Digital Social Hour - Almost dying from Chron's Disease & Ulcerative Colitis & Walking Again I Dane Johnson DSH #406

Episode Date: April 11, 2024

Dane Johnson comes to the show to talk about his journey of almost dying from Chron's Disease, Ulcerative Colitis & learning to walk again APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://forms.gle/D2cLkWfJx46pDK1MA BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail] SPONSORS: Deposyt Payment Processing: https://www.deposyt.com/seankelly LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

And that was actually one of the first few times I really started to spiritually believe in natural healing. I got to know the directors, the producers, and I got to know all the other, the cast. And so I was out of the misery, I was out of the pain. And I came back and my symptoms were down. Happiness was up. And I remember my mom picking up my hair and she goes, You look better. And that was the first thing that really got my mind to change.

I mean, there's sacrifice, there's pain. I believe pain leads to peace. And that's got my mind to change. There's sacrifice, there's pain. I believe pain leads to peace. And that's why I'm here today. Wherever you guys are watching this show, I would truly appreciate it if you follow or subscribe. It helps a lot with the algorithm. It helps us get bigger and better guests, and it helps us grow the team. Truly means a lot. Thank you guys for supporting. and here's the episode ladies and gentlemen get ready to be inspired today we got dane johnson crazy story man you overcame crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis holistically i can't wait to dive into it man thank you so much

for having me i'm inspired to be here and and uh for everyone listening i dedicate this time to anyone suffering anyone with chronic disease this time is dedicated to you, and hopefully we can change your life. Yeah, so let's get into it, man. So having a chronic disease, you were 27 when you got diagnosed? No, I was actually 20, and sometimes that's a mishap. I was 19 when I first got my major symptoms, and I was 22, 23 when I was first diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, then diagnosed Crohn's disease shortly after. And then the doctors couldn't make up their mind at different hospitals.

So UCLA, Cedars-Sinai, Mayo Clinic were giving me different diagnoses to where it eventually just became, okay, you've got Crohn's colitis. You've got widespread inflammation throughout the GI tract. So anything from the esophagus all the way down to the rectum was chronically inflamed. And they didn't know what caused it. They didn't know what really to do about it. I was a kid.

You know, I just was graduating college. And I never, I didn't know why I got it. So was it genetic or they never found out? You know, the crazy thing is no one in my family ever had gut health issues. Wow. No one had any disease. I mean, we were a lucky family. We just thought eat right, be good to people, karma will come, and everything will be fine in life.

So when I was 14, 15, 16, I could eat what I want. I had pizza. I was commonly eating McDonald's. And I got a job at Papa John's Pizza, my first job ever, you know, just flipping pizzas, trying to make five bucks an hour. Yeah, yeah. And there was no problems. And then something started happening around 19 years old.

I think it maybe had something to do with just the way I was, you know, I was getting into fitness and bodybuilding and lifting weights and stuff that might have had something to do with it. But I got blood in the stool. That was the first symptom. So you look, you know, you wake up in the morning, you look down and it looks like a crime scene in the stool. That was the first symptom. So you wake up in the morning, you look down, and it looks like a crime scene in the toilet. And you're going, did I have cranberries? What is that?

But then you go, wait, that's not right. And then shame kicks in, guilt kicks in, you don't want to talk about it. You're hanging out with your friends, all they want to do is drink beer and liquor and stay up till 2 in the morning. And I just kind of felt my body slowly dwindling. Wow. Well, you know, when you're 19, I mean, you're just thinking maybe it'll just go away

on its own. Yeah. And you don't want to exactly run home and tell people, Hey, I'm getting blood in the stool. That's so fun to talk about. Right. And so I kind of ignored it a bit. And then by the time I was 22, 23, I couldn't ignore it anymore where I started communicating to my mom and my dad what was going on. So you waited three years? Three years. It wasn't really that bad in the beginning. It was kind of every once in a while.

Okay. So if like I started noticing if I drank alcohol or I ate too much greasy food or fast food, I got a lot of bloating, a lot of cramping, urgency, and a lot of blood in the stool. And so all of a sudden, I lot of cramping, urgency, and a lot of blood in the stool. And so all of a sudden I kind of cut those things out. And I think fortunately for me, I started getting aspirations to get in really good shape when I was about 19 or 20, where I wanted to be into fitness. I wanted to move to LA. I wanted to get into acting and that whole career. So I think those changes just saved me from going down that path of just like college 2.0, right. Of just constantly in the processed foods. So by the time I was 23, we finally went to the doctor, they did a scope and said, you've got a left-sided colitis. And

then it just got worse and worse. By the time I was 26, I was, uh, so, you know, four years later, three years later, I was 122 pounds in a wheelchair. I couldn't eat. I was, at my worst, I had to go on to a chemotherapy to help save my life. Jeez. Yeah, I mean, it's a whole story. I mean, I had to use a TPN feeding tube where I stopped eating. I couldn't eat anymore. Wow.

So they just, this is only temporary, but they just, uh, gave me food, um, uh, intravenously. So or through a, a, a, a kind of a tube that's hooked into your stomach. Yeah. And, um, you know, it just kind of got worse and worse and worse. And then it was like, my family was looking for any answer we could. I mean, I came from a middle-class family. We just were trying to do whatever we could. We didn't have an experience in natural medicine. We didn't have experience with severe disease or different hospitals. And we learned quickly that going on, you know, the prednisone helped and it stopped helping. And then I went on different drugs like 6-MP and methotrexate or immunomodulators. And then I started getting severe liver issues and cold

sweats and I couldn't get out of bed and I was losing vision. And it just got worse and worse and worse until it got life-threatening. So, I mean, what do you do? You know, what do you do when you get that sick at such a young age and you didn't ask for it? You didn't deserve it? You know, your family's looking at you like, I don't know how to help you. And then my parents were just writing checks. So then we're going and we're hiring different doctors. We're hiring different naturopaths. We're going to Whole Foods and spending $600, $700, $800, which was a lot of money for my family, on organic this and gluten-free that and whatever we could read on Google. And I was just getting worse and worse and worse. But the irony is I was trying to keep my career because during that time I moved out from Virginia. I'm from Virginia in

the middle of nowhere. And then I just randomly moved to Los Angeles and tried to make a career. Didn't know anyone, no contacts, nothing. Sleeping on the floor of a random apartment. And then I got signed with major agencies. I started doing major jobs, you know, and I just trying to do that all at the same time. So it was like God had given me this gift. It was like I was kind of put on in a way where I was, you know, shooting Nautica and Tommy Hilfiger and I was doing commercials and getting roles in little movies and stuff. But then I was going to the bathroom 20 times a day with blood, cramping pain, urgency, losing weight, covered in cystic acne, brain fog, depression. The prednisone was

giving me moon face and anxiety. What's moon face? Moon face is when you take certain steroids, you'll swell up. And so it almost looks like you got punched in the mouth, kind of. And your body just swells and holds this water retention. And as a model, that was probably, Oh, it was my Zoolander days were numbered. It was like, it was like I was done. And I remember I got booked for this one job in Puerto Rico because I was, they were flying me around the world. Damn. So you were like in there. You were like, I was legit. I was doing it. And I was so grateful for it. I mean, because to be 23 years old and selling some of the biggest agencies in the world, but you can't be 15 feet from a

bathroom. You're hiding it from all your agents, all your book, or you're hiding it from the clients. And you're, you know, I mean, I just, I have so many horror stories. I don't know how much, you know, everyone out there who's, who's dealing with chronic sickness, you know, I'll give you some shame. So you understand in this moment, and even here, I can live in that. Cause that's, I think that's how we connect is those shameful experiences I mean I I lost control my bowel movements before I'm on a plane or even on set I was on Jamaica Island making too much money and I was running into the woods and the director's like where are you going I'm like I'll be back and I told everyone I had to throw up I didn't have to throw up wow you know and so it was like this it was almost like And so it was like this, it was almost like this trick.

It was like this evil trick God was playing on me. Yeah. It's like I'm looking around and I've got my undergrad in business and I quit my job at 23, moved to LA and I'd made something out of nothing, nothing. And I'm at these shows sitting next to these A-list celebrities sometimes and I'm like, I can't, and I'm not even, I'm a shell of myself. It's like I'm a two-faced person. I'm trying to be this cool, hip person, but behind the scenes, I'm barely making it on.

I mean, I was wheelchaired onto a plane to go to Jamaica to do a 10-day shoot because I didn't want to lose my career or lose my job. And I still had bills to pay because I wasn't willing to move back in with mom. So my mom actually took me to the airport. So she started living with me. I was in Miami at the time because I would live in different cities. And so she came and she helped me book a place to live in Miami while I was there building up my career. And I was basically wheelchaired on the plane and then up my prednisone dose so I could make it through. And that was actually one of the first few times I really started to spiritually believe in natural healing

because I got there and it was like a family. I was there for 10 days and I got to know the directors and the producers and I got to know all the other, the cast. And we became a little bit of a family and we were laughing every day. We were in the sun every day. We were eating fresh organic food and fish every day. And so I was out of the misery. I was out of the pain. And I came back and my symptoms were down. My happiness was up. My weight gone up five pounds

because I was treading. I'd go from like, well, today I'm 180 some, but I was sitting at like 140, 150, 130. It was just kind of, so I had gained some weight. I had less symptoms. I felt better. And I remember my mom picked me up from the airport. She goes, you look better.

What happened? I said, I don't know. I was just sitting in the sun and the sand in Jamaica for 10 days, just having a blast. And that was the first thing that really got my mind to change because if you want to do great things in life and you want to go through great things, I mean, there's sacrifice, there's pain.

I believe pain leads to purpose. And that's why I'm here today. You know, it's just I feel very purpose-driven and I think God has blessed me with the best, just the best life now. Absolutely. You know, it's like when you go through chronic sickness and it nearly kills you,

it's either the worst thing that ever happens to you or it's the absolute best. Yeah. Choose a lane. And that's where, you know, you've got to paddle. You know, life might be taking you down a certain river. You don't want to go down the river, but use your paddle and paddle the other way. Get out of that direction. And so, you know, and that's where it started to change my mind. I think that's what saved my life because when I was 26, I was hospitalized for a month straight. So I was in Santa Barbara doing a job, and I started losing vision.

I started having severe cold shivers, night sweats. I mean, to wake up in a pool of sweat. I mean, you can't even sleep in the same bed. It was that bad. Dang. And so I was looking at the art director, Sienna. I worked with him for like six years, and I said, we were literally about to start the show.

And I said, I have to drive myself to the hospital right now. She said, just go, just go. She knew me. She knew that I had some stuff. I'd kind of communicated to her over the years. So I stayed in the hospital for a month and I only died in that hospital. My whole family flew out. And the crazy thing is because I was, you know, SAG and I was doing acting, I didn't

really have that great assurance. I was still kind of coming up. Yeah. So my insurance didn't cover me to be at UCLA. So I went to UCLA and Cedars-Sinai. They said, we can keep you, but we're not going to keep your insurance, and you're looking at a six-figure health bill if you stay here. So I had them put me in an ambulance and take me to an inland hospital

outside of LA, and that's where I stayed for a month. And I went from like 175 pounds to 122 pounds in that hospital. Oh my gosh. In a month? Yeah. And it was about six weeks. I mean, I couldn't eat. Yeah.

It was like starving. And then I was on, I went up to three grams of Dilaudid, which is seven times stronger than morphine. Jeez. So it was like legal. I was on cloud nine. So you were just hallucinating. I remember images.

I remember moments. I remember moments. I mean, it kind of, the first few weeks I remember, then as it got worse, I don't remember as much. But my mom flew in, my dad flew in, my sisters flew in. They took turns staying with me at night because they just had to take a bedpan and put it under my rear end so I could release blood and water 20 times, 30 times a day.

Oh my gosh. And it was like, you know, doctors saying, we want to remove your colon. So they were saying, we just want to remove your entire colon and put a bag on my stomach. I just got back from a freaking shoot, you know, like trying to be Mr. Cool. I had literally gone from, you got the life to you might, you might die here. And so it was just irony. And I was 26. And I was just praying and angry and upset. And I refused the surgery. I wasn't willing to remove my colon. And then I told my mom to keep saying that as I lost consciousness. I don't remember a lot of the last two weeks because I was so gone. But I was hallucinating. Then they put me on ambient sleeping pills just to get me to rest.

And I was on 200 milligrams of infused prednisone. So prednisone is a type of steroid that regulates inflammation in the body. So when you take it oral, the highest dose they'll usually put you on orally is 60. So I had 200 infused and they put on four different antibiotics because they couldn't figure out why I wasn't getting better. Usually they think it's some kind of bacterial infection that gets you so bad, but I wasn't getting better. So Cipro, Flagyl, I mean the worst antibiotics. I was on all of them.

So prednisone, that, and then this was the big hint. I want to give everyone out there who's listening about root causes, is my mom, the doctors didn't know what to do. So my mom basically became my doctor. She's in the hospital 24-7 just calling everyone I'd ever seen, every hospital, every doctor. And there was this doctor I had seen in Florida who had done a colonoscopy. And I did many times. They want to do all constantly endoscopies, colonoscopies. And in one sample out of, let's say, 10 or 15 that he took, he found what's called cytomegavirus 1.

They couldn't find it in my blood. They couldn't find it in any stool test. They couldn't find it anywhere except this one sample he found. He said, I think the reason Dane is dying is because this virus has taken over his body. His immune system is too weak to fight it. You've got to get him on an antiviral chemotherapy or he's not going to live. So she calls the doctors, and the doctors are going, he's test negative.

We have no way of checking this. And she's going, he's not getting better. So she's fighting with them. She has to fight with the insurance because the insurance isn't going to pay for this. Remember, I don't have that great of insurance at the time. So they finally said, look, we'll give them a $5,000 sample of this because this is extremely expensive stuff.

And I woke up 24 hours later. I woke up. So with that, they said, you got to give them a month's supply of this stuff. So they kept me on the bag for intravenous for about five days. And then I was conscious enough and I was really starting to come back where I could start moving. I couldn't walk. I lost so much weight that the muscle atrophy in my legs, I could not flex my foot. So my calf would just cramp up. So when I went home,

I checked myself out of the hospital, kind wheelchaired out and you want to talk about again shame I mean I'm I can't I'm waking up I can't even control my bowel movements my sister's driving the car

home I mean you can just imagine I'm supposed to be the cool guy I'm supposed to be Mr. Hip and I'm just dead

so I get back and I try to go up two stairs and I'm just like I'm getting help and I trip and fall on the concrete trying to get back and I try to go up two stairs and I'm just like, I'm getting help. And I trip and fall on the concrete trying to get up. Cause I had this patio that kind of went up a little bit, like two or three stairs. I could not walk at all. So I was, I was bed rested for about five to six weeks. So now the drugs, now the Dilaudid's wearing off and I'm feeling the pain now. And it's like, you're trying to poop glass. It your muscles i mean are just the whole

muscle this is so pain because it's your body when it has that much toxins in it from all the drugs it stores it in fat i had no fat so even to get a massage was painful wow just and i just cold sweats through the night so it's like when you start coming back from that and you feel that it was excruciating. But four years of failure before that, so four or five years of trying and failing and trying diets and seeing naturopath doctors and trying every single drug imaginable, I went on Ntivio, Remicade, methotrexate 6-MP, all of it. And I knew in my heart that even when I started being able to walk again, I knew what I was going to do. I knew I was the one who was going to do this.

I was going to be the CEO of my health. I had enough positivity, enough light, enough experience with this where I was willing to take the wheel and say, I'm not going to be ignorant towards what my doctor says or what anyone says, but I'm doing this. And that's when my life changed. When I decided that it wasn't, I forgave myself. It wasn't my fault what happened to me. It wasn't my parents' fault. It wasn't God's fault, but it was for darn sure my 100% responsibility to fix myself. And when I took that on at 26, 27 years old, I turned 27 in the hospital. When I took that on, my life changed.

It hasn't, now I'm 37, 10 years later. Yeah. You're looking amazing now, man. Thank you. I have zero symptoms. I've been medication-free for nine years. I've had zero surgeries. Wow. And I can eat what I want. I travel the world. I work out every day. I have my second child on the way. My kids are healthy and normal and fine. And I would say, for me personally, Crohn's class has been the best thing that ever happened to me.

Wow. Dude, that is so inspiring. So what steps did you take once you got home that you were able to treat this? And this is so important for everyone listening because this, I failed for a lot of years. I got no results. I went on fruit diets. I tried carnivore. I tried AIP and I was terrible at diets. I mean, having a 24-year-old, 23-year-old trying to do restrictive diets at the end of time. It's depressing. It's tough. It's like, I'm going to be Mr. Bubble Boy to the end of time.

I can't do it. Are you interested in coming on the Digital Social Hour podcast as a guest? Well, click the application link below in the description of this video. We are always looking for cool stories, cool entrepreneurs to talk to you about business and life. Click the application link below and here's the episode guys.

The first thing that had to change was my mindset. I had to realize what was stopping me from being consistent, what was stopping me from taking response ability, response able, response ability. You have to see it like that. So I had to forgive myself that it was not my fault. And then I had to take full responsibility. I wasn't willing to do that. So when I reflected on one of those years of not getting success, it was the doctor's responsibility. It was my mom's responsibility. It was someone else besides me. So I would just sit back, smoke a little weed and watch Netflix to the end of time, trying to eat puree carrots and bone broth because someone else told me so. Just waiting for it to kick in. Any day now, they said this is going to work. It's on them, not me. They're the doctors. They're the geniuses. They're the ones who wrote

the books. I'm just going to suffer. So I lived in a sacrificial energy. It was all sacrificial. And that's one of the hardest things about success anywhere because what I also learned and the stuff I'm about to tell you is what I've actually attributed as how I get success anywhere now. So where I failed there has also kept me back from getting success anywhere else. Wealth, relationship, character, spiritualism, life purpose. The universe is very much similar. It's all very much the same. You've got to get out of a sacrificial energy

and you've got to get into an investing energy. I'm not going to sacrifice my hour to work out. I'm going to invest this hour. I'm not going to sacrifice that money I made. I'm going to invest it in something bigger, better. I want to create. Creation is what we're here to do. You've got to realize that the divine power inside of you

is the ability to create. God gave us three great powers, creation, manifestation, and intuition. When you become the CEO, you basically accept that your intuition matters. Before, it doesn't matter. It's someone else's job. What you intuitively think doesn't matter. That's not what the book says. That's not what the doctor says. That was big. Those are the things. I changed my mindset. I became the CEO of my health. I started being intuitive. I started journaling.

Journaling is so big. Even right now, if you want to do anything, like build the best life ever, journal. Yeah. Right? I do it every day. You know it. Yeah. So if Sean's doing it, right now, never had Crohn's colitis, I'm saying to do it with Crohn's colitis.

It's one of the biggest things you can do to create your best life. So you have to become the best version of yourself. That's a big one. You have to become the best version of yourself to not only heal yourself, but to live your best life that's possible. And all of us have this yearning to say, can I do more? Can I create more? Can I be more? That's what you're tapping into when you're chronically sick. Stop trying to be normal. I was also failing because I was always trying to get back to the old me. I just want to be me again. Let me try this diet for three weeks so I can be me again. Let me try this. And I was failing, sacrificial. Skip normal, build a tunnel under it, and go up above it. Here's normal.

Here's where you are. You keep trying to get back. No, no. Go past it. Go up. I'm here. This was me before I was sick. This is me now. I'm bigger, badder, better, happier, wealthier, more free than I ever was before I got sick. That's why it's the best thing that ever happened to me. But I had to suffer to change who I was, what my belief system was, what kind of integrity I came to life with,

what kind of character I believed in, how I was going to hold myself accountable to my compass. See, when you try to heal yourself, it's your compass. It's your life. It's your character. You're the one who has to hold yourself. I was failing because it was like, you know, my dad or my mom was trying to tell me what the, they didn't know. They never had Crohn's or colitis. My doctor never had Crohn's and colitis. They didn't know. And the doctors kept telling me food didn't matter. Yeah, definitely does. Well, okay. So everyone wants to know about that. When I changed one of the first ways I knew that food mattered, because I'm telling you that all these major hospitals, those doctors would make remarks like food doesn't matter. And what they meant was

changing your diet won't cure this disease. That's what they meant. That's a whole topic, maybe for another day. But what it can do is help calm down inflammation and help get out of the body's way to create cellular repair. If you've got inflammatory, chronic inflammatory bowel disease, no one knows what caused it, but you are eating seed oils, processed food, intolerant gluten, high in glyphosate. You're having processed dairy, A1 dairy. Those things are inflammatory to every human. Sean, do you feel bad when you eat certain foods?

Especially fried foods and seed oils, for sure. Do you have IBD? No. So it's a human experience. It's not an IBD experience. So what I did is I fasted. I went out and I just said, okay, let me try this. I'm just going to not eat for today. I had 20 bowel movements today. Let me just try tomorrow. I'm not going to eat. I'm going to have water. I'm going to chill. Next day, 11 bowel movements. Hey, doc, my bowel movements dropped by 48% in 24 hours. I didn't eat. Does it matter?

No. Non-consequential. You can't not eat forever, Dane. I get it, but the needle does move. That was the big thing. So I would say, can you see the needle move? If yes, if you can get 10%, can you get 20? Yes.

If you can get 20, can you get 30? Just, if you can get 20, can you get 30? Just start to build your belief system that what you do matters. What you think matters. How you feel matters. So you got to do that. And another thing I did, I made a deal with myself. I got on my knees. I started praying.

Okay. I didn't pray before, but I started. When your life's on the line, you'll pray. I got on my knees. I started praying. Okay. I didn't pray before, but I started when your life's on the line, you'll pray. I got on my knees. I don't care who was looking. I don't care if my girlfriend at the time, God bless her for staying with me through all that. Right. You know, good person. Um, I don't care who was looking. I don't care what kind of discomfort I feel. I'm going to do anything that can't hurt me but can only help. So what are things that can't hurt you but can only help you? Prayer? Can it hurt? Nope. Meditation? Earthing? Get your feet in the grass? Taking care of plants? Looking in the sun?

Calling someone else and making their day better? One thing you realize when you lose a lot of your abilities to walk and feel and do and move, you can still love people. So if you get on your deathbed, everything that you really praise and have, you still have. Like I could still, no one died in my life. I still had everybody. I could still call them. I could still laugh with them. I could still make their days better. I could still call my buddy and say, hey, how's it going in that relationship? How's it just, just be an ear. So many of us, even in friendships, we're not ear, we're not a good ear for those we care about. So I said, let me just be an ear for people. Let me not complain about what I'm going through. Let me tell them what's good. That's another thing. I only focused

on what's good. So even if I tell you something wrong, I got to tell you something that's right. I will not tell you something wrong without then telling you something's right. Oh, you still having blood? Yes, but you know what? The blood's down. It's down by 30%. How do I know?

Because I'm journaling. I don't go, it's cured or not cured. I go, it's 30% better. It's 40% better. It's 50% better. Thank God. I'm celebrating 50% where the sick victim me was still angry that I still had blood. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

I'm celebrating. You need dopamine. You need to tell yourselves you got something to live for. You're focusing on the positives. Find a reason to celebrate in life. That's how winning is done. You got to find a reason to celebrate and journaling allows you to see it. Okay. Another thing, what can only help me can't hurt me. I'm only going to eat what I cook. Is it hard? It's uncomfortable. Is it hard? No. Dunking a basketball on 10 foot

is a lot harder than only eating what you cook, right? It's a mental game. So I said, I'm only going to eat what I prepare i could hardly walk where was i gonna go anyways right and i'm not gonna put it on my mom to keep cooking for me especially when she can't be critiquing what's making me feel better if i cook it and i eat it i'll have better info on how that makes me feel that oil how much temperature i used where i got the food if i had a vegetable if I had a type of carbohydrate, if I had a fat or a protein. So it allowed me to analyze, right? I got my three. I was able to create. That's creation. I got intuitive about my food. And then I knew where I was going. I was

manifesting that I was going to heal myself, right? So it's that ball of energy where, as my boy Charlie likes to say, I'm already there there time hasn't caught up yet love that shout out yeah right so it was like i was just i was in i was in that flow was in that energy i could feel myself healing mentally before i healed physically that's so cool it's so crazy how doctors weren't able to help you and now you're here helping other people heal you've helped alexi pantera you've helped other friends of ours. And it's just crazy how when you, when you're a kid, you grow up and you're like, doctors can, can heal me and save me. But after hearing your experience, it was the opposite.

Yeah. And it's not, I mean, leading needs to be done through those who've, who've been through it. Right. And, and people who can really feel and connect and have empathy. And, and if, and it's just, I think that's just how the universe works. I'm not here to say I'm the best in the world, I have all the answers, and I'm going to walk on water. That's not it. But I went through great pain, and it turned into great purpose. And shout out to Lexi.

Love Lexi. Huge fighter. Came to me, and I helped her out with her. We're crones. She's been symptom-free for, I don't know, eight, nine months now. And she's such a beautiful soul. So that's amazing. And, you know, I spent a year housebound from there.

And after that year, I went to Thailand. I went to Thailand and I'm traveling. I'm 180 pounds. I'm lifting weights every day. I'm eating different foods at different restaurants. I'm very conscious of what I'm eating. So that's also what changed. So a big hurdle everyone says is, okay, Dane, give me the facts. Give me the stuff. What exactly did you do? I customized my plan to me. So I stopped trying to follow a famous diet. So I had done the fruitarian diet. I'd done the only meat or the vegan and intermittent fasting

and all this. And I started through my journal customizing it to me. So how did I feel with that meal? So I took principles from different famous meals and I would have one type of style for breakfast, one type of style for lunch, one style for dinner. And then I would analyze them on how I did with them. And then I would, and then every day why don't you get bored at your housebound for a year? No, no, I had a full-time job. I read two, three hours, four hours a day. I was meditating. I was going walks. I mean, I had to be able to control my bowel movements again. So first thing I did is like, okay, wear two pairs of underwear, black always, right? And then start

walking around the house. Can you just do a lap around the house and be okay? What about two? What about four? All right, now leave the house. Go 100 yards away from the house. Go a half a mile from the house and come back. It's not that hard. It's just get out of the anxiety, get out of the depression, get out of the anger, and then it's just clear. What are you going to do? Well, if I can walk to the stop sign and back, is that progress? Yes. If I can go outside and not worry about a bathroom for an hour, what about then two? What about three? Can I get myself to sleep through the night without a bowel movement? You just got to focus on step two and three.

Like right now, this is step 10,000, but I've just been focused on step two and three the entire time. I don't get overwhelmed by all those steps. I just right here. And that's what also I was failing in the beginning is I got overwhelmed with how am I ever going to get my life back? Everyone out there who's sick right now, you're wondering the same thing. How am I ever going to get my life back? How am I ever going to live a normal life? How am I ever going to get past this? How can I help my children? We got to help ourselves. We got to get empowered. We got to lead ourselves. We just, we need a community. We need a compass. We need a North star. And I'm telling you, whether it's business, it's all the same thing. If it's business, if it's relationship,

you just focus on step two or three. How am I going to get my, I'm married now. How am I going to get my wife to accept the fact that this could happen? Be okay. The fact that she's going to have kids with someone, the kids could get this. And it's my, I'm devoted to that. Not happening. I'm anal about the house now. He's not eating junk food. My son is three. He knows what junk food is. Already?

Oh, he knows. Very much know. He'd start crying, Daddy called it junk food. I love that man. You know, it's a blessing now. I mean, God, I just feel so blessed. I'm so grateful for where I am.

I love my life. And I was doing this thing called Lifebook the other day. And it's like this, how to build the perfect life. And it was like, how satisfied do you feel with your career? It was like 10. How much value do you bring? Do you feel like you're bringing to the world? 10. That would have never happened without the suffering. No, never. And maybe there was some suffering even in your life that got you to this great moment, right? I'm still on that journey that journey now yeah that number was probably maybe two or three for most of my life um but now with this podcast it's probably nine or ten dude that's you created that yeah and that's what it is it's like you just how much of it it's just bravery you just got to be willing to go step

two and it's it's not always going to work. If it doesn't work, that's okay. That's information. That's data. Come back. Breathe. Put on some Bob Marley. Get some sun in your eyes. And then just tweak.

And you got to be willing to accept yourself. Because there's going to be people who hate or judge or do this or do that. But you got to practice self-love. And you got to know what you stand for. That's where character is so important. When I was dealing with severe Crohn's and colitis, I learned to build character and moral compass and values. And that's why to this day, my company isn't, you know, our company, Crohn's and colitis lifestyle, it's not scalable.

We can't just go out and just build an empire because I'm not willing to sacrifice impact on anyone who comes my way. I won't do it because my mom was that mom. I was that guy. So everyone on my team, you get a coach. When you work with us, you get a private coach. It's just done. That's not scalable. I only got so much time to sell, right? So it's just, it's, I'm not, and that's where, I mean, my drivers are, are, are passion, moral compass, integrity. I just, I went through a lot of pain,

so I just, I feel like that's going to give me the best life. And I just feel like I'm just very happy with what I do and how to do it. And, you know, it wasn't easy. Even after that year of getting better, the crazy thing is, is I still had speed bumps. I still had things happen. It's not like you just wake up and you walk on water.

You know, even right now, right? No one, you probably don't walk on water too. You have things. No one does. And I bet you've had a thousand people sitting in this. How many people have been walking on water? It's a constant learning. Even though we might highlight what we've accomplished here, there's still things I'm working on today, you're working on today, and anyone who's sitting in the seat is working on today. But that's what life is. That's L-I-F-E. That's it. Okay? And that's what makes it beautiful.

Beauty is something that's fleeting. Okay? If it's not fragile and it's not fleeting, it's not beautiful. So that's why we still want to wake up. Yeah. No matter how much money we've made or how many people we've helped, it's something to wake up for. And so I'm not in a rush.

You know? I want to learn. I want to listen more than I talk. And I want to be open-minded. And I want to help. And I want to hear what people's needs are. And all I did after that year, and I decided to build it. So one year after that nearly dying, I was 182 pounds, 95% for free. Two, three normal bowel movements a day. Sigmonoscopy showed 90% better. I got myself off Entivio, Remicade. I'm sorry. I got myself off Entivio, Methotrexate, Prednisone, Ambient, painkillers, the chemo. I think that was it. So I got myself, I weaned myself off all those medications. Prednisone took me a while to get off.

That's that steroid that calms down inflammation. So I was stuck at like weaning down from 10 milligrams to five to 2.5. It was really tough for me to get off that. And then once I did it, I just said, how does a 27-year-old kid do what every hospital said was impossible now i'm not i'm not walking on water but i'm not life-threatening i don't have any major symptoms i've got normal lab work blood work's normal calprotectin is normal sigwinoscopy 90 better i did it for my house at 26 i went an ivy league kid i mean i wasn't like i was a brainiac here i bet you just i just i tapped into i think the divine power we have as humans we're very powerful creatures i just got backed into a corner and i just was either die or give in and go on disability and live with

your mom or fight and i just fought and it's just like okay what can i. And it was just like, okay, what can I do? And it was just here, here, opening, awakening, awakening, awakening. So a year later I said, I think I can, I think I can help people with this. I started helping a few other people and I just put my before and after out on the internet. So all of it was just like Mr. Actor and model and good looking guy. And then I just started posting and said, no, this is, this is for real. Yeah. Your story is so inspiring, Dane. I could listen to you for hours, dude. Thanks brother. Where can, uh, where can people find you and learn more about your company? So, uh, our company is Crohn's colitis lifestyle, Crohn's colitis lifestyle.com. And the, my Instagram is Dane Johnson one. And the,

the Instagram for our company is Crohn's Colitis underscore lifestyle. And the program's called Shield Program. Supplements, herbs, imagination, exercise, lifestyle, and diet. Six pillars of health. You can't, you know, the cure for Crohn's and colitis, I like to say, is not to eradicate adversity. It is the ability to respond to adversity. Shield.

Protect yourself from stress and anxiety. Thanks so much for coming on. Thanks, brother. I hope we can save some lives with this episode. Yeah, me too, brother. Me too. Shield. Protect yourself from stress and anxiety. Dude, thanks so much for coming on. Thanks, brother. I hope we can save some lives with this episode. Yeah, me too, brother. Me too. Absolutely. Thanks for watching, guys.

See you tomorrow.