In 2010 I was in the midst of trying to figure out what is wrong with my digestion. Most of my life I had a form of IBS and was sensitive to dairy, but that felt normal, and very manageable. One morning in 2009 I started experiencing severe symptoms of what seems to be some kind of food poisoning. I waited it out a few days but when it didn’t improve, I went to see a doctor who prescribed me some kind of a medicine for food poisoning. It didn’t help it all. I couldn’t digest anything, and was running to the bathroom all day long. 

I started a more in depth series of medical examinations of uren, phesis, and blood tests to try to find out what was going on but they found nothing. When it was clear that something was going on, I went ahead and got both a colonoscopy and an endoscopy. That's how I discovered I had Crohn’s disease. 

The gastroenterologist who diagnosed me, immediately prescribed a heavy dose of 2 different kinds of antibiotics. That’s when things started really escalating. The symptoms got worse, and I was no longer retaining any nutrients and was losing weight fast. At that point, I couldn’t work anymore (I was in school, and working at a local cafe, my boss was pissed off at me for canceling shifts too often) and I went back to stay with my mom, who would attempt to serve me some banana or rice, but anything i’ll put in my mouth will send me running to the bathroom within seconds.

I tried contacting the doctor to ask if these were normal responses to the medications. I got no clear answer, and the doctor wasn’t available, (kept talking with his secretary). I just kept hearing that common thing about how you have to finish the dose of the entire antibiotic prescription, otherwise things might get worse. 

My mom always wanted to do what’s right from what she knows while also understanding that she doesn’t know everything. She always looked to me, trusting that I know what’s best for myself, and that is maybe the greatest gift I received from my mom. Her trust in me, and my intuition.

I was 21 and on the verge of having to be hospitalized because I was so weak and couldn’t keep anything down for months at that point.

I can’t remember the exact moment, but something told me to stop these horrible pills, so I did. And guess what happened next?

I came back to life.

The symptoms changed drastically and I could eat a bit without running to the bathroom.

All of a sudden, within one day, I felt more alive than I EVER before and I just wanted to go out with my friends and have a great time. This feeling was so incredible and I knew immediately that the medications were to blame for my worsening condition, it was killing me.

My mom suggested that we go for a second opinion, and someone had recommended us a doctor, who to this day I feel so grateful to have encountered. This is how I met Prof. Arie Levine, a kind hearted Pediatric gastroenterologist, who has lots of Interest and expertise in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases and is at the forefront of current research. Arie suggested a diet and a new kind of antibiotics. He also scared me to death of the complications that can happen if I don’t stop smoking, and so following his advice, I decided to give this approach a real try. 

After that consultation, I decided to take the weekend to say goodbye to all my favorite poisons, and begin the new diet and regimen when the new week starts. I went to see my boyfriend, and told him what I decided to try. He gave me a book by Alan Carr ‘the easy way to stop smoking’. We ordered pizza, poured glasses of whiskey, and enjoyed the evening. I spent the rest of the weekend reading the book in my apartment, while smoking my last cigarettes.

(me when I was 20, in Tel-Aviv)

When the new week started, I dove into my new routine.

The diet Prof Levine suggested consisted of simple foods such as rice, boiled chicken, hard boiled egg, boiled peeled potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, water, herbal tea, and these ‘Ensure’ type drinks. And of course.. the new antibiotics.

Quickly I noticed that these processed drinks which were supposed to give me nutrients were causing the symptoms to get worse, so I stopped drinking them. Tomatoes also felt a bit much for my delicate digestive system, so I left them out of my diet as well.

When I tried the new antibiotic, shortly after taking the first pill, all the horrible symptoms returned and I decided I absolutely can’t take these pills. But I did continue with the simple diet, minus the antibiotics, the tomatoes, and the Ensure drinks. I also stopped smoking.

Don’t get me wrong. It wasn’t easy. I was full of anxiety about my health, and I was feeling like a victim wondering ‘what me?!?!’. When I hang out with friends, it was really hard that I couldn’t smoke, drink, or eat fun things, and that everyone else can do whatever they want and I’m the only one who can’t. That psychological struggle should be a whole other story.

Another thing I did was look up on YouTube a guided meditation (i didn’t know what meditation was yet, in Hebrew it’s called guided imagination) and I found a video of a woman guiding some kind of a healing meditation, and that felt really good and supportive.

Within a few days of this new protocol, I felt so good. I finally had solid exists (if you know what I mean) and I was feeling so much better. I kept going for a few more weeks, until my followup colonoscopy at the Wolfson hospital and Medical Center in Tel Aviv, where Arie Levine was and still is the Director of the Pediatric Gastroenterology Unit.

When I awoke from the anesthesia after the procedure, Arie was joyful and amazed. All symptoms of Cronh’s were gone completely. He looked at me and said: this happened with just the diet and the antibiotics? I told him I didn’t take the pills, and his jaw dropped.

I was one of his first patients to try his diet and receive such results. We stay in touch as friends to this day.

These events started my 10 years of searching for the perfect diet, meditation practices, and many other alternative healing methods. Because even though I felt much better, I was told that Crohn’s is for life, and I was terrified of relapsing.

Almost 12 years have passed, and I am now a health coach, yoga & meditation instructor and still a musician, playing around the world, living my dreams.

I wrote this to encourage and inspire you or anyone who struggles with digestive issues to develop a strong connection with your body and know that you have the power to heal.

I also created/I am also hosting a free webinar where I share my top 10 secrets to healing your gut, and the 5 steps I took to get there myself.

Sign up for free here to get the info you need in order to begin healing - link boom

Link video of Arie talking about Chron’s and digestive stuff.

“I think it’s very important not to talk only about drugs, because this disease is not just a disorder of the immune system and it’s not gonna be cured by any of the drugs we are using right now”

For those interested in Prof. Arie’s work, this is a longer video of him talking about what we know about Cronh’s and similar conditions uptodate. His approach is very progressive compared to most western gastroenterologists, as he is involved with cutting edge research around gut health which cannot deny that medications don’t cure and we have to look at diet. 

Prof. Arie Levine, MD - Full Video on Crohn's Disease

I think it's also important to note (and i’ll be emphasizing this point again throughout this course), that your body does have the answers, and if you listen to it, it will tell you what works and what doesn’t work for your healing process. So trust your gut.

The importance of listening to your gut:

Your Gut Microbiome: The Most Important Organ You’ve Never Heard Of | Erika Ebbel Angle | TEDxFargo

First revision

In 2010 I was in the midst of trying to figure out what is wrong with my digestion. Most of my life I had a form of IBS and was sensitive to dairy, but that felt normal, and very manageable. One morning in 2009 I started experiencing severe symptoms of what seems to be some kind of food poisoning. I waited it out a few days but when it didn’t improve at all, I went to see a doctor who prescribed me some kind of a medicine for food poisoning. It didn’t help it all. I couldn’t digest anything, and was running to the bathroom all day long. That started a year long series of medical examinations of uren, phesis, and blood tests to try to find out what was going on, but they found nothing. When it was clear that something was going on, I went ahead and got both a colonoscopy and an endoscopy. (camera up your ass/camera down your throat). That's how I got diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. The gastroenterologist who diagnosed me, immediately prescribed a heavy dose of 2 different kinds of antibiotics. That’s when things started really escalating. The symptoms got worse, and I was no longer retaining any nutrients and was losing weight fast. At that point, I couldn’t work anymore (I was in school, and working at a local cafe, my boss was pissed off at me for canceling my shifts too often) and so I went back to stay with my mom, who would attempt to serve me some banana or rice, but anything i’ll put in my mouth will send me running to the bathroom within seconds.

We tried contacting the doctor to ask if these were normal responses to the medications. We got no clear answer, and he wasn’t very available. We just kept hearing that common thing about how you have to finish the dose of the entire antibiotic prescription, otherwise things might get worse. 

My mom always wanted to do what’s right from what she knows, while also knowing she doesn’t know everything, and was always looking to me, trusting that I know what’s best for myself, and that is maybe the greatest gift I received from my mom. Her trust in me, and my intuition.

I was 21 and on the verge of having to be hospitalized because I was so weak and couldn’t keep anything down for months at that point.

I can’t remember the exact moment, but something told me to stop these horrible pills, and so I did. And guess what happened next?

I came back to life.

The symptoms changed drastically and I could eat a bit without running to the bathroom.

All of a sudden, within one day, I felt more alive than I EVER before and I just wanted to go out with my friends and have a great time. This feeling was so incredible and I knew immediately that these medications were to blame for my worsening condition, it was killing me.

My mom suggested we go for a second opinion, and someone had recommended us a doctor, who to this day I feel so grateful to have encountered. This is how I met Prof. Arie Levine, a kind hearted Pediatric gastroenterologist, who has lots of Interest and expertise in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases and is at the forefront of current research. Arie suggested a diet and a new kind of antibiotics. He also scared me to death of the complications that can happen if I don’t stop smoking, and so following his advice, I decided to give this approach a real try.

That Friday night I said goodbye to some favorite poisons: pizza and whiskey, and spent the rest of the weekend reading a book my boyfriend gave me ‘the easy way to stop smoking’, while smoking my last cigarettes.

When the new week started, I dove into my new routine.

The diet Prof Levine suggested consisted of simple foods such as rice, boiled chicken, hard boiled egg, boiled peeled potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, water, herbal tea, and these ‘Ensure’ type drinks. Oh and of course a new kind of antibiotics.

I quickly noticed that these processed drinks which were supposed to give me nutrients, were actually causing the symptoms to get worse, so I stopped drinking them. Tomatoes also felt a bit much for my delicate digestive system, so I left them out of my diet as well.

When I tried the new antibiotic, shortly after taking the first pill, all the horrible symptoms returned and I decided I absolutely can’t take these pills. But I did continue with the simple diet, minus the antibiotics, the tomatoes, and the Ensure drinks.

Don’t get me wrong. It wasn’t easy. I was full of anxiety about my health, and I was feeling like a victim wondering ‘why me?!?!’

When I hung out with friends, I had a hard time because I couldn’t smoke, drink, or eat fun things, and it upset me that everyone can do whatever they want, and I can’t.

Another thing I did was look up on YouTube a guided meditation (i didn’t know what meditation was yet, in Hebrew it’s called guided imagination). I found a video of a woman guiding some kind of a healing meditation, and that felt really good and supportive.

Within a few days of this new protocol, I felt so good. I finally had solid exists (if you know what I mean) and I was feeling so much better. I kept going for a few more weeks, until my followup colonoscopy at the Wolfson hospital and Medical Center in Tel Aviv, where Arie Levine was and still is the Director of the Pediatric Gastroenterology Unit.

When I awoke from the anesthesia after the procedure, Arie was joyful and amazed. All symptoms of Cronh’s were gone completely. He looked at me and said: this happened with just the diet and the antibiotics? I told him I didn’t take the pills. 

His jaw dropped.

These events started my 10 years of searching for the perfect diet, meditation practices, and many other alternative healing methods. Because even though I felt much better, I was told Crohn’s is for life, and I was terrified of relapsing. I am happy to say that without this event, I wouldn’t be who I am and where I am. I am so grateful for trusting myself, and healing myself, and I am passionate about supporting others on their healing journeys.

This is why I created this course. I wanted to help guide and support people who know deep inside of them that there is a way to heal without medications. People that don’t subscribe to the idea that something has to be chronic for life because the doctor said so. People who understand that a disease is an incredible opportunity to heal, and not just on a physical level but on all levels, and that their entire being can be transformed as a result.

I wanted to give a voice to all self healers, and show you that it’s possible for you to heal yourself.