How I Healed Crohn's Disease Without Medication | Dane Johnson

After hitting a 120-pound "lowest point" at age 26 and facing emergency colon surgery, Dane Johnson explains how the failure of conventional medicine became the necessary curriculum for his transformation from a bedridden patient into a man on a mission. Alongside Dr. Crawford, he discusses the dangers of "Magic Protocol Syndrome" and the vital necessity of transitioning from a victim to the CEO of your own health. A key takeaway is that shifting your internal identity must occur before you can truly change your biology, as healing requires divorcing yourself from standard Western medical thinking to build a customized, evolving lifestyle.

The conversation further explores the neurobiology of gratitude, emphasizing that you must "get happy before you get healthy" to move the body out of a sympathetic stress state. This shift allows the parasympathetic system to begin repairing the gut, a process Dane supports through his "SHIELD" acronym and the concept of "Food Philosophy," which involves assessing dietary risks in real-time. Ultimately, the episode reveals that the discipline required to heal a chronic illness is the exact same foundation needed for extraordinary success in life, proving that growth—whether in health or business—is a lifelong journey of seeking 1% improvements every day.

Resources

Unlimited Power by Tony Robbins

Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins

Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself by Dr. Joe Dispenza

Supergut by Dr. William Davis

The Maker's Diet by Jordan Rubin

Breaking the Vicious Cycle (SCD - Specific Carbohydrate Diet) by Elaine Gottschall

CCLifestyle Shield Program: https://crohnscolitislifestyle.mykajabi.com/shieldprogram?el=website

Products

528 Innovations Lasers

NeuroSolution Full Spectrum CBD

NeuroSolution Broad Spectrum CBD

NeuroSolution Stimpod

STEMREGEN®

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For more information, resources, and podcast episodes, visit https://tinyurl.com/3ppwdfpm

Transcript

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Welcome to the Longevity Formula. I'm your host, Dr. Brandon Crawford. Here's a question I want you to sit with. What if the reason you haven't healed has nothing to do with finding the right diet, the right supplement, or the right protocol? My guest today spent seven years trying everything, carnivore, paleo, every supplement, every medication, multiple hospitals, tens of thousands of dollars, and he kept getting sicker until he was 120 pounds unconscious in a hospital bed with a surgeon waiting outside his room, ready to remove his colon, but then something shifted.

Within one year, he was 90% symptom free, completely off all medications, and had gained 65 pounds back. So what changed? What was the one thing he did differently that finally unlocked his healing? That's what we're diving into today with Dane Johnson.

Voice Over: Welcome to the Longevity Formula with Dr. Brandon Crawford. Let's explore the new era of Wellness.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Dane, thank you so much for joining us here today. I am so. Thankful for you sharing your time and your expertise to help other people in this world.

Dane Johnson: Thank you, Dr. Brandon, for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

And for everyone listening, I just wanna help you get life-changing results, heal the gut and get empowered. Thanks for having me, feel blessed.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Absolutely, man. So let's actually start with getting to know you a little bit, if that's okay, because you have a really powerful story. So take me back, like what happened, like what was your lowest point and how'd you overcome that?

Dane Johnson: So I was diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease, actually two different versions of it. Ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease by two different doctors at two different hospitals at two different times. And it was kinda that first thing that really hit me is doctors couldn't make up their mind what exactly it was, but we knew it was chronic inflammation in the bowel that was starting just to take my life from me.

And you know, Brandon, this was such a hard thing because I was, you know, that's hard for all of us, but this started at 19 years old. Family didn't have any issues. No one had ran with this disease, any of that. By the time I was 26, I had already taken biologics, mesalamine, prednisone painkillers, Ambien, you know, cansus, steroid enemas.

I mean, I, I'm going through the gambit as a young, young man,

Dr. Brandon Crawford: right?

Dane Johnson: And on my 27th birthday, I'm hooked up to IVs, 120 pounds fighting for my life. So it was like this thing of, don't worry, we'll get you some mesalamine, we'll get you some prednisone. Let's go on a restrictive diet. You know, get rid of gluten, have gluten-free bread.

Go to coconut milk, get rid of the regular 2% milk. And Brandon, I'm a Virginia boy. Like I, I grew up around a farm. I worked at Papa John's Pizza at 14 years old. It was like we, we'd only talked about macros, like you just run off McDonald's. That's how we thought, right? So that was, that was it. And so all of a sudden it's like, wait, I've got a poop disease that I'm gonna have for the rest of my life.

I can't talk to a girl about the, I can't talk to my dad about this. I can't talk to anyone about this. And I was a guy who wanted to do things. I had a big ambitions. You know, a little egotistical, but I had ambitions as a young man.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Absolutely.

Dane Johnson: Absolutely.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: As you should.

Dane Johnson: Yeah. And by all of a sudden it just started taking over.

My youth, and I know a lot of people are going through something similar, but it just got worse and worse. It started off as left sided ulcerative colitis, about seven centimeters. Then it was, no, this is more almost pain colitis, ulcerative colitis. Then in the, Nope, it's widespread. Crohn's disease. That was the UCLA who was saying that.

They said, nah, they dunno what they did. Then I went to Mayo Clinic. They're going, no, it's ulcerative colitis with gastritis. And I go back to UCLA. 'cause I was living in, in California at that time, moved from Virginia, California, and they're going, no, no, no, no, no. I'm positive. It's widespread. Crohn's disease.

You need to have a surgery to remove part or all of your colon. You failed Remicade. You failed Entyvio. You've been on prednisone, 40 milligrams, tapered down about 20 times over five, six years. Mesalamine is not working. Steroids aren't working you. You keep talking about this diet. It ain't working. The surgeon's waiting outside the room.

You ready? Surgeon's right there. You ready? Because if you don't do the surgery, you might die.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Right.

Dane Johnson: And if you get any worse, we can't do the surgery anymore. This is 2014,

Dr. Brandon Crawford: and you were how old?

Dane Johnson: 26. It was on my, well, I was turning 27, so I took my birthday's November. I went into the hospital mid-November and I didn't get out till right before Christmas.

And then I was housebound for a year. And I was bed rested for three months.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Man,

Dane Johnson: it was, it was crazy. My dad flew in, my sister flew in, my mom flew in. My mom was like the CEO of the doctors, 'cause she had flown me all around the country. We had spent 30, $40,000 on flights, hotels, out-of-pocket insurance.

The perfect diet We're reading in a book or a doctor Google nothing. It was just getting worse and worse and worse and worse.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Mm-hmm.

Dane Johnson: And I'm just a kid. I'm just angry. I'm angry at God. I'm angry at my parents. I'm angry that we don't have the money to keep doing this. We're a middle class family. We don't got it like that.

I, I'm broke. I'm 22 years, I don't have any money. I'm broke. I'm $40,000 in debt from college.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yeah.

Dane Johnson: You know, I had to pay for college and going into debt for that. So we were in a scenario and what saved my life is number one, I'd already been practicing and starting to try natural medicine, but failing at it.

So, okay, I get it. I like, once they kept saying, biologics ain't gonna work. You're gonna be on drugs for the rest of your life. That really threw me. Prednisone. You're doing okay. Then it got worse. You're doing okay. Then it got worse. And it was like something had to change and there was nothing of an outside force that could change my life.

So through that chronic pain for years, I finally got brave enough. I finally got off my knees, and I like to say that's when I turned from a boy to a man. It usually happens in life, not just age. It's some life experience that kind of does that to us. I think that was the moment where I said, even though I don't feel like it, even though it's not my fault.

Even though I'm angry, I gotta stand up and do something about it,

Dr. Brandon Crawford: right?

Dane Johnson: And so I had that kind of working in my head before I almost died. So that mindset changed, saved my life. Mom helped save my life. She goes to a, she calls up a doctor in Florida, right? Because I had seen a ton of doctors and she was just telling 'em where I was at, 'cause antibiotics.

I was on four antibiotics, 200 milligrams of infused prednisone, three grams of Dilaudid. Now Dilaudid is a painkiller that's seven times stronger than morphine. I know you know about that Dr. Brain, like pain, like real pain. 25 bloody bowel movements a day I go from, I'm six to 190, I drop to 123 pounds.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Good night, man.

Dane Johnson: They got these, these got these machines trying to massage my legs 'cause I didn't get out of bed. I had to relearn how to walk. Not because my nervous system didn't work because the, my muscles had so much atrophy. I couldn't flex my foot. I couldn't move up a, a stair.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: What period of time did it take to for you to get into that state?

From like initial onset of symptoms to that point in time?

Dane Johnson: Seven years. First symptoms 19 because it was kind of okay, like it was blood, but it was like five pound. Today my little blood, little mucus I can get through my life. Take a little prednisone. You know how when sometimes when you start getting sick, you just push it aside so you can go after your career or you can

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Oh yeah.

Dane Johnson: Get through.

I'm

Dr. Brandon Crawford: good at that.

Dane Johnson: Oh yeah. I'm good at that too. It's like, let's go to the bars. Like I'll be there, I'll just take, you know, the extra 20 milligrams of pred, some go, you know, knock down a beer with a buddy. So it was that as a 22-year-old kid, 23-year-old kid. So I just kind of got through it.

And then by 26 my body said, Nope, you're done. You can't cheat this anymore. And what happened, you know, is one massive stress had a big breakup in my life with a long-term significant another. I had been flying around the country because I had, you know, I had a career also going, I ironically in this, I had a career going as an actor.

You know, I was doing still print modeling Tika, Tommy Hofinger, when I was like 20 years old, 22 years old. So I had this like. I had this like, dude, I'm from Virginia. I was raised on a in the country and I just had this career losing it. So anyways, it was just kind of getting worse and worse and worse.

And then by December, 2014, it nearly killed me. They came to, told my mom, we don't know if he's gonna make it through the night. We don't know why he's getting sick. Doctor in Florida tells my mom, she goes, I think he's got something called Cyto Omega virus. I think this virus, it's like a similar to EBV Epstein Bar.

I think the virus, 'cause he stained for it in one of my colonoscopies. When you got IBD, they wanna do a colonoscopy every six months, usually every six months. Every once a year at least. So he said I stained for it in one of his colonoscopies and I found it just in one sample. 'cause they take samples of the tissue.

Mm-hmm. And I found it in one of the samples. I think this boy's gotta go on an antiviral chemotherapy. The prednisones not working, the antibiotics aren't working. The remicade's not working. Mesalamine is not working. It was like they had thrown everything at it. They were scratching their head. These are urgent care doc.

These are urgent care doctors. Right. This is not even my gi

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Right.

Dane Johnson: I was in an ambulance and going to the like, he's not gonna make it, you know? And so they were scratching their head at it. My insurance wasn't any good, right? Because I was a struggling guy trying to learn how to read lines. It was, it was it, you know, all of a sudden, so they called my insurance and said, you don't give them this.

Basically a hundred thousand dollars chemotherapy for the next two months. He, he's gonna die. So they gave me a sample. They got proof that I actually started getting better. Three days later, I woke up, became conscious again. I was unconscious for probably about two weeks. I don't remember it. You know, I was hallucinating on all the drugs.

And you know, when you're on three grams of Dilaudid every day for a month, you, you're gonna, you're gonna see some things and yeah, that's gonna

Dr. Brandon Crawford: do it.

Dane Johnson: You're gonna be, you're gonna be floating. So, long story short, I checked myself outta the hospital called my naturopath professor 'cause I was back in school for natural medicine.

And, and then the next problem was I, I was house, I was housebound for a year, bedridden for three months. And it was just the most excruciating thing. It's just like, imagine eating glass and trying to poop out glass 15 times a day.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Geez.

Dane Johnson: And then you can't walk. So I couldn't, I couldn't walk from my bed to the couch.

And then my nervous system was so shot. If I watched anything. On tv you have this awareness. If you even watch a cartoon, a car, cartoon's got stress. You watch Moana, there's a lava monster. My body can't handle watching a lava monster try to kill some, a little girl on the boat. Right? Like I, I would, I couldn't watch anything.

I couldn't eat anything. I was in chronic pain. And so it was a really hard thing. And the crazy thing is I dedicated myself at that time to really take the failure of self-healing the four years prior. 'cause I had been trying for four years, carnivore diet, paleo fasting, making my own homemade yogurt, bone broth, diet, you know, clap, stand on my head, clap my toes.

I mean, I was trying and it was, and then I just really took all those failures and said, these are gonna be learning experiences. And I'm gonna become the CEO of my health. Something switched in my mind and I just said, even though this is not my fault and I'm in pain and I'm angry and I'm lonely and all this immense energy, I'm gonna will myself to take steps to take action and start taking leadership in my health.

Because the day before that, it was Mayo. Doctor, what am I gonna do, mom? What am I gonna do? UCLA doctor? What am I gonna do? Dr. Google What? What's the perfect supplement that's gonna help with this? And so about a year after that, I was 90% symptom free, 90 95. I gained 65 pounds of weight. I got myself off all medications.

I have not taken a medication since 2015.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Nice.

Dane Johnson: And I was able to get a colonoscopy that showed 90% better. And my UCLA doctor was LABAs.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yeah. '

Dane Johnson: cause she didn't know I'd stop the medications.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: So the question there is, because anytime you know, I've got a patient and they have this great recovery and they go back to their other doctor, like,

Dane Johnson: yeah,

Dr. Brandon Crawford: oh cool and whatever, and they move on.

Did anyone ask like, what'd you do? Like, did they actually like ask you questions and try to learn from this experience?

Dane Johnson: And Dr. Brennan, I was baking the mask. I was ready to try to say, guys, you're so smarter than me, but let me chalkboard this route with you real quick to say what I did. 'cause obviously what I do, along with what you do is the answer.

It's not one or the other, it's both.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: That's a team.

Dane Johnson: And I was just like, and she just said, I remember her. She, she comes in and she goes, I was gonna be really upset about you, about stopping your Entyvio, but then I saw your blood work and you're no longer anemic. Your CBC's normal, your C CRPS normal.

What you been doing? I said, whew. Lemme tell you what I'm doing. I've been taking all these things. I've been doing the Indigo naturalist, been doing fasting. I've been going into the mucosal healers. I've been taking bone broth. I'm doing meditation twice a day, work my nervous system, earthing plus sunlight.

Then it was just, I just went and she was like, okay, calm down. And she just said, okay, whatever you're doing, just keep doing. I can't do anything for you if you're not gonna take your medication. So come see me if you need me.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Oh my gosh.

Dane Johnson: Basically, I can't help you. Good luck.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Wow,

Dane Johnson: okay. And one, I walked out with one hand, like I just got a sigmoidoscopy, 90% better, no medications.

I'm 185 pounds. I've got two to three normal bowel movements a day. A little bit of loose stool, a little bit of urgency here and there like I'd gotten, you know, and I had some ups and downs after that. It wasn't like I just learned how to walk on water, so I had one hand in the air, like, yeah, let's go.

And I had the other hand, like, I am alone. My doctor doesn't wanna see me, my parents, my family lives 3000 miles away. I got a little apartment that I, I don't even know if I can work and pay for.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Wow.

Dane Johnson: It was just a heavy, heavy, heavy time. And this is, you know, even 10, 15 years ago, like this type of podcast, it just wasn't around.

Instagram, you know, there were a few books, like my mentors were the people who wrote books like Jordan Rubin, the Maker's Diet, or Elaine Godshaw, the SCD Diet, like, you know, a, a Tony Robbins Unlimited Power at Unleash. The Giant within, I just needed him in my mind because I was stuck in a house. I was alone in a house broke 3000 miles away and I was just refusing to give up my freedom and give up my time.

And I just, when you go through that kind of pain, but you were willing to fight and you're willing to get punched in the nose. It just changes you. And I'd say from there, it's just been pain to purpose. Yeah. And since then I've just taken that energy and I've turned it into passion. I've turned it into willpower.

It's not easy, and life isn't easy. You're, it's full of doubt and anger and resentment. And it's also full of gratitude, love, excitement, success, you know, you know, new, new realities building. So I've just been on that wave and I've just said, let healing, let my health be my number one priority. And let it guide me to creating something that I needed.

So I just went into the world and said, I'm, there's a lot of people who might be smarter than me in many ways, but I'm just gonna build what I needed when I was chronically sick for years and my mother was crying every night not knowing how to help me. My father was crying every night and I was just a kid and I didn't know how to, how to get out.

And, you know, since then I've, I've, I, I, I think I, I think I can take the throne that I've worked with more people who have IBD than any doctor, coach person, clinic on the planet. Like maybe people like clinics, you know, specializes in colonoscopies, have done more colonoscopies, but coaching, helping people get symptom free and remission of IBD.

I've worked with thousands over the last 11 years.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Amazing

Dane Johnson: for, and we see Good for you. My team, we have a team of practitioners. We see about 250 IBD clients at any given time, so, which is passion, purpose, and. And our team has IBD. That's another thing is, is like, so when I talk to you, Dr. Brandon, it's like, it's so hard.

Like we talk, you know, people have MS or you know, lymphoma cancers or IBD. It's just like there's such a, we need relatability, we need connection. We need people who've been through it, not talking, not just talking to us from an ivory tower.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Right. Absolutely. That's a powerful story. It is funny you mentioned Tony Robbins when you started talking.

It's like, I wonder if he is a Tony Robbins guy. Literally, I was literally thinking that, and then he was, you can feel it.

Dane Johnson: Oh, he was my brain. I was, I remember I was like 140 pounds. I just got started walking and I had such urgency, right? Because I couldn't, I'd have 20 bowel movement a day, so it was like I have to be able to walk to a stop sign and not fall and not like, or faint, like I got this scar.

From dehydration, anemia, like severe. 'cause when you lose that much weight you'll, you'll stand up and just lapse.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yeah, right.

Dane Johnson: So I was like, okay, don't faint. Get your calves and ankles and legs to work to go there. And also don't poop your pants. Like, do you wanna talk about shame? It was like,

Dr. Brandon Crawford: right.

Dane Johnson: What did I just shoot in men's Health like four months ago?

What happened? You know, it was just crazy what God did in my life. Like crazy like. Give with one hand, give with the other. It was insane. Right. So yeah. Bike was super passionate on it. Yeah.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: So take us through. So you had that, that lowest point, you know, they said, Hey, we've gotta operate or you're not gonna make it, et cetera.

Yeah. And then, you know, so you took over, you said, I'm in control of my health.

Dane Johnson: Yep.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: And absolutely that's step, just step one. Absolutely. You had already been doing a lot of different diets and different things, but what was different? What did you do to really turn the corner?

Dane Johnson: Great question. And so this is something I think is so important for everyone and I actually created a list.

I'm gonna try to remember everything on that list 'cause it's, you know, really key on that. So number one, the first thing I did is I found a place to get to get trained. So I made getting trained on how natural medicine works, integrative eastern verse Western mitochondria. You know, I started getting trained on these things, so I found a place to get educated every day when I was housebound, I was working 30, 40 hours a week on understanding and getting basically a degree in all of this, you know?

So I was meeting with my Nash, be professors over Zoom, and they like two of them, Dr. Magee and Onlay, they both lived in la so one of 'em would come over. They're the ones who taught me about bentonite clay and binders and silly and husk, and when my body was ready, how to calm that down. So, number one is I needed a team.

I didn't have a team. I had a team of conventional doctors, but I kept outsourcing the education. When you wanna heal, you have to become the answer, and you wanna get trained, you wanna get your team. You won't even pay for your team to empower you. So I think a lot of people think, I wanna pay for the hack.

Give me the supplement, give me the diet, give me the sheet and I'll do it, and I'll pay you for the sheet. But really what you want in life is you wanna get self-empowered. That's actually the golden goose. That's even more valuable than temporary symptom relief. They hack it. They get symptom relief a lot of times, and then they go back and they don't actually know what they're doing.

They can't respond to adversity. They only know MPS Magic Protocol Syndrome. The second thing is I became the CEO of my health. I journaled 10 minutes, morning and night. So I ask you, you know, Dr. Brandon, when, when I was looking at my case, I was like, I can't tell you what my symptoms were or what my variables were last week.

How many balance do you have on Tuesday? Did you take three? No, I was just saying to the gen, generalize the world right now, this space time continuing of the podcast. And so anyone listening, how many po, how many balance did you have on Tuesday? What about Friday? What new variables did you add in?

Were you stressed? Did you increase the amount of keefer? Did you increase curcumin? Did you go out and eat at a restaurant that accidentally had canola oil or cut olive oil that you're actually very reactive to when you with a sensitive gi? Did you you know, not sleep as well? Did you have certain EMF on right now?

Did you have blue light until one in the morning going on? You have to look at the variables. So what I did is I journaled just 10 minutes in the morning, 10 minutes a night, and Dr. Dane put Dane in check. 10 minutes, twice a day. Third thing is this is also really, really help you with my nervous system, is I had to let go of being a victim.

So the way I did that is I did prayer and purpose every morning. If you listen to people talk about breath work meditation or people who believe in God, whoever you are, you're gonna see that there's this, there's this common breakdown of how to regulate your feelings, how to regulate the spirit, how to regulate your nervous system.

So if I feel angry, that's gonna affect my heart rate, that's gonna affect my cell to cell communication, that's gonna affect my microbiome, it's gonna affect my digestion. So here's how I can tell you. If you're not salivating in your, in your mouth before you eat, you're not in the rest and digest mode and you're eating in a sympathetic state where your digestive enzymes will naturally be lower, meaning you're at more increase for poor bioavailable nutrients, poor stomach acid, poor pancreatic and flow, and more increase of SIBO reactions and undigested food and urgency and diarrhea.

So what you feel matters to what physically happens in your body. So prayer, purpose, healing journal. Every day I had to get a training center and not be alone in this, and really get a place where I could go. I had to get happy before I could get healthy. People have to learn to dance in the rain. If you're going to, if you're going to get, not be a victim, you've gotta start focusing on gratitude.

So even though I lost my health, Dr. Brandon, I started focusing on the fact that I didn't lose my mom. I didn't lose my best friend. I could. They were still right there. Hey, what would you rather, yeah, Dr. Brandon, would you rather have your, someone in your family die or deal with chronic disease? Which one would you pick?

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Oh, absolutely. I'll deal with it myself.

Dane Johnson: Perspective, right? Mm-hmm. Thank you. That it's me and not them.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yeah.

Dane Johnson: Thank you. That I still have the people that I love and care about. Thank you. I still have my eyes. Mm-hmm. Thank you. I have my feet. Some people are blind. You gotta put it in perspective if you listen to anyone on stage.

And that's where I started listening to people who had gone through hard things on stage. It's, it's very similar. The universal truth is, it's about perspective. Happiness is a perspective, gratitude is a perspective. And what are you feeding your soul? And if you allow yourself to be a victim, you're gonna feed your soul victimhood.

And that is a dying energy.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Right.

Dane Johnson: You can't. That's

Dr. Brandon Crawford: powerful

Dane Johnson: win. You can't win. We all have our own unique pass, but it's the same energy for all of us to win. If you can't identify the energy in your life, you can't win in your custom, unique journey, are you? How much are you feeling? Not thinking feelings.

Most important. Are you feeling anger, fear, doubt, victimhood, worry, anxiety. Are you feeling love? Gratitude, hope, peace. Patience. I have time. I'm not in a rush. That's one that I have to keep working on. I'm always in a rush. I don't have time.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Same, absolutely.

Dane Johnson: That's one of the pro, pro cons of being an entrepreneur like me and you.

We do big things and there, there, there's a pro and con of that. Another thing, guys, side note, whatever you choose in life, whether you want to get married or have kids or make a lot of money or just go live in a beach, there's a pro and con to every choice we make, there is no choice. There's no life path that doesn't have some cons.

So it's like you wanna take back your health. There's gonna be cons to it, meaning you better watch out for alcohol, you better watch out for crappy food. You better learn how to fast or do intermittent fasting or stop snacking. You better learn to go to bed on the time. You better. You're gonna have to deal with the energy of I'm a boring person.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Right. Yeah.

Dane Johnson: I'm a boring that guy. You ever think that Dr. But you're like, man, I'm, I'm pretty boring. Like if you would've told me I'm like this when I was 20, I would've been like, what a, what a, you know, just a, a I would not be interested in hanging out with him. Right.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Absolutely. So there's,

Dane Johnson: that's a spiritual journey, right?

So, the other thing that, so you have to get happy before you can get healthy. So going back into when I was sick and I started getting healthy while I was housebound. I made my bed. I didn't, I didn't live in a dirty house. I put Bob Marley on when I was making breakfast. I wanna love you. I wasn't alone.

Bob Marley. We, and then me and Tony Robbins would go have a chat for 10 minutes and it was free. 'cause I bought the book for 2 99 on Amazon and I had my highlighter. So when Tony said something that was fire, I highlighted and if I wanted to incorporate in my life, I went to a different notepad and I rewrote what he said it.

I read a book a month. A book a day is the stupidest thing in the world.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Right.

Dane Johnson: If you're gonna read something, make it a life-changing read Yes. Highlight, rewrite it and reread the page if you need to. And you know what really hacked my health, Brandon also is when I, so I started going from, I don't like reading to, I'm reading four hours a day 'cause I'm stuck in a house.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Hmm.

Dane Johnson: Remember, I don't have a job. I'm not making money. I'm, I got a lot of anxiety still I'm having, trying to work on, I, I can't, I'm sick, can't walk, like I'm trying not to go on disability and move back in with mom. At 27 years old, I'm trying to keep in my California apartment in the sunshine. I couldn't afford it.

So one of the things I realized is when I read, I couldn't think about my problems. At the same time, your feelings are overwhelming. Your mind, you need to pick up a book. You cannot get through that page and think and worry at the same time. Try it. You'll lose track of where you are on the page.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: That's actually really good advice.

I like that

Dane Johnson: if you, I mean, there was fire for me to change. And that's the thing. You're gonna have these epiphanies when you go on the road of the foggy road of, I'm gonna change my life now I'm gonna dedicate this. There's gonna be, it's gonna be uncomfortable. If it's not uncomfortable, you're doing it wrong.

There's no way to grow in life that doesn't equal discomfort. But when you do it, you're gonna have some epiphanies that are universal truths, and it's gonna become, it's gonna make you wise. So all of a sudden I'm, I'm realizing I gotta get outta my head. I gotta feel better. So I'm reading, that's how I went from reading 30 minutes a day to even four hours a day many times because it was, I was getting so much dopamine from Tony dropping bombs on me, or Dr.

Susan Blum or Jordan Rubin, and all of a sudden I had all these new possibilities. You wanna change your life, guys, that is your word. Possibilities. You need to cast the fishing pole. You need to get an iron in the fire. Possibilities. You gotta live in that world. It's possible. Now, it's not even possible for you to heal if you ain't trying.

You gotta make that okay. It's possible. 'cause I've changed my diet. It's possible 'cause I've gotten a team. It's possible because I'm now journaling. And if you want my journal, Dr. Brandon, I'll, I'll give it in the show notes completely free, whatever that, it's the same journal I use for a year to heal.

I filled that thing out every single, I filled it out for like seven months straight, right? Every day. Boom. So that was another thing that's really gonna change, is like you have to recondition your spirit. Working your spirit is like working your muscles. If you're doing legs once a week or twice a week, why in the world do you not think that is the same exact theory you need to do for your spirit?

Your spirit is a muscle. Absolutely. You don't use it, you lose it. So what's the spirit? Spirit is the spirit creates the energy that cannot be bought. Brandon, can you buy trust?

Dr. Brandon Crawford: No

Dane Johnson: way. You buy love.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: No way.

Dane Johnson: Yeah. Nope. Faith, Nope. These are all spiritual energies. You need them for longevity. You need them to heal.

You need them to become the person you imagine. So that's a walk, that's an energy. That's a beautiful thing about life. You can't buy that now. You can use your money to help condition it. You can use your money to get your team to help support it, to hold you accountable, to make you aware of it, to to act on it, and then pick you up as you fail because we're all gonna fail.

Failing's a part of success. I failed for four years prior, I ever got any results to what we're talking about. So anyone who's kind of impatient with this or overwhelming, trust me, I've been there. So

Dr. Brandon Crawford: I was actually gonna just comment on that because I mean, I've had my own health crises and going through one right now with a herniated disc and whatnot, and you know, I, I totally get it.

I do that, I do the journaling. I, I set my mindset and, but halfway through the day, I am sitting here with a sear pain down my leg and I'm going, holy crap. You know, I can't think straight, I, you know, all this kind of stuff, right? It starts to, you get that lull, right? So the, those ups and downs, the roller, this is a rollercoaster.

So everyone listening like this is not just a listen to Tony Robbins and then boom, it's all forward trajectory from there. Like, this is a, this is a rough road and, and you definitely need the wherewithal and you need the mental fortitude to, to navigate it for sure. But it's doable.

Dane Johnson: Yeah, it is. And Dr.

Brandon, just to give people that relatability after those results, about a month later, my buddy talked me into going to Thailand.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Hmm.

Dane Johnson: And I crawled back on the plane to Thailand and I went back to the hospital. Like I, I went to Thailand and I had to go back on antibiotics and I had to go and like for like two weeks 'cause I got salmonella poisoning there.

My microbiome was still weak and shot. And even though I was eating very clean in Thailand, this was a 27-year-old kid had been cooped up for years. Yeah. And I just made a dumb decision. I, so I just, the point is I actually, you know how I got it? 'cause I was doing really well with like bananas or blueberries.

Mm-hmm. So I did like a paleo type, like I had built as I healed, I built up a way where I could handle things like a little bit of congee, white rice. I could handle meats. Be careful with the fats, be careful with too much red meat if you don't handle iron. So there I had, it wasn't like what I was eating on month one year after one year, and I was eating on month one.

They were completely different. But I found that I could do like pureed fruit shakes pretty well, that were low lectins. No seeds. No skins. If you can't squish it, don't eat it. That was my rule. So all of a sudden I got a fruit shake of banana, blueberry, good stuff. But I got it from one of the fruit guys on the road.

Guess what? He washed that fruit in. And I am, and I am, I mean, I am fevers bodies free. I'm like, what did I just do? I had to fly Thailand, China. 15 hour flight, 25 bowel movements, body freaking out, go on antibiotics. But then, because I had trained myself, I had this huge speed bump. But then I immediately, within a couple of weeks I was back.

I was good.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Wow,

Dane Johnson: because, what'd you

Dr. Brandon Crawford: have Thailand for? What was that all about? Was that just for fun? What was

Dane Johnson: that for? Yeah, my, I was just like, yeah, I wanted to travel. Like I think a lot of us, right, when you're 20 something, you're not married yet, you don't have kids yet. I had been stuck in a house. I had lost a lot of my twenties and you know, Thailand looked so cool to me and.

I had done some traveling and I always liked the travel. So I just think I got bit by like, I'm gonna do this. I can do this. I'm gonna prove, 'cause one of the things that also happens that we have to address is once you start getting some results, you need to prove to yourself that you're no longer a sick person and you're not made of glass.

It's part of spiritual healing, in my opinion. So if you walk around and you're on this perfectly strict diet for the rest of your life, my question is, are you doing it because you want to or you need to? If you're doing it because you need to, there's a spiritual fear still living inside of you and it will keep you in a state of mental and emotional sickness.

So the question, so one of the thoughts as you get healthier, this is more advanced talk. As you get healthier and healthier and you say, well, I eat paleo, and you go, okay, well do you, you eat that way because you need to or you want to, if you body can't handle a bit of sprouted pressure cooked quinoa, are you really that healed?

Is that really a strong stomach? If you can't handle a, a, a vodka on a, you know, I'm not saying it's good for you, it's bad, but if your body can't literally deal with that, you, you just, to me, I felt like a bubble boy. Like I'm in this bubble, and any moment it could pop. How can I handle the stress of having children or growing my career or building my, the, the company of my dreams?

I can't handle quinoa,

Dr. Brandon Crawford: right?

Dane Johnson: I can't handle zucchini. If I can't handle a salad. I can't handle a, a pumpkin seed.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Right.

Dane Johnson: So that's more an advanced talk. There's layers to this thing. There's layers to the game of life. There's layers to marriage, there's layers to business, there's marriage to fitness, longevity, there's layers of healing, right?

But it's, you know, you can get creative, you can be grateful for it, and you can accept it. So there's a lot of, so I think another big thing I did, Dr. Brand that I wanted to share people is, I used this word because it's such a strong word. I divorced Western world thinking.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: I like that.

Dane Johnson: That was a hard thing for me to do.

I really, any, you know, like the idea of gluten, the idea of fast food, the idea of, of, well, most restaurants and what, what happens there? Alcohol any kind of recreational, you know, when I was sick, I smoked a lot of marijuana. It was the only, it was like escapism for me. It numbed the pain and it worked.

And I'm not saying it's bad. As I kept going, I didn't want to escape anymore. I wanted to be good. So there were layers, right? It's a good time to do things in a bad times. Remember that what we talk about, guys, it's about like chess. It's not checkers. Like there's a time to move your bishop, there's a time to use your horse.

There's a time to keep it back. There's no perfect answer. It's what's right for you in that moment. And if you can't read your game, you're not gonna make smart moves. So take a generic thought and then say, how do I do this for me? That saved me. Brandon. The last thing I wanna say about things I did different, we haven't talked about a supplement and we really have talked minimal about food.

Just highlight there how much absolutely you can change. So the, so one of the big things is I stopped judging everybody's opinion on how to heal. This is this, I, if I could give you one thing that's gonna change your life, this is, this is something that's gonna be huge. I would look at people who'd say carnivore.

And they were angry at the vegans, and they were screaming at the vegans. And the vegans were screaming at the carnivore, and pale was screaming. Everyone was screaming. So what I did is I just got a, I learned everyone's thing and I just cherry-picked this, and that's why I called my program shield because it's about your personal, customized answer.

The thing I did is I, like, I met this guy, he was a fruitarian, right? And he actually had good results getting people in remission, only eating bananas and like lettuce and like avocado. It was crazy diet. Like, for the rest of your life, you're gonna eat 25 bananas a day. Wow. What? Like, I'm, I'm the banana man, right?

And so people have gotten into remission doing it. It there has benefits. So I said, okay, why does it work? How do I use this? I'm not gonna do this the rest of my life and what isn't working for me? So when I started doing it, I was starting to lose weight. I have no way to lose. When I did carnivore, I realized that it helped with, I need, when you learn about healing, you know your body needs excess amino acids and protein to heal.

You can't recover the muscle, you can't cover the cell without excess protein. So I was like, okay, there's certain benefits. It's also very low in sugar. Fiber was a little hard. You go in bathroom 20 times a day, you might wanna slow that down. Meat can help with that. Meat's dead food, it's, it's dairy free, it's seed oil free.

It's doesn't have any car polysaccharide, carbohydrates, no sugars. It's like, whoa. That's pretty much what most of the diets are saying. Against all grain, paleo diet, specific carbohydrate diet. They're all kind of saying that, right? So I said, and I, so what I did it, I started fusing both of them. Now you look at someone like Paul Saladino, what'd he say?

He goes, I was carnivore. That was wrong. Now I'm fruit honey in carnivore. I'm like, that's kind of what I figured out too.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Here you go.

Dane Johnson: Monosaccharide fruits, honeys. And then I said, okay, let me figure out polysaccharides. Let me be specific about lectins. Let me look at things like phytic acid. Oxalates and things like that.

So what I did is I learned, so I created something called food philosophy and the the definition of food philosophy is to look at any plate of food and assess its risk for you in real time. So what I wanna manifest for everyone listening right now is forget a diet, build a lifestyle, look at any plate of food and assess its risk.

Why would it be a problem when, what is it gonna take for you to be ready to try that? And why would you wanna try that emotionally? My example, Dr. Brennan, if we go to a a, we go to a wedding and they've got cake and wine generically, no, that's bad for me. I have IBD don't do that. That's fear-based. Yeah.

Now I'm gonna go and say, I'm gonna take two caps of NEC. Two to three caps of curcumin. I'm gonna use a binding agent to grab this stuff. I'm gonna take glutalytic acid that helps break down gliadin and gluten before it gets to the small intestine. If I take four caps, 90 percent's broken down before the small intestine, and I'm only gonna do this if my nervous system is actually celebrating.

So I'm not gonna cheat. I'm gonna celebrate. So I'm gonna have a celebration meal, and my rule is I only have celebration meals when I'm actually celebrating, and then I'm gonna use my shield to protect myself from it.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: That's awesome.

Dane Johnson: You wanna drive a hundred miles an hour or you wanna drive 30? Do it smart.

Same thing with a car, right? What's the problem with driving with a 16-year-old? You think they're gonna kill you 'cause they don't know how to use the vehicle? Do you know how to use the vehicle food? It's the same thing. Get, get experience, get trained. Let's use the metaphor of the the car. Do you know how to drive in the dark?

The mountains. When it's icy, when it's snowy, when it's raining, when you're on a highway next to an 18 wheeler who doesn't see you in the blind spot. This is all stuff that me and you know that we sit down with a four 16-year-old driving and we're going, you don't know how to handle the situation when you're trying to live with longevity and health.

It's the same thing. Assess the situation and look at the pros and cons and make an experienced adult decision that supports you. Now, you don't have a diet. You got a lifestyle. You just make smart decisions and you build emotionally. This idea of divorcing Western world where you don't actually enjoy poisoning yourself anymore.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Right. Yeah. And those are kind of one and the same, but, so what you're talking about requires a vast amount of knowledge. Right? And that's what you're talking about. You're talking about reading. Go cons. The first thing you're talking about consuming is knowledge. Like you, you're you, the first thing you said, like, we're not talking about food.

We're talking about consuming knowledge. We're talking about consuming things that we're not eating, we're putting in our mind. So what are some places that you could send people or references? Or is it like, where do people gain this knowledge? Is that why they need to work with you guys? Or someone similar?

Like how, how does someone build that repertoire of knowledge so that they can do that?

Dane Johnson: Well, I would say that wherever you go and not like, I don't wanna set this up as some kind of thing. Yes, we can help, yes, this is what we do, but you need to go where you have trust and integrity and you feel called to go.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Mm-hmm.

Dane Johnson: What I did is I spent years trying to piece all this together, so that's why I did this. 'cause I said I needed all this in a simple place that I could start getting all this together in a couple of weeks. Like if I could just, someone could just kind of give you everything and then give you a coach who's gonna customize your plan and understand where you are and build your plan, not the plan.

That's what we do. But, but besides that, what I would do is start here. I want you to write down four or five things that you are going to work on no longer doing. Before you worry about what you're gonna do, I want you to focus on the first thing is, once your mind's there, you focus on what you're not gonna do.

Meaning most the fear, most of the problems is, is, is really just getting outta the body's way. That's why fasting is one of the fastest ways to heal. How many supplements, how many calories do you need? Right? How much money does it cost? Nothing. So if you look at that spectrum, you say, what am I getting outta my body?

So my, my conscious divine body can start doing for me? So what am I gonna not gonna do? I'm not gonna stay up past 10 30. I'm gonna go to bed. I know. I feel like an old man. Go to bed. I'm gonna stop drinking alcohol. Stop it. What are you doing? Learn to raise your hands and dance and hug sober. Okay.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Right.

Dane Johnson: What am I not gonna do? I'm not gonna have thing top five. Food allergies. Processed dairy lot. Some of us eggs is a problem, which is crazy enough Gluten. You know, and I'm gonna seed oils, and now if you're really specific, I'll give you a little bit of a harder one. Only eat what you cooked or someone prepared for you.

30 days even. Dude, 14 days. Your life will change if you only eat something that was prepared for you or you prepared yourself just 14. It's cheaper. It's a little inconvenient. But remember, we use money to buy convenience. So do you wanna spend money or spend time when you heal? You have to do both. But one of the best ways you can spend less money is spend time free currencies, energy, time, and money.

The strongest energy and time money's actually the one that's the weakest. Mm-hmm. So then I want you to say, so that's, these are things I did, Brandon. So I said, I don't know how to heal. I don't know where to go. So let me just start with what I can control. Journal, sleep mindset, spiritual. I'm only going to eat what I prepare.

I don't know if I should be carnivore. I don't know if I should be paleo. I don't know if I should eat this. And the other, I'm just gonna eat, only eat what I, what I cook. Okay? And so I did that for a long time. To this day, probably 85% of my food that I ingest is pre, pre prepared in my house, or it's like something very, very specific.

And so you'll find that people who get to the 0.1% of success in life. They've, they've nailed in their variables. They don't, they've trained their spirit and their mind to not go outside of variables that often. Like success isn't just being able to go do everything in the world. That's actually how you fail.

You are like, oh, I got all the money in the world. I'm gonna do everything. No, you're gonna feel terrible and you're gonna hurt yourself because you can be a billionaire. It's sick. Tell That's Steve Jobs, right?

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yep.

Dane Johnson: So

Dr. Brandon Crawford: I've got some patience like that.

Dane Johnson: Yeah. So you just, you know, that's spiritual energy. You can't buy it.

And my naturopath professor said it to me and I really stuck with me. He said something I just remember for the rest of my, he goes, most people will, will sacrifice their health to get rich and then they'll spend their riches to get healthy. I like,

Dr. Brandon Crawford: yes.

Dane Johnson: Mic drop. That's me. That's me. I worked three jobs. I worked since I was 14 years old.

Saved every dollar I could, I could do, I was willing to work, whatever. I didn't care. 'cause I had all the time and I had all the health, but I was broke.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yeah.

Dane Johnson: So, you know, it's like, can you do both for all my Type A Fire people out there listening. How do you do both, but do not sacrifice your health?

Because if you have more time on this planet, if you have more energy on this planet, money compounds, time doesn't.

Voice Over: Right.

Dane Johnson: So it was, that's, that's what I, I did. So books like, I'll give you a, like top books. You need a mind. You need a mind book that's gonna work for you. I like Dr. Joe Dispenza. Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself.

That was fire I liked. I like 1980s. Tony, honestly, like

Dr. Brandon Crawford: absolutely man.

Dane Johnson: That's me dude. So, unlimited, unlimited power on Le I think Unleash the Giant within. I liked a little bit more. And then you need a book that's gonna start just teaching you about like the gut. And I haven't written a book of, of that magnitude.

Maybe one day I'll feel called to do it. I don't feel called to at the moment, but you know what's a good one is Super Gut by Dr. Davis. So those are like three examples of where you could go and. And then you wanna start fall, I would start following people who've done what you wanna do. Try to find six to eight people that you can follow that do, do what you wanna do.

Get on their email list, follow them on Instagram, follow their YouTube, and just start ingesting what they're saying until you get, you learn their key points or read their book. And I want you to listen to people from different places. And so the places you're gonna wanna learn about are the animal-based world.

You wanna wanna learn about the plant-based world, you wanna learn about the fasting place world you wanna learn from also people who are extremely disciplined and organized. How did they deal with the emotional balance of this is how I work, this is how I wake up at five in the morning. This is how I get so much done in an eight hour period.

This is how I buy back my time. This is how I delegate. You know, this is how, or, you know, PE and people who've done like self-healing. So you gotta search for that. You know, I'm on Instagram. Crohn's Life's Lifestyle is US Dane Johnson one on Instagram. You can check us out at our YouTube channel two. I'm sure Dr.

Brandon's fire, he's got all that too. So that's why you're here. So the more you start doing that, don't just listen. You need to write. I think a last thing I wanna really give people in this regard is you have to write things down. There's a difference between hearing something and ingesting something at a cellular level.

Like, I'm a writer. I've got notes on notes on notes, on notes because it's different when I write it because it's something I'm making a, I'm almost, my hand to the pen to paper is like a contract and I actually can remember it better. It's like, what's on your to-do list? Once I write it, I can remember 70% more than if I just try to think about it.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yeah. There's studies on that. Writing it out. There's neurophysiological reasons to write things down. I mean, even if it's just minor things but definitely big things that you're trying to achieve. You need to be writing those down. And I pushed back against that for a long time because I'm a, I'm a time efficiency person.

Like if you, like you're talking about, you know, the person that talking to the guy has a regimented, I mean, I woke up at four 15 today. Because I had things to do. My time is planned out. Every minute of my day is planned out and I didn't wanna write it because it takes longer and I'm like. Why can't I just think it, I'm a really good thinker and it took me years and when I finally started writing, I was like, oh my God, why did, why haven't I done this?

It takes five minutes. Huge difference. Huge difference. So I, I just wanted to interject there because that was me. I'm like, look, I'm, I'm a successful guy. Why do I need to take, take more time? Time's valuable. No exponential return.

Dane Johnson: Can I ask you a question, Dr. Brandon, just to use you as a case study in this, in this example, so people can really see the spectrum.

If I gave you $10 million, would you change it?

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Would I change

Dane Johnson: it? I would you change waking up at four or five in the morning? Would you change having a No.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: No.

Dane Johnson: People don't understand. People think that they're gonna arrive. A lot of people think they're gonna arrive with money, and somehow then they're just gonna be on a beach and everything's just gonna be like heaven.

You don't realize. Yeah, my

Dr. Brandon Crawford: wife,

Dane Johnson: go ahead.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: My wife and I have had this conversation. It's, I could retire today.

Dane Johnson: Yep.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: I could. I'm 40 years old. I could retire today.

Dane Johnson: Wow.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: But that's not, that's not what I was put on this planet to do. My, I have a passion and a purpose. And that purpose is still being carried out.

I'm supposed to be a clinician.

Dane Johnson: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: I'm supposed to help people with complex neurological disorders.

Dane Johnson: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: That's my, if I lose that purpose, I'm dead. So it wouldn't benefit me. It wouldn't benefit my family if I retired. So why would I, so, no.

Dane Johnson: So what we're hearing, and I've never heard a person who's been successful actually done it.

Not just a trust fund kid who actually went through life and said. I'm gonna lay it down. Once I get somewhere financially, what happens is they actually become even more specific. They become even more disciplined.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Mm-hmm.

Dane Johnson: It goes back to the spiritual energy. You can't buy it. You can't buy the purpose to wake up in the day, and the passion and the joy and the love.

Dr. Brandon wants to bring love and passion in this world. He wants to do something. He wants to climb a mouth. That's life, man. That's the breath in you. That's the fire in your eyes. Stop trying to escape and start. Looking forward. Don't try to go around. Go through. I'm gonna go around with money. I'm gonna go around by hacking this remote job.

I'm gonna go around by, by eating this way. That's actually gluten-free. But it's gluten-free bread. No. Go through and rebuild yourself. Don't do it temporary to try to be who you used to. Forget who you used to be. Build a tunnel under the old, you climb up that some bitch and go ahead and build the biggest, strongest, best version of you.

Divorce things that do not work. And you're gonna find that people who figure out how to become a five percenter, a one percenter always go back at the beginning of the year. They even hire coaches. How can I get another 0.02% better and cleaner because that's life. Yep. And so I just, that comes back into healing is I realize this is, this is my moment.

I really wanna give you the climatic moment being the best version of yourself. And healing and curable disease is the exact same recipe.

Let that sit

Voice Over: like it. Yeah.

Dane Johnson: What is different? Brandon comes to me and goes, I wanna take, I want to build a company that's a hundred million dollar company and does all this stuff and impacts the world in a big way, and I wanna do all this stuff. And that's, that's his best version of him. I wanna get lose weight, I wanna get rid of my back issue.

That's the best version. What's different? It's, Hey, maybe we should consider fasting. Maybe we should go into ketosis. Maybe we should go do exosomes or stem cells. Maybe we should consider doing more mobility exercise to make, to euthanize your joints and ligaments and movement structure as we go into our forties, right?

Maybe we should do, you know, HBO hyperbaric oxygen chain. What's the difference? It's the same thing. If Brandon wants to become the best version of himself, he's gonna get disciplined with what he eats, what he takes, what he journals, when he wakes up. What if he's putting inflammatory things into his body?

If he's drinking, if he's smoking, it's not like you're gonna arrive somewhere and then everyone's just gonna party. You're gonna feel terrible on your yacht. Okay, if you even did get there. And then there's the wake up. So I think that that was the big thing for me. As I woke up one day and I had this huge epiphany after like practicing meditation.

I didn't wanna do what my Nash bath was pushing me to do, and it was this epiphany. It was like, holy crap. Everything I'm doing right now is the exact same recipe of being my best version of myself. I'm not losing time, I'm not losing my twenties. I'm actually getting ahead so I can kill it in my thirties.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yeah.

Dane Johnson: I'm 39 years old. Absolute. It's like, yeah. It's like, let's go baby. So all of a sudden I wanted this, I didn't need it. So I ask you right now, are you doing in things in your life that you need to, and how do you change that to be things that you want? It happened,

Dr. Brandon Crawford: right.

Dane Johnson: To get healthy.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Absolutely. And you know, going back to your concept of, you know, as you.

Gain success, whether it be with your health or with your, your life, you're trying to optimize things or whatever. You're right. Like most people, they start getting more refined, more strategic, more disciplined, et cetera. And then even myself, I had, you know, several epiphanies along the way and I was like, wait a minute.

There's professional athletes and they still hire one-on-one coaches. These are the top performers in the world. They're, they're better than the coach. But they're still hiring someone to train and refine them. Why am I not doing the same thing? So, so yeah, I, I got business coaching. I got, so, you know, so it's like once you kind of get that momentum.

You go, oh, this feels good. This is my purpose. Let's lean in. That's be, and same thing with health. It's like, oh my, I, I just made a little improvement. Oh, that I, I can think more clearly. Or whatever the, the symptom is, right. My, my gut's feeling better. Whatever it is. You get that little improvement. Focus on that improvement.

Celebrate that improvement. Celebrate the small wins. We always tell people, 'cause that leads to more momentum, more change. And you're right. Where focus goes, energy flows, right? So if you're focusing on, well, I still am not my optimal self. I still haven't, you know, cured my disease or whatever. But you're sitting here and you're 25% better.

Dane Johnson: Yes,

Dr. Brandon Crawford: man.

Dane Johnson: Yes.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: You're missing. Oh,

Dane Johnson: let's go. I

Dr. Brandon Crawford: love your message.

Dane Johnson: Yeah. I hope everyone just heard what you just said. Like, listen to that again. Like, I used to get angry. 'cause someone would call me and go, how are you? I'm like, oh, the blood's still there. When I decided to heal, it was blood's 30% down. If I can get it 30% down hands in the air, if I can get 30% down, I can go 50.

If I can go 50, I can go 70. You're right. And the people who do, anyone who does say, I made all that money or became a professional athlete, or I built that company, if they stop their life decay.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yeah.

Dane Johnson: Every single

Dr. Brandon Crawford: time.

Dane Johnson: So what they, they become more disciplined. 'cause they realize it's not about getting there.

It's the journey and it's about finding love and balance in this new life. Like, I bet you Jeff Bezos is the exact same. He didn't, it is all fake to him at this point. He's got, this money's not even a real thing anymore. He couldn't even, he couldn't possibly spend it all. But I guarantee that, man, look at him.

He got in shape. He got a tan, you know, doing, dating all these people, you know, it's like this man, is

Dr. Brandon Crawford: he, he got married. He had to change that, right? I mean, come on.

Dane Johnson: Exactly. So we at a certain point just realize it's not about a, it's not about getting to somewhere that, like, there's, you're, you're, it is an escapism problem.

You're not trying to get there. You're trying to rebuild yourself and realize, this is how I wanna be. And that's how chronic healing and success are the same thing. What you do to heal yourself will give you an edge in your career, in your marriage, in being a father or a mother or you know, or even handling stress or saying one day, like I always tell people, and, and you know, once you get to a point where you're, you know, in remission, in your clinical remission, colonoscopy's good and all that.

I got, we have hundreds of people who've done that in our program, and I say now just change it to longevity. Am I do, I'm doing this 'cause of IBD. No, no, I'm doing this 'cause I wanna live my most powerful life. The crazy thing is look at longevity experts. Mark Hyman. You look at Brian Johnson spending $2 million a year.

How many supplements does he take a day? A hundred supplements a day. Longevity's even more crazy. Yeah. So desire pushes you even farther than fear. People who want, who want to heal are so scared to take a supplement or change their diet. People who wanna live. Are willing to do anything. They're like, I'll, I'll fast 20 hours a day.

I don't care. I wanna live to 120 and I wanna, I want my knees and my back to feel good at 90. So desire is a much stronger fuel than fear. When you have these epiphanies, you need to condition them. You need to focus on 'em and realize you're not just trying to get somewhere. You're trying to celebrate and live in that journey and surround yourself with people like that.

That's why people who are longevity experts wanna hang out with longevity experts. That's why people who've built a life where they've made 20 million wanna hang out with people who've made 20 million. That's why people who live in the health space wanna hang out with health space. So go to places in your life and you're going, Dana, I need to connect.

Start going to places that people who live in that world, where they, where they would go, where they live. That's why I moved to Southern California. Didn't do it for the taxes tell you that. So, you know, but I, it's like I'm constantly, if I'm out somewhere, it's like fermented farm to table. It's, it's organic.

So I, you know, I've even seen some of my, my, my clients or people in my program just come up to me and say hi and stuff like that, because we're in the same vicinity. And so your community grows. Because if everyone was, if, if everyone you loved was gluten-free, how hard would it be?

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Seriously,

Dane Johnson: if everyone you loved woke up at 6:00 AM how hard would it be?

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Absolutely.

Dane Johnson: If everyone, if everyone was sober, how hard would it be?

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yeah.

Dane Johnson: Lead.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Amen, man.

Dane Johnson: Yeah.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: I love it. Well, I know that I know you've gotta jump to a meeting, so I wanna be conscious of your time. Man, you're, you're electrifying. I love your energy. I love your passion. I love your your message.

This was definitely a different. Conversation than I thought we were gonna have. And I really, I, I love this better. Like, I'm glad that you took this. Approach because this is the truth. Yeah.

Dane Johnson: Thank you.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: This the truth. This is the foundational proof, the foundational truth that everyone needs to hear. So I really truly thank you for that.

Can you please just tell people real quick, how can they learn more about you, your program? How can they find you? Like all of those good things?

Dane Johnson: Yeah, and I, I, I hope this was served everyone in their time. I know we could have gone into root cause. Microbiome and gut lining and all this different stuff.

Yeah, we'll

Dr. Brandon Crawford: do it again.

Dane Johnson: Yeah, we can do it again and, and go into that. But that is the foundation of all success if you do that. I promise you guys, if you really take this and, and run with it, I think you're gonna get a lot of discovery and you know, just run with trust and integrity with where you go and why it's okay to fail.

But we gotta, we gotta become the CEO of our health and our lives and we gotta try and go for it. And so, our program shield. Supplements, herbs, imagination, exercise, lifestyle, diet shield, and we customize plans. We don't believe in the answer. We find your answer. And we're a team. 80% of our team has IBD ourselves.

We have NDs and DCs and RNs on staff. We work globally, Africa, Thailand, all over 75%, US and Canada. And and yeah, we're just on a mission and we're passionate. So if you guys need any support or help, we hold a one hour free IBD strategy session to discuss your case medications, what, what you've tried, how it's worked, what, what you think need is needed different to get you optimal success.

And so no, no tricks, no hassle, no gimmicks. We just hold that space. So I think whatever you do. The last thing I wanna, I wanna leave you with is just. Look for your, build your community, find your people, and find people who lead with integrity. Find people with authenticity. And I know Brandon probably would agree with me on this, is like ev, it's not worth it in life.

Like you wanna have trust with people, you wanna have love with people, you wanna have people that you know a hundred percent, they got your back. You got their back. You guys know what each other means and you wanna build long-term relationships. I'm a big fan of longevity versus sporadic change. And and thanks for having me.

And if we can help you and it's, and it's a good fit, we'll do everything in our power. And we're here for you. Dr. Brandon. Thank you for having me in that space to communicate.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Absolutely. Very powerful message. Thank you so much for your time today. I appreciate it.

Voice Over: We hope today's episode has inspired you to take that next step towards your best self. Remember, the path to longevity is paved with small daily decisions. Your journey is unique and every step, every choice brings you closer to your ultimate vision of a healthier, happier life. For more insights, tips, and resources, visit drbrandoncrawford.com.