Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj9-4hMgvPg
The Joe Rogan Experience So speaking of we're humans like tell me about this Lyme disease thing man because I'm terrified of Lyme disease yeah it's a [ __ ] um so I uh like 2015 uh I started feeling like [ __ ] you know and it was like joint pain was getting some uh like neuropathy I I'd sit on the floor with my kids and my legs would fall asleep or you know like just positional [ __ ] and it's like I [ __ ] my neck up in 2014 uh like 10 days before I fought Yancy Maderos um so I was like okay my neck's banged up like like a bulging disc um I don't even really know the MRI no I didn't get an MRI it was ten days before the fight uh it was the most unspectacular thing it was like a whiplash injury uh I uh I was sparring uh Mickey golf when he was like 22 21 and uh he threw like a hook and I just clinched a body lock and my head hit his his chest and it just tweaked to my left and like I felt it I have it on video and it's like I'm like shrug my shoulders moved my heck around it was the last round of the day I was like all right this is gonna hurt later but we're gonna get through it um like I only got to that fight because of you know a chiropractor and his magic fingers uh and some graston uh but uh so like a lot of the symptoms that I was getting um from the lime I attribute it to being a fighter I'm like my knees hurt of course they [ __ ] hurt like uh you know I mean to the point where I'd be 45 minutes into a training session and have to get up like an old man push it on my knees and stuff like that it's getting you know numbness and tingling uh I was getting like brain fog and it was pretty good I kind of like go into a room sometimes and like go to like clean up and just kind of get lost um so uh before my fight at 196 um like it got so bad that I was like I was contemplating retirement at UFC 200 I was like I'm gonna get through 196. I'm gonna ask to fight on 200 to retire um and uh you did not know you had did not know I had Lyme disease um you know like I said I
the nervous system was was kind of shot um joints were swollen I'd get some twitching in my eye was mostly where I'd get it just for like days on end um very occasionally I would say the wrong word while I was speaking and not even anything close like just the complete wrong word would come out um and you know you notice and you're like what the [ __ ] did I just say like they didn't notice um so I was telling my doctor about this uh before my pre-5 physical uh or during my prefight physical for 196 and he's like you know he's like honestly I think you have Lyme disease and I was like all right you know so we we ran some tests test me for Lyme um to this day I still don't test positive it's about 50 of the people uh on that have lime test positive for it um so he's like uh if it's Lyme disease you know and he's like we ran some other tests there's some antibody that I had that showed infection that they associate sometimes with Lyme um she's like we're gonna put you on doxy and he's like if if you do have Lyme disease within you know a week 10 days he's like you're gonna feel different you know what is it called doxy doxycycline doxycycline um so like I fight uh fight Diego and that was the first time like I was I was kind of out of it I barely trained for that fight um like I would I would miss training sessions like live grappling sessions or sparring sessions and like because I could barely get out of bed or like uh so I was I I would I would get in maybe six sessions a week um you know and kind of just focused on like all right well just be in shape you know like I could run on the treadmill let's the easiest thing for me to do at that point was to run on the treadmill which is weird it's different than what most people experience most people experience uh difficulty doing aerobic exercise and uh they can do anaerobic stuff I couldn't do anaerobic stuff like if I lifted uh or did Sprints I'd be banged up for [ __ ] days
um so and and that fight like I remember like when I when I fight and I think it it has to do something with the lights too like I don't see the cage like beyond the cage I don't see anybody in the stands I don't I barely hear my [ __ ] corner for crying out loud um so that fight I the whole during the whole fight I could see like throughout in the stands you know I was so like unfocused um that like it was just it was a weird experience it's the only time it's ever happened to me um but I get out of the fight uh and uh and get on some doxycycline uh the following week and it was like within a week or so just like my doctor said I started feeling way [ __ ] better um it took me a few years to figure out when exactly I got bit I had assumed that it was probably early 2015 and then after learning about uh you know the early symptoms of Lyme disease and pulling my head out of my ass remembering the experience that I had in 2013 it I'm I'm a pretty much 100 confident that I Was Bitten like late May early June of 2013. what makes you think though uh I had a period of time where I was like I basically had morning sickness I was extremely nauseous in the morning um and and like early lime it's like flu-like symptoms and and migraines and stuff like that and so I had really bad nausea like if I picked up my coffee cup and I was like breathing in and I got a big whiff of my coffee I'd it would make me gag really yeah uh like brushing my teeth I'd [ __ ] just take the taste of like the toothpaste would make me gag uh I had two kids in in Diapers at the time every time bringing the freaking garbage out oh man I'd be dry heaving the whole way down the down the driveway for like two weeks and I was like my kids are in daycare I think my my niece had like rotavirus or something at the time I was like I got a stomach bug like whatever um and then I got a series of migraines like right kind of as the the nausea was
dying down I got I don't know if I think it was like seven migraines in 10 days or something like that so I went to uh neurologist in ENT ran a bunch of tests they tested me for Lyme tested negative uh they couldn't find anything so they're like hey let's just we're gonna we're gonna kick the ball down the road a little bit see if it comes back and you know uh and and figure out what we can do um so that I kind of forgot about that um and uh after you know kind of educating myself online after I uh you know was diagnosed uh I was like huh maybe you know maybe that's when it was um but it took it took a while to get over because it was you know just about three years that it had untreated uh you know and and the bacteria is a sneaky little [ __ ] uh they call it the great imitator because it can give everybody completely different symptoms um and it can pass the blood-brain barrier and and this all this other [ __ ] you know um it also has a uh like a toxin in the cell wall of it so if you kill too much of it at one time or in a short period of time you experience what's called like the herxheimer reaction uh which is basically you're being like poisoned by the death of the Lyme bacteria yeah it's a it's a shitty it makes it it makes you it's it's a [ __ ] amazing thing because it's like here's this little thing that this little bacteria that when it dies it makes you change what you're doing so that you don't like it's a getting over line is especially like like untreated for a while is a marathon and I'm not good at that [ __ ] um so like I I was on doxycycline for six months um you know I ended up six months yeah and then it's uh that's an antibiotic yeah it's an antibiotic I was I was I was [ __ ] [ __ ] like four to five times before noon I mean in in 2016. so leading up to like I started to lose a little weight in 2015 but uh I used to walk just under a buck 90. um
after that first six months on doxycycline I will I was walking around at 163 pounds uh before the Thiago Alves fight whoa yeah I lost a [ __ ] ton of muscle and of course it's like oh it's usada Jim's off the sauce you know it's like no I'm pooping so much like you have no idea uh that like I just can't keep up with it but um but you were still fighting I was still fighting yeah that's crazy so but that's not we're not even done Joe so uh I was on it for six months and uh I felt way better you know that was whatever it was uh September um then I did you know in in March so I was like hey Doc like do you think we can you know get off of the the antibiotics and he's like yeah let's give it a try and it was about seven weeks and then I started to feel like my symptoms were coming back um and then me being an [ __ ] and like no no they're not like it's it's not it's not the lime again so like I kind of waited and by the end of the year uh it [ __ ] kicked my ass um like leading up into uh what was that 208 uh when I fought Dustin like that was that was the hardest couple weeks before a fight that I've I've ever had like I because I was trying to get back on the doxycycline I was trying to to supplement even way better and you know you're not supposed to take it within two hours like two hours before two hours after supplements and stuff like that and like I don't like working out with food in my stomach so and I can't take the doxy on an empty stomach because it didn't you know makes my stomach upset so uh so I was like trying to figure out like the best way to get back on it and it just kept kicking my butt and kicking my butt um finally like I don't know maybe two weeks before the fight I started to kind of get it get it dialed in uh and then unfortunately I was like fight week I was uh I was having a hercs uh reaction and and uh it was a really weird experience getting uh I was I was having like muscle Tremors when I was cutting weight so like I was sitting there I like punching yeah yeah I couldn't
stop couldn't stop my arm from moving wow like he's got to be freaky my my vision was a little messed up and I don't know if it was the lights or whatever but like when I fought Dustin that night like every to me like everything kind of had like a a yellow Hue to it it was weird um and I don't know if that was just my eyes being weird or what but so this is the side effect of the virus exuding a poison yeah yeah because I I finally like kind of figured it out uh like right right before that fight um so then like 2017 was uh like I was still dealing with it and it it was it was difficult like the first half of the year was pretty difficult um and then like through the through the summer um it's it started to like get a lot better for me uh you know I changed my diet I started eating a lot like a lot better food I mean like when I first found out I had lime we were trying to like it kind of adhere to the lime diet you know the lime lime diet is like basically a Paleo it's a it's an inflammatory disease so avoiding alcohol sugar gluten uh dairy stuff like that but it's like I also had a bunch of little kids and it's like well if I'm making my food and trying to make their food so they're not eating mac and cheese hot dogs and chicken fingers every day like this is gonna be really [ __ ] hard so you know like I've never like adhere to that diet like specifically but totally eat a ton more like Whole Foods and vegetables and [ __ ] like that now so uh and definitely like I eat way or drink way less you know so how did you get off how did you kill the lime is it is it 100 done or do you still have like relapses I haven't had a relapse uh uh since yeah about 2017 yeah oh that's nice so five [ __ ] years yeah Freedom yeah um so you went through it for a sense essentially like a solid four years a few years yeah so it was uh well like it it took a while for it to start kicking my butt you know like I had that first instance in 2013 when it was when I first got bit
but then like I couldn't really tell anything you know but if you had gotten on antibiotics right then you probably could have killed yeah yeah three to three to four weeks uh is usually um what doctors will uh you know prescribed uh and if you catch it early you usually fare pretty well with it um but like yeah I was uh I mean 2017 I didn't feel like I could start really like excuse me uh like pushing myself and and sprinting and lifting again until like maybe April of 2018