Mr. Zhang’s Journey: From Dietary Choices to Gut Health and Beyond

Mr. Zhang was born in Boston; he is the second generation of immigrants. His parents moved from Sichuan to Boston and owned a restaurant in downtown Boston. His parents worked very hard to save enough money for Mr. Zhang to attend college. As the son of Chinese immigrants, he excelled in math and chose to study engineering at Boston College in MA. Being from Sichuan, his parents loved spicy food, and Mr. Zhang enjoyed his homemade spicy food with tea since childhood until he started college in Boston, MA. There, he had the freedom to choose other drinks, such as Coca-Cola. The combination of spicy food and fructose made him hyperactive all the time. He studied for more than 10 hours each day at Boston College and joined as many social events as he could. Gradually, he noticed that his bowel movements increased from once to three times daily during his college years. He did not have time to find out the cause and continued with his studies and busy social life. As a college student, his main job was to study, and he could always find a bathroom nearby. The increased bowel movements did not worry him. This condition lasted for a few years. Gradually, he started having abdominal pain and urgency to use the bathroom. Sometimes he noticed blood and mucus in his stool. He lost a lot of weight by avoiding eating because his discomfort worsened with increased food intake.

After completing his four-year study at Boston College, he started a master’s degree in engineering, hoping to find a high-paying job in the future by combining knowledge in technology and finance. The graduate study required more time and energy, and he noticed more abdominal pain in his lower left quadrant before and during his bowel movements, which interrupted his sleep and energy levels. Then he noticed that his stool contained more mucus and fresh blood. He had no time to address these issues until one day he suddenly had a lot of blood in his stool and severe abdominal pain, which forced him to go to the ER at Boston Medical Center. The gastroenterologist at Boston Medical Center performed an endoscopy and colonoscopy to determine the cause of the bleeding and abdominal pain. Fortunately, he did not have a tumor, but his gastroenterologist in Boston informed him that his colon was so inflamed that he would need a high dosage of cortisone to reduce the inflammation. If the bleeding continued, he might need to have a large part of his colon removed. He was shocked by the diagnosis and spoke with his parents to explore options to save his colon. His parents recommended seeing a Chinese herbalist. Mr. Zhang loved sweets and spicy food, making the bitter herbs difficult for him to swallow. He decided to undergo surgery at Newton-Wellesley Hospital to remove the inflamed part of his colon. Nobody told him that his diet could be related to his colitis. He continued with the same diet. After surgery, he had to carry a bag because part of his rectum was removed. His life changed dramatically with a much-shortened colon. He graduated from Boston University with honors in engineering and easily found a job at Fidelity in Boca Raton. Now he has better insurance and more money and time to pay attention to his health issues.

Because his colon was shortened, he could not absorb water efficiently. He could not digest most vegetables. His hair started falling out, and his hand and knee joints became very painful when he stayed in an air-conditioned room. Four years after a large part of his colon was removed, he started having new problems: kidney stones. He developed kidney stones every year. His urologist used ultrasound to break the large stones into small pieces, which he then had to pass painfully through his urethra. Furthermore, he needed a catheter inserted into his urethra each time he had stone surgery. Sometimes, he had difficulty urinating after the urologist removed the catheter. His medical condition caused so much stress that his adrenal glands weakened. He could no longer tolerate the cold weather in Boston during winter. A few years after his colon was removed at Newton-Wellesley Hospital, he moved to Boca Raton, Florida, for a more relaxed life. He enjoyed the sunshine and beach walks, which helped reduce stress. But due to the warm weather, dehydration became a problem, leading to more frequent kidney stones. In 2020, he had to undergo three surgeries to break the stones during the COVID-19 pandemic. His parents recommended seeing an herbalist and acupuncturist to find an alternative solution for his colitis.

Now, at 40 years old, his hair continued to fall out, and his left thumb joint and right knee were very painful when he walked for more than 20 minutes. Additionally, he sometimes developed ED due to physical stress and low testosterone. He finally decided to start alternative treatment with acupuncture and herbs. His acupuncturist initially focused on improving his digestion with needles and later started using different herbs to clear up the inflammation in his hand and knee joints. His acupuncturist in Boca Raton discovered that he loved drinking soda and eating sweets. Mr. Zhang thought soda was the same as water, not realizing that the high osmolality in soda actually dehydrated his body and led to more inflammation and kidney stones. Changing habits was not easy; his brain was rewarded with sweets and spicy food. His acupuncturist performed 12 acupuncture treatments twice a week to help reduce the stress of changing his habits. Meanwhile, he started taking herbal formulas to improve his digestion and clear up the inflammation in his gut. After completing 12 acupuncture treatments, his knee and thumb pain improved significantly, and he began drinking more water and less soda. For the first time in the past 10 years, he did not need surgery to remove a kidney stone for two years. His body’s pH shifted from acidic to more alkaline with dietary changes and herbal intake. He still enjoys his favorite cookies from a special store in Boca Raton and occasionally drinks soda on special occasions, but he no longer consumes processed food and soda in his daily diet. His digestion has greatly improved. His hair loss has slowed down with improved digestion. The most important thing is that he no longer needs ultrasound to remove kidney stones and undergo painful procedures every year.

Mr. Zhang stopped eating spicy food after his colon was removed because he noticed that as soon as he started eating spicy food, his abdominal pain returned. He had to change his habits to avoid further surgery. Now, he is almost 60 years old, and his business is growing rapidly in Boca Raton. He sleeps 8 hours a day and works 6 days a week. His wealth is growing, and so is his hair.

In this story, Mr. Zhang developed inflammation in his gut and joints due to his spicy food and the fructose in processed food. At home, he drank tea, which is anti-inflammatory and also slowed down his bowel movements. Once he was in college, he combined spicy food with fructose, creating more inflammation in his colon. He may have even developed inflammation in his coronary arteries. As he aged, his body could not handle spicy food and sweets as well as before, which is why he developed frequent bowel movements.