours. Kathy
What an inspiring story. Unfortunately it is also a view of the state of conventional medicine. Treat the symptoms, not the cause. If only you had found the Paleo diet before the surgery.
Holy smokes Russ, I had no idea! Glad that you are now growing healthier and happier. Plus you have a cool website :)
You are so young and such an inspiration to the rest of us. Thank you for sharing your blog and ideas with us. I hope to browse through your site and provide healthier meals for my family. Thank you once again!
Very inspiring! After reading your story and about the Paleo diet, I am inspired to try to work this diet into my life. Though I think it would be a long long road for me. I don’t get to cook much, work and travel doesn’t help. But I think I can make some choices in my food ordering.
Congrats on being freshly pressed!
Lots of paleo options out there! Just saw on amazon approved paleo bars and shakes!!!
Never say never…, if your health depended on it you’d do it in a heart-beat!!!
wow, what a great story! thank you for sharing and educating!
This is an incredible story. Wow is the only word I kept thinking as I was reading this. I hope you continue on this road to recovery and I can’t wait to read more from your blog! All the best.
I just learned about you blog about a week ago but I’m hooked. I nominated you for a Versatile Blogger Award. If you’re interested, check out http://versatilebloggeraward.wordpress.com/. Have a wonderful weekend!
Thanks for sharing your story. I don’t eat Paleo exactly – I started using a way of eating called “The Idiot-Proof Diet”, which is basically ultra-low-carbing, and found it fixed my chronic heartburn and other problems. I love this way of eating, it really doesn’t feel like a ‘diet’ (as in “Die with a T”, as Garfield would say)!
Thanks for sharing such an inspiring story. I love reading these sorts of things about the paleo diet. Yay!
Amazing Man!!! My Wife has also been diagnosed with and auto-immune disorder. Like you, she has switched to the Paleo diet, and is recovering slowly. Stories like your story give her hop for the future. Thank you so much for sharing
Congrats to you – and thanks for sharing your wisdom. Keep it up
John
Dublin, Ireland
I stumbled on this website through Google (searching for almond flour pasta). Thanks for sharing your paleo story and posting all these awesome recipes! It’s always a chore to look for paleo-friendly foods that is presented with good design and sharp images, so I really appreciate the fact that you continue to post such awesome recipes. Keep it up!
Awesome story and message. It’s sad hat many of us only come to looking at the whole person and not just one aspect after facing some kind of life threatening or terminal illness. I’m really frustrated by the medical community and their approach that MD means More Drugs. Paleo (or Primal) works and take a second to read my interview in Paleo Magazine to find out why. I’m only of of thousands of similar stories and we need to all make some noise so the Doctors and most importantly the teaching hospitals look at what’s taking place with diet, exercise and lifestyle. http://www.paleomagonline.com/2012/08/08/i-inspire-bill-vick/
Thanks for sharing- as I had a stroke too.. in your 20′s it doesn’t seem possible. I’m trying out this Paleo diet to help with Lupus symptoms and APS- seeing your story makes it that much easier to give it a go.. thanks and keep it up! :)
Amazing story and thank you for sharing with this website! Inspirational to us who have autoimmune disorders (I was diagnosed with Celiac Sprue in 2007.) My husband also developed diabetes that same year (hereditary in his family.) I have also heard of the Paleo diet. A very good diet to be on. I am not on the diet however I strictly adhere to completely gluten free. I still struggle some days as I developed Celiac at a later age so not as easy to bounce back. I also get very sick from even the slightest touch from gluten i.e. cross contamination as well.
I wish you the very best in your healthy journey!
I really enjoyed your story and will look up Paleo Diet on line. Four of us in this household need to make sure we eat gluten free – and it is hard, but reading stories like yours helps! Go luck to you!
bless you precious one……what an amazing life…..so very pleased you found a diet to ease your symtoms!!!!
Russ, someday you’ll tell the rest of the Russ Crandall story and the folks that are impressed and inspired by your story now, will be blown away. You’re an amazing dude with an awesome family. I won’t wish you luck because you don’t need it, your determined enough to get what you want without luck being a factor.
Mom and I were talking today and she told me that she told Grandma Colleen all about your website. So grandma had to check it out and is now a total fan and on the Paleo train and says her arthritis already feels better after just a week and she loves the site. Mom was also mentioning how great of a job you do on this website and just what a wonderful guy you are all around and how much she enjoys spending time with you and Janey and Ollie and I couldn’t agree more. So I asked Charlie if he’d ever seen your site and he said no so we just spent a little while looking around and reading posts and contemplating buying a t-shirt soon (you shold have a baby one on there) and I just had to let you know that you are pretty awesome and I remember the whole story and how scared I was for you and how happy and grateful I am that you are okay and that you have been a friend for all of these years, even if we only see each other sparingly. Hug the fam for me and it was nice to see you a few weeks ago and basically we just love you Russ!
Fabulous site! I am also have Takayasu’s Arteritis, and have traveled the paleo road for a while to help maintain my inflammation.
I just came across your site when looking for a good eye of round recipe. Wow what an inspiring story you have! I will pass your story and your site on to many. Keep on moving forward..you and your family are pretty awesome.
Amazing story. Thanks for sharing!
The mysterious ways of the world at work? I’m just bobbing around the Internet looking for Christmas Roast ideas and I get totally distracted by comments on a website written by a guy with a humorous name. So, I decide to read his blurb thinking it will explain why he chose his amusing name. What a surprise, the blurb is not about the name at all, but about a very trying and scary time in the man with the funny blog name’s life. All at I time when I’ve just been told I’m going to have scary and trying times for the rest of my life. The culprit? Evil inflammation, which apparently can take on an insidious little life of it’s own. I will take this as an otherworldly thump on the head and go back to bobbing around the Internet, this time looking for info on the diet. Thanks for sharing.
My own experiences (Celiacs, arthritis,fibromyalgia, etc) have taught me that this diet is no less than a miracle for those of us with autoimmune problems. It will help you like nothing else can for inflammation in your body and all the problems that arrise from it.
Good for you! Have you been checked for MTHFR? Seriously should be!
Wow, that’s a phenomenal story. Diet is profoundly important in our lives too. We needed extra help though. One of my family members has large cell arteritis. The drugs really took their toll. I thought we had exhausted every option. Zija is a product made of Moringa oleifera. On Zija, suddenly the need for the pharmaceuticals plummeted. I really want to talk to you about this.
I am inspired by your courage and grateful that you choose to share your journey. Blessings, Diane
What an amazing story. I found your wonderful eye of round recipe and we are trying it tonight. Will let you know how it goes.
You are an amazing person. There is a certain calm tenor to your writing style that I really like. Your son and wife are blessed indeed.
What an amazing story. I have yet to learn about your condition in Physician Assistant school, so thanks for educating me on your journey. I too have an autoimmune disease with a lot of inflammation, perhaps I should start going Paelo. Best of luck to you!
I love paleo for my health, I have a number of AI diseases that are all made better by eating paleo.
I would also recommend you investigate LDN as a medication, it has made me mobile again and has been amazing for my immune system. it makes your immune system work, not suppress it like steroids do.
http://www.lowdosenaltrexone.org/
HOPE springs eternal…never lose hope.
Glad you are doing so much better. It’s always inspiring when people find natural ways to heal themselves. Nature really does provide us with so much, we just need to trust it and pay attention.
Just came upon your story,hope things are still going to plan for you and your family.I have Guillian -Barre Syndrome with Aman variant ,I will be looking into the Paleo diet and give it a shot thanks for sharing with us.
Thank you so much for sharing your story. I also have an autoimmune disease (UCTD) and numerous other issues and diseases that are a result of a the UCTD. I’m on lots of medications including an immunosuppressant when I am healthy. My parents are on the Paleo diet and have had great success. I was just given the go-ahead from my doctor to start. In fact, since I’ve been sick all winter and unable to take the immunosuppressant. Now that I’m starting to feel better my doctor has agreed that I can stay off of it for three months while I try the Paleo diet. My prayer is that I won’t have to ever go back on it. I started on Sunday and feel better already!
Wow, very inspiring story. So glad you made it through it all to live and tell us all about it! Just found your blog and love your recipes! Thanks for sharing!
“most autoimmune diseases, is not known”
Ever had a vaccination? A shot for travel?
Autoimmune diseases are usually caused by virus’ being on purposely given to the public at large. Go and have a virus work up to see what you actually have.
In the mean time I think you would find this exceptionally interesting.
‘The Exploding Autoimmune Epidemic – Dr. Tent – It’s not autoimmune, you have viruses.
Hi, I have been enjoying your blog and have nominated you for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award!
http://imarunnerandsocanyou.wordpress.com/2013/03/15/very-inspiring-blogger/
Thank you or sharing your story. You are an inspiration.
Wow… I am a scientist and my research area is white matter injury during stroke. It’s stories like yours that give me the motivation to work at my budding but very stressful career. Also, your blog is amazing. I’m gluten sensitive and I found a lot of excellent recipes that I’d like to try. Keep it up!
Wow! Inspiring story! It’s amazing how much diet and lifestyle can heal the body and you are living proof. Thanks so much for sharing your story! :)
It’s been an honor to have found you on this blog. I am inspired by your story, and it’s made me take life into perspective. Thank you :)