TALK 94.5 Liz And Nick
TALK 94.5 Liz And Nick
HADLEY OTT WITH HIS MEDICAL ADVICE! 6/3/26
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I am obsessed with healthcare issues and healing yourself and knowing that there are other ways than just taking medications and blindly listening to what doctors are telling you. And when Happily Ott reached out to us via our um our website, I said, oh my gosh, I know exactly what he's throwing down here. His book is named Drug-Free Crohns. And what really got me was overcoming big doctors, big hospitals, and big pharma. And so I realized this book is not just about Crohn's, it's about empowering you to take charge of your health. And he's going to tell us how he uh came to write this book, which I believe is a cross between a memoir and also an inspirational book uh for others to take charge. Hadley, uh thank you, and uh thank you so much for joining us this morning.
SPEAKER_01Well, good morning, and thank you all so much for having me.
SPEAKER_02So, Hadley, uh I as I was reading, I I realized that you uh were diagnosed with Crohn's when you were 12 years old. How old are you now?
SPEAKER_01I'm now 28.
SPEAKER_02Okay, you're 28. So tell us now you're you know, you're a child, you're having all these symptoms. Tell us what was going on when you were 10, 11, 12 years old.
SPEAKER_01Yes, ma'am. Yeah, I'll just give you kind of a quick rundown. So, gastrointestinal symptoms, GI, stomach problems, they were always kind of my childhood specialty. And at the start of my sixth grade year, when I was 11 years old, I just really started having a ton of symptoms, a lot of stomach aches through throwing up all the time. I could barely keep any food down. I was just kind of withering away physically. I was when I was 12 years old, I was 4'9 and 53 pounds, and I was taken to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital just kind of out of complete desperation, had a few tests done there, and was ultimately diagnosed with Crohn's disease, and got started immediately on a lot of the conventional treatments, the steroids and feeding tubes, eventually got into biologic drugs and did that for several years, over 10 years, ended up doing that. And then a few years ago, when I was 26, is when I finally went down the functional medicine approach and quit my doctor's in medicine cold turkey and was able to heal myself naturally. And that was about this time two years ago, and that experience to me was so liberating. I had this really strong call in my heart to write this book for anybody with Crohn's and autoimmune disease, but especially to other young people and the parents of young people who've been diagnosed with Crohn's or ulcerative colitis or any autoimmune disease, and they've been told that they're sick for life. And I just want to let them know that that's not true, that natural healing is possible, and you don't need to put a cap on your potential because of your diagnosis.
SPEAKER_02You know, when you're a child, uh you don't have much control over what's going on. You know, you're just kind of being guided with that. What uh happened? Uh why were you suddenly like saying to yourself, okay, so you're telling me my body is attacking itself, and this just doesn't make sense to me. So what was the switch that went off in your head to empower you to fire, you know, certain doctors and you know, uh drugs out of your life? What was that switch that you said, I know there is a better way? Did you read something? Did you watch something? Like what happened?
SPEAKER_01I would say it's the combination of things. So not long after getting diagnosed, I read Jordan Rubin's book, Patient Heal Thyself, and that was a huge inspiration to me. But at the time I was I was 12, 13, 14 years old, you know, in middle school, about to start high school, and we were just kind of locked into this conventional treatment approach, and in no way at all do I blame my parents for for keeping me in that because none of us really knew what to do. I mean, it was new and scary to us, and we just went along with with what the doctors said, but I kind of had a seed planted in my mind early on that maybe at some point down the road, there's got to be some way to heal myself, to treat myself naturally, and get out of this rut of just doctors, hospitals, and big pharma. And I will say, while I was in college, my as an undergrad, my junior year, I had a big flare and a big hospitalization that led to a major surgery right before the start of my senior year. And leading up to that, I was on a drug at the time called Remicade, and I was taking that every six weeks, and the surgery removed part of my small intestine that was supposed to be kind of the source of where a lot of the inflammation was, and had about 12 to 18 inches removed. And after that surgery, I felt pretty good, but my doctors put me right back on Remicade every six weeks, and that never really made sense to me, especially if I had the part that they said was causing all the trouble. Why did I still need to go back to taking the medicine? At least, you know, why couldn't I take it every eight or ten or twelve weeks if, you know, I was alleged, you know, supposedly had that part that was causing all the problems. And then, and I'll try to be try to be quick here, but then COVID happened, and um, there's so much I could say about that. But what was really eye-opening about COVID to me is that there were you started to see this divide in doctors and nurses over the vaccines, and then just the way we kind of treat patients in general. So after COVID happened, I start reading more about functional medicine, listening to interviews of doctors who were treating patients differently, reading more success stories of patients with Crohn's or cancer who had healed themselves differently. And long story short, I just started building up this really strong mental fortitude and intense faith that I could also take this leap of faith, quit my doctors in medicine, and heal myself naturally as well.
SPEAKER_02You know, you mentioned faith, and and I don't know where you are with your spirituality, but there is this consensus of sorts out there that God doesn't make mistakes and that autoimmune is a misnomer. It really should be the alarm system that something has gone awry in your body that you need to address, and that tamping down your immune system with steroids and other drugs is actually worse or causes more damage. Uh this happened to me when I contracted Lyme and I had this uh tick bite and a bullseye and all that stuff, and I was given a steroid, which caused my immune system to be suppressed, that caused the bacteria to grow under that. Um and so I from then on I took control over my situation and did things that made sense. Um God doesn't make mistakes like that, and and so there is a uh a concept that you can help your body heal by building your immune system. Is that the concept behind your book? Is how you can heal yourself naturally by doing what? I mean, is it by supporting your immune system? Is it by finding the triggers? Explain that.
SPEAKER_01Yes, ma'am. So I completely agree with you on the face side of it, and that's a big part of this book as well. So I believe that we're created in the image of God and that we're supposed to honor God with with what we do with our bodies, what we put in, the food we eat, exercising, keeping ourselves in really good shape. I believe that we're supposed to honor God in that way. And I don't believe that He created any of us to be sick for life. I just refuse to believe that. I think we're created for for work, we're created for love, we're created to to have purpose, and it's not to be sick, to just be a patient, a lifelong patient to the doctors and to the hospitals. And so that was something I really started leaning into a couple of years ago. You know, how could God create anyone to be sick for life? What I believe in turn is instead is maybe God gives, maybe gave me and maybe gives other people challenges in their life, and in my case and other cases, health challenges to help develop you and help to help to prune you in some ways, but those challenges are always something that you can overcome and you come out a much better and stronger person on the other side of that. And so when it comes to healing yourself naturally, whether it's Crohn's or other autoimmune disease, you have to go back and you have to look at what led up to that diagnosis. So there's several things that contribute to autoimmune disease. There's stress, your environment, your living conditions, toxins, chemicals, your diet, your exercise regimen, or lack thereof. And then there's also there is a huge faith component to it and mindset component to it. And so if you're able to go back and look at what areas of my life, what which one of those factors was maybe missing or lacking that contributed to my diagnosis? And then if you're able to pinpoint it, you're almost able to reverse engineer that diagnosis by going back and correcting those things, by going back and correcting your diet, going back and starting an exercise regimen and getting your mind in the right place. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, because your body is trying to save you, and that's what the inflammation is doing. It's like insulating, it's surrounding, it's trying to protect your body. So inflammation is a clue, I believe. Um that's what I've learned. Exactly. Um and so the mindset is uh also is you you mentioned it before. I mean, God has created your body to do all these amazing things. The human body is amazing, and you need to love your body through this battle because uh it's um easy to say, why is my body betraying me? Why is this happening to me? I was so active. Why did because it robs you? It robs you of doing the things you love to do, so it's easy to get depressed or you know, pity party on that whole thing. Um so mindset is really it's like, how am I going to support myself through this to get on the other side? So what are some of the things that you did? Is there like a checklist that you say, okay, do a microtoxin blood work check or check if there's uh mold in your home or microtoxins in your life or EMFs, or is there a certain list of things that you encourage people to do? Like how can people use your book, Drug Free Crohn's, to uh go through a checklist to get to where you are on the other side of this?
SPEAKER_01For sure. Well, I would say the number one thing is you have to want it for yourself. I've noticed that people are really divided as to whether natural healing is possible. And for me, healing didn't really start until I had this really intense desire to want to get better and to want to come off the the medicine to untether myself from the doctors and hospitals and just develop this really intense belief that you can heal yourself naturally. So that's where it really starts. I've I've known other people who just maybe put their toes in the water, but they're not really willing to commit to it wholeheartedly. It's expensive. You have to have it it is expensive, yes, ma'am. And and I will say that I was in grad school at the time I did this and was able to do it on kind of a shoestring budget. So I definitely know that there is a huge cost to it, but what better thing to invest in than your health? And that that's that's kind of the way I had to look at it. I had so many career and personal aspirations, but if I didn't get this right now, none of those things were ever going to materialize. But uh, I guess back to your question, a couple of the big things that that I did was one, independent blood testing, that was big. And then working with a functional medicine provider or a functional nutritionist, that was also key for me too. So when I was going through the whole regular doctor thing, they didn't really talk about nutrition a whole lot. They didn't talk about supplements at all. And those were always things that I was interested in doing, but having the guidance to really fine-tune my diet, I did the low-phosmat diet. I learned about a great supplement called Eliminatal Heal, which is an all-liquid meal replacement shake. Some patients go on it for months at a time. I did it for several days at a time, and it allows for a complete gut reset, starves out bad gut bacteria, restores the fluorin fauna of your gut. And then also when it comes to supplements, so there's thousands and thousands of different health supplements out there. And I think most of those are probably junk. There's only a few hundred that are actually worth taking. But if you don't know what you're doing, and and I was in that spot, you you really you're you're just kind of throwing throwing shots in the dark. And so working with an expert, I definitely think it's worthwhile. And I ended up, it's not a ton of supplements you need to take. There were only a handful that I took, and two of those were curcumin and omega-3 fission, and those are both natural anti-inflammatories, and inflammation, as you mentioned, is kind of at the heart of Crohn's and other autoimmune disease.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and uh I actually take both of those. I take curcumin with turmeric. Um, and uh and I did learn that probiotics could actually make things worse. You know, a lot of people take too many of the too much of that, and they're like, Why do I feel worse? Like you feel good for briefly, and then all of a sudden you're like, wait, what's happening? You know? And uh so yeah, like too much of a good thing is not good. Um and uh and talking about food, there are certain foods that trigger, you know, uh a lot of people talk about the elimination diet and adding one thing back at a time, but it could be something like nuts or you know, even fruit or raw vegetables. People don't realize that it could wreak havoc in your body.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. Yes, ma'am. And so you just mentioned this about supplements. So I'm definitely a big believer in food first and supplements later. And supplements should be just that. I don't think they're necessarily something you should take every day or be on for life. But if you're in a certain season, you're you're overcoming, trying to overcome an illness, a disease, maybe your body needs that to supplement what it can do on its own. But I'm definitely a food first guy. And and you're right about um fruit and vegetables. So that's one of the paradoxical things about Crohn's and and ulcerative colitis. You know, we think that raw fruits and raw vegetables have got to be the best foods for you. But those things are really, really hard for your stomach and GI tract to absorb and digest, especially if you're inflamed.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I learned sweet potatoes aren't my friend. And uh, you know, like, you know, you think that they're great for you, you know, and they just it's like, wait a minute, this is not making me feel good. Um, and so what about uh real briefly, Hadley, what are you eating? What do you find as gut healing? I mean, a lot of people are talking about being a carnivore on the carnivore diet. Is that something uh what what meal plan do you subscribe to for gut healing in general?
SPEAKER_01Yes, ma'am. So there's a supplement, uh I mentioned this earlier, eliminatal heal. That was huge for me in terms of healing my gut, and it's something that I still take from from time to time, you know, a few times a week, just as maybe a meal replacement shake. But uh sweet potatoes for me, organic sweet potatoes, are I know they don't do well for you, but they're actually a great food for me. So it's fine.
SPEAKER_02Um I do eat your triggers.
SPEAKER_01You do, you do, and you know there's a term called bioindividuality that just says we're all different, and so foods that work for you may not work for me, and vice versa. Um, but sweet potatoes for me are actually a great food. Grass-fed, local grass-fed beef, um, wild game venison, those foods are are amazing for me. Um I do eat eggs, I do eat um degree one, I think it's degree one or one degree oatmeal. It's not sprayed with glyphosate. I do really well with that, and and bananas.
SPEAKER_02Bananas are fine.
SPEAKER_01Those are those are kind of you know, have those are some of my my go-to foods.
SPEAKER_02I am so glad that not only did you find your way, uh, but you are leading the way for others. And I I really appreciate that. I did share on our Facebook page, because like I said, this is a topic I delve into often. You are doing a book signing in Tennessee somewhere, um, but I wanted to tell people about the book. Uh so I shared your link and your page on our Talk 945 page so people can check it out there. Hadley Ot O T T. Thank you so much for reaching out. Uh drug-free Crohn's overcoming big doctors, big hospitals, and big pharma. How are you doing with the book so far with sales?
SPEAKER_01It's it's doing really well. So it made Amazon bestseller in five different health categories during the first week it launched. Um I'm just trying to trying to keep the momentum going on it. I really hope people go out and check it out. Um, this has been such a it's a fun thing to do to write and promote a book. It's it's a big challenge, but it's uh it's a really rewarding thing to do, and and I hope you and the people who listen will go out and check it out.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. And it's not just if you have Crohn's disease, you can use these uh same uh principles to to heal yourself and find your way. Thank you so much, Hadley. Good luck to you and your book.
SPEAKER_01All right. Thank you so much. Y'all have a great day.
SPEAKER_02You too.