Jordan Rubin: I Recovered My Health Because of Soil-Based Organism Probiotics

Your gut health is an essential part of your immune health, and if there’s anyone who knows this firsthand, it’s Jordan Rubin. 

Before becoming a Founding CEO of Garden of Life and co-founder of Ancient Nutrition, New York Times best-selling author, international motivational speaker and television personality, Jordan went through his own lengthy healing journey. In order to overcome what he was told was an incurable and lifelong illness, Jordan visited over 70 health care providers in seven different countries. 

Experimenting with hundreds of different medications, herbal supplements and alternative therapies unfortunately didn’t lead to his recovery — but taking an unexpected, and at the time mostly unknown, type of probiotic eventually did. 

Now that Jordan is well, he has since devoted his life to helping and educating others who are looking for powerful ways to improve their own health. The personal account he’s shared about his battle and triumph over Crohn’s disease has resonated with millions around the world.

In his opinion, he mostly has probiotics that contain soil-based organisms (or SBOs), coupled with dietary changes, to thank for his dramatic return to health.

Related Podcast: Jordan Rubin: Overcoming Chronic Illness with Soil-Based Organism Probiotics

Jordan Rubin’s Health Journey

In 1993, while thriving as a freshman at Florida State University, seemingly out of nowhere Jordan became sick and gradually developed what would be a slew of debilitating symptoms and illnesses.

Within a matter of months, he went from being in top physical shape and having an active social and academic life to frequently feeling wiped out all day. It quickly became his “new normal,” due to serious gastrointestinal issues that continued to worsen.

Jordan’s illness first manifested as stomach cramps that had him running to the bathroom several times a day with diarrhea. Towards the beginning of his illness, at one point he alarmingly lost 20 pounds in one week and became noticeably much weaker. His upset stomach was constant, leaving him dehydrated, lacking an appetite and with several concerning nutrient deficiencies.

Jordan Rubin, severely underweight after being diagnosed with Crohn’s disease.

Despite being prescribed various antibiotics from a doctor he visited, his condition only worsened, as he began experiencing even more severe gastrointestinal problems, weight loss, fatigue, fevers and poor sleep. 

While at first in denial about how serious his condition has become, he eventually had no choice but to ask for help. After running a 105 degree fever and admitting to his parents how sick he had become, he was checked into the hospital where he stayed for two weeks, hooked up to a hospital bed with an IV pole attached to each arm so that he could receive intravenous antibiotics and nutrients. 

The doctors Jordan worked with prescribed antibiotics and antiparasitic drugs that had to be given intravenously for maximum effect, but his body was so overridden by infection that it had become terribly inflamed. As a result, heavy-duty steroid medications that are notorious for causing side effects were also needed. 

After loads of tests were done, Jordan was finally diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, a condition involving the small bowel and proximal colon that causes the intestinal wall to thicken and the bowel channel to narrow, blocking the intestinal tract. The result was abnormal membrane function, including nutrient malabsorption. 

Doctors informed Jordan that not only did he have one of the worst cases of Crohn’s that they had ever seen, but that he had a variation of the disease that affects only about 1 percent of people with Crohn’s: duodenitis, an inflammation of the duodenum, which is at the beginning of the small intestine. In addition, there was widespread inflammation throughout his large and small intestine that was hard to control.

Despite that there is no cure for Crohn’s and that many patients with Crohn’s disease experience frequent and progressive symptoms of abdominal pain, diarrhea and extreme weight loss, he was determined to get better. 

His father, a naturopathic doctor, began a trip around the world with Jordan that took them to 70 health practitioners from seven different countries — including medical doctors, chiropractors, immunologists, acupuncturists, homeopaths, herbalists, nutritionists and dieticians.

Jordan’s health journey concluded with a visit to a California nutritionist who told him he was not healthy because he was not following God’s health plan.

He decided to change his diet to one that included only whole foods consumed in Biblical times: raw, organically grown whole grains, fruits and vegetables, as well as fermented dairy, grass-fed beef and poultry. He also added a daily regimen of probiotics teeming with beneficial bacteria in soil-based organisms. 

How Probiotics Changed the Game

Jordan’s health finally started to improve thanks to his new diet and probiotic plan. He even gained an astounding 29 pounds in 40 days. He was mostly free of the digestive problems that had plagued him for years, and he was ready to reclaim his life and spread the word to others about what finally worked for him.

It was clear to Jordan and his family that dysfunction of his gut (gastrointestinal tract) was the real issue, even though he was experiencing symptoms that affected his whole body. Crohn's disease, an allegedly incurable chronic illness, causes chaos in the immune system. The gastrointestinal tract plays a crucial role in immune function, housing a majority of the body's antibody-producing cells. A bacterial imbalance in the gut, known as dysbiosis, contributed to the breakdown of the gut-lining-immune-barrier in Jordan's body, leading to the growth of harmful microorganisms and inflammation.

Jordan attributes several factors to his declining health in his 20s, including his high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet and the use of antibiotics that disrupted the balance of bacteria in his gut. Despite trying over 30 different probiotics, he found no relief until he discovered probiotics containing soil-based organisms (SBOs).

These SBO probiotics, along with prebiotics and postbiotics, helped condition Jordan's immune system and promote healing. Research now shows that SBO probiotics can boost the immune system and provide essential nutrients missing from modern diets. Jordan's journey to health also included consuming fermented and nutrient-dense foods to support gut and immune health.

After experiencing significant improvements in his health, Jordan founded a whole-food nutrition company to help others in search of answers for their health issues. Jordan's belief that he went through his ordeal for a reason is supported by the idea that no matter what health challenges one faces, there is always hope for an answer. His journey of studying and coaching others about the importance of a whole foods diet and living in harmony with nature stemmed from his own sickness. If his message of exposing oneself to essential missing microorganisms can positively impact even one person, he sees it as a blessing.