Hadley Ott
Your health is in your hands!
The thing I love about Hadley’s story is that he and I learned similar lessons in our journeys with Crohn’s. We both waited a long time before we took our health into our hands but we both saw major benefits once we did.
After being diagnosed with Crohn’s disease at the age of twelve, Hadley spent more than a decade going through conventional doctors, hospitals, and pharmaceuticals before finding success naturally. The goal of his private health coaching practice is to help others with autoimmune disease find success naturally as well. Hadley is a certified functional nutrition counselor and holds degrees from UT Martin and Troy University. Prior to his current career, he worked in public policy and served as a research economist at the Council of Economic Advisors to the White House. Hadley lives and works in Clarksville, Tennessee and has published a book about his journey with IBD (see below).
Hadley’s symptoms started when he was in the second grade however he was not officially diagnosed with IBD until sixth grade. At 12 years old he weighed 53 pounds and was unable to eat without sharp stomach pains or vomiting. His bowel movements were often painful diarrhea. Later that year Hadley was hospitalized and officially diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease - after a second colonosopy he began a decade long journey of treatments.
Hadley was placed on prednisone and a feeding tube which worked for about a year but then he was hospitalized a second time and the decision was made to put him on Remicade. Remicade worked well although some symptoms still persisted.
In Hadley’s junior year of college after a stressful semester of school and work, he was rushed to the hospital following a Christmas party. Hadley had already been experiencing sharp stomach pains prior to the hospitalization and the doctors who saw him were anxious to operate. At first, surgery was not needed as steroids and other medications were able to calm his symptoms however Hadley eventually had surgery to remove a stricture that had formed. His symptoms continued even after surgery and he became discouraged.
Looking for an alternative option, Hadley started exploring functional medicine and alternative healing protocols. While in graduate school, against the advice of his care team, he quit his medications and tried a low-FODMAP diet. For years, Hadley let Crohn’s put a cap on both his potential and confidence. The health Hadley has enjoyed these last 2 years has been the best he has ever felt. He has never been more optimistic about the future.
"Don’t be passive!" For a long time Hadley took a passive approach to his health. He felt like a pincushion and a guinea pig to both doctors and hospitals. He rolled with the punches the best he could, even though he knew the conventional approach was not working for him. It took him a while before he decided to listen to his body, but he is glad he did. He saw that once he took control over his own health that he was able to reject the idea that he was going to be “sick for life”.
Thank you for sharing your story Hadley! I hope you are able to help others find the same success you have found!
For anyone interested in taking the next step with Hadley, here are a few resources for more information. Check out the link to Hadley's book on Amazon below!
Hadley's book (Amazon): Drug Free Crohn's
Hadley's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hadleyottdfc/
