Fast forward through life starting and running a business, raising kids, and living what I thought was a normal life for me. The stomach pains, throwing up constantly, headaches, fatigue, joint aches, all are starting to take their toll on my mental health. I was in and out of the doctor’s office. In and out of the emergency room and hospital stays. I have a colonoscopy every other year since I was 18 always telling me it was Ulcerative Colitis and there is nothing they can do about it. “You just need to eat better.” “Watch what you eat.” “Take steroids when it flares up.” “Stop stressing about it.” But the mother of all the medical advice given to me, “It’s in your head.”

On November 23, 2011 — the day before Thanksgiving — I reached my lowest point. The pain had become unbearable, both physically and mentally. I checked myself into a psychiatric ward for observation.

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By then, I was on nearly 40 pills a day, each prescribed to manage the side effects of the others. At some point, I realized…

“I was being medicated to the point where I was no longer Rick Dalechek.”

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That moment changed everything.

In February of 2012, I decided I had to take matters into my own hands. I was referred to a “holistic” doctor near me. I was curious and willing to try anything but no more medication at this point. I walked away feeling like he didn’t know what he was talking about.

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A few weeks went by and I was not getting any better, I decided on a Wednesday that I would eliminate wheat and dairy from my diet as recommended by the holistic doctor. A few days later, on that Friday, I was feeling better already. The changes were profound in such a short time. To test my placebo effect, I ate wheat on Saturday and went back to feeling all the symptoms again.

That began my journey on a path to be my own health advocate. Over the course of the next year, I struggled with depression as I tried new therapies, new foods, new mental exercises, new lifestyle.

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This all leads me to where I am today. 56 years later of suffering and now experimenting with new ideas, new medical findings, new discoveries, new understandings of our body, and information well beyond our knowledge back in the 1980s.

I have made my wellness a priority. And I want to share my struggles and results with you. I don’t want anyone to go through 42 years of their life to finally get on the other side. There is so much information out there. I want to bring it to you on this website and select social media platforms. I want to provide you with a trusted source on information based on validation, science, and common sense.

I hope you will take this journey with me as I continue to strive for health span and not just life span.

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Let’s go!